November review for Book Riot's Read Harder 2017: The Law of Love by Laura Esquivel (Translation Margaret Sayers Peden), 1995. [book set in Central or South America, written by a Central or South American author category]
Boo. I didn't finish reading The Law of Love. I got 20 pages in and was pretty mad/uncomfortable, so I decided to just put it aside and spend my precious reading time on something else. I tried. It was touted as a Mexican Midsummer Night's Dream, but the half-page diatribe about souls filling each other like a man filling a woman, like the only way to be truly whole was heteronormative, penetrative sex, and I just didn't like it. Maybe I'm being a little too obtuse, a little too reactionary, but if that was my visceral response after 20 pages, I don't think I'd be able to make it through the rest of it. If 2017 has taught me anything, it's that I don't need to hold on and slog through something that doesn't give me joy or teach me something positive. There is too much other, meaningful work to get through to waste time on something I am not going to get anything out of.
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
OCT - I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
October review for Book Riot's Read Harder 2017: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, 1969. [classic by an author of color category]
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is a beautiful book. I'd read portions of it in school over the years, but I'd never had the chance to sit down and read it in its entirety. I love the relationship that Maya Angelou has with language, and it was thrilling to see that develop on the page as she told her own story. It details her tumultuous childhood, the many trials and tribulations that hardened her against the world and how she freed herself from them. She tells of being shuffled around from house to house, the sexual assault she experienced when she was barely old enough to know what it was, the race relations in the various places she lived.
Maya Angelou is a strong, phenomenal woman, and her story remains a classic across the years. I would argue that it is particularly appropriate in today's societal climate, with the groundswell behind sexual assault survivors and women of color, two groups that have been systematically denigrated for decades. I feel that I came to this book at an appropriate time, and while the year of awareness has been great, it is long overdue and needs to be amplified. I hope in some small way to contribute to that amplification.
Maya Angelou is a strong, phenomenal woman, and her story remains a classic across the years. I would argue that it is particularly appropriate in today's societal climate, with the groundswell behind sexual assault survivors and women of color, two groups that have been systematically denigrated for decades. I feel that I came to this book at an appropriate time, and while the year of awareness has been great, it is long overdue and needs to be amplified. I hope in some small way to contribute to that amplification.
OCT - A Knight To Remember
October review for Book Riot's Read Harder 2017: A Knight To Remember by Bridget Essex, 2014. [LGBTQ+ romance novel category]
We were pretty pumped to find a cheesy lesbian romance novel to read on our road trips, but we were a little disappointed in this one. First of all, the premise is that this woman has been with her partner for FOUR years and they haven't moved in together? What? It was hard to suspend our disbelief for that, but we managed.
OK. General Rundown. A Knight To Remember is about Holly, a lesbian librarian (lesbrarian?) who is in an unhappy relationship with a terrible woman who loves her cell phone and her startup more than her girlfriend. After a disastrous evening at the Renaissance Fest, Holly finds a mysterious and magical lady knight in her backyard during a storm and falls for her immediately--because she sounds pretty awesome. Turns out Virago (the knight) accidentally came here from her world while fighting a beast, which also happens to be here, and so they have to find it and finish it off. Just your typical romance quest. (Keep in mind that Virago is pretty much everything Holly has ever wanted in a woman but was so OK with settling that she never thought to look for. And she's still *technically* dating that other woman.)
So. I really wanted to like this book. I think it could've been so good. It had all the trappings! But I had to wait 236 pages for even a damn kiss, which is not something I look for in a romance novel. Also, I'm unsure anyone proofread this book, or told the author that when she found a phrase she liked, she probably shouldn't use it eight more times in the span of two pages. (I had writer problems with this book.) There is a happy ending and a relatively accurate and female gaze-centered sex scene, although only one. Maybe sometime I'll get drunk and judgey and read the sequel?
OK. General Rundown. A Knight To Remember is about Holly, a lesbian librarian (lesbrarian?) who is in an unhappy relationship with a terrible woman who loves her cell phone and her startup more than her girlfriend. After a disastrous evening at the Renaissance Fest, Holly finds a mysterious and magical lady knight in her backyard during a storm and falls for her immediately--because she sounds pretty awesome. Turns out Virago (the knight) accidentally came here from her world while fighting a beast, which also happens to be here, and so they have to find it and finish it off. Just your typical romance quest. (Keep in mind that Virago is pretty much everything Holly has ever wanted in a woman but was so OK with settling that she never thought to look for. And she's still *technically* dating that other woman.)
So. I really wanted to like this book. I think it could've been so good. It had all the trappings! But I had to wait 236 pages for even a damn kiss, which is not something I look for in a romance novel. Also, I'm unsure anyone proofread this book, or told the author that when she found a phrase she liked, she probably shouldn't use it eight more times in the span of two pages. (I had writer problems with this book.) There is a happy ending and a relatively accurate and female gaze-centered sex scene, although only one. Maybe sometime I'll get drunk and judgey and read the sequel?
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
SEPT - Patsy Walker A.K.A. Hellcat! #1 Hooked on a Feline
September review for Book Riot's Read Harder 2017: Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat! #1 Hooked on a Feline by Kate Leth and Brittney Williams, 2015. [superhero comic with a female lead category]
I. Love. Kate. Leth. I was introduced to her through Buffering the Vampire Slayer, a podcast where two fantastic women who happen to be wives watch and discuss every episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and ever since then, I've been obsessed. Kate Leth wrote the story for this new run of Marvel's Hellcat, and it is just a blast. Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat! #1 Hooked on a Feline revamps Patsy Walker, aka Hellcat, whom most people today might know from Netflix's series Jessica Jones. But this Patsy is a very different one from the gritty MCU bombshell played by Rachael Taylor (and her name isn't Trish). This Patsy is a superhero who needs a job and an apartment but she lives in NYC so it's difficult. She wants to start a temp agency for superheroes so they can use their powers for good, and she's got some superpowered friends on the line to help her out. She tries to find a job, and lands at the One Stop Crop Top Shop in the mall, a place that I wish was a real thing (Kate Leth, quit playing games with my heart!). The first volume of Hellcat follows her in medias res, trying to craft a relatively normal life for herself, but a bygone foe has other plans. I really enjoyed this first installment. I love Kate Leth, and I can't wait to finish her other feel-good Hellcat stories.
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| I want to go to there. |
Thursday, November 9, 2017
SEPT - Redefining Realness
September review for Book Riot's Read Harder 2017: Redefining Realness by Janet Mock, 2014. [book where a character of color goes on a spiritual journey category]
Remember when I mentioned sometimes I stretch the categories a little? This is another one of those times. Janet Mock never refers to her life as undergoing a "spiritual journey," but it seems to me that any journey of self-discovery may qualify as spiritual. I identify as a relatively spiritual person, believing in the universe and something Else out there that gives us meaning, and finding out how we as individuals fit in is highly spiritual to me. But I digress, slightly.
Redefining Realness is Janet Mock's story, about growing up multiracial, poor, and trans in America. It follows her from her youth to the winter of her gender confirmation surgery. She calls on a number of black women role models such as characters from Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and the poet Audre Lorde. Janet is raw and holds very little back as she embarks on telling her story, her journey to come to terms with her self and her changing world. Realness as a concept is very particular to humanity, it's just easier for cis people: being Real or being true to oneself makes no waves when you exist comfortably within the lines of the societal binary, but when you exist, as Janet does, in a differently-viewed space, being Real becomes a thousand times harder.
Janet Mock learned early on that she could live her Truth with a capital T and fought hard for her right to get it. I loved reading her story, although I hate that some of the decisions she had to make were necessary. I have a few trans friends, and they have relayed to me the difficulty of simply existing as a transperson, and I have taken it upon myself as a good ally to learn and advocate and do better in my own life. Janet Mock is inspiring, and humans like her are working hard all over to make this country better: with this week's election, a huge number of trans*folks made history: Lisa Middleton, first transgender person elected to a non-judicial office in California; Andrea Jenkins, first transgender person of color elected to public office in US (Minneapolis City Council); and Danica Roem, first *openly* transgender person elected and seated to a state legislature (Virginia House)--beating out the incumbent who wrote the hurtful trans bathroom bill. People are out there, doing the work, and it is the very least we can do to learn and support them.
Redefining Realness is Janet Mock's story, about growing up multiracial, poor, and trans in America. It follows her from her youth to the winter of her gender confirmation surgery. She calls on a number of black women role models such as characters from Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and the poet Audre Lorde. Janet is raw and holds very little back as she embarks on telling her story, her journey to come to terms with her self and her changing world. Realness as a concept is very particular to humanity, it's just easier for cis people: being Real or being true to oneself makes no waves when you exist comfortably within the lines of the societal binary, but when you exist, as Janet does, in a differently-viewed space, being Real becomes a thousand times harder.
Janet Mock learned early on that she could live her Truth with a capital T and fought hard for her right to get it. I loved reading her story, although I hate that some of the decisions she had to make were necessary. I have a few trans friends, and they have relayed to me the difficulty of simply existing as a transperson, and I have taken it upon myself as a good ally to learn and advocate and do better in my own life. Janet Mock is inspiring, and humans like her are working hard all over to make this country better: with this week's election, a huge number of trans*folks made history: Lisa Middleton, first transgender person elected to a non-judicial office in California; Andrea Jenkins, first transgender person of color elected to public office in US (Minneapolis City Council); and Danica Roem, first *openly* transgender person elected and seated to a state legislature (Virginia House)--beating out the incumbent who wrote the hurtful trans bathroom bill. People are out there, doing the work, and it is the very least we can do to learn and support them.
Thursday, November 2, 2017
AUG - Hell Hath No Fury
August review for Book Riot's Read Harder 2017: Hell Hath No Fury by Rosalind Miles and Robin Cross, 2008. [book about war category]
I found Hell Hath No Fury: True Stories of Women at War from Antiquity to Iraq buried in a used bookstore years ago, and it sounded just up my alley. Like many books, though, it was relegated to the ever-stagnant, ever-increasing TBR pile, until a challenge such as this provokes me to dig through what I've got.
I was intrigued to read a book about war that focused on women's contributions, both of body and mind, but from the get-go, Hell Hath was difficult to get through. For one, the organization irked me. It was not necessarily set up chronologically, although I did enjoy the different sections on different kinds of contributions to war throughout history. There was just so much information, and it was presented relatively drily, sometimes very repetitively. It felt more like a reference book, which is all well and good but not what I thought I had signed up for. As soon as I got into a particularly juicy or inspiring anecdote, it was time to wrap up and roll onto the next entry. I would've liked some longer time spent on the actual individuals.
This is not to say that I did not like this book, only that I felt it could've been presented better. There were aspects I really liked, especially the fact that the authors they included all kinds of women, not just those historically considered "GOOD." For example, there were spotlights on Nazi officers and Lynndie England of the Abu Ghraib catastrophe. It was good to get a well-rounded cast of characters, but I feel like this book was just that, trying to be *too* well-rounded. I want more specificity, more richness and detail, and it just wasn't possible with the scope of this book. Ultimately I am glad that I have this information now, but it was a bit of a chore to get there.
I found Hell Hath No Fury: True Stories of Women at War from Antiquity to Iraq buried in a used bookstore years ago, and it sounded just up my alley. Like many books, though, it was relegated to the ever-stagnant, ever-increasing TBR pile, until a challenge such as this provokes me to dig through what I've got.
I was intrigued to read a book about war that focused on women's contributions, both of body and mind, but from the get-go, Hell Hath was difficult to get through. For one, the organization irked me. It was not necessarily set up chronologically, although I did enjoy the different sections on different kinds of contributions to war throughout history. There was just so much information, and it was presented relatively drily, sometimes very repetitively. It felt more like a reference book, which is all well and good but not what I thought I had signed up for. As soon as I got into a particularly juicy or inspiring anecdote, it was time to wrap up and roll onto the next entry. I would've liked some longer time spent on the actual individuals.
This is not to say that I did not like this book, only that I felt it could've been presented better. There were aspects I really liked, especially the fact that the authors they included all kinds of women, not just those historically considered "GOOD." For example, there were spotlights on Nazi officers and Lynndie England of the Abu Ghraib catastrophe. It was good to get a well-rounded cast of characters, but I feel like this book was just that, trying to be *too* well-rounded. I want more specificity, more richness and detail, and it just wasn't possible with the scope of this book. Ultimately I am glad that I have this information now, but it was a bit of a chore to get there.
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