Rated Your Dazzling Death: Poems 9/10
<div>Beautiful, sad, heartfelt, fair. I liked this collection very much, and though some might disagree, I'm glad I read this before I read LETTERS TO FORGET by Kelly Caldwell. These poems provide some outer perspective on the inner turmoil Donish's partner went through.</div>
Rated The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter 4/10
<div>Though I am fine with a narrative style that is more concerned with the what the characters are thinking about as the action occurs, there is not a lot here BESIDES that. This is the first book in a "Glasgow" trilogy, but you'd barely know it if the back cover didn't tell you. While I understand this was a deliberate choice made by the author, it has the effect of making the characters divorced from their surroundings. There's an argument to be made that an insular crime world WOULD be divorced from other things going on, but it doesn't completely work here.<br><br>Also, there is all of one woman in this book, and half the time, we see her from the point of view of an asshole cop who is basically calling her a lying whore every chance he gets. When we get her point of view, it's... fine, I guess. She doesn't have more or less depth than anyone else, but that's not saying much.<br><br>While I did glean a few useful details for why I picked up this book to begin with, I will not be carrying on with the series.</div>
Wants to read The Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who
Rated Detransition, Baby 8/10
<div>Though sometimes the dialogue came off a bit more like a monologue than a conversation, the book is a good one. More messy, complicated queer stories that aren't necessarily tragedies, please. I can understand why some maybe did not enjoy the ending, but life doesn't have tidy resolutions, so for me, it worked.</div>
Wants to read The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood
Rated How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy 8/10
<div>A really great starting point for how to think about what is essential to your life, how to pay better attention to what's around you, to look for context, and resisting the idea of being just another product for ye olde algorithm.</div>
Rated The Recipe Project: A Delectable Extravaganza of Food and Music by One Ring Zero 8/10
It's good fun, with a bit of seriousness thrown in. The book is more like elaborate liner notes for the CD, rather than the CD being bonus material for the book.<br><br>(My full review appears at <a href="http://persephonemagazine.com/2012/05/the-recipe-project-by-one-ring-zero-more">Persephone Magazine</a>.)
Rated Doctor Who: The Drowned World 10/10
Sara Kingdom - the non-companion companion that has appeared in more episodes than some "actual" companions. I accidentally listened to this before its predecessor, Home Truths, but this is still great on its own. (Though now listening to Home Truths explains some things.) Jean Marsh's impression of the First Doctor's voice is a funny (but that's half the point), but it ends on an excellent cliffhanger. Onward.
Rated Clever Girl 10/10
What I like about Tessa Hadley’s writing is its detail. She describes scents particularly well — the top of a small child’s head, a lover’s neck, the cool air of early evening. Calling these different stages of Stella’s life “snapshots” is particularly apt because one can stare at a photo and see the texture of a chair, the way the light reflects off a person’s hair. She somehow manages to convey all the lust, loneliness, longing brimming in the woman’s heart through the use of a few succinct phrases. Writing rarely feels more true than when I’m reading her books.<br><br>(Full review can be found at <a href="http://persephonemagazine.com/2015/03/3-book-recommendations-illuminating-womens-lives/">Persephone Magazine</a>.)
Rated The Vaster Wilds 10/10
<div>Lauren Groff is excellent every time.</div>
Rated Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall 8/10
<i>Stasiland</i> is a valuable documentation of East Germany and its lasting effects. We, as humans, are often not very good at learning from our own history, but I'm not one of those who thinks it's hopeless to try. The more opportunity we have to learn from, and therefore not repeat, the more deplorable things we have done, the better. Though <i>Stasiland</i>'s purpose is not a grand manifesto, it is an introduction. It is there to bear witness. By bearing witness, we begin.<br><br>(My full review appears on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2013/01/stasiland-by-anna-funder.html">Glorifed Love Letters</a>.)
Rated The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris 8/10
John Baxter effortlessly merges the stories of his walking tours with bits of additional history, as well as stories from his own life, and what the stories mean to him. He makes you want to binge out on all the books and art he mentions, followed by booking plane tickets. In short, he is a very good guide.<br><br>(My full review can be found on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2011/11/most-beautiful-walk-in-world-pedestrian.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)
Rated Swamplandia! 10/10
I can't believe it took me 10 years to read this. I'm so glad I finally did. What an interesting, innovative book.
Rated Everything Beautiful Began After 10/10
Let me be clear from the start: Simon Van Booy has written an extraordinary novel. Everything Beautiful Began After is both a stolen kiss and the aching memory of the best stolen kisses. It is about adoration, grief and – my number one literary wheelhouse – the chronically lonely. If there is one book published this year that you read, let it be this. <br><br>(My full review can be found on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2011/08/everything-beautiful-began-after-by.html">Glorified Love Letters.</a>)
Rated Doctor Who: Battlefield 8/10
A really solid Doctor Who tale made imaginatively better because I know my gal Jean Marsh plays Morgaine in the televised version. I read this aloud to my 9 year old son, a few pages at a time most nights, and we both enjoyed it.
Rated Losing Clementine 8/10
What a nice surprise this book is. When I began reading it, I wasn't so sure about it. The narrator, Clementine Pritchard, seemed to speak as though she were trying to show off how clever she is, and at times, it comes off a bit strained. However, that strained cleverness does have an underlying point — Clementine is very, very sad and tired of life, and making jokes keeps her functional. She's decided to spend a month getting her affairs in order, and then she's going to kill herself. Each chapter is titled with how many days she has left to go. Eventually, I settled into her voice and her situation, and the interesting thing about the book is that I found myself not necessarily rooting for her life one way or the other. When it comes to a subject as touchy as suicide, that's an interesting mental space in which to be.<br><br>(My full review appears on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2013/02/losing-clementine-by-ashley-ream.html">Glorified Love Letters</a>.)
Rated Fathermucker 8/10
Fathermucker is a quick-but-satisfying read, and certainly one with which less-uptight parents will identify. The question of "Is Stacy having an affair?" propels us to the very end, and it goes for self-deprecation over melodramatics. Olear makes us consider the definitions of honesty and identity within our day-to-day life, and I am officially a fan.
Rated UNIT: Brave New World 1: Seabird One 6/10
<div>Just ok. If it were very on sale, I would be interested in the next installment to see if it finds its legs, but I am not in a hurry.</div>