What Are We Reading, Page 6

Looks like I may have started a new page correctly this time. Yay!

Looks like I may have started a new page correctly this time. Yay!

Success! I hope you like Radium Girls. I know they and their families would have welcomed intervention from a "Nanny State" if it saved them years of suffering and death.

I'm reading A Boy of Good Breeding which is SO good. Love her novels.

I’m about half way through The Children’s Book and the plethora of names, lack of characterization or interesting story, and constant infodumps of late-Victorian/early-Edwardian British history have finally defeated me. I’m going back to NF for a while to try and wake my brain up 😉

>5 SChant: moving it to the bottom of the TBR pile.

>5 SChant: I really enjoyed the book but she does really massively emotionally manipulate the reader near the end.

>7 LyzzyBee: I can see it's heading for the First World War but honestly care so little for the characters that I don't think any attempted emotional manipulation would work for me.

I've just read an old Women's Press book called Mud by Nicky Edwards which is about a former Greenham Common peace campaigner interviewing an old woman about the death of her husband in WW1 and in less than 200 pages it managed to engage my empathy and be more moving and humorous than A.S. Byatt!

I recently finished Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay and have been wondering how to share my feelings about it. Gay is an amazingly intelligent and articulate feminist author and teacher, yet she comes across in this book as a very damaged, very fragile, very obsessed woman. Probably the first thing most people notice about Gay is her weight - at one time more than 500 pounds, now somewhere in the 200s or 300s. She's big. The fact that she's so many things other than big seems to constantly escape her mind. She was gang raped by friends of her boyfriend at the age of 12 and now, more than 30 years later keeps obsessing about that rape and blames it for her hunger. It's good to show the world that rape has long lasting consequences, but must it ruin one's life forever? Gay is intelligent and articulate, as I mentioned but also respected and loved not just by the general public but personally loved by friends, family and romantic partners. Yet she is massively masochistic. She describes a very bad fracture that she experienced and states that sometimes when a person is in pain only more, even severe pain can lead them to change and heal. She thinks her compound fracture lead her to heal. I wonder how much more damage she will need to inflict on herself before she can stop. I found this a very disturbing book, and I don't see how the writing of it was beneficial to women in general or to her personally. I think maybe it was just another way for her to hurt herself.

Two audiobooks down and starting week 3 of my commuter hell. I just finished At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails which is a book that is very hard to categorize. The author weaves the biographies of the principal architects of existentialist philosophy along with their philosophical and political views in their historical context. She also describes the way that they intersected with each other and with other thinkers of their time, as well as others who were influenced by them or in their orbit, such as Iris Murdoch, Kate Millet, Richard Wright and James Baldwin. The book changed the way that I thought about many of these people, and left me, of course, with a reading list.

>9 Citizenjoyce:. I was impressed by Bad Feminist and was looking forward to reading Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body. Thanks for your thoughts on this book. I will probably pass on this one as I find such "recovery memoirs" to be too personal for me to relate to, and I frequently lose my patience and empathy for the author during their public catharsis.

>10 vwinsloe: Shoot, it's not on audiobook in my library system, and I'm afraid if I tried to read it with my eyes I'd fall asleep, in spite of the good reviews. Maybe they'll give in and buy it.
Hm, recovery memoir. Gay didn't seem to show much recovery, and alas, I did lose my patience and empathy but developed a fear for her future.

About to start The Town That Was Murdered by Ellen Wilkinson, a first-hand account to the poverty and deperation that led to the Jarrow Crusade.

>12 SChant: That looks good, I'd never heard of the Jarrow Crusade. I'm going to assume that it did not end well.

>13 Citizenjoyce: There were many marches by impoverished people in Britain during the 1930s for relief from hunger and poverty, The Jarrow Crusade made sure to emphasize that they were marching for work rather than direct relief (even though there is a poignant episode where one of the men removed the ham from a sandwich he'd been given en-route and put it in an envelope to send back to his family).
As for not ending well, while ordinary people generally empathised (many of them being in similar situations) the Labour Party refused to support them and the Conservative Govt refused to meet them when they eventually arrived in London, so no, not well at all!

>14 SChant: I would say it's modern to respond to poverty with compassion, but judging from legislation, I guess we still haven't learned that. My library system doesn't have anything yet about the Jarrow crusade, but if I can find it, I'd like to read a little about it. Gosh, the ham sandwich episode is heart breaking.

I finished up my long driving commute by starting to listen to Suite Francais. I'm not entirely sure that it is working out because of the large number of plot lines and characters making it hard to keep straight. I'll soldier on for a bit, but I also own it in print, so I may finish it that way.

I read Honeydew in the evenings. I had never heard of Edith Pearlman although she is a local author, so I thought I should sample her acclaimed short stories. Unfortunately, most of them didn't resonate with me. I did find a couple of them to be quite clever, but other than those, I'm afraid that I just didn't "get" her.

Now I'm reading Dawn because I recently heard that they are making a film (maybe television?) version. It was really time for some good science fiction anyway.

>16 vwinsloe: I read Suite Francais back when I was doing most of my reading by eye instead of by ear and was overwhelmed by it, but it is very complex, so I get your problem.
I see I have read and liked Honeydew but I don't remember it at all.
I loved Dawn (Xenogenesis, bk 1). That trilogy was my introduction to Octavia Butler and I loved the whole thing. It seems that everything of hers I read after that was so hopeless that I dreaded starting another one, kind of like Annie Proulx. Unlike Proulx though, (I got through only 3 of hers and won't read another), I think I've forced myself to read everything of Butler's.
I've just finished my first read of Blubber - the last female in America to do so? I've read some of the reviews who are disappointed that the book doesn't go far enough into the story of bullying and its resolution, but the book was written in the 1970's when we were all supposed to just "buck up and ignore the bully" so I think it did a fine job.

>17 Citizenjoyce:. I've switched over to reading Suite Francais in print and I'm having a much better experience. Thanks.

I finished Dawn and am on the hunt for the rest of the trilogy. This is only my second Octavia Butler, my first being Kindred. I have read Annie Proulx's enite body of work with the exception of Barkskins which is sitting in my TBR pile. I love her atmospheric descriptions of place as well as her sense of irony.

I've never read nor heard of Blubber--I was the wrong age in the 1970s and have no children, so it was never on my radar screen. I wish I knew about it though because my godchild, born in the early eighties, probably could have benefited from it.

I feel like it is time to get back to some nonfiction- and I have some sitting in my TBR pile, including Lab Girl, so I will probably get to that next.

Just finished Girl with a Pearl Earring. Loved it! Beautifully written and really helps you understand how careful one had to be if you were poor AND a woman/girl.

>19 krazy4katz: I love art history for that reason, we can learn so much about the history of the time by studying the history of the art. Being poor and female has always been pretty dangerous.

Just started Sisters of the Revolution, a feminist SF anthology with stories from some of my favourite writers - Nalo Hopkinson, Joanna Russ, Pat Murphy, and many more.

>21 SChant: Oh, that looks good.

>21 SChant: I put it on my wishlist as well. Thanks!

Presently reading The Dream Lover by Elizabeth Berg and enjoying it very much. A beautifully written fictional biography of George Sand. Does anyone have any recommendations of books by George Sand? I have never read her work.

Reading Madame Solario by Gladys Huntingdon, very good but very long.

I finished Suite Francaise in print, and it was a much better experience for me. Of course, it might have been anyway because the second part, entitled, "Dolce", had a single main plotline. It was a read that was sad and incomplete in the end, for obvious reasons.

So after reading Dawn, I ended up changing course and reading the memoir of legendary birder, Phoebe Snetsinger. Birding on Borrowed Time was not particularly well written, being more of a somewhat repetitive travel diary interrupted by lists of birds sighted and harrowing events experienced around the world. There is a biography of Snetsinger, (Life List), which I would like to read eventually, but I wanted to listen to Snetsinger's own voice first. She is a legend among birders as the first to reach 8,000 species identified, and also because she did not begin birding until she was 34 years old. She picked up a frenetic pace at the age of 49 when she was diagnosed with malignant melanoma and was given just a few months to live. She lived for 17 years after that, and never let up despite horrific international experiences and recurrences of her cancer. As I read her memoir, I pictured her racing across the globe with the grim reaper in hot pursuit. She is a fascinating person--not just for birders to know about.

>26 vwinsloe: Wow, I had never heard of her. I love birds, but I don't know if I could read a book that just lists thousands of them. I'll check it out. 17 years after diagnosis, that's mighty impressive.

Nope. My library system doesn't have it.

>28 Citizenjoyce:. It was published by the American Birders Association, so it is probably not widely available. You might be able to find her biography, Life List more easily.

>29 vwinsloe: Alas, the only Life List my library has connected with birding is Life list : a woman's quest for the world's most amazing birds by Olivia Gentile

My library system does have Life List: A Woman's Quest for the World's Most Amazing Birds by Olivia Gentile, but, alas, I'd have to read it with my eyes. Hmm.

>31 Citizenjoyce:. Ha! And I can't really vouch for that one since I haven't read it yet. I believe that the biography may have a less sympathetic view of Snetsinger, at least going by the reviews. I suppose that there is a fine line between a passion and an obsession. But when someone is trying to outrun a death sentence, I'm willing cut them all the slack that they need.

>32 vwinsloe: Agreed. Most of us don't really believe we're going to die. It looks like her passion worked well for her.

Started The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage which started out a a web-comic a couple of years ago. So far quite entertaining.

>34 SChant:. Ive taken that out from the library twice but couldn't make myself start. I don't know why, it has a 4.26 LT rating so must be great. If you tell me it's great, I'll force myself over the hump and give it a chance.
I recently finished The Creation of Eve by Lynn Cullen and loved it. I'm not a fan of books about royalty, but this one is about Spain, Phillip II and Elisabeth, so maybe that made it go down easier. All those royals were related to each other, so I guess it really doesn't make a lot of difference which one you're reading about. Catherine Medici with her spider web of schemes is in the background for most of it, and she is interesting, but if she were a man with such an unstoppable and Machiavellian lust for power, I don't think I'd find her enticing. What got me interested in the book is that the main character is Sofonisba Anguissola, the first famous woman renaissance painter, and art is a power that truly draws me to it. Alas, there's more romance than I'd like, but so much about art, society, disease, imports from (our) new world, and daily life that I hadn't known before. (Oh, she ate a tomato. What happened to her?) Also, in describing the heat in Spain, she really gets heat right. Coming from the western US, I know how sticky and debilitating the summer can be, and evidently she does too. She absolutely gets it right.

>35 Citizenjoyce: I'm enjoying it immensely - but you might have to be a computer geek!

You're probably already aware that there's a section on Sofonisba Anguissola in Karen Petersen's Women Artists - only a couple of pages, but it tries to put her in context of her times and other women artists of the era.

>36 SChant: No. I'd never even heard of her before. Thanks.
It's not in my library system, but I found a cheap copy on Amazon.

Just starting Jane Dunn's biography of Antonia White. It's looking to be quite good.

>38 CurrerBell: Oh, no reviews. You'll have to be the first.

>37 Citizenjoyce: It's neat little run through the history of women's art from the Middle Ages (nuns illustrating manuscripts) to late 20th century, with lots of notes pointing to more detailed sources. It's quite old now though (my copy is from 1985), so there must be more up-to-date works available.

I'm listening to The Radium Girls. Ai yai yai.

>41 vwinsloe: Yeah. Maybe OSHA is kind of necessary.

I just finished These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly, a very YA historical fiction of the 19th century with lots of romance and a mystery so simple even I knew who done it from the beginning but with great social commentary and interesting early forensic medicine. The main character, a rich socially prominent young woman, wants to be Nelly Bly. It's worth a little diversional reading.

>39 Citizenjoyce: 3½*** review. Quite a workmanlike book, but it could have been much better.

>44 CurrerBell: Sometimes the biography of an author is better than the works of the author herself. In this case it seems to be the exact opposite. Mental illness is such a compelling topic, I can see why the book would have emphasized it, but the focus of an author's biography has to be her writing. Looks like Dunn fell down on that one. Also it's amazing to point out a person's sense of humor without demonstrating it. Maybe I'll just read White herself instead.
I just finished New Boy, Tracy Chevalier's take on Othello. I never wanted to read Othello because it just seems irredeemably ugly, racism and sexual jealousy leading to violence - yuck. Chevalier's book is set in a middle-class 6th grade and takes place all in one day. So the sex isn't really sexual and the violence, well, it's bad, but not Othello bad. Racism, jealousy, alienation, and bullying are well portrayed in a digestible format. I think Hogarth Shakespeare does it again.

Just about to start the winner of the 2017 Royal Society Science Book Prize - Testosterone Rex by Cordelia Fine. Also, a YA fiction by Frances Hardinge The Lie Tree.

>46 SChant:, That looks good and is even in my library system.

>47 Citizenjoyce: So far very interesting, with quite a bit of humour. I find the Royal Society books are usually a pretty good spread of popular science subjects. Last year's winner Adventures in the Anthropocene by Gaia Vince was excellent and thought-provoking, and the rest of the shortlist ones were all very accessible too.

I really enjoyed Testosterone Rex - a light touch in presenting so much scientific data.
It just so happens another of my library requests on a similar subject has come to the top of my TBR pile - Inferior: how science got women wrong, so I'm looking to compare and contrast the two.
Also enjoyed Frances Hardinge's The Lie Tree - it started slow but then took off at a gallop about a quarter of the way through, and funnily enough evoked similar themes of Victorian ladies "inability" to do science.

>49 SChant: I loved The lie tree, especially how the female characters' power is revealed as the book progresses.

>50 Sakerfalcon: I agree - all the women had more about them that would have been expected for genteel Victorian ladies. I'm definitely planning to read more of her books.

I am getting to the end of Commonwealth. I have read a couple of Ann Pachett's books, and this one feels different. More vital. Less subtle. I guess I won't know until the end, but I am appreciating it so far.

Let's see. Since I last checked in I read another interesting nonfiction book entitled Nothing Daunted about two women from upstate New York who traveled to Colorado to teach school in the early 1900s. It was a bit dry to start; lots about building the railroad, how the land was homesteaded, etc. But the dry bits were helpful later on when the story of the teachers unfolds. It was a remarkable thing that they did, and I was glad that one of their granddaughters (an editor of the New Yorker Magazine) researched and told their story.

On the listening front, I was supposed to have a day of driving last week, so I borrowed The Night Watch from the library. The driving trip was canceled, and I'm a bit sad about that because the reader, Juanita MacMahon, is wonderful. What a mellifluous voice she has. This is my first Sarah Waters, and I am dumbfounded by her ability to describe things so that the reader seems to be hearing, seeing, and smelling them. I own the book in print as well, so I will be doing another tandem read. In this case, I think that the narration really adds to the experience. I will be on the lookout for more of both of their work.

Reading The Children of Jocasta, a re-telling of Oedipus from the point-of-view of the women in the story. I enjoyed the radio talks she did - "Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics" - but this book just isn't working for me. It's readable, but the descriptions of palaces and objects are a bit obtrusive (she's obviously done her homework in the museums) and I can't work up any empathy for the characters. All-in-all I prefer the melodrama and passion of the Sophocles plays.

Started Tamed: Ten Species that Changed Our World by anthropologist Alice Roberts, about the domestication of certain animals and plants by humans.

>55 SChant:. That sounds interesting. I'm reading Lab Girl right now, and that would dovetail nicely.

I'm listening to Hunger: A memoir of (my) Body. Citizenjoyce warned us about this one. I'm listening because she also said that it was not a "recovery memoir." But wow, super depressing so far.

>56 vwinsloe: Hmm - might have to put Lab Girl on my wishlist.

I just finished The Good House by Ann Leary, 5 stars from me. I haven't read anything else by her, but I will now. A little interview with the author stated that the book began as a story about the romance between two characters with Hildy as kind of a colorful aside, but Hildy took over. She's a 60 something realtor, the number one businesswoman in her small town, mother of 2 grown daughters, divorced, living alone and denying her alcoholism. She's both reclusive and prickly, like Olive Kitteridge and very social. Her analysis of her life and the lives of other people and properties in the town are priceless. I don't have a problem with alcohol but I come from a family full of people who do, and she seems to have it down pat. She's also descended from one of the Salem witches and is witchilly able to read micro-expressions to the extent that people think she can read minds. The only bad thing about the book is that it's over and I can't loll around in Hildy's life anymore. The book only has a 3.8 LT rating for some bizarre reason I can't fathom.
Oh, and I also read Misery. I think if Ann Leary had written that one, Annie Wilkes would have come off more fully formed - still crazy but more multifaceted.

I finished Bradstreet Gate by Robin Kirman which has been compared to The Secret History but only because it follows the lives of Ivy League School students. It’s an unsolved mystery and I don’t know if the lack of solution has lead to the poor rating. Women making very bad romantic choices of manipulative men take up the first part of the book, and that is very disappointing, but after that interlude it does get better. It’s interesting to see the characters’ back stories and what they make of their lives, but what is emphasized and what is skipped over probably should have been rethought. If Kirman had been willing to write a gigantic book as Tart did, it would have been better, but I can see her concern. It’s easier to convince a person to try a 336 page novel by a new author than a 576 pager.

It looks like it has been some time since I have posted on this thread--end of October, I guess. I have read a few things since then. Let's see.

Roxane Gay's Hunger which I listened to with Citizenjoyce's warning in mind. I did find it worth listening to, although infuriating at times. It reminded me of when I quit smoking more than 20 years ago; there seems to be stages, like the stages of grief, that one goes through when dealing with a psychological addiction such as smoking, or drinking or overeating. (Overeating has got to be the hardest though, because you can't just go cold turkey.) I was familiar with the denial and the anger (oh, how I remember the militancy of the fit, athletic smoker, and the denial that I would suffer any ill effects from smoking cigarettes.) Sad though really, and perhaps it was too soon for her to write such a book without reaching much of a final resolution.

I read Deerskin which was recommended to me as a more adult entre in Robin McKinley's YA fiction. She writes well, and I might give her another read, but I found the fairytale style of this one to be somewhat offputting.

Leaving Before the Rains Come. I love Alexandra Fuller, but I refused to read this one when it first came out because I was angry at her for writing a scathing review of Circling the Sun. My mistake. I liked this segment of her life story more than anything that I have read of hers since Don't Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight. She gets divorced, true, but its not a book about divorce as much as it is about self-discovery.

Homegoing was excellent. Sort of an expansion of the idea of Roots that was popular in the 1970s, except with a counterpart depicting events during the same time period in Ghana.

I'm finishing up listening to Her Body and Other Parties for Early Reviewers. It is an anthology of short stories by Carmen Maria Machado that defy categorization. You almost feel them rather than read or listen to them. Sort of like prose poems. I'm going to have to think about it a lot before writing my review.

And, finally, I'm in the middle of The Fifth Season, and savoring every word.

I hate that this topic has grown so silent, though I admit I keep forgetting to post my reads. >60 vwinsloe: Thanks for waking us up again. I love that we share so many reads and our opinions of them.
Since I last posted, a few of my favorite reads
The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish has a great older woman character, which I love. It’s about Judaism, research, misogyny, taking chances and being heard or not heard.
Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie the last of the Imperial Radch trilogy about governing and honor. There’s a penis festival though, as usual, all the characters are referred to as she.
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee a family saga about Koreans and Korean Japanese, it just gets better and better as you read this big book. Racism is certainly not just an American problem.
Katherine by Anya Seton about Kathryn Swinford, the sister in law of Geoffrey Chaucer. It’s a historical romance, the history of 14th century England is great, the romance is - sheesh - romance. I loved reading about the customs, the clothing, the food, the politics, the relationships. I have no interest in the scheming about how to keep which royal family in charge using which war or marriage - but that’s a type of history I guess.
Life in Code: A Personal History of Technology by Ellen Ullman a series of essays by a self taught computer programmer and engineer who takes on the misogyny of programming, the lack of humanity and the joy of working with things. She loves being an engineer, she loves figuring out how things work. She knows the male engineers feel the same but to that they add complete disdain for women and their womanish ideas. Compassion is a foreign idea to many, nature is to be exploited and they think women who have such feelings are too dumb to interact with.
Mary Coin by Marisa Silver was an accidental find. It’s about that famous photo of the Depression era, Migrant Mother, of the haggard looking woman holding her baby with two of her other children by her side. The novel concentrates on the haggard woman, Mary Coin, her poverty, her skills and how she survives. Surprise, sometimes she has sex because she likes to have sex. Her idea of making do is something I need to concentrate on. The novel also follows the photographer, Vera Dare based on Dorothea Lange. This is historical fiction at its best.
The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman is a fascinating look at animal intelligence. I love my backyard birds, and it’s great to know how smart they are, even those stupid pigeons.
Before We Were Yours: A Novel by Lisa Wingate more historical fiction, this time about the Tennessee Children's Home Society run by Georgia Tann. I would say it’s unbelievable that politicians could show such greed and lack of compassion, but we all know by now just how believable that is.
And lastly Make Way: 200 Years of American Women in Cartoons by Monika Franzen Which is just what it says. It’s funny how women are presented in early cartoons as saints caring for husband and children, praised for their goodness and purity - yet later when they are fighting for their rights men are shown in these same roles and made fun of for being exploited by their too powerful wives. So being a housewife is noble, but being a house husband is degrading. How does that logic work?
Up next is Fracture: Barack Obama, the Clintons, and the Racial Divide by Joy-Ann Reid because I love Joy’s political analyses.

At present I'm reading Seven surrenders by Ada Palmer, a slow read as it demands more concentration than I really have at the moment. Also Summer will show by Sylvia Townsend Warner for the Virago group author read.

>61 Citizenjoyce:. Thanks, Citizenjoyce. You've listed a couple that have been on my wishlist for a while and others that are new to me. I particularly like the nonfiction recommendations because I listen to those on audiobook which I know you do, too.

For anyone who still stops by here, Happy Holidays! And please post!

>62 Sakerfalcon: I know what you mean by lack of concentration. ‘Tis not the season for it. I had a hard time at the beginning of Fracture. I had to keep rewinding as Joy Reid discussed early US political history, but once I got to modern times I could finally relax into it.
>63 vwinsloe: It used to be that I listened to mainly non fiction books. Now, lazy soul that I am, I listen to almost everything.

I finished Fracture: Barack Obama, the Clintons, and the Racial Divide. It’s interesting but pretty depressing. For a politician if you do the right thing you’re going to offend people and not get elected, if you do the wrong thing you’re going to offend people and not get elected, and if you try to work somewhere in the middle you’re going to offend people and not get elected. But now we find if you do the most offensive and harmful things you can think of, the base will support you, and you have a year to spin it so maybe you can get re-elected. Oh well, it was good history.

>65 Citizenjoyce:. That's interesting. Did she discuss the fact that it seems that Americans have moved toward electing people with less experience? It seemed to me that even with the election of Obama that having less experience was seen as a good thing. Of course, if a politician has a lot of experience as an elected official, the opposition beats them to death with their record. But if they have no experience, they seem to be less effective when elected. Did Reid mention that?

>66 vwinsloe: No she didn’t, but Gwen Ifill’s book The Breakthrough concentrated on that idea among African American leaders. The older ones who had been working for equality for years valued experience and ideology, the younger ones were more into the fight for equality on a personal level and thought the older ones should step aside. She didn’t mention that those with less experience were less effective. I guess she wanted us to draw our own conclusions.

>67 Citizenjoyce:. Thanks. I haven't read Gwen Ifill's book either; I will put it on my list. I see part of this trend toward less experienced people, with less "baggage," as resulting in fewer people who are willing to compromise and to make deals in order to make some progress.

>68 vwinsloe: Alas. That and the push for term limits. Everything is about newness being the most important aspect. Attributes we wouldn't value in a doctor or auto mechanic are somehow seen to be valuable in a politician.

Reading Madeline Ashby's Company Town. I enjoyed her Machine Dynasties books and this one is shaping up to be just as good.

>70 SChant:. Where should I start with Madeline Ashby? I've had her book vN on my wishlist for a very long time. Start there?

>70 SChant:, >71 vwinsloe:. Another author I’ve never heard of. My library system has both the Machine Dynasty series and Company Town but both as e books that I have to read with my eyes. Maybe I should try doing a little more of that in the new year - there has to be something good to look forward to. So, I echo vwinslow, where should I start?

>71 vwinsloe:; >72 Citizenjoyce: Company Town is turning out to be a bit of a disappointment - muddled and rather implausible. I would recommend vN though.

>73 SChant: Hmm, and it looks so good. Thanks for the assessment.
I’ve finished 2 more books. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is about the aftermath of severe child abuse and clinical depression, which sounds like too much of a downer for this time of year, but it isn’t. It’s very well written, and I’m sure will lead me to read more by Gail Honeyman.
New People by Danzy Senna made me think. I’ve been white all my life, never really thought about it, certainly didn’t ever wonder if I or my friends and family were doing whiteness right. I think, aside from the KKK, Nazis and other such groups, we white folk just take our whiteness for granted (it may be different in the south). Maria is what she terms as a one dropper, just barely, barely has African American heritage. She and her boyfriend and his sister are the objects of a documentary called “New People” about mixed race younger people. To my mind she’s a pretty unlikeable character because she is completely self centered. She obsesses about race and rightness and uses race to beat people over the head, and she is loyal to no one but herself. She was adopted by a single black woman when she was 6 months old and was whiter than her mother wanted, but still Grace, her mother, seemed to give her all the love and guidance she needed. How did she end up this way? This book could be used to get people of different races talking with each other mainly because it points up our blind spots. I’ll be thinking about it for a while.

>73 SChant:. Thanks

I'm about to start Your Silence Will Not Protect You, a collection of essays and poems by Audre Lorde. I read her Sister Outsider many years ago but can no longer find it on my bookshelves so bought this one as a reminder. I'm not fond of poetry in any form but remember her essays as being very powerful.

>76 SChant:. Sad to say, I’ve never read anything by Lorde. Maybe this will be the year.

I'd been planning, for the New Year, on doing a Kinsey Milhone marathon. It's been ages since I read the earlier volumes, and I've probably never gotten beyond F or G. Now I see Sue Grafton just died (cancer at 77), so I'm really going to try to reread or read all 25 of the books (and the alphabet now ends with Y).



ETA: Actually, there's a 26th book, Kinsey and Me, partly a collection of shorts and partly, I think, some autobiographical material. But it's 25 novels.

I can’t commit to a 20+ series of anything. But I guess it’s time to give Grafton a try.

>78 CurrerBell: & >79 Citizenjoyce: I really enjoyed Sue Grafton's books when they first started appearing in bookstores. I don't remember when or why I stopped; it may just have been that mystery is not my favorite genre. But she was writing about a detective who was a very relatable woman character, and I remember that as being extraordinary back in the '80s and '90s.

Started a re-read of Winifred Holtby's Anderby Wold. I really enjoy her sense of place and small-town characters.

I'm reading Ann Patchett's newest, a book of essays with the worst title in the world, This Is The Story Of A Happy Marriage. The first part is all about writing, which I don't usually read about because it breaks my heart that I can't be a writer. Then she moves on to thoughts about everything else. Right now she's been assigned to drive a Winnebago to various national parks and report on the experience. I've read everything else she has written, and this is just as good. I think I need to reread them all, starting with The Patron Saint of Liars.

I've just started reading Marmee and Louisa, which studies the lives of Louisa May Alcott and her mother Abigail who, the author argues, is at least as big an influence, if not greater, on LMA as her more famous father. It's very good so far.

>83 Sakerfalcon: I'll have to try that. Sheesh her father! I'm glad to have something to read about her mother.

>84 Citizenjoyce: So far Abigail is pretty awesome - passionately abolitionist at a time when the vast majority of New Englanders were not.

About to start Provenance by Ann Leckie. I enjoyed her Imperial Radch trilogy so hoping for good things.

>79 Citizenjoyce: >80 vwinsloe: I just finished the seventh Grafton/Millhone book, G Is for Gumshoe (which I'm pretty sure is a reread although my memory of it was extremely hazy), and I particularly recommend it. It's the installment that got Grafton onto the NYT bestseller list; but more importantly, it's got a plot twist that members of this Group as well as VMC might find particularly interesting – and I can't even give the slightest hint or it's a major SPOILER.

Of course it helps if you've read the preceding six installments, A through F, for the sake of some recurring characters and references to Kinsey's prior "adventures"; but it's not absolutely essential and G tends to be a bit of a standalone.

>87 CurrerBell: Thanks. There’s a longer wait list at for A so I signed up for G

I blazed right through The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemison. The first two books won back to back Hugo Awards, and I think that the third The Stone Sky easily deserves one as well. If you can tolerate science fiction-ish fantasy at all, then by all means give it a shot. She does some really clever things with the narrator's point of view and voice, and the whole thing, while EPIC, seems imaginatively creative and fresh. I won't say what I think the major themes are since that may be a spoiler. I'll just say- read it!

I just finished Tokyo by Mo Hayder. Be warned, the alternative title is The Devil of Nanking, and you know anything about Nanking and WWII is bound to be very upsetting. I had to read a gothic novel for a Take It Or Leave It challenge, and I didn't want to reread Frankenstein, otherwise I wouldn't have undertaken it. It's ugly, but not as ugly as I've heard The Rape of Nanking is, a book I don't think I'm ever going to be able to read. If you like gothic or horror it's well written and well worth this reluctant read.
>89 vwinsloe: I read The Fifth Season last year and barely remember it. I think I'm going to have to reread it before taking on the others.

>89 vwinsloe: I thought the Broken Earth trilogy was terrific too. The themes, prose, characters and structure of the books really set it way above the average for SF&F.

I finished Marmee and Louisa and highly recommend it. It really is at least as much about Abigail as Louisa, and through her we learn a lot about the early days of abolitionism and feminism which I found fascinating. Now I need to take Megan Marshall's The Peabody sisters off my tbr pile and read it.

I'm currently reading vN by Madeline Ashby, having enjoyed Company town despite its quite serious flaws. vN has a less intriguing setting but the action has drawn me in.

>91 Sakerfalcon:. The Peabody Sisters was given to me as a gift last spring. I have it in paperback but it is still dauntingly heavy to drag on my commute (my library system doesn't have it as an audiobook.) So please, let me know if it is worth schlepping!

>90 Citizenjoyce:. Yes, you should reread, and I recommend reading them back to back the way that I did because there is a lot there to keep track of.

I moved The Girls higher up the TBR pile after Charles Manson died. Then I moved it to the top after I became aware of Emma Cline's ex-boyfriend's plagarism suit and sexist attacks. See https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/12/5/16724110/emma-cline-chaz-reetz-laiolo-plag...

I recently finished it, and it was okay, not great. She got some of the details about the late 1960s right. She got a lot of the details of alienated teenaged girls right. But somehow the book didn't quite seem to know what its point was, and that resulted in the lack of emotional punch that it was steering toward.

I also read Particularly Cats which enlightened me to the realities of too many cats before spaying and neutering was widely available. As the memoir turned to a slightly more modern time and place, it became a comfort read that only a cat lover would appreciate.

Now I am reading my third book from Elizabeth Wein's girl pilots series. I'm usually not a fan of YA books, but I was enthralled by Code Name Verity and that got me hooked. This one is called Black Dove, White Raven.

I finished The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen about Russian history, totalitarianism, authoritarianism, the sociology and psychology of the Russian people and the rise of Putin. I knew Putin had a bad history with LGBT oppression, but I wasn't aware of the extent of it. It seems trump and Putin are using the same playbook. Neither, I think, cares all that much about the LGBT community but are quite willing to use the oppression as a means of unifying their base around a cause. Family values is a great rallying cry for oppression by both politicians, but Putin also throws in pedophilia as a natural accompaniment to homophobia. Also very important is the stress on racial purity and damage done to a country by foreigners. I hadn't read about the psychology and sociology of the Russian people before and why they have a strong need for authority. Keep the people impoverished, religious and discriminating - that's the rallying call of a tyrant. Then they can use the resources of the country to benefit their friends and supporters.
I'm almost finished with I Let You Go for my RL book club. It's a creepy novel about domestic violence that gets well into the psyche of both abused and abuser.

I’m about 1/3 of the way through Marmee and Louisa, it’s not for women with hypertension because the treatment of Abigail is infuriating. From what little I’d read about Louisa I thought her father was probably over controlling, but I didn’t know the half of it. Years ago I worked with an intelligent, principled, hard working nurse who was married to a man like Bronson, Louisa’s father and Abigail’s husband. He thought of himself as highly intelligent and purely moral. Also like Bronson he was rather disdainful of physical work and commitment preferring to let his wife take on the practical duties of feeding and clothing the family and paying for the roof over their heads. For some time he entertained the idea of polygamy, probably because he enjoyed the idea of having another wife to cater to his needs both physical and financial. Bronson differed here in that he espoused chastity again regardless of the wishes of his wife. Yet he is the one the world credits with Louisa’s success. This is a great women’s studies book, I’m going to recommend it to my book club.

>95 Citizenjoyce: Glad you are enjoying (if that's the right word) Marmee and Louisa. I thought it did a very good job of not only exploring the marriage but putting it in the context of the times too. As you say, it's a good text for Women's Studies. I've just started The Peabody sisters, of which I have read the first 3 chapters so far. It's very good.

I finished my first Sue Grafton, A Is For Alibi and thought it was ok. I can see how people who like mysteries could get hooked on her because of her interesting main character, but at this point I don't think I'm one of those people. I like Camilla Lackberg and Tana French and will gladly read whatever they write. I get more invested in their stories both the victims and the perpetrators than in Grafton's, plus I love their main characters. There's more meat to the story. Maybe Grafton's latter books get better. I have G Is For Gumshoe on hold. Maybe I'll give it a try.

I just finished The Woman on the Orient Express, which I enjoyed. However I am confused about one aspect of the plot so I might give it a quick reread. Then maybe I’ll move on to some real Agatha Christie. :-)

Ursula Le Guin, one of my favorites, has died:
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/obituaries/ursula-k-le-guin-acclaimed-for-...

>99 Citizenjoyce: One of the greats!

About to start Bitch Doctrine by Laurie Penny. I was at a talk she did last October @ Sheffield University and she came across as a very thoughtful and passionate person.

>99 Citizenjoyce:, for some reason I never got into Ursula LeGuin's fiction. I've loved her blog and what she's had to say in her own voice. I have a copy of the Earthsea trilogy sitting on my shelf and will have to give it another go soon.

I finished Black Dove, White Raven and did not like it as much as the other two books in the pilots series. I read this one instead of listening to it on audiobook, and that may have been the difference, I'm not sure. Unlike the other books, the plot of this one seemed forced to me. There is a 4th book The Pearl Thief and if I will probably try it on audiobook.

I also read In Defense of Women by retired U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner. I knew some of Gertner's work as a trial attorney in Boston, and she spoke at my women's group in law school, but I didn't really know the breadth of her civil rights practice. She got her start as the criminal defense lawyer for Susan Saxe, an anti-Vietnam war activist who was charged with murder when the lookout shot a guard during a bank robbery. Judge Gertner went on to be on the forefront of women's legal issues like abortion rights, battered women's syndrome defense, sexual abuse by psychiatrists constituting malpractice, sex discrimination and sexual harassment. On those final two issues, I found her views lag a bit behind where we are today. But on the whole, it was interesting to read about all of these different issues, how far we have come, and how far we have to go.

>101 SChant:, >102 vwinsloe: I've never read anything by either Laurie Penny or Nancy Gertner. So much out there I know nothing about.
I'm also not thrilled with the Earthsea Trilogy, but I love the Hainish Cycle.
I finished a book today neither by nor about a woman, but I need to mention it. You would never think Reincarnation Blues is by a woman. The main character is a man, all the female characters are his romantic partners except his mother is mentioned in one part and a leader who buckles to authority and allows her people to be terrorized is also female. OK, we're used to that sort of stuff. But add to it 2 things that tipped the scale for me. First, the main character is a man who has been reincarnated 10,000 times (yes, it does get a bit tedious). At one point he has a camel who throws up on him repeatedly day after day, yet after a few months he becomes inured to this unpleasantness because he knows the camel loves him. That sounds possible. However just before his last incarnation, he tells someone, "I hate being born, it's gross." The man has been born 10,000 times yet he cannot accustom himself to birth fluids. As a former labor and delivery nurse this is unbelievable and pretty insulting to me. Then the biggie. The main character in one incarnation is pretty much a nerd, very intelligent yet shy around girls. Somehow the author has to find a device to get him from his schoolboy existence to being sentenced to life imprisonment on a completely lawless penal planet where it is not expected he could survive more than a few months. How does he get there? Of course, he is falsely accused of rape by an emotionally disturbed girl. A false rape accusation as a plot device isn't unusual. Why not, women lie, right? I can't say I'll be recommending anything by Michael Poore to anyone.

>103 Citizenjoyce:, maybe I should try the Hainish Cycle then. It has been so long since I read LeGuin's fiction, that I can't remember what it was that I didn't enjoy.

I am listening to Grandma Gatewood's Walk, not authored by a woman, but about the amazing woman who was the first woman to solo the Appalachian Trail. She was a domestic violence survivor, mother of 11 children and 67 years old when she took her walk.

I am reading A Wrinkle in Time, since I don't remember ever reading it, and the film based on it is coming out soon.

I have been a bit distracted by the Larry Nassar trial in the news, and I just found out that the Judge, Rosemarie Aquilina, is a fascinating person who has authored a couple of mystery books.

There are so many amazing women out there to appreciate!

>104 vwinsloe: Very interesting that the judge writes mysteries. My library system doesn't have them, though.
I really wanted to like A Wrinkle in Time and read it twice, several years apart. I think it gets very christian toward the end, so that rather spoiled my enjoyment of it. Now knowing Oprah is the producer of the movie and acting in it, I imagine it will be very christian. Let me know what you think.

Started Sara Paretsky's latest - Fallout. She's always good value.

I finished Louise Erdrich's newest, The Future Home of the Living God and I have to say, I didn't love it the way I usually love her books full of conflicted but brave and moral people. This dystopian novel does have some brave people, but the main character drove me crazy. She's persecuted and pregnant, so that contributes to her not thinking clearly, I guess. Also, she's facing the end of the world that she's always known, so again, she's allowed to make some fuzzy judgments - and she does. I guess the worst thing about her is the way she treats her mother. Her mother who is unbelievably brave, and this woman acts like a teenager to her. One of my favorite things in a book is a portrayal of childbirth, she has that. One of my most disliked things in a book is the mistreatment of a mother, she has that too. And the end is pretty choppy and messy. So, I don't know, at first I thought this was a going to be a good companion to The Handmaid's Tale, but she misses that by a long mark.

>105 Citizenjoyce:. I don't think that A Wrinkle in Time was particularly Christian, at least not in the Chronicles of Narnia sense of Christian. There is a laundry list of Earth's "fighters against evil" provided by one of the Mrs. Ws in the middle of the book that includes not only Jesus, Gandhi and Buddha, but also historical artists, mathematicians and philosophers. She definitely refers to "God" at the end, implying a mutual cultural understanding of the term. But I think that if I were a little girl in the early 60s (which I was, but I didn't read this book) I would have found a girl whose faults (anger, impatience and stubbornness) are her strengths to be empowering. I also liked the appreciation of "difference" among people, and the sentiment that "equal does not mean alike."

I didn't love it though. I'm either too old or the story is too dated for me now. I did enjoy the forward by Anna Quindlen in the edition that I read. In her view, the evil in A Wrinkle in Time was "godless communism", and given the era in which it was written, she is undoubtedly right.

>107 Citizenjoyce: Sorry to hear about The Future Home of the Living God, as I had high hopes for it. I do think that Hilary Jordan's When She Woke is an excellent companion to The Handmaid's Tale. It was only after I read that book that I felt I truly understood why the Supreme Court found the constitutional right to abortion in the Right to Privacy that arises from and forms the basis of several constitutional amendments. It IS private, and that's really all one needs to know.

>108 vwinsloe: Ruth Bader Ginsburg hates that the right to privacy was the basis of that decision. I can't remember what she wanted it to be based on, but she thinks the right to privacy is too flimsy. Here's hoping the new court won't find a way around it.

>109 Citizenjoyce:, I agree with RBG to some extent, but it follows the precedent of Griswold v. Conn., which was about the right to birth control, and other cases involving homosexual acts and viewing adult porn. So it wasn't completely out of thin air. But what I think is more problematic was the part of Roe v. Wade that allowed regulation based on the viability of the fetus outside the womb. As science advances, that standard is bound to change.

I wish there was a constitutional right to bodily autonomy, but there is not, except in the context of searches and seizures.

>110 vwinsloe: I found out her feelings about Roe in Sisters In Law but my brain won't tell me what she wanted to use instead. Wouldn't you think bodily autonomy would be a given?

>108 vwinsloe: Wrinkle is most definitely overtly christian. L'Engle was religious and she put it into her work. The whole quintet has a strong presence of it. As a (non-religious) child I was oblivious but I reread it in 2013 for the first time and was shocked by how blatant it was. The second two in the series it was less overt but still present, but then the 4th story was literally set in the bible. That said, she made it about doing good, forgiveness, and love and such, not preachy in a way that was super overshadowing and obnoxious like in Narnia where I was just like STOP we get it already!!, but it's very much there, and there's also a prevalent bit of self-sacrifice in them all, too.

>105 Citizenjoyce: I was appalled to see the casting of the new movie - Reese Witherspoon as old Mrs Whatsit?! And no mention of the twins? It's a childhood favorite, I want it to be good, and it does have some good people in it, too, but, I am...really skeptical.

>111 Citizenjoyce:. I haven't read Sisters in Law; putting it on my list, thanks.

>112 .Monkey.:. I guess I am thinking about today's Evangelical Christians, who seem to think that Harry Potter and yoga are satantic. They would never mention Jesus in the same breath as Gandhi and Buddha!

>113 vwinsloe: I mean, she was writing sci-fi-fantasy books, so obviously she wasn't one of the magic is the devil! sort, hahaha. Wiki sums it up as

L'Engle was an Episcopalian and believed in universal salvation, writing that "All will be redeemed in God's fullness of time, all, not just the small portion of the population who have been given the grace to know and accept Christ. All the strayed and stolen sheep. All the little lost ones." As a result of her promotion of Christian universalism, many Christian bookstores refused to carry her books, which were also frequently banned from Christian schools and libraries. At the same time, some of her most secular critics attacked her work for being too religious.

So, she was too religious for the secular folks and not the "right" kind of religious for the zealots. ;)

>114 .Monkey.:. Interesting! Makes sense. Thanks.

>114 .Monkey.: Sounds like the worst of all possible worlds
>111 Citizenjoyce: I think you'll love Sisters In Law

>116 Citizenjoyce:. My library system has Sisters in Law on audiobook, so I will be requesting it next. Thanks.

I just finished the The Lizard Cage which is historical fiction about a political prison in Myanmar. I found it to be very powerful, and remarkably relatable despite the lack of a single female character. I am sure that I will be thinking about this one for a long time.

Since nothing that I requested has come in at the library, I borrowed the audiobook The Pearl Thief. So far, the only book in Elizabeth Wein's girl pilot series that I found less than stellar was Black Dove, White Raven which I read instead of listening to. So I hope that the medium will prove to be the difference with this latest book which I just started.

About to start Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn. This looks like a different take on the dog-eat-dog world we've come to expect from post-apocalyptic fiction. Here people generally try to co-operate on sustainable living and population reduction after an evironmental crisis, though of course there are disagreements and disruptions. I read her short story "Amaryllis" set in the same world and quite enjoyed it. I'm hoping for a cross between KSR's Pacific Edge and Ursual LeGuin's The Dispossesed.

>119 SChant: Let us know how it is. The “dog eat dog” sort of post-apocalyptic fiction grates on my nerves. I like to read about cooperation.

>120 Citizenjoyce: Trouble sleeping last night, but it gave me the opportunity to finish Bannerless - an easy read.
At first it seemed like an exercise in a sort of eco-nostalgia – people in small communities without modern technology, growing their own food, blacksmithing, making clothes and pottery, limiting production and reproduction by mutual agreement – but gradually the cracks in the system began to show as jealousies and selfishness vied with communal values and concern for the future. A couple of anomalies like contraceptive implants and solar collectors were glossed over without explanation as to how these basic agrarian societies could continue to produce such sophisticated tech, and I would have like to see the consensus and co-operation aspects of the society more fleshed out, but it was an enjoyable antidote to the standard post-apocalyptic scenarios full of violent scavengers and brutality. I would read more set in this world.

I finally finished reading The Peabody sisters this weekend. My slow speed was due to the size of the hardback book, not a lack of interest of its contents. This was a fascinating and engrossing read, examining the sisters' lives in the context of C19th New England and its shifting political, religious and social movements. Elizabeth, the eldest and most dynamic sister, was inspired by many of the foremost (male, of course) figures of her day, but would in turn inspire men herself. Mary and Sophia were somewhat in her shadow but carved out their own lives and reputations as educator and artist with their own influence. It was interesting to read of Elizabeth's association with the Alcotts from a different point of view to that in Marmee and Louisa - Abigail doesn't come across so well from Elizabeth's side of the story. This was a great read and I highly recommend it especially if you have an interest in this period.

Now I've started The home maker by Dorothy Canfield, who is our Virago group author of the month. I recently read The brimming cup and thought it was very good; so far this novel may be even better.

>122 Sakerfalcon:. Thanks for reporting back on The Peabody Sisters. It looks like I will have to haul it around on my commute soon- or wait until I retire. (I've often thought about cutting a big book up into manageable sections in order to carry them to work and back every day. But so far I've never quite been able to bring myself to do it.)

I've started Ursula LeGuin 's Haimish series from the beginning, now I'm on The Dispossessed and can assure you that you don't have to read the novels that come before. Each sort of builds on the concept of the other, but can definitely be read as a stand-alone. If you're going to read only one, this is the one.

>124 Citizenjoyce: If I'm not mistaken, The Dispossessed was the "first" Hainish – in chronological but not publication order. My own personal favorite is The Left Hand of Darkness, though it's been a while since I've read Le Guin. I've really got to get to the Earthsea series one of these lifetimes.

You're right, they tend to be stand-alones, especially considering that chrono and publication order significantly differ.

I'm currently finishing up Blonde, Joyce Carol Oates's Marilyn Monroe novel, for the Reading Through Time group's February theme, "Going Hollywood." Excellent (though at times a bit long-winded), and I understand's one of JCO's own personal favorites as well. I'm not a big MM fan but got the book for the sake of JCO and it's been around the house for ages.

I finished The Pearl Thief. It was Nancy Drew-ish, and I don't think that is a bad thing. The afterword, read by the author, enlightened me as to how much research went into the book, and how much I had learned by listening to it. I am now convinced that listening to Elizabeth Wein's books is the best way for me to enjoy them.

On paper, I also read Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal? I had not read any of Jeanette Winterson's fiction, but I will pick something up when I come across it in the future.

I've just started reading Salt Houses which is a book about Palestinian refugees from the Arab-Israeli 6 day war that was recommended by my mother. And, next up for listening is The Genius of Birds which I heard about here from Citizenjoyce.

>127 vwinsloe: And as to Winterson, I strongly recommend the miniseries of Oranges, the teleplay of which was written by Winterson. The miniseries is better than the book (not putting the book down) based on the acting performances of Charlotte Coleman and Geraldine McEwan. Its total running time is a bit less than three hours, so you can watch it in one (long) sitting.

Those in the U.S. should beware that they don't get a DVD that's not compatible with U.S. players. My own copy (which I've got around the house somewhere, I think, from years and years ago) is VHS and the DVD compatibility wasn't an issue, but a lot of the DVDs that show up on Amazon appear to be Region Two. If in doubt, go onto eBay where you can ask the seller.

ETA: I find Winterson sometimes a bit weird stylistically (postmodern, whatever), and I'd recommend you start with Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, which was her first book and is a bit more "normal" (pun intended). For example, looking back on my own Winterson reading, I see I rated The Passion 4**** but I do recall having had found it a bit confusing. I didn't post a review so I don't exactly recall my problem, but I think it may have had to do with the magical realism.

>128 CurrerBell:. Thank you. Winterson discusses both the book at the miniseries in the memoir, and I was wondering which to look for. It sounds like both.

I just finished Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson which could have well been subtitled Determinedly Cutesy read by the author with a determinedly cutesy tone. She's a white Texan woman married to a white Texan republican so is kind of acting in a way I would find typical. However, she is also a very wise woman dealing with clinical depression, anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, several other emotional disorders and rheumatoid arthritis. She says several times that her brain and her body are trying to kill her, and at the end of the book she gives advice to others facing this sort of attack. She emphasizes that the depressed brain lies and that you have to try to remember that. She emphasizes the need for therapy and medication and says that sometimes your brain swings to the exact opposite of depression, thus the wacky humor. I think I would have given the book 1 star for the humor and 5 stars for analysis of mental illness. It's really hard having them combined in one book.

Just started Eleanor Marx: A Life by Rachel Holmes. She has a chirpy, colloquial style that is a bit grating, but the subject is so interesting I can ignore it.

Finished Eleanor Marx: A Life. A bit too detailed for the casual reader like myself, but I now realise how tirelessly she worked for socialism, feminism and the working class. A great woman.
For something a bit lighter I'm about to start the kids book Women in Science by Rachel Ignotofsky.

In the Shadow of Agatha Christie: Classic Crime Fiction by Forgotten Female Writers: 1850-1917 (4**** review). Really nice selection of Victorian and early 20th century women's lit – but be aware of what you're getting, because these in most cases aren't "mysteries" so much as they are crime, "sensation," and Gothic stories.

I finished Salt Houses which didn't particularly resonate with me. I have started reading Sorcerer to the Crown, and continue to listen to The Genius of Birds which is fascinating and boring in turns.

I finished, a few days ago, The Ballad of Peckham Rye (3***, which is low for me where Muriel Spark is concerned) and I've started on The Bachelors — for Heaven-Ali's #ReadingMuriel2018.

I'm reading Ruby Wax's A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled and not really getting into it at the moment because I find her so abrasive and crass. Maybe not the book for me!

I've been trying, once or twice a year, to read classics that I somehow overlooked. It was about time to read another one, so I chose A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Although I have heard many wonderful things about this book over the years, I hadn't realized that it is so funny! Sometimes these old chestnuts are a slog, but I am really enjoying this one.

>137 vwinsloe: I saw the old movie but haven't read the book thinking it would be too schmaltzy. I'll give it a chance now.

>138 Citizenjoyce: Some of her characters, for example, her Aunt Sissy, are vivid.

I hadn't heard that there was a movie, I should check it out.

>137 vwinsloe: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one of my touchstone books. When I was a bookseller I would give it to kids in lieu of Catcher in the Rye -- so much more applicable, especially for girls. And I was little Francie Nolan growing up: finding a secret spot to read, trying to read all the books in her neighborhood branch library (starting with the A's!). That was totally me!

>60 vwinsloe: As I mentioned I would, I finished a re-read of The Fifth Season and will go on to The Obelisk Gate later this month. First I have to finish The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies by Jason Fagone. OK, not by a woman, but about a fascinating one. Elizebeth Smith Friedman began and was head of the first cryptography division for the Treasury Department, and William Friedman began and was head of the first cryptography division for the army. He later is credited with being the founder of the NSA, and she was later credited with being his wife. Sheesh.

>141 Citizenjoyce:. After finishing A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, I read Borderline by Mishell Baker based on your recommendation. Despite being a pretty standard mystery plot, I found the characters, the perspective, and the premise to be so different that I was highly entertained by it. Have you read any of the others in the Arcadia Project series? I'd be willing to give them a try if they were half as fun as this one was. I have a sense that they may not be as good once the novelty wears off, but who knows?

I thought that N.K. Jemison's Broken Earth series just got better and better as it went along and the themes, characters and plot came more into focus.

Right now, I am in the middle of Manhattan Beach and so far it is surpassing my expectations. I steeled myself for another challenging post-modernist read; the only other book of Jennifer Egan's that I have read being A Visit from the Goon Squad. I hadn't known that this new one is pretty straightforward historical fiction, and I love her writing style.

>141 Citizenjoyce: I completely forgot about Borderline, thanks for reminding me. I just put Phantom Pains on hold.
Your assessment of the Broken Earth series is right on, it keeps getting better and better. I’m very glad I reread The Fifth Season because I’d forgotten so much. I’m sure I wouldn’t be enjoying The Obelisk Gate as much as I am without the refresher.
I’ve never read Jennifer Egan, not being interested in books about musicians, but will be reading The Keep some time this month.

Reading Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng, a gothic-style novel about Christian Missionaries to Faerie. I’m finding it atmospheric, but a bit lacking in story, but after listening to an interview with the author on Breaking the Glass Slipper I will definitely persist with it. The podcast discusses the power of women in early and Mediaeval Christianity, which had previously been unacknowledged but is now being opened up more by female academics, as well as many other aspects of the novel. I found it fascinating.

>144 SChant: that looks interesting, but is it real religious?

>145 Citizenjoyce: Ha!

>144 SChant:, I seek out religious themed science fiction, so I am putting Under the Pendulum Sun on my wish list. Did you know that there is a LT list for that?

http://www.librarything.com/list/235/all/Religious-Science-Fiction

Should Under the Pendulum Sun be added?

>143 Citizenjoyce: Please report back on Phantom Pains.

>146 vwinsloe: It looks like an interesting group but Orson Scott Card, C. S. Lewis. - I don't think it's for me.
It shouldn't be too long until I get Phantom Pains
Just started The Immortalists which is something about a Jewish family of children, fortune telling and death. So far, so good.

>146 vwinsloe: One that I notice isn't on the list. Ever hear of Daughter of Is? It was dedicated to C.S. Lewis and shows some influence from his "Deep Space trilogy."

>145 Citizenjoyce:
>146 vwinsloe:
It's not preachy or tract-y (yes, just made that word up), which is something I'm allergic to, but is more like a study of how christian faith butts up against something so alien as the Fae. The author said she got the idea after idly looking at a nineteen century missionary guide which seemed to view the people they were going to preach to as less than human, and she wondered how such a mind-set would cope with something that really was non-human. It kind of follows on from a history of 7th century Northumbria I've just been reading where the kings more-or-less chose whether to become Christian or stay Pagan depending on which gods won them more booty (simplifying greatly here).

>147 Citizenjoyce: I think that there are many reads on that list that you either love or hate, but either way they tend to stir strong emotional responses depending on the reader's inclination.

I've seen a few positive mentions of The Immortalists and will probably give it a try if it crosses my path.

>148 CurrerBell: No, I've never heard of that one. You should add it!

>149 SChant:. That sounds just like the sort of read for which I have an affinity. Religious themes, but not pious. Many times the "religious" SF sub-genre (if there is such a thing) is more philosophical than religious. An examination of morality versus organized religion, for example. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell occupies first place on that LT list for a reason; it is exactly that type of a philosophical debate in novel form. I'll look forward to reading Under the Pendulum Sun.

>You make it sound mighty interesting.

I just finished reading 2 books that I ended up liking quite differently than I did at the start. The Power seemed like it was going to be great. The idea is that teenage girls discover that they have the power to control electricity, as in use it as a weapon. They pass the ability on to older women. At first you see women freeing themselves from the oppressive control of men, and I was just thrilled. Then it goes all Lord of the Flies and you find women can’t be trusted with this power, they turn out to be not only just as bad as men, but bad in exactly the same way. I have to think that after centuries or millennia of living under the boot of oppression women would have learned a little something about equality. Evidently Naomi Alderman doesn’t, which is surprising. I loved her novel Disobedience. It highlighted hope and inner resource the way The Power doesn’t. Did something happen to her in between writing these two books.? I’m going to guess that this dour, pessimistic book is going to end up being the far greater financial success.
Jennifer Egan’s The Keep worked just the opposite way. First of all, it’s a ghost story which I didn’t know when I started. I’m not a ghost story kind of gal. Secondly, and even more important, it’s a novel written by a woman about men. Why would a woman do that? But it was just barely entertaining enough for me to keep reading mostly because of the back story about a man in a prison writing class. I thought, once she leaves the ghost story and writes about actual possibilities, she’s pretty good. She slowly hooked me over the first two thirds of the book then dragged me in completely over the last third. Wow. What a perfect book this turned out to be. I would have given it 5 stars based on the last third, but had to make it 4 over all. I just might have to try something else by her.

>152 Citizenjoyce:. Well, I will try The Keep based on what you said. I recommend Manhattan Beach which I just finished. It's historical fiction from the Rosie the Riveter days about a young woman who becomes a civilian deep sea diver for the Navy, entwined with a story about her missing father and his organized crime connections. It is very atmospheric and beautifully written. I gave it 4 1/2 stars which is high for me, since 5 stars I reserve for books that I think will be classics. Edited to add: I just checked and I gave A Visit From The Goon Squad four stars back in 2011. I loved the theme of that book which was "aging."

Sorry to hear about The Power I was excited to buy it off a library sales cart this weekend and was dying to read it, but maybe now not so much. :(

Started Civilisations: How Do We Look / The Eye of Faith by Mary Beard. I hoped it would be an expansion of the TV programme but so far it seems exactly the same. Still worth a read, though.

>152 Citizenjoyce: That's exactly why I liked The Power, it showed that women are human and can be vile and stupid too. I don't see that people living under an opressive system can be expected to be saints when the tables are turned. That's one of the reasons I like Suzy McKee Charnas' Holdfast Chronicles - the women have to learn how to build a humane society after escaping from a world of "toxic masculinity".

>154 SChant: But I think I recall that women did learn to be humane, didn't they in the Holdfast Chronicles? The Power doesn't give much hope of that.
>153 vwinsloe: I have Manhattan Beach on hold, may get it this month or next. Maybe I'll rethink A Visit From the Goon Squad.
I just finished None of the Above by I. W. Gregorio which is about a beautiful and popular 18 year old girl who finds out she has AIS, androgen insensitivity syndrome. It's not literature but is a good novel about gender. The girl also happens to run track, so there's a discussion Caster Semenya. All the "bathroom bill" people think sex is simple and is the same as gender - you're either male or female, that's it. This is a gentle way of explaining some of the variations in life and how people see themselves. I just found the author's page, she describes the book as Middlesex meets Mean Girls. http://www.iwgregorio.com/

I'm enjoying The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend which is a charming story but with some good things to say about embracing diversity and women's roles in private and public life.

I'm reading Black wine by Candas Jane Dorsey, which is compelling and beautifully written though disturbing in places. I can't wait to find out how the different narratives are linked. I'm also reading To the bright edge of the world by Eowyn Ivey, a historical novel about the exploration by Americans of Alaska which is also very well-written and atmospheric. And for a lighter read I've picked up A light-hearted quest by Ann Bridge, which is the first in a series of Mary Stewart-esque mysteries from the 1950s.

I was positive I had Black Wine in my library, but I can’t find it. Hmm, must look harder.

>157 Sakerfalcon:. I own To the Bright Edge of the World, and it is sitting in a toppling TBR pile. Picked it up because I enjoyed The Snow Child a few years back. Please let me know whether you recommend it when you finish.

>159 vwinsloe: Oh, I did like The Snow Child. I should look for To the Bright Edge of the World.

Just read an excellent book for kids highlighting women's role in space exploration - A Galaxy of her Own by Libby Jackson. It not only includes astonauts and engineers, but also nutritionists and medical practitioners, mathematicians, the seamstresses who sewed space-suits, and many more. Highly recommended.

I've read some surprisingly good and not so good books recently.
The City Not Long After by Pat Murphy has been sitting on my bookshelves for years. I can't imagine why I didn't get to it before. It's about peace and war, non-violent and violent disobedience, art, artists, political oppression, and thinking outside the box wrapped in a great story about post-apocalyptic San Francisco. Evidently, Pat Murphy really loves her city. Now I'm going to give it to my daughter.
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin reminds me of many other books I've loved. It's about magic in many forms: the magic of family, love, sex, death, freedom and magic itself. The magic of animals reminded me of Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. The magic of control reminded me of Atul Gawande's Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End which is a book about people at the end of life, but it is ultimately about what we are all willing to give up in order to feel safe.
And then I read Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm. What a disappointment. She out Ayn Rands Ayan Rand in this pean to individualism ending with one man to lead them all. With the trump regime we're all seeing how well that goes.

>162 Citizenjoyce: I too let The city, not long after sit on my tbr pile for far too long, and loved it when I finally read it. That's not good news about the Wilhelm, which is also on Mount Tbr.

>159 vwinsloe:, >160 Citizenjoyce: I finished To the bright edge of the world and loved it. There is a bit less magical realism than in The snow child, but it's definitely there amid the historical factual detail. The sense of place is very vivid, and I thought the native peoples were portrayed well, as individuals not stereotypes. I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did.

>163 Sakerfalcon:. Thank you. I am not really a big fan of magical realism, and liked The Snow Child in spite of it. So I should like this one even more.

>162 Citizenjoyce:. I've added The City Not Long After and The Immortalists to my wish list.

I just started The Almost Sisters on the commuter train and laughed out loud a couple of times. I had never heard of this author before, but two friends highly recommended this book recently so I snapped it up when I saw it. It seems to have gotten good reviews here on LT.

>164 vwinsloe: Joshilyn Jackson is one of those writers who is pretty pithy underneath her humor. She once wrote an account of getting arrested thanks to a clerical error at the Social Security Office that is one of the most hilarious things I've ever read:

http://www.joshilynjackson.com/mt/archives/000561.html

>165 southernbooklady:. That's hysterical. I will be sharing it with the two lovely ladies who recommended The Almost Sisters to me. Thank you!

>164 vwinsloe: I just got The Almost Sisters. I thought for sure I had read Gods in Alabama but LT says not. Maybe that’ll be next. Right now I’m listening to the first Harry Potter because I just read The Long Walk by Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman and need to get the creepy nausea out of my brain.

Reading A lab of one's own: science and suffrage in the First World War by Patricia Fara - an exploration of how British women scientists in the early years of the 20th Century struggled to be taken seriously in their chosen professions, fought for suffrage and equal rights, and stepped in – many voluntarily – to do vital scientific work during the First World War. Many of these early pioneers have been overlooked and it’s great to see some of their names recovered from obscurity and given recognition. While it mainly looks at the work of better educated women who were already attempting to work as scientists, it also highlights the highly technical and dangerous roles of working-class women in munitions and other war-related industries whose names are often lost to us. An invaluable resource for anyone interested in the history of women in science and technology, and a very good read too.

>168 SChant: That looks good.

I just started a new page as this one was getting long.