🟣 :::READING THREAD::: Week of June 25th

I read My Dark Vanessa a few years’ ago and it was very disturbing, as the author intended it to be. It made me realize that I was harboring a little bit of “blame the victim” mentality when it came to older victims of child sexual abuse. The book made me see how easy it would be to manipulate an adolescent into believing that a sexual encounter wasn’t abusive if the adolescent was sexually attracted to their abuser.

I like the new look for the title! My question is, how do we make the purple dot? I like it.

I just read a review on Goodreads and the reviewer was pissed at her spouse for telling her story when he described her as private and guarded about sharing. Do you fee this way? I refused to read Go Set a Watchman because I felt Harper Lee didn’t want it published. On the other hand he’s telling his own story so I might be okay with it.

My Dark Vanessa was gripping and horrifying. It was an exceptional example of gaslighting: how the predator twisted Vanessa's words around so that she completely doubted herself and wondered if his r*pe of her was her fault. Very eye-opening indeed. Without spoiling, I thought the end was a cop out. I read this in 2020 when it came out. It will probably stick with me forever. I gave it 4/5 stars.

This week, I finished This Tender Land, which was absolutely gorgeous. 5/5 stars.

I was reading The Postcard, but I need to take it back to the library as other people have it on hold. It's okay, but I won't check it out again. I will finish The Bird Hotel by Joyce Maynard, which I started before I went on vacation.

Lisa

Nice new look!

Was outrageously ill on Friday. All I did was read to escape. I finished reading Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman. Read The Ocean at the End of the Lane by the same author. Next up, Illogical by Emmanuel Acho. Then, I stared reading The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.

Highly recommend the Gaiman books. I was not in the head space for Acho’s book, though I finished it.

Saturday, The Graveyard Book was finished. I do not remember crying over the ending the last time I read it. Was totally seeking out “comfort.”

Now, there are 2 in process of being read: Whistling Past the Graveyard (Kindle) by Jonathan Maberry. Short stories. I love this author’s Joe Ledger series. And, All that Remains (paperback) by Sue Black. About death from a forensic scientist.

I read I Am a Truck by Michelle Winters which is set in New Brunswick, a bilingual province in Canada. It was an odd, quirky little book and I am still not sure what it was all about.

"A tender but lively debut novel about a man, a woman, and their Chevrolet dealer. Agathe and Réjean Lapointe are about to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary when Réjean's beloved Chevy Silverado is found abandoned at the side of the road — with no trace of Réjean. As her hope dwindles, Agathe falls in with her spirited coworker, Debbie, who teaches Agathe about rock and roll, and with Martin Bureau, the one man who might know the truth about Réjean's fate."

I also read The War That Saved My Life, by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, which is a children's book but still a good read.

"Ada Smith is a ten-year-old girl who has never left her apartment in London. Her physically abusive, widowed mother is too embarrassed to let her go outside because of her clubfoot, even though she claims Ada is mentally disabled instead. As a regular punishment, Ada gets put in a damp cabinet under the sink where cockroaches live. She is used as a servant, cooks and takes care of her six-year-old brother Jamie and her mother. She is also quite protective of him."

I felt like he was telling his story, and that he had a right to do so. I felt he was very respectful and obviously loved her very much.  She made a public appearance to accept an award when she was so ill she couldn’t stand on the stage and had to give her acceptance speech sitting, so at that point I think she had come to terms with her illness.

She was a very complicated person. I think she was often psychologically abusive to her husband. My biggest question was why she treated him the way she did and why he stayed in the relationship. I think he wrote the book to help himself sort out his feelings. 

I haven't check in to this thread in quite a long while and I have read quite a few books since my last check in. I am shocked right now because it is end of June and I've already read 19 books. For reference, I read 17 all year last year and I felt like that was pretty good. After losing Esther I lost interest in nearly everything for a while, but really picked up my reading in winter. I know that doesn't seem like many books for many of you, but being primarily a non-fiction reader, I read nearly every other day or so, but I feel like I need time to think about the things I'm reading so I do take pauses for that reflection.

Anyway, I've read:

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell-4 stars for me. It was a relatively easy read where she not only dives into actual cults, but also the similar language and tactics used by cultish groups like MLMs, exercise groups like CrossFit, Instagram Influencers, and then ends with the QAnon/conspiracy theory/wellness pipeline.

Unraveling: Peggy Orenstein-5 stars for me. Peggy Orenstein is normally a social science writer and her past books have been really meaty. This one is a memoir about making a sweater during Covid times all the way from learning to sheer the sheep, spinning, dyeing, and finally knitting the sweater. She weaves (pun intended) her story around this mission to create a sweater start to finish while also hitting upon social issues going on in our country at the same time. I felt it was very well written and supremely interesting (but I'm a yarn crafter too). For a memoir, it really hit all my marks. I feel like I flew through it and didn't want it to end.

Screaming on the Inside: The Unsustainability of American Motherhood by Jessica Grose-4 stars. This really hit upon what it is like to be a modern, working mother. I felt it was interesting because while I could relate to some things, others are relatively newer developments that I missed totally when raising my kids. I almost feel like my children's childhoods were a time of change where things started out relatively tech-free and then the smart phone came in when they were a bit older. I also didn't have a big social media influence during my time as a parent and I can see how this plays out. She also references the podcast, Under the Influence by Jo Piazza, and I have started listening to that too. It is an interesting rabbit hole to go down but while it seemed like Grose was more of the technology being harmful to modern motherhood, Piazza takes a more nuanced look and doesn't seem to take a position on mom influencers, she just presents the good and the bad fairly neutrally.

Do You Mind If I Cancel? by Gary Janetti-3 stars. This was non-fiction's version of fluff. Each chapter read as almost a little essay (there was some cohesion throughout the book, but each chapter felt fairly distinct). Gary is a screenwriter and his book is just a quick insight into his personal life as a gay man. Quick read.

Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life by Christie Tate-4 stars. This had to be one of the most interesting memoirs I've read. Just different. A very unorthodox therapist with a strange way of guiding patients in a group therapy dynamic. The author is still involved with her group and they've become life-long friends to her. The therapy did result in some personal development for her.

This One Wild and Precious Life by Sarah Wilson-4 stars. This book was mostly focused on climate change and our impact on the Earth, weaving in her personal choices relative to that, as well as her personal discoveries while hiking around the world. There was a bit much hiking for my liking, but I found her life compelling and refreshing. I have also been doing quite a bit of thinking lately about my footprint on the Earth so that was intriguing. And she weaved a bunch of philosophy and cultural references relative to where she was. I needed to take my time with this particular book.

Farewell My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living-3 stars. This memoir was cute. The author basically tried living off the grid for a while and this is his adventure in learning how to reduce his footprint, as well as try to purchase local and support his local economy. It was an easy read and actually quite funny. His stories about his goats were highly amusing.

Anyway, those are the books I've read over the last 2.5 months.

LOVE the purple dot!  It drew my eye right to this thread without even knowing what the thread was about.  Definitely eye-catching!  PLUS it’s my favorite color!  GREAT idea!

Two books this week, both nonfiction:

Hooked by Sutton Foster. I think I went into this believing it would be more light-hearted than it was -- she's obviously a very bubbly performer, and I thought it would be more like "I am so energetic and here is how I use crochet to deal with my energy and nerves!" There's a little of that, and a lot for anyone who loves Broadway lore and casting stories. A lot of the book, however, is about her struggles to find happiness and acceptance after being raised in a very difficult household, with parents who disliked one another and a mother who became agoraphobic. It's written fairly basically -- almost at a YA level -- but the topics are deep; it reminded me of I'm Glad my Mom is Dead in a lot of ways. Held my interest, and a good reminder that what you see -- in people and books -- isn't what you get.

Don't Think, Dear by Alice Robb. I've had this on my list for a while and finally found a copy that wasn't on Amazon. Alice Robb attended an elite NYC ballet school that feeds into ABT, although she doesn't seem to have come particularly close to a professional dance career. The book ruminates on her own experience as a student as well as the life-long positive and negative effects of her strict training, but really focuses more on the world of ballet training and dance careers, and the incredible sadism and masochism of ballet. Not in a positive way, mostly. If you (like me) trained in ballet, you'll recognize so much of yourself in this book; if you didn't, it's still a really interesting synthesis of how ballet provides discipline and structure but often at a great cost to body image, mental health, and physical health.

I LOVE Lisa See, and I loved that Island of Sea Women!!!!!!!

I think this book will stick with me forever too.

This week I read The Soulmate by Sally Hepworth 4.5/5 stars for me. Picture a lovely cottage on a cliff, with sloping lawns, walking paths, and beautiful flowers. It’s Gabe and Pippa Gerard’s dream home in a sleepy coastal town. But their perfect house hides something sinister. The tall cliffs have become a popular spot for people to end their lives. Over the past several months, Gabe comes to their rescue, literally talking them off the ledge.

Until one day, he doesn’t. When Pippa discovers Gabe knew the victim, the questions spiral. . . .Did the victim jump? Was she pushed? And would Gabe, the love of Pippa’s life, her soulmate . . . lie? As the perfect façade of their marriage begins to crack, the deepest and darkest secrets begin to unravel. Because sometimes, the most convincing lies are the ones we tell ourselves.