Recent book finishes: Girl Giant and the Monkey King, a middle-grade novel about a girl from California who moves to Alabama. Her mom’s Vietnamese, her dad’s AWOL, and she deals with multiple layers of culture shock as well as incredible supernatural strength, and that’s before the Monkey King shows up. It’s reasonably well-written, but didn’t blow me away.
Realm of Ash is the second in a series of novels set in a fantasy world based on India. A real asshole of a ruler imprisons an ethnic minority and uses their dreams to control daiva, or something like that. The series is heavy on the romance and on the characters’ brooding over what the right thing to do is. I dig that kind of stuff. It’s well-written and exciting.
As a read-aloud for my twelve-year-old, I’m currently rereading Railsea, China Mieville’s simultaneous homage to trainspotting culture and Moby Dick. It’s way weirder than it sounds (trains crisscross an ocean of railroads built by who-knows-who, hunting enormous and deadly whales, and then it gets strange), and Mieville’s irrepressible delight in wordplay is absolutely a blast to read out loud. I’m loving it.
I read that a few years ago. Very good effort. I like his two James Bond books too. I would say I like those novels where he takes on an existing character than some of his original works. The Diamond Brothers series of his was very fun though. My kids loved those growing up.
Finished The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal About Aliens–and Ourselves, by Arik Kershenbaum. I’d already read almost all of this material elsewhere, but it’s well-written, and I’d recommend it for anyone interested in evolution, especially high school students.
Now I’m reading a YA novel by Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land.
Finished The Last Apocalypse: Europe at the Year 1000 A.D., by James Reston Jr. Published in 1998, it was a decent overview of Europe at the cusp of the previous millennium and the apocalyptic worries that went with it.
Next up is The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A Memoir of Friendship, Loyalty, and War, by John “Chick” Donohue and JT Molloy. A true story out of the Vietnam War. At this very moment, Russell Crowe and Zac Efron are in Thailand filming a movie version of the book. Thailand is again, as so often in the past, playing the part of Vietnam.
My favorite is when Bangkok played Hong Kong in Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love (2000), a period piece set in the early 1960s. Hong Kong no longer looks like Hong Kong, but parts of old Bangkok do, so he filmed there.
Finished Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo, which is well-written and an excellent exploration of grief. It also has two things I really like in a novel: an excellent villain and a plot twist I did not see coming.
Now I’m reading It’s Elemental: The Hidden Chemistry in Everything, by Kate Biberdorf.
I read Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan. It’s my third book by Pollan, and the weakest one so far. In both The Omnivore’s Dilemma and The Botany of Desire, Pollan did a really good job of taking topics I might normally find slightly boring and making them fascinating. And he was able to do that at certain points in this book, but not throughout the book. The section on microbiotics and how they affect your health was interesting, as was his section on how each culture has a base set of ingredients that they start with for their dishes. But some sections of the book had more to do with history than modern-day culture, which I’m not particularly interested in. Also not particularly interested in religions. And since the opening section of his book talks at length about ritual animal sacrifice as it pertains to religion, and the closing section talks at length about fermenting alcohol and how altered mind states have factored into religion, I entered and exited the book feeling a bit underwhelmed.
I’m currently reading Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick by Maya Dusenbery. The first chapter in this book is definitely the strongest, where she goes into detail about how medical research has been done almost exclusively on men, and how we understand much better how the male body functions and how to treat its various maladies as opposed to the woman’s body. She then delves into more detail about various diseases that disproportionately affect women, as well as diseases that present differently in women, and relates anecdotes about women with serious conditions who were brushed off by doctors. It certainly doesn’t leave you in a good mood, but it does feel important to learn what I can about the female body, particularly information that has not been well-circulated in the medical community and which may pertain to my own health.
I am also reading The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern. I’m about 1/3 of the way through it, and trying to decide exactly how I feel about it. I think it’s a good book that’s just marketed a little weird. The premise is that a 16-year old girl was born and raised in a rich family. Then her father got into debt and committed suicide. The girl and her mother have to sell everything to pay off the debts, and then go to live with her aunt and uncle in a gatehouse by an abandoned castle. You see the girl grappling with the change in circumstances and really maturing in terms of her values. It’s beautiful writing, and as a woman who lost her mother at 19, I could deeply relate to the concept of losing your parent and having to rethink how you live your life and everything you believe in. The problem is that the book synopsis mentions none of this. The book synopsis is as follows: "Tamara Goodwin has always lived in the here and now, never giving a second thought to tomorrow. Until a traveling library arrives in her tiny village, bringing with it a mysterious, large leather-bound book locked with a gold clasp and padlock. What she discovers within the pages takes her breath away and shakes her world to its core. A mesmerizing story about how tomorrow can change what happens today… " I am 1/3 of the way through the book, and the main character has only just discovered what’s written in the book. Based on the synopsis of the book, I wasn’t expecting the plot to take so long to get going. But if I can ignore my expectations and just enjoy the book for what it ended up being, then it’s enjoyable.
Finished It’s Elemental: The Hidden Chemistry in Everything , by Kate Biberdorf. It was interesting and enjoyable. I recommend it especially as something a high school or college student would benefit from reading.
Just started Clarkesworld: Year Eleven-Volume Two, edited by Neil Clarke and Sean Wallace.
Finished The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A Memoir of Friendship, Loyalty, and War, by John “Chick” Donohue and JT Molloy. A true Vietnam War story. Co-author Chick Donohue was 26 years old in 1967, a Marine before the war and a merchant mariner between ships. Sitting in his neighborhood bar in Manhattan’s Inwood neighborhood one evening, it’s decided he should take a bunch of New York beer to some of the neighborhood gang serving then in Vietnam. Nothing to do with politics, it’s just that a couple dozen from the 'hood had already come back in coffins, and the bar owner and patrons wanted to let the others there know they were not forgotten. So Chick manages to sign on with an ammo supply ship to South Vietnam and once in country goes in search of his old friends stationed here and there, to take them some beer and well-wishes. It actually goes pretty smoothly at first … but then the Tet offensive explodes. A very good read. A short documentary of the same name was made a few years ago, and right now Russell Crowe and Zac Efron are filming a full-length movie version in Thailand. Peter Farrelly is the director. Efron is cast as Chick. Not sure whom Crowe is playing, as the book was pretty much a one-man show, and the movie info does not even give Crowe’s character’s name. I guess maybe they’re going to Hollywoodize it some. Rumors are Bill Murray will also make an appearance.
Next up is Peril, by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. Reading is about to go even more slowly for me though, as after months of taking care of some medical issues, I am starting a new job tomorrow and will be busy with that.