Liz’s (almost) annual semestral postings, second half!

I love reading and list-making and book buying (approaching 1200 books in a small Brooklyn studio apartment!), but I do not enjoy writing and am perpetually behind on reviews. The way I organize my reading may be more suited to the category challenge, but I tend to follow more Club Read members and receive more comments when in this group.

For many, many years I have been reading primarily from the 1001-Books-to-Read-Before-You-Die list. Other reads are chosen through reading challenge prompts, especially this years ReadingAfrica2022 challenge on Litsy and my newly created global challenge. Now that my real-life book club (alternating contemporary literary fiction with non-fiction) is on zoom I am less inclined to read the chosen books, and more often now read contemporary novels found on one of your threads or on Litsy (https://www.litsy.com/web/user/Liz_M).

Aside from reading, my weekdays are spent working for a large performing arts organization in NYC and my weekends are for eating brunch out, walking around my Brooklyn neighborhood/Prospect Park/Greenwood cemetery, visiting the Met Museum or MoMA, and cooking vegetarian meals for myself and/or baking the occasional treat for the office.

Currently Reading:

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LT/Litsy adds to the TBR:
The Blue Sky by Galsang Tschinag (recommended by pamelad)
Subdivision by J. Robert Lennon (recommended by Simone2)
The Unseen by Roy Jacobsen (recommended on Litsy by arubabookwoman)
Born Into This by Adam Thompson (recommended on Litsy by Leftcoastzen)
Last Night in Nuuk by Niviaq Korneliussen (recommended by Nickelini)
Conversations with People Who Hate Me (recommended by Bragan)
Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting (recommended by qebo)
Defenestrate by Renee Branum (recommended on Litsy by sarahbarnes)
Trust by Hernan Diaz (recommended on Litsy by Cathythoughts)
Where You Come From by Saša Stanišić (recommended by charl08)
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig (recommended by Simone2)

2022 Goals

At least 60% of books from the owned-tbr
At least 40% of books written by women or poc
At least 33% of books translated into English
At least 33% of 1001 list books
Read at least 6 non-fiction books

2022 Stats (first half)
25/43 books from the owned-tbr - 58%
33/43 books written by women and/or poc - 77%
15/43 books translated into English - 35%
8/43 1001 list books - 19%
4 non-fiction books

Reading Africa 2022

Algeria: The Meursault Investigation, Assia Djebar, A Bookshop in Algiers
Egypt: The Queue, Open Door, The Yacoubian Building, Distant View of a Minaret and Other Stories, Zayni Barakat
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya: Gold Dust
Mauritania:
Morocco: Straight from the Horse's Mouth, Sand Child
Sudan: The Wedding of Zein
Tunisia: The Italian, A Tunisian Tale

Benin
Burkina Faso
Cape Verde: The Last Will & Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo
Côte d’Ivoire: Allah is Not Obliged
Gambia
Ghana: The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, Changes
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Liberia
Mali
Niger
Nigeria: The Death of Vivek Oji, Black Sunday, Song for Night, The Bride Price, Efuru, The Stillborn, Yoruba Girl Dancing, People of the City
Senegal: The Beggars' Strike, The Abandoned Baobab Tree, Ambiguous Adventure
Sierra Leone
Togo

Angola: Transparent City, General Theory of Oblivion
Burundi
Cameroon: The Amputated Memory, The Old Man and the Medal, How Beautiful We Were
Central African Repubic
Chad
Congo, Republic of: Black Moses
Democratic Republic of the Congo: The Shameful State, King Leopold's Ghost
Equatorial Guinea
Gabon
Rwanda: Our Lady of the Nile
Sao Tome and Principe

Comoros
Djibouti: Passage of Tears
Eritrea: My Fathers' Daughter, The Conscript
Ethiopia: The Shadow King
Kenya: Dust
Madagascar
Malawi
Mauritius: The Last Brother, Silent Winds, Dry Seas; Kaya Days;
Mozambique: Paulina Chiziane, Dumba Nengue
Seychelles
Somalia: Maps
South Sudan
Tanzania: Paradise, Born Into This
Uganda: Waiting, Kintu
Zambia: The Old Drift
Zimbabwe: This Mournable Body

Botswana: Collector of Treasures
Eswatini (Swaziland)
Lesotho: Singing Away the Hunger
Namibia
South Africa: The Expedition to the Baobab Tree, Agaat, And They Didn't Die, Fiela's Child

Food and Lit 2022



Possibilities:

Egypt: The Queue, Open Door, The Yacoubian Building, Distant View of a Minaret and Other Stories, Zayni Barakat
Argentina: Heartbreak Tango, Zama, The Scent of Buenos Aires
Greece: The Daughter, The Third Wedding, The Last Temptation of Christ
Cuba: Havana Year Zero
Afghanistan: Earth and Ashes
Columbia: The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll, The Shape of the Ruins
France: Nana, Life: A User's Manual
Japan: Breasts and Eggs
Kenya:
Haiti:
India: The Romantics
Germany:

Cookbooks:

. . . .

Women Authors 2022 (~18 prompts)

The Old Drift - 1. An Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winner
__________ 2. A book by a Pacific Islander author
Detransition, Baby - 3. A book about gender identity
__________ 4. A genre novel by an Indigenous, First Nations, or Native American author
True Biz - 5. A book with a differently-abled protagonist
The Queue - 6. A non-European novel in translation
Girl, Woman, Other - 7. A #Litsy recommendation
__________ 8. A book by a Latinx author
__________ 9. A book by an immigrant author
The 1619 Project - 10. A non-fiction book by a BIPOC author
Migrations - 11. A book featuring a man-made disaster
Hyperbole and a Half - 12. Read a graphic novel
_________ 13. A classic written by a BIPOC author.
_________ 14. A book with a Muslim protagonist
The Death of Vivek Oji - 15. A book by with a non-Western LGBTQIA+ author or protagonist
_________ 16. A Sapphic book
_________ 17. A book about or set in a nonpatriarchal society
This Time Tomorrow - 18. A book set where you live
Basic Black with Pearls - 19. A book by author whose first novel was published after age 40
Waiting - 20. A book about a "found family"
_________ 21. A different book by an author you read in 2021
_________ 22. A book set in the 1980s
The Vanishing Half - 23. A book with two or more POVs
84, Charing Cross Road - 24. A book you can read in one sitting

1982: Baltasar and Blimunda
1983: Fado Alexandrino, The Sorrow of Belgium
1984: The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, Larva: Midsummer Night's Babel
1985: Lonesome Dove
1986: Extinction
1987: The Radiant Way, The Enigma of Arrival
1988:
1989: Obabakoak
1990: The Daughter, Stone Junction
1991: The Laws
1992: Triple Mirror of the Self, The Discovery of Heaven
1993: The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll
1994: The Life of Insects
1995: The Unconsoled
1996:
1997:
1998: Another World, The Heretic, Garnethill
1999: In Search of Klingsor, Everything You Need, The Ground Beneath Her Feet
2000: Celestial Harmonies, The Romantics, Earth and Ashes
2001: Don't Move, Schooling
2002: In the Forest
2003: The Colour
2004: 2666
2005:
2006:
2007: The Last Brother
2008:
2009: Passage of Tears
2010: Freedom
2011: Havana Year Zero
2012: The Queue
2013: A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing, Ms Ice Sandwich
2014: H Is for Hawk, Outline
2015: The Story of the Lost Child
2016:
2017: H(A)PPY
2018: Moon of the Crusted Snow
2019: Girl, Woman, Other, Night Boat to Tangier
2020: The Vanishing Half
2021: Subdivision
2022: How High We Go in the Dark

52 Reading Prompts
This is a compilation of two different 52-books challenges from two goodreads groups -- Around the Year in 52 Books and The 52 Book Club
I will attempt to fill in about 26 prompts.

1. A book that has a title starting with the letter "E"
2. A book connected to a book you read in 2021 The Vanishing Half (2021 book: My Time Among the Whites)
3. A book with 22 or more letters in the title
4. A book where the chapters have titles The Queue
5. A book based on a real person 84, Charing Cross Road

6. A non-fiction bestseller The Soul of an Octopus
7. A book involving the art world
8. 3 books set on three different continents - Book 1: The Last Brother (Africa)
9. 3 books set on three different continents - Book 2: Heartbreak Tango (South America)

10. 3 books set on three different continents - Book 3: The Daughter (Europe)
11. A book from historical fiction genre: New Grub Street
12. A book set on at least two continents
13. A book about a woman in STEM

14. A book with less than 2022 goodreads ratings: In the Company of Men
15. A book picked based on its spine
16. A book related to Earth Day: To Be Taught, If Fortunate
17. A book from NPR's Book Concierge

18. A book by an Asian or Pacific Islander author
19. A book that involves alternate reality, alternate worlds, or alternate history: Basic Black with Pearls
20. A fiction or nonfiction book that is set during 1900 -1951
21. A book related to the word "gold": Lady Susan
22. A book with a Jewish character or author

23. A book that features loving LGBTQIA+ relationship
24. A book that addresses a specific topic: The Loneliest Americans
25. A book over 500 pages long: The Old Drift
26. 2 books with the same word in the title - Book 1

27. 2 books with the same word in the title - Book 2
28. A book that won an award from Powell's list of book awards: Interior Chinatown
29. A book that includes a map.
30. A book related to mythology: The Shadow King

31. A book published at least 10 years ago: Lonesome Dove
32. A book that has a character with superhuman ability
33. A book that intimidates you: Memoirs of My Nervous Illness
34. A book with an academic setting or with a teacher that plays an important role
35. A book with a bilingual character

36. A book from the villain's perspective
37. A book that has an alternate title
38. A book by a Latin American author: The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll
39. A book recommended by a favorite author

40. A book with photographs inside
41. A book that has an "Author's Note"
42. A book with a language or nationality in the title
43. A book set in a small town or rural area
44. A book published by an independent press

45. A book by an author who's published in more than one genre
46. A book with a non-human as one of the main characters
47. A book with handwriting on the cover
48. A book with a person of color as the main character

49. Redo one of this year's prompts but with a different genre
50. A book that involves aging, or a character in their golden years
51. A book published in 2022
52. A book with a time-related word in the title

Third Quarter Reading Ideas:

July:
Real-life book club: n/a
nyrb-Litsy: The Radiance of the King
ReadingAfrica: The Old Drift*, The Shadow King*
LT 1001 Book: The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll*
BookSpin: Memoirs of My Nervous Illness*, Life: A User's Manual
CampLitsy: You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty, This Time Tomorrow

August:
Real-life book club: Emma
ReadingAfrica:
LT 1001 Book: The Enormous Room
BookSpin: Breasts and Eggs, Quo Vadis
CampLitsy: Our Wives Under the Sea, Either/Or

September:
Real-life book club: An Immense World
ReadingAfrica:
LT 1001 Book: The Satanic Verses
BookSpin: Sometimes a Great Notion, V.

October:
Real-life book club: The Human Stain
ReadingAfrica: Our Lady of the Nile
LT 1001 Book: The Dispossessed
BookSpin: Night and Day, Our Lady of the Nile

November:
Real-life book club:
ReadingAfrica:
LT 1001 Book:
BookSpin:

December:
Real-life book club:
ReadingAfrica:
LT 1001 Book:
BookSpin:
----------

Key:
strike through book linked - A book I read this year
strike through - A book I have read before and don't plan to reread
book linked - A book I am thinking of reading for the relevant group/challenge/theme
book title - A book that I haven't read and currently don't plan to read
* - A book I own (paper copy)

Okay, in an effort to speed up my reviewing catch-up, I am opening a second thread, for the second half of the year, in order to have two places to add reviews (I am compelled to keep my thread posts in chronological order, and keep getting hung up on a single review). Also, I want to post 3rd quarter favorites, which I don't finalize until after I've reviewed most of the books...

Hi, Liz! I enjoyed and appreciated your review of Obabakoak by Bernardo Atxaga. I bought a copy of it years ago, but I haven't read it yet.

One book by a Basque author I've read and liked a lot was Plants Don't Drink Coffee by Unai Elorriaga, which was published by Archipelago Books in 2009. I wrote a review of it at the time. The other books I've read about the Basque Country (El País Vasco) are all works of non-fiction, most of which I read around the time I visited Bilbao and San Sebastián in 2017: The Basque History of the World: The Story of a Nation by Mark Kurlansky (reviewed); Guernica: The Biography of a Twentieth-century Icon by Gijs van Hensbergen (reviewed); and A Basque Diary: Living in Hondarribia by Alex Hallatt (reviewed). I own several other books set in the region, including Basque Country: A Culinary Journey Through a Food Lover's Paradise by Marti Buckley, a cookbook by Alabaman who has lived in San Sebastián since 2007. I attended her very unique talk at the Decatur Book Festival in 2018, which consisted of her comments about San Sebastián and the food of the Basque Country, along with a cooking demonstration (no samples, unfortunately).

>11 kidzdoc: Thank you! I will look for Plants Don't Drink Coffee, I do like Archipelago Books.

Happy new thread. My wife and I spent about a week in a small town on the French side of Basqueland several years ago. That was a glorious visit. I've read the Kurlansky book Darryl refers to above. I thought it was good up until the final section about modern days, which Kurlansky spent discussing the Basque Separatist Movement almost exclusively, as if that was the only thing to know about the Basque people today. I would love to get back there someday, maybe on the Spanish side of the border. That short story collection you reviewed looks very interesting, indeed.

I love all your challenges and find them inspiring. Thank you for listing them in CR, as well as the Categories thread.

Happy new thread Liz. Your weekends sound glorious ( >1 ELiz_M: ). Enjoyed your last review (in my head, the Basque story collection) of Obabakoak.

>13 rocketjk: Thank you! I thought I hadn't been to the Basque region, but I did spend a few days in Bilbao (mostly to see the Guggenheim museum there) back in my traveling 20s.

>14 labfs39: They are a little too inspiring -- distracting my from my major, 15+ year goal, of reading at least 1001 books from all the editions of the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die book!

>15 dchaikin: As with most social media, the presentation is better than reality ;) I haven't been to a museum in ages and these days walks are just while running errands.

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu, pub. 2020
Finished 9-Jul-2022

I adored the concept of this book, a fun and clever concept, writing the story of an Asian-American actor's quest to reach the pinnacle of his career as "Kung Fu Guy", as a TV Script.

Of course this constraint also makes it hard to understand what is going on. Scenes that might be taking place outside of shoots for a cop TV show are told in the same format as its TV script, so it is difficult to know what level of the story you are in. Does everyone the narrator know work as actors in TV shows or is the author/narrator imagining the jobs his parents have had as stereotypical TV roles? Or confusingly, is it both at once? I suspect this is on purpose that it demonstrates that the narrator had given up on the exhausting work of pushing through stereotypes and given in to them.

Like favorite TV series, with each episode containing the same beats over variation of the same story arc, this novel begins with sort chapters that have a ritualistic rhythm. I was charmed with the refrain at the end of each chapter, with the narrator stating how he is doing in relation to his goal of becoming Kung Fu guy. Over the course of the novel, the narrator questions the Black/White dual racial structure in America (are Asians white or black?) and who gets to be an American (why are all Asian-Americans assumed to be immigrants, even with a 200+ year history of Asian citizens?). Yu has a gift of making some of these concepts simple and ring true.

The ending was powerful, Yu used the structure to slowly build to a pivotal courtroom scene, using the script convention to allow the narrator to deliver a fantastic monologue that in a straight-forward novel would be seen as too preachy or "telling not showing". And as a final touch, the monologue expands to encompass all the different characteristics -- old age, overweight, etc. -- that make individuals invisible in mainstream culture.

>17 ELiz_M: I still want to get to that one. It sounds unique.

All your various challenges are lots of fun!

>17 ELiz_M: great review, Liz. I'm intrigue by the ritualistic structure.

Happy new thread, Liz!

Happy new thread, Liz. I love looking at your lists; they are inspiring.

Great review of Interior Chinatown, Liz. I enjoyed it as well, and it may deserve a second reading by me.

>18 Nickelini: To add a little more temptation, it is a fairly quick read -- the format leaves a lot of white space on the pages.

>19 dchaikin: Pretty sure I am using "ritualistic" in a fast and loose way, that might not fit your idea of ritual... :)

>20 katiekrug: Thanks for stopping by!

>21 BLBera: They are a lot of fun, especially since I have no plans to actually complete any of them.

>22 kidzdoc: Thanks!

I'm not a list/challenge reader, but I really like yours, Liz. Fun to compare notes, anyway. I've also not read any Basque authors, I think, so that's good to put on my radar.

>24 lisapeet: I do love a list and checking things off of lists! Glad you enjoyed them.

Ms Ice Sandwich by Mieko Kawakami, pub. 2013
Finished 8-Jul-2022

I found this novella utterly charming. Told from the perspective of a young boy, presumably on the autism spectrum although it is never stated. One summer the narrator becomes fascinated by the eyes of the woman who works at the sandwich counter in the local supermarket. Although he doesn't particularly like sandwiches he uses his allowance to buy one almost everyday just so he can surreptitiously stare at her.

Kawakami uses conversation of the people around the narrator to hint at what the narrator doesn't understand, but it isn't until late in the story that, through the overheard gossip of classmates that the reader understands why "Ms Ice Sandwich" looks so unusual. She depicts how in some ways the narrator has perfect clarity about his classmate's tics and vulnerabilities, accidentally creating the perfect nickname that sticks, but also his inability to empathize with another person's feelings or point of view, blurting out observations without understanding they can be hurtful

As Kawakami shows the reader the world through the narrator's eyes, she is also subtly depicting the connection he has with his bed-ridden grandmother and halting, awkward friendship with a classmate. This sloe revelation of details and incidents is pitch-perfect.

The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell, pub. 2019
Finished 13-Jul-2022

(This one I will have to come back to)

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub, pub. 2022
Finished 17-Jul-2022

Alice's 40th birthday is more memorable than most. After a hurried dinner with her best friend, followed by binge drinking in an iconic bar, she finds herself at her childhood home. The house her father is not at because he is in the hospital, terminally ill.. She falls asleep and wakes up as her teenage self on her 16th birthday. Alice, completely bewildered, spends the day trying to relive it as closely as she can to her memory of it while also frantically trying to figure out what happened and how to get back to her adult life. Even if it is boring and she is a little bit stuck, working a job at same the private high school she attended.

This is, however, not a time-travel back. Yes, it uses it as a plot device, but the mechanics of it don't really matter here. After the first trip Straub, thankfully, does not go through the painful reliving of the day over and over and instead details Alice's impressions of her experiences, and the various experiments she makes. Straub focuses on Alice‘s two most important relationships, her love for NYC, and how small changes made on one day can shape the future.

Nice review of Ms. Ice Sandwich, Liz; I'll look for it in my local library system, since I enjoyed her novel Heaven.

This Time Tomorrow sounds interesting, as well.

>26 ELiz_M: I have yet to read Mieko Kawakami. I must rectify that.

Great review Liz. Straub’s plot has an odd appeal.

>29 kidzdoc:, >31 dchaikin: Thanks! TTT is not as "literary" as what you both usually read, but she has a light touch that keeps this sentimental novel from being too sweet or maudlin. I, of course, also loved the NYC location.

>29 kidzdoc:, >30 labfs39: The writing and/or narrator in this were so well done. I enjoyed much more than another book of hers which I read later (and have yet to review).

I really enjoyed TTT. I've read her previous novel, All Adults Here, but nothing else by her.

Reviewed in my 1001-Books thread (click the picture to read the full review):



911. The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll by Alvaro Mutis, pub. 1993
Finished 18-Jul-2022

A collection of novellas about the never-do-well sailor Maqroll and his resigned acceptance of the hard work put into schemes that fail to make him rich.

Reviewed in my 1001-Books thread (click the picture to read the full review):



Memoirs of My Nervous Illness by Daniel Paul Schreber, pub. 1903
Finished 20-Jul-2022

This is NOT a "must read" book. The actual memoirs might be of interest to those with a background in psychology/interest in Freud and Jung, but there is also a double language barrier due to the formal, early 19thC writing style as well as being in translation.

>35 ELiz_M: sounds like something Robert Musil had in mind while writing The Man Without Qualities. (He has a couple characters who are judges, one character who is a violent murderer pleading sanity while hoping to be found insane; and there is a lot of talk about managing this sanity/insanity impossible idea in a legal way...and a lot of it is dry (dry humor, but still dry).)

>36 dchaikin: That is not encouraging. I had thought of reading TMWQ along with you but am feeling more and more glad that I didn't. 😁

>37 ELiz_M: it’s a great book to have read, but only ok to actually read. 🙂 At least, for me.

The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste, pub. 2020
Finished 25-Jul-2022

(And another one that I will have to come back to)

Breasts and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami, pub. 2019
Finished 2-Aug-2022

This book is made of two related stories narrated by Natsuko, an impoverished writer from a working-class background.

In the first story, Natsuko’s sister and niece are visiting from Osaka. Her sister, like their mother before them, works as a hostess in a failing bar in Osaka. As both her workplace and her body are slowly falling into disrepair, Makiko has become obsessed with breast augmentation and has spent months reading brochures and researching various procedures. She and her daughter, Midoriko, are in Tokyo to visit Natsuko, but primarily so that she can have consultations on her planned surgery. The narration of their short stay with Natsuko is interspersed with entries from Midoriko’s diary. Midoriko is 12, on the cusp of puberty and struggling with her own body image and her relationship with her mother. She has become so angry and overwhelm with her inability to communicate that she has stopped talking to her mother entirely.

The second story takes place eight years later. Natsuko has published a successful first novel, but is struggling with the second and still worries about making ends meet. She seems to have made more of a life for herself – she’s developed a hesitating friendship with her editor and another writer and her living conditions have improved. But she’s resigned to living her life alone. It’s not that she doesn’t want a relationship, but that she is not interested in a sexual relationship. Then, researching an article she is intrigued by the story of a man who has started a support group for people that have discovered they were conceived through IVF and their fathers are not their biological fathers. As Natsuko learns more about his story and cause, she become fascinated by artificial insemination and the possibility of conceiving a child without having sex.

Both stories are, in many ways fascinating explorations of womanhood, especially being able to compare Natsuko’s experiences and societal barriers with American attitudes and societal norms – what is similar and what is different. After reading a novella by this author I was really looking forward to this work. I’m not sure if it was the subject matter, the form, the translation, or the writing that felt different. These stories felt grittier and drearier instead of the naivete of a young boy, the narrator is a resigned, struggling adult woman. Instead of tightly written, spare prose, this is a sprawling 400-page book, apparently with some sections written in an Osaka dialect that different translators have treated very differently.

Either/Or by Elif Batuman , pub. 2022
Finished 7-Aug-2022

The second book, in what I presume will be a tetralogy, recounting Selin's college years.

It's Selin’s sophomore year and prompted by a class syllabus she is pondering an ethical life versus an aesthetic one. This year is mostly about sex and relationships as she is gets over Ivan and fools around with others. As a Turkish-American from an immigrant family, she does seem to fit in anywhere. Perhaps this is why Selin is a thinker and reacts to situations intellectually rather than emotionally, always more interested in analyzing and philosophizing. So it is a delight to read her thoughts on various books and burgeoning intellectual discussions, but it also keeps the reader at a distance as she interacts with others. In some ways the style reminds me of a less digressive Knausgård.

Ooh, three very interesting books this summer. Happy to read your thoughts. I would like to read Batuman, starting with book 1. Curious how The Shadow King treated you. It was tough in audio.

>42 dchaikin: Thanks. Hopefully, I'll come back to the reviews skipped over. I just got too far behind and don't have notesfor all of them....

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield, pub. 2022
Finished 9-Aug-2022

Leah goes on a three-week submarine expedition that lasts six months. Long enough for Miri to have given her up for dead and begin the grieving process. Leah returns, but is not the same person. She has experienced something that upset her balance and is deteriorating both mentally and physically. Miri’s account of trying to hold the marriage together and to care for her damaged wife is interspersed with Leah’s journal written while trapped in the deep sea.

This debut novel, written after publication of a successful short story collection feels too thin. A perfectly readable mishmash of a book attempting to meld horror and a love story. However, the horror elements just felt like a frame on which to hang the story of Miri and Leah and the dissolution of their relationship. The book feels unbalanced. The hints of unimaginable horror given in Leah’s journal are too slight and vague and what we learn of what happened doesn't connect to the condition Miri witnesses after her return. It's as if the _author_ doesn't know what happened to Leah.

While I enjoyed it and other readers got a lot more out of it, for me depth was implied but not substantiated.

True Biz by Sara Nović, pub. 2022
Finished 12-Aug-2022

An almost typical coming-of-age and overcoming the odds story. Except it takes place at a school for the hearing-impaired and is told from multiple points of view.

The main character, Charlie, is 15. Her parents have recently divorced and her dad has primary custody. As part of the settlement, Charlie is to be enrolled as a weekday boarder in a local school for the hearing impaired. Given a cochlear implant as a baby, and following doctors' advice, she has never been taught sign-language. But her implant is faulty, has always been faulty, so she can't hear or speak very clearly either.

The principal of the school, February is a child of deaf parents. She is dealing with a mother whose dementia is growing steadily worse and a school budget that is rapidly decreasing, even as enrollment and educational needs are increasing.

There is also Austin, fifth generation deaf on his mother's side with a father that is a hearing ASL interpreter, and treated almost as a celebrity in the deaf community. He has always been protected from the cruelties of the hearing world. But his newborn sister is born hearing and his father's excitement and favoring the hearing baby begins to raise existential questions.

As is fashionable these days, the novel begins at the climax of the story -- a couple of deaf students have gone missing and the principal is trying to deal with distraught parents and explain to the police that the students are not a threat and won't hear/respond appropriately to sirens and warnings to stop. We then go back in time to see how Charlie's arrival at the school and the various threats to deaf culture -- the closing of the school, the advances in cochlear implants lead to the crises point.

While I appreciated a look into a culture I know nothing about, the plot points and the character development here are too exaggerated, a little too overblown (plot) and underdeveloped (character) to make this a better than average read.

>44 ELiz_M: I've been wondering about this one, Liz, and your comments convinced me that I can pass on it.

>45 ELiz_M: Great comments on this one as well. I do like the idea of the setting of the school for the hearing impaired...

Catching up on your thread. Lots of interesting reads you've had recently. Enjoyed your reviews.

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, pub. 1985
Finished 20-Aug-2022

I have no idea how to review such an epic sprawling book. More than 800 pages with dozens and dozens of characters covering many months and (eventually) 1800+ miles. An odd mix of things that shouldn't work, but somehow do. A handful of remarkable, three-dimensional, unforgettable characters and many more one-dimensional characters. Stories that could have made complete, almost perfect novels in themselves, and stories that go nowhere. Inept characters that you sympathize with and inept characters that you loathe. Stupid deaths, inevitable deaths, tragic deaths (there's probably also a comic death that I've forgotten). But there is also love, not romantic love and plenty of unrequited love, but the love of the land, the love and commitment to a way of life, and the love show in the deep respect and friendship btween the main characters.

Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness by Kristen Radtke, pub. 2021
Finished 16-Oct-2022

This was not quite what I was expecting. For some reason I thought it would be more of a memoir, a personal reflection on loneliness, but the topics were closer to a collection of essays, ranging from her father's interest in ham radio, her personal experiences in NYC, to discussions of some awful psychological experiments performed on lab animals. Aside from one or two lovely illustrations, I am still not sure that they added anything.

I don't think this is the medium for me. In the more nonfictional sections it feels as if the combination is detrimental -- the pictures taking away from what could be an in-depth, informational written narrative and the written word not allowing for the impact of a visual medium, such as a painting, photograph or movie.

>48 ELiz_M: - I was surprised how much I enjoyed Lonesome Dove when I finally read it a few years ago...

Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga, pub. 2012
Finished 19-Oct-2022

Our Lady of the Nile is an elite girls Catholic boarding school high in the Rwandan mountains, neat the source of the Nile. Set in the 1980s, it is a fable-like foretelling of what is to come. Each chapter focuses on a different girl, depicting a small aspect of their life, but it does so in a distanced manner -- their is not much interiority or emotion and little differentiation in their voices.

Instead, the girls are mostly depicted as types. There is Gloriosa, the popular daughter of a wealthy politician, her acolyte, Modesta a half-Hutu/Half-Tutsi girl, Goretti, part of the in-crowd, but this daughter of a military commander doesn't care, Immaculée is the rebellious girl with a motorcycle-riding boyfriend, and so on. Then there are the outcasts, the token Tutsi girls, Veronica and Virginia. As the foreign educators, beholden to the powerful, elite parents, lose their grip on discipline allowing and turning a blind eye to increasingly immoral and violent behaviors, the story becomes Virginia's story.

The structure of the novel allows the author to provide a fair amount of background and details about the country, but it is doesn't quite cohere as a story. I should have been horrified and upset by the climatic events, but perhaps that was not entirely the point.

. . . . . .

The Sandman: Vol. 1, Preludes & Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman, pub. 1988, Finished 20-Oct-2022
The Sandman: Vol. 2, The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman, pub. 1990, Finished 22-Oct-2022
The Sandman: Vol. 3, Dream Country by Neil Gaiman, pub. 1990, Finished 23-Oct-2022
The Sandman: Vol. 4, Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman, pub. 1990, Finished 24-Oct-2022
The Sandman: Vol. 5, A Game of You by Neil Gaiman, pub. 1992, Finished 04-Nov-2022
The Sandman: Vol. 6, Fables & reflections by Neil Gaiman, pub. 1993, Finished 05-Nov-2022

I have been meaning to read these for a long time, but did not get around to it. Mostly because I struggle with the medium. And then there is the difficulty of untangling which issues are in which volume also which editions are available from the library... After watching the Netflix adaptation, I wanted to know more, so I finally started reading the series.

Personally, I prefer the TV adaptation. This is mostly due to either wanting more written story and/or more animation than provided by the graphic books. (It's like cheesecake -- I love cheese, I love cake, but cheesecake is not savory enough and not sweet enough).

As far as my limited experience with graphic books goes, these are dense. There is more story/words than some of the others I have read and the artwork is deep, rich, almost overwhelming. But knowing the story from the show helped. And I loved comparing the books -- cataloging all the casting changes made for the show and picking up on the handful of details in the books that were not in the show. So, overall a positive experience for me.

>51 ELiz_M: I bought a copy of Our Lady of the Nile a couple of weeks ago. I'm going to read it for the African Novel Challenge next year. I'm glad to know that I'll learn a lot about Rwanda, even if the story isn't exceptional.

>51 ELiz_M: I might give Kibogo by the same author a try next year. It interests me since it's in part about the clash of Rwandan beliefs and Christianity.

>48 ELiz_M: Oh man, I really do have to read Lonesome Dove. It's a big bucket list book of mine (big in all senses, I guess).