Book Reviews
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Vol. 1 by 山田鐘人 - I didn’t think I’d get a chance to read this as Third Coast Comics didn’t have it in stock but I was fortunate that a co-worker sent me a copy. It was a great read. It didn’t matter I had already read Volume 2 and seen the entire anime (which is very true to the manga). It was nice to get a refresh of how her second journey began.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Vol. 3 by 山田鐘人 - Despite knowing how the battle with Aura and her executioners was going to end I still found it intense to read. There are also some really hilarious parts like when the adventurers met another monk and what Frieren thought would be a good gift for Stark.
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss - Goss was very ambitious with this book. It is a (second-wave) feminist, science fiction, mystery, and historical fiction novel. It’s also hybrid in that the main character, Mary Jekyll, purports to be the author and included with the normal prose are notes from her as well as her found family. I think that had Goss only taken on those challenges it would have been a much better book. Unfortunately, she also incorporated characters from historical works including Frankenstein, The Island of Doctor Moreau, Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, and the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde. From these various works she pulls one or more characters causing them to be important to the plot. Because there were so many characters there was little time to develop any of them. If Goss had taken an approach more like Marissa Meyer’s Cinder series it could have been a far better novel (or series). The Cinder series also replicated pre-existing characters but each character had a novel’s worth of introduction. Goss’s attempt at having the book be part mystery was foiled by including Sherlock Holmes and James Watson as characters. The book starts with the mystery of the money Mary Jekyll should have inherited from her father and the whereabouts of Mr. Hyde. With Sherlock involved the fact that her father was Mr. Hyde should have been solved as soon as he knew her background, instead Mary goes through almost the entire novel thinking her father is dead and not also Mr. Hyde. One of the big clues which the characters had was that her father transferred money to a bank in another country but the bank had no record of money deposited in his name. The money thread is completely dropped, it was obviously put in Mr. Hyde’s name and she should have claimed the money at the end of the novel instead of finding odd jobs to survive on. I found some of the writing of characters with mental health issues to be ableist which could have been resolved if there had been a sensitivity reader. What, however, almost caused me to stop reading was two throw-away sentences that used a racial slur to describe indigenous people of both Australia and the Americas. This was written in 2017 and set in the 1890s. The slur was used by one of the heroines of the story, and while perhaps a feminist of 1890 would have used that slur to refer to indigenous people there is no excuse for a feminist writing it in 2017.
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison - A good look at what it was like to be black in America in the first half of the 20th century. It's a bit depressing. A great social commentary on masculinity and racism. It seemed scattered at first but the bits that seemed disconnected early on ended up getting tied together exceptionally. I enjoyed Beloved more, probably because I wasn't as interested in Milkman is a main character.
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid - What's not to love! A forbidden lesbian romance between astronauts in the early years of the US shuttle program! It goes into depth about the sexism women faced at NASA and how being queer was considered a liability. I also enjoyed how the main character realizes as an adult that she's queer. The story of the niece being sidelined by her mother is also heartbreaking. I was in Maryland when I read this, and the flatness of Maryland reminded me of Cape Canaveral which the book is set.
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde - It’s very evident how comedy like Monty Python spawned from this play. It’s a very ridiculous story in a fashion only a Brit can pull off. While none of the characters are explicitly queer, it’s clear in retrospect that Wilde was exploring his challenges with being queer in British society while writing this. Obviously Wilde’s imprisonment and later years are a tragedy that reminds us why we need to be vigilante about queer rights.
Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree - This was awesome! I really need to read more lesbian romance! While this is set in a fictional D&Dish setting I think taking two “villainous” races in this case Orcs and Succubi and humanizing helps confront the type of prejudice we have in the real world. In this case the Orc main character literally hangs up her sword to follow her dream of running a coffee shop.
Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan - I’m not sure why it took me this long to read this. I really enjoyed the contrast between the mothers and the daughters. I kept having to remember that the daughters are my parents generation and the mothers came to the US during the Japanese invasion of China. The cycle of not understanding a parent as a person feels so real. The details of life in China prior to Mao’s China was insightful. I also liked learning a bit more about Mahjong, including differences between American and Chinese Mahjong.
We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance by Kellie Carter Jackson - This book outlines how black people, especially women, have resisted oppression throughout the history of the Americas. She goes out of her way to point out that while violent resistance is often downplayed, there are times when she considers it the only correct option. What I found especially informative was the way federal marshals invaded northern states and communities used bells to warn people. That precipice to the civil war feels a lot like where we are with ICE today.
Give Me a Sign by Anna Sortino - It’s a cute YA romance that explores Deaf Culture, imposter syndrome, and audism (ie: ableism against the deaf community). At times I felt it was a little overly preachy, though perhaps some of the ableism the characters experience aren’t as obvious as I found them. Most of the story is set in an Illinois camp dedicated to the area deaf and blind community. At the start of the book the main character uses hearing aids and uses voice as well as lip reading to communicate with friends and family. This is her first year as a camp counselor and she needs to brush up on her ASL because she hasn’t used it outside of camp. At the start of the book she feels like an outsider in both hearing and deaf communities. I especially connected with this book because I was a camp counselor for two years as a teen. I’ve spent weeks in Chicago so it was fun hearing about places I’m familiar with like Portillo’s, Wrigley Field, and Union Station. A recurring issue in the town where the camp is situated was a lack of cell service. Because my experience of Illinois is almost entirely Chicago-land it kept feeling surprising to remember that very little of Illinois is actually city.
Vile Verses by Roald Dahl - I read this for school. It’s just a collection of poetry from some of his other books. He’s a great writer but unless you really want the handful of unpublished poems in here it’s not worth finding it (the book is out of print).
On Beyond Zebra by Dr. Seuss - I saw two reasons why they decided to stop publishing it. While it hasn’t aged well it is a ridiculous read that pokes fun at our alphabet.