I honestly low-key enjoyed the first half even if I wasn’t as delighted as I should be by the topic of a lifetime librarian in the hands of the delighI honestly low-key enjoyed the first half even if I wasn’t as delighted as I should be by the topic of a lifetime librarian in the hands of the delightfully irreverent deWitt. It was honestly more of a cozy story that felt it could turn into a cozy mystery or cozy late romance or something. But at the halfway point, the story switches to a tale of the librarian’s childhood that also felt nice and cozy but then never ended and never got back to the point. I finally put the book down at 75% and never felt regret about failing to finish. ...more
the final quote of the book sums up the tone well:
The connections between and among women are the most feared, the most problematic, and the most pot
the final quote of the book sums up the tone well:
The connections between and among women are the most feared, the most problematic, and the most potentially transforming force on the planet. - Adrienne Rich
though the relationships among the three main women in the story are more legacy and intent than actual connections, the sentiment still applies. Altha ("Healer") Weyward in the 1600's, Violet Ayres in the 1930's and Kate Ayres in present day are all women with dangerous gifts both coveted and threatening to the men in their lives. They stand in well for the power that women can have to shape the world for better especially when supporting each other and for the eternal struggle against the patriarchy who refuses to share power and vilifies women who defy their conventions. The book is short and fast paced with short chapters alternating between the three women but connecting them throughout. I'm impressed with this as a debut - it was descriptive and lovely where it needed to be but spare in its overall prose. content warning: themes of abuse, rape and medical abuse of women portrayed...more
3.5 stars rounding up. There was a lot to critique here - some obvious 'why are you DOING that!?" that further the plot or keeps the MC from a good li3.5 stars rounding up. There was a lot to critique here - some obvious 'why are you DOING that!?" that further the plot or keeps the MC from a good life/home, some discomfort in the things that happen to a 16-yr old that are supposed to be ok because she doesn't mind/the guy doesn't know her real age + some dissonance in her growing up and (view spoiler)[getting pregnant (hide spoiler)] 3 years later which if you don't do the math seems somehow ok but once you do it you realize she's only 19 and while legal, some stuff is still icky. But I felt like the intentions were good and there is a lot you can forgive for someone who is a survivor of a horrible parenting upbringing where she essentially had only herself to rely on. And the ending wasn't crap so I'll take it. Also, despite some easy tropes the author could have followed - like our MC not having friends who are girls - she chose not to and there are some excellent female friendships in here that make the book pass a Bechdel test with flying colors....more
it was ok - good, quick beach read fare if you don't mind wanting to shake some of these women (in both time frames) we had some good convos in bookclit was ok - good, quick beach read fare if you don't mind wanting to shake some of these women (in both time frames) we had some good convos in bookclub about the decisions made here and some of painful withholding-secrets-for-no-good-reason cliches. There are a lot of romance tropes in here without this fitting that genre. ...more
more like 3.5 stars but rounding up because it was lighter fare than I've been reading of late and fairly humorous (and a clever experiment).
Told entmore like 3.5 stars but rounding up because it was lighter fare than I've been reading of late and fairly humorous (and a clever experiment).
Told entirely through slack chats within an advertising company, starting on the day nearly everyone is snowed in and working from home, one chatter begs for everyone to take him seriously as his consciousness appears to be trapped inside Slack and he doesn't know how to get back to his body (and the seemingly-more-sentient-than-anticipated Slackbot isn't helping). This allows him to be a virtual fly on the wall in his co-workers lives as he suddenly can read (and interrupt) all the private channels in the system.... you can imagine the typical office drama happening under the surface. The tone could have gone many different ways, but I'd say this feels most like Office Space for the 2020's.
Perfect timing as well for our COVID-isolation, chronic WFH-days this year!...more
A tragi-comedy in the vein of Atonement (making up for what could have been) or Trust Exercise (for the Great AI suspect this one is going to haunt me
A tragi-comedy in the vein of Atonement (making up for what could have been) or Trust Exercise (for the Great American Novel TM instead of uncomfortable adolescence) mashed up with farce - I might still be mad about the ending but I can’t ignore the heart and beautiful soul of this tale (listened to with Nick Offerman’s narration - which was perfect)...more
It’s quite a thing when the world is upside down to hear someone say it don’t have to be — that a man could be paid enough to feed and house himself.
It’s quite a thing when the world is upside down to hear someone say it don’t have to be — that a man could be paid enough to feed and house himself. … Rye felt listed by a sense of hope.”"
Honestly a well-researched (shown not told) historical fiction will do more to interest me than just about anything especially if the characters are interesting... no matter the topic. And the topic of labor wars in old-timey Spokane is not on the top of my list despite this being my hometown. The same was true with Egan's Manhattan Beach - the plot was not necessarily something to interest me and it ran off the rails at times but the subject matter and attention to historical place and time detail made me like it.
This story has a significantly different feel than Walter's Beautiful Ruins which was one of my all-time favorites. That one was romantic and artistic and earnest and full of beautiful Italian scenery in the 50's as well as a cinephile's rose-colored glasses in modern Hollywood. The Cold Millions title refers to the 99% left behind in the literal frontier cold while railroad barons and coal mine millionaires leech off their backs to live in luxury - and brutally punish any demands for better pay, safer work, job security. It's sneakily about modern issues of police brutality (and how policing exists to protect the rich from the people who make them rich), class warfare and the weapons of misogyny, racism and xenophobia deployed to separate the majority who could overcome so much if working in solidarity. It's often grim, sometimes hopeless, its dirty and infuriating.... so many feelings opposite to those felt during the previous read. I didn't realize till now that Walters is a progressive leftist - especially surprising as my anti-union, conservative father loved this book (we only ever overlap in reading sci-fi). He worked at Bunker Hill (Idaho) in the 70's and Kaiser Aluminum throughout the 80's and 90's as one of the few non-union employees and voted/supported the Reagonomic sentiments that unions were destroying American capitalism and putting corporations out of business. But the history recorded here has resonated down the decades and he remembers the impact these events had on the psyche of the Bunker Hill workers 60 years later - where they still discussed the labor riots and the bombing of the Idaho mine. It's amazing what an empathetic and gifted author can do to present modern issues in a widely accessible manner to a degree that this daughter diametrically opposed to her father's views could agree with him on the value of this tale. It doesn't supplant Beautiful Ruins in my mind, mostly because I wanted that feeling of romance and hope and love of art again, but I admire everything it accomplished. I highly recommend the Powell's conversation between Walters and Amor Towles as well which the miracle of remote author interviews allowed my father and I to simultaneously attend....more
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