book

Rated Joyride: A Memoir 8/10

<div>Susan Orlean has a particular talent for finding the story in just about anything, and that's probably why I was first drawn to her magazine writing before I even registered her name, only realizing later whose writing I found compelling. In Joyride, Orlean looks back over her life and career, telling us what made her the person that she is, and why she feels compelled to tell stories that we might never otherwise notice.<br><br>I haven't read every book of hers — just The Orchid Thief and The Library Book — but I used to have a New Yorker subscription, and I can remember buying, during some airport layover, the issue of Vogue during some airport layover. And I was there, Frodo! I was there the night of Susan Orlean is Drunk-Tweeting! ha (Really, we were ALL losing our minds in 2020, so I think she's allowed.)<br><br>Orlean brings that same "tell me about an interesting person" energy to her own life, and I enjoyed reading this, even though I want to throw her first husband into the sun. (He's dead now, but still.) I also discovered that our children graduated college at the same time. We were rained on together!<br><br>If you've enjoyed any of her other work, you'll like this one.</div>

Wants to read Land of the Blind

Wants to read The Madwoman of Serrano

Rated Making Masterpiece: 25 Years Behind the Scenes at Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery! on PBS 6/10

The writing in this is not exceptional, but the stories are interesting, particularly if you've seen a lot of the things Eaton has produced. The back end of the book is more or less affectionate promo for Downton Abbey (while only sort of mentioning the revival of Upstairs Downstairs, then half forgetting to resolve its narrative), but I like Downton Abbey, so that's all right. Not a bad read.

Finished reading The Sins on Their Bones

Rated Life & Times of Michael K 6/10

<div>I liked this, but it was not love. Nothing particularly wrong with the book, the writing is good, and I understand thematically what the story was doing, but it's not necessarily the sort of thing I'd have picked up on my own had I not been reading this for a yearly challenge list (this particular entry was for "Award-winning book from the year you were born"). And that's fine! You may like it better, and it's short.</div>

Finished reading Roadside Picnic

Finished reading A Darker Shade of Magic

Wants to read A Day of Fallen Night

Finished reading Witches Steeped in Gold

Finished reading Yellow Jessamine

Rated Letters to Forget: Poems 8/10

<div>Some amazing individual parts, and the story behind this collection is certainly made more poignant by its pairing with Cass Donish's <em>Your Dazzling Death</em>. I didn't always vibe with every poem, and that's fine, but there is an interesting portrait here of a woman trying to hang on.</div>

Rated Life on Mars: Poems 10/10

How do I even begin to tell you how wonderful <i>Life on Mars</i> is? Tracy K. Smith's poetry fills me with peace and such fullness, even when she writes about how inhuman we can be. Her poems are almost meditative — I really enjoyed slowing down and focusing on her words, their rhythm, and the overall picture of the poem before me. Part space opera, part elegy, part wartime commentary, <i>Life on Mars</i> exceedingly deserves the Pulitzer it received, won on Smith's birthday, no less.<br><br>(My full review appears at <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2012/08/life-on-mars-by-tracy-k-smith.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)

Wants to read Life Is Strange Vol. 1: Dust

Wants to read Lock In

Finished reading The Dragonfly Gambit

Finished reading The Oleander Sword

Rated Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire 9/10

<div>Since the publication of this book in 2022, contributor Refaat Alareer was killed by an Israeli airstrike in December 2023. He wrote the poem you may have seen, "If I Must Die."&nbsp;<br><br>Contributor Mosab Aubu Toha was arrested in November 2023 while trying to cross into Egypt with his family. He was released three days later after international pressure.<br><br>Contributor Israa Jamal was still trying to leave Gaza with her family as of May 10, 2024, when yet another Israeli strike in Rafa required them to evacuate to a different area. I am unsure if they made it.<br><br>Other writers from this collection are still alive and writing about Gaza, but I couldn't find current information for all of them. I hope they are safe.<br><br>If you would like to know more about Gaza, to read Palestinian voices discussing the struggles and hopes they have for their homeland, this book is worth the read. (As of right now, Haymarket Books has the ebook version for free on their site.) It's a mix of academic writing, personal essay, poetry, and photographs that cover a wide range of subjects while still making it clear that the occupation needs to end. I admit to glazing over a bit in the AI chapter, and sometimes the academic portions were not exactly clicking with me, but that's a Me problem. Overall, very glad to have read this, and I learned a lot.<br><br>Ceasefire now. Free Palestine.</div>

Finished reading Let the Mountains Be My Grave

Wants to read [Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son] [Author: Chabon, Michael] [October, 2009]

Rated Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 10/10

<div>Would you believe that I've never read this until now? When I was a kid, my mom made the "mistake" of recommending it to me, her weird baby-goth, Christopher Pike-reading, contrary child. You tried, Mom! Sorry!<br><br>But a few years ago, I picked up this movie cover version for free during one of the annual times the local school district gives away books they are pulling out of circulation (aka Magical Free Book Day). I imagine they decided that a 1994 movie adaptation was not enough to pull in 2010s teens. I remember watching this movie at some point, and I also very much liked the 2019 version directed by Greta Gerwig. So when our local library's reading challenge this year had the category "Classic You've Been Avoiding," I knew it was time.<br><br>And it's great! Books find you at the right stage in life. When I was younger, I would have absolutely bristled at the moralizing and deification of homemaking, but as someone over 40, I can now see that it's not so much a "be a good wife and mother" book as it is a "create the close community you would like to see in the world." The Marches and the Laurences are not as old-fashioned as one might think at first glance. Now I sincerely would like to read <em>Little Men and Jo's Boys.</em></div>

Wants to read In the Company of Men

Rated Livesuit 8/10

Rated Look! Look! Feathers 6/10

Mike Young’s short stories live in the bizarre corners of our world, just past the surface of what we see in passing, but recognizable all the same. Suburban jocks idolize their washed-up, half-insane coach. Residents of shitty apartments and motel kitchenettes drink, fight and talk about all the great plans they have. Everyone is lonely in their own special way, and everyone likes to think that their voice is unlike anyone else’s. Problem is, several stories in, sometimes those voices bleed together. <br><br>And maybe that’s the point — we’re all so different in all the same ways.<br><br>It’s not that I flat out don’t like his style — no, sometimes fragmented thinking suits the story just fine — but the style sometimes came at the expense of clarity. At times, all those details smooshed into one and I had trouble discerning who said what, and where. Again, this could be because of the time frame in which I read the book. All I’m saying is, I didn’t fall in love.<br><br>But fair play to Mike Young for being different, for carrying that indie-kid literary bag. His characters don’t sit around and yammer about the intellectual merits of their problems, and they don’t whine. Their problems simply are. Here is the situation now, here is how they deal. Occasionally they may recognize that they’ve made some poor choices, but man, there’s still a glimmer of something new around the corner.<br><br>(Full review can be found at <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2010/10/look-look-feathers-by-mike-young.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)

Wants to read Lovecraft Country