What I've been reading: Books No. 29-30
Aug. 24th, 2021 01:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarahmichiganBook No. 29 was "Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good" by Adrienne Maree Brown. Like any anthology, this had some pieces that were better than others, but overall, the quality was really high. adrienne maree brown leads with "Uses of the Erotic" by Audre Lord and many of the pieces to follow are informed by this essay. amb also compiles some of her own writing about pleasure and activism and includes essays by other authors and transcripts of conversations with other women talking about the right to pleasure and how that informs their activism. brown even includes "hot and heavy homework" to help readers explore their own relationship to pleasure.
Probably my LEAST favorite by amb was "The Sweetness of Salt." It seemed more like a personal journal entry than something meant for others to read. Of the others, my least favorite was "On Fear, Shame, Death, and Humor: A Conversation between the Rocca Family and Zizi." Most of the other pieces were somewhere between "good" and "stellar," though. Some favorites included amb's pieces on why Octavia Butler turns her on and another about why she loves Beyonce; "Are you there, goD? It's me, Day" by Holiday Simmons; "Care as Pleasure" by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (about disabled pleasure and caregiving); "The Power to Make Light," a conversation with indigenous activist Dallas Goldtooth; and two very fine essays about raising children.
Talking with others about this book, they had a few criticisms that ranged from "I didn't like her emphasis on orgasms, since I can't have them" to "this felt disjointed." I can see both of those viewpoints, because the essay on nipples and some of brown's thoughts on polyamory didn't really jibe with my experience. Still, the fact that these essays and interviews range all over the place means there's probably at least one essay and likely many that will appeal to most readers. Recommended.
Book No. 30 was "The Nature of the Beast" (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #11) by Louise Penny. Ah, these Inspector Gamache novels never fail me. Some are better than others, but they're always entertaining and riveting. In this one, Gamache and his wife have retired to Three Pines. But when a little boy who is known for "crying wolf" and telling tall tales disappears after saying he found a huge gun and a monster in the woods, the residents of Three Pines decide maybe he wasn't making it all up after all. Gamache is torn about his next steps. He knows his wife would like him to retire, but he thinks there may be more for him to do in the world of solving murders. Penny took so many threads that seemed unconnected and wove them together in this story. I really enjoyed it.
1. The Empire of Gold (Daevabad Trilogy #3) [fiction]- S.A. Chakraborty
2. Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls [nonfiction/memoir]- T Kira Madden
3. Miracle Creek [nonfiction]- Angie Kim
4. The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust #2) [fiction]- Philip Pullman
5. How the Light Gets In (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #9) [fiction]- Louise Penny (unabridged audiobook)
6. They Called Us Enemy [graphic nonfiction]- George Takei, Justin Eisinger, and Steven Scott, ill. Harmony Becker
7. Carmilla [fiction]- J. Sheridan Le Fanu (unabridged audiobook)
8. Pieces of Soap: Essays [nonfiction/essays]- Stanley Elkin
9. The Space Between Worlds [fiction]- Micaiah Johnson
10. The Autobiography of Malcolm X [nonfiction/autobiography]- Malcolm X and Alex Haley
11. No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America [nonfiction/memoir]- Darnell L. Moore
12. Mostly Dead Things [fiction]- Kristen Arnett
13. Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World #1) [fiction]- Rebecca Roanhorse
14. Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower [nonfiction]- Brittney Cooper
15. Delirium [fiction]- Laura Restrepo (transl. Natasha Wimmer)
16. The Ship of the Dead (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #3) [fiction]- Rick Riordan (unabridged audiobook)
17. Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America [nonfiction/memoir]- John Waters (unabridged audiobook)
18. Storm of Locusts (The Sixth World #2) [fiction]- Rebecca Roanhorse
19. The Mistress Of Nothing [fiction]- Kate Pullinger
20. The Graveyard Book [fiction]-Neil Gaiman (unabridged audiobook)
21. The Vanishing Half [fiction]- Brit Bennett
22. Certain Dark Things [fiction]- Silvia Moreno-Garcia
23. The Long Way Home (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #10) - Louise Penny (unabridged audiobook)
24. Creepy, Stabby, and Mentally Odd [fiction/short stories]- Wednesday Lee Friday
25. Inseparable: The Original Siamese Twins and Their Rendezvous with American History [nonfiction/biography]-Yunte Huang
26. This House Is Haunted [fiction- John Boyne
27. An Unkindness of Ghosts [fiction- Rivers Solomon
28. The Incredulity of Father Brown [fiction/short stories]- G.K. Chesterton
Probably my LEAST favorite by amb was "The Sweetness of Salt." It seemed more like a personal journal entry than something meant for others to read. Of the others, my least favorite was "On Fear, Shame, Death, and Humor: A Conversation between the Rocca Family and Zizi." Most of the other pieces were somewhere between "good" and "stellar," though. Some favorites included amb's pieces on why Octavia Butler turns her on and another about why she loves Beyonce; "Are you there, goD? It's me, Day" by Holiday Simmons; "Care as Pleasure" by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (about disabled pleasure and caregiving); "The Power to Make Light," a conversation with indigenous activist Dallas Goldtooth; and two very fine essays about raising children.
Talking with others about this book, they had a few criticisms that ranged from "I didn't like her emphasis on orgasms, since I can't have them" to "this felt disjointed." I can see both of those viewpoints, because the essay on nipples and some of brown's thoughts on polyamory didn't really jibe with my experience. Still, the fact that these essays and interviews range all over the place means there's probably at least one essay and likely many that will appeal to most readers. Recommended.
Book No. 30 was "The Nature of the Beast" (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #11) by Louise Penny. Ah, these Inspector Gamache novels never fail me. Some are better than others, but they're always entertaining and riveting. In this one, Gamache and his wife have retired to Three Pines. But when a little boy who is known for "crying wolf" and telling tall tales disappears after saying he found a huge gun and a monster in the woods, the residents of Three Pines decide maybe he wasn't making it all up after all. Gamache is torn about his next steps. He knows his wife would like him to retire, but he thinks there may be more for him to do in the world of solving murders. Penny took so many threads that seemed unconnected and wove them together in this story. I really enjoyed it.
1. The Empire of Gold (Daevabad Trilogy #3) [fiction]- S.A. Chakraborty
2. Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls [nonfiction/memoir]- T Kira Madden
3. Miracle Creek [nonfiction]- Angie Kim
4. The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust #2) [fiction]- Philip Pullman
5. How the Light Gets In (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #9) [fiction]- Louise Penny (unabridged audiobook)
6. They Called Us Enemy [graphic nonfiction]- George Takei, Justin Eisinger, and Steven Scott, ill. Harmony Becker
7. Carmilla [fiction]- J. Sheridan Le Fanu (unabridged audiobook)
8. Pieces of Soap: Essays [nonfiction/essays]- Stanley Elkin
9. The Space Between Worlds [fiction]- Micaiah Johnson
10. The Autobiography of Malcolm X [nonfiction/autobiography]- Malcolm X and Alex Haley
11. No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America [nonfiction/memoir]- Darnell L. Moore
12. Mostly Dead Things [fiction]- Kristen Arnett
13. Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World #1) [fiction]- Rebecca Roanhorse
14. Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower [nonfiction]- Brittney Cooper
15. Delirium [fiction]- Laura Restrepo (transl. Natasha Wimmer)
16. The Ship of the Dead (Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard #3) [fiction]- Rick Riordan (unabridged audiobook)
17. Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America [nonfiction/memoir]- John Waters (unabridged audiobook)
18. Storm of Locusts (The Sixth World #2) [fiction]- Rebecca Roanhorse
19. The Mistress Of Nothing [fiction]- Kate Pullinger
20. The Graveyard Book [fiction]-Neil Gaiman (unabridged audiobook)
21. The Vanishing Half [fiction]- Brit Bennett
22. Certain Dark Things [fiction]- Silvia Moreno-Garcia
23. The Long Way Home (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #10) - Louise Penny (unabridged audiobook)
24. Creepy, Stabby, and Mentally Odd [fiction/short stories]- Wednesday Lee Friday
25. Inseparable: The Original Siamese Twins and Their Rendezvous with American History [nonfiction/biography]-Yunte Huang
26. This House Is Haunted [fiction- John Boyne
27. An Unkindness of Ghosts [fiction- Rivers Solomon
28. The Incredulity of Father Brown [fiction/short stories]- G.K. Chesterton
