Reading Roundup: August 2018
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser
The first half of this book was a fascinating look at the time period in which Wilder grew up. It covers the historical context of her childhood as well as the actual timeline of her family’s life and how it differs from her novels. Unfortunately the second half of the book dragged—it covers the writing of her books and her difficult relationship with her daughter Rose. Rose was a strange, volatile woman, and the book goes into a lot of detail about her relationship with her mother and their constant back-and-forth. It made for slow reading, but I’m glad I finished and I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about Wilder and her books and her life.
My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows
I’m not sure how funny this book would be to people who are not familiar with Jane Eyre, but I personally loved it. It was a lot of fun, and had clever ways of engaging with the original novel, including some that pushed back against the more problematic aspects of the text. Now that I’ve read this one, I need to go read the authors’ first book.
Us Against You by Fredrik Backman
I was so excited to find out that there was a sequel to Beartown, which was one of my favorite books last year. This novel picks up where the last one left off and describes the fallout from the events of the last book. I was a bit disappointed that it didn’t focus as much on certain characters that I had loved from the first book, but overall it is an excellent read.
Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
This book was a pleasant surprise; I had been reluctant to read it because I worried it would be too much like other similar memoirs I’ve read and disliked because they seem to be more about eliciting shock or pity than speaking any kind of truth. Instead, this book was a nuanced exploration of the acts of learning and writing. Westover is self-conscious about the process of memory and how our interpretation of events can change over time, and I loved this aspect of her writing. I wrote a review with more thoughts about the book over at Segullah. Also, I think the cover is one of my favorites from this year.
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
I’ve been working on a reading challenge from a local bookstore and needed to read a book that had won the Edgar Award. I’ve also seen recommendations for this book on a number of sites I look to for reviews. The pacing was a little uneven and the middle part of the book lost a bit of momentum, but the characters and setting were well-written.
My Ex-Life by Stephen McCauley
There’s a good chance that the author came up with the title of this book before writing it, since it's almost too clever. It was a fun read that also touched on some important themes that made me think. The book wrapped things up in a satisfying way, and in the end all of the characters learned some important things and made changes to their lives.
Movies
Your Name
Multiple people recommended this movie to me, and for the first half I was wondering why since it was a fairly typical romance story. Then, everything changed and it suddenly went in a new, incredibly compelling direction. It’s a beautiful movie, both in the animation (gorgeous) and the story it tells. I convinced S-Boogie to watch it with me, and she was vocally skeptical at first, but then could not stop watching either. We both highly recommend it.
Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi
I once tried watching Star Wars with the kids several years ago, but they got bored and decided it was dumb. Now that they are all older and hear about Star Wars all the time, they asked to try them again. It’s been years since I watched them too, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed them. The kids loved understanding the many references they’d seen in other movies, and really got into the story and the characters. P.Bibby is a particularly big Star Wars fan now, and we are deciding whether we should go forward (Force Awakens) or back (Phantom Menace) next.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
The first half of this book was a fascinating look at the time period in which Wilder grew up. It covers the historical context of her childhood as well as the actual timeline of her family’s life and how it differs from her novels. Unfortunately the second half of the book dragged—it covers the writing of her books and her difficult relationship with her daughter Rose. Rose was a strange, volatile woman, and the book goes into a lot of detail about her relationship with her mother and their constant back-and-forth. It made for slow reading, but I’m glad I finished and I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about Wilder and her books and her life.
My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows
I’m not sure how funny this book would be to people who are not familiar with Jane Eyre, but I personally loved it. It was a lot of fun, and had clever ways of engaging with the original novel, including some that pushed back against the more problematic aspects of the text. Now that I’ve read this one, I need to go read the authors’ first book.
Us Against You by Fredrik Backman
I was so excited to find out that there was a sequel to Beartown, which was one of my favorite books last year. This novel picks up where the last one left off and describes the fallout from the events of the last book. I was a bit disappointed that it didn’t focus as much on certain characters that I had loved from the first book, but overall it is an excellent read.
Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
This book was a pleasant surprise; I had been reluctant to read it because I worried it would be too much like other similar memoirs I’ve read and disliked because they seem to be more about eliciting shock or pity than speaking any kind of truth. Instead, this book was a nuanced exploration of the acts of learning and writing. Westover is self-conscious about the process of memory and how our interpretation of events can change over time, and I loved this aspect of her writing. I wrote a review with more thoughts about the book over at Segullah. Also, I think the cover is one of my favorites from this year.
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
I’ve been working on a reading challenge from a local bookstore and needed to read a book that had won the Edgar Award. I’ve also seen recommendations for this book on a number of sites I look to for reviews. The pacing was a little uneven and the middle part of the book lost a bit of momentum, but the characters and setting were well-written.
My Ex-Life by Stephen McCauley
There’s a good chance that the author came up with the title of this book before writing it, since it's almost too clever. It was a fun read that also touched on some important themes that made me think. The book wrapped things up in a satisfying way, and in the end all of the characters learned some important things and made changes to their lives.
Movies
Your Name
Multiple people recommended this movie to me, and for the first half I was wondering why since it was a fairly typical romance story. Then, everything changed and it suddenly went in a new, incredibly compelling direction. It’s a beautiful movie, both in the animation (gorgeous) and the story it tells. I convinced S-Boogie to watch it with me, and she was vocally skeptical at first, but then could not stop watching either. We both highly recommend it.
Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi
I once tried watching Star Wars with the kids several years ago, but they got bored and decided it was dumb. Now that they are all older and hear about Star Wars all the time, they asked to try them again. It’s been years since I watched them too, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed them. The kids loved understanding the many references they’d seen in other movies, and really got into the story and the characters. P.Bibby is a particularly big Star Wars fan now, and we are deciding whether we should go forward (Force Awakens) or back (Phantom Menace) next.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
I’ve been lukewarm about this book ever since I read
it—I think it’s fine, but don’t get the hype surrounding it. However, this
movie was, in some ways, better than the book. It changed some things about the
plot and changed the role of some characters in ways that better fit standard movie
plot tropes (the novel is epistolary and some things would be a challenge to
portray on screen). The story is still not the strongest point of the film, but
the acting is all excellent and the cinematography was gorgeous. If you love
British historical films, you’ll love this.
Comments
I had similar expectations for and reactions to Educated. Overall, I'm glad it exists.
As for Star Wars, I personally recommend forward. The prequels are enjoyable in the moment, but don't seem to really matter afterwards. Although the new ones aren't equally good, I think they are better. And although it's a tad controversial to say, I think The Last Jedi is excellent.