January – June
30 books and its only partway through the year! Last year I read 28 in the entire year. While I used to read on my commute to work on the SkyTrain, I now read at home before working from my home office. I’m fortunate to be able to work from home during COVID-19 social distancing. I’ve also taken up morning yoga.
A lot of my reading has been determined by looking at my Goodreads to read list, then putting a hold at my local library using the Libby app so it syncs to my Kobo. This has been great as a final decider of what I read: if it isn’t there, I don’t read it (though I have also written in about authors I feel the library should have; I believe I may have convinced my local library to get books by Octavia E. Butler and Ursula K. Le Guin this way).
In past years my books have been sorted by read order. This time I’m roughly in order of favourite to least favourite: That is, books earlier are ones I recommend you read.
Top books so far include Dawn and Kindred by Octavia E Butler, Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat, The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemesin, Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Continue reading to see more!
Also new this year there are content warnings for rape and/or sexual assault for a few books in the list where notable. I’ll highlight this at the start of the review (even if I don’t go into detail in the review itself) for fair warning. This year has more of this than previous years so it feels more worth highlighting. This is not because I sought out this particular topic, but because I’ve read a lot more sci fi dealing with issues of gender, sexuality, slavery, and cultural violence this year. And rape and sexual assault apparently come up in a lot of sci fi about these topics. Also, I sometimes write these reviews quite some time after finishing reading so its possible I’ve missed a warning. Please let me know if so.
Also! Spoilers exist throughout but when I found the surprise a critical part of my reading experience I do leave it out so you can enjoy it too.
Links to other reviews:
HIGHLY RECOMMEND – 5 STARS
made me think a lot, in different ways for each book. recommend reading
Lilith’s Brood (Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago) by Octavia E. Butler
Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat
Kindred by Octavia E Butler
The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, and The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemesin
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Open Borders by Bryan Caplan and Zach Weinersmith
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
ALSO ENJOYED – 4 STARS
Read the synopsis and see if the topic appeals to you
Maybe You Should Talk To Someone by Lori Gottlieb
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders (5/5 for first 2/3 of book, 2/5 for rest)
Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents by Octavia E Butler
Woman On The Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang (only for The Lifecycle of Software Objects, I would skip the rest)
Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
MEH – 3 STARS
I didn’t like these much, but maybe you will
Tribe by Sebastian Junger
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Manna by Marshall Brain
Dreadnought by April Daniels
Common Sense Pregnancy: Navigating a Healthy Pregnancy and Birth for Mother and Baby by Jeanne Faulkner
ABANDONED
I did not finish these and don’t think I will try to
Map and Territory by Elizier Yudkowsky
Creativity, Inc. By Ed Catmull
Now onto the reviews…
Lilith’s Brood (Dawn, Adulthood Rites, Imago) by Octavia E. Butler
CW: Rape, sexual assault, violence.
LOVE. I read some Butler last year but have to say that Dawn and Kindred are so far my favourites. And Dawn is, so far, my favourite book I have read in 2020. I fear writing too much about it and giving away much. In some ways, I strongly believe a good book should be written such that you enjoy it even if you’ve seen ‘spoilers’. And I think this book would be too. But I also don’t want to deprive you of feeling the mystery the main character, Lilith, feels as she wakes up in a mysterious environment and slowly discovers what has happened on earth and what is likely to be its future.
This book will make you think. And what I love is it isn’t obvious about that: It doesn’t contain long monologues describing what the author wants you to think about. The plot and narrative suffice. Its delightful. Its deeply uncomfortable. This book reminds me why sci-fi is so fantastic. Butler is genius.
Some of the many themes, may have light spoilers of the most academic dry nature: Parallels to slavery & concepts of freedom and even of white saviour complexes. Forced sterilization. What consent is possible under saviour situations? What consent is possible at all, with any coercions present? What is the matter of gender and family unit structure (*I will note here that Butler’s characters completely lacking homosexuality is a bit jarring for some plot point reasons)? What is important about being human? Is preserving that so important it’d be preferable to not exist? Does evolution change us to be non-human? What is the value of genetic purity? Themes of sexuality, gender, race, species, freedom, consent, and so much more.
I also heavily enjoyed the next two books in the series (Adulthood Rites and Imago). They follow different characters as humanity adjusts (and doesn’t) to the changes brought on by the first book. By the third book I was deeply uncomfortable with how I empathized with the changes happening on Earth, and the hope I had for some characters despite what it meant for others freedom. The whole series continually makes you think.
Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat
Non-fiction cookbook that isn’t really a cookbook. This book has half lessons about what Samin believes to be the 4 important and underrated elements of cooking, and half recipes that help underscore the lessons you read in the first half.
I purchased this after watching the Netflix documentary of the same name. The show had me salivating and wanting to get in the kitchen to do more. My husband and I have always loved cooking: it’s an activity, when we have more time, we do together to explore new cuisines and recipes together. For example, during social distancing for COVID-19, we have taken the time to make homemade egg noodle pasta, homemade perogies, and more. (aside: the verdicts: pasta was a lot of effort but well worth it, homemade perogies were a lot of effort for only a little bit better than store bought).
We have explored many cookbooks and experimented without recipes in the past, but we have never read or explored the principles of cooking. So, I purchased Salt Fat Acid Heat and The Food Lab.
I loved this book. At the end of the section of salt, I improvised a recipe of sautéed zucchini (salted before, then pressed the water out), onions, and feta (salt). I drizzled it with balsamic vinegar (acid), and served it with a side of bacon (salt, fat) and my husband’s freshly baked baguette. I fried an egg (fat). We scooped the balsamic zucchini mixture over the bread with bits of bacon and drizzled egg yolk and it was divine. While cooking this one meal, I paid so much more attention to tasting and incorporating different flavour elements than I feel I have in my life. I’ve tasted food before, but never with such attention to balance.
And that was just after reading the section on Salt.
Each section is well-written with excellent illustrations. I love the pull-out pages that have ‘wheels of the world’: One for which fats or acids or seasonings to use for different cuisines. I love that the recipes at the end tie into the lessons in the first half of the book. As of writing this, I haven’t made many of the recipes. I have made salted caramel sauce.
In the book, there is a colour scale of how brown you want your caramel to be: Samin prefers a tad darker than you’d expect, just one tick up from ‘usual’ and one down from ‘burning’. This, she claims, gives a more refined flavour. So, I carefully whisked my butter and sugar until I saw this colour, took it off the heat, added oat milk (the recipe called for cream, but this is what I had and it worked), then whisked it. Then the important part: salting to taste until it is straddling the line between perfect and too salty. I did this so carefully and deliberately, scooping caramel and pinching salt on it to see if I added more to the batch if it would ruin it or only make it better. The first night we served it with ice cream, the second night it firmed up to the perfect consistency.
If you want to be more into cooking than you already are, you’ll probably find this book inspiring. I look forward to supplementing it with The Food Lab when I finally get around to reading it. And I look forward to more exploratory experimental cooking.
Kindred by Octavia E Butler
CW: Rape, violence, sexual assault.
Gosh I ate this book up. It’s a heavy subject matter but done in such a thoughtful creative way with the time travel.
With social distancing, I’ve had more time to read but less time alone: My husband is always home. I am always home. We are in a 2 bedroom condo so can be partially separate but in practice we are around each other 95% of the time. One sunny day, he went on a walk by himself and I sat on our patio and read this book while drinking tea and eating homemade tea infused truffles. He returned from his walk but didn’t disturb me: I read on the deck in complete isolation for 6 hours, finishing this book. It was much needed and made me feel so much better to have a breath to myself: I love him dearly, but endorse having space and time to yourself, even if it is just a moment.
This book is about a black woman in a relationship with a white man from 1976 (when the book was written) who time travels involuntary into the antebellum south. It looks at race from these two angles: The still existing discrimination, and challenges of interracial marriage of the author’s present, and the harsh unjust times of slavery. What if a modern black woman found herself transported back to these times? She experiences horrific gruesome treatment, for being found as a black woman in these times could only mean one thing: She is a slave, or a runaway.
At times she takes her husband with her and he has a completely different experience of living in this past. He interacts more with the slave owners than the slaves. All of the characters are so interesting. If you grew up in these times, would you just go along with slavery? We all hope to not be that person, but we ourselves are a product of our own upbringing and culture. This is an uncomfortable question.
This book is really emotional, well-written, and provocative. I highly recommend reading it. It’s one of the top science fiction books I read, but it teeters the genres of historical fiction, fantasy, and slave memoir in a way that helps build more than just an awareness of the past, but a deep empathy. I think this is SO important when engaging with any of the terrible things humanity has done in the past: Building empathy as much as one can for something we have never lived through (nor lived through the consequences still having ripples in the modern black experience today).
I think I’ll have to reread this book to get all it has to give.
Also interesting for 2020, a movie that many say looks like it’s Kindred inspired by/rip-off is coming out: Antebellum with Janelle Monáe. I’ll have to wait for it to come out in August to see how close it is but its description certainly sounds similar:
Successful author Veronica Henley (Janelle Monáe) finds herself trapped in a horrifying reality and must uncover the mind-bending mystery before it’s too late. ANTEBELLUM is a terrifying new thriller from the producer of the acclaimed films GET OUT and US, and groundbreaking directors Gerard Bush and Christoper Renz (Bush+Renz) – an exciting new voice in filmmaking.
This book is also a reminder that you can engage with the past and the systems of oppression that came to be without reading non-fiction. Butler is extremely careful & researched in her work and this book can help build the true feelings of empathy for what horrible things our past contained through storytelling.
The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, and The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemesin
I enjoyed this series. Would recommend reading it.
In a world where the planet suffers from tectonic shifts and earthquake disasters, some people are born as ‘orogenes’ those that can control energy (the ground). They are born randomly through the population rather than as a ‘race.’ Without training, they further contribute to the tectonic instability. With training, they can help control it. It’s a fascinating world and enjoyable addictive reads. One of the most interesting concepts I feel the series explores is: “If there is a legitimate reason to fear a people, in that they could destroy the world, is society justified to discriminate against them to prevent the destruction of the world?”
In real life, most discrimination is completely unfair. In this world, the fears and scapegoating of the world’s issues on a people is partially ‘fair’ in a sense. But is it fair to then treat those people as lesser, to protect oneself? I think not, and the book does too, but explores this concept thoughtfully in a remarkably interesting world.
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
CW: Violence.
I really enjoyed this book. It was not what I expected. I have read many ‘youth saves the world dystopia’ young adult fiction, so I suppose I just thought this was one of the ‘firsts’ in that. And it is in some ways. But the different plot lines beyond that were great.
Earth is searching for a military genius to be their hero in their battle against “The Buggers”. Ender, a child the result of genetic experimentation, may just be that child (his older siblings Peter – too violent – and Valentine – completely lacking in the violence necessary – were also children of genetic experimentation).
While Ender is going to ‘battle school’ to determine if he is indeed the Earth’s hero, his siblings have their own really interesting plot line going on (which I think I preferred to Ender’s story, though Ender’s battle school time was also great). Valentine and Peter use anonymity on the internet to behind the scenes begin changing the political balance on Earth.
The end of the story surprised me (I’m really good at avoiding spoilers for even old classic books, making them always an enjoyable read), and I won’t go into detail here either so hopefully if you read it you can get the same experience I had. Would recommend reading.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
This has an upcoming TV series (Wikipedia). Another dystopia where I don’t understand the existence of their system economically nor how it politically came to be! But this book is a classic.
Via raising babies made in test tubes and giving some optimal conditions and other terrible conditions in-utero, they segment society into those intelligent and those not. This is further exacerbated by ‘sleep training’ and classic conditioning to make those ‘born’ for it feel complacent in menial jobs and those ‘born’ for it feel they have power and are better than the others. Fine, I can suspend my disbelief a little for this all.
But they are also subliminally given messages to be more consumerist so their society of spending and resource use can continue. WHAT. Here is where I break. One of the amazing parts of human society is when we continually learn to more efficiently use resources. Sometimes I’m kind of… amazed… that even today there are individuals who think that corporations don’t do this now. Well, if they didn’t and their competitor did, their prices would be higher and people would probably buy their competitor’s product and then they’d go out of business. And while we do have a relatively consumerist society, the best products people are sold are the ones that have continually made our lives feel more efficient and so on: The advent of microwaves, dishwashers, computers, cell phones, and more have all given back time to use to drive MORE efficiencies or INVENT new ways to better our lives. There are certainly many products that don’t do this, and advertising can make us feel we need them by preying on insecurities. However, we have a system that incentivizes creation of the new. I would like to believe that would continue on into the future.
While the characters of this book are described as being kept in a ‘childish’ state of consumerism and play, I honestly find it kind of childish when people think the most shallow arguments about society to be true. Think a little deeper!
That said, I don’t think Huxley necessarily believes any of the above to be true about society: This is a dystopia after all. I just have an easier time suspending my disbelief if I don’t think about how its someone’s extrapolation out from today.
The characters of this were quite readable and interesting. Their stories are written well. I did really enjoy this book, I just have been struggling with dystopias lately (if you couldn’t tell from my reviews). This book will probably warrant a reread as the show comes out, though I notoriously struggle to do rereads.
Open Borders by Bryan Caplan and Zach Weinersmith
This was great! I was already into the idea of Open Borders but this is a great graphic novel introducing the ideas, the criticisms, and addressing the criticisms. The art is great (if you’re familiar with SMBC, you’ll know Zach Weinersmith). For me it was an easy read, because I’m already familiar with the majority of the arguments. If you’re more skeptical you may want more time to think on the ideas, even though the graphic novel style makes this a more light introduction than, say, reading an academic paper or a politician’s opinion on this.
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Costumed with blue hair, button covering one eye, yellow raincoat and rainboots, and striped search.
What a delightfully creepy tale. In the forward, Gaiman shared he wrote this for his 5 year old daughter. When he finished she was in her teens but he had another daughter who was approximately 5. They both loved the book and thought it was a fantastic adventure, with Coraline the fantastic lead at the helmet of it.
Meanwhile, adults find this story terrifying.
This fascinated me because I didn’t think that a horror story would be appropriate for younger children. So hearing the interpretation there is really interesting.
I loved the Coraline movie when it came out (and one year dressed up as Coraline and The Other Mother), so am surprised I didn’t read this for a while. I’ll probably read this to my future kids someday and hopefully they will not get (too many) nightmares.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
What a beautiful book. This book is more setting than story, though.
In 2019, I went to two immersive theatre experiences put on by Vancouver theatre group The Geekenders: Alice in Glitterland and The Harry Potter Yule Ball. The former whisked me to a technicolour magical world where a plot evolved and danced around me. I was taken by the hand of the white rabbit to meet the red queen. I helped poison Alice. I saw caterpillar and Cheshire cat dances and frolic’s and emotions. The lighting and sound were completely immersive.
The Yule Ball was more interactive in that I spoke with some of my favourite Harry Potter characters: My best friend and I helped Ron woo Hermione, we helped coax Moaning Myrtle to join the ball, my best friend danced with Ron while Hermione jealously looked on, Harry Potter danced with me, we made mistakes about potions in front of a disapproving Snape.
Both of these experiences were fantastic settings. This book is similar, and it wasn’t a surprise to read that it was inspired by some immersive theatre experiences the author herself saw.
She has chapters describing “You” entering various circus tents, and other chapters describing an evolving romance between two magicians (except in this world, magic is real). While reading, I was transformed to a fantastical world: Each tent providing more of the description of the characters (they themselves are kind of flat), each tent a sort of ‘love letter’ to the other.
I did find the writing style a bit weird and clunky at first, but by the fifth chapter I was fully immersed in it, so if you pick it up and find it a bit weird, you’ll probably get used to it.
If you want something for plot or strong philosophical thoughts (like I enjoy in sci-fi), this isn’t that book. If you want something beautiful and almost 100% setting and romance, this may be one to pick up.
And if you live in Vancouver and the Geekenders put on another immersive theatre experience (or someone near where you live does this), DO go. It will be unforgettable.
Maybe You Should Talk To Someone by Lori Gottlieb
Reading a bit out of my comfort zone this month! While fantasy like The Night Circus doesn’t stray that far from my favourite genre of science fiction, reading books like non-fiction/self-help/psychology does.
This book follows a therapist and her patients who herself needs to see a therapist. I quite enjoyed it! It made me feel exposed to the ideas of therapy without reading dry pages about it. The characters, both her patients, Lori, and her own therapist, were very enjoyable and likeable (some weren’t likeable throughout, but that is conflict). I also felt it was a great book for talking about (without talking about) some of the reasons one would go to a therapist, and some of the internal struggles those around us may be going through without us knowing. For example, a pretty unlikeable character has his own mental barriers to getting close to others to slowly be revealed throughout the book.
I have seen a counsellor for anxiety. I myself found it really helpful: I found someone who would bluntly ask “Do you think others are really thinking that? Is there another possibility?” to scenarios where I would be worried about what others were thinking. I feel it helped me move from being a little paralyzed in social situations to speak up or talk about my own interests, to someone who wants to share and have others share with me more. I learned ways to help deal with panic attacks that, if I apply them early enough in the buildup, do help. While I still feel anxiety, especially during a global pandemic like COVID-19, I feel better equipped to deal with flare ups such that it doesn’t trickle over and leave me in a panicked daze wondering where my day went (to worrying and doom spiraling). And while sometimes I still panic, or don’t respond 100% perfectly, knowing I can breathe deeply and challenge my instantaneous thoughts makes me feel better in of itself.
If you want to hear someone else’s approach and what others may go through, this is an interesting way to do so vs. reading non-fiction descriptions. The author shares a really interesting story that had me hooked despite the genre not being one I usually read.
Between this book and Bad Blood, I think I’m learning that my favourite way to read non-fiction is narrative driven, rather than authors waxing on poetically about their thesis and ideas and ‘self-help top tips’. I will look for more opportunities to read books like this in the future that can expose me to different ideas without making me bored. I wish a lot of non-fiction were blog posts: When there is a narrative, I don’t even notice the book length. While there is ‘filler’ the filler is the story draws me in to learn more.
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
What’s that, Young Adult fiction? I have not read this since I was a pre-teen/young adult myself!
A friend recommended this to me, and given the heaviness of some of the current day-to-day re: COVID-19, I liked the idea of reading something super light.
This is a cute coming of age story that gave me many flashbacks to being in university for the first time. Not that much of her story was particularly like mine: I went from a small town to a bigger city (Victoria) while she went from the largest city in her State to a smaller city, she went with a twin (I don’t have a twin and it wouldn’t be until 2 years later that my little sister would join me and we would be roommates together), she was studying creative writing or something and I studied math and statistics from the get-go. I was never super into fanfiction or fandoms, though I was a Harry Potter nerd (minus the community).
I remember when new Harry Potter books were coming out and my mom would drive my sister and I at 7am to the local news and books store. We would wait for it to open to run in and grab a copy. While in larger cities this perhaps made sense, for us, this was unnecessary: They were unlikely to sell out. However, it did give us some extra hours to start reading the book. My sister and I would take turns and have to be careful not to spoil the other if we read first.
When the Harry Potter movies were coming out, I remember waiting after high school on Thursdays for the midnight premiere with my friends. We would have snacks and all chat about it. The last movie came out when I was in university, and fortunately the friends I made in residence were also keen to see it so we lined up early to see it together.
In this YA novel, Harry Potter doesn’t exist but another wizarding boy does: Simon Snow. The author writes gay fanfiction about the Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy parallels (Simon Snow and Baz Pitch in the book).
This book was fun and light. I don’t think it’s a book about Fanfiction that much, but more of the struggles of those first steps at independence and moving away from home for the first time. Those times of meeting new friends and new lovers who become boyfriends and seeing those around you do things differently than you. Those times where more serious things start to happen, and you’re not the kid anymore: YOU are the one responsible to help those around you get through. It made me reminisce a bit and I enjoyed it.
When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore
This was a beautiful but bizarre magical realism story. If you like poetic, flowery narratives, you’ll likely enjoy this unique story about two young friends. Miel is a young girl who was rumoured to have fallen out of water tower. Mysterious roses grow out of her wrists. She is shunned by many in the town, except Sam, her close friend.
Sam is a transgender boy, also on the outskirts and trying hard to keep this secret in so as to not face further derision. The book describes when Miel learns that Sam is trans, and this is handled lovingly and with care. The author themself is married to a trans man and at times this book reads as a personal love letter to their partner’s experiences.
Other characters include The Bonner Girls, four sisters rumoured to be witches who can enchant any boy they want to become interested in them. They become obsessed with Miel’s wrist roses as this ability to enchant appears to be disappearing.
The wrist rose element is bizarre. The story comes together in a beautiful way though.
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
At first I was skeptical about this unrealistically messy and untidy village girl. As the plot and magic unfolded I was hooked. I really enjoyed this fantasy book, inspired by the authors childhood Polish fairy tales (it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that Jaga was Baba Jaga/Yaga).
The Wood is such an interesting antagonist: a magical forest. It is mysterious and dangerous. A girl from a small village is selected to serve a wizard (“The Dragon”) and learns she herself has much to offer in protecting her region. I really enjoyed the characters dialog and relationships. I haven’t read much fantasy as of late but this was a good pick for one to read.
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
When I started reading this, I loved this by the second chapter. It’s a fun blend of fantasy and sci-fi. I recommended the book to a friend that I know enjoys fantasy.
When I reached 2/3 of the way through the book, I was… mixed.
I loved following two bizarre children through their youth together, growing up one on the side of magic and the other technology. When they were just living their lives and began bumping into each other I found it endearing how they picked up their friendship. From the woman’s bizarre witchy friends to the man’s nerdy tech friends, there was an interesting enough cast of people living in the city together. A world of magic alongside the normal world.
I am an effective altruist (“EA”; I believe in using evidence and reasoning to find the best way to help others, be it through which areas to research, advocate for politically, or mostly in my case donate). Effective altruism has been thinking about existential risk for a long time, as preventing it or being prepared for it is a highly effective way to do good. I am currently living through a global pandemic, COVID-19, pandemics being one of the things suggested society prepare for more by the effective altruism movement and by others. The nerdy tech community in this book felt a lot like the members of the EA movement as they advocated for a solution to the world’s eventual demise. However, their solution was a bit more zany. Still, I found this part of the book relatable enough and interesting.
However, when the climax of the book started I losing focus and interest. I think the book got a bit messy as it tried to pull together its plot points.
I think I would have preferred it to have less of a huge climax and stay focused on the magic and science main characters and their relationship. That said, I was hooked and rapturously read the first 2/3 of this book, so it has a lot of good in it.
Mating in Captivity by Esther Perel
This is a book I’m reading for a sex positive book club that was actually delayed/cancelled because of COVID-19. The first book had been Come As You Are (or CAYA; review not included here). I found CAYA really amazing and I want all women and people who have sex with women and people who have sex and can handle some more gender-binary language and etc. to read this book.
Mating in Captivity is the second book selected. I’m not sure if we will ever do a book club meetup for it given COVID-19 happened. I’d been exposed to Esther Perel’s ideas before via Ted Talks (example) and even seeing her live on a recording of Dan Savage’s The Savage Lovecast in Vancouver to discuss her other book, the State of Affairs. Her philisophy on attraction in long term relationships also came up in CAYA (though after reading this book I believe it was possibly diluted to be non-representative there).
I didn’t find anything in this book particularly ground-breaking or interesting, but that could just be because I’m familiar with Perel’s work already. She writes more from anecdotal experience in her own practice than the sort of nerdy science-y stuff I usually prefer, but for some that will be preferable. I guess I recommend watching one of her Ted Talks on this book and The State of Affairs with an open mind, and if you want to learn more, read her books to dive deeper into her thoughts.
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
Interesting characters, setting, and conflicts, though I was less fond of the plot of this one.
A spaceship has escaped a dying Earth long ago (centuries ago!). Due to ‘resource constraint’, an authoritarian slavery and forced labour system is in place on the ship. The forced labour divides along racial lines, as slavery in Earth’s own past was. This book is pretty violent, as slavery in Earth’s own past was.
Aster is an individual living as a healer on the below decks of the ship. She investigates her mother’s long past suicide and the death of the ship’s previous leader.
Personally I found the book a bit hard to get into from the sci-fi perspective (suspending my disbelief at the elaborate resource usage of the elites on the ship was difficult), easy to get into from a division & racism perspective (I believe it is possible for this structure to arise in times of crisis, but also I believe the opposite: A book I read last year, On the Edge of Gone, explored kindness in the time of crisis), and neat to follow from a character perspective (Aster is autistic, asexual, and queer – unclear if non-binary or intersex or both).
Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents by Octavia E Butler
CW: Rape, assault, pedophilia, end of world, disease/pandemic.
Maybe during COVID-19 it is not the best time to read a dystopia in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. Maybe I need some positivity instead.
Well, oh well, because this book hooked me. More negativity and fear!
Except maybe it was comforting because things today aren’t that bad. I enjoyed this book, but it also irritated me in the way dystopias all annoy me these days. Are there any dystopias written in a way where I believe how they economically got there?
With book two, the rape gets worse. I have a hard time believing that in the end of days, pedophilia will be widely accepted (I think vigilante justice for folks hurting children is more likely). I have a hard time believing that most men will run around raping people in the end of days.
While it’s tempting to think in times of disaster individuals will go ‘every individual for themselves’, utter chaos unleashing, its actually been more likely in history for communities to bond together to support each other in time of crisis (example: The London Blitz). Will this change in times of increased culture wars? I hope not.
These books were way too dark for the time I read them: I was in a rough spot with my emotions about COVID-19 (early working from home, social-distancing). The second wasn’t as gripping to me. Proceed with caution.
Woman On The Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
Another piece of science fiction written by a woman in the 1970s with time travel undertones! I read it right after Kindred.
A woman, Connie Ramos, unjustly sent to a mental institution is contacted by someone from a utopian future to help keep it be THE future: There is another future she catches glimpses of that is more dystopian in nature. At times it is unclear if Connie is in the ‘present’ (this book was first published in 1976 when mental institutions were more common than they are today), or some future that assumed a more full-fledged integration of mental institutions: In her present, it seems like small deviances from what is culturally defined as ‘normal’ can make one end up in a mental institution. I am not familiar enough with the 1970s beyond knowing there were more mental institutions to know if this is really how things were or if this is some imagined near future.
The utopia she travels to is similar to Brave New World’s in that reproduction is not a thing anymore. This seems to be a common trend in envisioned futures: Could this be the last great equalizer for sex, to have biological females carrying children stop being a thing?
As with all dystopia/utopias, I have a hard time taking seriously how one would get there and if things really are as ideal as the author believes them to be. The challenge with utopia is we as individuals all want different things from our life: A system where we have the freedom to do so without causing harm to others seems the most just. To me, I can’t get behind utopias that enforce everyone doing certain jobs rather than selecting (and paying more such that the undesirable jobs become worth doing for someone who wants more money to pay for whatever).
This book is a heavy read but I had a hard time getting into it ‘intellectually’: While it brings up topics like mental illness, racism, poverty, gender inequality, and more, I had a hard time figuring out what to ‘do’ with the thoughts I had. I think its partially the authors writing style: Whereas for Kindred I felt the author was really great at getting you to ‘feel’ what her main character was going through, in Woman on the Edge of Time, the protagonist is kind of unlikeable and difficult to put yourself in her shoes.
Which in of itself is interesting: Should we only provide empathy for characters (and in real life, people) we like? If someone makes a mistake but is now trying to do the right thing (or what they perceive to be), should we move forward rather than continue disliking them?
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
A humorous story written from the first person perspective of a half-robot, half-human who dubs themselves “Murderbot”.
So many people loved this book! It won a Hugo and a Nebula!
So many people found the POV character charming and relatable! “They don’t like people; I don’t like people. Leave me alone to my TV, etc.”
But I didn’t really get it. I didn’t latch on to any of the characters, nor the mystery (and I don’t think I understood how it resolved… did I miss something while reading before bed one night that made it make sense?). There are some glimpses of heavy themes that are super interesting: In this society, these half-robot, half-humans are not treated as people (though from Murderbot’s perspective, you see there are full conscious thoughts). They are created as ‘things’ only for the purpose at hand (so, Murderbot didn’t need genitals. What do you think they are, a sex-bot?). How does someone treated and thinking of oneself their entire existence integrate with a human group, so that they are comfortable? In some ways, this is an entirely relatable type of story: When there are preexisting groups and you’re trying to make friends, how do you become part of that group? How does one start making choices for oneself after its control unit is removed (I picture themes of adolescence fitting in well here).
Maybe its deserving of a reread. It is very short so worth a shot.
Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang
I liked this well enough for a short read. None of the stories were really huge thought starters for me. Possibly The Lifecycle of Software Objects? But even it didn’t go super deep on any of the philosophical ideas: it made me start thinking of the ideas without giving enough critical addition to what I’d thought of them before.
This story follows the creators of ‘digients’: Digital pets that exist in a virtual world. They are AI creations that develop their own thoughts and personalities. Their creators treat them as children as they ‘grow up’ and learn more and more naturally. We follow two creators, a designer and a trainer, of digients who both become very attached to them, almost like they are their own ‘children’. As the title alludes, software objects may become obsolete and a ‘newer, better’ version comes along: But is it alright to abandon an artificial intelligence, though? Isn’t that like abandoning a being?
The story deals with topics such as planned obsolescence, artificial life and what constitutes it, parenting and responsibility, consent and at what ‘age’ or level of development (for these digital beings) can make their own choices about their own existence, sex, and more.
There are other stories in this collection, of course, and they are fine, but nothing here really gripped me the way Ted Chiang’s first collection, Story of Your Life and Others (where the sci-fi movie Arrival was inspired from).
Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
CW: rape.
Also note: I basically spoil the whole book in my exasperated review. I am frustrated by Tess.
Oh Tess. Poor sexy girl born in the worst time, trying to make ends meet in life as men (not great men at that) fall for you and subject you to all of their questionable decisions.
Her family is poor but learns they are of an old money fancy family. She goes to meet a rich relative and asks for help. He is skeevy and weird from the start, insisting on hand feeding her strawberries and forced kisses. She doesn’t realize how big a problem this is nor how creepy he is nor what the deal with sex is because sex ed hasn’t been invented yet so her parents told her nothing helpful about avoiding creeps like this (not that any of it is her fault, even her way too sexy good looks, it’s obviously the dude should be better). He rapes her.
She is impregnated from this (of COURSE she gets pregnant the first time she has sex, life couldn’t cut her a break) by a distant relative, then to struggling with her child, to her child dying, to starting fresh at a dairy farm and falling for a man. A man who is… somehow hot shit to all the dairy maids on the farm but seems to be a bumbling fool. Whose name is ANGEL CLARE. Him and Tess get married. He confesses he once slept with someone.
Of COURSE she has to tell him she slept with someone else. Despite that being a very bad idea, it is 1891 after all. He doesn’t like this and flees. To Brazil!
She struggles and struggles and struggles through life. Her dad dies.
She gets back together with her rapist to save her struggling poor family.
Angel Clare comes back and realizes he should be with her but it’s too late.
Tess MURDERS her rapist and her and Angel go on the lam. Then end up at fucking Stonehenge where the police catch her (after letting her finish her nap??) and she is hung and the book ends.
I did enjoy this book. It’s written in an appealing way (if a bit flowery and verbose at times). But oh boy. Tess. Oh poor dear Tess
Tribe by Sebastian Junger
I am glad I read this because it made me think about community and tribe, however, I didn’t agree with much of it. It focuses more on Tribe from the male perspective, say war, First Nation coming of right trials, PTSD, sacrifice, and more. This leads to views on how violence and difficulty help reinforce our feeling of tribe. However it completely excludes the feminine aspect of community – which is fine, I just didn’t find it very useful or interesting. I also don’t believe trauma is a necessary aspect of community. Perhaps it can be a sufficient condition. But there are ways to bring closeness without this: say, working towards shared goals without the goals being based on some traumatic difficulty. It’s an interesting book but I didn’t find it altogether that convincing. Sprinkled with anecdotes (“This doctor said this telling thing” – doesn’t make it scientifically true, we need studies for that or a more complete theory), and some weird biological arguments/appeals to science that don’t necessarily scream “believe this book” to me.
I loved how short this was for non-fiction. It felt exactly as long as it needed to be to get its point across (no editor demanding higher word counts here!). I think is worthwhile to read. While he only discusses aspects of Tribe that are more important to men, this is still an interesting read and will spur some thinking. I just wouldn’t use it to believe Junger’s theories wholesale without further investigation.
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
This book is from a Bill Gates recommendation list. I didn’t actually like it that much. Its split up into many parts that apparently have some neat nested story structure but I would personally rather think about deep philosophical concepts than literary concepts and convoluted reading structures. I felt it didn’t have much of the former but maybe I missed something.
- The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing (Part 1)
- I didn’t like the first chapter/story: It felt ‘fake’ old timey. When discussing it with my husband he said that it’s amazing that J. R. R.Tolkien could invent perfect lore and languages, yet historical writers don’t use our world’s lore and languages. Besides having a hard time getting into it, I didn’t find it interesting yet.
- Letters from Zedelghem (Part 1)
- Letters from Robert Frobisher, a recently disowned and broke bisexual young English musician. This is really entertaining and the writing style resonates much better with me than the first section. Frobisher is a likeable playboy type character whose delight in the masculine and feminine resonates. Just fun. I enjoyed reading it and hope future sections grip me similarly.
- “The journal seems to be published posthumously, by Ewing’s son (?). … Something shifty about the journal’s authenticity – seems too structured for a genuine diary, and its language doesn’t ring quite true – but who would bother forging such a journal, and why?” – Ooo. So this is interesting. The writing style of the first issue I had… is that part of the plot?
- Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery (Part 1)
- Pretty interesting – mystery, shady corporate cover-ups, journalists, assassins…
I didn’t like the first chapter/story: It felt ‘fake’ old timey. When discussing it with my husband he said that it’s amazing that J.R.R. Tolkien could invent perfect lore and languages, yet historical writers don’t use our world’s lore and languages. Besides having a hard time getting into it, I didn’t find it interesting yet.
As it went on it got better. The challenge is, I loved some of the plot lines and characters, and other characters did nothing for me. So as a whole it wasn’t entirely enjoyable. It seems to be written with some clever style that mimics the plot or something so is a fun one (if you call it fun) to write an essay about, which I don’t want to do most of the time. I want to read a book, have it jostle forth some new ideas about the world and ‘what-ifs’, think about them and discuss them, and possibly research later.
Manna by Marshall Brain
(This is available online)
Interesting but it’s a problem that I am married to an economist. I need to find some dystopian sci-fi written by economists that spin worlds that are (1) economically/societally/politically believable (2) possibly allow distortion of the initial attempt, since politics often involves compromise and corrupt the intent to be non-recognizable. The best I’ve seen of this is the “Basic” system on Earth in The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey (important: This is not universal basic income).
But because of my context, its remarkably hard for me to suspend my disbelief. This leads to a different reading experience than if I immersed myself in the world: Instead, I think, “How could this world even EXIST?” To be fair, it is not supposed to be entertaining. The book is an example of “Exploratory engineering.”
The book explores a near-distant future (2050) where automation has left many unemployed: The main character worked at a burger joint, had a headset installed by a control unit to drive efficiencies and make sure they were using their time 100% optimally, and then less/no people were needed so they were laid off. Mass unemployment and miserable existences abound. The automation runs even the unemployed assisted housing units, and prevents you from going out of bounds and doing anything interesting. In essence, people are prisoners with nothing to do.
If this was AI gone rogue with the optimization function set up incorrectly (i.e. the “AI alignment problem”), I may believe this as possible. But while reading this, I thought about how humanity has gone through technological advancements before and yet we just find new ways to innovate and create jobs. There are sometimes uncomfortable transition points, but we do it. If a company didn’t, only automating their current state, and their competitor both used automation and humans for some yet-unknown tasks, typically of the more creative nature, the one that didn’t would make less in the market and disappear.
And I think this is beautiful! Do people really want all the jobs as they are to exist with no improvements or changes forever?
But then the character is taken to Australia where a Universal Basic Income experiment is taking place. At first I thought, “Ohhhhh. The first part was a lead up with a completely unrealistic foil to this argument, which is a bit unfair, but maybe the author gets it.”
Except not really: This is a misnomer and misrepresentation of what is described in the book, much like Basic in The Expanse is not UBI either.
Dreadnought by April Daniels
Another Young Adult novel! This time about a trans character who inherits a superhero’s powers, and with it what she has always wanted: The body of a girl.
I really wanted to like this book but I disliked it. This is a review from someone else I agree with that summarizes it better than I could (and I’m behind on my book reviews so trying not to take too long here): Maggie Gordon’s review of Dreadnought
Common Sense Pregnancy: Navigating a Healthy Pregnancy and Birth for Mother and Baby by Jeanne Faulkner
A friend lent me this book. I much preferred Expecting Better by Emily Oster. But I’m also a statistics & data nerd who prefers someone back up their statements that “Doing X is better” with data rather than feelings. Even when a lot of the data from Expecting Better was around “Thing X isn’t as terrible you’d think it would be given the shame and hatred that gets thrown at you for it”. In the end, we have to make our own choices on pregnancy and parenting. Unfortunately, the internet (mommy bloggers, comment sections in parenting forums, and more) shows a deep ideological challenge to making our own choices: c-sections/intervention = bad, natural (i.e. pain medication free) birth = good. No book has yet explained to me why this moralistic ranking has occurred. This book is no different and I maintain everyone is entitled to try and do what they want (as long as they let the doctor step in to change those plans when necessary) IF AND ONLY IF they don’t shame others for trying and doing what THEY want.
Anyways. I’m going to rant a bit about this book but honestly I didn’t hate it. It was fine, if you’re not someone easily swayed by slight moralistic judgement. Its actually quite good (if a bit United States-centric, some stuff won’t apply as much to me a Canadian). If you want a book that describes (with some judgement) different options for pregnancy, its great. If you want something that evaluates evidence for some (not all) options, go with Expecting Better.
This book does lay out some facts of what different parts of pregnancy and childbirth are and some of their pros/cons (without much data to back them up but is stating things that sound official, I’m just a citations-gal). It aims to be a “judgement free” book, but I still find it comes out pretty in favour of breastfeeding and natural childbirth, and not for reasons of data & science (read Expecting Better for that) but instead for more of a ‘moral’ stance. Data will be thrown in for a second then ignored, for example: She states that only 1 in 200 babies even get GBS anyway when the mom has it and doesn’t take antibiotics, but, if she takes antibiotics, this risk is reduced to 1 in 4,000. Then writes: “Some midwives and homeopaths offer garlic, acidophilus, or herb-based or other nondrug therapies and report good outcomes.”
… Um, ‘report good outcomes’ is anecdote and not data. The garlic probably didn’t do anything for this already really low risk thing. Why throw this in, throwing more on the table for a mother to do, when it has no data showing it will help? These non-scientific claims peppered through the book with a slight uppity tone really got to me and I don’t know why. Maybe because listing things that might help but have no substantive evidence and are probably placebos isn’t helpful and pregnant women have more to do than eat garlic to ‘prevent’ something that likely wouldn’t have happened anyways?
Anyways. Again, the book was FINE. I learned a lot about the what’s what of different pain management aspects for childbirth, the after-care of labour, and more. I would just ignore any ranking or listing of which are the best methods, since the author doesn’t have a strong statistics bent and does have a bit of an opinion on this stuff (that isn’t necessarily true).
ABANDONED
There are always some books I struggle to make it through. Typically non-fiction. Typically ones I didn’t choose myself.
Map and Territory by Elizier Yudkowsky
Listened to the audiobook of this, which given it talks about probability distributions and Bayes theorem (or was that an earlier book?) it is not great to listen to as an audiobook. I also do not know if I want to read this (the rest of Rationality: From AI to Zombies) or want to be the person who read this (so smart!). So I won’t read the rest since that is reading for signaling (not inherently bad but not something fun).
Consider this Abandoned.
Creativity, Inc. By Ed Catmull
Reading this for a work book club. I’m not finding anything super innovative or thoughtful. Growth mindset, but for creative! But then again, I didn’t get that far so that probably isn’t a fair assessment.
I think a challenge in the work book club is also the discussions focusing more on an adjacent organization, so I sometimes struggle to speak up and apply it to my own context: This is something I individually need to work on if I continue to join work book clubs.
Also, I want to re-watch all Pixar movies. During social distancing, I indeed watched all the Pixar movies I hadn’t seen yet: Ratatouille, Coco, The Incredibles 2, Toy Story 4, and Onward (my favourite was Coco followed by Ratatouille; the latter inspired me to pick up two books ABOUT cooking rather than cookbooks that will also likely have reviews for this year).
And that’s it for now!
I will continue reading the rest of 2020, of course, and will write up a Part 2 blog post later. I may also write a post summarizing some of my favourite books I’ve ever read (for example, I love Vernor Vinge’s A Deepness in the Sky and A Fire Upon the Deep, but have never reviewed them). We will see! Social distancing certainly has changed my reading velocity so far.
Holy moley, this is amazing! Not only did you read a ton of books, but your reviews are the best 😀