Definitely go the audiobook route on this one. It's a lot Wuthering Heights, a little The Cutting Edge, a little Daisy Jones and the Six. It follows HDefinitely go the audiobook route on this one. It's a lot Wuthering Heights, a little The Cutting Edge, a little Daisy Jones and the Six. It follows Heath and Cat, an ice dance pair, and their tumultuous career and relationship with each other. Interspersed are oral history snippets from a documentary, with insights from competitors, teammates, officials, announcers, and Johhny Weir narrates a former rival turned gossip blogger. All the narrators were great. A bit melodramatic and over the top, but fun....more
I sometimes read the author's Substack so picked up this book when it came out. It pretty much reads as a mash-up of Atomic Habits and Design ThinkingI sometimes read the author's Substack so picked up this book when it came out. It pretty much reads as a mash-up of Atomic Habits and Design Thinking. Instead of linear goals, the author advocates for growth loops, consisting of experiments with taking action over a set time period or number of repetitions, then reassessing....more
3.5 As a young girl, Yeva protects her younger sister from a dragon and discovers her own powerful nature. She is sent to the Emperor to train and bec3.5 As a young girl, Yeva protects her younger sister from a dragon and discovers her own powerful nature. She is sent to the Emperor to train and becomes a legendary guildnight. She is most comfortable in her armor and helmet and doesn't take it off, even when she is sent on a diplomatic mission to a neighboring country to discover if there are dragons present. There Yeva meets the girl-king Lady Sookhee and slowly lets her guard down as they fall in love. She is also closer to home, though across the border, and learns more about her mother and mourns for all she left behind when she left to become a knight. This is told (especially in the frame at the beginning) in a folkloric style revealing the woman behind the legend, and I liked how the novella uses Yeva's masks and armor to depict a lot of her struggles and growth. I also really liked the ending--though the reveal was predictable, how it unfolded was moving. I do usually appreciate the tightness of a short story or novella, but I did want this to be longer. Yeva's time as guildnight in particular was given short shrift....more
I really loved this. While looking for the subject of his next graphic novel, Yang inadvertently stumbles on one right in front of him. The basketballI really loved this. While looking for the subject of his next graphic novel, Yang inadvertently stumbles on one right in front of him. The basketball team at the Oakland Catholic high school he teaches at has perhaps its best team ever and is poised to challenge for its first-ever state championship. Except Yang hates sports, especially basketball. And he doesn't want to have to address what happened with the team's previous coach.
While Yang does an admirable job of portraying the on-the-court aspects of the team's journey, what really makes this graphic novel standout is how the make-up of this team allows Yang to explore so many related topics: race, religion, sexism, and the history of the sport. My favorite parts of this were the detours into the development of women's basketball and the first woman to dunk in a game, the origin and history of basketball in China, background on the Sikh religion through one of the team's players. Just wonderful....more
When Hai and Grazina first meet, he is standing on a bridge contemplating jumping. She invites him in and he ends up staying as her caretaker, as she When Hai and Grazina first meet, he is standing on a bridge contemplating jumping. She invites him in and he ends up staying as her caretaker, as she is slipping into dementia. Hai also takes a job at the fast casual restaurant HomeMarket and the workers there become another found family for him. Vuong writes with such empathy and care and specificity about small towns, marginalized people, the mundane . There is loss and addiction and precarity and trauma, but there is also hope and friendship and humor and joy. Hai takes on the persona of Sgt Pepper and imagines alongside Grazina when she retreats into childhood and war memories. The HomeMarket crew all rally around each other and for each other, whether its BJ's wrestling debut or Sony's mission for his father. I loved all the time I spent in the company of these characters. ...more
I mean, it's pretty much exactly as advertised: Dexter meets Richard Scarry's Busy, Busy Town. Samantha Strong lives runs the hardware store in a pictI mean, it's pretty much exactly as advertised: Dexter meets Richard Scarry's Busy, Busy Town. Samantha Strong lives runs the hardware store in a picturesque friendly small town where the worst thing going is the "Karen" Cherry Gherkins. So she limits her, uh, adventures, to the big city where her misdeeds won't attract attention. When a murderer is on the loose in her quaint, anthromorphic town, Samantha worries that her secrets might be exposed. The artwork and story live up to its premise. And, as someone who practically grew up in a small town hardware store (dad owned one) it really captured the vibes. ...more
I picked this up after a rave from some best books list. Icarus's father trains him to steal art from his nemesis Mr. Black's mansion. And if Icarus'sI picked this up after a rave from some best books list. Icarus's father trains him to steal art from his nemesis Mr. Black's mansion. And if Icarus's dad seems awful, meet Mr. Black, who keeps his son Helios locked up in said mansion. Icarus meets Helios on one art mission, then keeps stealing back into the house to meet up with him.
We also get Icarus at school, where despite his best efforts to keep people at a distance, he has classmates who notice and care and want to be his friend. I liked this aspect (particularly with the author's note at the end), but it was also strange to have all these potential new relationships all growing at the same time. I wanted to like the romance, and there were some lovely moments, but so much was wrapped into the weird entanglements of these families and fate. And all this led up to a rushed and disappointing ending.
I did really love the author's note at the end, which redeemed part of the issues I had....more
A literary novel with each chapter encompassing a different universe for our main character Raffi. Raffi is fascinated by parallel universes: in one sA literary novel with each chapter encompassing a different universe for our main character Raffi. Raffi is fascinated by parallel universes: in one she/they look at parallel universes through science; in another through philosophy; but in most through the lens of a person who has dreams, regrets, longings, and grief. Raffi takes on new jobs and roles, but in each universe she often encounters the same people: Britt, Graham, Kay, and/or Alice, though each play different roles in Raffi's life in each version of themselves. As the universes branch out, they also get stranger and more removed from our world. We get universes where animals attack humans or where a lover is pregnant with an octopus.
This is often filled with lovely writing on universal themes about what it means to be a person in the world--any world. No matter which version Raffi exists in, it's interesting to see what remains the same and what shifts depending on the circumstances of Raffi's universe and history in it. I also like how the novel subtly looks at gender, with characters identifying differently or using different pronouns in different universes. Lovely and meditative. ...more
3.5 McKinney, the host of the podcast Normal Gossip, explores gossip from many angles: religion, feminism, community, parasocial relationships and cel3.5 McKinney, the host of the podcast Normal Gossip, explores gossip from many angles: religion, feminism, community, parasocial relationships and celebrity, AI, even hearing loss. It is also steeped in pop culture references: Mean Girls, reality TV, Gossip Girl, Doja Cat, Britney Spears, with a smattering of historical and cultural references as well: Picasso, The Epic of Gilgamesh. One of my favorite section of this was when she asked ChatGPT to gossip, with predicatable and hilarious results that are as much an argument against AI and its current flaws as anything else I've read. It's discussion of the role of gossip among marginalized groups was also great. The book comes off as very pro-gossip and I would have welcomed a more well-rounded discussion of some of the pitfalls too. Overall, like any good gossip sesh, I had some fun and came away with more information....more
In Bibiliophobia, Sarah Chihaya traces how her identity and depression are entwined with the books she reads, with the various stories she encounters In Bibiliophobia, Sarah Chihaya traces how her identity and depression are entwined with the books she reads, with the various stories she encounters either escape from, or articulation of, her life. Through books like Anne of Green Gables, The Bluest Eye, and A Tale for the Time Being, she examines her experience as the daughter of unhappily married Japanese Canadians who moved to America. A. S. Byatt's The Possession is the perfect book, and lens, to reveal her relationship to academia and how impossible it was to abandon a career and path wrapped up in her identity even as it was impacting her mental health. Texts like Helen Dewitt's The Last Samurai and Yiyun Li's Dear Friend, From My Life I Write to You in Your Life reveal how depression and suicide have always been a part of Chihaya's story.
She writes, "I alternated between being someone who was forever at the mercy of plots I had no control over, and being someone who believed they knew exactly how those plots worked: in other words, between being a character and being a critic. Nowhere did I take responsibility for being my own author." There were parts of this where the author's detachment (the critic showing through) were frustrating, and other parts of this that were my own "life ruiner", her designation for the books that excavated something in her. At one point, she describes the beauty and horror of finding a book that articulates exactly what you're feeling and thinking in words you've never been able to summon: the beauty of being recognized, and the horror that you will never be the person to write them, and you are a "ghost" of what is written on the page. I found myself on the page a lot in this memoir, whether it was trying to push through to a degree long after I should have taken a break, or how books were my last tether to humanity, my salvation, during the darkest periods of depression in my 20s.
鈥淎 clever terrible reader, sure, but a terrible reader nonetheless. I was always reading for something: first, for comfort, for pleasure, for validation, for comprehension; later, for symptoms, for ideas, for citation, for tenure. And always, secretly, for salvation.鈥�
Like Chihaya, what I read for has changed throughout my life, and often moment to moment (which is why I always have so many in progress at any one time). And as a librarian, I see this all the time, too. Different readers need different things from reading and readers will get different things out of the same book. That book that scares you will help someone else feel seen. That extremely flawed book is someone else's fun escape. And sometimes, the book you read at the right stage of your life might not hit the same if you'd read it when you were younger or older. This is one I read at the right time for me. And like any good book about books, I now hope to finally get to A Tale for the Time Being and The Last Samurai, both books I've been meaning to read for a long time. ...more
I mistakenly believed this novel was the basis for the TV show Severance (it's not), but I read and enjoyed Ma's short story collection Bliss Montage I mistakenly believed this novel was the basis for the TV show Severance (it's not), but I read and enjoyed Ma's short story collection Bliss Montage so was still excited to read it. Candace Chen works a dull job in Bible production at a publisher when a pandemic called Shen Fever makes its way from China. There is no cure, and those infected become zombie-like figures repeating the same rote tasks and routines over and over. Her company pays her to keep showing up in the office, long after most people have abandoned New York City and there is no more work to do, but Candace still dutifully shows up, changing from her tennis shoes to work pumps at the office. (Oh, the irony) She also documents empty New York in her photography blog NY Ghost.
We also get flashbacks to Candace's immigrant parents and her free spirit opt-out boyfriend Jonathan, both showing different relationships to capitalism. And we also flash forward as Candace joins up with a group of survivors on a journey toward The Facility (no spoilers, but this was a very thematic reveal). This was written pre-pandemic and it was both interesting and difficult to read this after. ...more
3.5 Carmen Valdez grew up loving comics, since trips to the corner store with her dad in her hometown in Miami. Now an adult, she wants to break into 3.5 Carmen Valdez grew up loving comics, since trips to the corner store with her dad in her hometown in Miami. Now an adult, she wants to break into the medium, but the closest she comes is a role as secretary for the third-rate Triumph Comics. She is approached by writer Harvey, who knows of her ambitions to create comics of her own. The two team up to create a new character, The Lethal Lynx, only Harvey takes sole credit before winding up dead. Panels of the Lethal Lynx punctuate each section, with the superheroes journey paralleling some of Carmen's own path.
Segura is both the author of the Pete Fernandez mystery series and held various roles in the comic book industry, so has the ideal background to write this mash-up. I especially liked the feel of both 1970s New York and the comic book industry of the time period. It also worked as a story of the challenges of an outsider to the industry, even if it sill pretty clearly read as a male writer writing a female character. The mystery ramped up a bit at the end, but I enjoyed this more as a story of the comics industry than a suspenseful mystery. I'm intrigued enough to possibly pick up the next in the series, Alter Ego....more
Misha is a horror screenwriter who has just been nominated for an Oscar for his short film, at the same time as his producer calls him in and tells hiMisha is a horror screenwriter who has just been nominated for an Oscar for his short film, at the same time as his producer calls him in and tells him he needs to kill off the queer characters on his TV show. To say more would spoil a lot, but Bury Your Gays tackles a lot of interesting topics like queer representation and erasure in popular culture, corporate interference in art, intellectual property and AI, and more. I listened to this on audio and the narration was a lot of fun. ...more
I recently gave this to my niece and picked it up to read to talk about it with her. I am very much not the target audience of this one, as someone whI recently gave this to my niece and picked it up to read to talk about it with her. I am very much not the target audience of this one, as someone who rarely reads middle grade and sometimes has a tough time with fantasy. This one follows Christopher, whose family is the keeper of the passage in the Otherworld (like ours) and Mal, a young girl from the magical Archipelago where magical creatures exist. Except there are fewer and fewer of them (Mal is especially fond of what is perhaps the last griffin in existence), due to a depletion of the glimourie which powers the magic.
Mal and Christopher embark on a journey, alongside some colorful companions. Each quest is over fairly quickly and easily, which is just one way in this novel felt overstuffed. It also went much darker in the end than expected! ...more
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