The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf

In Cold Blood Truman Capote, 1966 Read Harder Challenge 2018 - A book of true crime Premise: The true story of a multiple murder and its aftermath. True crime might be enjoying a recent popularity boost, but Capote’s classic is still one of the pinnacles of the genre. For this challenge, first I tried to read a more recent book, but I gave up under the weight of a well-researched but interminable narrative. This book, on the other hand, is tightly narrated and carefully structured to maintain emotional tension. Some responses to this “nonfiction novel” claim that not every bit of dialogue and nuance of character is truthful, but the research is clear to the reader without ever being overt. The various threads - the lives of the victims, the feelings of those left behind, and the psychology and history of the murderers - are skillfully interwoven to build a story with the kind of fully realized texture that is rare for any type of writing (fiction or non) to achieve. Much...

2001: Space Odyssey Arthur C. Clarke, 1968 Read Harder Challenge 2018 - A classic of genre fiction Premise: An unknowable force is guiding humanity, and has been since the beginning. First, I’ve never actually seen the movie. However, I do know all the major beats, because it was basically impossible to grow up when I did and not know all the major beats - monolith and monkeys, I can’t do that, Dave, weird space baby. When I decided to read the book, I had no idea that the book and the movie were so closely related. So all that is to say that it’s impossible for me to come at this book with anything resembling a fresh perspective. Heck, I actually worked very briefly with Keir Dullea, who played Dave in the movie. (While I can’t blame anyone working on that troubled show for being cranky, that does give me an additional hang-up about this story.) Partially because of all that, I think this is my least favorite book I’ve read by Clarke. It isn’t bad, but it isn’t actuall...

A Gentleman Never Keeps Score Cat Sebastian, 2018 Read Harder Challenge 2018 - A romance novel by or about a person of color Premise: Hartley Sedgwick risked everything to give his brothers the hand up their feckless father couldn't give them, but it backfires badly. His much-wished-for life as a gentleman is slowly killing him until he meets the kind and handsome pub owner Sam Fox. I've now read a few of Cat Sebastian's historical romances, but while I like them, I have not yet loved them. This one doesn't break the pattern. Then I recently saw this: I was like "oh come on I'm not angsty! I never angst! Except in Jackdaw obv, and A Seditious Affair, and Flight of Magpies...bit of angst in Spectred Isle...mph Unsuitable Heir...okay it's a fair cop." — KJ Charles (@kj_charles) July 14, 2018 The scale places Charles from "Medium Angst" to "So Tense I'm a Mess," and Sebastian from "Very Low Angst" to ...

Roverandom J. R. R. Tolkien, written between 1925 and 1937, published 1998 Read Harder Challenge 2018 - A book published posthumously Premise: A little dog is rude to a wizard and ends up exploring far-off lands. I didn’t know anything about this story heading into it, but the introduction gave me all the background I could want. Then said introduction kept going into much more exhaustive detail than I wanted about a story I hadn’t read yet, so I skipped half of it. The important background is that once upon a time, Tolkien was at the seaside with his family, and one of his sons lost a toy at the beach. He made up a story to mollify the boy, then expanded it into a charming little piece. However, it was not picked up for publication and then fell by the wayside once he had made his name as the writer of more serious works. The introduction frames it as a bridge between Tolkien’s other writing for his kids (like The Father Christmas Letters) and the Hobbit. I would actu...

Remnant Population Elizabeth Moon, 1996 Read Harder 2018 Challenge: A book with a female protagonist over the age of 60 Premise: Ofelia is tired. Tired of living in a company colony, tired of expectations, tired of her son and daughter-in-law's attitudes about what older women should and shouldn't do. So when the company tells them they're shutting down and moving, she decides she's going to follow her heart for once, and stay on the planet alone. It's a mark of how compelling the setting and main character of this book are that I was bothered when it started to have a plot. Ofelia had just gotten some dang deserved peace and freedom, and now there was going to be a plot in this book? I was perturbed, honestly. It all turned out alright, though, because the plot is pretty great. This book isn't shy about what it's trying to say about social attitudes about curiosity, learning, freedom, and what (or who) is "useful," but it never feels...

Usagi Yojimbo: Book 1: The Ronin, Book 2: Samurai Stan Sakai, 1987, 1989 Read Harder Challenge - A comic written and illustrated by the same person I'm sure I first saw the samurai rabbit as an action figure that went with my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles back in the 80s. I knew it was a long-running series, I knew it was acclaimed, and heck, I bought these two books off a sale rack without hesitation, but somehow I never sat down to read any before. After I caught a handful of excerpts online, though, it drifted up to the top of the to-read list. First, the mixed. The first book is a collection of the character's earliest appearances, and it shows; the writing is a bit abrupt here and there. The art is great overall, but occasionally it seems caught between styles - the writing and events follow a more serious dramatic tone, while the expressions of minor (often dying) characters evoke a "funny animal comic" look. (This is separate from the minor sight gag...

Parable of the Talents Octavia Butler, 1998 Read Harder 2018 Challenge: A sci-fi novel with a female protagonist by a female author Premise: Sequel to Parable of the Sower . Lauren Olamina tries to protect her growing family, her community, and the movement she hopes to foster, but the rest of the world isn't ready to leave them in peace. Oof. This was a hard read. I had to take a break several times. All of the content warnings on this one: rape, murder, and torture, including violence targeting women, LGBTQ people, and racial and religious minorities. Government-sanctioned religious extremism. A politician rising to power on xenophobia, sexism, racism, and a false nostalgia for the past. If it had been written today, people would say the parody was too on-the-nose and over the top. However, what troubled me the most wasn't any of that. The text of the novel is mostly drawn from the main character's diaries, but there's a framing device where each chapte...

The Three-Body Problem Cixin Liu, 2007, English translation Ken Liu, 2014 Hugo Winner - 2015 Read Harder Challenge - A book of genre fiction in translation Premise: Do you like trippy philosophy, complex morality, and lots of science in your sci-fi? Are you comfortable with that slight feeling of disconnection that can come with reading a translated work (even a really well-translated work)? Read it. I just found out that there's a lot given away in the standard descriptions of this book. I'm personally really glad that I knew nothing going in. That's not always my taste, often it's better for me to know roughly what to expect. (For example: if I'm in the mood for a light fantasy adventure, I'll be disappointed in a gritty medieval war story, but if I'm expecting a gritty medieval war story, I might be bored by a fairy tale retelling.) Sometimes a great author can get around your expectations, but I hardly ever have the patience for a book t...

Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, Book 1) Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, 2015 Read Harder 2018 Challenge: The first book in a new-to-you YA or middle-grade series Premise: When a remote mining colony is attacked, teenagers Kady and Ezra are among those picked up by a rescue ship. Before they can reach a civilized part of the galaxy, though, they'll have to not only outrun their pursuers but also deal with whatever is causing problems with the warship's AI. I really wanted to like this book. It's so pretty! The gimmick is that the book is a dossier put together after the fact, chronicling an "incident." Said incident involves an attack on a remote mining facility by a rival corporation. The documents follow the specific experiences of Kady and Ezra from their initial interviews after the attack to psychological assessments to their communications with each other and with others onboard their respective ships, and the story is expanded with other perspe...

Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance, and Revolution in Trump's America Edited by Samhita Mukhopadhyay and Kate Harding, 2017 Read Harder 2018 - an essay anthology Premise: Twenty-three powerful, intersectional perspectives on feminism and women in America today. Last year I tried reading a few books of reactions and essays on the current political situation, and I kept getting bogged down in things I already knew or perspectives I didn't appreciate. This is the book I was waiting for. I don't agree immediately with every point that every author has to say, and some of them contradict each other. On some level, that is the point. This is a book that personalizes a broad cross-section of women's experience, including women of every color and creed. Women who are afraid for their healthcare and women who are afraid for their children. Women who work in global health or reproductive rights. Women who face racism, misogyny, or transphobia personally, or try to...

H is for Hawk Helen Macdonald, 2014 Read Harder Challenge - A book about nature Premise: A memoir about grief, falconry, English history, and a human connection with the natural world. I was in the mood for something different recently, so I tried out this well-reviewed memoir. It's a fascinating piece, although not (in my opinion) perfect. After her father's sudden death, the author retreated into her lifelong obsession with birds and raised and trained a young goshawk. The book includes not only the story of her relationship with Mabel throughout a year of grieving and perspectives on modern falconry but also a parallel story of T. H. White's book about training a goshawk, and his relationships with both animals and people. The writing is beautiful. I can't say that enough.The descriptions are deliciously tangible and her explanations of her emotions are tremendously vivid. I loved her descriptions and musings on her relationship with her hawk and with...

Well, it's 2017. In 2016 I took on the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge, and I posted 22 reviews out of 24 challenges . The only two I missed were reading a book out loud and a book about religion. There were probably several books I read last year that qualify as being "about" religion, but I didn't finish the one I intended to read for the purpose of the challenge. That leads me to the trend of this year - Did Not Finish I gave out a LOT of four- and five-star reviews this year, at least partially because this was the year that I stopped reading a lot of books halfway through. This used to be fairly unusual for me. I used to care a lot more about finishing any book I started. Especially for the purpose of review, I'll sometimes finish a book I don't like so I'll be able to articulate why I don't like it. But this year, between completing a certificate program in editing, starting a new editing job with a 45-60 minute commute and then BUYING A ...

Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef Gabrielle Hamilton, 2011 Challenge Book! Book Riot Read Harder Challenge 2016 - Read a food memoir Premise: Gabrielle Hamilton has a successful restaurant in New York City, but she’s always trying to capture an experience of food that you don’t normally find in the food industry. In this memoir, she traces her life from her quirky childhood through her unconventional attempts at education to her unusual marriage and the relationship with food that runs under it all. I struggled with finding a book for this challenge. I started one and dropped it, perused a lot of lists and nothing called to me. Then I saw this book on several lists of great food memoirs, and it was available from the library as an audiobook on a day when I needed a new audiobook. It must have been fate, because I really liked this one. And it’s only partially because it contains some of the best descriptions of my alma mater I’ve ...

The Hidden Brain Shankar Vedantam, 2010 Challenge Book! Book Riot Read Harder Challenge 2016 - Read a nonfiction book about science Premise: “How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars, and Save Our Lives.” This is a fascinating survey of research around unconscious reactions, and when they can and can’t be overridden by our conscious minds. There is a lot about bias. In some cases, no matter how tolerant and fair-minded we may be consciously, the biases we pick up from society may override our intentions. There was one particularly interesting piece of evidence that people found it easier to react without bias after having sugar. There are details about the invisible currents caused by gender biases. This section includes more detailed stories from a few prominent transgender researchers I’ve heard of before and their unique perspectives on society and privilege. There is a fascinating chapter on herd mentality, group-think, and disasters...

Hamilton: The Revolution Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jeremy McCarter, 2016 Challenge Book! Book Riot Read Harder Challenge 2016 - Read a play (Yes, I'm cheating a little.) Premise: The complete annotated libretto of the smash musical Hamilton , along with short articles about the writing, production, and cast. I loved the cast album for Hamilton , but I wasn’t planning on reading this book anytime soon until it occurred to me that I could use it for the challenge. It does contain all the words spoken on stage, so I think it counts as a play. First: the style of the book is lovely. It’s full of photos, big color production shots and candid dressing room black and white snaps. The design of the book itself evokes the duality in the show. The articles - about hip-hop, about the writing of the show, about President Obama’s visit - are each introduced with a header in the style of a pamphlet or a newspaper from the 1780s. The book contains both photos of composer and star Lin-Ma...

Feed (Newsflesh Book 1) Mira Grant (aka Seanan McGuire), 2010 Challenge Book! Book Riot Read Harder Challenge 2016 - Read a horror book Premise: Georgia, Shaun, and Buffy are too young to remember a world without zombies. Their job: to go out and report on it. This has been the summer of Seanan McGuire for me, as I try a little bit of everything. Here writing as Mira Grant, she’s presenting a sci-fi horror story in the aftermath of a zombie outbreak. Society changed forever, but there are still politics and conspiracies and news. And there are bloggers. The three main characters: Georgia, the narrator, her brother Shaun, and their friend Buffy are a blogging team that goes into dangerous territory and reports on what they find. They are part of a community providing both news and entertainment to a population mostly hiding in fortified homes and enclaves. The story follows them as they get a huge opportunity: follow a presidential hopeful around. They jump at the chan...

Last Night, A Superhero Saved My Life Edited by Liesa Mignogna, 2016 Challenge Book! Book Riot Read Harder Challenge 2016 - Read a collection of essays Premise: 22 authors write about their relationships with comics and superheroes. Happily or unhappily, the worst piece in this collection is the first. I was so dismayed to read a pale, pathetic piece about how Batman inspired some well-off guy I’m not familiar with to be a writer. There’s a better piece later in the book with the same thrust - superheroes inspired me to be creative. And that’s fine. But boring. The second piece is a raw, passionate, beautifully written essay from a woman whose rage causes her to connect viscerally with the Hulk, and how she eventually walks away from an abusive, toxic family life. The essays are overall interesting and often funny, but there is a bright line between the ones that are about the creative process, or even one I quite liked about a love for Spider-Man and a love for Ma...

Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity Julia Serano, 2007, 2016 (new edition) Challenge Book! Book Riot Read Harder Challenge 2016 - Read a book by or about a person that identifies as transgender Premise: Scholarship and personal perspective on the interrelationship between attitudes around femininity and discrimination against trans women. I borrowed this book from the library and got only a few chapters in before I decided that I had to buy my own copy so I could highlight all the best passages. I’ve been looking for a book like this, one that articulates so clearly the need to empower femininity. In feminist and liberal spaces, we already question the idea that women can be equal to men only if they act like men (but not too much like men). Yet somehow many of us tend to miss that so much of this attitude can be connected to dismissing girls, along with denigrating traditionally feminine attitudes, interests, and practices. ...

The Feminine Mystique Betty Friedan, 1963 Challenge Book! Book Riot Read Harder Challenge 2016 - Read a nonfiction book about feminism or dealing with feminist themes I don’t make it easy on myself sometimes. This isn’t a perfect book, but it’s important and it’s fascinating. If you only know a little about The Feminine Mystique , you might know that it was a big catalyst for aspects of the female liberation movement in the 60s and 70s. You might know that it’s about the unhappiness of housewives: the “problem with no name.” If you haven’t read it, you might not know that it’s less a polemic than it is a dissertation. That’s not to say that it isn’t passionate and full of the anger at the forces in society that convinced a generation of women that they could only be fulfilled as a wife and mother. It’s just a balanced, banked anger that I wasn’t expecting. Friedan wasn’t sure how many people would be on her side; she backs up her points with extensive quotes and cited sour...

The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book Rudyard Kipling, 1894, 1895 Disney’s The Jungle Book , 2016 Challenge Book! Book Riot Read Harder Challenge 2016 – Read a book that was adapted into a movie, then watch the movie. Debate which is better Okay, I may have done the challenge slightly backward, in that I saw the new live-action movie and then wanted to re-read the book. I have read the book before, but it’s been a few years. Of course, years before I read the books the first time, I saw the Disney animated movie, and the Chuck Jones specials (Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, The White Seal). But I read the Just So Stories before that ... does that count? I guess the timeline is sort of a wash. Anyhow, none of that is the point. The point is that I adore these books, nearly unreservedly. I say nearly, because a few of the short stories contain slightly awkward, outdated phrasing or attitudes, but VERY few, considering when these were written. I don’t know what to cover. I guess f...