Books read in June

 Pride month, we barely knew ye. I had a massive book hangover from rereading all of the Murderbot Diaries in May, so I didn't read as much this month. As always, DM me for trigger warnings. 

 

I was delighted to find that the second Dorothy Gentleman book available to check out on Libby, so I did so immediately. I adored the first book, Murder by Memory, so much that I bought it. I love what the author, Olivia Waite, has created with this series (queernorm retrofuturistic murder mystery). In this book, a baby in a basket has turned up on Dorothy's nephew Ruthie's and his husband's doorstep, which is especially mysterious because everyone on the ship is supposed to be sterile until they get to the planet they're heading to in a few hundred years. Dorothy investigates and starts to suspect foul play when the mother turns up in a new body with no memory of the baby. This story was very interesting and gave us even more details about the ship's culture; everything seems much more 1930s than I originally noticed. Dorothy's pocket watch is a smartwatch, but she has to write out paperwork by hand?? Come on. Also the cover confused me, as the people are all dressed like Victorians (1890s) for some reason? I didn't enjoy this book as much as the first one (it also suffers from Being Too Short), but I'm looking forward to reading the next book when it comes out.  ★★★★

During my last probably-unnecessary trip to the thrift store, I found and bought God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships by Matthew Vines (along with a huge stack of books). I was excited to get this as it'd been on my to-read list for ages. Vines is best known for his viral video where he gives a presentation that would become this book. He goes over the clobber verses (the ones Christians use to reject gay people) and their scriptural, historical, and cultural context, which I expected, but he also uses theological arguments as to why Christians should accept gay people, which I found interesting. While not a Biblical scholar (officially, as far as I can tell), Vines has thoroughly studied this issue, including people who take the opposite stance as him, and has tons of meticulous endnote citations (dozens per chapter). I did find it a bit naive for Vines to use the argument that even though the Bible reflects the deeply misogynistic cultures of its writers, surely no one today would actually think that women have no value (and therefore we mustn't think the same of gay people etc.). There are tons of Christians to whom the Bible's low view and treatment of women is a feature, not a bug. The book was written in 2014, though, and we had yet to see the virulent misogyny the rest of the 2010s would bring about. This book is very firmly for Christians; this would be a great book for LGBTQ+ people (themselves Christians or not) to give to their Christian parents to try to get them on board. I do recommend this, although I did find it slightly surprising Vines didn't use David and Jonathan as an example of a gay commitment ceremony in the Bible (he probably understandably didn't want to push it). ★★★★, lots of references to sex and sexual assault but that is not what chili ratings are for

 

The same day I finished G&tGC, I read Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong. I had bought this book during Bookshop.org's pride month sale, but I stupidly forgot to apply the coupon code; to add insult to injury, Bookshop.org had a free shipping weekend during The Evil Smile's sale event after I made my purchase. Ah well. I'd come across Ocean Vuong's poetry online and found it beautiful and impactful, but it was "Someday I'll Love Ocean Vuong" that pushed me over the edge to buy this book. This is an excellent poetry collection: beautiful and painful and nostalgic and raw and loving. I meant to savor it, but I just had to keep reading. May I one day write a fraction as wonderfully. ★★★★   🌶🌶

Book review: Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston brings us Black America’s folklore as only she can, putting the oral history on the written page with grace and understanding. This new edition of Mules and Men features a new cover and a P.S. section which includes insights, interviews, and more.

For the student of cultural history, Mules and Men is a treasury of Black America’s folklore as collected by Zora Neale Hurston, the storyteller and anthropologist who grew up hearing the songs and sermons, sayings and tall tales that have formed and oral history of the South since the time of slavery. Set intimately within the social context of Black life, the stories, “big old lies,” songs, voodoo customs, and superstitions recorded in these pages capture the imagination and bring back to life the humor and wisdom that is the unique heritage of Black Americans. 

I had downloaded Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston last year when Barnes & Noble decided to drop a staggering amount of legit, popular free ebooks. I loved Hurston's writing in Their Eyes Were Watching God, and I'm always interested in folklore, so this was a no-brainer. I read this book for Black History Month, reading it slowly during my family's Mexico trip.

I was sort of expecting a straightforward telling of the folklore tales, like in Cuentos: Tales from the Hispanic Southwest, but the book is actually Hurston's account of her sponsored travels to Florida and Louisiana to collect the folklore and hoodoo knowledge. She relates how she goes back home (she'd been up north for college) to her hometown and then other Florida cities' African American communities, and the parties and get-togethers where the tales and 'lies' are told and songs are sung. I do think keeping the conversations and activity details was a good idea, as it keeps the context the stories were told in. The tone is narrative and casual rather than scholarly, as one might expect from a work of anthropology. There are footnotes for many (not all) of the slang and dialect terms and names, and glossaries in the back; it was very tedious to tap on the hypertext footnote numbers (I usually had to blow up the text size) and then tap back. This is the ebook formatting's fault, though, obviously. 

The folklore tales include stories of how things came to be (e.g. why cats and dogs don't get along), stories from slavery times, and more mythological stories involving God, the devil, angels, etc. Many stories are about an everyman named John who often outsmarts the slavemaster or the devil, but not always. The overall vibe is that these stories aren't true, but they're entertaining (even when things don't end happily for the characters). 'Lies' are things like, "I heard about land so fertile that when the farmer buried a dead donkey, a new one grew up out of the ground." These are often told by different people in quick succession on the same theme, to one-up each other and make everyone laugh. 

The speech is written in dialect, which is a bit difficult to read. How much you'll understand depends on what you know, as, as I mentioned, not all of the slang and dialect terms are translated in footnotes. It took me a second to realize that 'pail' in a food context meant a lunchpail, i.e., the lunch you pack to take to work or school. The term jookhouse* is never explained to my satisfaction; it's maybe like a brothel and a party house where jazz is played and dances are held all at once. The ballad of John Henry is given in full in the back of the book, but not the children's play songs. Sometimes historians omit things because they think they're common knowledge, and then future readers/scholars don't know what they are. :/

Hurston then goes to Louisiana to study hoodoo (also known, incorrectly, as voodoo) practices. She is initiated by and becomes an acolyte to at least three different hoodoo practitioners. This part took me longer to read because it freaked me out and I didn't want to read it at night (I'm a wuss when it comes to scary stuff). Besides being scared, I didn't like this part so much because some of the hoodoo practices involved killing animals in what felt like cruel ways (boiling or burying a cat alive, etc.). I thought it was kind of odd that Hurston begs her friends not to kill a venomous snake they find sleeping in her room when she's in Florida, sparing its life, but she's fine with the hoodoo animal sacrifices when those animals weren't a danger to anyone. There are lists of hoodoo practices and tools/ingredients in the back of the book. The ceremonies she observes and participates in are shared in detail, which I think is rather irresponsible (one is to bring about someone's death). Did the hoodoo practitioners, and their customers, know Hurston was going to write and share all of what they did and how they did it? Hurston says that hoodoo's whole thing is secrecy, then she shares all the secrets she learns. Ah well. 

Overall, this was a very interesting book. Hurston is an engaging and talented writer, and I enjoyed reading about her experiences. 

Score: ★★★.75 out of 5 stars (StoryGraph has opened my mind to the concept of quarter stars)
Read in: February 8-16
From: Barnes & Noble Nook

Genres/classification: nonfiction, folklore, fables, travelogue

Representation: African American/Black, poor, Southeastern American; Black female author

Trigger warnings: racism, slavery, beatings mentions, animal murder, animal cruelty, frequent period-typical N-word usage, sexism/misogynoir, violence, guns I think, alcohol

*had a sudden lightbulb moment and realized that this probably has the same root word as jukebox! See the Wikipedia entry's second paragraph. 

Rest of the year reads

November and December were pretty decent reading months. I don't feel like writing proper reviews so here we are.

November 

3 Agatha Christie books, all excellent mysteries that kept me guessing per usual:

• The Mystery of the Blue Train (Hercule Poirot) - classic murder on a train, locked room mystery. Murderer/s ended up being something out of left field that I feel was not set up well enough for the readers to have guessed it; it felt like cheating a bit. ★★★½

• The Seven Dials Mystery (Superintendent Battle, a new guy to me. He's a police super and looks big and wooden and dumb but is actually very smart.) Young people keep getting murdered, and a secret society called the Seven Dials might be behind it... The biggest twist ending of all of them! Some Jeeves books vibes with the Bright Young Things friend group. Very exciting. ★★★★

• Cards on the Table (both Hercule Poirot AND Superintendent Battle! glad I read T7DM first) A dinner party that is half murderers, half detectives/police results in a murder, naturally. Still is very twisty. Got wlw vibes from the two roommate bestie girls, but sadly no (not that I actually thought AC would go there). ★★★★

These were all ebooks. I usually try to stick to reading AC books in physical form since that fits the books' vibes better, but B&N did this weird thing where they had a ton of excellent legit ebooks (rather than the usual self-published stuff) for free, so I downloaded a bunch (including the above 3) before they changed their minds. 

I also read an excellent and relevant nonfiction book suggested by my therapist, but I overshare enough on this blog as it is, so I'm not telling you what it is. :P

December

I usually go ham on SimonTeen's 25 free reads of December, but this year I was very busy in December and/or wasn't feeling most of the books. There were some great ones I definitely was interested in and would have read under different circumstances, but alas. The only one I managed to read was Love at Second Sight by F.T. Lukens, whose book Otherwordly I read last year as it was part of SimonTeen's offerings for the 2024 25 free reads of December. This one is also a gay YA fantasy book, but this one is set in a world where witches and vampires and werewolves, etc. exist and live alongside humans. 15-year-old human Cam's plans for a normal sophomore year with his nonbinary witch bestie Al are derailed when he has a very scary premonition about the violent death of a young woman, and it turns out he's a clairvoyant with rare abilities whose alliance is desired by every supernatural group in town. Cam has to deal with the sudden popularity, the supernatural society politics he hasn't grown up with, his parents' anti-supernatural bigotry, and his popular werewolf crush noticing him. Oh, and he has to figure out how to stop the murder from happening.  I liked this book and found the mystery most compelling; the romance was cute but felt a bit underdeveloped. There was a lot going on in this book, though. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes this sort of thing (urban fantasy, I guess?). ★★★★

I had plans to finally read some of my Christmas romance ebooks I've downloaded over the years during this holiday season, but for some reason instead I reread The Pilgrim's Regress by C.S. Lewis because I found the copy I had left at my parents' house (I have one at mine, obvs). It's basically CSL doing a take on The Pilgrim's Progress (a heavily Christian allegory about conversion and the Christian walk, etc.) but with his own spiritual life and conversion. This was not particularly easy to read, despite the chapters being fairly short; it's very philosophical and uses lots of academic language and quotes in Greek, Latin, and French that are not translated. I can kind of suss out the latter two depending on how similar the words are to Spanish, but this is not ideal. It's one of CSL's weirdest and weakest, I feel. Also it's racist and sexist ("brown girls" are a metaphor for lust 🤮). Not recommended unless you're studying him and his works academically or something. ★★★

I reread Christmas with Anne and Other Holiday Stories by L.M. Montgomery, as I do every holiday season. The Christmas stories are much better and generally happier than the New Year's stories.  

 

I decided to read a couple of children's books I had bought and hadn't read yet. It's my reading log and I'll count picture books if I want to :P 

Frida Kahlo y Sus Animalitos by Monica Brown, translated into Spanish by F. Isabel Campoy, and illustrated by John Parra, is a biographical nonfiction picture book about Frida and her pets. I didn't add it to my LibraryThing and there's no record of it in my order emails, so I must have bought it in person at a local indie bookstore, probably Cellar Door Books. The art style is very colorful, bold, and naive, which suits the subject matter. The book makes it sound like Frida had a lot of these pets as a child, when she actually had them as an adult (I'm pretty sure; I'm also sure she did have pets as a kid but don't remember having read about them). It's a cute book that's worth buying if you're a big a fan of Frida Kahlo as I am. ★★★★ 

 

Go Forth and Tell: The Life of Augusta Baker, Librarian and Master Storyteller by Breanna J. McDaniel, illustrated by April Harrison, is a picture book biography of a very important Black librarian who knew the power of stories to let people know what is possible and how to rise up. Ms. Baker curated book lists of books with good African American representation (as well as writing her own) and went on to be the coordinator of children's services for the entire New York Public Library system (the first Black person to do so) and was hugely influential. This was an excellent book with bright, vivid, interesting mixed-media art, and I highly recommend it. I also enjoyed the author's story about the impact of her own childhood librarian. ★★★★½

Reading slump + reading update

I've been on a reading slump lately that lasted over a month. I think it started because I wanted to read one of my many unread books with latine protagonists for Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month, and I think just the concept of "having to" read a specific type of book triggered my brain's ADHD* mental block against reading in general.

 

I did actually read one book (very slowly) during this time: this cute little book about historical and designer purses, which was actually very interesting and informative. I've always loved purses and fashion history, so this was a fun and interesting book to read. It was originally published in 2001, so the book only has purses up to that point, and has kind of a gap for the 1990s (too soon ago at the time to be considered historical). The writing is very similar to fashion editorials like they have in Vogue; lots of glowing praise for the fashion designers' creativity. My only quibble is that I wish she'd put the prices for the designer handbags. I don't remember if she put a works referenced list in the back of the book (another usual quibble of mine when it comes to nonfiction books). I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes purses and fashion history. ★★★★

 

In desperation, I decided to actually bring a physical book with me (safe in its padded book sleeve) to work, where surely the boredom of working the Thursday night shift would force me to reach for the book and read it, thereby breaking my reading slump. It didn't, but it did make me start reading an ebook on my Nook app (my second, sneakier reason for bringing a physical book to read)!

That book was A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel by K.J. Charles, a sequel to The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen (flash-reviewed here). This book is about brand new earl Rufus d'Aumnesty, whose hostile formerly-estranged family is fighting tooth and nail against this "interloper", taking any and every reason to question his legitimacy as earl, which brings us to the other lead, Luke Doomsday, whose mother may or may not have married Rufus' ho dad before he married Rufus' mom. Luke was a very young teenager during the events of TSLoCG (he's the smuggler chief's nephew), and he grew up to be a secretary (Gareth the baronet from the first book gave him an education). Rufus needs help sorting out the truth, his office, and the family books (which are all as fucked up as the estates and the family), so he hires Luke as his secretary. They're both super attracted to each other, fight it a bit due to the whole boss/employee thing, and fall in love. Luke helps Rufus with being an earl and dealing with his family, but he has secrets of his own, and his own agenda for being at the estate... This book was excellent, with a bit of a Gothic flair towards the end, and actually settled a mystery that began in the first book. ANG2SaS has the same themes of healing from childhood trauma as its predecessor. Luke has a facial disfigurement (scar from an attack), and Rufus is demisexual and dyslexic. ★★★★ 🌶🌶🌶  DM me for trigger warnings

As is usually the case, this broke me out of my reading slump and I started reading again like it was going out of style. As it was still Ace Week (my reason for picking the above book), I decided to finally start on the Murderbot Diaries, which I had bought (along with several other Martha Wells ebooks) during a charity bundle purchase thing. I'd been wanting to read the Murderbot Diaries ever since I first heard about them, and I'd really been looking forward to reading them ever since the trailer for the Murderbot Apple TV+ series came out (it looks so good. I need to get a free month of Apple TV+ code or get someone I know who has Apple TV+ to let me watch it). I love stories about sentient robots making friends. I was going to start reading them through Libby, but my public library doesn't have them on ebook :((( I started reading these books on Friday afternoon, and as of writing this (Sunday evening), I've read the first six books in the series plus a short story, and that's that I couldn't read for most of Saturday. I lied when I told you I was reading like it's going out of style; it's more than that: I've INHALED them. I am obsessed. They are so freaking good, and I love Murderbot (it/its pronouns). It's anxious and depressed and autistic (hates eye contact etc.) and aroace and nonbinary (duh, it's a robot) and deeply funny and sarcastic. Murderbot (Murderbot is its private name; to others it goes by SecUnit, which is somewhere between a human being going by "Human" and going by their occupation title instead of a name) dislikes humans but also can't stop caring about them. It'll be deeply annoyed by them then be like, "Is anyone else gonna protect these stupid humans and keep them alive?" and not wait for an answer. When its friends make it experience an emotion, it has to turn and face a wall. I love it so much. I need eleventy thousand more books in this series; I'm preemptively mourning running out of them. I recommend this series to anyone who likes sci fi action stories with a touch of mystery, and stories about robots gaining sentience and friends and dealing with what it means to be a person.  ★★★★ DM me for trigger warnings 

I'm writing this blog post instead of reading them because the epub ebooks are all on my computer, and Apple Books didn't transfer them over to my Apple Books app on my iPhone. Ugh. I'm counting down the minutes of this ref shift until I can go home and keep reading the series. This is basically me right now:

 Update: I made some Murderbot memes and posted them to my Instagram (I forgot to include the one above tho). My IG handle is in my Social Media note. 

*undiagnosed, but like let's be real

Flash reviews for books I read last month

Bookshop.org had a summer reading challenge where you could win a contest if you read for at least 28 days straight, so I read the unheard-of amount of 15 books!!!! Forget pre-pandemic reading levels, that is junior high reading behavior!!! Anyway, I don't really want to write out full reviews for all of them, so I'm just writing flash reviews. 

The Maid and the Mansion: A Mysterious Murder (book 1? of series) by Fiona Grace - ebook - another murder mystery where a maid does the investigating. Enjoyed this although I read "the men are coming back from war so there's no jobs for women" and assumed it was World War I and not II, leading me to be confused over several things including how she was able to run and fight in long skirts (nope, at/below the knee skirts). Trigger warning for sexual harassment from boss at work (he dies, yay!!) plus the usual stuff (murder, blood). 3.5 stars, would read the rest of the series if they're free

Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly - ebook - absolutely amazing, one of my favorite reads this year. So sad and hard to read at times but so important, with the internal plot mirroring thoughts I've had re: coming out and balancing authenticity with safety, etc. Also there's cool book restoration/making stuff. Genderqueer, queer and lesbian rep. Lots of trigger warnings including homophobic hate crime attacks, transphobia (also internalized), homophobia (also internalized). 4 stars, 2 chili peppers

How to Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis - hardcover book - I follow her on IG and bought the book at McNally Jackson bookstore in NYC to support her and because I need it. This book is for people who struggle with keeping up with housework--ADHD havers, depressed people, chronically ill people, etc. The non-shaming gentle parenting around cleaning that I never got, and lots of useful tips. She gets us because she's one of us. Highly recommended. 4.5 stars.

Recipe for Confidence by Samantha Picaro - ebook - I think I follow this author on IG as well. Her book was promoted by bookstagrammers I follow, and I bought it on sale because the main character is aroace. The teenage MC is autistic as well and feels like she always has to mask and act happy to please everyone around her. I'm afraid I did not enjoy this book; the writing wasn't very good and neither were the parents, and there was stuff that made me angry. I think I need to stop reading books about and for teenagers. 3.5 stars. 

The Meddle & Mend series by Sarah Wallace - ebooks - This is a cozy found family fantasy series set in a magical, queernorm Regency England where racial diversity is also the norm. I ADORED this series! I downloaded the first one because it was free and one of the bookstagrammers that I follow is always promoting the series, and it was so good I downloaded the next one to read immediately, doing that for each book. I inhaled the whole series in like a week. One of the books, The Education of Pip, is about a character who is groomed into an unequal relationship that turns into forced sex work, so trigger warnings for that (there is a happy ending for him).  DM me if you want more info. There is representation for just about every letter of the queer alphabet, plus anxiety and PTSD rep. There are also characters of color (the society is also non-racist). I highly recommend these books and cannot wait for the next one. 3.5 (affectionate)-4 stars varying, amount of spice varies by book but it's usually just kissing or off-page (some Pip stuff does bleed into other books)

A Charm of Magpies series by K.J. Charles - ebooks - I loved this author's Will Darling Adventures trilogy and downloaded their other free ebooks a while back but never got around to reading them. These books are set in a magical gaslamp Victorian England and are about a tattooed duke with strong magical ancestry and a short magician who fall in love, fight magical crimes, and have extremely adult activities. They have to hide their relationship because it's illegal to be gay in Victorian England. The duke and his manservant lived most of their lives in China (which apparently was fine with gay people back then? That sounds wrong but I don't know enough to dispute it, plus KJC probably did their research).  The magical crimes (which are mostly grisly murders) make this series horror in my opinion; they were far too scary for me  but I couldn't stop reading them because they were so good. 3.5 stars (but a high 3.5) and probably 4.5 out of 5 chilis (very spicy).

I reread Lady Susan because it was the Enchanted Book Club pick for July, enjoyed it per usual, and had a lot of fun discussing the book with other book club members over Zoom. I also rewatched Love & Friendship afterwards, naturally. 

Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev - paperback book - I bought this ages ago (not sure from where) but didn't get around to reading it. This was a really interesting loose retelling of P&P (duh) where the heroine is an Indian American brain surgeon and the hero is a Somali-Indian British chef, and both leads took on different aspects of both Lizzy and Darcy. It was really good but really sad, with the Wickham-Georgiana storyline being really dark. To be honest, I didn't get why the hero would really come around to being in love with the heroine when she was kind of an awful mess. Understandable, though, when her family was so terrible to her. I do recommend this book even though it made me sad (and hungry, the food sounded so amazing). Trigger warnings for a character being drugged and raped (past), cancer/terminal illness, police racial profiling, racism, xenophobia, miscarriage (past), manipulation, classism. 3.5 stars, 2 chilis due to a rather unnecessary scene at the end

What an Heiress Wants by Gemma Blackwood - ebook - This is part of a Regency romance series, of which I read one previously and liked it. The heroine wants to get back at this guy who led her on, so she concocts a fake flirting/courtship/engagement with her best friend's brother. You already know where this is going. This book has low spice (only kissing and lustful thoughts) and I enjoyed it, even though it got a bit dramatic at the end. 3.5 stars, 0.5 chili

Whew. I truly cannot believe I read so much. So many great reads this month as well!

January books

 January felt so long but also like wow, it's over already? Time is weird.

My first read of 2024 was a book from the Sister Fidelma mysteries series, Suffer Little Children (summary here). I got this one, as I got the other first four books, from the free books rack in my library. As usual, this was an interesting murder mystery where I didn't see the twist coming. Peter Tremayne surprisingly limited himself to only one mention of Fidelma's "rebellious red strands of hair snaking out of her headdress", and then only right at the beginning. I did not enjoy this one because there were multiple instances where children (and adults etc.) were massacred in cold blood. Just way too sad. I gave it 3.5 stars. Trigger warnings: murder, children murdered, graphic depictions of corpses including blood, bodies burned, assassination mention, death, sexism.

 

I'm auditing a C.S. Lewis class for fun this quarter, and I'm really enjoying the class and rereading Lewis's books again. The professor lived in and ran the Kilns (CSL's home) for several years and is friends with lots of CSL-related people, including his stepson, so she has tons of fascinating insight to share. So far I've reread the first two Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian. Those are the only two Chronicles we're reading in the class, so I may reread the others at some point later this year. 

I also reread Surprised By Joy: The Shape of My Early Life, which is his memoir of his life up to becoming a Christian, and how the Joy/longing/sehnsuct he felt at nature and fairytales and mythology primed him for God despite being an atheist. Unsurprisingly, Lewis also talks about his schooling, and there was just so much physical abuse and bullying throughout his childhood and adolescent schools that it's a surprise he was able to learn anything. I think I maybe last read this book in my early twenties, and of course bring different views/opinions/etc. to the reading now as an adult in my mid-thirties. Lewis's account of how he felt he had to play a certain role with his father instead of being himself I had completely forgotten; his annoyance at having to forgo his alone time and reading in order to play the dutiful son was just too real. I think his father had ADHD, given Lewis's depictions of the way he thought and acted. Some of the stuff, such as his dad's quick, confusing way of thinking and him making his sons be/sit with him constantly out of some idea of family is so much like my mom. So often during my adolescence and young adulthood I'd be holed up in my room reading and hear my mom call out, "Michelle! Come be with your family!" and it was so annoying. Justice for introverted bookish children of extroverted ADHD parents! The sheer amount of everything he read and all the languages he learned is staggering; I especially enjoyed reading about his time studying with his uber-logical tutor. 4 stars, not sure how to rate this spice-wise because while there are frank depictions of "immorality", they are just written frankly in an academic/general way and not meant to titillate. Trigger warnings: physical abuse/punishment of children, starvation of children, neglect, bullying, passive suicidal ideation, loss of parent, mentions of sexual relationships between minors/teenage boys, war mentions, bugs/insects mentions (Lewis had a phobia at least as a boy)

I'm really enjoying all the readings, and am currently making my way slowly through Mere Christianity and Out of the Silent Planet.

Ace Week books

I read these books back to back at the end of Ace Week, which is the third week of October. 

 

Loveless by Alice Oseman

This is one of the big ace books that are touted around bookstagram. I'd bought it at Target during a sale as I loved the Heartstopper show on Netflix, which is an adaptation of Oseman's series of the same name. This book has a very similar feel as the show, and it's set in the same universe (the characters go to the same high schools as the Heartstopper characters). Georgia starts university and struggles with society's and her expectations of finding and wanting love and sex. (More expanded summary) The way she's an introvert and loves fictional love and fanfiction but finds herself recoiling when faced with the prospect of PDA is so relatable. Some of her thoughts and decision-making during dating mirrors my own. Her confusion and despair were sad to read about. She also deals with friend drama, some of which she contributes to. Pip, James, Rooney and Sunil are mostly well-rounded, dynamic characters and I enjoyed spending time with them as well. Pip, a butch latina, and Sunil, Georgia's college and asexuality mentor and beautiful cinnamon roll (too good for this world, too pure) are my favorites. The love they all have for each other warmed my heart. Friendship love truly is so important. I wish I had had this book when I was in high school or college. 

4.5 out of 5 stars, 2 out of 5 chili peppers. Keeping. 

Aesthetics moodboard for Loveless

Representation: asexual, aromantic, aroace, pansexual, lesbian, Hispanic/Latine British, femme, butch/masc, South Asian British, gay (homoromantic), nonbinary, character with multiple pronouns, depression, anxiety (I don't remember if it's specifically mentioned but Georgia has it)

Trigger warnings: binge drinking, alcohol, partying, sex, depression, past toxic & controlling relationships, inferred past rape, anxiety, fire/burn accidents & minor injuries, low self-esteem, a character uses sex to make herself feel better/wanted

How to Be Ace: A Memoir of Growing Up Asexual by Rebecca Burgess

I'd seen this book around ace bookstagram a lot too before finding it at Big Gay Comic's booth at my local Pride. Rebecca Burgess writes about their experiences growing up uninterested in crushes and dating, and is in distress about being abnormal and broken, etc. due to society's messages. They find out about asexuality and write about their struggles getting others to accept and understand them, as well as dealing with anxiety and OCD. Society's pressure about dating and having sex as markers of adulthood are dwelled on a lot in this book. (Read the book summary here) Rebecca tries dating, but they hate the physical contact that is expected. You can't help but to root for Burgess as they come to understand and accept themself and find a relationship that works for them. There are a lot of similar themes to Loveless, like the aforementioned topics as well as going through college and making friends. Maybe I shouldn't have read these two books back to back in order to fully appreciate the differences, but oh well. I loved the Good Omens shout-out in this book; Burgess says they see their own asexual relationship reflected in Aziraphale's and Crowley's. I think the intended audience for this book is young adult and older, based on the mentions of sex. The drawing style is a very 'childish' style and makes the book seem younger than it is. The page where it depicts various ace approaches to sex actually has illustrations of couples engaging in these activities, and with the cutesy cartoony drawing style it kind of takes you aback. Burgess does not, as far as I can tell, also identify as aromantic, but I think it applies as they have no interest in other people or dating for a long time (and they seem to only date people they like as friends). Overall, this was a valuable book and I'm glad I read it. This is also a book I wish I'd had in high school.

4 out of 5 stars, 3 out of 5 chili peppers due to the sex mentions/illustrations. Keeping for now.

Representation: asexual, aromantic in the beginning at least, anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, sapphic relationship, possible biromanticism, protagonist is diagnosed with endometriosis towards the end of the book but it doesn't come up much

Trigger warnings: rape mention, corrective rape mention, OCD spiraling thoughts, panic attacks, anxiety, eating issues due to OCD, depression, aphobia, homophobia, ableism, poverty, going hungry, economic issues, being out of work, unhelpful therapist, sex mentions, amatonormativity, low self-esteem

Book Review: Sounds Fake But Okay by Sarah Costello & Kayla Kaszyca

'Somehow, over time, we forgot that the rituals behind dating and sex were constructs made up by human beings and eventually, they became hard and fast rules that society imposed on us all.'

True Love. Third Wheels. Dick pics. 'Dying alone'. Who decided this was normal?

Sarah and Kayla invite you to put on your purple aspec glasses - and rethink everything you thought you knew about society, friendship, sex, romance and more.

Drawing on their personal stories, and those of aspec friends all over the world, prepare to explore your microlabels, investigate different models of partnership, delve into the intersection of gender norms and compulsory sexuality and reconsider the meaning of sex - when allosexual attraction is out of the equation.

Spanning the whole range of relationships we have in our lives - to family, friends, lovers, society, our gender, and ourselves, this book asks you to let your imagination roam, and think again what human connection really is. 

I bought this book during Barnes & Noble's 25% off preorders sale, and read it for International Asexuality Day. This book is based on an asexual- and aromantic-themed podcast from two best friends, which has the same title as the book. The title is a reference to people often thinking asexual and aromantic people are making stuff up. I am not a podcast person and had never heard of SFBO, but I might just seek it out. Each chapter tackles a different topic through the lens of the asexual and aromantic spectrums: society, yourself, friendship, romance and partners, sex, family, and gender. There is a glossary of terms in the beginning of the book, which is very helpful. Some stuff was known to me and some stuff wasn't; it's not so much that I learned from this book but that a lot was affirmed for me. It's nice to spend time in a book with such a solidly a-spec point of view. I wouldn't consider this a beginner, intro to asexuality/aromanticism type of book, but would be fine to read in conjunction with such books. It's not particularly advanced either. I liked how the book included podcast listeners' experiences and perspectives, instead of just the two authors'. Sarah identifies as asexual and aromantic, and Kayla as demisexual and biromantic; both women are white and cisgender. This is a worthy addition to the pantheon of asexual and aromantic books, and I would read it in addition to other books such as Refusing Compulsory Sexuality, which is from a Black asexual lens. This was a quick read and I recommend it.

Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Read in: April 7
From: Barnes & Noble
Status: keeping

Representation: asexual and aromantic, other terms and micro-terms under those umbrellas (demisexual, demiromantic, etc.), biromantic author, other LGBTQ+ identities from submitters

Cover notes: Love it, obvs. Not sure why the sunglasses are there but they're cute. Maybe as a reference to the Deal With It meme? Oh wait the "put on your purple aspec glasses" reference in the summary.

Trigger warnings: aphobia, acephobia, homophobia, references to sexual assault and harassment, amatonormativity, allocentrism, heteronormativity, sex and hookups mentions, vomit/ing mention, JK Rowling/Harry Potter mentions, that's all I remember

Rereads of March

In March I had issues with my electricity, so I unplugged my router and modem in case that was the issue and consequently had no internet, so I watched my DVD of The Last Unicorn, which I had never seen. This made me reread the book, of course. It's such a lovely, mysterious, sad and longing-filled book. The unicorn learning she is the last, the magician being unable to touch her, the prince being in love with her as a human, and of course Molly Crue. The older I get the more I identify with her. Like her I have long desired to see a unicorn, but for me it is impossible. I am hardened by living in this world, but books like this remind me of my longing to live in fairytales. Please read this wonderful book so we can have broken hearts together. 4.5 out of 5 stars, permanent collection. Trigger warnings: death, fantasy violence, a baby is left out in the cold to die (he doesn't), kidnapping and imprisonment, virginity mentions, that thing where a beautiful woman is the object of men's love and devotion and (subliminally) desire even though she doesn't want to be (because she's a unicorn) and it's all too reminiscent of how society still teaches that women exist for men and that whole male gaze/male fantasies thing and yeah

 

I reread Something That Will Shock and Discredit You by Daniel M. Lavery for the trans rights reading challenge, and enjoyed it again. Here's my short book review from last time I read it (funnily enough also in March):

I've loved Lavery's writing ever since the old The Toast days, and will read everything he writes. I loved all the Bible references which he used as descriptive parallels to his transitioning (Jacob wrestling with God and being given a new name, etc.). He also did several of his signature retellings/reimaginings of classical poetry and literature. This book was funny and poignant and I liked it very much. 4 out of 5 stars.
     Trigger warnings for this book: dysphoria, transphobia, Bible passages, depression and anxiety, I don't remember if he mentions his dad enabling a pedophile but if he does that's definitely one

 

 

I know this is supposed to be only rereads, but I decided to throw in my last read of March, a small book about the illuminated manuscripts of the Morgan Library & Museum. I went there during my Spring break trip to New York, and it was gorgeous (I only saw the library and historic rooms as admission for those was free). I love me a museum gift shop, and I bought this book there. I love illuminated manuscripts and book history and consequently enjoyed reading this book, but because of the book's small size, the images of the illuminated manuscript pages were tiny, and it was hard to see the details. They should have made this into a regular-sized or large book for that reason (I know those exist). 4 stars, keeping. Trigger warnings: flaying mention and (cartoony) illustration, martyrdom and deaths/murder depictions, Bible stories and characters, Christianity

Book Review: Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet by Claire L. Evans

My brother, a software?* engineer, and sister-in-law bought me this book for my birthday, correctly guessing it would interest me. I was excited to receive it and then (all together now!) it sat on the shelf for several years. I decided to read it for Women's History Month. Summary below: 

The history of the internet is more than just alpha nerds, brogrammers, and male garage-to-riches billionaires. Female visionaries have always been at the vanguard of technology and innovation.

In fact, women turn up at the very beginning of every important wave in technology. They may have been hidden in plain sight, their inventions and contributions touching our lives in ways we don't even realize, but they have always been part of the story.

In a world where tech companies are still male-dominated and women are often dissuaded from STEM careers, Broad Band shines a much-needed light on the bright minds history forgot, from pioneering database poets, data wranglers, and hypertext dreamers to glass ceiling-shattering dot com-era entrepreneurs.

Get to know Ada Lovelace, who wove the first computer program in 1842, and Grace Hopper, the tenacious mathematician who democratized computing after World War II. Meet Elizabeth "Jake" Feinler, the one-woman Google who kept the earliest version of the Internet online, and Stacy Horn, the New York cyberpunk who ran one of the world's earliest social networks out of her New York City apartment in the 1980s.

Join the ranks of the pioneers who defied social convention to become leaders of the tech revolution. This electrifying corrective to tech history introduces us all to our long-overlooked tech mothers and grandmothers—showing us that if there's a "boy's club" that dominates Silicon Valley today, it's an anachronism.

The title is a pun - broadband and broad (early/mid-twentieth century slang for woman) band. A band of women gave us broadband. Sort of. They made the internet possible anyway. Claire L. Evans takes us through a brisk tour of of women's contributions to computer science and the World Wide Web/Internet (yes, those are two different things. No, I can't really explain it to you). She starts with Ada Lovelace and female computers (if you've seen Hidden Figures then you get it), going on to Grace Hopper and other awesome ladies programming and debugging computers etc. Then she goes on through the decades to talk about other awesome tech women, none of whom I had heard about. An English woman came up with working hypertext like a decade before Tim Berners-Lee did, but used a different format of internet. It's all such fascinating stuff. The internet makes perfect sense to me: stuff links to other stuff. But early tech and internet connections? Holy shit. How did they do that?!?!?

Evans covers all of this in an engaging way, neither too scientific or casual/chatty. As a journalist, Evans (who interviewed just about all of these women personally) is great at telling the stories, yet she doesn't tell us enough. I am dying to know more about these women, but there are hardly any pictures or a suggested reading list (I guess that's not necessary but always appreciated). Stuff I didn't need to know about (Grace Hopper's drinking problem) was shared while other stuff I did want to know (some of these women must have been queer, right?) was not. There are endnotes, but no little numbers in the body of the text to indicate which citation or quotation goes to which endnote (I guess we're supposed to count quoted sentences in each chapter?), which I personally think is irresponsible in a nonfiction book. 

Anyway, I really enjoyed this book and want to learn more about the awesome women who gave us the internet/WWW, allowing me share my stupid little book reviews that no one reads anyway. Thanks for everything, ladies. 

Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Read in: March 8-15
From: gift
Status: keep

Cover notes: I love the use of the motherboard (so punny) to make a lady figure, but I think the b00b parts are unnecessarily crass.

Trigger warnings for this book: sexism, institutional sexism, transphobia in the chapter about the 1980s social network, drug and alcohol use mentions, claustrophobic depictions of spelunking in caves

*my engineer brother does something on computers with coding that affects internet/app-seeming things. That is the best I can tell you. Software engineering sums it up as best as I understand it. It's all very tech-y.

July books

Ugh I am so behind on these. Anyway:

I picked up The Secret of Pembrooke Park by Julie Klassen (pickle heiress?) from my library's used book sale. It's a historical fiction, Christian Regency romance mystery. I was on the fence about it, since I don't really like Christian romance novels (they tend to be cheesy), but I do like Regency-era historical fiction and mysteries, so. You can read the book summary here. I actually enjoyed this book to the point of staying up late to finish it. I'm always rooting for a spinster heroine (solidarity), plus I love a good Gothic mystery. The mystery in this book is very solid (although not as Gothic as it initially seems), and it kept me guessing. The historical accuracy (as far as I can tell) was decent, with the situations/actions only being a little too modern or improper. The heroine loves Jane Austen novels and reads or thinks about them throughout the book. Come to think of it, this novel is a bit Persuasion-ish, what with the ignored plain oldest daughter being left to take care of an estate by herself by her vain, neglectful family. The romance was fine. I don't think a rector/curate/whatever would be that flirty back then; he was practically rake-ish. There is a Mr. Darcy-esque scene where the heroine comes across him swimming shirtless, ooh-la-la. Christian romance novels are so funny to me because they have the same sort of sexual tension/almost kissing/noticing their hot physique scenes, but immediately after they happen, the protagonist(s) is like "help me, God!" because you're not supposed to lust. It's hilarious. I'd recommend this book, but only if you're ok with Christian morals or themes. 3.5/5 stars, giving away. 

Trigger warnings for this book: murder with firearms, a character is burned via arson, mentions of a large aggressive dog(s), suspense, slight Gothic horror (that turns out to be something else)

I was so excited to get my hands on Unclobbered: Rethinking Our Misuse of the Bible on Homosexuality by Colby Martin (summary), as it deals with the "clobber verses" in the Bible that seem to condemn homosexuality and are the reason so many Christians are homophobic today. Each clobber verse is addressed in a chapter, while alternating chapters detail Colby's growth as a Christian and what happened after he started believing that it isn't a sin to be gay. The clobber verse chapters are well-researched, with Colby discussing the historical and religious context of the verses and digging into ancient Hebrew & Greek terms. The citations are in endnotes; I would have preferred footnotes, but I'll take it. However, there were a couple of verses where the end result of all that research wasn't clear. This is probably because the verses aren't that clear themselves, but it was still kind of disappointing to me since I wanted to hear "this verse is not about/does not condemn gay s3x". The other chapters were interesting, but Colby spends more than half the book talking about himself (and the gay and affirming Christians he talked to along the journey). I'm glad he's on the correct side, and I get why it was such a blow to be fired from his pastoral job when he had a big family to support, but that pales in comparison to all the queer and trans people that have been shunned or murdered or killed themselves because of what Christians believed those clobber verses said. People have been hurt by these misunderstood, mistranslated, misapplied verses, and Colby's out here whining about getting fired from a homophobic church? I found the whole "coming out of the theological closet" thing eyeroll-worthy. Christian allies' pro-gay books need to stop making it about themselves and their journeys and how great they are for being accepting. Just like with My Son, Beloved Stranger, this is a book for straight people. 3.5/5 stars, keeping for now. 

Trigger warnings for this book: homophobia, probably transphobia as well, rape and gang rape mentions (from Bible stories), cishet centering, religious abuse, gay s3x mentions (from Bible passages), Christianity

October books

The first book I read in October was Frida A-Z: The Life of an Icon from Activism to Zapotec by Nadia Bailey with illustrations by Susanna Harrison. I got it for my birthday. It's a combination alphabet picture book and biography of Frida Kahlo, where each letter stands for something important in Frida's life. Neither author nor illustrator sounds like they're Mexican (they're both Australian), and this is usually a point of concern for me. There are a lot of (white) women who love Frida Kahlo, but they often don't see past the flower crowns (which she never wore) or the pretty dresses. I feel like latinx women, especially Mexican women, are the ones who best understand what makes Frida so important and special. However, Bailey did her research, and the book did not seem surface-level at all. I actually learned a few new things from this book. When it comes to Harrison's art, however, it was lovely, but she made Frida too pink. Frida's father was German and her mother was of Spanish and indigenous descent, but she was nowhere near that level of white. Clearly Harrison chose the trendy tropical millennial pink aesthetic over actually capturing what Frida looked like (we have so many pictures of her, you guys), and in the process accidentally whitewashed her. Another drawback was that there were no sources listed for the information the author wrote! This is my #1 pet peeve for nonfiction books. Just throw in a list of sources at the end! It's not that hard! Overall, however, this is a beautiful and well thought out book that is a must-have for every Frida fan. The book candidly discusses Frida's injuries, affairs, miscarriages, and bisexuality*, so I wouldn't recommend this as a children's book (it's probably fine for junior high aged kids). 4/5 stars, keeping. Trigger warnings for this book: miscarriages mentions, horrific injury description, body horror, infidelity, smoking, alcohol mention (I think), nudity in some of the art. 

 

The next two October books, which I'm grouping together, are The Home Edit and The Home Edit Life by Clea Shearer & Joanna Teplin. I love organizing and cleaning shows, such as the Marie Kondo show on Netflix, so when I saw Netflix had come out with another similar show, The Home Edit, I had to watch it. Needless to say, I became obsessed, and bought their two books immediately from Barnes & Noble and Target. Similar to the show, the books show off celebrities' huge and beautifully organized kitchens, pantries, closets, etc., and Clea & Joanna share organizing tips to maximize space and display items. There is so much organization p0rn, you guys. I love the books and their rainbow pages, and Clea & Joanna are a delight. My only wish is that they had clearly outlined and depicted exactly the kinds of canisters, boxes, storage organizers, etc. they used, with ideas of how to use each one. If it weren't for the TV show where they show you how they organize rooms, this would be a major drawback for me. However, if you love organizing and Marie Kondo, I'd definitely recommend these books. 4.5/5 and 4/5 stars, respectively; the first THE book gets an extra half star because most pictures include lists of items used for containing. Trigger warnings: none that I can remember

 

*obviously I don't think bisexuality is something to hide from the children! some kids are bi. People are bi, Steven. I just know how some parents get

July-September books

 Wow, I really haven't posted in a while, haven't I? I didn't read any books in June.

I picked up triple threat & bicon Alan Cumming's memoir, Not My Father's Son, from the dollar store and read it in July. It's about his childhood under the thumb of his terrifying, abusive father, and about him learning about his estranged WWII veteran grandfather by going on a celebrity genealogy TV show, drawing parallels between both of these stories. This book was difficult to read due to the abuse, but it was so good, and it's clear Cumming is in a good place now and going to therapy and stuff. He's an excellent writer, and I'm glad I read this book. 4/5 stars, giving away. Trigger warnings for this book: child abuse, physical abuse, violence, suicide mention, emotional abuse, trauma, domestic abuse, alcoholism, PTSD mention, firearm misuse mention, infidelity, I can't remember any more

 

August's first book was Samantha Irby's We Are Never Meeting In Real Life. I've read her first book of memoir essays, Meaty, and this was just as good and gross and hilarious and sad as that. She writes about her relationships (including with her now-wife), IBS, her cat and her job which she hates, her father dying, and more. I follow Sam on social media and she is a delight. 4/5 stars, keeping (bought this one from Target). Trigger warnings for this book: death, alcoholism, gross body stuff, sexually explicit scenes, depression I think, racism I think

 

Next I read another dollar store book, The History of Food in 101 Objects. This book was very interesting, with a lot of food and food production facts and colorful photographs. I wish there had been a bibliography or reference list; as a librarian, I side-eye any nonfiction book that doesn't say where their information came from. You don't have to have in-text citations! Just throw a list of your sources in at the end! No one will read it anyway! There is also no listed author, which was weird to me. Another weird thing: I am not sure of the intended audience for this book. Is it for kids? Is it for adults? It works and doesn't work for both. Either way, it's a great bathroom book. 3.5/5 stars, giving away. No triggers that I can think of, unless you have food-based triggers

 

My September book (also from the dollar store) was Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler, which is a modern-day retelling of The Taming of the Shrew. They updated the story by having the main character Kate's love interest be her father's research assistant Pyotr who needs to get married to an American to get a green card. I thought this was incredibly selfish of her father to just offer her up just because she was single, even for someone who lived entirely in the world of the mind. It made me sad how he cared way more about his research than his daughters. Kate really isn't a shrew, just extremely honest/blunt and lacking in social skills (possibly on the autism spectrum, as well as her dad), and her 15 year old sister Bunny is pulled straight out of a 1950s teen dream movie or something. Her name is Bunny, for starters, which is in no way an actual nickname for Berenice or whatever, she's always on the landline phone with boys, and she twirls her hair around her finger and says stuff like "isn't it nice of you to say so?" to them. Nobody born after 1970 talks like that. She has an older boyfriend who is 19, and no one besides Kate sees how creepy and wrong that is. The dad does not care and does nothing. Kate decides to go through with the wedding because she wants a different life for herself and Pyotr says he'll put her through grad school. The wedding is completely disastrous, with Pyotr showing that he cares more about the research then anything else, even though the book was trying to convince us that he liked her. Kate's big "men should dominate women, actually" speech in the Shakespeare play is changed to "it's really hard to be a man because they can't talk about their feelings and aren't given social tools to deal with them like women are". Which, whatever. Overall, I mostly liked Kate and the way her work at a preschool was written about, as well as the observations about how people Kate knew became way nicer to her once they learned she's engaged. Society really loves it when women conform to its roles for them. Overall, kind of disappointed in the book, although the writing is good. I'd read more from this author. It may interest you to learn that the book is part of a series, Hogarth Shakespeare series, that is all modern retellings of Shakespeare plays. 3.5/5 stars, giving away. Cover notes: I like this one better than my copy. Trigger warnings for this book: parental neglect and selfishness, adult dating a teenager, one character punches another (but he deserves it), mention of death from heart condition (I think)

Rest of March books

So the whole coronavirus thing happened, and I learned that I only blog regularly to procrastinate at work. I also have not been reading more, despite having all this time at home. I did rearrange my square cube bookcase though. It's now between my living and office spaces, and it's perfect as a divider because I have my rainbow books on one side, and my DVDs and CDs and other things on the other side that faces my office.

I purchased and read Daniel Lavery's memoir Something That May Shock and Discredit You in the same week (!!!), which never happens (I won and used an Amazon giftcard). I've loved Lavery's writing ever since the old The Toast days, and will read everything he writes. I loved all the Bible references which he used as descriptive parallels to his transitioning (Jacob wrestling with God and being given a new name, etc.). He also did several of his signature retellings/reimaginings of classical poetry and literature. This book was funny and poignant and I liked it very much. 4 out of 5 stars.
       Trigger warnings for this book: dysphoria, transphobia, Bible passages, depression and anxiety, I don't remember if he mentions his dad enabling a pedophile but if he does that's definitely one


I decided to get over my reading slump by reading an easy children's book, Oddfellow's Orphanage by Emily Winfield Martin (who also illustrated it). It's an early chapter book about a little albino girl who comes to an orphanage, and all the other children and staff that she comes to know there. It's a very gentle, retro and fantasy flavored story, with hints of sadness as of course the children are all orphans. I followed Winfield Martin's art blog, The Black Apple, for years, and I remember the individual portraits of the characters from years ago. She did all the portraits, then came up with a story to tie them all together. These portraits, along with a short biography, are at the beginning of each chapter. I don't actually know her, but I'm very proud of her for becoming a children's book writer and illustrator. I hope she writes more Oddfellow's Orphanage books, as I loved living in the world of the book. Highly recommended for children who can handle a bit of sadness in a book (some of the orphans' families were murdered, and the character bios say so in a non-descriptive but straightforward way). 4.5 out of 5 stars.
       Trigger warnings for this book: murder mentions, death mentions, grief, a character has a brief aggressive episode where he cuts off a girl's braid without her consent

Book review: Palimpsest by Gore Vidal

I was not planning on buying Palimpsest from the library booksale, but once I started reading it I had to. It is Gore Vidal's memoir about his life, based more on his memories as they come than on historical facts. Gore, who died a few years ago, came from a political dynasty family (Al Gore is a distant cousin; Gore Vidal dropped his first name to go by his mother's and father's surnames as a teenager) and was related by marriage to the Kennedys. He was also friends with fellow gay writer Tennessee Williams, Eleanor Roosevelt, Leonard Bernstein, and countless other literary, political, and Hollywood luminaries. His life story isn't really told chronologically, as he shares memories as they come to him, like when you're talking to someone and they backtrack. Far from sounding absentminded, Gore Vidal's voice is steady, sure of himself, sometimes serious and sometimes delightfully bitchy. I read this expecting to read lots of zingers and shade, and I was not disappointed.
A palimpsest is "a manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain", according to the dictionary. It's a term I came across in library school, and that's what attracted me to this book. At turns funny, sad, and explicit, I'd recommend it if you like old Hollywood and literary gossip or have read every other Kennedy book out there and want something from another perspective. I enjoyed it but won't be keeping this one.

Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Read in: mid April-late May
From: the library booksale
Format: paperback
Status: giving away

Book review: Women and Girls with Autism Spectrum Disorder by Sarah Hendrickx

April was Autism Awareness Month, and I spotted this book in an autism-themed listicle from Book Riot (I think). My sister works with autistic kids, and I have some neurodivergence of my own, so I ordered this book from Link+, my library's book-lending consortium. I'm going to cheat and put the synopsis from Amazon:

The difference that being female makes to the diagnosis, life and experiences of a person with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has largely gone unresearched and unreported until recently. In this book Sarah Hendrickx has collected both academic research and personal stories about girls and women on the autism spectrum to present a picture of their feelings, thoughts and experiences at each stage of their lives. 

Outlining how autism presents differently and can hide itself in females and what the likely impact will be for them throughout their lifespan, the book looks at how females with ASD experience diagnosis, childhood, education, adolescence, friendships, sexuality, employment, pregnancy and parenting, and aging. It will provide invaluable guidance for the professionals who support these girls and women and it will offer women with autism a guiding light in interpreting and understanding their own life experiences through the experiences of others.

I thought this book very interesting and informative, and I think it would be helpful for autistic women*, parents of autistic daughters, and medical professionals and therapists, etc. I found the personal stories very interesting, and I think they would be helpful for anyone on the autistic spectrum. Social skills have never been my strong suit, so I identified with some of the stories and things the girls and women struggled with. The research was also interesting, but many of the studies were done with few girls, so it's hard to make an impact in autism research that way. More studies with autistic girls and women need to be done. Medical professionals and therapists especially should be educated more; there were stories of dismissive doctors etc. that made my blood boil. It wouldn't hurt if early childhood educators were educated on developmental disorders as well. 

Overall, I liked this book and found it helpful, although I would have liked to see some questionnaires in the back of the book or something to help readers gauge if they or a loved one/patient might be autistic. Recommended.

*usually with disabilities you're supposed to use people-first language (e.g. 'people with disabilities' rather than 'disabled people'), but I read that many autistic people prefer to be called 'autistic people' because it's part of their identity. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details so lmk if I'm wrong.

Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Read in: late April to early-mid May
From: Link+, my library
Format: paperback
Status: returned

Book review: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris

The first book I read in January/this year was Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris, which was his usual type of awkward and sometimes funny personal essays. The only really funny story in the collection was the one where he talks about the Swedish? version of Santa Claus and how weird it is (to Americans). There were other stories that had funny parts in them, but the secondhand embarrassment or shock I felt reading the stories outweighed any entertainment I got. For example, there was one story where as a child, David stuffed as much Halloween candy in his face as he could in order to not have to share it with the neighbor kids. That is kind of funny to picture, but it's sad because it was selfish. There was also a story where he talked about his experience working cleaning houses as a young man, and a client thought he was from a male maid escort service and sexually harassed him. Again, not funny to me.

Overall, I felt the same "...ok..." indifference that I felt with the last book of his that I read, Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls. I think the reason I'm no longer a big fan of his writing is mostly due to the vastly diminished amount of indulgence I feel towards white cisgender male authors, as well as the cavalier and unexplored racial views a Southern man of his generation has. David also seems to share a lot of embarrassing and personal stories about his family even though they specifically tell him not to, which I didn't like. It's one thing to exorcise your personal demons through highly personal essays, but it's another to air your family's dirty laundry. He even writes one essay where his sister shared a sad story with him, burst into tears, and then told him not to write about it! I would strangle him if he were my brother.

The cover is a close-up photo of a naked Barbie doll's torso. I don't know if it's a reference to an earlier book by David, Naked, but it doesn't have anything to do with any of the stories (that I remember). Because of this cover, I read this book at home and did not bring it to work.

Score: 3.4 out of 5 stars
Read in: early January
From: thrift store
Format: paperback
Status: giving away

July-September 2017 books

I didn’t read very much at all these last 3 months. I was just super busy and worked throughout the summer.

The first book I started in June was The Moor, a Sherlock Holmes book by Laurie R. King where he and his wife, Mary Russell, solve a mystery in the moor. I know, right? I totally thought this was going to be derivative fanfiction and that Mary was going to be a Mary Sue (pun unintended). This book was actually really good, very well written, and it did not trample on the Sherlock Holmes legacy. Mary is this badass Jewish feminist scholar and she wears trousers and keeps her last name in the 1920s! She takes over the Watson role, helping Sherlock and being the narrator of the novel. The only thing I didn’t like was that the ending was pretty abrupt. I actually want to read the rest of the series. 4/5

After that was Highland Fling, a historical romance novel by Amanda Scott that had more history than romance. The romance was pretty uneven and typical (headstrong redhead and this older rich dude who resists his attraction to her then is like ‘I’m going to tame you’, gag me with a spoon), but the historical stuff was interesting. England’s dickishness in taking over other countries is well known, but I hadn’t heard much about how it was for Scotland. Anyway this was ok and whiled away the time. 3.5/5

I decided to start reading books from my ever-growing to-read list, and checked out All the Single Ladies: unmarried women and the rise of an independent nation by Rebecca Traister from my library. This book did not disappoint: it talked about the views and roles of single women (mostly in the US) and the changes they’ve made in this country and culture. It was so good and affirming to read about all the kickass ladies out there who didn’t get married and had good, fulfilling lives, as well as women who today are dealing with various aspects of being single. I liked that Traister followed up with the women she interviewed for the book so that we could see where they were a few years later at the time of publication. The author is currently married with kids but was single well into her late twenties, so she gets it. I may buy this book for my own library. 4/5

The last book of this trimester is Morality for Beautiful Girls, the third book of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. He is British, and I am usually very suspicious of books set in countries the author is not from, and of books with characters of color when the author is white, but Wikipedia says he was born in Zimbabwe and worked in Botswana as an adult, so it appears he knows his stuff. The books (I’ve read another book in this series many years ago) sound like he’s done his research, and have colloquisms and the like. Mma Precious Ramotswe runs a detective agency with her assistant Mma Grace Makutsi and is called upon to solve all sorts of mysteries. In just this book MFBG, the duo must (together and/or separately) determine if a government man’s brother is being poisoned by his wife, figure out where a feral child found in the bush came from, run the detective agency and Mma Ramotswe’s fiance’s auto repair shop simultaneously, try to figure out why the fiance, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, is acting the way he is, and detect if any of the contestants of a local beauty and morality contest are, in fact, immoral. This is a lot of plots going on, but McCall Smith handles them all well. The characters are very well written, interesting and likeable. I want to read the rest of the series but since there are like 17, I’ll stick to getting them from the library. 4.4/5