The Glitch: Live in the world of data, not delusion

I was very generously given a copy of this book, The Glitch, in exchange for an honest review and it has taken me until now to actually get that finished. I am sorry and if I can please buy your forgiveness with some pictures of the current distraction.

Adorable, right? All is forgiven?

So anyway, The Glitch. I saw this book around the bookernet and it seemed intriguing. Shelley Stone is a type-A executive to the extreme. She ran a company making a device called a Conch that's basically Google glasses but it's worn in the ear and tells you things (people's names, the weather, restaurant reviews) rather than showing them on a screen right in front of the eyes. Except people seem to like the Conch. She takes 2am conference calls, repeats various axioms to herself throughout the day, takes standing naps to maximize her time, keeps a note reminding her to "be likeable" because it's not something that comes naturally. I'm not saying I've known people just like her but I have seen (and worked with) people that could have inspired her, with the characteristics just dialed up to 11.

You may think that this is what the book will focus on BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE. Shelley meets a mysterious person who seems very, very interested in Conch who seems to keep showing up around Shelley and her family. Then a woman shows up who seems to be Shelley from the past. She looks like her, has her scar, and knows things about Shelley's past. And then there seem to be some issues with Conch that don't make sense.

Had the book been more of a satire of Shelley, I think I would have enjoyed it more. I only say this after the fact because otherwise, all of that other mystery and intrigue and sci fi-ness would draw my attention. Indeed it did when I read the description. But honestly, it didn't pan out the way I wanted. Not even the way I wanted, but in a way that was particularly interesting or that ultimately paid off.

I did really like the ridiculousness of the tech industry and Shelley's craziness, especially when she brings her executive style to her home. Because if there's one thing young children (she has 2) love, it's business jargon. And while Shelley isn't really the most likeable person, I did appreciate a female character that is allowed to prefer work to family. She doesn't hate her family but she loves her work and that's where she thrives.

Ultimately I liked the writing but felt like there were a lot of ideas going on here and many of which just didn't really work out.

Gif rating:

Title quote from location 1727

Cohen, Elisabeth. The Glitch. Doubleday, 2018. NetGalley.

Meaty by Samantha Irby: I am excited because I am thirty years old and I don't have a man in my life

I was scanning through NetGalley and saw a copy of Samantha Irby's earlier collection, Meaty available. And since I enjoyed We Are Never Meeting in Real Life so damn much I thought I'd see if I could get a copy of this. And a copy was granted, in exchange for an honest review.

I can't decide which of two books I like better. It's hard to say since really they're both similar. They're both collections of essays about her and her life. They're hilarious and vulgar and a times touching (did I tear up while reading one about her mother? MAYBE. Was it followed up not long after with an essay about diarrhea? MAAAYBE) 

She has essays about dating ("How to Get Your Disgusting Meat Carcass Ready for Some New, Hot Sex"), medical issues ("The Many Varieties of Hospital Broth"), family ("My Mother, My Daughter"), money ("I Should Have a Car with Power Windows By Now"), pop culture ("Elena Tyler: AKA Why I Can't Be Mad at Lena Dunham"). What I'm saying is Irby has range.  

And she's relatable. I mean, look at the way she talks about her Crohn's Disease

And I know a lot of things suck, and so many people are going through so many terrible things, but to me, in this goddamned moment, nothing is worse than this gross-ass shit disease. Yes, there are worse things, but since those things are not currently happening to me, this bullshit is the worst thing that has ever happened to anyone in the history of ever.

This is how I feel about any bad thing that happens to me, regardless of how serious. It's times like this you realize how truly connected we all are.

This book is hilarious. Thinking about it, I may like it better than WANMIRL. Maybe. It's close. But they're both pretty great and if you like funny ladies, give them a try.

Gif rating:

Irby, Samantha. Meaty. Vintage, 2013. NetGalley

Herding Cats: ...I just want to enjoy being alive

I got a copy of Sarah Andersen's Herding Cats from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. It took me some time to actually download it because it wouldn't work on the Kindle so required downloading something new and, if you can tell from my recent reviewing schedule, doing things that require extra work is not something I've managed to accomplish much of recently.

But I did get it downloaded and then I devoured it. If you aren't already familiar with Andersen's comics, get with it. Sorry, that was a bit aggressive. But really, her stuff is adorable and relatable (assuming you are socially awkward) and you should just do yourself a favor.

She draws comics about her anxiety, about body hair, about being a comic, about her love of dogs and cats, about her reaction to the news these days (see "about her anxiety"), all good things.

The comics are short (at most 6 panels) and are each stand-alone. Unlike something like Hyperbole and a Half, while the work is about Sarah, it never really goes the extra step to being a memoir. I can't say I that I know more about her (or feel like I know more about her) than surface level things, despite the end of the book being made up of actual text and Sarah talking about being an artist, dealing with criticism and the advice to "Go make stuff". Good things, don't get me wrong, but it's just not as touching or intimate as Ali Brosh's stuff. Though I didn't really mean to compare the two artists and that is unfair and this isn't to say one is better or one is worse. They are different and both entertaining for their own reasons. But don't go into Andersen, expecting Brosh (or vice versa, really).

I realize this is short but I'm not sure what else to say. She's funny and relatable, and yeah, I had probably seen most of these comics online before reading them in the book so there's also that if you want to check out her stuff, even though I feel like I should encourage you to buy her stuff. I say, having received a free copy, so don't listen to me too closely, I guess. But yeah, check out her stuff. It's swell.

Gif rating:

Title quote from page 27

Andersen, Sarah. Herding Cats. Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2018. NetGalley

Number One Chinese Restaurant: I only hold grudges when they benefit me

Normally when I'm browsing through NetGalley, I request books I've heard of, usually from fellow bloggers, or else it's an author I'm familiar with. But every once in a while something will catch my eye and I figure I'll give it an whirl. And thus did I come across Number One Chinese Restaurant. I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Let's see the piece that made me think, "Yeah I should check this out." I mean besides the "Chinese Restaurant" bit, because honestly, that definitely played a part.

"Generous in spirit, unaffected in its intelligence, multi-voiced, poignant, and darkly funny, Number One Chinese Restaurant looks beyond red tablecloths and silkscreen murals to share an unforgettable story about youth and aging, parents and children, and all the ways that our families destroy us while also keeping us grounded and alive."

 Multi-voices AND darkly funny? Those are things I like so let's do this.

So, what's it about?

The Han family has run a Chinese restaurant for years and since the passing of their father, sons Jimmy and Johnny run the place. Well, these days mostly the younger son Jimmy taking care of the day-to-day business, though he resents the restaurant his father built and dreams of something more upscale. Also he's an asshole. Really a self-centered, short-tempered asshole. Not an entertaining one either.

Jimmy decides not only is he going to open a new restaurant that doesn't deign to the things The Duck House does, but he's going to get out from under the thumb of Uncle Pang, who's sort of like the godfather, though he seems to operate independently of a larger mob. You'd think this might make Jimmy sympathetic. You would be wrong.

The brother Johnny has been away in Hong Kong so he hasn't been involved with the restaurant for a few months and doesn't really know what's going on back at home.

There are two other main characters we get POVs from, Jack and Nan, two long-time employees of The Duck House. Nan worked her way up to managing the waitstaff while Ah-Jack is a longtime waiter. Nan and Jack met when Nan first made her way to the US. There's a connection between the two but the age difference (she's 3+ decades younger) and Jack's marriage meant they remained close friends for years.

Certain events take place involving those mentioned above, plus Johnny's daughter and Nan's son leading to familial squabbles and the stress of opening a new restaurant.

Overall this had the makings of something that I think could have been right up my alley but this didn't do it for me. I don't need the characters to be likable but if they're going to be unlikable they should be interesting and for the most part these weren't. There were glimpses where I thought something really good was going to happen, or I was going to start really getting into the story, but unfortunately it never really happened.

The writing is fine and I liked bits and pieces, like

"Many Chinese women spoke with voices so melodious and bright that the language sounded like a gentle, teasing song; his mother was not one of those women. She emphasized every word as others might slap a table. When she was allowed to talk without interruption, the effect was like waiting out a rainstorm under a tin roof."

See, that's great. But the story didn't do it for me. Also, I need to stop believing publishers and book jackets that describe a book as "funny" because I feel like very rarely is it the case. I don't know if I can blame this book for that though, since this is a regular problem and I need to remember this.

Not terrible, but not great either.

Gif rating:

Title quote from page 13, location 2276

Li, Lillian. Number One Chinese Restaurant. Henry Holt & Co., 2018. NetGalley.

Anatomy of a Miracle: What does one do after experiencing a miracle?

After reading Emily's (aka As the Crowe Flies and Reads) review of Anatomy of a Miracle by Jonathan Miles, I immediately hopped over to NetGalley to see if I could get my hands on a copy and lo and behold, I was successful. In exchange for an honest review, I got the book and was not disappointed.

Had it not been for Emily's review, I probably would have passed over this without looking at it too closely. I mean, with that title, it seems like it would be a religious, feel-good type Hallmark-style story and while there's nothing wrong with those, they aren't typically my cup o' tea. Luckily for me (and I suppose unluckily for anyone looking for that sort of story) that isn't the case here. Oh it is about miracles and the military, sure but there's so much more going on.

Presented as a true account (with an asterisk that hahaha, no, this is actually fiction), Miles tells the story of Cameron Harris, paralyzed four years prior in Afghanistan, suddenly and for no discernible reason, is able to walk again. He's waiting for his sister Tanya outside a local convenience store in their small Mississippi town when he stands up.

And from here, the story takes off. Was it a miracle? Many seem to think so and the Biz-E-Bee store becomes something of a spectacle for pilgrims passing through and the proprietors understandably making the best of the situation ("like someone opened a Cracker Barrel at Lourdes"). The Catholic Church also seems to think it's possible and investigators are dispatched to look into the claims, including an actual devil's advocate (advocatus diaboli) because of course the Catholic Church would have that.

Of course Cameron's doctor has a very different view. That doesn't mean she knows what the cause of his sudden healing is, only that as a woman of science, miracles don't count for much.

And naturally, as the story is set in modern times, there's a reality TV show.

At the center of all of this is Cameron and his sister trying to make sense of what happened, how it happened, and what do they do now?

The reason the story works as well as it does is the characters. Everyone, from the major to the minor, are fleshed out characters. They are interesting, they are complex, they feel real. At no point did a character feel like their actions were only there to advance the plot. And I loved and cared about so many of them.

Some of the descriptions were wonderful

His eyes, however, cast a different spell: They're wide and large like his sister's, with a peculiar boyishness to them, as though his eyes retired their development at puberty while the rest of his features forged ahead. 

And sometimes they could become a little much. Though once I got familiar with his writing style, I enjoyed it more.

As I mentioned, the story is presented as if it is a journalistic nonfiction account of events and while I enjoyed having such a wide purview, I didn't really think this was a necessary conceit. That said, I don't think it hurt the story either, so whatever, go forth.

Overall a book I'm very happy to have read and one I would recommend to anyone looking for some literary fiction in a way I haven't quite seen before.

Gif rating:

Title quote from location 562

Miles, Jonathan. Anatomy of a Miracle. Hogarth, 2018. NetGalley

The Merry Spinster: Beauty is never private

Alice, aka Reading Rambo, put together a distilled list of the best books coming out in 2018 and among those was the book The Merry Spinster by Mallory Ortberg. Given this recommendation and the fact that I follow the author on Twitter and she's pretty swell there, I hopped over to Netgalley to see if I could get a copy. And lo and behold, the request was granted and here we are.

The book is a collection of retellings of fairy tales. And since I think fairy tales are pretty swell and own a number of books about them: Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales, a number of Maria Tartar's annotated fairy tales and academic essays about fairy tales, because what's more fun than adding academia to something?

Anyway, stories based on Children's Stories Made Horrific, this seems like exactly the thing for me. Even though I am cautiously optimistic when it comes to retellings. Sometimes they work out well and I'm a big fan; but very often things don't quite work out. And some of the stories most definitely were. And others...less so. But isn't that the way with short story collections?

The stories aren't really scary stories. There more unsettling, but hey, aren't all all fairy tales, particularly those of the Grimm bros variety?

It's always difficult to review collections of short stories. I never really know how to tackle this, even though I've done it a bunch so you'd think I'd figure it out. But nope, not learning from the past is a thing I'm pretty good at so let's muddle through this.

Top 3 

The first story, "The Daughter Cells", a retelling of "The Little Mermaid" was a great way to start the collection and one of the stories I really enjoyed. You have the story you know (mermaid gets legs and tries to get a human to marry her without the use of her voice) but there's a lot less of the infatuation you get in either the original or Disney versions, with a little mermaid that has a lot more agency than other telling seem to give her.

"The Six-Boy Coffins" is based on the fairy tale "The Wild Swans" (sons changed into swans and a sister has to weave nettle shirts for them to turn them back into people) and was probably my favorite of the collection. It's very similar to the original story but wicked stepmothers are replaced with evil fathers (because why do women always have to be evil in these things?) and the ending is disturbing but pretty great.

"Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters" isn't from a single story I recognized but does feature a siren, like of the Odyssey variety. A man who falls in love and the way his mother deals with this news. It is very messed up, but in a good way.

Not so much

"Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Mr. Toad" is the story of some abusing and gaslighting woodland creatures. Maybe because I'm not super familiar with the Mr. Toad stories, this one didn't really do it for me.

"The Wedding Party" felt like the most modern story, with a couple discussing their upcoming wedding. I knew what was happening in the moment but never really understood what the point was? Perhaps someone can read and explain it to me and it will all make sense.

There were a few other stories that fell in the middle. Overall there were more stories I enjoyed than didn't so that's a positive balance.

If you like Ortberg's humor, if you like slightly disturbing stories and if you like fairy tales, definitely something to check out.

Gif rating:

Title quote from location 2032

Ortberg, Mallory. The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror. Henry Hold and Co, 2018. Netgalley

Where the Line Bleeds: Yes, they conformed to character, but these two traded skins like any set of twins

What is this? A review? An actual review? I know, it's been a while.

After reading Jesmyn Ward's latest book, Sing, Unburied, Sing I had an opportunity to receive a copy of one of her earlier works in exchange for an honest review.

The story is a character study of the twins Christoph and Joshua, from a rural town on the Mississippi Gulf coast. Raised by their grandmother Ma-Mee after their mother went to Atlanta and their father slipped further into drugs. The book opens with the boys graduating from high school, hoping to get some sort of job to support their grandmother. Their ambitions are modest, shaped by the world they know. They apply all around town, at fast food joints and the dock, with never a thought that they won't be working together. But Joshua gets a job while Christoph isn't so lucky, causing a rift between the two that goes mostly unspoken. Though really much of their communication goes without words, so it makes sense that their argument would be silent as well.

Ma-Mee senses the distance and hurt from the boys but all she can wish is the boys were younger.

Christoph goes more and more despondent as the days go by and the phone stays quiet, as he goes another day without a job, without contributing to the house. Eventually he takes up his cousin's offer to start dealing pot, a secret he keeps from Joshua.

The jacket description says something about a confrontation with their father Sandman either saving or damning the twins. I won't tell you what happens but I will tell you this happens in roughly the last 5-10% of the book. Most of it is the quiet day-to-day lives of the twins, flirting and getting their hair braided and getting high and playing basketball.

Understand this is not a complaint about the book, just a warning that if you're looking for action you should go elsewhere. That isn't to say that I wasn't sucked in; I wanted to know what was going to happen, even when what was happening was mostly a slow burn. Ward has a lyrical quality to her writing, though I unfortunately didn't highlight too many passages to use as examples. But I do have at least one and it's pretty good so enjoy

The sun would not leave them: even after it set, it left a residue of heat in the evening. Christoph, stone-drunk under the barebulb lights strung between the trees at Felicia's party later that night, thought the blanketing heat was a vestigial presence, something made even more present by its absence.

I may like Sing, Unburied, Sing better but this was still an excellent read one I was happy to be able to read. It was a book outside my comfort zone, populated by characters I don't read about often.

Gif rating:

Title quote from page 4

Ward, Jesmyn. Where the Line Bleeds. Scribner, 2006. NetGalley

Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People About Race: There is no justice. Just us.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A few factors go into determining if I'll read a book. Am I already familiar with the author? Have I heard good things around the interwebs (but really, mostly from fellow bloggers where I get roughly 80% of my book recos)? And, while not all the time but often enough that's def a major reason, is the title and/or cover eye catching? That was certainly the case here. 

I would like to first address the title. No, this is not racist against white people, that's not a thing.* No, it's not reverse racism.

Besides all that, Eddo-Lodge talks about the irony that as soon as she published her blog post of the same title, all she did was talk to white people about race. Basically, if the title is bothering you, maybe you should just calm down a bit and try to figure out why.

Song book

ANYWAY, so I wanted to read this book based on the title and the fact that there are obviously a lot of problems around race and I need to better educate myself so let's see what this is about. What I didn't realize is that this is a book about race in the UK, which is something that I know even less about than race here in the US. 

Eddo-Lodge starts talking about how the history of POC people in the UK is not something you come across unless you're in a college class specifically on the topic. But if you're in grade school (or whatever the UK equivalent is, I didn't learn that part, shhhh) good luck getting a history about black people in your own country. Whatever is learned seems to be focused on shit going down in America. And that's sort of messed up. Not because learning about history elsewhere is bad. But as she says,

While the black British story is starved of oxygen, the US struggle against racism is globalised into the story of the struggle against racism that we should look to for inspiration - eclipsing the black British story so much that we convince ourselves that Britain has never had a problem with race.

And that, of course, is a problem. If you don't have knowledge of an issue, how will you fix it? 

From here she has essays that tackle structural racism and white privilege and being bi-racial and "color-blindness" and intersectional feminism and the role of race and class in society. 

yes, yes we are

If this stuff IS your jam, then outside of the history stuff, there wasn't a lot of new ground here. That doesn't mean it isn't worth the read cos there are a lot of excellent points and she does a good job of putting these things into words and providing examples that illustrate the problem. Like talking about the "well-meaning but guilty-feeling white liberal" that is Hermione Granger when dealing with S.P.E.W. (Oh Witch, Please would be so proud).

If this is the type of stuff that you are already seeking out, read this. If this isn't the type of stuff you typically read, maybe that's even more of a reason you should pick this up. If you aren't already familiar with structural racism or intersectionality or why "I don't see color" is not helpful, perhaps this would be a good thing to read.

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*You can be prejudice against white people, but given basically all of the power structures are in white people's favor, not racist. Also this book is not prejudice against white people either so hush.

Title quote from location 2455 but she is quoting Terry Pratchett. But I like the line and the title is so long I wanted something shorter for the post title so I went with it. 

Eddo-Lodge, Reni. Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017. NetGalley

It's All Relative: We're All Linked

I am a fan of A.J. Jacobs' stuff* so I was excited to receive a copy of his newest work It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree in exchange for an honest review.

I am a fan of the guy so I was pretty sure I was going to enjoy whatever latest project he was going to immerse himself in. Turns out yes, this is true. It probably isn't my favorite among his "humble quests" but it's still a fun one.

The basic idea here is that everyone is related if you go back far enough. And in many cases you really don't have to go that far back at all. Everyone is family. Jacobs received an email from that said "You don't know me, but I'm your eight cousin" and like that, Jacobs is hooked on finding out who this family is and, importantly, throwing the biggest family reunion.

Jacobs does what he does, which is really dive into the nitty gritty about genetics (spitting in every vial sent to him by whatever groups will analyze his DNA and tell him where his ancestors are from and who he is related to), speaking with all kinds of experts is genealogy and history, and of course talking to event planners and figuring out how exactly to pull off a huge event, aka the Global Family Reunion (which happened a few years ago, in case anyone was wondering if they could attend).

 The overarching theme is that everyone is family so maybe we should all be a little kinder to one another, like you would with family. His brother-in-law refutes this idea, saying there are PLENTY of people that don't like their family and sure that is true. But still. Maybe if you realize you're family you'll be more likely to cut each other a little bit of slack.

The book has a lot of funny moments, as all Jacobs' stuff does

On the one hand, there shouldn't be alcohol [at the Global Family Reunion]: It's a family event with a lot of boisterous kids running around. On the other hand, there should be alcohol: It's a family event with a lot of boisterous kids running around.

though it felt more repetitive than his other stuff. But the book is also goes by quickly so it never totally veered into "I'm annoyed, you already said that" territory.

If you like the guy and/or are interesting in family trees and genealogy, give this a try. If you're new to him, maybe check out one of his others first (Biblically and Know-It-All are both personal favs).

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*Oh hey, a round up of his other stuff that I've reviewed here
Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection
The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World
My Life as an Experiment: One Man's Humble Quest to Improve Himself by Living as a Woman, Becoming George Washington, Telling No Lies, and Other Radical Tests
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible

Title quote from location 2753

Jacobs, A.J. It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree. Simon & Schuster, 2017. NetGalley

We Were Eight Years in Power: Everything was bright. Everything was rising. Everything was a dream

This book.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. And I picked up this book with certain expectations, coming from Coates earlier work Between the World and Me. Expectations were exceeded with We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy. 

The book is a collection of essays Coates wrote for The Atlantic. Each piece is preceded by its own introductory essay, an explanation of where Coates is now and his current thoughts on the piece. These introductions were themselves basically their own essays (in case you're worried it's not worth it to pick up a collection of essays published elsewhere). Coates has become the go-to writer when it comes to discuss race in America.

These can be difficult essays to read. Not difficult to understand but to take in, intellectually, emotionally. There were a lot of emotions as I was reading these: anger, embarrassment, disgust. Not at what he's saying but the truths he's calling out, things that I from y position of privilege I haven't really had to think about. Things I should think about. Things that I was nodding vigorously to. I did have to take a break in the middle of reading this. Pick up something light because there is a lot here and burnout is real.

The essays include:
"This Is How We Lost to the White Man"
American Girl
Why Do So Few Blacks Study the Civil War?
The Legacy of Malcom X
Fear of a Black President
The Case for Reparations
The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration
My President Was Black

I feel like I'm the wrong person to review this. There's nothing I can add. I can just say that this should be reading for everyone.

I see the fight against sexism, racism, poverty, and so on finding their union not in synonymity but in their ultimate goal - a world more humane.

Gif rating:

Title quote location 683

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy. One World, 2017. NetGalley

Sociable: I want you to come up with a viral thing that goes viral

On my recent NetGalley jag, I got a copy of Sociable by Rebecca Harrington in exchange for an honest review.

I tend to request books from NetGalley if I'm already somewhat familiar with the book (thanks book-o-sphere) or I'm already a fan of the author. In this case I was drawn to the cover and the description seemed like something I could get into.

Elinor is living in NYC in a tiny, weird apartment (shower in the kitchen). She's hoping to get a job in journalism and finally manages to land a job at a startup Journalism.ly. Which is sort of like journalism. Think a BuzzFeed competitor (BuzzFeed exists in this book world.) She's not exactly tackling the tough topics like her boyfriend is, but she's had some pieces go viral, which is basically the only mission statement for Journalism.ly so that works. But her boyfriend dumps her and she doesn't really seem to get along with her co-workers except for two men who insist on mentoring her. Can she make it in this world? Does she want to?

Here's the thing. The book never really went anywhere. It was around 250 pages but it all felt like set up. It was a very quick read but I was watching the percentage counter inch closer and closer to 100% and wonder when is the story going to start? You know in stories like The Devil Wears Prada* where we're setting up all the problems and then there's a montage where our main character is starting to figure things out. Think Andy and all her fancy new clothes.

MONTAAAAGE

But we still have the whole second act to go.

This book feels like we're riiiiiiiight before that montage starts and then BOOM, the book is done.

We have the set up where Elinor has the crappy apartment with her boyfriend Mike who is a turdburger. He is just an emotionally manipulative shithead. She has a best friend she's known since college although she doesn't seem to really like her. It's more like, she's the only other person she knows.

She gets the job a Journalism.ly thanks to Mike's mom (someone Elinor desperately wants approval from) but it's not really what she's hoping for. There is no direction or management at Journalism.ly. There's no editorial oversight. She writes a piece about coffee that does well. I mean, I guess it does well. I mean, a few people say things about how the story really went viral, but it doesn't really go anywhere.

Most of the book is from Elinor's POV until we get a few sporadic chapters from the point of view of one of the senior members of Journalism.ly, J.W., one of the only "real" reporters at the publication. From him we learn things like the website is in financial trouble and he's having trouble finding companies willing to provide sponsored content.

One of the other senior members of the company, Peter, decides he's going to mentor Elinor. This mostly means he says "I am mentoring you" and then asks her to send pieces his way for review, though he doesn't actually look at them. Elinor is pretty annoyed at this cos 1) Peter is basically her age (they went to school together) and 2) that is shitty mentoring.

J.W. hears about Peter mentoring Elinor and gets into a dick measuring contest where he decides that he should be the one to mentor her. He follows Peter's mentoring method so nothing actually changes for Elinor other than two men randomly say "I am mentoring you" in her general direction.

At one point we're able to read one of Elinor's pieces, something she really opens up and puts herself out there. Her writing, it is...not good. There's no introspection (though she seems to think she's making a grand statement) and it's just not well-written. Maybe that's the joke? I have to think it has to be purposeful cos Harrington's stuff (i.e., all the writing around this piece) is better but I don't really know what the purpose is.

So that's the stuff we do get. What we don't get is the act two. We don't really get her actually being successful, even if it's just successful by Journalism.ly standards. I mean, her piece gets her on TV (but like, local TV, NY1) but it's not exactly what she thought. It's not really much of anything (sorry, spoilers, I guess. Not for the fact that she gets on TV, cos that's in the description but for the fact that it ultimately doesn't mean much). We get a few more scenes that really felt like they were going to be that turning point and then nope.

Elinor has no arc. There's no growth, no introspection, no anything. She basically ends up where she started.

Like I said, for the beginning I liked the writing.

I mean, OK, there were a few descriptions that made me go

Look:

Mike was propped up on his cylindrical arm

Note: Mike is not a cyborg.

He was wearing very dirty sneakers despite his old face.

Those are...unrelated things. Or maybe face age and sneaker cleanliness have some sort of correlation I am unfamiliar with.

But I could forgive these because overall the writing was entertaining. And sure, everyone is pretty insufferable (Elinor is super pathetic and also pretty self centered and as already established, Mike is an emotionally manipulative turdburger) but that's FINE. Or it would be fine if there was some growth from any terrible person OR if she really just leaned into the awful. It sometimes teeters on parody but never really makes it there. Which is too bad, I could have gotten behind this if it went there.

So yeah. I wish I had better things to say about this. I liked the start but as it became clear I wasn't getting an act two or any growth from Elinor (just LOTS of pining over Mike), I got more and more annoyed. It was a quick read. So.

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*Which, full disclosure, I have not read but I have seen the movie so I'm going off that. Also Meryl Streep is amazing. That is all.

Title quote from location 1045

Harrington, Rebecca. Sociable. Doubleday Books, 2018. NetGalley

Artemis: No idiot-proofing can overcome a determined idiot

It has been a while so I was scanning through NetGalley to see what's new and I came across a new book by Andy Weir (aka the guy that wrote The Martian aka that book I love [well I mean, one of many BUT STILL, it's up there]), Artemis. So of course I requested it and was lucky enough to get a copy in exchange for a review.

First thing first, Artemis isn't The Martian. I mean, obviously. Different plot and all. But it's not an instant favorite for me like The Martian was. That would have been incredible if he could have pulled that off again. I was excited to start this but still tried to temper my expectations knowing I could easily set them way too high. I'm glad I kept that in mind because I did enjoy this book.

So with that disclaimer, here's what the story is about. I should also point out that I did NOT read a description before starting. I was doing jumping in and trusting whatever Weir did would be entertaining.

There's a city on the moon. It's sometime in the future (somewhere around 50-100 years from now. Maybe) and there's been a functioning moon city for what seems to be about 20 years. Jazz Bashara has grown up in the city since she was 6 and works as a porter, delivering packages around the city. And maaaaaaaybe some of these packages aren't exactly legal but what city doesn't have a least a little bit of smuggling going on. And it's not like the stuff is dangerous. No drugs or weapons. Just things like cigars for an eccentric billionaire. She's got debts to pay, don't judge.

Jazz is living in tiny quarters, keeping expenses down, and committing some light crime to save up some money. So when one of her clients offers her all the money she's saving for and more, for a little bit of sabotage, well, she can't pass that up.

Things don't go as planned (do they ever? Of course not, cos if they did you'd have no book), stakes are raised, conspiracies revealed, etc. etc. And there's science. A lot of science. Space science.

Weir should be commended for the cast he's created. It's not all white dudes. There's actually very few of those. Or I mean, few compared to other media where they are, just, all the people. If the cast had been mostly white men that would have stuck out. Artemis (the name of the moon city) is a global collaboration, headquartered out of Kenya. Jazz and her father are originally from Saudi Arabia and while Jazz doesn't seem very religious anymore her father is still a practicing Muslim. There are characters from Russian, Brazil, Norway, Kenya, Ukraine, all over. The characters seem pretty evenly split between men and women. Not all of the characters are straight (and those that are gay have more personality traits than just "are gay"). So WELL DONE THERE, SIR. He ever made sure in the acknowledgements to thank people who helped him when writing a female Muslim character from Saudia Arabia, a person he most definitely is not.

And beyond that, the story is interesting. I was engaged, there was SUSPENSE and some mystery. And yeah, a lot of science explanations that sometimes worked well and sometimes felt like a little too much exposition. But I skimmed over most of those because while I like the idea of that stuff in here, in practice I do not need the details explained to me. I believe you. That's not saying I necessarily think those should be taken out. This is a thing that works for him and there's definitely an audience for it. I am just not it, but I am able to enjoy the rest of the book.

Overall though, when compared to The Martian, it's just slightly less. There's less humor (though there are funny moments), the stakes feel lower, the danger less immediate, the science explanations a bit more shoved in. It's all still there and perhaps it's unfair to compare one book to another but too bad, I'm doing it anyway.

Overall, I liked. Would recommend and probably read again, although it unfortunately does not reach the same levels as The Martian which I will love forever and sort of want to reread again right now.

Gif rating:

(Is it mean to use a Martian gif for this? I only have so many space ones and this really captures my opinion on it. But I feel like this might be rubbing it in a bit. Oh well, too late.)

Title quote from location 1192

Weir, Andy. Artemis. Crown Publishing, 2017. NetGalley

Sing, Unburied, Sing: I will not sink her

I received a copy of Jesmyn Ward's latest book, Sing, Unburied, Sing back in March in exchange for an honest review. Normally I try to write these reviews right after finishing the book so my thoughts are still fresh. However, this book came with the request not to publish anything until around the time the book would be released, September 5th. And sure, I could have written the review right away and saved it (that would have been the responsible thing after all). So naturally I did no such thing and now it's August and I'm working on remembering the book.

Before I go back and skim through to get details and whatnot, I want to share my feelings as I remember them these 5 months later: this book was fantastic. It wasn't what I expected, but then again I didn't entirely know what to expect. I hadn't read anything of hers before, though she's been on my radar. But the book was touching and raw and haunting and involved multiple narrators which is one of my favorite things.

Our first narrator is Jojo, who lives with his grandparents, Pop and Mam, and his younger sister Kayla. His father, Michael, is in jail and his mother, Leonie, is a drug addict who left her kids with her parents, flitting in and out of their lives.

Jojo adores his grandfather and helps with much of the care and raising of his sister. His grandmother is dying from cancer and Jojo, only thirteen, has to grow up quickly.

Jojo's mother Leonie is the second voice we hear. It'd be easy to paint her with no redeeming values, abandoning her kids and deeply jealous of Jojo's relationship with Kayla. Seeing her perspective doesn't mean she's forgiven for the things she does, but it helps explain.

Leonie comes back into their lives when Michael is about to be released from prison, Parchman's. Despite her parents best wishes, she wants to take Jojo and Kayla to the prison to pick him up. The trip will take a couple days but she thinks it's best for them to be there to see their father, especially Kayla. Michael went to prison before she was born.

There are few other characters. Michael's parents. Michael is white, Leonie black, and his parents vehemently disapprove of the relationship and the children that have come of it. Leonie's friend who makes the trip to Parchman's with them. A few others.

There are also ghosts. Leonie's brother comes to her when she's high, both a blessing and a curse for Leonie. There's also the spirit of  Richie, someone Pop knew from his own time at Parchman's.

This multi-generational story touches on race, family, love, poverty, the ghosts from our past all set in rural Mississippi. Ward's writing is superb, touching and lyrical. One of the best books I read this year and definitely an author I will be reading more from.

Gif rating:

Title quote from location 2821

Ward, Jesmyn. Sing, Unburied, Sing. Scribner, 2017. NetGalley

Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: She navigates the world with the swagger of a mediocre white man

I didn't know much/anything about Anne Helen Petersen or her book when I was scanning through Netgalley, but when I saw the title Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of Unruly Women I said YES this sounds like a book that is right my wheelhouse. So I was pretty excited when I was approved for a copy in exchange for a review.

Petersen looks at the boxes contemporary women are put into and looks at women in pop culture who are decidedly outside these boxes, in at least one category. From this central theme, Petersen gives us a collection of essays on celebrity women who are "too much". Serena Williams who is too strong, Nicki Minaj who is too slutty, Melissa McCarthy who is too fat, Jennifer Weiner who is too loud, and so on. These are women who have operated outside the rules for the appropriate way they should behave and have been able to transcend these limitations and remain (or even become) as popular as they are.

As I said before, I didn't know anything about Petersen and I was a little worried when in the intro she mentions that she works at BuzzFeed. Whether accurate or not, I think of BuzzFeed as the place to take a quiz about which type of grilled cheese I would eat if I went to Hogwarts (smoked cheddar with fig jam on country white bread for Ravenclaw, obviously*) or a gif reaction list about some '90s nostalgia. While these things are entertaining they did not set super high expectations that I would get something insightful in this collection. I'm happy to report that I was so, so wrong.

NOT that credentials or a graduate degree mean you're going to be able to write something worth reading, I will say that Petersen has a Ph.D. in Media Studies, and the essays have a far more academic bent than I was expecting. Which, for me, was GREAT and made this book exactly what I wanted. From her intro

Each chapter starts with the thesis of a particular woman's unruliness...and unravels the way this behavior has been historically framed as an affliction at odds with proper femininity. The more you analyze what makes these behaviors transgressive, the easier it is to see what they're threatening

And so we get an analysis of 10 women who refuse to sit down and shut up. This doesn't mean the essays are gushing praises of these women. There is criticism to be had (looking your way, Caitlyn Jenner) but most of the focus is on their transgressions and the reactions to it, from the media from the population.

Ultimately the book is hopeful, because for the most part the woman succeeded in breaking through these boundaries without crashing and burning. Petersen says the book is a celebration, but also cautions that it should be a warning, a reminder to remain supportive of women, in the media and your everyday life, when they are breaking the rules for how women are supposed to act in order to properly perform femininity and hopefully "the only rules a woman will have to abide by are those she sets for herself."

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and

*It probably goes without saying, but Imma say it anyway that I have no idea if said quiz currently exists but if not, could it please?

Title quote from location 861

Petersen, Anne Helen. Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of Unruly Women. Plume, 2017. NetGalley

We Are Never Meeting In Real Life: Hopefully lesbian bed death is real

As I have mentioned a zillion times, books by funny ladies are my jaaaaaaaaam. So I was browsing NetGalley and saw this book, We Are Never Meeting in Real Life and, OK, I didn't actually recognize the author Samantha Irby. But the cover has an angry wet cat on it and it says it was by the author of the blog "bitches gotta eat" which was pretty much all I needed to at least give it a try. It was my lucky day, since I was approve for a copy in exchange for a review and here we are.

The book is a collection of essays about Samantha's life. It's not really a memoir, but of course, write what you know.

The first essay, "My Bachelorette Application" is a great start. It sets the tone for Irby's humor, especially if you aren't already familiar with her.

I am squeezed into my push-up bra and sparkly, ill-fitting dress. I've got the requisite sixteen coats of waterproof mascara, black eyeliner, and salmon-colored streaks of hastily applied self-tanner drying down the side of my neck. I'm sucking in my stomach, I've taken thirty-seven Imodium in case my irritable bowels have an adverse reaction to the bag of tacos I hid in my purse and ate in the bathroom while no one was looking, and I have been listening to Katy Perry really loudly in the limo on the way over here. I'm about to crush a beer can on my forehead. LET'S DO THIS, BRO.

I know that was long, but it's gold. And like I said that sets the tone. And really, I could repeat pretty much the whole thing here because it's all hilarious.

She is self-deprecating and vulgar, not the best with money when she has it (I want to be one of those people who feels satisfied when I pay my bills rather than cheated out of whatever frivolity was sacrificed in its place), and while she's never really touching and vulnerable, she doesn't shy away from some of the tougher parts of her life.

She has essays about sex, about her cat Helen Keller that she hates but also loves, about her weight, about growing up poor, about how leaving the house is overrated.

So if any of this sounds like your thing, and it should cos it's pretty great, I recommend. Clearly.

Gif rating

Title quote from location 2946

Irby, Samantha. We Are Never Meeting In Real Life. Vintage, 2017. NetGalley

Rich People Problems: You will quickly see that it is Su Yi who rules over everything

Things that are not normally books I go for

• Rom coms
• Stories that are super focused on the materialistic
• General beach read chick lit stuff

And yet, Kevin Kwan's Crazy Rich Asians books are SO MUCH FUN. They are 100% all of the things above. It is all about money and brand names and being rich beyond your wildest dreams. The characters are really more outlines. They have one or two characteristics with little to no nuance. The story is right out of a soap opera. And I loved reading them. So I was pretty excited when I was approved for a copy of the latest book, Rich People Problems. 

Does it really matter what the plot is? It does? Fine, I mean I guess, kinda. Mild spoilers for the earlier books, Crazy Rich Asians and China Rich Girlfriend:

Nick's grandmother, Su Yi, the matriarch of the Young family, is on death's door. Rachel convinces Nick to go home and see his grandmother one last time, to patch things up. He hasn't seen her since her whole refusing to give her blessing to Nick and Rachel for their wedding (hence the last couple books). And of course the whole family is going crazy, some with worry but a lot is wondering what is going to happen to all of the money and especially the famous property Tyersall Park. 

Then there's ALSO a subplot about Astrid and Charlie's relationship being sabotaged by their respective ex-spouses.

Oh there's ALSO Kitty Bing (previously Kitty Tai and before that Kitty Pong) who has divorced Bernard and married Colette's father, making her even more insanely rich than before. Of course, being a step-mom isn't easy and Colette and her father Jack haven't spoken since his divorce. Kitty is determined to outshine Colette, who seems to have moved beyond the petty and shallow world she previously inhabited (but don't worry, she's still insanely rich).

Then there's ALSO a bit about Nick's family badgering Rachel about when she and Nick are gonna make babies already.

There are actually a few other subplots but I'm going to stop here because I've already described too many. So while the book was lots of fun and I loved reading it, it's probably my least favorite of the three. There's a little too much going on and many times characters behaved in ways to serve the story, but didn't really match the personality that had been set up in previous books.

Despite all of the problems I might have, I still recommend the book. If you've liked the others, for sure. If you haven't tried them, do that. They're not deep reads but hey, sometimes we need something that may not have any nutritional value but sometimes you just want some chips.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

Gif rating

Title quote from location 1095

Kwan, Kevin. Rich People Problems. Doubleday, 2017. NetGalley

All Our Wrong Todays: You don't need time travel to smash apart a world. But it helps

I managed to snag a copy of All Our Wrong Todays from NetGalley which was exciting. I didn't know too much about it but from basic summary (time travel!) and a couple positive reviews from others, I figured it was a good gamble.

What if the world we're living in was an alternate timeline from what the "real" present should be? And that everything we know is actually just a primitive and backwards society compared to what we're supposed to have? I mean, look, the way things are going, doesn't the idea that this timeline is a mistake seem like a comforting thought?

The world Tom Barren knows is this technological marvel, where there's unlimited clean energy, no wars, no hunger. Everything is basically perfect. Even waking up in the morning is pleasant. Sure, not everyone is perfectly happy, because people are still people but society pretty much has things worked out. Basically it's what the 1950's figured 2016 would be like, though with a bit more social progress.

Tom's dad is a genius, working on a time machine that can take people back to the exact moment our timelines shifted (not that anyone knows about this other timeline). It's the moment when the Goettreider's Machine was invented, the machine that generates unlimited clean energy and makes the entire future possible. But you know what happens with time travel: you change one thing and the entire future is changed. So of course that's what happens and Tom finds himself in the timeline we know (because Tom's sort of a fuck up), trying to make sense of what has happened, how it happened, and how he can fix things.

Overall, it was a fun story. There's a lot of ridiculous stuff happening, but it's time travel so the more you're willing to just go with things, the better.

That said, there were problems with it. The female characters aren't great. And a fairly big part of the plot is an insta-romance, which is not my thing. I can suspend disbelief involving time travel, but people falling deeply, madly, truly in love in two weeks? I can't.

There are also some bits that I won't get into cos it's a bit spoilery but there's stuff where characters do things a bit TOO perfectly and you can give whatever excuse you want, but it still made me eye roll hard.

I also, looking over my notes now, realize I made a number of snarky comments not just about insta-romance but a few different points, which I typically do if I'm not enjoying a book. I did enjoy this, but it's not perfect

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Title quote from location 3164

Mastai, Elan. All Our Wrong Todays. Penguin Group Dutton, 2017. NetGalley

It's Up to the Women: The spirit requires cultivation

I received a copy of It's Up to the Women from NetGalley in exchange for a review, which was pretty swell.

And the timing of this review is mostly coincidental, but doesn't stop it from being a nice follow up to the INCREDIBLE, INSANE, INSPIRING turnout from the Women's Marches around the world.

It's Up to the Women is a collection of essays by Eleanor Roosevelt originally published in 1933 when the US was in the midst of the Great Depression. It's advice for what women can do to make things better for everyone.

On the one hand, it shows its age with a strong focus on the domestic sphere and a section of recipes that includes things like hot prune juice and boiling pasta for 25 minutes*.

On the other hand, there's a lot here that made me do a double take. Like I said, there is a focus on the domestic sphere but Roosevelt advocates for it to be looked up as a profession, with the same level of respect. She also doesn't limit women to the home and kitchen, but talks about women being doctors and lawyers and scientists. She talks about how families shouldn't be thrown into financial despair because they have to go to the doctor. She talks about how women may keep working after marriage out of necessity, not just economic necessity but because working may give her a sense of purpose or allows her to express her personality in a way she can't as a wife and mother and that this is a good thing. And she advocates equal pay for equal work. And for regular vacation and working hours

This is a product of the Depression, so naturally there is a lot about how money doesn't bring happiness and the suggestion to look to things that are inexpensive or free, the importance of creating and sticking to a budget.

This is of course not to say that the book is perfect. Class and sexism are very lightly touched on. Race not at all. Institutionalized racism/sexism/classism is basically ignored. She talks at one point about how there are no female politicians not because of sexism but because women haven't been allowed in politics long enough to gain the experience necessary for political office. I suppose this is another way the book shows its age.

But ultimately I enjoyed the book and highlighted a ton of quotes. So why don't I share some of those now?

The price of a garment is not always indicative of its real worth nor is it indicative of whether you are buying something that has been made under sweat shop conditions or not. This is a phase which even the poorest, in planning a clothes budget, should consider, for no matter what we can afford to buy, we cannot afford to buy at the expense of the health and strength of our fellow human beings.

What would have seemed to one generation absolutely immoral will to another generation simply seem a matter of custom and manners and therefore in a changing world we must bear in mind that we cannot be too sure that ideals which have served us in the past are to continue to serve us in the future.

A woman, just like a man, may have a great gift for some particular thing. That does not mean that she must give up the joy of marrying and having a home and children. It simply means, when we set them in opposition to each other, that we haven't as yet grown accustomed to the fact that women's lives must be adjusted and arranged for in just the same way that men's lives are. Women may have to sacrifice certain things at times - so do men.

Fourteen years have now gone by and everywhere people are asking, "What have the women done with the vote?" I often wonder why they don't ask the men the same question, but I realize that it is a high compliment to women that evidently they were expected to bring about some marked change in political conditions.

I enjoyed the book more than I thought I would. It was a lot more relevant than I gave it credit for and I'm very glad I got a chance to read it. It's up to the women, indeed.

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*Though I don't know if that last one is its age or just nonsense, cos I could feel my grandmother rolling in her grave when I read that line, and she lived through the Great Depression. So really, no excuse.

Title quote from location 990

Roosevelt, Eleanor. It's Up to the Women. Nation Books, 2017. Originally published 1933. NetGalley