Teresa's Bookshelf: July 2020

51. Network Effect by Martha Wells

Murderbot!!!!!!!!!!!! What can I possibly add? Well, there is something that I could add but that would a bit spoiler-y, so.... MURDERBOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love Murderbot, ART, and Martha Wells!!!

52. You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann and translated by Ross Benjamin

I can't remember how I found this little gem but it is a delightful thriller. I read that some call this a horror book. Perhaps but it's more on the creepy side than the graphic side. It was quick and yet lingering. A couple and their five-year-old go on a vacation in the mountains near a couple of glaciers- remember glaciers? They were important. They should still be but with the arctic circle hitting temperatures in the 100s... Sigh...) and the house that they rent... well, let's just say it's got a mind of its own. (And honestly Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried as a married couple???? WHAT??? He's sixty-freakin-one years old and she's 34!!!!!!)

53. Moon of Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

I've been hearing about this book for a couple of years and finally read it. Reading it during a global pandemic might not be for everyone though. I did enjoy the book and reading about their way of handling the problems of an apocalypse. Set in a northern reserve (in American English reservation) in Canada, the Anishinaabe people lose power, satellite/cable, landlines, and are cut off from the rest of the world. Without any knowledge of what is going on and winter arriving, they have to make plans. As many indigenous groups of North America are community oriented and less individualistic than the average white American, I really enjoyed reading this book. Does everybody believe everyone else is pulling their weight in this situation? No. Does everyone feel pleased with everyone else and embrace them wholeheartedly and with compassion? No. But that just made the book feel realistic and relatable.

54. Death's End by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu, and read by PJ Ochlan

This is book three of the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. (If you want to read my Three Body Problem Review, click here.) Look, this is a looooooooooong trilogy, 500-600 pages each, and while it's really interesting I wasn't sure I had the capacity to handle such an epic saga this year. And so I did it as an audio. I'm not sure I'll retain this third book very well specifically because I did it as an audio because I get too distracted during audiobooks but I also know I wouldn't have finished this trilogy otherwise. So Cixin Liu is crazy smart, crazy creative!! Wow!

55. Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

This is an awesome story of a life. The protagonist does not experience her life in a linear fashion. Every New Year's aka her birthday Oona jumps into a different year of her life. She has no control and no idea when she'll drop back into her life. It's a fascinating idea, what would you be like if you couldn't live your life in a connected way and just had to live with the consequences of your choices without actually making those choices!

I've read 55 books and 44 were by woman, 8 were by men, 1 was an anthology by both women and men, 1 was by a nonbinary author, and 7 were translations. My year of reading lots of women and at least 12 translations is going well in that I've read mostly female authors, but the world is going through a pandemic and state sanctioned murders in the form of police brutality with a horrible man still at the helm and supported by horrible men in the Congress. In short this year has been really rough. What will this global health crisis leave us with? What changes will we make, not only in terms of the huge inequities of our health system where people of color and the poor (which let's face it- the system works really hard to ensure that people of color, especially black people, are poor) are more than extremely disadvantaged, but also all the other ways in which our society, our systems, actively damage people of color? Only time will tell. But I hope it is a greater sense of community, a need to care for one and another and support each other, not just people with the same colored skin as ourselves, not just people with the same sized wallet as ours. I hope all of this isolation leaves us wanting to lift each other up and not hold others down.