Amy
I've been reading several retellings lately, and I've learned that what I like in a retelling is for it to be faithful to the spirit of the original but bring something new to the story. This book definitely accomplishes both. Ayesha at Last is a Pride and Prejudice retelling set in a Muslim Indian-Canadian community in Toronto. This turns out to be a great setting for a P&P story, particularly within a culture of matchmaking by parents. The Darcy character, Khalid, is very observant of his faith, disapproves of the behavior of people around him, and is committed to marrying the woman his mother chooses for him. The Elizabeth character, Ayesha, is trying to find her own way while being supportive of her family and thinks she isn't interested in love at all. The story follows the beats of P&P in creative ways. As I find to be common in many romances, the dialogue was stilted at times and the pacing was off, but in general, I enjoyed this book, and it's one of my favorite retellings.
This is a quick book that includes a set of simple “rules,” or really guidelines, for eating practices. It's the next step from Pollan's In Defense of Food, with his basic guidance of “Eat Food, Mostly Plants, Not Too Much” expanded. For example, for “eat food,” this includes “eat only foods that will eventually rot” (rule 14). It's such a quick read that I don't think I fully absorbed all the rules, but I would like to get myself a copy so I can reference it from time to time.
I think I love long-form journalism. Although I wasn't as blown away by this book as I was by The Omnivore's Dilemma, I did really appreciate this, especially the deep dive into “nutrionism.” I don't think any of the final suggestions were new to me, but it was interesting to read about how the Western diet has broken food down into its component parts – and perhaps not to our benefit.
I appreciate the value of this book, examining the issue of incarceration from a Christian lens and advocating that the Church needs to pursue justice that restores. I thought there were some really great explorations of the history of incarceration and the Church's role in it. However, the style of the writing was very academic and theological, which made it hard to digest, especially as I recently read Just Mercy, which is written in a very approachable and compelling style. I like the added faith lens of this book, but I wasn't completing engrossed by it.
One of the things that was confirmed for me in reading this book is that I don't like stories of complicated families in which the entire book is about that. I don't mind complicated families participating in some sort of intricate plot, and I don't mind stories without plot if I enjoy the characters. But this book reminded me, in a very different cultural context, of my reading experience with Anne Tyler's Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. The book centers around a dying man, who has to host his mother's funeral the day before what will be his last birthday party. That's the entirety of “what happens” in the book, but it really just serves as the framework to explore the back stories of all the family members who are coming to these two celebrations. There are important issues of identity in this book, and it is very well written, but it wasn't a favorite for me.
It's always a good sign to me when I just can't stop talking about things I learn while reading a book. It's also a good sign when a book makes me want to change my life, or at least understand something about my life better. The Omnivore's Dilemma made my want to find a small, closed-loop farm where I could buy all my food from now on. Alas, I haven't quite gotten there, but I am much more aware of what I eat and where it comes from, even as someone who was very thoughtful about the environmental impact of my food before reading the book. The writing is thorough but approachable, and I enjoyed the structure of the book looking at three different food systems.
This book is presented as a standalone story from the world of A Wrinkle in Time. But in reality, looking at the publication date, it just seems to be an early draft of a portion of A Wind in the Door. So if you've read Wind, you don't need to read this book. That being said, I do think the story depicted is one of the most interesting parts of Wind, so I think if you can set aside expectations that it's an original story, it's an OK book for kids. However, I'm not really sure who the audience for this book is. It's written in a lower reading level than Wrinkle or Wind, so it seems like it's maybe for a younger audience who aren't ready for the other books. But I'm not sure it makes enough sense on it's own if you don't know the characters already from Wrinkle.
Although this book features the next generation of the Murry-O'Keefe family, it is considered the fifth book in the Time series. After reading through all five, I think that Wrinkle and Wind definitely have a distinct, much more science-fiction feel, whereas Waters, Planet, and Acceptable Time mostly skip an aspect of science and focus on the experiences of people who have time traveled. As with A Swiftly Tilting Planet, I have a bit of skepticism of the depiction of native peoples in this book; it's not so much that there's anything offensive, but it's just that these seem to be an entirely made-up people with generalized characteristics. I would have liked to have seen a foreword or something that explained any research L'Engle might have done into the original people of the area she was writing about.
I love getting to see the Murry grandparents, and I always love the way L'Engle explores ideas of the power of love and complexities of faith. But this book falls short for me in a lot of ways. The first half of the book includes various folks going back and forth across the time gate, with Polly and the modern-day people who care about her sitting around and discussing it endlessly. And I've always felt in the various appearances of Zachary Gray in L'Engle books that I can't understand why the young women in the books seem to find Zachary at all compelling. He just mopes around and then manipulates them by saying things like, “Aren't you glad to see me?” or “I thought we were friends.” I think I'll just stick with Wrinkle and Wind for further re-reads of this series.
This is the third book written (although the fourth book chronologically) in Madeleine L'Engle's Time series. I would say I enjoy it more than Many Water but not as much as either Wrinkle or Wind. As with all the books in the series, the actual story mostly serves as a vehicle to explore an interesting issue. In this case, Charles Wallace travels throughout time but always staying in the same place and experiences a series of interlocking stories. The big picture to me is the way that brother-against-brother (both literal and figurative) conflict has happened throughout time, and the outcomes of those conflicts have ripple effects. The through-line story is hard to follow because so many of the characters have purposefully similar names, which illustrates their ties but makes it hard to keep track. I also was aware in this reread more than I have before of the Indigenous people L'Engle portrays in the book. I'm curious if they were based on an actual tribe that L'Engle had researched (I can't find any information on the web on this), or if they were just a people group she imagined. Although they are respected and important people in the book, I'm concerned whether the portrayal is accurate or respectful.
This is technically the fourth book written in Madeleine L'Engle's Time series, but in the life of the Murry family, it takes places third, so that's when I always read it. Rather than really exploring much of a scientific angle as Wrinkle and Wind do, the actual space-time travel element just kind of happens, and the majority of the book is focused on Sandy and Dennys's experience where they travel. As usual with L'Engle's books, I think the premise of this one is fascinating: Sandy and Dennys are taken to Noah's family before the flood and discover that although Noah's sons are in the biblical story, Noah also has daughters, one of whom because very special to both of them. Beyond the premise, though, I don't actually love this story. Sandy and Dennys are not only very vanilla, they also describe themselves that way, in a very stilted manner, continually referring to themselves as just being the normal ones in their family. The book stirs up some interesting questions, but it all just seems to be an elaborate setup to examine those questions, and even the minimal dramatic tension in the story (will the twins make it out before the flood? What about Yalith?) is wrapped up in fairly anticlimactic ways.
I noticed in my re-read of A Wrinkle in Time just how fast everything happened. This is the case again in A Wind in the Door, although it didn't stand out to me as much, perhaps because I have a history with the characters from Wrinkle. This time, Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace are not just meeting fantastical beings and moving through space, but they are exploring size and relativity through (real) mitochondria and (fictional) farandolae. (Note: I had to google whether farandolae are real, and in doing so, I came across farandole, which is a kind of French dance in which the dancers form a chain. The farandolae in the book dance in a circle together, and this can't be a coincidence.) I love the way Madeleine L'Engle explores huge ideas through interpersonal relationships: the idea that a human being is like a galaxy to a farandola, but that what happens to that farandola affects its human host, and so by implication, what happens to one human matters to the entire galaxy.
This is one of my all-time favorite books. On this re-read, I did notice a few things I haven't before, such as just how quickly everything actually happens, which in particular makes the developing friendship between Meg and Calvin seem strange. I'm just not sure why I should believe Calvin knows Meg as well as he seems to late in the book. But I still love the hugely imaginative story Madeleine L'Engle has created, the ways she weaves science and faith together, and the power of love and fighting against the darkness.
Reading this book really made me think about what is difficult about retellings: to me, they have to be faithful to the original material while also bringing something new. Unfortunately, this modern retelling of Emma didn't seem to do either for me. This version was essentially an imagining of what Emma would be like if set in modern times, so the only updates were to make that possible. But in modern times, nearly every aspect of this Emma are unlikeable. Moreover, I didn't enjoy the way that McCall Smith distributed the story. The first third of the book tells what is basically backstory in the original story, and the most compelling parts of the original are compressed into just a few pages at the end. George Knightley is barely present, and yet we are supposed to believe that he and Emma are not just fond of each other but in fact in love. Harriet is considered by Emma to be an airhead, although Harriet didn't come across that way to me on the page. This was just overall a miss.
This is a tricky book to review. It has a nice writing style that draws the reader in. It is an interesting concept, of traveling the world to different places to immerse in the languages. A lot of the descriptions of places, and particularly food, made me wish I could travel there right now. And I learned a lot about language acquisition. But there was something lurking in the attitude behind the adventure that sort of irked me. I also realize that this was an experiment for Christine Gilbert and her family, so I don't want to judge them too harshly; however, the way Gilbert approached her experience in China in particular bothered me. There can be really cool things that come out of dropping into a new place without knowing what to expect and figuring it out as you go, but it seemed like their family dropped into Beijing and then were shocked by the pollution and cold, which essentially trapped them in their apartment and they didn't actually experience life in China. Then the cultural barriers they experienced frustrated them so much that they just suddenly left. Cultural adjustment is always going to be difficult, but from the start, they could have had a much better understanding of even the climate they were moving into, and maybe that would have led to different choices and they could have had a better experience. And instead of seeing it that way, it seemed like Gilbert was just soured on China for the rest of time. I think there's some really interesting storytelling coming through that experience, but again, it was just sort of tainted for me by the attitude behind it.
We were given this book as part of a work exercise, in which we all took the accompanying assessment of our languages of appreciation. I found the assessment to be helpful, and I've used the language of appreciation styles with my colleagues a lot. This accompanying book is useful in giving context for the styles and ways they can play out in individual people and workplaces. It's not the most captivating read, although the chapters are short and fairly approachable. But I think you can get the idea of the languages of appreciation without reading the whole book.
I really enjoyed the way this book tells the story of Fred Korematsu and his legal battle against his incarceration as a Japanese American during World War II. Each chapter tells a portion of his story, in a sort of non-rhyming verse style, then the following pages explain more about the historical or legal context. For example, there is a chapter about Fred's teen years and trying to fit in in high school, and then there is information about American citizenship and who gets to be a citizen. The style mixes story-telling and information in a compelling way. I think it is aimed at late elementary school age and would be very approachable for them, but it is still interesting for me to learn from as an adult. Very well done.
I thought this was going to be a silly but fun mystery involving a cat. Instead, it was a ridiculous and not even really enjoyable book involving a cat and sort of a mystery. Honestly, it wasn't even really a mystery for most of the book, just wild speculation over who might be suspicious, and the actual perpetrator wasn't even revealed until very close to the end of the book.
Content warnings: Suicide, sexual assault, trauma/abuse
Given that a review of a supposed romantic-comedy starts with that content warning, that should help signify that this is not a comedy. It is a romance, and it is marketed as a rom-com, but even without that additional content, I wouldn't call this a comedy. This is a modern retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion, which is my favorite Austen novel. It's hard to review this book, because I do think Sonali Dev did a good job of creating the charged atmosphere between Ashna (the Anne character) and Rico (the Wentworth character). The aspects of the book that were a romance novel were cute and pleasant. However, the reasons for the rift between Ashna and Rico are a lot darker than the original material, and I don't think Dev did a responsible job of handling that content. And the book wraps up in ways that I think actually should have required stronger conversations and therapy. So enjoyable to read on the surface and yet also potentially harmful to many readers.
I made it through the series. The last few definitely felt like a marathon, but I persevered. I will probably never read these books again, but I'm glad I did it, if for no other reason than I understand a lot more pop culture references now. In my personal preference rankings, this book comes in fifth, after book 3 and before book 6. The book brings a satisfying conclusion to the epic, although I thought the middle third dragged a lot (Harry Potter and the Miserable Camping Trip). It continued to have good character and relationship development. As with the rest of the series: extraordinarily well-written, and not for me.
This book shares the stories of several African-American inventors, most of whom haven't been given a lot of wide recognition, told in a surrounding fictional story of a brother and sister who are moving into a new house. As they work with a neighbor to fix and clean the house, the neighbor connects what they are doing with stories of inventors. For example, turning on a lightbulb leads to a conversation about inventors who worked with electricity. I really enjoyed this structure and learning about these inventors. The children's story was a little contrived at times, but overall, it worked well.
At first, I didn't think I was getting much out of this book. There wasn't any particular day that really stood out to me, and I felt like I have heard a lot of the messages before. But as I approached day 100 and I thought about my life over the previous few months, I realized that there was something about reading every single day that I could be brave, that I should be brave, that I was brave helped me to feel brave and be brave. I needed the reminders over and over again. I also really enjoy Annie F. Downs's voice, honesty, and approachable writing. I would do the 100 days again.
This is an incredible and shattering book about the injustices of the criminal justice system. It is so incredibly well-written that it actually took me a long time to read because I would need a lot of time to digest after each chapter. The book is told in alternating chapters, with one chapter about a specific case that Bryan Stevenson worked on in exonerating Walter McMillian, a wrongly imprisoned man on death row, followed by a chapter about a specific issue in the justice system, such as juveniles sentenced to life in prison. Throughout, Stevenson's own humanity shines through. This is a book that will stick with me for a long time.
I liked this book much better than Order of the Phoenix, which I really, really didn't like, but I still like the fun of the earlier books better. My favorite aspect of this book was all the adolescent relationship drama. Ginny is also solidifying her position as my favorite character in the series.
Oh dear. I've been chugging along with Harry Potter, generally enjoying the experience although not falling in love. (Which isn't to say they aren't good – they are exceptionally well written and well crafted, but they just aren't really for me.) But this one. This one was too much for me. Throughout the series so far, I've enjoyed the world-building elements the most along with the wizardy capers. But I'm not one for a lot of peril, and as the series continues, everything just becomes more and more perilous, and there is much less of the wizardy fun that I enjoyed in the earlier books. My favorite parts were when Harry visited the Ministry of Magic and when the whole crew went to St. Mungo's.