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joelogsliterature's reviews
92 reviews
Edward the Emu by Sheena Knowles
3.0
A really fun little story. Clear, solid moral, great art, depicting a rarely featured animal, and with good rhythm.
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin
5.0
Upon re-read, I realized I very much simplified this in my head to merely the scenario, but there is more open-endedness here than I gave it credit. Beyond distilling the issue to its essence, Le Guin allows for a number of interpretations of where we stand and what becomes of those who walk away from Omelas that go beyond what I remembered. The question of happiness and its place opposite suffering can seem a bit contrived, a matter of linguistics more than substance, but I think Le Guin demonstrates the bias well.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
3.0
This is a great book. It's deeply humanistic and has great narrative structure despite its jumping timeline. Henrietta Lacks' story is tragic. Many of the breakthroughs in biological sciences of the last nearly seven decades now can be traced directly to the immortal cells taken without her knowledge from her cancer. Contemporary laws do not allow for what happened to Henrietta to happen today, but the issue of human tissue capture is still a hotly debated one. In some ways, it would have been nice to have had this discussed more in the book.
My other issues are about pacing---the ending arcs linger---and that there is some conflict with regards to who wrote the book. I have no problem with Rebecca Skloot, but for all her giving credence to the idea that families maybe should receive compensation, she seems to have done little in that regard for the Lacks' despite what was surely massive financial success on the order of millions given this book's popularity. Although, she did start the Lacks Foundation. She also does not always make clear where permission is given; she even seems to include things in the book that she narratively promises people she will not include. Ultimately, however, these points only give me pause, and I have some faith in Skloot to have done her best in this regard given how she seems to care for the family.
In any case, I commend strongly the research Skloot did for this book. It is thorough. This is also one of the most emotionally resonant "popular science" adjacent books I've read. My copy is filled with notes hoping for a chapter to bring good news for the Lacks', about how unbelievably they are treated throughout. Echoes of slavery abound: Their home-house is literally a former slave quarters and their mixed ancestry is borne of slavery, with the "white part" of the family being entirely segregated with no kind words to be said for the Lackses. Disease also devastates the family, owing in large part to their parents being cousins and to neurosyphilis. And then there's how one copes with this all, with growing up in Baltimore, and much more. I wish Dale, Elsie, and many others had caught a break at some point. Religion, superstition, mistrust, and anger play big parts in this book, and it's really no wonder why.
This book is a fairly local one for me, being a Maryland native. When they go to Fell's Point, I think of Angie's crabs. I know well Hopkins' campus. I've toured the prison where Zakariyya was one incarcerated. This did not change me reading all that much, but it was interesting for this all to have been happening just down the road (albeit decades ago).
My other issues are about pacing---the ending arcs linger---and that there is some conflict with regards to who wrote the book. I have no problem with Rebecca Skloot, but for all her giving credence to the idea that families maybe should receive compensation, she seems to have done little in that regard for the Lacks' despite what was surely massive financial success on the order of millions given this book's popularity. Although, she did start the Lacks Foundation. She also does not always make clear where permission is given; she even seems to include things in the book that she narratively promises people she will not include. Ultimately, however, these points only give me pause, and I have some faith in Skloot to have done her best in this regard given how she seems to care for the family.
In any case, I commend strongly the research Skloot did for this book. It is thorough. This is also one of the most emotionally resonant "popular science" adjacent books I've read. My copy is filled with notes hoping for a chapter to bring good news for the Lacks', about how unbelievably they are treated throughout. Echoes of slavery abound: Their home-house is literally a former slave quarters and their mixed ancestry is borne of slavery, with the "white part" of the family being entirely segregated with no kind words to be said for the Lackses. Disease also devastates the family, owing in large part to their parents being cousins and to neurosyphilis. And then there's how one copes with this all, with growing up in Baltimore, and much more. I wish Dale, Elsie, and many others had caught a break at some point. Religion, superstition, mistrust, and anger play big parts in this book, and it's really no wonder why.
This book is a fairly local one for me, being a Maryland native. When they go to Fell's Point, I think of Angie's crabs. I know well Hopkins' campus. I've toured the prison where Zakariyya was one incarcerated. This did not change me reading all that much, but it was interesting for this all to have been happening just down the road (albeit decades ago).
The Postmortal by Drew Magary
3.0
First thing's first: This two star rating indicates basically average (but remarkably fun, if you let it be). It's fun light fiction that gives you a bit to think about. My ratings go like [0-20], [20,40], [40,60], [60,80], [80,100], more or less, and so this 2 stars falls nearly 60% on some scale. Talking about rating books in detail is lame and uninteresting, but it's worth noting given I have some praise for this but most people think of 2 stars as a very bad book and there's a lot of regression around a mean >3 here.
OK. I read this on a friend's request, so I'm just going to copy-paste what I wrote to them basically. Overall, fun, slightly evocative, and also quite frustrating is how I'd describe this book. I'm just putting everything I'm copy-pasting into spoiler tags because I'm lazy but respect that people don't want to be spoiled.
It felt sort of anime or graphic novel-y to me, maybe like an 80s post-apocalyptic action film (but where the hero is tall and a bit lanky, not Rambo). Ex: The POV of a journal left in John's humblebragging and some douchebaggery. His friend gets blown up and he's talking about how hot the blonde he saw is. His idiolect is also strange. Intentionally(?), he messes up idioms sometimes and uses some really particular slang like "steakhead," which seems odd as a half bro, half apparently-very-talented lawyer. Its strength is in its premise is put in just the right light and taken to great lengths to get a reasonable sociopolitical evolution. The overall timeline is a bit edgy but one could imagine it, and it's remarkable to look at it in 2023 and be like oh yeah, Russia did invade Ukraine, and yeah, militant groups therein do pillage, or yeah, China would nuke the Uyghurs, etc. John's character development was also solid sans maybe the very end miraculous first-love turnaround, and I loved the news segments + overall structure.
OK. I read this on a friend's request, so I'm just going to copy-paste what I wrote to them basically. Overall, fun, slightly evocative, and also quite frustrating is how I'd describe this book. I'm just putting everything I'm copy-pasting into spoiler tags because I'm lazy but respect that people don't want to be spoiled.
Spoiler
I finished The Postmortal last night, so I have more complete thoughts now. This will sound like I'm dogging on it, but it reminded me of reading a Dan Brown book. I've had some real fun reading those in the past, but I also cringed a lot because they're pretty fundamentally flawed. Still, the crazy ideas can be fun and characters appropriately heroic. This book was more grounded in having semblance in reality for sure, but because it travels 100 years down this path of postmortality, society evolves to naturally extreme places. Overall, I enjoyed myself a lot at bits but also rolled my eyes a lot (especially when yet another of John's loved ones die dramatically) lol. I'd say it's an average book, but that's not really what matters. I had a good time, and I think I see why you liked it so much. I finished it in 3 days in lieu of the other (very good) book I'm reading, so it was definitely entertaining as light reading.It felt sort of anime or graphic novel-y to me, maybe like an 80s post-apocalyptic action film (but where the hero is tall and a bit lanky, not Rambo). Ex: The POV of a journal left in John's humblebragging and some douchebaggery. His friend gets blown up and he's talking about how hot the blonde he saw is. His idiolect is also strange. Intentionally(?), he messes up idioms sometimes and uses some really particular slang like "steakhead," which seems odd as a half bro, half apparently-very-talented lawyer. Its strength is in its premise is put in just the right light and taken to great lengths to get a reasonable sociopolitical evolution. The overall timeline is a bit edgy but one could imagine it, and it's remarkable to look at it in 2023 and be like oh yeah, Russia did invade Ukraine, and yeah, militant groups therein do pillage, or yeah, China would nuke the Uyghurs, etc. John's character development was also solid sans maybe the very end miraculous first-love turnaround, and I loved the news segments + overall structure.
Divine Might: Goddesses in Greek Myth by Natalie Haynes
adventurous
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
3.75
I am excited to try more from Natalie Haynes. Her outlook on the classics is decidedly a-pretentious. I thoroughly appreciate her multimedia approach, relying as much on archeological evidence (artifact and monument) as text for investigating the women of myth featured here. Less consistently effective but still appreciated is her eye toward the place of myth in contemporary media. Where else can you find descriptions of forgotten '80s films and Lady Gaga music videos quickly followed by well-cited evolution from Hesiod to Ovid and beyond of the number and purpose of the Muses? Sometimes Haynes' own earnest enthusiasm for these characters and tales seems to cast an air of unearned sophistication and purposefulness upon some contemporary tales, and sometimes quick summaries of admittedly poor films don't go over so well, but on balance, it sets apart her perspective and I enjoyed it.
Her enthusiasm is perhaps most felt in the chapter on Hestia, which she begins by acknowledging she was bold to have accepted the challenge to write ten thousand words on a goddess who is "barely mention[ed,] ... who makes no dent on the Renaissance ... [and] inspired virtually no [one]." Yet this chapter stood out to me above perhaps all others. Lack of textual fixation belies Hestia's omnipresence in the home and her standing in the hearts of the Greeks. I admit I never thought much of Hestia myself. I cast her aside as merely one in a long line of historical deities for the home, much like I might (undeservedly, yes) clump the hundreds of fertility deities across time and culture together without much thought.
While the modern reader certainly clocks the patriarchy and psychology behind many Greek and Roman myths involving women, Haynes still sheds light on the issues. And certainly not everyone has internalized the plight of Hera or that Aphrodite stands for more than lust, so it's worthwhile to belabor such points.
Haynes' re-examinations often breathe new life into old myths while doing right by the goddesses they feature. She fulfills her purpose here admirably.
Her enthusiasm is perhaps most felt in the chapter on Hestia, which she begins by acknowledging she was bold to have accepted the challenge to write ten thousand words on a goddess who is "barely mention[ed,] ... who makes no dent on the Renaissance ... [and] inspired virtually no [one]." Yet this chapter stood out to me above perhaps all others. Lack of textual fixation belies Hestia's omnipresence in the home and her standing in the hearts of the Greeks. I admit I never thought much of Hestia myself. I cast her aside as merely one in a long line of historical deities for the home, much like I might (undeservedly, yes) clump the hundreds of fertility deities across time and culture together without much thought.
While the modern reader certainly clocks the patriarchy and psychology behind many Greek and Roman myths involving women, Haynes still sheds light on the issues. And certainly not everyone has internalized the plight of Hera or that Aphrodite stands for more than lust, so it's worthwhile to belabor such points.
Haynes' re-examinations often breathe new life into old myths while doing right by the goddesses they feature. She fulfills her purpose here admirably.