The thing about putting books on hold at the library and then reading them is I'm never quite sure how I learned about them. That's the case with this book. It's a murder mystery set in New Zealand, but it doesn't read like a typical murder mystery, which I quite liked. The main character is a Maori woman who left her small coastal New Zealand town and went on to become an internationally acclaimed classical pianist, which is interesting but not the focus. She returns home after a horrible revelation that comes on the heels of her husband's surprising death. Once home she is faced with a murder that is reminiscent of a spate of murders that happened when she was a teen. She is grappling with a lot of terrible things all at once.
7. How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell
This book isn't a self-help book and it isn't really about doing nothing. It's more about reevaluating our relationship with society and the world and not being driven to produce, produce, produce all the time. Perhaps maintaining would be a more admirable goal. Additionally she examines our relationships with nature. She talks about resistance and the labor movement and about the indigenous people of the region she lives in- Oakland and the Bay Area. Everything that we can do is because of some privilege we have. Right? If you can't make ends meet, you don't really get to protest. You need support. Even resistance requires privilege. Sometimes you can only be a witness.
8. Highway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference, and the Pursuit of Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls by Jessica McDiarmid (my last book of January)
This book examines in a very caring and I felt illuminating way about the violence and systemic racism leveled against indigenous girls and women in Canada, particularly on a stretch of highway that's become known as the Highway of Tears. When literally thousands of indigenous girls and women (and let's be clear many of the people discussed in her book are under the age of 17!) are disappeared and raped and murdered and nothing is being done to end it, it's shocking and horrifying and terrifying. When I was 13, I was walking to school which was along a highway and these two men definitely tried to abduct me and it is out of sheer dumb luck that I wasn't abducted. That event has haunted my entire life and reading this book reminded me again and again of how I managed not to be abducted. And this book is painful, but I felt compelled to read it if for no other reason than to be a witness of sort.
9. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
This book is the first of my books in translation for the year. And it grabbed me from the get-go! I was immediately entranced by the narrator. One of my first thoughts was, "This is what I wanted from An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good!" And when I finished it, one of my first thoughts was, "That was what I wanted from An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good!" The main character lives in a rural part of Poland near the border with the Czech Republic. At first a neighbor turns up dead, and then another and another. She has her theories and they seem to be rejected out of hand. We're in her mind seeing the world through her eyes and so she seems totally reasonable and on top of things even if you don't agree with her- she's really big into astrology and has lots of thoughts on the matter!! But you do wonder about things. And that's a big part of why I think this book is soooo good!! I love this book!! I love the main character, love her thoughts on animals, nature, humanity, anger, translation, and I love the fact that the author took me places I did not expect to go! I would say my first translation of the year was a huge success!!!!
10. Ayoade On Top by Richard Ayoade
If you've watched the IT Crowd, you've seen and most likely fallen in love with Richard Ayoade. I've watched a bunch of YouTube clips of him on various British show, and he is always- always- a delight! So when I learned I could get a copy of this book through my library I had to!! It's a pretty deep analysis of the Gwyneth Paltrow movie View from the Top. It's quite extensive!
I read 10 books and 9 were by woman, 1 was by a man, and 1 was a translation. My year of reading lots of women and at least 12 translations is going well so far!
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