Reading Roundup: May 2020
Take Me Apart by Sara Sligar
This book alternates between two timelines, and suffers from the fact that one story is much more interesting than the other. The author tries to make up for that fact by having the protagonist of the contemporary story start investigating events from the older one, but she never firmly establishes why there is a mystery or why it needs investigating. I thought this might have been a better book if it had only focused on one story and told it as more straightforward literary fiction instead of trying to manufacture unnecessary suspense.
The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall
I'm not sure how to feel about this book. On the one hand, Wall is wonderful writer and the first half of the book builds up beautiful portraits of four different people. In some places it reminded me of Wallace Stegner and his attention to relationships. On the other hand, however, the plot wasn't formed around a particularly compelling conflict and last third of the book dragged. Also, all the descriptions of the plot and the reviews talked about it as a family 'epic', but it really didn't get too far into the lives of its protagonists before it ended. I wanted it to be longer and to go deeper into the story of these two families.
Underground Airlines by Ben Winters
This book's premise was intriguing to me, and the world-building is the strongest part of the story. I would love to read more about this alternate universe and to explore some more of its implications. Mostly I liked the book and felt that the plot was well-constructed, but the main character is someone who has so guarded his identity and feelings that it makes it hard to root for him as the story progresses.
No Visible Bruises: What We Don't Know About Domestic Violence Can Kill Us by Rachel Louise Snyder
The first part of this book, which details the story of one family, is the strongest part of the book. The rest of the book is still well-written, but gets repetitive in parts and sometimes loses focuses. I also felt like the author didn't cover some issues as well as others (and a few things not at all), but that feels like an unfair criticism in some ways because it is impossible for one book to cover everything about such a large and complex topic. Nevertheless, this is an important book and I recommend reading it if you want to learn more about current research on domestic violence and what is being done to combat it.
Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin
Sometimes books that are based on Jane Austen's stories try too hard to match every event and character exactly and end up creating a story that doesn't make a lot of sense. This book worked well as an homage to Austen and also its own unique romance. I felt like the author did a great job of explaining cultural concepts to the audience in a way that was natural to the story, and I also liked the way she incorporated religion into the character's lives (and even though many characters shared the same religion, they were diverse in the way they lived and the choices they made).
March: Books 1-3 by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell
S-Boogie and I both read these books; she's been into graphic nonfiction lately and I thought they'd be a good fit for her. We both loved them; I thought I knew a lot about the Civil Rights movement already, but I still learned new things and had other things put into a different perspective. I highly recommend reading these.
The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths
I had a great time reading this book; it hit many of my favorite aspects of suspense fiction, and even fiction in general (including the creation of a fictional author and his influence on the world). However, the ending didn't work for me because it wrapped things up too fast and it involved the sudden reveal of information that had not been set up properly earlier in the book. I hate it when authors just fake out the reader like that.
Essential Poems from the Staying Alive Trilogy edited by Neil Astley
I decided to try something different after reading several single-author poetry collections. This one focuses on works from what the editor describes as more 'modern' authors--primarily from the second half of the twentieth century through today. It includes poems from many writers I recognized, as well as some I didn't, and includes a global variety (all translated into English). I thought the poetry would veer into the sentimental realm based on the title, but instead this was a thoughtful collection of poems about many different aspects of life. I marked many of the poems and know I will be returning to them again in the future.
The Adventurer's Son: A Memoir by Roman Dial
For our book club this month we were all reading nonfiction books. I read a fair amount of nonfiction, but since I had read this one most recently I decided to talk about it. It was a little difficult to describe without making it sound like a total downer. Although this is a book about loss and grief, Dial balances reflections about his life as father with his grief about his son's death in a way that illustrates the truth that grief is just an expression of the love we have for people.
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
This was another book that I quickly read in a few hours and thoroughly enjoyed while I was doing so. However, that required a pretty hefty suspension of disbelief, and a month later I still don't feel like I understood everything that happened. If you don't think too hard about all the details, this book is a lot of fun to read.
Movies
S-Boogie actually suggested this since it has Chris Evans in it. For some reason I had expected it to be more of a comedy (it's not), but after getting over the fact that it wasn't funny, I had a great time.
There are some great actors in this movie and they seem like they are having a lot of fun. Sometimes Steve Carrell is just a bit too cringey for my taste, but he works well in this movie. Unfortunately it included one of my major pet peeves as one of the plot lines (tween and teen boys' inappropriate behavior being treated as 'cute' instead of pervy).
This movie hasn't aged well in some ways, and I have a hard time taking Tom Cruise seriously as a romantic lead. His acting felt like the weakest link in the movie, although some of the others were quite good (Renee Zellwegger and Cuba Gooding Jr. especially). I remember enjoying this movie when it came out, but my feelings have changed over the years.
This movie was both hilarious and sweet, and the kids totally loved it. I loved it too--I liked how it was both funny and serious at the same time, and the characters (mostly) felt realistic (there were a few who weren't meant to be realistic, and they were great too).
I first watched this several years ago and loved it; I'd wanted to watch it again, but it's a big time commitment and there were so many other movies I'd rather see for the first time. When the public library opened up again I decided to grab it and see if it was as good as I remembered. Thankfully I enjoyed it just as much the second time and the six-hour run time actually doesn't seem that long because the story is so absorbing (I did watch it in two three-hour sessions).
This was an excellent companion to the miniseries I watched a few months ago; each has its strengths and each focuses on different aspects of the story. It's always interesting to watch documentaries that interview people who have done terrible things and yet still don't want to acknowledge the gravity of what they have done. This is an important film for understanding American culture during the 1980s and 90s and I highly recommend it (be warned that there is swearing and some graphic photos of murder victims).
This is on my list of classic movies to catch up on and I wanted something light and funny to watch after spending seven hours on O.J.. This totally fit the bill--it was a cute story and the acting was great. I was also not expecting the ending, but it was perfect.
The two older kids really wanted to watch this movie. This was one of my favorite movies as a teen and I was curious to see how it felt to watch it again, and I was also curious to see how my kids would like it. They've both had some classes on American history and know a bit about the twentieth century. I still had to explain a few things to them and why they were significant--this movie was definitely created as a nostalgia trip for Baby Boomers, and it's weird to watch it now that the 1960s are sixty years ago and not thirty. They liked the movie, and I did too, and it gave us a lot to talk about (American history, race relations, family and abuse, etc.)
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