Currently reading
Madame Bovary
Siddhartha
Civil Disobedience and Other Essays (Collected Essays)
The Children Star
Manstealing for Fat Girls
Undersong: Chosen Poems Old and New
Radio Crackling, Radio Gone
Radiant Days
Mythmakers and Lawbreakers: Anarchist Writers on Fiction
Footnotes in Gaza
The Comet's Curse (Galahad, #1)
Eh. I liked the premise more than anything else about this book - a worldwide meteor-borne virus attacks adults so they send 251 teenagers (16 and under) into space to colonize (oops, was I supposed to notice that?) some other planet and "save the human race." Again I have to wonder why every single YA science fiction book has to have a straight romance tacked on. I mean, I don't have to wonder; I just have to read Publishers Weekly; that's what publishing houses are buying I guess. Wait! I also liked that the teen captain of the ship was a girl. That was pretty cool. And that the publishing house had the good sense to show a character of color on the jacket. There are going to be sequels, and I might consider reading them, if only because I like an ensemble cast of characters on an adventure. But I might not, because I dislike cheesy villians (as I imagine many actually-young adults also do).
 - Dom Testa)
The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden)
A gripping story about a Fringer (unregistered human) in a post-apocalyptic world run by vampires; the hook is that she gets turned almost immediately (not a spoiler--it's in the flap copy) but tries to stay human in her actions. What I most enjoyed about this book was NOT the teen romance, the sword-fighting, or the hunt for Eden (a humans-only city), but what I enjoy most about all vampire narratives: the part where the vampire passes as human. I love a passing narrative. What can I say. That said, I don't think I'll read the inevitable string of sequels. I got what I needed.
The Fault in Our Stars
I read this because my high school students this summer couldn't stop talking about how good it was. And it was pretty great. They're almost always right! (Exceptions: Twilight, 50 Shades). I especially enjoyed the commentary on fandom, the ways in which the main characters worked as two different sorts of fans (of a fictional fiction writer, but still). Fun, if one can describe a book about teenagers with cancer as fun.
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Beauty Queens
Really fun feminist, anti-racist, trans and queer positive, anti-corporate YA novel about a group of teen beauty pageant contestants whose plane crashes on a desert island. For reals! It's summer!
Zone One: A Novel
I loved THE INTUITIONIST and very much liked JOHN HENRY DAYS, so I picked this book up even though I don't love zombie stories or horror in general. And, unsurprisingly, I found lovely writing, smart observations, and a high gross-out factor. I ended up skimming a lot of this book because I just really don't like horror, but I think if you're interested in zombies, this is probably one of the best zombie books out there--just not my jam.
The Marriage Plot: A Novel
First off, I really hated MIDDLESEX (horrifyingly binary ideas about gender, location of intersex bodies' origin in incest, etc), so I was predisposed to dislike THE MARRIAGE PLOT.I read it anyway because I love Barthes' A LOVER'S DISCOURSE and because the novel sounded like it might be critical in an interesting way of the elite liberal arts college industrial complex, or at least a fun romp through a cultural moment. But no.Again I found Eugenides basic worldview repellant, uninteresting, and badly observed. I don't trust his depiction of straight women and am bored by his depiction of straight men. The story is about a heterosexual love triangle and the woman operates pretty exclusively as an object to bring the men together (I'm thinking of Sedgwick's BETWEEN MEN here). On a very basic level, this novel doesn't pass the Bechdel test. And there's weird class stuff, all this unexamined privilege. I just really dislike and distrust Eugenides's authorial worldview and I also didn't think it was particularly well-written or plotted. I mean, the writing was *fine* but really not special to me.
Second Line: Two Short Novels of Love and Cooking in New Orleans
Two weirdly gripping novellas about a pair of gay chefs in New Orleans, with lots of great work detail (one of my favorite things). In the first, Gary & Rickey are teenagers in love, working the line at various diners. In the second, sixteen years later, they have their own restaurant. I want to say this book is like Top Chef slash, but it's doing something else that's way more interesting and hard to pinpoint.
Legend
Compelling world, interesting characters (featuring a strong and reasonably complex young woman character), boring romance. I wish YA science fiction publishers didn't feel the need to force writers to include "romance" at the expense of actual relationships between characters (which I suspect is what happened here). Still, I'll read the inevitable sequel and watch for anything else by this author.
The Leftovers
I was drawn in by the premise--a sort of non-religious LEFT BEHIND--but ultimately the premise was so much window-dressing on a novel about the sexual mores of upper-middle class straight suburban white people, with a little cult action thrown in for fun. Eh.
Ready Player One
I'm still getting my head around the intense referentiality of this book; perhaps the treatment of '80s nostalgia would be interesting to someone who didn't live through that decade, but for me the nostalgia was boring because all the references were to the lowest common denominator straight white boy geek culture (games, music, movies, TV). I was reminded of how boring that culture always was, how not particularly "alternative" or progressive the world of gaming was/is. I think Cline's heart was certainly in the right place, in his descriptions of the world outside OASIS (the all-consuming interactive game everyone plays in the near future), but I don't think he went deep enough into the implications of this sort of world. This world had a dystopian-lite quality that I found disturbing. The character Art3mis's vague philanthropic leanings feel like social-conscience window dressing, another way to make her into a sexy smart girl who the "hero" can admire and win over.SPOILER ALERT: Very early on, the protagonist's entire family (abusive and extended, sure, but kin) and community is murdered, with basically no emotional impact. And most of the plot is a version of "boy completes quest and is rewarded with girl" which even the most mainstream '80s movies had the good sense to at least question. READY PLAYER ONE is well-crafted in that it's gripping, takes the reader on a ride, ends conclusively, all that. The supposed fun of the story has to do with solving a puzzle, but it's not really a puzzle for the reader. Reading this book was like watching someone else play a video game.
The Liminal People: A Novel
I totally stayed up late to finish this gripping novel about a healer who is also a shapeshifter, which is such a great conceit. I saw Octavia Butler's WILD SEED all over this book, which made me really happy. I could have used a few less "pansy" and "faggot" comments, but ultimately the first person narrator didn't seem like a giant homophobe, so I let it go. I'd be very excited to read more from Jama-Everett.
Solitaire: A Novel
I'm pretty impressed by Kelley Eskridge's ability to make a project manager who loves to project-manage into the hero of a compelling novel. I blew things off to finish this weirdly gripping novel about a PROJECT MANAGER. Talk about science fiction!
Girl: A Novel
I can imagine a world in which this book would have been really important to me and I read it quickly and with a sort of nostalgia for that alternate past, but in this world I was too old and I'd already read all of Michelle Tea's books.
Reamde: A Novel
Loving this so far! Although there are always those moments where I wonder how much distance Stephenson has from his creepy male characters... Still, so fun!UPDATE: For me, this fell apart towards the middle/end, becoming boringly actiony and improbable, but not in a fun way. Maybe because I loved THE DIAMOND AGE so much my standard for Stephenson is really high, but I just kept thinking he could do better. Don't get me wrong: I love a sprawling doorstop with intricate detail about a particular world or job, but I am bored by the violence-as-conflict school of storytelling. I also couldn't get a handle on the politics of this book: libertarian? nice-guy crypto anti-feminist? "telling it like it is"? Ultimate verdict: I found REAMDE gripping while I was reading it but forgettable a few days later. Sad. Hey Neal Stephenson, write something as good as THE DIAMOND AGE again!
Room: A Novel
If I hadn't know Emma Donohue was a feminist I wouldn't have read this at all... Incredibly traumatizing book but also weirdly compelling and smart. I got sucked into the sensationalist premise of the book despite my trepidation. I still don't know why it's entertaining or compelling to read about trauma. I was surprised in a good way by how much of the book was devoted to the aftermath (and how nuanced the writing was), but I still question my own voyeuristic motives for wanting to spend time in this world. This is a real question: why are we so drawn to representations of extreme trauma in this culture?
Super Sad True Love Story: A Novel
More science fiction for people who have never read any science fiction. I got bored by the subtle romantic misogyny and wheel-reinvention.
