get out of your own head

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam

Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction (creepy)

Review: On the second night of their vacation in the Hamptons, Amanda and Clay answer the door of their Airbnb rental to a couple claiming to be the owners of the house.  Apparently, there's been a major blackout in New York City and they didn't know where else to go.  The mystery, the creep factor, has little to do with the question of whether these people are who they say are.  It becomes clear fairly quickly that they are telling the truth and that there has been a major event of some kind, but with cell phones, landlines, internet, and television all out, no-one knows any details.  Cue the dramatic music.

This book was very suspenseful, due to two things: First, the characters' lack of knowledge.  The reader, through the omniscient narrator, knows quite a bit more than the character do about what's going on.  Not that it helps.  Second, this book is deeply introspective.  Alam slides seamlessly from the perspective of one character another, and we are privy to each one's sense of insecurity that they aren't responding "well" to the crisis.  And it turns out that the inside of peoples' heads during a mysterious calamity is a deeply creepy place.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

the devil is in the details

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction/historical fiction

Review: Addie LaRue is completely unable to make a mark on this world.  She is forgotten the moment she is out of sight, her writing erases itself, and she can't even manage to hold on to any material possessions, except a wooden ring that is the symbol of her deal with the devil.  Addie asked for freedom, to not be tied down to convention, but we all know that you have to be careful what you wish for.  Addie has all the freedom she could want, and then some, and her bargain is good until she tires of being unendingly forgotten, at which point the devil will claim her soul.

The devil thinks he's gotten a good deal, making a bargain with a rash young girl, but he didn't count on Addie.  Realizing that "ideas are wilder than memories" and can't be so easily controlled, she makes the terms of the bargain work for her.  Perhaps she is an artist's muse for a while, or she plants a musical riff that grows into a hit song, or finds some other way to live on (anonymously) through art.  On top of that, she really does have freedom to experience all the world has to offer, and she's been experiencing it for 300 years.

And then, someone remembers her.  After so much time, can Addie even have a relationship with someone who actually remembers her from one day to the next?  What will she learn about her relationship to the world?  And will it make her rethink the bargain she made so long ago?

Addie is a wonderfully strong, brave character, who will stick with you (haunt you?) long after you finish this book.  The book is a trifle too long, but the payoff at the end is worth it.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

this is what a feminist looks like

Out of Left Field by Ellen Klages

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: historical fiction

Review: Katy Gordon doesn't think of herself as a feminist.  She doesn't think of herself as a fighter in the struggle for equal rights.  She know it's not fair that she was denied the place that she earned on her local Little League team just because she's a girl.  So she starts by writing a letter to Little League headquarters in Williamsport, PA.  When they respond by telling her that baseball is, and always has been, a sport for boys and men, she sets out to prove them wrong.  Her journey opens up a world of women in baseball that Katy (like probably most readers of this book) had no idea existed.

And what a world it is!  Of course, Katy learns about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which by 1957 has already faded away, but she also learns about women who made it to the minor leagues, only to have their contracts cancelled because of their gender.  She learns about women who played in the Negro Leagues, and women who formed barnstorming teams.  She meets some of these women and interviews them for a school project.  Through Katy, we learn so much about this history, and Katy's sheer excitement at finding so many other women who share her passion is infectious.

When I was a girl and played Little League, it didn't occur to me even to think about the girls and women who had come before me, let alone thank them, but after reading this book, I will never forget them.  That's due in equal measure to the wonderful writing as to the short bios of some of these players that Klages includes at the end of the books, ending with Maria Pepe, who in 1974, with the support of NOW, finally made Little League change their rules.  So, as someone who walked on the path they paved, I now know enough to thank them, and to also thank Ellen Klages for doing a masterful job at bringing their stories to a new generation.

two roads diverged at an airport

The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult

Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction

Review: Sometimes, when I'm reading a book, I start writing the reivew before I finish reading.  I only had a few sentences put down for this book by the time I got close to the end, which is good, because I had to scrap them.  In other words, this book is not what it seems.  It's even better.

After surviving a plane crash, the airline offers to fly Dawn wherever she wants to go.  Does she choose to return to her daughter and husband of fifteen years, or does she choose to find her lost love, the man she thought of as the plane was going down?

Thus we are introduced to the theory of parallel universes, and so, the chapters alternate, beginning with Dawn choosing to return to Egypt to explore the what-if she left behind.  In the other chapters, Dawn returns to her home in Boston, and the familiar struggles of marriage and motherhood.  Or is that what's going on?  There's a twist (don't expect me to give it away!) and in typical Picoult fashion, there are no clear right answers.

Picoult is not coy about what she's setting up.  Dawn's husband is a physicist who explores just that topic.  As a graduate student in Egyptology, Dawn's thesis was on The Book of Two Ways, an ancient Egyptian text that essentially posited that, after death, one's soul can take one of two routes, but will end up in the same place, feasting with Osiris.  But sometimes, Picoult gets a little heavy-handed, such as having one of Dawn's clients face a very similar dilemma, and having Dawn learn a lot about her own life as she works things through with her client.

In Picoult's hands, even this last doesn't seem like much of a flaw, and if it is one, it's easily forgiven for the pleasure of the rest of the book.  This is the kind of book that you want to read again as soon as you've finished it, that will make you want to go out and learn all about hieroglyphics, and that you'll recommend to everyone you know.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

not those hostages

Anxious People by Frederik Backman

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction

Review: One day someone decides to rob a bank.  The bank in question, however, is a cashless bank, which makes robbing it kind of pointless.  Flustered, the bank robber runs across the street and into an apartment building.  The first open door is an apartment where there's an open house, so the bank robber accidentally takes everyone there hostage.  The hostage situation is resolved with no loss of life, but the bank robber is nowhere to be found.  What happened to the bank robber?

First, this is not a riddle.  It's the plot of Frederik Backman's new book, and his hands, this story is funny, touching, sad, and generally un-put-downable.  

Second, lest you be like me, hear "hostage situation" and think Bel Canto, be warned: this book is not like Bel Canto.  It's just as good (Backman and Patchett are two of my absolute favorite authors), but the tone is very different, as is the story itself.

Told in shifting perspectives of the bank robber, various hostages, and two police officers, we get the unfolding story of the investigation in the bank robber's whereabouts, the story of the incident itself, and the backstory of some of the hostages.  Put together, it forms a beautiful tapestry of love, loneliness, and hope.

FTC Disclaimer: I recieved this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

an exegisis on the treatment of women in 19th-century Australia

The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline

Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: historical fiction

Review: Women do not have an easy life in Kline's new novel.  Unless they're rich.  But this novel has very little sympathy for the rich.  Instead, the focus is on the marginalized.  Evangeline is a naïve governess, who finds herself pregnant and accused of stealing a ring (she didn't).  After a stint in Newgate, Evangeline is sentenced to 14 years labor in Australia.  On the months-long voyage, she meets Hazel, a fellow prisoner, and the two become unlikely allies.  Kline does not soften her descriptions of the conditions they faced.  One can almost smell it.

Methinna, an Aboriginal girl who is adopted by the governor's wife to be essentially a talking pet, rounds out our group.  At 11, she's old enough to be somewhat independent, which is good, since no-one exactly takes care of her.  But she learns French and learns how to dance, and is generally considered a marvel of civilization, until, suddenly she isn't.  Unfortunately, she learns the hard way that you can't go home again, although in her case, it's as much to do with the depredations of the British on the Aboriginal way of life than with anything she does.

Evangeline and Hazel are well-realized characters, although in some ways they are mere stand-ins for the idea that women had no power in that era.  But they fill that role more than adequately, not being shy with their desire to be treated with common decency.  Methinna's inclusion in the novel is more curious, as her story barely intersects the other, and her impact on their lives isn't as dramatic as it could be, or vice versa.  It almost seems as though Kline felt she couldn't write a story taking place in Australia at the time without including an Aboriginal voice, a sentiment which I applaud, but I don't think she does that voice much justice here.  For the a fully-told plight of women prisoners sent to the colony, I recommend this book.  For the same of the Aboriginals, one might want to look elsewhere.

A note on the audio: Narrator Christine Lee does a competent job with her narration, with one major flaw.  Two of the characters are described as being quite young, and their youth is such a character trait that it is mentioned repeatedly throughout the narrative.  Unfortunately, Lee's doesn't modulate her voice to reflect that youth, and I constantly had to remind myself that they were both young girls.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book in print, electronic, and audio format from the publisher in exchange for this review.

Moonbound: Apollo 11 and the Dream of Spaceflight by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm

Moonbound: Apollo 11 and the Dream of Spaceflight by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: graphic non-fiction

Read 20 in 2020 category: graphic non-fiction

Review: This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of spaceflight.  Those who are already well-read may not learn much that's new, but even if you already know it all, you'll be drawn in by the visuals.  Fetter-Vorn's illustrations are first-rate, clearly showing the expressions on the faces of his characters.  The best is their wonder at the stars and the universe, whether studying it through a telescope, or through the window of a spacecraft.  If you're looking for an introduction or an overview, you can't ask for much more than this.

Yes, Fetter-Vorn tells the familiar story of Apollo 11, but interspersed with the chapters that walk us through the moon landing step by step are chapters that relate the history of astronomy from the early myths of different cultures to Kepler and Galileo, the development of rockets, the space race, and much more.  The reader gets not just what feels like an insider's view of the Apollo 11 mission, but a good education that goes down smoothly along the way.