God: A Human History

Reza Aslan's Zealot was high on my "enjoyed" list, and I learned quite a bit from it. Looking back on that post, I wish I had written more in-depth about my thoughts on it and how the book effected me. So I decided to pick up God: A Human History when I saw it available for advanced review. 

I have been a fan of Allan since reading Zealot, and I find him to be an accomplished scholar who does outstanding historical research. This should come as no surprise seeing as how this is literally his job. I need to spell that out early on, though, so that we can be clear in explanation that the dude has got a point. You don’t have to be an atheist to find his work to be incredibly deep and explanatory. However, if you don’t like exploring knowledge that may contradict your faith, you should look for another work. That being said, I would encourage you to explore historical facts that you believe might not support what you have faith in — you might find some insight into why you believe what you believe. 

So now that my disclaimer is out there, let’s get to the meat of the book. I have a teensy background in religious history just through reading my beloved non-fiction religious scholars, but I had never explored the origins of the human belief in God. It’s funny now that I think about it, particularly as cognitive psych-oriented I am, that I have never spent time mulling over this. Hence my fascination with Aslan’s latest work. 

Where does God come from? Not in terms of physical origin, but in our own thoughts and minds. Who is he, and what is he like? Since no one on this earth actually knows (not even you), we as hominids with complex cognitive reasoning skills have created a likeness in our image because it’s what we can understand. How can we possibly imagine a being that isn’t something within our cognitive framework already? (This starts to get complicated on my end in terms of psych concepts, so as simply as I can explain it: we can’t know more than we know, so the conception of God is super complicated.) 

So ancient relatives of ours created God in their own image. Religion helped settle hominids and, Aslan argues, pushed us from a hunter-gatherer culture to an agricultural one. We created many gods pan-culturally with similar backstories based on historical events, and those gods had the ability to do specific things that humans could relate to. They were an explanation for a species who are primarily meaning-makers. (Now you are getting a part of my human development class mixed in with Aslan!) 

Then comes in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. I could go into it all here, but you should read the book yourself because it is an awesome (in the most literal sense of the word) intellectual exploration of humans and deities and how we got to here. 

Aslan discusses some important-to-me topics in here such as theory of mind and ancient Hellenic culture, and I was amazed at my ability to synthesize it all. I was fascinated and humbled by the research presented and the depth of Aslan’s understanding of from whence we come. I only read one chapter at a time so I could ruminate on his words and the string of his narrative in relation to my own history and conception of the divine. 

The most moving piece of his book was the conclusion when Aslan opens up about his own journey to believe in what he does. He leaves the journey up to each of us, but indeed I identify with his short but profound words about his own beliefs, because I share them. He says in the last chapter that to reach this point in your beliefs, you have to come to it willingly and deliberately, and this struck such a strong cord with me. He’s right. I, too, have come here willingly and deliberately. What a beautiful thing it is. 

The Favorite Sister: A Novel

Just last month I posted about Jessica Knoll's Luckiest Girl Alive, and I mentioned that I was looking forward to her new book. Well, here we are! It's The Favorite Sister, out this week.

Goal Diggers is a popular reality television show featuring five women who will fight their way to the top at all costs. People tune in for catfights and sure, also for the feminism. You get what you pay for, you know? Brett is the producer's darling, the lesbian do-gooder whose scrappy beginnings are ratings gold. It also doesn't hurt that her feud with cast mate Stephanie, an author of a series of bestselling books with a new memoir of her surviving an abusive relationship, will be ratings gold. When Brett's sister and business partner Kelly joins the cast, and secrets that the five women hoped to keep secret start coming out in the press, the season goes off the rails and not everyone will get out alive. Literally.

Knoll's books are incredibly entertaining, and I think that she is entering into my world as one of my favorite writers. Her work is a little off in a world that may not be entirely realistic, and I love it. She writes about worlds that I don't live in, and I love that she brings to the page such full-bodied characters in worlds that I would never want to live in. It's really fantastic, and it makes for an engaging and (dare I say?) riveting story. Her build up to climax in this book is amazing, and she did the same thing in Luckiest Girl, but these books are not alike in terms of content. They both tell compelling, full stories that don't have any content overlap. I'm crazy impressed.

We know at the beginning that Brett is dead and her sister, Kelly, is playing the grieving sister. We know the who and the what, but we don't know the when, the where, they why, and the how. As Knoll reveals the details of the plot throughout the book, I found myself gripping my Kindle harder and harder and ignoring people more and more as we got down to business. She has this way of storytelling that peels away layers like an onion and it's amazing. She always reveals just enough to keep you moving on to the next chapter even when you need to go the &^%$ to bed because you have to work in the morning. (Not that I'm speaking from personal experience...) She makes it hurt so good because she knows how to tell you just enough to keep you flipping the page but not enough that you can figure out what's going to happen next until it's too damned late.

Another reason why Knoll is poking her way into my favorites list is her ability to create horrible, nasty female characters that I find myself loving in spite of myself. This is a true compliment, because it's hard to create horrible people that are so unlikable yet you can't stop thinking about. (I am reminded here of Amy in Gone Girl). It takes a sharp writing hand to be able to create characters like this, and that she can do this with women that are strong and principled (in their own, fucked up way) is just incredible. It reminds me of this:

Hats off to this lady who can write.

I don't want to give away too much, so I will end here and encourage you to pick up this book yourself. It's the beach read you are looking for.

Educated: A Memoir

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover stood out to me as it was an interesting premise: a young woman, raised in a survivalist family in Idaho with no formal education, fights her way to college and graduate school to become a historian. This memoir went way beyond that and became a beautiful story of love, loyalty, and self-discovery. 

Tara was the youngest of seven children, born to a fundamentalist Mormon family who did not believe in formal education. More than that, her father believed that the End of Days was coming, and he had his family preparing to outlast everyone on their mountain, isolated from neighbors, family, and friends. Their income came from the junkyard on their property, and her father spent hours on end rambling about the evils of the Government (capitalization intentional) and the gentiles, whom he defined as everyone but those who lived their faith according to his principles, including his fellow Mormons. When Tara follows in her brother's footsteps to BYU, she suffers from severe culture shock, and she must find her own place and her own way -- not just that of her father. 

This story is incredible, and not just for the sheltered-girl-makes-good story. At its heart, Tara's story is an achievement in self-study that follows her journey from an impressionable child who desperately believes her father's rantings against the evils of the world to an adult who has to find the answers to her questions herself. She has to face her past, which is her family, in the harshest light possible, and she has to make a decision between caring for herself and her own well-being or being a member of her family. It's heartbreaking, and in this story, you watch as her siblings all have to make this decision for themselves. The self-delusion that some family members live in is almost unbelievable, until you realize that we all have people who live in this state even if it is not nearly as extreme as a survivalist mentality. Tara tells of sitting in an undergraduate psychology class and hearing the symptoms for bipolar disorder and realizing that her father is a textbook case. It's not the first time that she begins questioning her upbringing, but it is a defining moment in her relationship with her parents. My heart hurt for her as she laid out her process of coming to grips with the differences between her and those who raised her. 

However, even if this story was just about Tara's work to overcome the odds stacked against her, that would have been amazing. Just her ability to be self-sufficient in terms of reviewing for the ACT on her own, and her seeking help with trigonometry from her brother, was amazing. It was enough to make me wonder if I could have that kind of drive. It's mind boggling that her father would give credit to their "home school," as there was next to no schooling that actually took place. Her family was not set up to succeed, from her father's rantings to her mother's capitulation, from their distrust of modern medicine to a fear of paperwork and schooling, Tara's success was just astounding, and the fact that she, along with two of her brothers, earned Ph.D.'s is amazing, and I applaud them. I know how hard this is. 

The most important part of Tara's story, to me, was her ability to come to grips with the abuse she suffered as a child and a young adult at the hands of her older brother. She calls him Shawn in this book, and he was incredibly violent to Tara, and later we discover many other girls, over a course of decades. I was expecting sexual abuse to come to light at some point, but that was not the case. He spent his time tormenting his sisters, girlfriends, and desired paramours. It's difficult to read, because you want to scream at the girls in the book to run as fast as they can. When one girl turns to Tara and tells her that God has provided Shawn with the ability to "fix" girls through violence, and that he is annointed, it's shocking. I was taken aback that someone could be so enmeshed in their faith that they would accept predicted violence to be God's will. I know it happens, but reading it so starkly was affecting.

Tara's writing is also lovely. In an interview with Vanity Fair, she writes that she studied short stories to figure out how to write for a general audience, and that she structured her chapters like short stories. The effect was beautiful, and the book was affecting and meaningful. I'm grateful that I was able to be a part of her journey as a reader of her story, and I look forward to hearing what the future offers her. 

The Woman in the Window: A Novel

Funny story about getting this book. At last year's Book Expo, I was super pregnant. No exaggeration -- I was 36 weeks and exhausted. I was also in a great deal of pain, as I had SPD and my pelvis was separating. I pushed through because BOOKS, but there was one  book I didn't get. I just couldn't stay another 45 minutes for the book drop. This was A.J. Finn's The Woman in the Window.

Anna Fox's life has fallen apart. She is a shut in as a result of agoraphobia, the result of a trauma she is reluctant to speak of. Her husband and young daughter have left her home, and she spends her days on a support chatroom, watching her neighbors through the window, and drinking inordinate amounts of wine. It's the only way she can cope with her PTSD. New neighbors move in across the street, and they quickly become a part of Anna's life, both through the window and in her own home. The young boy is clearly frightened, the wife is jovial and friendly, and the husband is an enigma. When Anna sees a murder in their from her window, she seeks help, only to discover that no one believes her, and the woman she saw killed does not exist outside of Anna meeting her. Is Anna's PTSD causing her to invent stories to work through her own trauma - or is something more deeply sinister occurring in her neighborhood?

It is no exaggeration to say that I whipped through this book faster than I ever imagined I could. I thought it was going to take me a few days, as it's not a short book, but I could not put it down. I found myself with my Kindle in my hand for hours at a time, grabbing a page here and a page there. When I got to the last few chapters, I threatened to stab my husband if he interrupted me one more time, because I was at the climax and I was genuinely stunned at what I was reading. This book was absolutely incredible and I highly recommend it.

When you read enough crime stories you start to be able to figure out who did it and the twists that are coming, and I was absolutely stunned that I couldn't guess what was going on in this story. It was mind-boggling in that I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out the twist. When it happened, I gasped out loud. It was crazy and completely unexpected, yet absolutely perfect for the story. I wish I could say more, but I can't because the reward in the end is well worth not knowing much more.

I also have to say that Anna has stayed with me. Finn has created a deeply empathetic character who was easy to relate to. Not just because she was a psychologist in her past life (pre-agoraphobia), but also because she was a broken woman who didn't hide her brokenness. She was able to help others through her connection to them in the online chatroom, but she couldn't help herself. She willfully ignored her psychiatrists' prescriptions and drank like a fish to cope with the result of events that were both in and out of her control. She wasn't a weak character at all; she was just broken and she recognized that she was broken. She was full and alive, and while the story was gripping, Anna was the triumph of this story.

This was a book that I couldn't recommend more, except to maybe my mother because she hates what she calls my "murder and mayhem." Everyone else, grab this one because it is outstanding. I am so glad that I was able to borrow this from the library and entertain myself over the course of a couple of days. Go ahead - treat yourself. 

The Family Next Door: A Novel

I requested a copy of Sally Hepworth's The Family Next Door because I was intrigued by the premise of a series of lies all coming together to a blow up finale. Call me a Liane Moriarity junkie, and I will agree. (Don't fret everyone, for reference, this book was compared to her work in the promo.)

Pleasant Court in Melbourne is a sleepy street where not much happens except the occasional child injury. Except what happens behind closed doors is always more salacious than anyone will let on. Fran and her husband have dealt with their fair share of ups and downs in the recent births of their two children. Ange spends an ungodly amount of time trying to portray the perfect life on social media with her husband and two boys. Essie and her family are trying to forget about her episode of post-partum depression after her first child and secretly guarding against it happening with their second. Thank goodness her mother lives just next door. When Isabelle moves in to a rental on the street, her urban glamour intrigues everyone, not the least of which features Essie. As the heat builds, both literally and figuratively, everyone's lives will come to a head as secrets come to light and families are changed.

This review takes two positions: the first is that the book itself is a little outlandish, and the second is that it was a fun read. I was reminded repeatedly of Big Little Lies, which, as I mentioned earlier in the post, shouldn't surprise anyone since the promotion for this book compared this book to her work. I'll start with the first statement so we can hurry up and get to why this book was a fun read.

I was into this book for a good long while, because Hepworth does a great job of creating interesting characters. Ange was insufferable in that way that you enjoy reading her and hating her all at the same time. We all know people like this in our lives, women who go out of their way to portray a perfect life on social media when you know your kid blows out his diaper just like mine. It's completely insufferable, and you can easily spot an Ange a mile away. Like, really, we aren't stupid. I dropped most of these people on social media during the Great Unfriending of 2016, but I still have a couple on my feed. I really felt for Fran and the difficulties in her marriage, as that was so easy to relate to. Essie fascinated me, and I wanted to get to the bottom of her issues. Isabelle was intriguing. So it's fair to say I was captivated by the characters, and their husbands too.

The story just went a little off the rails when we get to the crux of why Isabelle moved to Pleasant Court. It absolutely was not what I was expecting, I'll give the author that. It was a surprise, because it looks like Hepworth is leaning left and then she spins right. I liked that. However, once the motives are revealed, the story took a turn for the unrealistic in an eye-rolling way. I don't want to give anything away, because I think the book is definitely worth a read for the fun of it, but it's fair to say that the explosiveness of the revelation was downplayed by the melodramatic plot bits.

Back to the good parts of this book. I mentioned the characters earlier, and I think that the strong and intriguing character development is Hepworth's strength. I also loved the suspense that Hepworth was able to bring to the story, as it kept me intrigued enough to grab my Kindle and read that instead of the hard copy books I keep at my bedside. (I use my Kindle for commuting and don't often read it at home, so it's a testament to the intrigue that I wanted to read this book instead of one just an arm's reach away.) The intrigue is what kept me coming back and pushed me through to the end, and that's why I would recommend this book. It was exactly what I needed in the middle of an edit for my (very emotionally heavy) dissertation -- a bit of intrigue, a dash of character love, and a whole lot of page turning. 

Birds + Bees + YOUR Kids: A Guide to Sharing Your Beliefs About Sexuality, Love, and Relationships

Toward the end of my pregnancy I started seeking resources for parenting. One of those was on how to talk to your children about sex, because I am a firm believer that sex education starts young. One of the mistakes parents make is that assuming sex ed is one conversation when your kid is old enough to understand; the commonly cited statistic is that more than 90% of children who are sexually abused know the abuser. Recently, due to the Larry Nassar abuse coming to light, we also have the statistic that is made clear: when children are abused, they have to tell, on average, seven times before they are believed. When children are taught that there is shame in their bodies, or that we don't talk about those things, it closes down the conversation and makes children feel embarrassed about things they should be sharing. 

So I turned to the book of faces, and I found Amy Lang's Birds+Bees+Kids page. It's an outstanding resource for how to talk to your kids about sex and their bodies, and I picked up her book, Birds + Bees + YOUR Kids which happened to be on Kindle Unlimited (yay!) for my husband and I to peruse. I was so impressed with how this book was written and structured that I decided to purchase it. As Amy guides you through the chapters on your own beliefs about sex, love, and intimacy, she asks you and your co-parents/guardians some tough questions that make you dig deep into what you believe about these topics and why. She starts with your values regarding sex, how you learned about sex, and what it means to be ready for sex. She then moves into some hard topics, including pregnancy, masturbation, STD's, and birth control. The third section is about puberty and adolescence, and the last two sections are about outside influences on your kids regarding sex and how to have conversations about all of this. 

This prompted my husband and I to have some talks we might not have otherwise. We are both very open to talking about sex and the topics around it, but these are things that just don't come up in regular conversation. I wanted to start these talks early and have them often so that they wouldn't feel new and that they would just be a part of our lives. I know that for me, the sex talk was quick and already at the end of my high school career. I was told that sex was bad and not what the Lord wanted, but no one ever really talked to me about my body. No one certainly ever spoke to me about how to make good decisions about sex that weren't mired in guilt. This, however, was progressive compared to my husband's upbringing, which in the Evangelical tradition taught a great deal of shame over the body and of sex. Both of these parenting choices affect us and our outlook on sex, and I don't want my children to grow up in a home where we aren't comfortable having real conversations about things that affect our physical and mental well-being. 

These chapters in Amy's book are well-structured and they ask deep and thoughtful questions that seem so simple at the outset but spark good conversation among parenting/guardian partners. It's so important to be on the same page, and this is what Amy gets through to her readers. She encourages you to write down the answers, but Hubby and I just talked about them. We took the book chapter by chapter, and while only time will tell, I do feel more equipped than I did before having this resource handy to deal with what comes. I'm glad I purchased this book to have as a resource for when I need it. 

Lactivism: How Feminists and Fundamentalists, Hippies and Yuppies, and Physicians and Politicians Made Breastfeeding Big Business and Bad Policy

I read about Courtney Jung's Lactivism: How Feminists and Fundamentalists, Hippies and Yuppies, and Physicians and Politicians Made Breastfeeding Big Business and Bad Policy in a long form article on breastfeeding, and I found it was readily available for reading on my Kindle. Wowza. I was not expecting such a gut punch of a read. Bottom line: It was incredible.

The title and subtitle of this book tell you the gist of what the book is about -- Jung dives deep into lactivism, what it is, how it supports itself, and how the movement may be doing more harm than good for American mothers and children. I will say that I was swept up in the lactivism push myself. After all, who doesn't want to give their child every advantage that they can? I sure do. In all honesty, I am thrilled with the idea of an average child, and I have no doubt that in later posts this explanation will come out. (Blame too much knowledge, folks.) However, if breastfeeding can give my little guy an advantage in terms of health, brain development, physical development, and bonding, then sign me up. Jung points out that breastfeeding is the great uniter of everyone from feminists to fundamentalists to hippies to yuppies. (That is, after all, the title.)

The problem with this push is that, at least in the United States, the evidence for most of the claims touted by lactivists just don't hold up. Mostly we know that it helps my kid's immunity against ear infections and some gut issues, but connections to intelligence and heftier diseases just isn't there.  (While I can't say I have done an exhaustive search, as I am also busy writing my own research, I can say that I checked out Jung's and it was pretty thorough. I love a fellow academic.) Like Jung, I went forth with breastfeeding because it was easy (after a few weeks -- the first weeks were brutal) and because it was free (but only kind of -- more on that in a bit). I make no bones about the fact that did it for convenience and not because of any moral high ground or ulterior motive. Sure, the bonding is great, but we could have had that without breastfeeding. While breastfeeding is literally life or death in third world countries, in the United States it's simply a preferred choice. There isn't anything wrong with this, but Jung's point that the guilt-driven push and borderline hostage-taking of women in poverty is egregious. If you don't know of what I speak, do some quick research into your state's WIC guidelines regarding benefits for breastfeeding versus non-breastfeeding mothers. Egregious doesn't even begin to cover it.

I am part of a breastfeeding support group on the book of faces, and I had to stop following posts regularly because I was horrified by the weight that women put into breastfeeding their children -- so many see it as life or death. As I said, in some countries it is, but in the industrialized world, it just isn't. While I will admit to being swept up in the breastfeeding mania at first, this book was a complete eye opener in terms of truly supporting women from a feminist perspective. No child is going to be harmed by being fed formula. I don't believe I, or my son, are better off because we were breastfed, and I don't think so many people and kids that I know are worse off because they are fed formula. I have put a lot of thought into the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative, and I'm now not as gung-ho about it as I was a year ago when I was planning for the birth of my son. No one should have to justify their desire to feed their baby by formula, whether it's a desire or it's a necessity. I am happy that my son and I have had the chance to breastfeed, and I wouldn't change it for the world. I also don't hold any other woman to any standard other than that they have to feed their kid, be it by the boob or by formula. 

Very Recent History: An Entirely Factual Account of a Year (c. AD 2009) in a Large City

I couldn't remember when I picked this book up what exactly I signed up for. Was it AIDS? The economy collapse? New York City? So much happened in 2009 it is hard to remember. (Am I even old enough to say that? Yes. Yes, I am.) This is Choire Sicha's Very Recent History: An Entirely Factual Account of a Year (c. AD 2009) in a Large City. 

John is a New Yorker. He has recently graduated with student loans and is working at a large financial firm. 2009 was a hard year. Layoffs were happening like clockwork. Neighborhoods were changing before our very eyes. The Mayor was trying to stay around. Friends were coming, friends were going. John has an active dating life, and friends galore. As he moves through a pivotal year, friends come and go, dates come and go, and John falls in and out of love. Life gets complicated and life remains simple. The city changes and the city remains the same.

Honestly, I am unsure how I feel about this book. While I would say that I enjoyed it, I also felt that there were times where I couldn't quite figure out the point of it. I think this has more to do with me than the book though, and my lack of desire to relive my 20's in any way that comes close to being palpable. I was there, and still am in some ways. Making so little money. Owing on student loans. (I am thankfully free of this one.) Having pennies in the checking account. Going out, drinking, doing whatever to get the mind off of it. Being indecisive. Being young. It's all good, and we should all do it once. But I'm so happy to be on the other side of 30 it's ridiculous. I don't pine for the "good ol' days." I didn't feel one way or the other for the characters, except Diego. Like John, I did not like Diego. You probably won't either. Then again, he wasn't written to be likable. He was written to represent that boyfriend of your friend who is just a jerk. And he is spot on.

I loved the writing style, the storytelling function that was used here. It was arguably fourth person, in that it went beyond just talking about the characters and dove into a very meta-language. It talked about the story as if it were in the distant past, not just six years ago. Details were obscured by veiled references, but if you pay attention to the world around you then it was easy to pick out the details. It was really fantastic reading it from my perspective and taking in all that happened that year. It was quite a doozy. It was a hard year. We all made choices, and since I was aaaallllmmmmoooost the same age as the main characters, it was easy to relate to them. Shacking up with a partner, even if you don't know him or her well, was and still is easy to do in New York City where the rents are high and the space is small. The storytelling device used for this piece makes it worth a read. 

For purchase below. 

The Long Walk: A Novel

A friend and I were speaking about our favorite Stephen King books, and I am fully behind The Green Mile. He, however, was adamant about The Long Walk. We agreed to read the other's favorite and discuss.

It's an annual tradition. 100 boys are chosen for The Long Walk in the spring. You will receive three warnings, and after that, it's done for you. If you fall below a certain pace, that's a warning. If you step out of bounds, that's all three. The winner, though, will live in infamy forever. The Long Walk has been happening for as long as these boys have been alive, and it's an exclusive club -- almost every boy in America applies. Few get in. Rain or shine. No stopping. Hopefully you will make it to the end. Otherwise...

This book was particularly interesting because I wasn't entirely sure whether or not I bought the idea that the main character was going to survive until the end. I won't tell you whether he does or not, because it gives away the ending, but I can honestly say that I spent the entire book in a state of curiosity as to what exactly king was trying to do. I like the character of Garrity, and I found him to be the most compelling for the last two thirds of the book, simply because he became a real human being. I can't see that my feet started to hurt the way that my friends did when he read this book, but I definitely felt the humanity of these boys who were walking nonstop throughout the day and night. It made my heart hurt. 

The hardest part that I had was this book was the inhumanity of the task at hand. Soldiers killed boys who can't make it, or those who receive more than three warnings for slowing down or other offenses. I don't know if it's just me, but as I get older I have less of a propensity for dealing with violence in media. This, of course, coming from a girl whose top five favorite books tend to be incredibly violent book. (Read: The Iliad, The Road, I Am Pilgrim, The Green Mile, etc.) for some reason, in this book the violent seem to be completely unnecessary. What I mean by this is not that King shouldn't have written the book, but that the circumstances set up by King in the book made the violence seem incredibly unfair. I hope that makes sense, as it's not a criticism of King's writing, rather it's a criticism of the dystopian future that King writes about in the book.

So yes, it's entirely accurate to say that I enjoyed this book, however, when I sit down with my friend to discuss our two favorite Stephen King books, I stand by The Green Mile as my favorite. I did enjoy this book, absolutely, but I stand by my original choice.

The Killing Lessons: A Novel

I was told at Book Expo this year that this was the scariest book they had on offer. Well then. I want it. This is Saul Black's The Killing Lessons. 

Two men enter a home one quiet morning. Most of the family doesn't survive -- the young daughter is the only. The two men leave to continue their spree, but it's a far cry from what it appears at that farmhouse. Women are disappearing all over the west and showing up ravaged in random places. What do the objects found inside of them represent? Who are these men who have such little disregard for life? Valerie Hart is the detective on the case, and she will stop at nothing to seek justice -- even if it means putting her own life is at terrifying risk.

Yeah, so I was sold about five pages in. When the men entered the farmhouse, the story was so vivid that I actually felt my heart pounding and I was flipping through the pages faster than I could read. That usually happens at the end of books, so to have it happen at the start was really incredible. Black's prose pulled me and made me want to reach out and give the young girl a push, to get away as fast as she could. I found myself letting out my breath at the end of the chapter, and I hadn't even known I was holding it.

This mystery was strung together so brilliantly that I loved every second of it. I would absolutely say that the moment Valerie put the puzzle together, it was a little contrived, but in all fairness, it wasn't any worse than a Law & Order episode. It was actually quite a bit more seamless than that. It was fascinating, though, to barrel through this story like I was running out of air. It came to a head and blew me away, and for that, I would recommend you spend your own quiet, dark, rainy Friday night alone with this book. If you dare, that is. 

So You've Been Publicly Shamed

Jon Ronson, bestselling author of other books I've posted on here, recently released So You've Been Publicly Shamed, of which I have read an excerpt and enjoyed the reviews. I finally picked it up this weekend and enjoyed it for myself.

Public shaming has always been a part of human life. From the burning of witches and the wearing of the scarlet letter to criminals wearing sandwich boards advertising their crimes, we have always been a people who have loved to publicly burn at the stake those whom we feel better than. Social media has made this even worse -- it allows us to anonymously stone anyone who we feel has done the slightest wrong. It also keeps the wrong up on the internet forever. Who have we become?

I unashamedly, unabashedly adore Jon Ronson. I loved The Psychopath Test, so I will pretty much read anything this man writes for any publication he chooses to publish it in. I particularly appreciate, and it comes across very clearly here, that he doesn't present himself to be an expert in anything other than what he does well – which is journalism. I appreciate very deeply that he can tell a fantastic story, and he does it by researching others.

This particular book focuses on public shaming. I think it's particularly interesting, because from a personal standpoint, I have very little shame. I own who I am fully and completely, and there's very little that I'm embarrassed about. However, that being said, if I reach the level of into me that any of his subjects in this book did, that might be an entirely different story. I can say that I have never had my job put in jeopardy based upon my own public writings. I run this blog, and I run a personal blog, and I leave most of my social media open to the public because of both of those pieces of writing. My students of recently found me on Instagram, and I can't allow myself to be particular bothered by that. I just have to own everything I post.

I was familiar with some of the stories that Ronson wrote about in this book, specifically the Justine Sacco story and the wealthy Zumba instructor prostitute. The other stories I found to be incredibly interesting, specifically the one about the Formula One baron who overcame shame almost immediately and entirely. I agree with his assertion that we can only be as embarrassed as we allow ourselves to be, but then again, I've never been supremely publicly shamed. This book did leave me to ask a lot of questions about myself though. Specifically, what could be said about me publicly that would shame me to the point where I would feel that I need to hide? I don't have an answer to that, and I hope to god I never find out, but I do wonder if in fact there is anything. I own a lot of who I am – I am a feminist, I am a liberal, I am a social justice advocate, I make irreverent comments, I say what's on my mind even if it means that it comes across as inappropriate, and I post on social media and the Internet without shame.

Ultimately, I think that this book was an incredibly interesting study of public shaming in the age of social media and how we go about tearing others down. You could look at the story as one of how people overcome shame, but it's really an indictment of those who live for tearing others down anonymously on the Internet. I am proud to say I've haven't explicitly been a member of this; I do this through being an actively aware poster. (Or have I and just not known that I've done it -- and this is where Ronson excels. He makes you question your assumptions about yourself.) I would easily argue, however, that I'm not above a little base shaming myself, particularly in the area of human rights. No matter how you look at it, I found Ronson's book to be incredibly interesting and well worth the read. Any of his books, really, are well worth the read, and this one is no exception.

For purchase below. 

Guest Blogger Charlotte - Girl Online On Tour: A Novel

Hi There!

So this is the second offering from the amazing Zoella, the YouTube tastemaker otherwise known as Zoe Sugg. Sugg’s first novel, Girl Online, broke all kinds of sales records for debut fiction largely due to the success of her YouTube channel. 

I love Zoella and I loved the first book (my review here) because it promised even more Zoella and in a whole new light, or so I thought. It turns out the book was ghost written by an author I’d never heard of named Siobhan Curham. This was kind of a let down, but I got over it. Zoella sort of owned up to the fakery and promised to be totally hands-on with Girl Online On Tour.

On Tour picks up at just about the place where Girl Online leaves off. Penny is officially dating rock star Noah Flynn and missing him like crazy while he’s away on a world tour. Her infamous blog is now mostly private. She lets only a few of her closest friends and her photography teacher read it. She’s still reeling from the scandal that exposed her blog and is now more private and anonymous than ever.

The cool thing about Penny’s life is that she gets to spend the summer on a European tour with Noah Flynn. Best summer ever, right? Yea, not so much… The pressures of fame and life on the road strain the relationship and things get rocky.

I can’t say I was surprised by anything that happens next, nor do I think you’ll be. Really, the only reason to pick up this book is if you are a diehard Zoella fan like me. Unlike the original Girl Online, there’s lots of Zoella in this book and it’s exactly the fix I wanted.

POGS

~ Charlotte

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The Child's Child: A Novel

This one was a doozy and thought-provoking. This is Barbara Vine's The Child's Child. 

Siblings Grace and Andrew inherit their grandmother's mansion--and with it comes love, betrayal, and a long lost secret. They both inhabit the mansion, and with them comes Andrew's boyfriend, James. He and Grace grow close until one night, they sleep together and Grace finds herself pregnant. Meanwhile, in the house she finds a long lost manuscript, The Child's Child, that also has a pair of dysfunctional siblings from a century ago. Their stories mirror each other and twist together in a web of sex and betrayal.

Let's just lay it all out on the line – this book was creepy. I kind of didn't know what I was getting myself into, but it was really well reviewed and I figured, why not?

Why not, indeed.

That being said, I will say that I did like the book. It's two stories in one, the first story being a woman who accidentally sleeps with her brother's boyfriend, and in the meantime she's searching for a book that will inform her dissertation. That book is about another set of siblings who have an equally screwed up relationship. The young sister gets pregnant in her teens, and her gay brother decides to take a job in another town and play her off as his wife in order to kill two birds with one stone. It's the early 20th century, so she can't be a teen mom and he can't be gay man. It works beautifully until the sister becomes utter and complete ungrateful brat. It was around the middle of the book when I decided I hated the sister, and not in the way that I hated really good characters who turned out to be evil. She was just a shit. When her life completely changes in adulthood, you would think she'd get better. Nope, still a jerk.

One thing I would have liked to see is more of the story of the modern brother and sister. I thought that they were really fascinating, and while the middle section that was essentially the novel being sought out was interesting, I found the front relationship between the protagonist, her brother, and her brother's boyfriend to be most interesting part of the story. Perhaps we can get a follow up, Ms. vine?

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My Year of Running Dangerously: A Dad, A Daughter, and A Ridiculous Plan

I originally picked up this book at BEA last year for a friend of mine who is running the New York City Marathon in just a couple of weeks. Talking to Tom Foreman was such a delight -- he is sweet and kind, and he is so supportive of runners in general. Reading his memoir, My Year of Running Dangerously: A Dad, A Daughter, and A Ridiculous Plan was such a delight. 

Tom Foreman was your typical 51 year-old guy -- sure, he was active as a young man, but raising two children and a hard-hitting career in journalism had made him a bit soft. Still good looking and moderately fit, he was hit by a ton of bricks when his college freshman daughter asked him to run a marathon with her. He agreed. They trained, and after they succeeded, he ran two more in a short period of time. He then sets his sights on something even bigger: an ultramarathon. 55 miles of nonstop goodness. Can he make it, or will it be the final frontier?

I am the very first to tell people about my being a runner that I only run if I'm being chased. That's not entirely true -- I do run for exercise. In fact, yesterday I ran a 10-minute mile, which is kind of huge for me. I am curvy and I like being curvy, so exercise beyond yoga and walking just doesn't appeal to me. (What do those things have to do with one another? Nothing really. But in my mind it makes sense.) I had a feeling I would still enjoy this book, however, and I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. Foreman has a writing style that appeals to the casual reader, and his journalistic point of view comes through when talking about his own journey from couch-past-5k-to-ultramarathon. We all know what it's like to grasp on to a new challenge and then take it to an extreme and sometimes even farther into fanaticism, so it's easy to like this book.

Of course, I'm also a little giddy when I read about my hometown, and his first race with his daughter in Atlanta was fun to read. I knew all of the route he was talking about as I have spent plenty of time in, on, and around it having lived there and attended Georgia State University (GO PANTHERS!) for my first round of graduate work. However, it was really the personal revelations that Foreman came to in his own life about himself and his dedication and why he became who he did in love and life that kept me hooked into this memoir. It is well worth picking up whether you are a runner or not. His journey will sound like yours but it will also be his own, distinct from yours. That's the magic of this book.

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The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives

I typically love books that tell the "day in the life" stories of a specific profession, so I snatched up Theresa Brown, RN's The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives when I saw it was available as an advanced review copy. I'm glad I did!

Twelve hours in a hospital is both a long time and a blink of the eye. New patients are admitted, some stay stable, others leave -- whether it's of their own volition or not. These hours are life changing in so many ways, and Theresa Brown tends to her patients on the oncology ward with as much care as she would want taken of her own family. Lunches barely get eaten, life-altering drugs must be administered, and patients much be cared for emotionally as well as physically. This particular night sees Brown with four patients, each with a different personality and different needs, but all of whom keep her on her toes.

As I said before, I really enjoy these "day in the life" memoirs because I feel they give laypeople a strong sense of how a normally full day goes in jobs that we will never work. My life and work is crazy but I don't hold people's lives in the palm of my hand, and for that I am grateful for people like Theresa Brown. As I read this book I did a lot of reflecting on my own time in the hospital and how I took for granted the men and women who served as my nurses, both on the regular floor and in the ICU. I remember their kindness and their empathy; I remember one's very no nonsense attitude but very needed at the time; and I remember that I was cared for so very well. Reading Brown's book made me send up some happy universal vibes for the men and women who helped save my life, even as my attending doctor never walked in to my room. RN's are the heroes of our hospitals, so find a nurse today and give him or her a hug.

I would easily argue that this book contains the whole enchilada. Not only did we have four patients with differing needs, but Brown also did a superb job of chronicling her day so that it felt as though we were on her rollercoaster with her. Anyone who has worked a high stakes job that requires large efforts of juggling large quantities of information can relate to the need to constantly just keep going down the list of things that need to be done. Brown has a gift of storytelling, and I felt as though I was there. I also appreciated the research that went into this book. When a topic came up that needed a little explaining, Brown took the moment in the book to describe what the layperson needed to know in order to understand what was happening to her patient or to put an incident in historical perspective. It was really fantastic and heightened this book to a level of must-read.

One day, many years ago, I was complaining to my mom, a respiratory therapist, about how my boss at the time was making big deals out of everything. One thing about working in the theatre that always drove me nuts was this idea that what we were doing was high stakes. Now, let me be clear, when I am hired for a job I take it seriously and do my best, but make no bones about it -- what we do doesn't determine whether people live or die. I tried to work by that mentality to keep things in perspective. So I was complaining to my mom, and she said something that always stuck with me. "If you make a mistake," she said, "you can fix it and everything is OK. If I make a mistake, someone dies." That is the rule I live by, which has always made me grateful for the healthcare professionals out there. So to Theresa Brown and all of you who do this every day -- thank you.

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Girl Waits With Gun: A Novel

This book seriously intrigued me at Book Expo America, and when I met Amy Stewart, she was so charming and lovely. So picking up Girl Waits With Gun was a total no brainer. 

It's 1914 and the three Kopp sisters are mowed down in their buggy by an obnoxious man in a motorcar. The reckless driver, the owner of a silk factory in town, refuses to pay, and when Constance, the most independent of the three, refuses to allow him to use his power so menacingly, she begins to learn that there is more to the story than meets the eye. There is power, there is blackmail, and there is kidnapping. Constance refuses to allow this man to harass her family and bully the town. Will she use any means necessary to stop a man who has the money and the power?

It is super hard not to absolutely love Constance Kopp. She is incredibly easy to relate to as a strong, independent woman, even in 1914. A big secret has kept her family out of society for some time, and as it was slowly revealed, I found myself with so much sympathy for her. It would take almost a decade for it to be considered okay to deal with what she did, although even today it's still a little touch and go. But as she weaves her tale, she never apologizes, and that was the most incredible part. It's what made her the strong woman that she was. No apologies. Life happens, and you deal with it accordingly.

I also loved the relationship that she and Norma, her next closest sister, had together with their brother, Francis. The brother keeps begging the girls to come live with him. He keeps insisting they can't take care of themselves. Now, we all know that's not true, especially so by the time you end this book. Their unwillingness to compromise their independence is really amazing. Even as Norma is expressing her annoyance at Constance, as she continues to almost beg her to not approach Mr. Kauffman or get involved in the mess that is near inevitable, really, they have clearly have a bond together than won't be broken. And it's not just about protecting Fleurette, their 13-year-old sister. It's clear from the second chapter that these two are thick as thieves, and as their story is revealed, it is clear why. The story is just so fascinating.

The strength of the women in this book was my favorite part. Whether it was the factory owner's sister and her annoyance at the mess made of it all, or the three Kopp girls, or the woman who ultimately spurs action in Constance when she reveals that she was taken advantage of and then lost her baby to the wealthy, powerful man behind it all, the women in this book make it worth reading. It was so refreshing to be able to pick up a book where the woman are strong and steady and driving the action. That, along with a strong story and a heinous villain and a great story arc make for one hell of a read. So yeah, I'm recommending it.

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This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance! A Novel

I picked this book up Book Expo this year, and I was taken by the blurb. But then I read it and fell madly in love. This is Jonathan Evison's This is Your Life, Harriet Chance!.

Harriet Chance is 79 years old and has just lost her husband, Bernard, after a short fight with dementia. She receives a call telling her that her husband purchased an Alaskan cruise and the voucher is about to expire. While this is out of Harriet's comfort zone -- she likes order and comfort and Bernard's opinions -- she agrees to go with her best friend Mildred. In fact, it's the only way her beloved son and maligned daughter will allow her to go. When Mildred pulls out at the last minute and Harriet dares to go it alone, the tightly woven tale of her life begins quickly unraveling revealing to her that most of her life has been a lie. Family secrets are only as good as those who keep them, right, Harriet?

Let me start out by saying that this book was funny. It's not a typical family drama where, as secrets are revealed, the tension is heightened and you want to clench your fist. No, that is not Evison. He writes with such realistic absurdity that the only word that comes to mind is "charm." That's right -- this book was absolutely, positively charming. Harriet is a difficult character at first, but as you move through her story, jumping around in time throughout her entire life, you start to realize the life circumstances that have put her where she are. She is not a very sympathetic character, but few people are when viewed in two dimensions. She lives a long life full of twists and turns and choices -- and choices have consequences, for better or for worse.

Bernard was a horrible husband, but Harriet made decisions, too. Her children are not what they seem, but they are a product of parental choices. Harriet, when in full three dimensional color, is a positively wonderful and broken woman who did the best she could in life. I think what was so engaging about this book, besides the incredible prose and Evison's charming writing style and the full humor of it all, is that Harriet is, at the day, a character that we all can relate to, particularly as women. This was just such a lovely novel, and I found myself sitting and meditating on it as I closed it. I am grateful for having Harriet in my life, if only for a small time.

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Guest Blogger Charlotte: It's Kind of a Funny Story

Hi There!

This has to be my favorite book I’ve read this year. My last few reviews have all had this common theme of, basically, the author is trying way too hard to relate to his audience and it’s kind of gross. Its Kind Of a Funny Story doesn’t try too hard. It tries just the right amount and helped me remember why I spend so much time with books.

Craig Gilner is 15 and attends one of the top public schools in Manhattan. However, he’s not quite sure if he measures up to the other students at the school. The pressure at the school is getting the best of him. To make matters worse, Craig’s best friend Aaron is naturally and effortlessly great at everything… you know the type. Aaron is also dating the beautiful Nia, with whom Craig is in love.

When the pain becomes unbearable Craig does the right thing and sees a psychiatrist. He’s given Zoloft and his life begins to fall back into place. Feeling himself once again, Craig decides he no longer needs the Zoloft. In short order he falls into an even deeper depression than before. His life spirals to the point that he feels his only alternative is to seek immediate help. He calls the suicide hotline and is admitted to a psychiatric ward of a nearby hospital.

This is where the story comes alive. Seeing the other patients at the hospital helps Craig realize that his problems are not insurmountable. Craig begins to feel better with the help and support of those around him.

The novel is beautifully written and feels so authentic because it’s mostly based on the late author’s battle with depression and time he spent in a mental hospital as a teenager. The story isn’t trying to be something that it’s not and that’s rare. It’s laid our in a very straightforward and vulnerable way.

I think my issue with most of the books I’ve been reading lately (and why I appreciate this book so much) is that they’ve all had this element of what I’m going to call the “blind leading the blind effect”. This takes place when you have an obviously talented, funny, and entertaining writer who, for whatever reason, has chosen to take on a subject that for one reason or another he/she is “blind” to. And since we as readers have, for the most part, also never shared this experience, we are “blind” to it as well.

Blind means that the author has never lived what they’re writing about… or hasn’t in thirty years. They may have spent a day researching it to get the dialogue down, but they’re not speaking from a place of authority or past experience and it shows in their writing. Blind is your weird uncle trying to talk to you about your favorite band. It just doesn’t resonate. In other words, blind is what happens when someone just sits down and decides or is assigned to write a YA novel.

These books still make the NYT’s best sellers list because people outside of the intended demographic are reading them or buying them for their kids. It’s also that some of the stories are really fantastic so the author gets a pass. But a lot of the stuff I’ve read lately feels so contrived that I can’t help but cringe. There were no cringe moments in It’s Kind Of A Funny Story.

POGS

~ Charlotte

For purchase below.