Book Review: Starting from Happy by Patricia Marx

I'm starting to think that intended-to-be-funny books need to come with a series of codes on the back that indicate the type of humor involved so that I can better avoid awkward comedies of neuroses by un-funny Yankees. Try as I might, I don't find anything in that particular comedic vein (which also includes Woody Allen and David Sedaris) particularly amusing. Rather than laughing, I find myself rolling my eyes, all, "Seriously? That was a joke?"

I know that humor is largely cultural, and this may be one of the few areas in which I retain the cultural values of my upbringing (the other one is gambling: I don't do it, ever) rather than the more, uh, bougie ones I've adopted as a result of my high-fallutin' education. I wouldn't be caught dead watching NASCAR, reading an "Inspirational Fiction" novel, or owning "Red Solo Cup" in any audio format, but my sense of humor is just like that of the rest of my family's: very stereotypically Southern (if you're thinking Larry the Cable Guy, stop. 1) He's not funny. 2) He's a Yankee). You'd have to see us in action to get the gist of it, but it mostly entails incredibly cutting put-downs, sarcasm, well-timed happy hours, and, sometimes, things that could get us landed in a Jeff Foxworthy monologue, like shooting armadillos with handguns in the dark (my mom lives in Memphis, apparently it's okay to do that there) and riding a four-wheeler in flop-flops and a sundress.

Anyway. Starting From Happy.

Basically, it's a unfunny-neurotic-Yankee novel about weirdos in relationships, with drawings and obligatory self-conscious smashing of the fourth wall. It has a few amusing moments, but I mostly found it tedious. You probably won't if you're into that sort of thing. If you're still bemoaning the end of Frazier, you'll probably enjoy it.

I'll be over here, eating my fried green tomatoes and judging you.

3 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Snivel (Circles of Heck Series) by Dale E. Basye

I can't stop reading this series. It's a sickness that has progressed to the point where I pre-order  new installments from the nook store, which isn't something I do very often (the only other authors I do that for are Toni Morrison and Lauren Oliver-- interesting combination, I know), and I'm sure you're all judging me for being this stuck on a children's series. I cant't help it, though: the premise is so creative and the books are really, really funny.

Since this is part of a series, I'll put most of the review behind the jump:

Book Review: Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Setepys

Before commencing this book review, I would like to let it be known that I am talking about Between Shades of Gray, not Fifty Shades of Grey. I quite enjoyed the former, and have absolutely no intention whatsoever of reading the latter because there are very few things I find less appealing than so-called erotic fiction, BDSM culture, and Twilight, and Fifty Shades of Grey is apparently a terribly-written mishmash of all of those things. After reading the excellent two-part review over at Book Riot, I feel that I can go the rest of my life without acknowledging its existence.

Moving right along, Between Shades of Gray is really an excellent book. I saw it while perusing the e-book section on the library website, and decided to download it because I was totally unfamiliar with the subject matter: the plight of the intelligentsia and their families in USSR-occupied countries. Lina, the narrator, and her family, are highly-educated, well-placed Lithuanians. After Stalin-controlled Russia annexed Lithuania, her family is torn apart by Soviet soldiers, who load Lina, her mother, and her brother into wagons and pack them off to Siberia (her father is taken separately).

Lina's tale is eerily reminiscent of Holocaust memoirs in many ways: families are torn asunder, innocent people are taken captive and brutally abused by soldiers, they must endure long rides in cattle cars with no food or water, and are eventually forced to labor in starvation conditions and freezing weather. Many, if not most of them, eventually die. In an effort to stay sane in that environment Lina, who had previously hoped to go to art school, spends much of her time drawing what she sees in hopes that she will be able to escape and tell the truth of what happened to her family.

Highly recommended. 4 out of 5 stars. 

Book Review: The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie

A few months ago, I decided to turn over a new leaf in terms of how I choose books. Previously, I'd simply scanned the library shelves for something that looked interesting, occasionally asking for recommendations on Facebook and Twitter when I couldn't find anything or was after something specific. These days, I'm revisiting all of the authors whose books I have previously reviewed and enjoyed and am reading every book they've ever published. For some writers (like Michelle Goldberg, who's only published two books), it's relatively easy. For others, like Sherman Alexie, it's more of an undertaking.

There are two reasons for this. First, Alexie's written a lot of books. Second, these books are really heavy. Much like Toni Morrison, another favorite author of mine, Alexie doesn't pull punches when it comes to pointing out how incredibly screwed up and racist American society is, nor does he hesitate to honestly and brutally depict those realities in the lives of his characters. Reading their novels isn't just a literary undertaking; it's often an emotional one that can be more than a little taxing.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is the third novel of Alexie's that I've read and reviewed on this blog (you can see my review for Flight here and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian here). From what I've gathered from reading the back covers and reviews of his other works, this is more typical of his style. Rather than a cohesive narrative, the novel consists on a series of inter-related short stories that center on a few main characters, a reservation, and a nearby city that touch on Alexie's usual subject matter: racism and the social problems it inflicts on the reservations and their inhabitants, and how tribe members try to cope with and rise above everything that gets thrown at them. Most of the things I liked about Flight and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian are present here: the strong narrative voice, the intense social commentary, and the thought-provoking nature of the story.

Overall, I give this one 4 out of 5 stars. 

Current Book Docket

Book Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

I heard about this book from a facebook friend, and decided to download it when I came upon it while browsing the North Carolina Digital Library. I figured it would be a fairly quick, uncomplicated read, especially since I enjoy reading YA fantasy when I don't feel like thinking. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children didn't disappoint.

Sixteen-year-old Jacob has grown up listening to his grandfather's stories about his childhood, poring over the pictures he has saved throughout the years. Born into a Jewish family in Europe, Jacob's grandfather was spirited to a lonely island off the Welsh coast, where he resided in a children's home full of unusual children. As Jacob grows older, he comes to believe that his grandfather's stories were fairy tales and the photographs were fake-- until his grandfather dies under mysterious circumstances. Haunted by the memory of his grandfather's death and the mementos he left behind, Jacob travels to Wales to uncover the true nature of his family's history.

This book reads a lot like A Series of Unfortunate Events, so if you liked that, you'll probably enjoy this. Full of weird, old-fashioned photography and intriguing characters, it's a highly entertaining light read. 4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

Confession: I'm not really into memoirs. As far as genres go, they rank below everything except for crimesploitation, bodice rippers, sexy supernatural creatures (exception: Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and anything involving dragons (this includes tattoos) or spaceships, tying roughly with chick lit. I have a variety of reasons for that, but that's mostly because autobiographers tend to be navel-gazing, self-important liars. Or, more kindly, truth-stretchers. When I read an autobiography, I assume that a good part of it is at least exaggerated, and it has served me well over the years.

Apparently, James Frey embodies all of those negative aspects of autobiographers and is gigantic, plagiarizing jackass to boot. This is good, because it means I don't have to feel bad about thinking that A Million Little Pieces was freaking terrible and that he's a godawful writer. I kept finding myself wanting to take a red pen to the text and leave snarky notes like, "Dear James Frey, You are not e. e. cummings. Knock it off with the Quirky Capitalization; it highlights your Mediocre Writing and makes you sound like A Pretentious Jackass."

I also had a running monologue that was in the key of, "Oh my god, people actually believed that this guy was for real? Are you KIDDING me?" Like, seriously. People are so gullible.

2 out of 5 stars, because it's not as bad as Twilight and is mercifully shorter than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. 

Book Review: Matched by Ally Condie

I saw Matched in the library about a year ago and considered picking it up, but decided against it because I already had a gigantic stack of books. I resolved to pick it up later and promptly forgot about it until a friend of mine mentioned having read it. She didn't particularly care for it, but since YA dystopian novels are my quasi-literary crack, I decided to give it a shot.

Like most of the YA dystopian novels floating about, Matched takes place in a world of extreme social control, and the main plot point centers around forbidden love and illicit words. If you think that sounds a lot like the plot to Delirium, you're absolutely right. The two books are very similar; both involve star-crossed teenage lovers whose relationship would undermine the authority of their society, and so they must fight the society in order to be together and blah blah blah.

The world of Matched is really similar to The Giver in a variety of ways: characters are scheduled to be born, attend school, marry, have children, and die, and job functions are assigned based on a series of aptitude tests. The high point of everyone's life is their Match Banquet, in which they are paired off with their future spouse. Cassia, the protagonist, is slated to marry her childhood friend, Xander-- but someone makes a mistake and she is also shown the face of a longtime classmate, Ky. Drawn to Ky, she makes a series of choices that threaten the safety of everyone she knows. It's a pretty standard plot and is enjoyable in a brain candy kind of way.

I much preferred Delirium, but I'm in the queue for the sequel, Crossed, so it's not all bad. 3 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf

This was part of last year's Feminist Classics Challenge. I didn't get a chance to read it because I was totally overwhelmed by graduate school that month. I finally got around to finishing it a couple of weeks ago, and wound up being pretty underwhelmed by it. A lot of that was probably hype; The Beauty Myth is one of those Big Feminist Books That Everybody Reads and Thinks Is Really Important, and the only author in that category who has ever lived up to the hype, in my opinion, is Susan Faludi. I've also had my view of Naomi Wolf pretty well poisoned by Fire With Fire, which is unbelievably victim-blame-y (so much so that I could only make it through a few chapters before tossing it aside in disgust), and her conduct during the Julian Assange rape fracas of a few years ago.

Reading The Beauty Myth confirmed what I've come to think of her: an embodiment of everything that annoys me about white, affluent, "empowered" American feminists. Incapable of seeing past her own good fortune, Wolf's analysis of the role that the beauty industry plays in the lives of women is shallow and completely lacking in nuance. Much of the book is songs in the key of "Duh!"-- totally obvious. Like, eating disorders are a form of social control? Really? Women lose a lot of time and productivity to looking good? No way! There's a double standard between the ways aging men and aging women are perceived? Say it ain't so! The cosmetics and plastic surgery industry exploit women's collective low self-esteem for profit? Whoa! That had never occurred to me before.

Admittedly, The Beauty Myth was first published in 1991, but I have a hard time believing that this issue hadn't been addressed in previous feminist works by other authors. Perhaps in a less comprehensive form? I don't know. Either way, it's relative strengths as a cohesive narrative of the way that beauty culture screws women over is totally undermined by the fact that it's really quite racist. In all of her talk of makeup and cosmetic surgeries and eating disorders, Wolf discusses racial issues once. In a single paragraph. No analysis of whiteness as the overarching standard of beauty, no discussion of the psychological damage that ideal inflicts on women of color, and no referencing the further extremes that they must go to in order to appear White-beautiful. That's a huge weakness, in my mind, as is the fact that she doesn't discuss the realities facing poor women of all races who are often stuck in the service industry, which is incredibly biased against women who are less attractive and/or are aging visibly.

The fact that the issues of race and class are totally off Wolf's radar is something I take a pretty strong issue with. Not only is it really myopic, it undermines the credibility of The Beauty Myth as a feminist work. I'd say it's worth reading for the theory behind it and its and the fact that I mostly agree with her overarching thesis, but it's so dated (how ironic that a book about beauty culture didn't age well!) that I don't think it's really worth it. 2 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

I don't buy a lot of books these days. Grad school ate my life and my wallet, after all, and I've therefore been getting the vast majority of my reading materials from the library. Unfortunately, it takes the library a while to get new releases, especially in the kids section, and I didn't want to wait to read Pandemonium, Lauren Oliver's sequel to Delirium, which I really enjoyed and reviewed here.

As is my custom, I'll be putting my review of Pandemonium behind a jump so as to not spoil the ending of Delirium for those of you who haven't read it yet.

Book Review: Hana by Lauren Oliver

I pre-ordered copies of Hana and Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver back in January. They were finally ready to download a couple of days ago. I have since finished Hana and am about halfway through Pandemonium. You all know how I get about these dystopian YA novels.

Hana is essentially Delirium from Lena's best friend Hana's perspective; the reader gets to see what was going on with Hana during that tumultuous summer. I can't go into the plot without revealing too much about the end of Delirium, but I can say that it provided an eye-opening look into the world of Delirium and provided the reader with some much-needed context of why things happened the way they did.

You don't have to read it to get the other books, but at only sixty-four pages, it's not a big commitment and is fairly enjoyable (though I found the ending a bit jarring and abrupt). 4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: The Devil's Milk: A Social History of Rubber by John Tully

I came across this book while visiting the UNCA library and walking past the new book section. We all know the drill: I am fascinated by concise histories of random, interesting things. Enter rubber.

Rubber, much like plastic, is ubiquitous, and most people go through life not realizing just how dependent their everyday lives are on it-- or the social, environmental, and human costs that have been (and continue to be) associated with its production.

Tully begins with an easy-to-understand description of rubber's physical and chemical properties, an brief overview of a few types of rubber production, and a quick but exhaustive list of things that the modern world wouldn't have if humans hadn't figured out how to harvest and process it. From there, he launches into a history of rubber that takes the reader from plantations in South America and Southeast Asia to the fledgling union movement in the American Midwest to World War II in Europe-- and beyond.

All told, this book is not only very interesting and enlightening, it is cogent, entertaining, and easy for a layperson to understand. Tully does an excellent job juggling narratives in multiple times and places, weaving them into a cohesive whole. A must-read for anyone who enjoys social histories, is interested in industrialization/globalization and their discontents, or simply wants to learn more about where rubber comes from. 5 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

Now that school has started again, I am back to listening to audiobooks on the long trip between Asheville and Cullowhee. I found someone to carpool with on Mondays, but I'll be driving myself on Tuesdays. That's almost two and a half hours of driving a week, plus all the regular driving I do to my job, internship, and bars. I'll probably be able to knock out around two a month. Luckily, the Asheville library system has a pretty good collection of audiobooks, and once I've exhausted them, I can use the digital library to listen to them via my cell phone or tablet.

Technology is so neat. Speaking of which...

It's hard to describe The Adoration of Jenna Fox without spoiling most, if not all, of the major plot twists. Instead of a plot summary, I will ask a series of rhetorical questions:

What would you do if you woke up and weren't you anymore?
What does it mean to be alive?
What does it meant to be human?

and, as the cover asks,

How far would you go to save someone you love?

I really, really liked this book. It's a thought-provoking meditation upon the nature of humanity, technology, and the ethical dilemmas that surround them. Pearson does an excellent job humanizing her characters as she delineates why they have made the choices they made and how they led to the "present" Jenna Fox.

Highly recommended. 5 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Goliath by Scott Westerfeld

I finally got my hands on the third and final installment of the Leviathan series by Scott Westerfeld a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I can't really describe it or its plot points in detail without spoiling the end of the first book and all of the second, so I'll hit the high points: Siberia, Japan, the United States, hot air balloons, Tesla, espionage, assassination plots, and cute critters. It wraps up the previous two books nicely, and all of the things I said about the series (good and bad) in the previous reviews hold true for this one.

Overall, it's a very entertaining and engaging read. 4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Feminism is for Everybody by bell hooks

Feminism is for Everybody is the February selection over at the 2012 Classic Feminist Literature Challenge.

I am a big fan of bell hooks, and have read Feminism is for Everybody a number of times over the last several years. It's one of those books that gets assigned a lot in undergraduate women's studies classes, which is why I've read it three times (at least). It's easy to see why it's so popular: it is clear, succinct, and no-nonsense. It lacks the fuzzy-wuzzy woo woo aspect of what I refer to as Cosmopolitan Feminism as well as the dense, twenty-five-cent-word-laden academic prose you find in Intentionally Obtuse, Missing-the-Point Feminism-- both of which, I'll argue, is what makes feminism unattractive (if not unreachable) to poor women, women of color, and a lot of men.

There's a lot to like about Feminism is for Everybody:

1. bell hooks' definition of feminism: "A movement to end sexist oppression," is by far my favorite. I actually don't care for the dictionary definition of feminism, which merely requires people to theoretically support social, political, and economic equity with no expectation of action on their part. I'm not a fan of passive acceptance of an idea; I think that if you really believe in something, you should be out there doing something about it. 
2. In a similar vein, I think it is important that bell hooks focuses on justice rather than equality on paper (which is, in my opinion, the downfall of liberal feminism and why I don't identify as one). It plays into the schism between ideology and action: just because we say or think things are equal, or have laws to that effect, doesn't mean they are. In many cases, equality on paper furthers oppression and discrimination (to wit: laws that treat pregnancy and childbirth as a medical disability. Little good has come of that).
3. Flowing from that argument is the concept of intersectionality: that social oppressions do not exist in a vacuum and therefore cannot be disentangled from one another. Sexism feeds into racism, which feeds back into sexism, which feeds into classism and so on and so forth. Therefore, in order to really end sexism, we also have to end racism, classism, and homophobia. 
4. Lastly, bell hooks takes a number of feminists to task over the previous item, pointing out that the movement has historically only served the interests of women who are affluent and white, often to the detriment of lesbians, poor women, and women of color. The notion that individuals are accountable for the effect their choices and priorities have on others is a bitter pill for a lot of those who subscribe to liberal feminism (or the Yay sisterhood! Feminism is about choice!  types) to swallow, but I still think it's important. Making a movement unaccountable to its followers and the behavior of its supporters above reproof doesn't lead to anything good. 

I maintain everyone should read this. It's short, easy-to-read, and a great introduction to why I hate men so damn much am a feminist. 5 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

Jeffrey Eugenides is probably my all-time favorite writer. I first read The Virgin Suicides in high school, and it remains among the most beloved books on my shelf. It came into my life at just the right moment and continues to resonate with me years later. I imagine The Marriage Plot will occupy a similar place for me in the future; it was just what I needed to read at this point in my life.

The Marriage Plot departs from Eugenides' other works in a few ways. First off, it isn't set in 1970's-ish Detroit and Greek heritage and culture do not figure prominently in the narrative. It also has less of an epic scope to it than The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex; it's subject matter is comparatively banal. Nevertheless, I found myself enjoying every page-- probably because of the extent to which I related to it.

When I posted about having finished and liked The Marriage Plot on facebook, the younger sister of a very close friend of mine asked if she would like it. "That depends," I responded, "How do you feel about dysfunctional, over-educated humanities majors who are having difficulties reintegrating into normal life?" As a member of that category, I have a love/hate relationship with the characters, especially Madeleine. On the one hand, I, too, majored in English because I liked to read and experienced a certain amount of personal fallout and professional angst as a direct result of that (in hindsight) incredibly poor decision. On the other, Eugenides managed to embody just about every thing I don't like about myself in her, so I often found myself incredibly frustrated-- just like the time I read Madame Bovary.

At the same time, though, the writing was really, really good and I found myself caring quite a bit about the characters and their questionable decisions. It was also remarkably true to life; even though it was set around students who graduated from Brown in the 1980s, it rang true to my (and my friends') experiences as students who graduated from Vanderbilt twenty years later. Some of us got menial jobs, others of us traveled the world and found enlightenment (...or lots of drugs, whatever), others went off to engage in scientific progress, most of us were underemployed, and virtually all of us made incredibly bad choices in our love lives (I had a particularly unfortunate knack for getting involved with crazy people). Much like Eugenides' characters in The Marriage Plot, we muddled our way through and emerged on the other side of our twenties more or less intact.

Strongly recommended. 5 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Fibble, The Fourth Circle of Heck by Dale Basye

I've been following the Circles of Heck series since the first installment came out in 2008. I'm a sucker for both young adult novels and satire (plus Dante), so I've really enjoyed the series thus far.

Fibble begins where the previous installment, Blimpo, has left off. It continues to follow the exploits of Marlo and Milton Fauster, who have switched bodies and been sent to different parts of Heck. Fibble, the circle that is home to children who lie, is a demented circus run by (who else?) P.T. Barnum, with a special appearance made by Richard Nixon. Milton, in Marlo's body, must rescue Marlo, in his body, from Fibble and avert a giant celestial calamity.

Entertaining, as always! I really love the way Basye has adapted Dante. And I'm looking forward to the next book, Snivel, which is due out in May. 4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

 A few weeks ago, I posted the following request for book recommendations on facebook:

I have $25 to spend on frivolous (read: not school-related) books. I am looking for recommendations.

Parameters: no bodice-rippers, crimesploitation, "chick" lit (if the plot could be an episode of Sex and the City, I'm not interested), spaceships, unicorns, dragons (this includes tattoos), sentient beings that ~sparkle in the sunshine~, architecture, or railroads.

YA is okay if it's well-written. Same goes for speculative fiction (think Jasper Fforde). French language recommendations are always welcome. I also enjoy non-fiction of a sociological bent.

A lot of my friends are avid book readers, so I knew that they should come up with a few good ones. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was mentioned by several people, so I decided to check it out of the library on my next visit.

Overall, this book was very good. I'm a sucker for modern coming-of-age stories, especially those involving the hopelessly awkward, so Oscar Wao was a character/novel after my own heart. Set in New Jersey and the Dominican Republic, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao discusses the family's fuku, or curse, that had been set upon them by Trujillo, the brutal, American-backed dictator who terrorized the DR's inhabitants from 1930 until his assassination in 1961. The fuku follows the family from the DR to New Jersey, ultimately afflicting Oscar, the youngest son, who is fat, nerdy, and terminally virginal.

Told from the perspective of multiple family members and set in a variety of times and places, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao paints an elegant yet terrifying account of the long-lasting effects of brutal, repressive governments and the immigrant experience. Diaz did an excellent job highlighting the differing experiences of the characters, deftly revealing the role that intergenerational trauma plays in current relationships. I also learned several Spanish words that probably shouldn't be used in polite company.

My only complaint about the book is that the pacing was uneven, making a few parts in the middle something of a slog to get through. Otherwise, it's a great read. 4 out of 5 stars.

BAND: January Prompt & An Exciting Announcement!

Learn more about BAND here.


Joy of Joy's Book Blog asks:


What book or books have you used or are you using to support a goal, resolution, or project?


I am hereby pleased to announce that I will be hosting August in the 2012 Year of Feminist Classics. We'll be reading The Bluest Eye, and I'm pretty excited about hosting the discussion. After all, I did write my undergraduate thesis on Toni Morrison. 


Other than that (and the other books for the challenge along with the ones from last year I didn't get to), I don't have any specific books that I plan to read this year. There are some new releases I'm looking forward to (the sequel to Delirium, for example, and I think Jasper Fforde has a new book or two slated to come out this year as well), though. I'm trying to keep my standards low in case grad school eats my life again.

Things I'm Excited About

1. I have joined the intelligentsia and subscribed to The New York Book Review. I also have subscriptions to The Nation, Atlantic, National Geographic, and Wine Enthusiast. Nook magazine subscriptions + my tablet = best thing ever.
2. I tried a beer this weekend that tasted like beef Ramen noodles. True story. (It was Abita Winter, if you're curious or like beer that tastes like extra salty, artificially meaty noodles.)
3. They are finally airing new episodes of the TV shows I like.
4. My internship. It's pretty amazing, and it really sucks that I can't blog about it here, because damn. THE STORIES.
5. My classes thus far: I like my electives. I don't have the required ones until Friday. 
6. Not having to work until mid-February.
7. And still getting paid. Yay, funemployment!
8. Possibly visiting Canada at some point this year.
9. The fact that the school library allows grad students to check out books until the end of the semester.
10. My hair. It looks pretty awesome these days.