Wants to read Death Will Have Your Eyes
book
Rated Terror of the Master 8/10
This is a near-perfect Third Doctor/Master story, and Jon Culshaw does a great job with all the voices. Very much enjoyed this.
Rated One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This 10/10
<div>"It is a hallmark of failing societies, I’ve learned, this requirement that one always be in possession of a valid reason to exist," Omar El Akkad writes. Later in the book, he adds, "Much like the insidious foreign plot, the notion that people simply aren’t prepared for democracy is a fundamental rhetorical tool of failing regimes."<br><br>If you want to understand how the world largely works, look at how we talk about the horrors of Palestine, the occupation and destruction, and look at the parallels between that treatment and what we're expected to stomach in our own country. When you wonder why tf Greta Thurnberg has shifted her focus, it's because she understands it's all connected.<br><br>"Many people’s governments are cruel, many people’s governments are indifferent. It’s this relentless parachuting of virtue. It’s these speeches and statements of eloquently stated concern for human rights and freedom and the demand that those who abuse human rights or withhold freedom be held to account. And it’s the way every ideal turns vaporous the moment it threatens to move beyond the confines of the speeches and statements, the moment it threatens even the most frivolous parcel of self-interest."<br><br>Much has been written about this book, and much will continue to be by people much smarter than me, but let me be another person who says, if you haven't already read One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, please do. <br><br>"When the time comes to assign blame, most of those to blame will be long gone. There will always be feigned shock at how bad things really were, how we couldn’t have possibly known. There will be those who say it was all the work of a few bad actors, people who misled the rest of us well-meaning folks. Anything to avoid contending with the possibility that all this killing wasn’t the result of a system abused, but a system functioning exactly as intended."<br><br>So what are you going to do right now? How will you withhold your participation in this system? How will you lessen the damage? Your lawn signs will never be enough.<br><br></div>
Rated The Found and the Lost: The Collected Novellas of Ursula K. Le Guin 8/10
<div>I had a free month of audiobooks.com, and instead of using my credit on one book, I used it to stream as much as I wanted from their sci-fi audiobook club, which included this collection of Ursula K. Le Guin novellas. I didn't love every story, but the writing is excellent throughout, so I'm glad to have listened. She was such an innovator. We also get to hear what happens when women are finally inching into the world of Earthsea wizardry, which is cool. (I've only read the first Earthsea book, so I'm sure I didn't glean all the references to previous books.)</div><div><br></div>
Rated Midnight Picnic 8/10
How our living selves affect the afterlife has been, and will continue to be, a matter of debate. In literature alone, countless stories have explored the stages of death, of grieving, and that of otherworldly retribution. In <i>Midnight Picnic</i>, Nick Antosca leaves religion out of the discussion and instead explores feelings of abandonment, anger and regret.<br><br>This is no great story of redemption, nor is it one of God and ghosts. If anything, it’s about making peace with the living self before everything is gone. With Autumn and Halloween approaching, it might just be the essential book to usher in the season. It’s certainly worth a look.<br><br>(Full review can be found on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2010/09/midnight-picnic-by-nick-antosca.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)
Rated The Transit of Venus 8/10
<div>4 stars is honestly more than my level of enjoyment while reading, but the actual writing was so good, I do not want to rank it any lower. Sometimes you're just not in the mood for a certain type of book, and that's fine. No shade to Shirley Hazzard — her ability to craft an image or sharply define a complicated feeling is great. Another time, I would have very much loved a sumptuous immersion in the lives of these two sisters, but instead I finished with mere respect. ymmv!</div>
Rated Doctor Who: Trail of the White Worm 6/10
Not a bad Part 1! It also reminded me of that bonkers Peter Capaldi movie, The Lair of the White Worm, which deals with the same creature. I'm not wild about the Doctor referring to Leela as "Savage" as a nickname, however "primitive" her origins. It's unnecessary.
Wants to read Caca Dolce: Essays from a Lowbrow Life
Rated Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad 8/10
<div>It may have been the cover of the book that drew me in while browsing Libby, but I'm glad I read this biography of Shostakovich, which shows how his life and career intersected with that period of Russian history. There are parallels to world events today, particularly the war crime of letting an entire population starve. Heavy reading, but the information is presented in a straightforward, easy to understand way.</div>
Rated The Book of Unknown Americans 10/10
<i>The Book of Unknown Americans</i> is not about immigrants’ relationship to white people. Ideally, this would not be unusual in a novel, but in a literary landscape that is still struggling with diversity, it’s refreshing to read her insightful take on the American Dream.<br><br>(My full review appears at <a href="http://persephonemagazine.com/2014/06/review-the-book-of-unknown-americans-by-cristina-henriquez/">Persephone Magazine</a>.)
Rated Alif the Unseen 10/10
Excellent. I enjoyed this tremendously. Get to this one.
Rated Custodians of Wonder: Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions, and the Last People Keeping Them Alive 7/10
<div>Stein profiles people with rare or disappearing jobs from around the world and uses that as a springboard to talk about the surrounding history of the job and the area, but also talks a little bit about himself. I found the memoir aspects less compelling — I wanted to hear more about these interesting people with interesting jobs. Some profiles succeed more than others, but overall, I liked this. I particularly recommend the chapter on los lectores in Cuba (people who read news and novels to cigar rollers during their shifts), and the chapter on the "romantic" oak tree in Germany that ended up profoundly affecting the postal worker assigned to deliver letters there. Both of these chapters appeared in a previous form on BBC Travel, so I wonder if having extra time to percolate helped. Even if, overall, this wasn't love for me, ymmv.</div>
Rated On the Calculation of Volume IV 8/10
Edited 86d ago
Rated The Antidote 10/10
<div>Karen Russell is such a great writer. I love how she writes semi-feral girl characters, especially. Asphodel/"Dell" is definitely one of those characters, clinging to her basketball team's possible success as one consistency in her life. Still, I loved all the perspectives in this novel, all these people trying to survive the Great Depression and the aftermath of Black Sunday, a gigantic dust storm that obliterated farms in the American West. This is a story about secrets, the environment, colonization, and so much more. I can see why the library has a berzillion people in the holds queue waiting for their turn to read.<br><br>CW: for animal cruelty at the beginning though. This does have plot relevance, but be forewarned.</div>
Wants to read Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music
Rated Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law 7/10
<div>I don't know if I liked this one as much as the other two of hers that I've read. The first half was more interesting than the second, and her light tone is a little incongruous with some of the subject matter. Still, I learned something!</div>
Wants to read The Ballad of Bob Dylan: A Portrait
Rated Doctor Who: The Apocalypse Element 7/10