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justabean_reads's reviews
1278 reviews
The Brickworks by Lucy E.M. Black
4.0
A friend mailed me an ARC of this, which had a 1000-book run, which seems to be typical for this author, so I don't think she has much visibility. Which seems a shame to me, as it's the kind of quiet, well-researched micro history I really enjoy.
Two Scottish immigrants move from New York State to Ontario in the early 1900s, and start a combination brickworks and sheep farm (though, as the title might suggest, we spend a lot more time on the bricks than the sheep). It's relatively slow-paced, and lingers with the friendship between the main characters, the day to day of rural Ontario when life was only just starting to mechanise, and building a small business in the face of bad weather, changing technology, and misfortune. (I suppose this could be classified as a cosy historical, save some of the misfortunes being absolutely heartbreaking.)
I am normally in the "THROW IT IN THE LOCH!" camp when it comes to phenetically written regional accents; however, the voices felt so true here, and the author had clearly put in so much work on period word choices and speech patterns that they ended up working for me here. I appreciated the gentle humour, depth of friendship, and attention to detail.
If I had a quibble, I would say that given how central the relationship between the two men is to the story, and how we get flashbacks of one character's childhood and upbringing up to the start of the main plot, it struck me as very odd that we never got a scene depicting their first meeting, or anything from the formation of their friendship. Would've liked more backstory there.
Two Scottish immigrants move from New York State to Ontario in the early 1900s, and start a combination brickworks and sheep farm (though, as the title might suggest, we spend a lot more time on the bricks than the sheep). It's relatively slow-paced, and lingers with the friendship between the main characters, the day to day of rural Ontario when life was only just starting to mechanise, and building a small business in the face of bad weather, changing technology, and misfortune. (I suppose this could be classified as a cosy historical, save some of the misfortunes being absolutely heartbreaking.)
I am normally in the "THROW IT IN THE LOCH!" camp when it comes to phenetically written regional accents; however, the voices felt so true here, and the author had clearly put in so much work on period word choices and speech patterns that they ended up working for me here. I appreciated the gentle humour, depth of friendship, and attention to detail.
If I had a quibble, I would say that given how central the relationship between the two men is to the story, and how we get flashbacks of one character's childhood and upbringing up to the start of the main plot, it struck me as very odd that we never got a scene depicting their first meeting, or anything from the formation of their friendship. Would've liked more backstory there.
Log Off: Why Posting and Politics (Almost) Never Mix by Katherine Cross
5.0
Cross is a trans-rights activist who's about my age, and comes from a similar digital lineage (older end of Millennials who grew up on forums and LiveJournal before Web 2.0 took over the Internet), so I found this entire book intensely relatable. I also liked that it wasn't inherently against social media (except maybe the current iteration of Twitter), but wanted to have a clear and nuanced conversation about what, exactly, it can be effectively used for, and what's basically wasting everyone's time, if not actively harmful.
Highlights included the chapters about how doom scrolling can take real world problems that are in fact bad, and blow them up until they seem hopelessly overwhelming, and the one talking about how the only problems that twitter (or insert platform here) are equipped to solve are the problems that twitter created in the first place.
Cross places a lot of emphasis on how social media, especially microblogging, is individualistic, and pushes people towards individual solutions to collective problems. Which is not to say that you can't find community online (she has, and is clear that especially for trans folks online community is absolutely needed), but rather that in the case of political activism, that online community isn't usually an effective mechanism for change. This is especially true in more recent years, now that everyone is using the same technology, including the law enforcement, so that open-facing platforms are no longer something that can slide under the authorities' radar.
The whole book is a balanced, thoughtful and humorous take on a fraught subject. Also, I can't remember the last book where I've used my e-reader's built in dictionary so many times. (My wife finds the cover so horrifying that I've taken to randomly showing it to them just for the look on their face.)
Highlights included the chapters about how doom scrolling can take real world problems that are in fact bad, and blow them up until they seem hopelessly overwhelming, and the one talking about how the only problems that twitter (or insert platform here) are equipped to solve are the problems that twitter created in the first place.
Cross places a lot of emphasis on how social media, especially microblogging, is individualistic, and pushes people towards individual solutions to collective problems. Which is not to say that you can't find community online (she has, and is clear that especially for trans folks online community is absolutely needed), but rather that in the case of political activism, that online community isn't usually an effective mechanism for change. This is especially true in more recent years, now that everyone is using the same technology, including the law enforcement, so that open-facing platforms are no longer something that can slide under the authorities' radar.
The whole book is a balanced, thoughtful and humorous take on a fraught subject. Also, I can't remember the last book where I've used my e-reader's built in dictionary so many times. (My wife finds the cover so horrifying that I've taken to randomly showing it to them just for the look on their face.)
True Reconciliation: How to Be a Force for Change by Jody Wilson-Raybould
4.0
I probably got less out of this than Wilson-Raybould's first book, but that was largely down to this being a familiar topic, so the first two thirds felt like rehashing history/points of view that I already know. However, this is a really solid look at the history of British colonialism, Canada, and Crown-Indigenous relations. If you're looking for a starter book that sets you up with a solid, easily-understood primer on how we got to where we are, and what to do now, this is a good choice. I really liked the two-strand framing of what needs to be done on a macro scale (both immediate relief for things like clean water and housing, and changing the legal framework to allow self determination within Indigenous nations).
I wish the final section about what to do now had been more detailed/specific, as I'm so often stumped on specific actions. However, the guideline for how to decide if an action adds to reconciliation or not was helpful, and I liked a lot of Wilson-Raybould's examples. She's a very approachable writer.
The whole book is much more centrist/small-c conservative than say Leanne Betasamosake Simpson's writing on the same topic, but I thought it added a valuable point of view.
I wish the final section about what to do now had been more detailed/specific, as I'm so often stumped on specific actions. However, the guideline for how to decide if an action adds to reconciliation or not was helpful, and I liked a lot of Wilson-Raybould's examples. She's a very approachable writer.
The whole book is much more centrist/small-c conservative than say Leanne Betasamosake Simpson's writing on the same topic, but I thought it added a valuable point of view.
Disobedience by Daniel Sarah Karasik
4.5
Nominally Hugo Awards homework in that it's dystopian SF that came out this year, but it's from a small Canadian press, so... I might nominate it for best novel out of sheer perversity? Also, I appreciate abolitionist, and bisexual polyamory is normalised, but not idealised.
In a future where war and climate change have made the Earth only marginally inhabitable, the corporation-state of Flint is divided between an upper class living in the mountains, and a hyper-regulated prison camp. Our Hero(ine) is a non-binary person who is in a hidden relationship with a revolutionary. They arrange to escape from the prison camp, but then have to figure out where they fit into a colony of fellow escapees/freedom fighters.
Most of this book is a case study of a community that doesn't exist, but is created by a society not unlike ours, its set pieces being a pair of trials: one right after the main character arrives. These show off the structure of the community, and bring to light the failure modes of egalitarian anarchy. Meanwhile, the main character is trying to figure out what personal and sexual relationships look like when you don't have to hide them or your gender, and aren't under constant threat of violence. It's pretty clear that Karasik has spent a lot of time in co-ops, but unlike Eleanor Catton in Birnam Wood, isn't entirely cynical that they can work.
I was surprised how much I liked this. It felt like old school social science fiction where people spend most of their time thinking and talking about theory, and then sometimes things explode.
In a future where war and climate change have made the Earth only marginally inhabitable, the corporation-state of Flint is divided between an upper class living in the mountains, and a hyper-regulated prison camp. Our Hero(ine) is a non-binary person who is in a hidden relationship with a revolutionary. They arrange to escape from the prison camp, but then have to figure out where they fit into a colony of fellow escapees/freedom fighters.
Most of this book is a case study of a community that doesn't exist, but is created by a society not unlike ours, its set pieces being a pair of trials: one right after the main character arrives. These show off the structure of the community, and bring to light the failure modes of egalitarian anarchy. Meanwhile, the main character is trying to figure out what personal and sexual relationships look like when you don't have to hide them or your gender, and aren't under constant threat of violence. It's pretty clear that Karasik has spent a lot of time in co-ops, but unlike Eleanor Catton in Birnam Wood, isn't entirely cynical that they can work.
I was surprised how much I liked this. It felt like old school social science fiction where people spend most of their time thinking and talking about theory, and then sometimes things explode.
White Horse by Erika T. Wurth
4.5
This was billed as horror, and wasn't (yet again). Maybe I just don't understand what horror is supposed to be?
I did like this for what it was though: a Native American mystery with supernatural elements, in the same general line as Bad Cree by Jessica Johns. Our heroine has been living a largely-contented life of bartending, horror novels and punk rock, when her mother starts haunting her, along with visions of an ancestral monster. Trying to become nightmare-free pushes her into digging into her family history, and her own trauma.
I really liked our borderline-alcoholic anti-social dumpster fire of a main character, and her struggles to deal with drama she absolutely does not have the coping skills to manage. She's only marginally in touch with any of her Native American culture and family, which makes having visions a lot to deal with, but she starts to connect more over the course of the story. It's a really lovely healing journey, and a page-turner mystery, and not especially scary. Though that's not entirely fair, as it's depiction of male violence against women is striking and effective.
I did like this for what it was though: a Native American mystery with supernatural elements, in the same general line as Bad Cree by Jessica Johns. Our heroine has been living a largely-contented life of bartending, horror novels and punk rock, when her mother starts haunting her, along with visions of an ancestral monster. Trying to become nightmare-free pushes her into digging into her family history, and her own trauma.
I really liked our borderline-alcoholic anti-social dumpster fire of a main character, and her struggles to deal with drama she absolutely does not have the coping skills to manage. She's only marginally in touch with any of her Native American culture and family, which makes having visions a lot to deal with, but she starts to connect more over the course of the story. It's a really lovely healing journey, and a page-turner mystery, and not especially scary. Though that's not entirely fair, as it's depiction of male violence against women is striking and effective.
This House is Not a Home by Katłıà
3.5
Short novel following the life of a Dene man who was raised traditionally on the land, before being kidnapped to go to residential school, returning with damage, and running straight into the encroachment of the extraction industry, and the resulting northern housing crisis. If you think that sounds depressing and enraging, you are correct! Once the main character is an adult, he seems to spend his life getting systemically screwed over, with no outside help because the whole nation is getting systemically screwed over, and everyone else is equally impoverished and traumatised.
Which all works out to being more of a polemic against colonialism than anything narrative, though if Katłı̨à wanted to impress upon her readers the seriousness of the situation, consider me impressed. There's a nod towards optimism towards the end, with emotional reconnection between members of the shattered family, but mostly it's rough going.
Which all works out to being more of a polemic against colonialism than anything narrative, though if Katłı̨à wanted to impress upon her readers the seriousness of the situation, consider me impressed. There's a nod towards optimism towards the end, with emotional reconnection between members of the shattered family, but mostly it's rough going.
Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh
4.0
I'd already been told that this was basically crossing over the "Humans are space orcs" meme with the "Are we the baddies?" Mitchell and Webb bit, which is accurate, but doesn't entirely capture what's going on and why people love this book.
Basically, our heroine grew up being brainwashed by a bunch of terrorists, and was fully going on a suicide bombing run when she starts to see the cracks in her ideology, and questioning what she's been taught since birth. She's also a moderately obnoxious seventeen year old, a bully, and almost universally disliked by everyone she meets. After a few hundred pages, I found her obliviousness a little one-note? It was needed to set up the rest of the book, and I understand why we needed a baseline of her justifying herself and her horrifying views to show off how much she changes, but it did make the first third of the book drag a bit.
However, what did work for me was everything else. Without spoiling too much of the plot, there's some neat work happening with alternate realities, and who someone would be given different circumstances. Though it's a bit heavy-handed in places, I liked a lot of the details of how much being a Space Spartan would suck for everyone involved, and the points about complicity, and weighing when and if it's effective to rebel against corrupt authority. I also really liked how a lot of the secondary characters don't turn out to have the stories I expected, and how Tesh kept playing and inverting with YA and MilSF tropes. I was genuinely shocked by a couple of the turns, which doesn't happen much for me with SF/F.
I also thought the worldbuilding around the Wisdom and the loose confederation of humans and aliens associated with it had some neat philosophical concepts and dilemmas which felt very classic SF, and which I enjoyed the story chewing over. Also, nice to have a stand alone novel that felt complete and satisfying.
Basically, our heroine grew up being brainwashed by a bunch of terrorists, and was fully going on a suicide bombing run when she starts to see the cracks in her ideology, and questioning what she's been taught since birth. She's also a moderately obnoxious seventeen year old, a bully, and almost universally disliked by everyone she meets. After a few hundred pages, I found her obliviousness a little one-note? It was needed to set up the rest of the book, and I understand why we needed a baseline of her justifying herself and her horrifying views to show off how much she changes, but it did make the first third of the book drag a bit.
However, what did work for me was everything else. Without spoiling too much of the plot, there's some neat work happening with alternate realities, and who someone would be given different circumstances. Though it's a bit heavy-handed in places, I liked a lot of the details of how much being a Space Spartan would suck for everyone involved, and the points about complicity, and weighing when and if it's effective to rebel against corrupt authority. I also really liked how a lot of the secondary characters don't turn out to have the stories I expected, and how Tesh kept playing and inverting with YA and MilSF tropes. I was genuinely shocked by a couple of the turns, which doesn't happen much for me with SF/F.
I also thought the worldbuilding around the Wisdom and the loose confederation of humans and aliens associated with it had some neat philosophical concepts and dilemmas which felt very classic SF, and which I enjoyed the story chewing over. Also, nice to have a stand alone novel that felt complete and satisfying.
Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse
5.0
I'm always terrified of the final books in trilogies, especially epic fantasy trilogies where there's a zillion plots that need to come together, and five to ten point of view characters who need at least somewhat satisfying endings. I imagine there was some sort of massive scrivener file and/or spreadsheet to keep track of all the moving pieces, and how they were all going to end up at the big battle that'd been building since the end of the first book.
And she did it! She hit us with so many twists and turns that I couldn't put the book down, and more than that, the character actions felt fleshed out and reasonable, rather than something to move the plot forward. I really should reread the first one, because the journey every single major character went on was amazing, but at the same time tracked with what we knew and made sense. It also smoothed over a couple things that bugged me about the middle book (which was somewhat middle book, alas, and I've largely forgotten what happened in it).
If I had one qualm, it was that getting everyone to the end via that spreadsheet felt a little too mapped out in places.There were a couple times when I thought a major character had died unexpectedly, and I was pleased and surprised throwing a wrench in the works, and looking forward to how that would work out, only for it to be a fake out. After the first few, I figured that any point of view character was safe at least until the big fight at end, which wasn't as exciting as it could've been with a bit more chaos in the mix.
But on the whole, this was fantastic and a very satisfying conclusion.
And she did it! She hit us with so many twists and turns that I couldn't put the book down, and more than that, the character actions felt fleshed out and reasonable, rather than something to move the plot forward. I really should reread the first one, because the journey every single major character went on was amazing, but at the same time tracked with what we knew and made sense. It also smoothed over a couple things that bugged me about the middle book (which was somewhat middle book, alas, and I've largely forgotten what happened in it).
If I had one qualm, it was that getting everyone to the end via that spreadsheet felt a little too mapped out in places.
But on the whole, this was fantastic and a very satisfying conclusion.
The Stars Turned Inside Out by Nova Jacobs
3.0
Scientists start turning up dead at CERN, which hires a private detective to sort it out before it blows up in the press and cuts their funding. I liked a lot of the focus on the culture of the lab, infighting about credit, and different cliques interacting. I'm all for catty academic infighting, and probably would've enjoyed it more if it'd leaned more into the comedy aspect.
The actual tone was more contemplative and melancholy, with one of the main characters constantly gripped by climate anxiety and wondering what the point of her research even was, and the other by nostalgia for past friendships. There's a bit of an adventure plot, and the mystery had a reasonable resolution, but the two-timeline storytelling killed the narrative tension for me, rather than building it. Overall, it was fine, but didn't really grab me. Points of grey ace lesbian detective, anyway.
The actual tone was more contemplative and melancholy, with one of the main characters constantly gripped by climate anxiety and wondering what the point of her research even was, and the other by nostalgia for past friendships. There's a bit of an adventure plot, and the mystery had a reasonable resolution, but the two-timeline storytelling killed the narrative tension for me, rather than building it. Overall, it was fine, but didn't really grab me. Points of grey ace lesbian detective, anyway.
Crushed Wild Mint by Jess Housty
5.0
This is the second poetry book this year that I bought after reading a library copy!
Really gorgeous imagery about the mid coast of British Columbia, Housty's connection with nature, ancestral relationships with land, healing from trauma, and life and the natural world as metaphors for each other. The poems are roughly grouped by theme, with some gorgeous love poetry in the middle that reminded me a bit of Al Purdy in its mix of delight and pragmatism. The writing is lean, with a lot of repetition and reframing. I found some of the turns of phrase a little jarring (unintentionally, though they're good at intentional dissonance, as well), but mostly just really loved how wholistically and prayerfully they see the world.
Really gorgeous imagery about the mid coast of British Columbia, Housty's connection with nature, ancestral relationships with land, healing from trauma, and life and the natural world as metaphors for each other. The poems are roughly grouped by theme, with some gorgeous love poetry in the middle that reminded me a bit of Al Purdy in its mix of delight and pragmatism. The writing is lean, with a lot of repetition and reframing. I found some of the turns of phrase a little jarring (unintentionally, though they're good at intentional dissonance, as well), but mostly just really loved how wholistically and prayerfully they see the world.