Mini-reviews: November & December (part I) 2017

So let's try again for these mini-reviews. Those reviews that I already wrote and then were lost, probably to end up with all the missing hair ties and socks the dryer eats.

I was saying that I am impressed with how quickly I am getting through these mini-reviews. It helps that right now I'm on maternity and it's not that I suddenly have TONS of time because maternity is like a vacation (it is NOT) but the munchkin does do a lot of sleeping which gives me some down time. Sure, writing these posts happens in bursts but I'm getting more done than when I was pregnant and had more time but lacked the mental energy (dammit work, for zapping that). We'll see what happens with posting once work starts up again but hopefully I'll be able to catch up with the mini-reviews before then.

It turns out in November 2017 I only have one book I read that I haven't already reviewed*, but there are a bunch in December, so here are the reviews for November plus half of December.

November 2017

Gabi, A Girl In Pieces by Isabel Quintero
Excellent coming-of-age book about Mexican-American high schooler Gabi dealing with a number of things: parental and cultural expectations, dating, a gay friend dealing with discrimination, another friend who is pregnant, a drug-addicted father, a pregnant mother, a brother getting into all kinds of trouble, and self-image, as Gabi spends a lot of time emotional eating. There's a lot going on, with some heavy topics, but it feels natural, not overwhelming.
Gif Rating: 

December 2017, part I

Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change by Ellen Pao
Memoir of Ellen Pao's life and especially her gender discrimination case against the venture capital firm she used to work for as well as her time as interim CEO at reddit, working to get rid of some of the seedier parts of the site. She talks about her upbringing, her accomplishments (degrees in Engineering, Law and Business from Princeton and Harvard) before getting to her time at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. She talks about how intense the work is and what she has to do, as a woman to be taken seriously, while being passed up for promotions and being shut out of opportunities that were set up for men only. I enjoyed the content and believe Pao but the writing isn't great. It's not terrible but it can be repetitive and there are times where Pao really hammers in her degrees and accomplishments. Important topic but not my favorite writing.
Gif Rating: 

Neurocomic by Hana Ros and Matteo Farinella
Graphic novel about the inner workings of the brain, told as something of an Alice in Wonderland type story. It gets into the science of dopamine and neurotransmitters and some of the history of how we know the things we know. Or they know. I dunno how much of the science I've retained but that may be more on me than the book and the way the information is presented. Fun story and hey, maybe you'll learn something. And if not, hey, there's a giant squid at one point, so that's fun.
Gif Rating: 

*Full list of November 2017 books read:
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero
Why Have Kids?: A New Mom Explores the Truth About Parenting and Happiness by Jessica Valenti

Mini reviews were written and now they're gone and I am not happy right now

Guess what. I wrote an entire post of mini reviews. Book covers. Links. Gifs. The whole works. And then Blogger decided to get rid of all of it (after confirming 2 saves) and now I'm annoyed because I only have so much time to write this stuff so this is just a post to tell you I HAD a mini review post done and it is not gone and I am feeling all sorts of annoyed

Rewriting it will have to happen at some other point since the little one stirs

Mini reviews: September and October 2017

Another mini-review post! Look at me, with that follow through.

I was looking through my spreadsheets for what I read but never reviewed in September of last year. Turns out, there's only one book. Everything else in September was an ARC or else a reread and something I had already posted a review for. October was the same. So once again, I decided to combine those months into a single post. I may get through this fast than I anticipated. 

September 2017

The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson

I mean, it's Bill Bryson, so of course I loved it. Yeah, he's cranky and curmudgeony but that is part of the charm as he travels around England. Or rather straight through, as he picks the longest straight line through the land he can manage. Because why not? Something of a sequel to Notes from a Small Island and just as entertaining. Basically if you like Bryson and/or Britain, something to try. 

Gif rating:

October 2017

The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

I'd had this book somewhat on my radar and then saw it in a small bookstore with a note that described it as "The Bluths in NYC". How can that go wrong? Well, it can if the book is nothing like that. I would like to find the employee that wrote that description and ask them to defend this position. Yes, it's rich people in NYC and Arrested Development involves rich people in California but that is not enough to compare the two. ANYWAY, I went into this book with the wrong expectations which I'm sure colored my experience but overall I thought the book was fine. A family fighting over a nest egg they're supposed to inherit and each of the grown children have preemptively spent their portion of what they believe they will be receiving. I thought the book would be funnier than it is and couldn't get the disappointment that it wasn't out of my head. But don't go into it looking for that and overall it's not a bad story. It's fine.

Gif rating:

 

If you're curious, here's the full list of what I read in September and October of last year.

September

Artemis by Andy Weir

Sociable by Rebecca Harrington

The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson

Locke & Key by Joe Hill

We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates

October

The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

On Writing by Stephen King

It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree by A.J. Jacobs

Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Everything's Eventual by Stephen King

August reading wrap up

August reading has been better than July reading. Not like that was hard. Getting into something of a routine with the Pipsqueak* so managed to get some more reading done. I mean, not much more. But some.

And I managed to read to him a bit. One of the "How to raise the small thing you brought home from the hospital with you" books says it's good to read to them, even if at this age they don't understand what you're saying, so go ahead and read to them whatever your reading. It suggests New Yorker articles you've been meaning to catch up on or Moby Dick. Which is why I read to him a book about autopsies. Not quite as classy as the book was going for, but he seemed interested so whatever.

Addams Approve

Spoiler for stats to come, but it's all re-reads. And not only that but all nonfiction. Apparently that is the mood I have been in. Fiction requires more imagination. I've also stuck to ebooks since it's easier to read on my phone (something I had never done before this month) since I can hold the phone in one hand and deal with whatever needs dealt with with the other hand. There are physical books I'd like to pick up so maybe next month I'll figure that out but for now the phone was easiest.

Reading stats!

Number of books read
2
Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies and the Making of a Medical Examiner by Judy Melineck
Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

Number of pages
560

Fiction
0%

POC authors
0%

Female authors
100%

US authors
100%

Rereads
100%

Book formats
ebooks: 100%

Where'd I get the book
Kindle/Audible: 100%

Decades published
2000s: 50%
2010s: 50%

Resolution books
0%

I'm not sure what it says about me that I picked two nonfiction books dealing with death. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some back episodes of My Favorite Murder to catch up on.

*He has about 100 nicknames including Munchkin, Angel Face, Goblin, Sir Poopington. Sometimes we call him by his name. He is going to be a very confused child.

Mini-reviews: Summer 2017

As has been clear, I have not been posting much here. For REASONS sure (he's still adorable). Which means, as mentioned previously, I am super behind on reviews. Like super behind. Like we're officially over 12 months behind on some books. Whooops.

Because I am so far behind (so far) I want to do some mini-reviews to try to get up to speed. Some of these I may write full reviews about, others it may just be the minis*.

I last did a mini-review roundup last September. Some of those books got full reviews, others, not so much. I was thinking, to give these mini-reviews some structure I'll stick to books read in a given month. That'll also help me keep track of how much I have to do (a lot). This ALSO gives me an excuse, for this first roundup, to just repost the ones I did before but include the Gif rating. I was planning on reposting those few mini-reviews I had done before but adding the Gif rating and TURNS OUT, with the exception of one book, they're all from the same month. So. Nice way for me to ease into things. Also the small one is making noises so I should probably see what's up.**

So here are some mini-reviews for books I read last summer that never got their own full reviews

July 2017

Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino
A very slow, very quiet book which is odd considering the topic is about a woman who is murdered. Relationships between sisters, and some stuff about sex workers and the seedy underbelly of Japan. There are even multiple POVs and unreliable narrators and stuff I usually like but not in this case. It was just...strange and pretty boring and difficult to follow and meh.
Gif Rating:

August 2017

My Boyfriend Barfed in My Handbag...and Other Things You Can't Ask Martha by Jolie Kerr
It's a book about cleaning. And how to clean. And it was great. This is not like Marie Kondo's which was more a way of being with some advice that no, I am not thanking my purse every day. This is more practical instructions. Part of it is her tackling different projects (deep cleaning the kitchen, tackling clothing stains) and another part is her answering questions and she is SUPER nonjudgemental and will provide advice for cleaning your sex swing because dammit, cleanliness is important. Thank you, Glynis, for the reco. And I'll prob do a full review of this one. Eventually.
Gif Rating:

One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by Scaachi Koul
Another collection of essays by a funny lady. Perhaps not quite as successful as others in this category, but still entertaining, especially a story about the power clothing can give you and a particular skirt. I was expecting it to be a bit less memoir than it was but that's FINE and it was still entertaining.
Gif Rating:

*If it's a mini-review only, that means the book was fine. It wasn't a favorite (or else I'd want to write about it and convince you all to read it) and it wasn't horrible (or else I'd want to write about how awful it was and steer you away).

**Though, did you know that babies can cry in their sleep? Like full on yelling, in addition to all of the other noises. And I promise, he's actually asleep. This Friends clip is an accurate portrayal of what his sleep is often like. It is...unnerving. Babies are weird.

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.