Some Thoughts on the Books I've Read Recently

A goal of mine for 2022 is to finish a book a week. So far, I have done so several weeks in the year. Below are some thoughts on those books.

Week 5: Caliban's War, James S.A. Corey: In this follow-up to Leviathan Rising (Week 1), our solar-system-spanning cast of characters adds two more competence-porn deliverers, ramps up the tension about the Captain Kirk guy losing his moral mojo (and his relationship—uh-oh!) and continues the series' somewhat lamentable trend of ending a book with a vaguely magical twist that may be a turnoff to some. They sure are for me. Third volume is, I'm told, on its way from the library.

Week 7: The Glass Hotel, Emily St. John Mandel: Interesting "how we live now" social-issue novel, sort of like if Hannah Arendt had called it "the ennui of evil" and knew the word "relatable". For some reason, I found the first 100 or so pages hard to get into, but by the end I was fully "invested" (significant look). Makes the economic emotional (or connects the historical to the biographical, as C. Wright Mills would say).

Week 7: Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner: Memoir of a young woman going home to care for a problematic mother who's dying of cancer. Obviously not an easy read emotionally, but an interesting one, and a prose experience a little like a big Korean meal, with lots of different flavors and textures, from infodump to travelogue to anecdote to poetry.

Idle thought for later: Memoirs have weird shapes; the stories they tell often leave me unsatisfied, and I'm not sure if that's a feature or a bug (c.f. my lengthy unwritten letter to Harper's circa 2003 about their memoirs under discussion being boring because they were written by boring people doing boring things and recommending they read / review Cometbus and Burn Collector instead).

Week 9: The First Day of Spring, Nancy Tucker: Hellaciously intense novel of poverty, violence, willpower, and so on. Very good, very harsh. Does include some violence by and against children, so it's certainly not for everybody, but I found it extremely good and quite rewarding. Recommended.

Previous entries:

1. Week 0 - Week 4: https://alcindorblock.blogspot.com/2022/02/some-thoughts-on-some-books-ive-read.html

Some Thoughts on Some Books I've Read Recently

A goal of mine for 2022 is to finish a book a week. So far, I have done so nearly every week of the year. Below are some thoughts on those books.

Week 0: (Building up momentum week) Verity, Colleen Hoover: "What if an unreliable narrator but TWO of them" plus We Need to Talk About Talking About We Need to Talk About Kevin equals a pretty fun ride!

For more on this, you can hear me guest on the 2 Cents Critic podcast where we go through the whole thing.

Week 1: Leviathan Rising, James S.A. Corey: Yung Captain Kirk plus broken-down Sad Space Cop is a recipe I liked a lot! Did not enjoy the end twist of—***
SPOILER WARNING
a solar-system-extinction event turning out to be a pretty, rebellious rich girl
END SPOILER
***—
but I'm going to read at least the next book in the series.

Week 2: My Dark Vanessa, Kate Elizabeth Russell: Fantastic and emotionally acute examination of what it's like and what it does to a young woman (teen girl) to have an affair with her (adult) teacher. Brilliantly observed and devastating portraits of depressed women and several men, who range from disappointing to unforgivable. Strong recommendation.

Week 3: It Never Ends, Tom Scharpling: Good, gulpable comic / tragic memoir from the man who knows long-form audio comedy and rock and roll better than anybody. I never got over the novelty of hearing this legendarily curse-free radio performer dropping F-bombs, and came out of the book wanting to know more about and hear more from the author, which is extremely rare in a memoir.

Week 3: Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman: Does what it says on the cover, for sure. It doesn't add a lot to the experience of reading the back section of Edith Hamilton's Mythology, but it's worth a look. Unexpected bonus: Neil Gaiman turns out to be quite a good voice actor, whose performance brings a lot of charm and life to the book.

Week 4: In the Dream House, Carmen Maria Machado: Difficult, beautiful sort-of-memoir, sort-of-everything about love, violence, and most everything else. It's a story about abuse in a lesbian relationship, told in an exacting, experimental way with equal arts explosive emotion and formal rigor. Highest recommendation.