This was pretty engaging, but while it pulled me right in, I never quite cared about the characters. Lovely writing about food and sex- and I like theThis was pretty engaging, but while it pulled me right in, I never quite cared about the characters. Lovely writing about food and sex- and I like these things- but not much of a sense of place, which really would have helped this book.
The planet Earth is covered in a kind of haze, likely the result of climate change or some other human f*ckery, and a famine falls upon the globe. Mostly people are eating this disgusting grain made out of legumes, nutritious but terrible. A chef in her 20s, living in Europe, takes a mysterious job as a cook up in the mountains of Italy, working for ultra-rich people who still have fresh produce and all the other foods.
If I wasn't interesting in cooking, I probably wouldn't have stuck with this. Oh, the audiobook reader was quite good though. That helped a lot....more
I got just over halfway through this before I abandoned it. I truly love S.T. the wry crow and found myself laughing out loud about things he said, buI got just over halfway through this before I abandoned it. I truly love S.T. the wry crow and found myself laughing out loud about things he said, but I never really cared about Dee, the last un-zombified human. The book seemed to be changing into kind of an action movie, and I was pretty bored. On to the next audiobook!...more
I read maybe a third of this and decided it was not for me. I don't really care about a novel until I start to care about the characters, and in this I read maybe a third of this and decided it was not for me. I don't really care about a novel until I start to care about the characters, and in this book, the narrator is "we"- the people of this future, dystopian community, so not a distinct person. The story follows its main character, Fan, but it follows her with this opaque gaze, so she never comes to life on the page. For me, not even Chang-rae Lee's extraordinary writing ability could make me want to finish....more
I really liked this novella about a mother and son surviving the apocalypse together in the mountains of Wales. When the novel opens, the mother, RoweI really liked this novella about a mother and son surviving the apocalypse together in the mountains of Wales. When the novel opens, the mother, Rowenna, is about 35 and the son, Dylan, is 16, and The End, as they called it, was about 10 years earlier, the result of nuclear bombs, maybe with a side of climate change? The nearby town is emptied out, except for maybe a few dead people left in their beds. Rowenna has a one-year-old, too, although she isn't doing very well. They've learned, these two people, how to survive, and the son, especially, has found his calling as a farmer. There is some sadness and loss, but the two of them love their quiet life, reading books, working so hard to raise food for themselves that they fall into bed at night. This was a short, simple book, but very affecting....more
I read this very fast. Things were really bad behind the Iron Curtain in Romania. People starved regularly and had to wait in line for hours for what I read this very fast. Things were really bad behind the Iron Curtain in Romania. People starved regularly and had to wait in line for hours for what food they did get, it was a major surveillance state, no one was allowed to leave the country, choose their own profession, express their own opinions. Eyes were on its citizens all the time, reporting back to the government. Meanwhile, the dictator was getting feted by Western leaders and taking his family to Disneyland.
The narrator is a 17-year-old boy who has a lot of opinions he has to keep under wraps, and early in the novel, he is recruited- forced, really- to be an informer, which he hates himself for.
The characters in this book don't know that the Iron Curtain is about to come down, or that it's going to bring more violence and danger than they've ever known.
This is a good YA title. I'm glad I learned about Romania. It did an especially good job at looking into what a culture of informers would do to people living within it, and to families and friendships. Which is probably a good thing to look at, with surveillance technology taking off the way it is....more
I have a lot of feelings about how our society views and treats mothers, so I’m definitely the target market for this book, which starts out as realisI have a lot of feelings about how our society views and treats mothers, so I’m definitely the target market for this book, which starts out as realistic fiction and winds up in the land of dystopia. Kind of like the 2020s so far! Whee! This book has a lot in common with A Handmaid’s Tale, and I liked it more and more as I read- or as I listened, because I did this one as an audiobook.
Mothers have to give up everything for their children. Nothing else matters more. But they have to make sure they’re sexy, because a woman who is not sexy is worthless, But they can’t be too sexy. And they can’t be lazy, ever! Every moment should be spent enriching their children’s lives. Should they work? Maybe, but only if that doesn’t mean compromising ONE BIT in their children’s care. They have to be stern and teach their children to have upright characters, but also 100% loving and gentle. They have to watch their children 24/7, but they can’t coddle them! And mostly, a mother’s identity has to revolve around their children. You want something for yourself, you want an identity that isn’t about them? Selfish! But if you don’t have a successful career, you’re just some dumb soccer mom. There is contempt everywhere for soccer moms.
Mothers are people with their own dreams and desires, doing the best they can without opportunities to do things over and improve before the kid changes and needs things that are totally different than what they needed before, and the whole game changes. If having children means you have to squash all these dreams and desires, the children we’re raising see that we don’t matter and have contempt for us, and what does that mean for the daughters who see what you’ve done to yourself? And what does it mean for sons to see that?
Anyway, Freda, the main character in this book, has split with her husband when her child is a newborn, when he has an affair and moves in with the young woman he’s been playing around with. The novel starts when her baby is about 1 ½ and is teething and sleepless, and Freda, exhausted and disoriented and still reeling from the end of her marriage, walks out of the house to get a coffee, leaving her baby unattended. She winds up being out in the world for two hours. Her neighbors call the police, and Freda has some explaining to do.
Sadly for Freda- and this is where the dystopia kicks in- her state has a new zero tolerance policy for these kinds of parental mistakes and new pilot program to deal with them. Freda winds up being sent to a truly horrific school to “teach her to be a good parent”. But basically, what this school does is all tied up with our culture’s weird, demanding, unforgiving, and insane ideas about mothers and motherhood. I don’t want to say more and spoil it. But I really liked this book. ...more
I'm not sure that this novel entirely works. The ending definitely threw me. But it was so original and consistently interesting to read that I very mI'm not sure that this novel entirely works. The ending definitely threw me. But it was so original and consistently interesting to read that I very much enjoyed it and will suggest it to other readers.
On a summer night in a time not so far from our own, all over the planet, all the males (and anyone with a y chromosome) disappear. And although the women who remain are sad, missing their male husbands, sons, lovers, friends, and fathers are traumatized by this, eventually they pull together and make the world in many ways better, starting to fix the climate crisis, not having to worry about being raped when they're alone out in the world.
There are several narrators in this book, but Jane, a former ballerina who has survived one of the ugliest cases of sexual abuse I've ever encountered in a book, is at its center. I read the section that detailed this abuse right before it was time to drift off to sleep, and it was so disturbing it kept me awake.
Most people, when creating a novel, avoid difficult, weird, ambiguous things that don’t fit with the arc of the story, things that make the story harder to tell in a straightforward way. This writer goes ahead and puts them in, and I find it interesting and also think it makes the story seem more real, like it's a story she's lived through, not one she's making up.
There are a lot of weird developments in this weird novel that I don't want to spoil for the reader. But read it! Then maybe talk about them with me, because this is a novel I want to talk about.
Thanks for access to the digital ARC, Edelweiss!
Edited to add:
My god. All the reviews from people who haven't even read the book. They're so sure and so righteous-- even as they're all completely wrong. This is absolutely not a transphobic book....more
Another pandemic novel, and a good one. I listened to this as an audiobook, which was a mistake. The different chapters, which skip a bit through timeAnother pandemic novel, and a good one. I listened to this as an audiobook, which was a mistake. The different chapters, which skip a bit through time and all have different narrators, are engaging enough to draw you in immediately, but then at the end it all comes together, and that, for me, was kind of confusing, and I think I missed things. I would have been able to keep it all together if I was reading this off the page.
I was absolutely bewitched by it in many of the chapters, though. Good writing, really involving, good characters. This is being promoted as very much a book for readers who enjoyed Station 11, and it is, although it's also very much its own thing.
An ancient flu is discovered in a cave in the Arctic, and it gets loose and changes the world through time, finally sending people right out of this world and into outer space. It's amazing. Each narrator draws you in and makes you care. And I think that in spite of the sadness inherent in this subject this ultimately offers an optimistic view of the human race and its future.
Spoiler below:
God DAMN, I loved that talking pig. That was my favorite chapter....more
This book's weirdness kept me reading, but it's really not my cup of tea- kind of shallow characters?- and honestly, I was never sure exactly what wasThis book's weirdness kept me reading, but it's really not my cup of tea- kind of shallow characters?- and honestly, I was never sure exactly what was going on.
Two young women who have been friends for a long time get stuck in a time loop in the Louvre. It sounds so enticing. But really, they could have been anywhere. It doesn't seem like the writer is especially interested in art. The main concern is their friendship, which has been become closer as the world has gone through violence and economic hardships (this is set not too far in the future). There's kind of a romance later- but it's a creepy romance. It was interesting enough to finish, but it was a relief to get it done and move on to something else....more
First of all, I went through this like a freight train, finishing it in about 2 days, and during much of those 2 days, I felt like I was living, just First of all, I went through this like a freight train, finishing it in about 2 days, and during much of those 2 days, I felt like I was living, just a little bit, in the world of this book even when I wasn't reading it. That's how I read The River, the first book that this character Jack appeared in, as well. But The River was a much better book, I think.
The first half of this held up. Jack arrives at an elite fishing resort in Colorado where he's going to be a guide. The resort has a lot of rules, and its manager is kind of a dick. He meets Alison, his first client, who is both a famous singer and pretty good at fishing. I love the language Heller uses, especially about the wilderness and fishing. I fished a little in the summers I spent in Alaska and found it thrilling, but I gave it up once I moved down to the lower 48 and realized that every time I cast a line into the water, I wouldn't swiftly pull it out with some fabulous surprise on the end of it. So much waiting, so few fish. Anyway, I got deeply pulled into the story as Jack starts to realize there's something strange going on at this resort.
But. Jack is so flawless. He's always ready, always noticing everything. At one pivotal and fraught moment near the end, someone spills tea and this 25 year old takes a moment to notice that it smells like Constant Comment. Alison K., a really important character in this novel, seems like as well developed a character as the woman Wynn and Jack saved in The River- and that woman barely spoke because she was wounded and semi-conscious through much of the book. Also, weirdly, the story is almost always told in the third person, but very much from Jack's point of view, and then 2 or 3 times, it abruptly switches to Alison's long enough for her to make one quick observation. It's jarring and takes you out of the moment. Maybe a few things will get fixed before the final printing? Because I read this as a digital ARC (and thanks, Edelweiss, by the way).
I appreciate that Heller has bravely set the story a few years in our future, not pretending like the pandemic didn't exist. He imagines that a terrible new variant has come out of India- yikes- so we're still dealing with it, and thus, rich people really like to vacation in remote places in the mountains. He's also noticed what we've all noticed- that we're all kind of on our own. That poor and more vulnerable people suffer when things get hard, and that rich people get to kind of skate above the surface. Spoilers below.
I know from The River that Jack is someone who keeps an eye out and notices coming danger, but really, he's there for maybe 3 days before he figures it all out? Also, he carries sticks of dynamite in his truck?
Also, the fiendish thing that's going on there... I might have thought a few years ago that people couldn't be so terrible, that so many people wouldn't have gone along with this. I don't feel that way anymore. People want things, and they're not going to let the exploitation and pain and death of people not in their tribe interfere with getting those things. I mean, even the fact that I'm vaccinated, that almost everyone I know is, including my children, is wrong. In a better world, we would have given vaccines to the oldest and most vulnerable people all over the world before we started vaccinating young and healthy people in the United States.
Another thing: is Jack with Alison at the end or just visiting as a friend? I think, I hope, the latter, but I'm not sure. I thought it was kind of cool that they decided not to pursue a sexual relationship....more
The idea was interesting, but the characters were on the shallow side. In this alternative reality, girls are born with birthmarks that suggest what tThe idea was interesting, but the characters were on the shallow side. In this alternative reality, girls are born with birthmarks that suggest what their future will be. Then, when they are about 16, their birthmarks change into their final adult future-determining form. Also at this time they go through a period of several weeks when they become overwhelmingly beautiful and their senses are heightened. Many girls, during this "changeling" time, are kidnapped, drugged and trafficked for sex, and then, after the changeling period is over and they are returned, their reputations are irreparably damaged. The government keeps track of their birthmarks, and there's this gross ceremony after a girl changes when her father inspects her markings. If girls are kidnapped, the government and society blames them. They become social pariahs and are blocked from most colleges and careers. This has interesting things to say about about rape culture, but without interesting characters, it doesn't quite work....more
This dystopian book is set in a future world in which climate change and overpopulation in the remaining livable areas has led to huge, crowded citiesThis dystopian book is set in a future world in which climate change and overpopulation in the remaining livable areas has led to huge, crowded cities where there aren't enough resources. There's one wilderness left in the world, and the only people there are the rangers in charge of it, and a group of about 20 people who have volunteered to take part in a study. These 20 must leave no mark on the land, so they live as nomadic hunter-gatherers. Life is dangerous- they aren't 20 people for very long. The two main characters are 2 members of this nomadic group, a mother and a daughter, who grows up during the course of this story. The focus of the book is on the dynamics of this group and on the relationship between the mother, who misses many aspects of life in the city, and the daughter, who has grown up living in the wilderness and loves it. It was very absorbing, a fast read. I love reading about people living off the land from my comfy couch....more
This was good, but maybe a little slight? Which is fine. It's more of a novella than a full-on novel.
In some future world, the wealthy and privileged This was good, but maybe a little slight? Which is fine. It's more of a novella than a full-on novel.
In some future world, the wealthy and privileged can buy robots (or Afs, "artificial friends") to hang out with their special, "lifted" kids. The narrator of this one is Klara, one of those Afs, an especially perceptive one. These robots have empathy, and Klara seems very much like a human, but of course, one without the rights and freedoms of a human. You find out about this world very gradually
This reminded me a lot of Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Who gets to be considered human? It also might contain an allegory about humankind and God. Klara is solar-powered and ascribes the sun with godlike status, which it might, or might not have....more
After the year we've had, we're all coming around to the realization that anything can happen, that any illusion that we're safe is just that. This boAfter the year we've had, we're all coming around to the realization that anything can happen, that any illusion that we're safe is just that. This book is about how, when the disaster comes, you don't know who you'll find yourself in the lifeboat with, and how will you treat them, and how will they treat you?
A family from Brooklyn, a mother, father, teenage son and teenage daughter are on vacation, renting a fancy house with a pool out in the country. The author has a good time with cultural signposts- this is very much an upper middle class urban family, from what they believe about the world to the groceries they put in their shopping cart. They're also very much attached to their phones, as most of us are these days, so when the unthinkable happens, and their phones all stop working, it seriously throws them. It also throws them when people, a Black couple, claiming to be the owners of the house show up in the night, saying that strange, unexplained things seem to be happening in the city. They make an uneasy peace, and then strange, unexplained, and frightening things start happening where they are, in the country house.
This wasn't exactly a nice escape from life in 2020. It makes you uncomfortable, living in these characters' heads as they size each other up. Class and race are always there. And then as events turn stranger and sadder, I found myself getting a little sad. But this book is gripping- I read through it fast. And it's thoughtful. I'll think about it for some time to come....more
I mean, I wasn't not going to read it. I read The Handmaid's Tale the first year it came out, and I still remember how enthralled I was, how I wanted I mean, I wasn't not going to read it. I read The Handmaid's Tale the first year it came out, and I still remember how enthralled I was, how I wanted to talk about it with every woman I knew. I still consider it one of my favorite books.
But what was amazing about The Handmaid's Tale was the worldbuilding, and now the world is already built. I enjoyed reading this, and it was perfectly engaging enough, but it didn't surprise. And while I think the character of Aunt Lydia was pretty well fleshed out, the two younger narrators seemed pretty generic. I wanted to find out what would happen enough to finish the book, but all in all, I find myself uninspired.
This is definitely not worthy of the Booker Prize....more
This book presents a vision of a post-Apocalyptic future that is both dark and hopeful, and seems much likelier than a lot of other versions of the fuThis book presents a vision of a post-Apocalyptic future that is both dark and hopeful, and seems much likelier than a lot of other versions of the future that I've read. It showed a lot of promise- but for me, if you don't have rich, interesting characters, you don't have anything. And so far, at least, this writer does not excel at creating those. Dragon, Flash and Gary? They all seemed like the same person. I thought about quitting halfway through, but by then, I did want to find out what happened....more
The zombie apocalypse as narrated by a wise-ass pet crow and other animals? Yes please!
I read this on a whim and thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't believThe zombie apocalypse as narrated by a wise-ass pet crow and other animals? Yes please!
I read this on a whim and thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't believe it's an accident that some of my favorite books this year had beautifully developed non-human characters.* It might be that I'm fed up with humans.
The main narrator of this book is S.T., which stands for Shit Turd, the name given to him by his human- before his human, and apparently all the other humans, started drooling, attacking, and sporting bright red eyes. S.T. loved being a pet, he loved Cheetos, watching nature and history shows on TV, and he liked being close to his human, but when he starts to be worried about this beloved human eating him and his fellow pet, a very lovable bloodhound, he takes off into the greater world.
S.T. is a magnificent character. He reminds me a bit of the djinni Bartimeaus from the Amulet of Samarkand series. Like so many of us, he's both insecure and self-aggrandizing, and he's quite poetic both about the pleasures of the human world and the magnificence of the natural world. In the vivid, specific writing about the natural world, I was reminded of one of my favorite books, Marilynne Robinson's Gilead. Our crow narrates most of the book, but there are other animals who pop up from time to time, as well. I loved the poetry of the whale and the sadness of the polar bear, but my favorite was the smarmy, selfish, utterly cat-like cat. I read the cat's first chapter aloud to my cat-loving son just for the pleasure it offered both of us, which was considerable.
Spoilers after the drop...
I feel like this book got a little too plotty at the end, weird developments that strained credulity and too much action for my taste. I loved S.T.'s journey to accepting himself as a crow, though, and his new, powerful connections to other animals. And how I loved the bloodhound!
*The other books with non-human characters, you ask? Theory of Bastards and Still Life with Monkey, both of them good....more
I often feel a little disappointed with myself that I didn't become a writer. I wasn't disciplined enough, wasn't willing to write all the terrible stI often feel a little disappointed with myself that I didn't become a writer. I wasn't disciplined enough, wasn't willing to write all the terrible stuff writers have to write before they get good. I feel a little better about it when I go to a yard sale and see hundreds of books that people labored over and loved, lying there unclaimed when they only cost a quarter. I've also dreamed about being some kind of cook or cafe owner, but I'm so slow, and most people would object to waiting four hours for their dinner, you know? But when my friend Lisa took me to the amazing chimpanzee area at the Wichita zoo, I was in love with watching the chimps. I felt like I could have stayed there for hours, weeks, years. Really, I think I'm lucky I wound up in a library, but the study of primates also owns part of my heart.
So technically, I've probably read better books this year (There There, Circe, and American Marriage, I'm talking to you), but this is my favorite, and not just because I read most of it on the beach, the very best place ever to read.
The main character, Frankie, isn't really a primatologist, but she's studied the mating habits of finches and humans, and now she has a grant to study bonobos. Bonobos developed right across the river from chimpanzees and look a great deal like them, but bonobos tend to be more cooperative and less violent, and part of the reason for that is that they use sex to calm themselves down before situations where competition seems probable. And Frankie is trying to figure out how this sex- which is fairly spontaneous and indiscriminate- differs from the sex bonobos have when they're ovulating and trying, as all species do, to produce strong, healthy offspring.
This is fairly fascinating, but also, you start to realize, this book takes place in the not-so-distant future. The climate has gone to hell, cyberattacks are a huge problem, and technology has moved on. Doors are automated, cars are all self-driving, and most people have bodywear, a device that's implanted in the body, with lenses, Ear Drums, and finger components so that the screen appears in front of the user's field of vision, you can flick through pages with your fingers and hear audio in your ears without ear buds. This is all seems probable and terrifying when the technology is working, but then a dust storm comes and it stops working. Barriers break down between researchers and subjects as keeping everyone, human and bonobo alike, becomes the priority.
The writing is thoughtful and pulls you right in. Frankie is a good character, but Stotts, a fellow researcher and love interest, never quite comes into relief, one of the only flaws in the book for me. But the bonobos are so vivid! I loved reading a book in which most of the important characters are bonobos. And there aren't a lot of books like this. I have the heartbroken feeling you have after finishing a book you really love, and you know nothing is going to satisfy that hole in you for awhile....more
...and you thought The Handmaid's Tale seemed a little too close and probable? This novel tells the story of women who live in a United States in whic...and you thought The Handmaid's Tale seemed a little too close and probable? This novel tells the story of women who live in a United States in which abortion has been made illegal. Canada has been bullied into sending back for prosecution any woman who tries to cross the border for an abortion, and women who are caught after terminating a pregnancy face years of jail time. We hear from an unmarried teacher who desperately wants a child, but her in vitro fertilization keeps failing, and it's on the verge of being illegal, as is adoption to single parents. She's also a writer, and is working on a biography of an Arctic explorer who didn't get credit for her published discoveries because of her sex, and we get to hear from her, as well. There's also a pregnant teenager, a very unhappy wife, and a woman who lives in the woods and makes herbal remedies for many things, including unwanted pregnancies.
I liked it. I finished it in this very distracting news cyclone, which is saying something. I got involved with these characters, and certainly the message of this book resonated. Look at how the world gives women less choices. There was a lot to think about in the relationship shared by the teacher and the teenage girl, and in the musings of the unhappy wife. It was perhaps a little bit over-written towards the end, but I'd recommend this book wholeheartedly, and it's by a local Portland author, which I like....more
What an interesting book to read at this particular point in history.
At a time that seems very much like our own, young women-- and soon, almost all wWhat an interesting book to read at this particular point in history.
At a time that seems very much like our own, young women-- and soon, almost all women-- find that they have the power to shoot electricity out of their hands. I've been thinking about this premise as I've waited for the book to come in on hold from the library, thinking about the ability to raise my hand, literally, and right injustice, set the world on fire.
If the power dynamic in our world was shifted so dramatically, if women were the ones with the power, what kind of a world order would we set up? Would our matriarchy be more gentle and nurturing, more fair, than the patriarchy? Or is it the power imbalance itself, not the nature of man, of woman, that causes unfairness, violence and exploitation?
The Power doesn't take a very optimistic view of this question.
But that said, it was fun and interesting to watch it all play out among these characters, especially in the beginning. Allie, a teenager being sexually abused by her foster parent-- is she going to take it anymore? No, she is not. In Muldova, where women are kidnapped for sex trafficking in the Middle East, is this going to continue? Nope! It's fun to watch women not fucking taking it anymore-- until they start being the ones to do the exploiting.
It's not perfect. My attention waxed and waned in the second half. The Mother Eve stuff was kind of a drag, although I did enjoy her reckoning, towards the end of the book, with the voice in her head. I liked the connection between Roxy and Tunde. And I was generally pretty interested in what Margot was getting up to. I'm not sure if some things that happened fast in the book would have happened so fast. There's so much internalized patriarchy, in women as well as men, that I think it would take longer to shrug it off. I also didn't quite believe the framing device, the letters between the male writer and his female-- publisher, I think? They sounded awfully 21st century to me. Although I do enjoy the joke that the publisher, Naomi, has the author's name and suggested in her correspondence that the book might do better released under a woman's name. But hey-- in 2018, with SO MUCH NEWS every single day and so much danger to our country, it held my attention and I kept reading. That says a lot. I believe I'll think about this one in the future, as well....more
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