What I've been reading: Books No. 43-44
Aug. 20th, 2020 11:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarahmichiganBook No. 43 was "Even This Page is White" by Vivek Shraya. I'd read the graphic novel "Death Note" by this author last year, and when I ran across this volume of her poetry while browsing e-books on Hoopla, I decided to read it. I'm giving it 3 stars because it's a little uneven. Some of the poems were definitely 5-stars, and others, not so much. I do think it's awesome that she donated half of the proceeds to an indigenous health nonprofit in Canada.
Book No. 44 was "Pigs in Heaven" by Barbara Kingsolver. This book is a sequel to the book "The Bean Trees," which I read back in 2008. I hadn't gotten around to reading this book, which picks up three years later with Taylor and her adopted Native American daughter, Turtle, until this year. I found out my mom was reading it for book club and decided it was a good time to finally get around to it so I could talk to her about it. In "The Bean Trees," a woman gives Turtle away to Taylor in a parking lot as Taylor is traveling cross-country. Taylor knows she needs to save the little girl who has obviously been abused, and finds people to help her with a less-than-fully-legal adoption. In "Pigs in Heaven," that decision catches up with Taylor and Turtle. A Native lawyer from Cherokee Nation investigates the situation, and Taylor decides to flee with Turtle rather than risk having to give her up. At the same time, Taylor's mother, Alice, decides to visit a Cherokee reservation where both the Native lawyer and Alice's cousin Sugar live, and Alice unexpectedly finds romance there.
I always appreciate Kingsolver's prose and her beautiful descriptions of nature, but this was more of a 3.5- or 4-star read for me. I found parts of it predictable and saw some plot points coming from a million miles away. The relationship between Turtle and Taylor and grandma Alice is beautifully rendered, though, and this book made me laugh more than other Kingsolver books.
1. Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet’s Journey with an Exceptional Labrador [nonfiction/memoir]- Stephen Kuusisto
2. Black Chalk [fiction]- Christopher J. Yates
3. Golden State [fiction]- Ben H. Winters (unabridged audiobook)
4. Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen [nonfiction]- Jose Antonio Vargas
5. Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World [nonfiction]- Mark Miodownik (unabridged audiobook)
6. Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora [fiction/short stories]-ed. Sheree Thomas
7. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous [fiction]- Ocean Vuong
8. Rabbit: The Autobiography of Ms. Pat [nonfiction/memoir]- Patricia Williams, with co-author Jeannine Amber
9. Everything I Never Told You [fiction]- Celeste Ng
10. Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things [nonfiction/memoir]- Jenny Lawson
11. The Brutal Telling (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #5) [fiction]- Louise Penny (unabridged audiobook)
12. Gargantua and Pantagruel (Penguin Classics edition) [fiction]- François Rabelais, transl. M.A. Screech
13. The Lesson [fiction]- Cadwell Turnbull (unabridged audiobook)
14. Chester B. Himes: A Biography [nonfiction]- Lawrence P. Jackson
15. Trust Exercise [fiction]- Susan Choi
16. Signal to Noise [fiction]- Silvia Moreno-Garcia
17. The Book of Unknown Americans [fiction]- Cristina Henriquez
18. The Android's Dream [fiction]- John Scalzi
19. A Lesson Before Dying [fiction]- Ernest J. Gaines
20. The Perfect Storm [nonfiction]- Sebastian Junger
21. A Prayer for Owen Meany [fiction]- John Irving
22. The House of Mirth [fiction]- Edith Wharton
23. China Men [nonfiction]- Maxine Hong Kingston
24. The Twisted Heart [fiction]- Rebecca Gowers
25. ODY-C: Cycle One [graphic fiction]- Matt Fraction, Christian Ward (Illustrator)
26. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness [nonfiction]- Michelle Alexander
27. The Blessing Way [fiction]- Tony Hillerman
28. Sin [fiction]- Josephine Hart
29. Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood [nonfiction/memoir]- Trevor Noah
30. Whoreson [fiction]- Donald Goines
31. Just Kids [nonfiction/memoir]- Patti Smith
32. The Corrections [fiction]- Jonathan Franzen
33. The Book of Ruth [fiction]- Jane Hamilton
34. The Price of Salt [fiction]- Claire Morgan (aka Patricia Highsmith)
35. Weaveword [fiction]- Clive Barker
36. Black Leopard, Red Wolf (The Dark Star Trilogy #1) [fiction]- Marlon James (unabridged audiobook)
37. Journal of a Solitude [nonfiction/memoir]- May Sarton
38. City of Glass: The Graphic Novel [fiction/graphic novel]- Paul Karasik, David Mazzucchelli (Illustrator), and Paul Auster, intro by Art Spiegelman
39. The Hate U Give [fiction]- Angie Thomas
40. A Trick of the Light (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #7) [fiction]- Louise Penny
41. Selected Poems [poetry]- Paul Laurence Dunbar
42. The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America [nonfiction/essays]- eds. Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman
Book No. 44 was "Pigs in Heaven" by Barbara Kingsolver. This book is a sequel to the book "The Bean Trees," which I read back in 2008. I hadn't gotten around to reading this book, which picks up three years later with Taylor and her adopted Native American daughter, Turtle, until this year. I found out my mom was reading it for book club and decided it was a good time to finally get around to it so I could talk to her about it. In "The Bean Trees," a woman gives Turtle away to Taylor in a parking lot as Taylor is traveling cross-country. Taylor knows she needs to save the little girl who has obviously been abused, and finds people to help her with a less-than-fully-legal adoption. In "Pigs in Heaven," that decision catches up with Taylor and Turtle. A Native lawyer from Cherokee Nation investigates the situation, and Taylor decides to flee with Turtle rather than risk having to give her up. At the same time, Taylor's mother, Alice, decides to visit a Cherokee reservation where both the Native lawyer and Alice's cousin Sugar live, and Alice unexpectedly finds romance there.
I always appreciate Kingsolver's prose and her beautiful descriptions of nature, but this was more of a 3.5- or 4-star read for me. I found parts of it predictable and saw some plot points coming from a million miles away. The relationship between Turtle and Taylor and grandma Alice is beautifully rendered, though, and this book made me laugh more than other Kingsolver books.
1. Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet’s Journey with an Exceptional Labrador [nonfiction/memoir]- Stephen Kuusisto
2. Black Chalk [fiction]- Christopher J. Yates
3. Golden State [fiction]- Ben H. Winters (unabridged audiobook)
4. Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen [nonfiction]- Jose Antonio Vargas
5. Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World [nonfiction]- Mark Miodownik (unabridged audiobook)
6. Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora [fiction/short stories]-ed. Sheree Thomas
7. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous [fiction]- Ocean Vuong
8. Rabbit: The Autobiography of Ms. Pat [nonfiction/memoir]- Patricia Williams, with co-author Jeannine Amber
9. Everything I Never Told You [fiction]- Celeste Ng
10. Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things [nonfiction/memoir]- Jenny Lawson
11. The Brutal Telling (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #5) [fiction]- Louise Penny (unabridged audiobook)
12. Gargantua and Pantagruel (Penguin Classics edition) [fiction]- François Rabelais, transl. M.A. Screech
13. The Lesson [fiction]- Cadwell Turnbull (unabridged audiobook)
14. Chester B. Himes: A Biography [nonfiction]- Lawrence P. Jackson
15. Trust Exercise [fiction]- Susan Choi
16. Signal to Noise [fiction]- Silvia Moreno-Garcia
17. The Book of Unknown Americans [fiction]- Cristina Henriquez
18. The Android's Dream [fiction]- John Scalzi
19. A Lesson Before Dying [fiction]- Ernest J. Gaines
20. The Perfect Storm [nonfiction]- Sebastian Junger
21. A Prayer for Owen Meany [fiction]- John Irving
22. The House of Mirth [fiction]- Edith Wharton
23. China Men [nonfiction]- Maxine Hong Kingston
24. The Twisted Heart [fiction]- Rebecca Gowers
25. ODY-C: Cycle One [graphic fiction]- Matt Fraction, Christian Ward (Illustrator)
26. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness [nonfiction]- Michelle Alexander
27. The Blessing Way [fiction]- Tony Hillerman
28. Sin [fiction]- Josephine Hart
29. Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood [nonfiction/memoir]- Trevor Noah
30. Whoreson [fiction]- Donald Goines
31. Just Kids [nonfiction/memoir]- Patti Smith
32. The Corrections [fiction]- Jonathan Franzen
33. The Book of Ruth [fiction]- Jane Hamilton
34. The Price of Salt [fiction]- Claire Morgan (aka Patricia Highsmith)
35. Weaveword [fiction]- Clive Barker
36. Black Leopard, Red Wolf (The Dark Star Trilogy #1) [fiction]- Marlon James (unabridged audiobook)
37. Journal of a Solitude [nonfiction/memoir]- May Sarton
38. City of Glass: The Graphic Novel [fiction/graphic novel]- Paul Karasik, David Mazzucchelli (Illustrator), and Paul Auster, intro by Art Spiegelman
39. The Hate U Give [fiction]- Angie Thomas
40. A Trick of the Light (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #7) [fiction]- Louise Penny
41. Selected Poems [poetry]- Paul Laurence Dunbar
42. The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America [nonfiction/essays]- eds. Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman
