We’re in the middle summer now. Which means vacations, maybe
some that involve some travel time. Maybe some time relaxing by the pool or
sitting on the beach. You know, prime time to get some reading done? Well, I
have done a trip! It involved a cross-country plane ride.* And there was time
by the pool and on the beach. How much reading did I get done on said vacation?
Nothing. Zilch. Oh, I had books. I had a library book I had been on the
waitlist for I think 100 years waiting on. I had a physical book I threw into
my bag as backup. But it turns out that children can be a bit of a distraction.
Oh the plane, because I was interrupted every few minutes, I couldn’t get into
the flow of a book without just re-reading the same couple sentences over and
over, so I ended up relistening to some old podcasts because who cares if I
miss big chunks? And the pool and beach, well there is no sitting down time
there. Not that this wasn’t a fun vacation. I have just accepted that, for now,
vacations are a gap in my reading time instead of my time to read. Which is
really too bad because that library book I mentioned? I had to send it back to
the library only about 25% of the way through because my time was up and there
was a long line of others waiting for it. Rouge, I will come back for
you.
Let’s get to those stats!
Number of books read
4
Joyful Recollections of Trauma by Paul Scheer
The List by Yomi Adegoke
Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture by Kyle Chayka
The Old Woman with the Knife by Gu Byeong-mo
Joyful Recollections of Trauma by Paul Scheer
I am a big fan of the podcast How Did This Get Mad, where 3 comedians (plus guests) talk about bad movies. Paul Scheer is the ringleader of this and a number of times throughout the 10+ years’ worth of episodes little tidbits about his life growing up have come out. They’re usually awkward and hilarious. So, as he’s been talking about this book he wrote, of course I was going to check it out. I actually think I was the first person to get it when my library got a copy (love that “notify me” feature in Libby, btw). And first thing I want to say is the book is funny. There are a lot of funny anecdotes about growing up and getting into comedy and all of that. But the “Trauma” in the title isn’t metaphorical and things were a lot rougher and sadder for parts of his life than I would have thought from the personality he puts out in his work. If you’re a fan of his work in general (and seriously, check out HDTGM), then definitely give this a listen. And I recommend listen since he reads it which really sells some of the humor. Plus, the audiobook includes clips from the podcast when he’s telling various childhood stories so you get the bonus of reactions from his co-hosts Jason and June.
Rating: 4 stars
The List by Yomi Adegoke
Ola and Michael seem like the perfect couple, the best example of #BlackLove. But only a few weeks before their wedding, Michael finds himself on “The List”, a #MeToo inspired anonymous list of men in media who have committed some sort of assault on women. Michael is accused of sexual harassment, certainly not as bad as some of the multiple rape accusations others on the list get, but still not good. The book is then alternating chapters from Ola’s and Michael’s POV. Ola as she grapples with believing all women (she is a feminist writer for the publication Womxxxn) and if this wasn’t Michael on the list, she would be on the front line in calling for these men to be held accountable while also lambasting women who stood by them. Michael meanwhile is trying to understand who put him on the list and while he vehemently denies the claim, he has an idea who is behind it. While an interesting premise, this book didn’t really work for me. First, it jumps into the list almost immediately, to the point where I hadn’t really connected with the couple yet, so any shock that this character was on the list is…muted to say the least. Then there is the “mystery” of if Michael belonged on the list or not which could have made the book more interesting except it didn’t work here. There were interesting ideas here, especially the idea of being tried in the court of Twitter, but the execution was repetitive and fell flat.
Rating: 2.75 stars
Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture by Kyle
Chayka
Algorithmic recommendations say they’re going to give everyone personalized recommendations, but in reality these algorithms have the affect of making everything the same and no matter where you go or what you look for, you see similar trends be it in coffee shops or TV shows or music or even places to visit. Can you really make a free choice when algorithms determine so much of what you see? I think they’re interesting questions and there were good points made about how much affect the algorithms on social media, in Netflix, in Spotify, in TikTok affect what trends in culture. But there were multiple times when it seemed like the author just kinda wanted to talk about the cool music they liked and how it’s way better than the pop music Spotify will recommend, or how they did vacations better because they focused on “being there” instead of taking pictures to ostensibly post on social media later. And while I get this was not the main point, it seemed missing to not address at all the YouTube algorithm sending people down crazy right-wing, conspiracy theory rabbit holes.
Rating: 3 stars
The Old Woman with the Knife by Gu Byeong-mo
Really wish I could remember where I heard of this book. I think it was some list of diversify your reading or maybe just about mysteries and thrillers. Who knows. I should probably write this down when I add a book to my TBR. Anyway, in continuing with a theme of geriatric killers, this book is about an aging contract killer who goes by Hornclaw. She seems like any other 65-year-old grandma, never standing out, but you wouldn’t guess her coat is lined with knives and she has enough kills under her belt she can’t remember them all. But what does she do as she ages? Can she retire or is that not really an option when this has been your world for the last 45 years? Like with a lot of this month, I liked the idea of the book but was surprised with some of the directions it took. I thought it would be a bit more humorous as Hornclaw figures out what is retirement like for someone like her? There is a bit of a line about her connecting with a doctor and his family but that played a much smaller role through most of the book than I would have guessed based on the summary. We got a bit about her past and how she came to this line of work but overall the story seemed disjointed and the ending a bit rushed.
Rating: 3 stars
Total pages read
1,170
Fiction
50%
Female authors
50%
BIPOC authors
50%
US authors
50%
Book club reads
25%
Translations
25%
Format
Audiobook – 100%
Where’d I get the book
Library – 75%
Gift – 25%
Decade published
2010s – 25%
2020s – 75%
Resolution books
50%
The List is by a Nigerian-British author
The Old Woman with the Knife is by a Korean author and a translation
*If you’re curious, the trip was to San Diego, where we’ve
actually gone the last few years because there are lots of fun things to do and
also we have friends out there so it’s nice to be able to see people as well as
like, go to Disneyland and Legoland. Two places that also do not lend themselves
to much reading time.
4
Joyful Recollections of Trauma by Paul Scheer
The List by Yomi Adegoke
Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture by Kyle Chayka
The Old Woman with the Knife by Gu Byeong-mo
I am a big fan of the podcast How Did This Get Mad, where 3 comedians (plus guests) talk about bad movies. Paul Scheer is the ringleader of this and a number of times throughout the 10+ years’ worth of episodes little tidbits about his life growing up have come out. They’re usually awkward and hilarious. So, as he’s been talking about this book he wrote, of course I was going to check it out. I actually think I was the first person to get it when my library got a copy (love that “notify me” feature in Libby, btw). And first thing I want to say is the book is funny. There are a lot of funny anecdotes about growing up and getting into comedy and all of that. But the “Trauma” in the title isn’t metaphorical and things were a lot rougher and sadder for parts of his life than I would have thought from the personality he puts out in his work. If you’re a fan of his work in general (and seriously, check out HDTGM), then definitely give this a listen. And I recommend listen since he reads it which really sells some of the humor. Plus, the audiobook includes clips from the podcast when he’s telling various childhood stories so you get the bonus of reactions from his co-hosts Jason and June.
Rating: 4 stars
Ola and Michael seem like the perfect couple, the best example of #BlackLove. But only a few weeks before their wedding, Michael finds himself on “The List”, a #MeToo inspired anonymous list of men in media who have committed some sort of assault on women. Michael is accused of sexual harassment, certainly not as bad as some of the multiple rape accusations others on the list get, but still not good. The book is then alternating chapters from Ola’s and Michael’s POV. Ola as she grapples with believing all women (she is a feminist writer for the publication Womxxxn) and if this wasn’t Michael on the list, she would be on the front line in calling for these men to be held accountable while also lambasting women who stood by them. Michael meanwhile is trying to understand who put him on the list and while he vehemently denies the claim, he has an idea who is behind it. While an interesting premise, this book didn’t really work for me. First, it jumps into the list almost immediately, to the point where I hadn’t really connected with the couple yet, so any shock that this character was on the list is…muted to say the least. Then there is the “mystery” of if Michael belonged on the list or not which could have made the book more interesting except it didn’t work here. There were interesting ideas here, especially the idea of being tried in the court of Twitter, but the execution was repetitive and fell flat.
Rating: 2.75 stars
Algorithmic recommendations say they’re going to give everyone personalized recommendations, but in reality these algorithms have the affect of making everything the same and no matter where you go or what you look for, you see similar trends be it in coffee shops or TV shows or music or even places to visit. Can you really make a free choice when algorithms determine so much of what you see? I think they’re interesting questions and there were good points made about how much affect the algorithms on social media, in Netflix, in Spotify, in TikTok affect what trends in culture. But there were multiple times when it seemed like the author just kinda wanted to talk about the cool music they liked and how it’s way better than the pop music Spotify will recommend, or how they did vacations better because they focused on “being there” instead of taking pictures to ostensibly post on social media later. And while I get this was not the main point, it seemed missing to not address at all the YouTube algorithm sending people down crazy right-wing, conspiracy theory rabbit holes.
Rating: 3 stars
Really wish I could remember where I heard of this book. I think it was some list of diversify your reading or maybe just about mysteries and thrillers. Who knows. I should probably write this down when I add a book to my TBR. Anyway, in continuing with a theme of geriatric killers, this book is about an aging contract killer who goes by Hornclaw. She seems like any other 65-year-old grandma, never standing out, but you wouldn’t guess her coat is lined with knives and she has enough kills under her belt she can’t remember them all. But what does she do as she ages? Can she retire or is that not really an option when this has been your world for the last 45 years? Like with a lot of this month, I liked the idea of the book but was surprised with some of the directions it took. I thought it would be a bit more humorous as Hornclaw figures out what is retirement like for someone like her? There is a bit of a line about her connecting with a doctor and his family but that played a much smaller role through most of the book than I would have guessed based on the summary. We got a bit about her past and how she came to this line of work but overall the story seemed disjointed and the ending a bit rushed.
Rating: 3 stars
1,170
50%
50%
50%
50%
25%
25%
Audiobook – 100%
Library – 75%
Gift – 25%
2010s – 25%
2020s – 75%
50%
The List is by a Nigerian-British author
The Old Woman with the Knife is by a Korean author and a translation
