Tag: book-review

fantasy, literature, Science Fiction, Uncategorized

I who have never known men by Jacqueline Harpman

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This book, while not long in length, leaves a very long shadow. This is a study of what it means to be human, what is hope, and how loneliness can define us.

Our protagonist is a young girl that is living with 39 other women, caged in a bunker with no windows, lights on at all times, and men patrolling them without ever interacting with them. The only voices they hear are their own. They shun the young girl, who has no memories of before being in the cage. The older women have memories, but they will not share with the girl.

One day there is an opportunity to take the keys of a distracted guard, and the women are able to unlock the cage. They are, however, uncertain of what to do. The guards seem to have disappeared. No one comes to check on them on the regular schedule or bring food. When the women find the courage to explore outside the remainder of the area surrounding the cage, they timidly emerge from underground into a desert landscape. They see nothing but barren land, and no guards. They have disappeared. The women then must decide how to move forward to take care of themselves outside the cage that men had kept them in.

SPOILERS:

To me, this is a metaphor for how women are treated by men. The men put the women, of all ages and backgrounds, into a cage to patrol them. The men controlled all parts of their lives from the definition of day and night, to what and when they eat, and who they could interact with. They guarded these women against any intruder or change. They were not allowed to be too loud, too lazy, or too anything. And they were not allowed to learn and grow.

When the cage is unlocked there are those afraid of the freedom, those that embrace it, and those that begin to make their own rules. When faced with being responsible for their own survival these women made a plan, executed it, and cared for each other with respect. The loneliness each feels even when surrounded by others is the inability to understand where they are, who they are, and why they were placed there. It is loneliness forced upon them by the men’s forceful breaking of community norms. The weight of other’s valuation of them holds them down.

We may not see the walls going up around us, we may not recognize that what we cherish is being stripped away from us. We may not recognize ourselves or those around us when we finally open our eyes. We must work together to unlock our cages, and support each other so we survive.

Family Drama

The same as it ever was by Claire Lombardo

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It is obvious that Lombardo can tell a story. She is able to create characters that are well drawn out and complex. She is able to keep them consistent over time. But she is also able to draw out a tale longer than it should be.

The story centers around the main character, Julia. She is a mother, a wife, and a daughter. She is not very likable. We hear interior dialog of her throughout, always stating that she was playing at how she thought people should act, and felt abnormal for the way she was unable to act toward people. The story we hear is weaved together by flashbacks and at times can be confusing as to where you are. This becomes more of a distraction to me, as I just want to hear the tale move forward, having context at once to understand what is happening, not having it piecemealed out.

Julia’s son, a teaching assistant at a nearby college, informs his parents (Julia and Mark) and sister Alma that he is getting married to a former student that he had impregnated. This leads Julia to swirl into the past, wallowing in her self-loathing for failing everyone.

Julia was brought up by a mother that was manipulative and distant. Julia doesn’t feel worth loving; this lack of worthlessness was ingrained by her mother, who knew that would be the meanest thing to do to Julia.

We see that Julia longs for a relationship she sees as motherly, leading her to Helen. Julia falls hard, finally getting the relationship she wanted with her mother. All this comes apart at the seams, as this becomes a well-worn path of destruction.

It is through the planning of the wedding that Julia begins to see how others viewed her – such as Francine, Mark’s best friend’s wife, and an intern at the library that was in awe of her. Her perception was not the way she felt she presented herself to others. Perception is reality, and Julia couldn’t reconcile this.

I didn’t care for this self-centered woman that blamed everything on her mother and hid from life thinking she was the only one that had it hard. She never accepted that she played a part in the break with her mother, or entertained the thought that her mother taught her the path toward pushing others out before they hurt you. Julia floated through life, trying not to be her mother, but yet going down the path of destruction she illuminated.  If Julia, and her mother, would only be honest with themselves and open to hearing from others instead of shutting them out, then maybe they could have had less lonely.

Family Drama, Women's literature

The nature of fragile things by Susan Meissner

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Susan Meissner has once again taken a real-life experience and made it come to life with engaging people to watch experience the event. This is the story of Sophie, an Irish immigrant living in a terrible tenement in New York City, who answers an ad for marriage to a widowed man with a young child in San Francisco.

Martin Hocking meets her train, and they go directly to city hall. Sophie insists upon having a photograph taken to commemorate the occasion. After that he brings her to a beautiful home to meet his 5-year-old silent daughter, Kat. Martin leaves them that night to go on a business trip. Sophia takes her responsibility to Kat seriously, and the bond between them grows, while interactions with Martin are stilted and cold.

On April 18, 1906 a pregnant woman named Belinda comes to the door looking for her husband. Sophie begins to put answers to questions she never fully acknowledged but now must face. As the two women piece together the information they have, the earth begins to quake. San Francisco sustains significant damage, and fires begin to rage. Sophie takes charge, making sure that Belinda and Kat are with her and taken care of. It is Sophie’s poverty history that helps make sure they all survive and continue to search for answers to questions asked before the quake.

It is the resilience of women, and the understanding of what is right and just, that brings the surprising ending – no spoilers here. This is a reminder that most things are not as they seem, and not all stories have a happy ending.

book-review, books, Historical Fiction

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

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While there are many bright spots in the prose, the overall story was too far fetched and disjointed. I didn’t truly care much about Hamnet. He was a flat character I never really felt drawn to. Anne/Agnes’ story was sort of interesting, but again not fully believable or endearing. Many half stories throughout. Still not clear why the name Hamnet being change to Hamlet was such an intolerable thing.

I have questions: are these half stories part of the point, that we really don’t know what was real or not? Was the Latin Tutor never named because there are questions if Shakespeare was the true author of the works? Was Anne/Agnes given powers that were considered unnatural because she was supposed to be a magical inspiration for the plays? And my big question – why should I care?

book-review, books, reading

The Phoenix Pencil Company by Allison King

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Monica Tsai, a reclusive computer science college student, is torn between the project her professor has her working on and the need to help her recently Alzheimer’s diagnosed grandmother. Through her work on the project EMRG, an application that is to connect people, she finds a connection to her grandmother’s cousin. As she works to untangle the past, she learns of the magic that existed in the family to reforge or recreate the words written with handmade pencils from the family company. A family saga follows them through wars and distance, always returning to the heart – of the pencil or of the family. What happens to the stories written in pencil appears to be going the same way for the digital content. As her grandmother faced the question of is it right to share other’s words without their knowledge, so does Monica.

The work for her professor is about journalling to leave a digital record of who you are and what your life was. The work for her grandmother was the same, but through the process of reforging from a pencil. Either way, the importance of leaving your story for others to share is the focus.

YA Lit

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

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In the year 2044 the world is harsh to those that don’t have much. The escape is into a virtual reality game called Oasis. Created by James Halladay, a pop culture fan of the 1980s, who passed away five years earlier. Control of this program/world is to be gained through an “easter egg hunt”. Clues are hard to find, and no one has been able to find them in all these years.

Eighteen year old Wade Watts spends as much time in Oasis as possible. With few friends, and few resources, he is able to project who he wants to be by selecting an avatar and hiding behind it. This is where he meets his friends. And you can’t believe that it is Wade that solves the first clue. The world takes notice, and the chase is on – and is real in both Oasis and the real world.

Great puzzle, engaging characters, and a timeless message. Be true to who you are, and you will always find your place.

Black Experience, book-review, books, literature, reading, Women's literature

What ever happened to Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul

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This novel is a story told by two people – Kitty Karr, a star actress, and her former co-star’s daughter, Elise St John. When you start you are with Elise, and you are sent in circles trying to figure out who she is, how she is connected, and why we should care. The Kitty Karr parts are fascinating, learning how she came to California in a long and winding fashion. It is even more circuitous to finding out the relationship to Elise St John.

In the end, this was an easily guessed premise that has been used many times. I did, however, enjoy Kitty’s story. Elise’s seemed too contrived.

books, Historical Fiction, literature, reading, Women's literature

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

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Inspired by the life of Martha Ballard, a well‑known midwife from the 1700s, this book gives a close look at a world where women had to live very carefully. They worked hard at home, supported their husbands, raised their children, and went to church. Anything outside those roles was risky. A woman’s word was rarely trusted. She could only speak in court if her husband stood beside her. Even years of hands‑on experience meant less than a man’s formal education. And if a woman became pregnant outside of marriage, she carried all the blame and shame.

In this setting, Martha Ballard is asked to examine the body of a man pulled from the river. With no doctor in town, her experience as a midwife made her the closest thing to a medical expert. The dead man was a well‑known citizen who had recently been accused of a violent rape. One of the other accused men—the town magistrate—decides that a newly arrived doctor should give the official opinion instead. This doctor immediately contradicts Martha’s conclusion that the man was murdered.

Against this backdrop, we see Martha support and protect women through her work as a midwife, pushing back against male arrogance and sexism. We also see her try to raise her children, especially her sons, to be good and responsible people. Her husband loved her and even taught her to read and write, which gave her opportunities most women of the time did not have.

Some of the conversations between the Ballards, and between groups of women, felt more modern than I expected, which made me wonder how much creative license the author used. Still, the story was interesting and worth reading. I do prefer her other book, The Wife, The Maid, and The Mistress. That was really good.

Asian Culture, Asian Culture, books, literature, read around the world, reading, Uncategorized

Amanat: Women’s Writing from Kazakhstan by Various Authors

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I’ve been trying to read books from around the world to learn about different cultures, and that led me to this collection of stories by women authors from Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan is in Central Asia and is bordered by Russia to the north, China to the east, and Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, the Aral Sea, and Turkmenistan to the south.

The stories in this book were originally written in both Russian and Kazakh, and they span many different time periods. It seemed to me that the language used in each story might reflect the political leadership at the time it was written, though that’s just my impression. Each story offers a small window into the country’s culture and traditions. Together, they show powerful moments of what life was like for women in different eras.

If you enjoy learning about people around the world—and seeing how our lives can be both similar and different—this collection is a meaningful and eye‑opening read

books, Family Drama, literature, reading

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout

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Elizabeth Strout brings many of her familiar characters back together in Crosby, Maine. By pulling in people and histories from her earlier books, she continues the character‑driven storytelling she’s known for.

This time, Lucy Barton and her ex‑husband William, Bob Burgess and his wife Margaret, and Olive Kitteridge and her friend Isabelle Goodrow all end up in the same orbit. It’s an unusual mix, and even when I tried to map out how everyone was connected, it still felt tangled. What holds the book together is the way these characters pair off and share stories about other people. There is a lot of this. Bob hears about his sister‑in‑law’s declining health from his sister instead of his brother. Olive learns about Isabelle’s future living situation from the retirement‑home staff. Bob hears about Lucy’s plans from William. Almost everything comes secondhand, like gossip passed along before reaching the source. It made me want to know the full truth behind each story.

Each character is trying to understand not only their own place in the world but also what life means more broadly. Lucy and Olive meet to talk about “unrecorded lives,” hoping to shine light on people who might otherwise be forgotten. The fear of not being remembered—or not mattering—runs through many of Strout’s stories about these women, and it feels like the force behind their need to tell and retell these moments.

Bob’s murder case also ties into this theme of being seen. The young man accused of killing his mother has lived a life mostly unnoticed while caring for her. Bob helps bring him into a world he has been shut out of. This storyline requires action based on what Bob observes in the present, while many of the other stories rely on looking back at things that have already happened.

I enjoyed reading about these people, but this is a very contemplative book.