As you like it
whether that is religion, disease, prehistory, motherhood, or good common sense
.
108) The Book of Mormon, finished on October 19
Busy adolescents, sure, but is it actually true that six years have passed since we last finished this book as a family? Really? Egad.
I'm pretty sure we started over for Come, Follow Me, but STILL.
debatable
110) As You Like It by William Shakespeare, finished on November 8
I know this is supposed to be (at least one of) the best comedie(s), but I didn't love it. Reading the essay at the end of the book, I see my impressions weren't crazy. The essayist agrees that there's a big gap in the plot. But then she goes on to talk about all the many things that are happening and suddenly it was more fun. Sometimes, it's nice to have a guide.
friday and monday
111) Premonition by Michael Lewis, finished on November 8
In The Fifth Risk, Lewis showed how the Trump Administration demolished the United States Government's ability to do science.
In this sequel/prequel, he shows that the problem was endemic before Trump and his goons showed up. But that the best people were fighting both before and during covid, trying to make the system work.
In short, we should have lost our faith in the CDC looong before 2020 and remade it. We didn't. We still haven't. I don't know if we can.
The epilogue, which is supposed to be a bittersweet moment of heroism, is merely depressing. But I can't disagree. If America can't make keeping people alive sound profitable, this sort of thing will just keep happening. Capitalism must be our savior because we have rejected all other gods.
Well, that's a depressing review.
This book is a thriller! Wildly fun to read and filled with vivid characters fighting heroically against impossible odds!
The only downside is we know how this story ends. Which is to say, it still hasn't. And no matter how heroically you try to change the outcome in January 2020 or March 2020 or May 2020, we the readers know perfectly well it will not happen. It will not happen. It will not happen.
And so no matter how delightful a companion Michael Lewis is on this journey, ultimately, the book's bound to leave you a bit melancholy.
coupla weeks
112) Tuki: Fight for Fire by Jeff Smith, finished on November 12
I've had this book for a while now, and just finally set down to read it. It's the first volume of I think two (I bought both volumes but two isn't released yet) from the creator most notably of Bone.
I bought the b&w versions because the correct way to read Bone is in b&w. But I'm not certain that's the case with Tuki. You can tell that Jeff Smith designed this art for color from go, and while it still works well in b&w, something's missing. Dang.
The story takes place in ancient Africa, a couple million years ago, when multiple human species shared the space. It has hints of the mystical and a steely-eyed kumbaya relationship of friendship from our isolated humans as they come together across species.
It was a fun read. Lacks the chaotic joy of Bone but I'm glad I bought it and I look forward to #2 coming in the mail.
It's being released to the general public in less than a month, so it's not a bandwagon yet, if you hate jumping on those.
(Click on the title above rather on this link. It's currently cheaper not on Amazon.)
one night
113) A Life's Work: On Becoming a Mother by Rachel Cusk, finished on November 13
Lady Steed read this book then complained to me that it was a pointless read because it only says things any mother already knows and so why need put them down on paper? And then she insisted I read the book. So, perhaps, the true audience should be nonmothers.
Perhaps amusingly, the book's introduction claims that for all her reading, Cusk has found no one to really discuss what it is like to become a mother and therefore her book fills an unfilled niche. A bold claim. And a strange one for a book, a significant percentage of whose pagecount, is spent in long extracts from other authors. To mention a few, Swann's Way, The Rainbow, Jane Eyre, The Secret Garden, "Frost at Midnight," Dr. Ferber, House of Mirth, The Great Fortune, Madame Bovary—plus a bevy of shorter quotations, paraphrases, and disguised sources.
I was surprised to arrive at the extended copyright page at the end of the book and not see the various essays listed. In fact, nowhere in these pages is the sense that the book is a composite of previously published work. And a cursory internet search leaves that feeling intact. Apparently this is a work composed whole and not a collection. Which is hard to believe because the book covers the same time period over and over again from slightly different perspectives. And while this could be called clever artistry, creating the feeling of being trapped in days all identical to one another—what it really feels like is pieces written far various venues later collected.
In short, I don't recommend reading this book in a rush in order to return it to the library. You may end up reduced to skimming chunks as I did because she's meandering through repititions.
An unkind way of saying this is that the book is self-indulgent. Which, given the reactions to her later book on marriage, seems, perhaps, prescient.
Regardless, I think my wife's opinion is the best. It probably doesn't say anything that those who lived through it don't know all too well. But to those adjacent to that experience—or, especially, those who have viewed it only from a distance—it will let you inside.
Naturally, your own experiences will vary. Perhaps your baby will not cry in precisely this way; perhaps you will not require the same escape from breastfeeding; perhaps you will not happily afford the same sequence of European nannies.
You know: different.
week or so
114) The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett, finished on November 17
When the four-year-old and I started this, we took off like a rocket. The first night or three we read an entire chapter. And then we slowed down. And then she took to having her mother put her to bed because she didn't want to read about Tiffany. Because there were no pictures. Even though she loved the book and talked about the characters even when it wasn't bedtime.
So we finally finished, months later. And it was great. But I'm not sure my plan of going on and reading the other four Tiffany books (which I have not read before) at bedtime is quite ready to execute.
Which is a shame. Because Tiffany Aching is a role model any young girl can look up to.
about five months