What Have I Been Reading? (2020 batch #5)
Oct. 7th, 2020 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroHow to Invent Everything by Ryan North - I read The Knowledge, which was ostensibly a book of how to rebuild society after a disaster, but in practice was a lot of “you could figure this out” and very little actual instruction. For what is clearly intended as humor, this book is a lot closer to what I expected from that. “How do you recognize this plant and how do you extract useful things from it?” are the sorts of questions I want answers from a book of how to re-discover all of science! (I haven’t actually finished this; I’m maybe a quarter of the way through it because it’s really dense and there’s a lot to absorb, but I suspect I’ll slowly learn more about inventing everything over the next six months.)
Fellside by Mike Carey - A standalone story of drug addiction, murder, prisons, ghosts and dream-walking, following the torturous life of a drug-addicted woman accused of starting a fire that killed a young boy, who meets the boy’s ghost in the prison called Fellside. While it relies very heavily on a particularly unjust point of British law (the court basically declares that since she intended to kill her boyfriend with the fire—on no real evidence thereof—and somebody died, she committed murder and should be sentenced appropriately), this at least serves to keep her sympathetic as terrible things continue happening to her. Also interesting to note that Carey isn’t really explicit with the race of any of the characters, but upon reflection, he probably intended a number of them to be black. And Jess being black would go a long way to explain why the courts bent over backward to throw her in prison. Regardless: This is a well-done standalone supernatural horror novel for people who otherwise appreciate Carey’s work.
Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor - While clearly intended for fans of the podcast and perhaps a little too heavy on in-jokes and references, this was understandable to me as someone who’d heard about the podcast and was familiar with sci-fi/horror tropes. There are a bunch of witty lines and a fragmentary set of stories that do eventually pull together into a mostly-coherent whole. (Mostly. The “migraine” explanation felt tacked-on.) It’s creepy and absurd might be worth reading if, like me, you’re amused by the subject matter but hate listening to podcasts.
He Called me Broken by Emily Costello - A late-20s memoir looking back on teenage and college years of eating disorders, emotional abuse and sexual shame. This could have used an extra editing pass (there are a couple of bits that get re-used, the narrative through-line could be stronger, and no one actually ever calls her “broken”), but it’s a decent retrospective on how lessons you absorb about sex and relationships can screw up your actual sexual expectations and experiences. Also, I grew up in the same town and didn’t put together that I was bisexual until I was 35, so I can’t really fault anyone for needing time to figure themselves out. (Disclaimer: I’ve been friends with the author’s brother for twenty years.)
Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh – The author of Hyperbole and a Half returns with a new collection of enthusiastically-illustrated, hilariously embarrassing stories of her life and times. I read the first couple out loud to my son, because they were hilarious, and then he blasted through the entire rest of the book the next morning…which I’m glad he didn’t really absorb all of, because some of those stories get DARK. I’m actually a bit worried for Allie Brosh, because it seems that her life has not gone particularly well since her last book came out. I’m glad that she can turn her issues into entertainment but, umm, she’s not in a good place,
Fellside by Mike Carey - A standalone story of drug addiction, murder, prisons, ghosts and dream-walking, following the torturous life of a drug-addicted woman accused of starting a fire that killed a young boy, who meets the boy’s ghost in the prison called Fellside. While it relies very heavily on a particularly unjust point of British law (the court basically declares that since she intended to kill her boyfriend with the fire—on no real evidence thereof—and somebody died, she committed murder and should be sentenced appropriately), this at least serves to keep her sympathetic as terrible things continue happening to her. Also interesting to note that Carey isn’t really explicit with the race of any of the characters, but upon reflection, he probably intended a number of them to be black. And Jess being black would go a long way to explain why the courts bent over backward to throw her in prison. Regardless: This is a well-done standalone supernatural horror novel for people who otherwise appreciate Carey’s work.
Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor - While clearly intended for fans of the podcast and perhaps a little too heavy on in-jokes and references, this was understandable to me as someone who’d heard about the podcast and was familiar with sci-fi/horror tropes. There are a bunch of witty lines and a fragmentary set of stories that do eventually pull together into a mostly-coherent whole. (Mostly. The “migraine” explanation felt tacked-on.) It’s creepy and absurd might be worth reading if, like me, you’re amused by the subject matter but hate listening to podcasts.
He Called me Broken by Emily Costello - A late-20s memoir looking back on teenage and college years of eating disorders, emotional abuse and sexual shame. This could have used an extra editing pass (there are a couple of bits that get re-used, the narrative through-line could be stronger, and no one actually ever calls her “broken”), but it’s a decent retrospective on how lessons you absorb about sex and relationships can screw up your actual sexual expectations and experiences. Also, I grew up in the same town and didn’t put together that I was bisexual until I was 35, so I can’t really fault anyone for needing time to figure themselves out. (Disclaimer: I’ve been friends with the author’s brother for twenty years.)
Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh – The author of Hyperbole and a Half returns with a new collection of enthusiastically-illustrated, hilariously embarrassing stories of her life and times. I read the first couple out loud to my son, because they were hilarious, and then he blasted through the entire rest of the book the next morning…which I’m glad he didn’t really absorb all of, because some of those stories get DARK. I’m actually a bit worried for Allie Brosh, because it seems that her life has not gone particularly well since her last book came out. I’m glad that she can turn her issues into entertainment but, umm, she’s not in a good place,
