Recently finished

I was recently joking with a talented writer friend that my genius is for starting things rather than finishing them. Regretfully, this character flaw is one I carry into my reading, sometimes butterfly-flitting between a few hundred titles without making much progress in any one of them. But sometimes I do finish a thing or two - so here is the motley crew of titles I've recently gotten to cross off of my list!

This book was amazing. As soon as I finished it, I pre-ordered the book she has coming out this year. It's atmospheric. It's surprising. It's creepy. And every single time I thought I knew what was happening, the ground shifted on me and I was surprised anew. It also made me wonder if I could survive on my own somewhere isolated like the Farallon Islands it describes.

I've heard Carter's name and the buzz about this book for a very long time. I'm not sure why it took me so long to read it. Like the title above, the atmosphere it creates (a world made of words!) draws you completely in. As a collection, it isn't perfectly even, of course. Some pieces are significantly longer and more detailed than others and some characters seem authentic while others feel more like fairy story archetypes. Completely worth the read, though (especially the story based on Bluebeard)!

I have no idea where I heard of this book or where I found it (though I'm sure the description of the golden horses and their presence on the cover helped seal the deal), but I'm so glad I did! It's a grim read - taking place in a prison - but it has surprisingly luminous moments, amazing twists, and benefits from the fact that the author has experience with what she describes.

I read this title for class, shortly after re-reading Follow the River. In both cases, I was struck by the seeming lack of emotion that women had when it came to their children. Maybe their own survival was all they could manage? Had I been in their shoes, I doubt I would have possessed the intelligence and fortitude to even attempt an escape.

I have mixed feelings about this fun title. On one hand, it shows a bright, African American girl who takes control of her problems (and there's a big red T-Rex!!!). On the other hand, the art was kind of sloppy and the writing was a little childish (though maybe I'm not the intended audience?). The cameo by the Hulk was a nice touch, though!

I avoided this book for a good long while because it had too much hype and that made me leery. But the library had a copy and summer puts me in the mood to read mystery novels, so I gave it a go and was pleasantly surprised. The story kept tricking me in the best way and I grew to like both women at the center of the story. My only criticism is that the final twists (the last 10-15 pages, maybe) were too much for me, requiring too much of a suspension of disbelief. I think it could have been a very fine story without them.

I tried to read this book once before, so I came back and gave it another chance... which it probably didn't deserve. In the pros column: the characters acted and spoke believably and were distinct and the mystery kept me reading. In the cons column: I didn't really like anyone, I figured out the mystery quite quickly, and the lack of punishment that comes to a deserving character made the conclusion frustrating. I won't be in a hurry to read the second book in the series.

This book was genuinely creepy. Unfortunately, it's creepiness ended up stemming from real life misfortune rather than the folktale at its center. Like Missing, Presumed, it did a great job of crafting characters (the three boys reminded me of Stranger Things) and dialogue, although the author had an annoying habit of writing a name, a colon, and then the dialogue rather than introducing the speaker. I guess my main complaint is that I kept counting on a moment of uplift and redemption and there wasn't one, which shows that I have little gift at picking up on foreshadowing, I suppose...

Shelf-life abounding part 9.2: More creatures of myth!

As I noted in the post that began this one, I don't read fantasy as often anymore as I'd like (it's devolved into weird urban fantasy that I don't care for), but I'm still a sucker for fantastic beings!

I remember my favorite picture of Nessie from childhood... and I remember my disappointment when I found out said picture was a hoax, so a book that promised a lake monster was a must-buy!

The character at the center of this story isn't exactly a figure from myth... but he has uncanny abilities that make him a story worth telling to those whose lives he enters into!

I've always loved the Kelpie legend (to say nothing of the Jethro Tull song), but I had precious little luck in finding a book that featured said mythic beastie. So I settled for selkies, instead. Readers in the know say to disregard the Harlequin-romance-type cover!

These three titles can live together, because they all feature fairies of some sort (the Victorian closer-to-Tolkien's-elves and dangerous sort) and I was drawn to them because when I think dangerous fey/fairy creatures, I think Jareth the Goblin King. I hope there's a little of his sparkle in these titles.

This books promises a suburban retelling of Beowulf. That's right - soccer mom Grendel's mom! I've had it pre-ordered for weeks.









These two titles may also live together, because they both harken back to Disney stories... which is a bit unusual for me. Kingdom promises killer mermaids (sirens?) and Lost Boy tells the story of Hook and how he came to be the villain in Neverland. Since I'm teaching a course on villains this fall, I thought this would be a nice chance to hear from a few of them!

A Cabinet of Curiosities for the Eclectic Reader

I’ve always loved the idea of curiosity cabinets – spaces that opened to an eclectic collection which held meaning (usually) only to the one who had assembled it. 

This post is a sort of literary curiosity cabinet. If a cabinet could be assembled to represent them, you would find the following inside:  a green flag emblazoned with a white horn and hoof, a sample of cloth so white and sparkling it was nicknamed “unicorn vomit,” a Native American headdress, the crumbling top of a termite mound from South Africa, a nail from the true Cross, a pile of court papers, instructions on the proper way to feed deer, and  the dried – but still strongly scented – needles of a Siberian pine. Curious yet?

I don’t know how I escaped from high school without reading Animal Farm. I remember my sister reading it for school, but somehow I never did. So I finally decided to buckle down and read it, only to decide that it probably isn’t a proper read for high schoolers (neither is Lord of the Flies, in my opinion) because without an understanding of the Russian Revolution (or, at least, communist ideology) I don’t think the message will be clear. And, of course, I lamented poor Boxer and all of those he stood for!

 

Tessa Dare remains my favorite romance author. In fact, she’s about the only one I read. Despite this, her most recent book doesn’t quite live up to its predecessors. Certainly, there were plenty of funny and cute parts (I especially loved the homage to Batman!), but the hero is a type she has used many times before and he started to feel like a trope rather than an individual. The secondary characters were interesting as always, though and I’m eager to see what becomes of them in the next title. I just hope the next hero will prove a bit more original. [The unicorn vomit mentioned above was a wedding dress that started the whole story rolling].

I’m really glad I found this book! It is written in a question format and while I didn’t find every question relevant or interesting, I learned a great deal about government dealings with Native Americans and I found a useful source to accompany the “first contact” literature I will be teaching in American Literature next fall.

It’s probably not often that one connects the idea of termites and great literature, but Marais is a splendid writer (with a sad history). He writes in the tradition of the great naturalists so that even those with only a little bit of knowledge about insects can follow the narrative. I suspect some of the information is now out of date, so I’ll be following up with Superorganism.

Humanizing may be the best word for this book. It makes Christ human and considers the too-human emotions of the mother who fears for her son, watches him die, and must endure life after his death.

I took up this title because the opioid epidemic is very real in Appalachia and this title has been held out as a way to understand the minds of those addicted. I don’t know if my understanding is deeper; the stories felt incredibly foreign and rambling and sad…

I admire both of these writers as individuals, but this work felt like a dumping ground for material that hadn’t made it into their other books. The essay that impacted me the most discussed the proper way of feeding deer. Their biology shifts in the winter so they can starve with full stomachs if the food they’re eating made for winter digestion.

I'm very grateful to the library at the Smithsonian for getting me this slender pamphlet. It mostly includes the type of information you would expect (territory, tracking methods, prey animals, etc.) but it's one of the few Russian studies printed in English, so it's a great piece for the chapter I'm editing!