Wants to read The Change Room
book
Rated On the Hippie Trail: Istanbul to Kathmandu and the Making of a Travel Writer 8/10
<div>People who are already familiar with Rick Steves will get something out of this, but those new to him might not realize how he has changed since he was 23 and on this first big unfamiliar trip. I appreciate that he says in his intro that he didn't want to edit out the ways he was ignorant (judgement about people's way of living, or exoticizing other elements of the trip in a way that I imagine the subjects would not appreciate, etc.), but already you can see where he was headed in life. Travel does indeed broaden your perspective!<br><br>It's also funny, knowing that Rick Steves is an ardent advocate for full marijuana legalization, reading the moment he tried hash for the first time.<br><br>It's worth listening to the audiobook, but I'll have to go to his site to see the photos.</div>
Rated Jago & Litefoot: The Bloodless Soldier 6/10
This was just ok for me, but I'm sure I'll end up listening to more.
Wants to read The Black History of the White House
Rated Doctor Who: Storm Warning 8/10
I'm acclimating to listening to audio dramas, but I enjoyed this a lot.
Rated The Castle 8/10
<div>I might have been tempted to rate this lower, but I think I would have enjoyed this more if I'd read it instead of listened to the audiobook. That said, the way it ends made me literally say, "HA!" aloud. I knew it was an unfinished novel, but I just didn't imagine how it was unfinished would be so amusing to me. That's what much of The Castle is — grimly amusing.</div>
Wants to read The Chitlin' Circuit: And the Road to Rock 'n' Roll
Rated Doctor Who: Human Resources, Part One 10/10
This was excellent.
Rated The Haunting 10/10
<div>Even better the second time through. </div>
Rated Gigi and The Cat 7/10
<div>It wasn't love, but I liked these two stories. The characters are all very compelling. I'm interested in (finally) reading more Colette.</div>
Wants to read I Married You for Happiness
Rated The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love 8/10
<div>I read the first edition of this, so some of the people cited do not hold up to 2023, but I will assume any quibbles I have are addressed in the new second edition. I also wish it touched a bit more on disability. Still, there's lots of good thoughts here, whether you're just beginning your journey to body acceptance or you're a semi-jaded know-it-all who still needs to have a word with yourself here and there. Worth a read. </div>
Wants to read A Skeptic's Guide to Writers' Houses
Rated Mothertrucker: Finding Joy on the Loneliest Road in America 7/10
<div>Sometimes the writing was a little too romantic for my personal taste, but I think a lot of women will find value in this memoir. It's not only about finding your own way, but also about the broader difficulties American women face.</div>
Wants to read Blueprints for Building Better Girls: Fiction
Rated The Crow Road 6/10
<div>It's definitely not a bad book, but it takes until the second half to really kick off at all, plot-wise. I definitely wanted to know how it all shook out, but there are a lot of, let's say, privileged people problems. And one truly cringe-worthy sex scene at the end that involves Morse code. Yes, really</div>
Rated Amora: Stories 8/10
<div>Solid collection of short fiction with some beautiful writing.</div>
Rated The Truth Lenders: A multimedia novel 8/10
2510: After the wars, science progressed to the point where other species live and work among the reduced human population. A pharmaceutical news conglomerate called News Now! Corporation controls much of this post-progress society, in which anti-establishment, anti-corporate critics are regularly persecuted and atomically rearranged into more useful items — say, vegetables or water for a struggling third world nation. The island of Manhattan no longer exists; in its place is the undercity Atlas, domed beneath the ocean, climate controlled and accessible by the subway-like trundcar. Children are taught The New Language Model in their Zen English classes, with hopes of phasing out language in order to attain enlightenment. Reading has fallen out of favor with so many voice-activated devices and there are only two remaining independent bands on the planet. Amidst all this is a news anchor, Sammy, a beautiful woman who the entire world has come to know and trust.<br><br>Architect and designer Peter Scharber, along with his colleague Donaldson West, are part of the team testing News Now! Corporation’s latest venture — a pill that takes subscribers inside any news story while they sleep. Sammy guides them as the story appears to happen in real time, and by the time a person wakes, they are informed. Before long Peter and Donaldson begin suspect that the company is up to something far more sinister than the easy distribution of information.<br><br>In her first novel, Thuy-Dzuong Nguyen <i>(pronounced Twee Zoh Win)</i> has created an entire world where she explores creativity, realism and metaphysics. Much in the same way one has to adjust to reading works written hundreds of years ago, there is a lot of new information to absorb. Realizing this, the book is peppered with footnotes to provide a greater sense of place. Early on Peter and Donaldson discuss the Sammy Brain Project:<br><br><blockquote>“Right now they’re injecting nanosensors into her skin, and it doesn’t hurt because they’re so nano from the shrinking algorithms (18).”<br></blockquote><br><br>Rather than have the characters reveal information that they would already know, the reader jumps to the bottom of the page for an explanation:<br><br><blockquote>18 Atoms, theoretically, are mostly empty. The nucleus of any particular atom is a volumetrically small fraction of the atom, while the electron cloud is a tiny fraction of both mass and volume. Scientists went and compressed that wasted space in the development of shrinking technology. As a side benefit, no more jail overcrowding.</blockquote><br><br><br>The story has a subtle, meta humor, one that calls attention the fact that it is indeed a book with a reader, and that the writer and reader have present-day knowledge. There are jokes about fonts, picas, books and culture that are especially funny if one has ever worked in the publications industry. Broadsheet newspapers are considered rude in this world because they take up so much space, therefore interfering with the personal space of others. Instead, Atlas has a more “acceptable” newspaper (knowingly called <i>The Atlas Shrug</i>), which comes in a width of 46 pica — roughly the same width as the human headspan. All of its stories are corporation and government approved. In opposition is an underground form of journalism, operating in basements and printing stories about corruption, all while planning a creative uprising, the Nostalgia Movement. They want to show the value of the history, justice and free-thinking, for “There is nothing more valuable than something true and authentic.”<br><br>What makes the novel multimedia? Beyond textual footnotes is an enclosed CD that is referenced throughout the story. When the mainstream and publically-traded band SpynSpeck [Spine-Speck:]’s trademark song, “Duck Wave Function,” is mentioned, a footnote directs the reader to the appropriate track. There, one can hear just what a deconstructural, robo-rock pop band sounds like and how they recycle small fractions of existing songs into new ones. “They contributed to a post-post-postmodern musical movement in which new styles challenged what people classified as true music,” a footnote informs.<br><br>Telegrams, news broadcasts, and single lines of dialogue are also represented on the CD, and while it might be occasionally cumbersome to have the CD queued up while reading, it does add a certain level of engagement to the experience. Whole essays and articles have been written about the trouble with writing about fictional music, about how the reader interprets a audible medium by absorbing it visually instead, but Thuy saves the reader the trouble.<br><br>Of course, this begs the question: Is the Footnotes CD a mere bonus feature, or is it like the News Now! pills, “helpfully” informing the reader without that pesky burden of self-interpretation? Perhaps it is just one more meta moment in a meta-futuristic novel, a wink towards the plot itself.<br><br><i>The Truth Lenders</i> also acknowledges that no creative work is a one-(wo)man show. Thuy self-published the novel with the help of other designers, musicians and artists who live in and around the Spokane, Washington area. The Footnotes CD was produced, mixed and mastered by Joe Varela of Black Lab Recording Studios in San Francisco, a man who gets a nod within the story itself every time “Varela University” is mentioned. There are extensive credits as to who did what at the back of the book, as well as a list of recommended reading that informed the story. Musicians Kevin Long, Dane Ueland, Ross Robinette contribute their fictional selves to the CD, as well as Spokane writers Kurt Olson and Isamu Jordan. No person pulls all their ideas from the ether after all, so even the sources for jokes receive credit.<br><br>The end result of all this collaboration is an entire world which takes some time to acclimate, but provides plenty of thought-provoking ideas. And while, yes, the story is more concept-over-character, the characters are rendered clearly. Their history unfolds gradually as society begins to value the past again. While there’s a lot going on and infinite details to digest, it’s helpful to just keep going, trusting that all will align in the end. <i>The Truth Lenders</i> is possibly a one-of-a-kind effort, original both in its content and delivery, and for that, Thuy-Dzuong Nguyen deserves utmost praise.<br><br><br>For those interested in purchasing the book, contact Thuy-Dzuong Nguyen at truthlenders [at :] gmail [dot:] com or visit <a href="http://www.truthlenders.com">truthlenders.com</a> For those who live in the Spokane, WA area, it is also available at Auntie's Bookstore.<br><br><i>(This review originally appeared on <a href="http://glorifiedloveletters.blogspot.com/2010/04/truth-lenders-multimedia-novel-by-thuy.html">Glorified Love Letters</a> on April 27, 2010.)</i>
Rated A Dark and Starless Forest 10/10
To be quite honest, I didn't know how strongly I'd feel about this book because I don't read a lot of YA, and close sibling relationships are a bit of a foreign country to me. Still, expending one's horizons and an interesting premise made me start, and wow, what a captivating story. I fully read 75% of this in one evening because I wanted to know what happened next. If suspenseful YA is your jam, this will definitely be your jam, and if you're not sure, give it a go anyway. Treat yourself.
Rated So You Know It's Me 10/10
Oliu’s missed connections could be any person out there, a person receiving attention from someone who over-thinks a little too often and sometimes wonders if he remembers too much. The tone of each essay is slightly obsessive and sad, yet beautiful in their moments of sincere flattery. I enjoyed the book a lot, and though I appreciate the structure, I thought by the end, <i>Ah, just let us have one more…</i><br><br>(My full review can be found on <a href="http://www.wordriot.org/archives/3978">Word Riot</a>.)
Rated Forest of Noise: Poems 10/10
<div><em>In the refugee camp,<br>where land is strewn with<br>debris, where air chokes with rage,<br>my harvest is yet to arrive,<br>my seeds only sprout on this page.</em><br>— "My Grandfather's Well"<br><br>FOREST OF NOISE is a breathtaking and heartbreaking collection from Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha, which explores the ongoing struggles of living in an occupied country and how those struggles can infect the small moments of joy. He worries about his family still living in Gaza, he mourns the family he has lost. F-16s replace birdsong, but the old house keys survive. Essential reading.</div>