What I’m Reading…

Book Review: Memoirs of a Polar Bear by Yōko Tawada

personby Amy Casey
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Memoirs of a Polar BearMemoirs of a Polar Bear by Yōko Tawada
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Memoirs of a Polar Bear travels to depths of weirdness that few books ever do, but it still manages to touch something primal and moving. Tawada’s prose is a whimsical dance that cartwheels from social commentary to absurdist humor to magical realism and probably eighteen other places that I missed along the way as I was puzzling over the blurred narrative boundaries that travel from bear brain to human soul, sometimes within the same creature, sometimes between two creatures of the same mind. Tawada’s message lands somewhere in the realm of commenting on our desire as humans to perform our lives for others, so as to have something to write down in the story of our lives. It also addresses the natural and unnatural bonds between humanity and animal kind. But it also includes things like a bear hallucinating the mentoring ghost of Michael Jackson in a broken computer monitor, so… either this book is totally brilliant, or Tawada just got away with writing whatever came into her brain and calling it a novel. Take it as you will.

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Book Review: An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

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An Unkindness of GhostsAn Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Rivers Solomon tears onto the sci-fi scene with this assured, gutsy debut. The best thing about An Unkindness of Ghosts is how its characters transcend labels and tell their own stories. Their varied experiences, representing a much wider cross-section of actual human experience than is typical in a science fiction adventure, are told through their own voices with authenticity and an aggressive lack of apology. The novel, setting the social structure and generational trauma of the antebellum South aboard a far-future nation ship bound for a new world, takes the lurking shadows of American history and gives them the whole of space for a haunting ground. The pace is really interesting–slow and fast at the same time. I think it will take a while before all my impressions of this unique novel solidify, but I know I haven’t seen a heroine like Aster before. Solomon breaks new ground with An Unkindness of Ghosts.

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Book Review: The Sport of Kings by C.E. Morgan

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The Sport of Kings: A NovelThe Sport of Kings: A Novel by C.E. Morgan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Sport of Kings was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2017, and it has a horse on the cover. These two things compelled me to purchase and read it immediately. However, I had no idea what I was in for. This novel is simply torrential. After finishing the last page, I sat there stupefied on my couch and then sobbed for a full twenty minutes. The story is layered with generations of shame, filled with imprisonment both physical and mental, and a study in the exploitation that comes with corrupted understandings of parenthood, race, gender, nature, and self. The story is terrible and gorgeous as a tyrant. I am in absolute awe of C. E. Morgan, even though her indelible writing obliterated my heart.

This review is inadequate, but luckily Jaimy Gordon wrote a far better one for The New York Times for your consideration.

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Book Review: My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

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My Sister's KeeperMy Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My Sister’s Keeper is melodrama done well, with a side of interesting ethical quandaries. The premise itself is the book’s biggest strength–should a young woman who was born for the purpose of being a blood and organ donor to her leukemia-stricken sister be allowed medical emancipation from her parents, even if it’s at the cost of her sister’s life? It’s fascinating and emotionally taxing territory to ponder. This is the chess board upon which Jodi Picoult plays her pieces: characters who have exaggerated, caricature-like personalities but also moving, true inner dialogues that almost make up for it. Some of the plot conveniences are certainly too convenient to be believed, but they create a resulting environment of heightened emotion that sets Picoult up to spike her best moments right into reader’s hearts. While elements of the story itself were overwrought, certain truths about parenthood, sisterhood, and human rights get explored along the way, and make this novel worth the quick read.

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Book Review: Radium Girls by Kate Moore

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The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining WomenThe Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Kate Moore’s monumental dedication in researching the lives of the radium dial painters makes this incredible book what it is. She writes their stories with sensitivity and fidelity, imbued always with the deep admiration that compelled her to take on the project of writing Radium Girls. Detailing the obscene negligence of the radium companies of the 1920s and the carnage that followed in its wake, this book is a battle cry from the past that’s long overdue. I was transfixed and educated in the process of reading–Moore leaves no small detail unturned. The dial painting women are resurrected in these pages, and the reader learns about their everyday moments and concerns as much as about the unbelievable physical torments that they underwent. “Lip, dip, paint” becomes a chilling refrain as Moore shines a harsh light on a moment in history that birthed many of the workers’ protections that our country now provides. This is a stunning piece of non-fiction that pays a loving tribute to its subjects, making them completely impossible to forget.

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Book Review: The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg

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The Encyclopedia of Early EarthThe Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Do you remember being a kid, somewhere around 10 years old, and just getting lost in your own imagination for hours–inventing islands, monsters, and great journeys? Taking themes from stories or movies and re-casting yourself in the hero’s role? That feeling is exactly what reading this delightful graphic novel feels like. Isabel Greenberg’s The Encyclopedia of Early Earth is filled with the warmest cold weather tales you’ll ever witness. That warmth comes equally from her hilarious subtle humor, illustrations that are somehow gorgeous and adorable at once, and the rich well of myth that she pulls her source material from. This is not a story that makes sense… not really. It’s more about the role of storytelling itself in culture and in our lives. The power to save our lives and make people fall in love lies within Greenberg’s mischievous, ambitious pages. I can’t imagine a more wonderful thing to read.

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Book Review: The Grip of It by Jac Jemc

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The Grip of ItThe Grip of It by Jac Jemc
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jac Jemc’s The Grip of It is where Southern Gothic meets millennial anxiety, and it’s a match made in the depths of hell. Of course, that’s exactly the point of this wholly disturbing psychological thrill ride. Jemc plays so intelligently with the fear that preys on coincidence and misperception–is that stain getting larger? Does anyone else hear that faint humming sound? Was that shadow I saw for a split second actually real, or just my imagination? When we can’t trust our own judgment, our minds can start to unravel, and Jemc builds that sense of disease so slowly that the reader almost doesn’t realize it before it’s too late. One of the delicious torments of this novel is the uncertainty that permeates every moment, which Jemc balances with indelible images of haunting that will make you hug a pillow for dear life as you read. Read it as an allegory of a dishonest marriage or just a good old-fashioned haunted house story. Either way, it’s creepily, deeply enjoyable.

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Book Review: Iron Gold by Pierce Brown

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Iron Gold (Red Rising, #4)Iron Gold by Pierce Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I fell back into the world of the Red Rising saga like an iron rain. As someone who is already firmly ensconced in Brown’s work, I came to this novel ready to love it, and it did not disappoint. All the trademark features of the series are here: counterplots, twists that stop in their tracks and add a backflip on for good measure, and a heaping helping each of pageantry and violence. What’s new here is the added element of over a decade of time, which allows Brown to show Darrow as a man who must now reap the consequences of the social unrest that his war has spurred. The emotional depth of the story offers new and interesting views of beloved characters–children grow up, warlords tire of war, liberated people find themselves in new types of slavery, the downtrodden grow talons, and old feuds get even older. I enjoyed the three perspective technique present in the new trilogy, which helps us consider more sides in the fractured society that Brown presents. Another amazing ride. Pierce Brown’s brain amazes me, and I’m so happy he stays just sane enough to continue to bring his world to the masses. Counting down the days until the next novel comes out! Note: I would not recommend reading this book without first reading the previous three. The family trees and various alliances are maddeningly complicated at this point, but having the previous trilogy as a primer provides an anchor.

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Book Review: Walking Your Octopus by Brian Kesinger

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Walking Your Octopus: A Guidebook to the Domesticated CephalopodWalking Your Octopus: A Guidebook to the Domesticated Cephalopod by Brian Kesinger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This guidebook is an absolute delight for the eyes and the mind, whether you’re a Victorian about town or a cephalapod waiting for its forever home. The charms of these whimsical illustrations are unlimited, and I can’t wait to get my hands on Kesinger’s subsequent octo-oriented titles! I smiled the whole way through.

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Book Review: Kenobi by John Jackson Miller

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Kenobi (Star Wars)Kenobi by John Jackson Miller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Kenobi is the first Star Wars installment that I’ve read since the transition to the rebooted Legends canon, and it was a natural choice because (in my opinion), Obi-Wan’s character is the single shining gem to emerge from Episodes I-III. This adventure picks up right at the end of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and presents Ben Kenobi’s transition to Tatooine life in the form of a space western. It’s an engaging adventure story that is absorbing and fun, but ultimately forgettable. I wish there would have been more scenes actually involving Ben, since he’s left as an enigma on the side of what is really a settler’s story. Miller doesn’t let us get close, and I think that’s on purpose. While I understand the move to keep the mystery surrounding his character sacred, I’ll simply counter with this: the book is called Kenobi. I was hoping the novel would take his point of view as its guiding force, but I guess I’ll just have to keep daydreaming about Obi-Wan’s forgotten years in my free time. That being said, enjoyable romp of a book.

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