Reading Books For Pleasure

[seela]

Those would be some hefty hippos, I think.

I recently read The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.
It’s about a Southern Baptist Missionary family who leave the US in the late 50s for the Belgian Congo. The go without the full blessing of their organization and stay after the independence without any support.

I really liked it so I got Unsheltered by the same author. I do like it but I’m having trouble focusing on it right now, so I’ve put it aside for a while.

That a Congo book for my country list! Thanks for the tip, it sounds interesting.

Edit: And my library has it! I put it on my queue.

 

[IrisAlthea]

That a Congo book for my country list! Thanks for the tip, it sounds interesting.

It’s one of those that will stay with me I think. I’d love to hear your thoughts about it, if/when you read it.

 

[seela]

It’s one of those that will stay with me I think. I’d love to hear your thoughts about it, if/when you read it.

I'll get it from the library at some point after the 19th.

It's so annoying to use the library now. You have to choose everything beforehand and then only go pick up your selection, and everything is so backlogged, because the reservation system wasn't planned to handle this kind of traffic.

But this is now on my queue, so it's on its way to me. I'll let you know once I've read it.

 

[seela]

Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love by Jonathan Van Ness.

I was given this book by someone and I can see why. The thought behind the gesture is nice, but I just couldn’t get into this. I didn’t know JVN, never seen a single episode of the Queer Eye, so I really went in as a blank canvas without knowing what to expect. But meh. I didn’t enjoy this one. I guess the story is nice, love yourself, you can overcome obstacles etc. But not really my book.

Next I’m gonna finish Andromeda Nebula by Ivan Yefremov that I put on hold for the JVN book and then start The Poisonwood Bible mentioned by Iris. Except that I’ll read it in Swedish because the Swedish translation was available in the library and the English and Finnish weren’t.

 

[Dreamliner]

Consent, Vanessa Springora. It is a memoir that is confronting.

 

[seela]

Consent, Vanessa Springora. It is a memoir that is confronting.

What do you think of it?

 

[Curious51228]

I think it's so interesting to read books from different origins. The style can be so completely different than what I'm used to seeing in western literature. You can notice traces of the culture, history and story telling everywhere.

In general I try not to get too stuck in one genre and make a little effort to read writers of varied backgrounds. That keeps reading interesting to me.

!

Longish story, but I tried to stop reading books written by white guys (which I am) as a way to expand my perspectives. Some of the best books I’ve read recently:
Homegoing - by Yaa Gyasi...two sisters separated at young age in west Africa during the slave trading years. One is enslaved and one has a child with a British officer...the long winding story covers the divergent family paths.

Kindred - Octavia Butler (one of the only really notable Black woman science fiction writers)...Black woman time travels back to slavery era...very heavy but amazing.

The Ibis Trilogy - Amitav Ghosh...three volume story set during the Opium wars era...covers Britain, India, China, Hong Kong, etc. Fabulous story telling set in an important historical time I didn’t know much about.

The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett...book about twins who separate and end up in vastly different worlds...both are Black, but one passes herself off as white...really great dive into race...

These are all pretty heavy. I’m also in a book club in which the participants ONLY want lighter books but with excellent writing. We’ve read A Man Called Ove, and Less. Both are really good and interesting perspectives. The first about a widow growing old. The second about a gay man having a bit of a midlife crisis. Easy reads, but excellent writing.

 

[Dreamliner]

What do you think of it?

The way she wrote, the use of words to convey her comments and provide an image is strong. You do need to think about the words. I am surprised that this happened, and in the manner V lays out, not so many years back, quite extraordinary. After reading her experiences I now assume it is likely still happening.

Her resilience comes through and how she now manages this part of her life.

 

[seela]

Longish story, but I tried to stop reading books written by white guys (which I am) as a way to expand my perspectives. Some of the best books I’ve read recently:
Homegoing - by Yaa Gyasi...two sisters separated at young age in west Africa during the slave trading years. One is enslaved and one has a child with a British officer...the long winding story covers the divergent family paths.

Kindred - Octavia Butler (one of the only really notable Black woman science fiction writers)...Black woman time travels back to slavery era...very heavy but amazing.

The Ibis Trilogy - Amitav Ghosh...three volume story set during the Opium wars era...covers Britain, India, China, Hong Kong, etc. Fabulous story telling set in an important historical time I didn’t know much about.

The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett...book about twins who separate and end up in vastly different worlds...both are Black, but one passes herself off as white...really great dive into race...

These are all pretty heavy. I’m also in a book club in which the participants ONLY want lighter books but with excellent writing. We’ve read A Man Called Ove, and Less. Both are really good and interesting perspectives. The first about a widow growing old. The second about a gay man having a bit of a midlife crisis. Easy reads, but excellent writing.

Thanks, some interesting books there, Homegoing is the only one I’ve read. I recommend Wizard of the Crow by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. I think it’s a great example of a non-western storytelling tradition and a good book otherwise as well.

I’m definitely interested in light books with good writing, so thank you for those recommendations as well! Feel free to share more if you come across good ones.

The way she wrote, the use of words to convey her comments and provide an image is strong. You do need to think about the words. I am surprised that this happened, and in the manner V lays out, not so many years back, quite extraordinary. After reading her experiences I now assume it is likely still happening.

Her resilience comes through and how she now manages this part of her life.

Based on what I know from media, the story is astonishing. It really shouldn’t be possible for something like that to happen, and yet it makes sense that of course it happens. The book is on my “to read” list, but I haven’t felt like picking up something in that vein for a while.

I read My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell some time ago and it also deals with the same theme. It was very thought provoking for me.

 

[Dreamliner]

Based on what I know from media, the story is astonishing. It really shouldn’t be possible for something like that to happen, and yet it makes sense that of course it happens. The book is on my “to read” list, but I haven’t felt like picking up something in that vein for a while.

I read My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell some time ago and it also deals with the same theme. It was very thought provoking for me.

Thanks seela, the local library had an ecopy, borrowed and will read later this week.

 

[seela]

Thanks seela, the local library had an ecopy, borrowed and will read later this week.

Let me know what you think!

 

[seela]

Andromeda by Ivan Yefremov.

Plenty of science, plenty of theories, plenty of descriptions of technology. Some philosophical thought given to how space travel affects humanity, what's right, what's wrong etc. Zero character development.

Also amazing praise for the Soviet system!

 

[FurryFury]

Hi! I've been away for a while. Sorry about that. Did read some though. If I don't read an hour each day or more, I get even more stressed. I don't know how I could possibly be more stressed.

Ellie and the Harpmaker by Hazel Prior 4/5

Vicious (Villains, #1) by V.E. Schwab 1/5

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig 4/5

The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis 4/5

Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick (Zoey Ashe #2) by David Wong 2/5

Beach Read by Emily Henry 5/5

A Promised Land by Barack Obama 5/5

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson 5/5

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab 5/5

The End of Everything (The End of Everything #1) by Christopher Artinian 4/5

The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick 4/5

No Safe Haven (The Last Sanctuary) by Kyla Stone 4/5

An Easy Death (Gunnie Rose #1) by Charlaine Harris 4/4

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai 2/5

The Blade Itself (The First Law #1) by Joe Abercrombie 2/5

Slay by Brittney Morris 2/5

Minority Leader: How to Lead from the Outside and Make Real Change by Stacey Abrams 4/5

The Girl in the Tower (The Winternight Trilogy #2) by Katherine Arden 4/5

The Lightning Queen by Laura Resau 5/5

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey 3/5

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel 3/5

Nurse Alissa vs. the Zombies (Nurse Alissa vs. the Zombies #1) by Scott M. Baker 4/5

Miss Julia Knows a Thing or Two (Miss Julia #22) by Ann B. Ross 4/5

The Forgotten Girl by India Hill Brown 4/5

Culdesac (War with No Name #1.5) by Robert Repino 3/5

The Forever Sea (The Forever Sea #1) by Joshua Phillip Johnson 2/5

The Way of Shadows (Night Angel #1) by Brent Weeks 4/5

Chilling Effect (Chilling Effect #1) by Valerie Valdes 2/5

The Secret of Everything by Barbara O'Neal 3/5

We Unleash the Merciless Storm (We Set the Dark on Fire #2) by Tehlor Kay Mejia 5/5

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami 4/5

The Toll (Arc of a Scythe #3) by Neal Shusterman 5/5

Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass #3) by Sarah J. Maas 4/5

The Winter of the Witch (The Winternight Trilogy #3) by Katherine Arden 5/5

A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey 4/5

Rebel (Reboot #2) by Amy Tintera 4/5

Catalyst by Sarah Beth Durst 4/5

The Automatic Detective by A. Lee Martinez 4/5

 

[twister947]

Winterkill---by Ragnar Jonasson

Crime fiction with no guns or fistfights. What a concept!

 

[Dreamliner]

Let me know what you think!

Wow. Her view of the events is interesting. Writing in that manner, supposedly fiction, but based of real events. She was totally manipulated by a predator, yet she explains away the seriousness and accepts it as okay for her.

But, when other young teenage women are involved it is not okay.

Her distancing herself from the enquiry, he did a mind game on her, totally played her, manipulating her feelings.

 

[seela]

Wow. Her view of the events is interesting. Writing in that manner, supposedly fiction, but based of real events. She was totally manipulated by a predator, yet she explains away the seriousness and accepts it as okay for her.

But, when other young teenage women are involved it is not okay.

Her distancing herself from the enquiry, he did a mind game on her, totally played her, manipulating her feelings.

Yes, I thought it was very interesting. Some big time internalized guilt and exceptionalism. Made me wonder about consent once again.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Pride and Predators: a book review, kind of. Heidi Bond is a former SCOTUS clerk, law professor, and sexual harassment survivor who became a bestselling romance novelist, so her take on Pride and Prejudice is interesting reading.

 

[IrisAlthea]

Wow. Her view of the events is interesting. Writing in that manner, supposedly fiction, but based of real events. She was totally manipulated by a predator, yet she explains away the seriousness and accepts it as okay for her.

But, when other young teenage women are involved it is not okay.

Her distancing herself from the enquiry, he did a mind game on her, totally played her, manipulating her feelings.

Yes, I thought it was very interesting. Some big time internalized guilt and exceptionalism. Made me wonder about consent once again.

There has been a lot of talk about this where I see swedish book discussion, both about this book and the parallells to the case related to our Swedish Academy. The former academy member and wife of the abuser Katariba Frostenson has written about the swedish case.
At the same time Anna Ardin has released her book about the Assange case and is giving a lot of interviews.

Pride and Predators: a book review, kind of. Heidi Bond is a former SCOTUS clerk, law professor, and sexual harassment survivor who became a bestselling romance novelist, so her take on Pride and Prejudice is interesting reading.

That does sound interesting. How does she approach it?

 

[Bramblethorn]

At the same time Anna Ardin has released her book about the Assange case and is giving a lot of interviews.

That does sound interesting. How does she approach it?

Speaking of predators...

The review focusses on Wickham. She talks a little about how his behaviour would have been treated under the law of the time, but it's more about how that behaviour and other people's responses to it has a lot in common with modern-day understandings of sexual predators.

Stylistically it's unusual - very obviously written by a lawyer, but by one who's burned her bridges and has no more fucks to give.

 

[IrisAlthea]

Speaking of predators...

Yup. The debate when it happened coincided with the big debate here about a new sexual consent law. It was mayhem honestly, in the friendship killing bridge burnibg way and I haven’t made up my mind about revsiting it by reading her book.

The review focusses on Wickham. She talks a little about how his behaviour would have been treated under the law of the time, but it's more about how that behaviour and other people's responses to it has a lot in common with modern-day understandings of sexual predators.

Stylistically it's unusual - very obviously written by a lawyer, but by one who's burned her bridges and has no more fucks to give.

This goes on my list. Thank you!

 

[Bramblethorn]

Yup. The debate when it happened coincided with the big debate here about a new sexual consent law. It was mayhem honestly, in the friendship killing bridge burnibg way and I haven’t made up my mind about revsiting it by reading her book.

I hear that. JA spent a lot of time in Melbourne, so he's a really polarising figure here too. On the one hand, there are people who knew him and saw his relationships with women before he was famous, and on the other hand people who think he was framed.

This goes on my list. Thank you!

YW! Courtney is always good value.

 

[IrisAlthea]

I hear that. JA spent a lot of time in Melbourne, so he's a really polarising figure here too. On the one hand, there are people who knew him and saw his relationships with women before he was famous, and on the other hand people who think he was framed.

That was one layer of debate of course and Ardin wasn’t a blank page politically either. There was the debate about wiki leaks and about the swedish relationship with the US and NATO.
The most exhausting debate was among people who would normally agree and actually did agree on many points but where the opinions on the sexual consent law that would take 8 years to materialize iirc, created huge rifts and actually broke up friendships and relationships in some cases.

YW! Courtney is always good value.

The heart of Pride and Prejudice is that civility is not character. It is a serious scope error to believe that a person’s willingness and ability to perform the duties imposed by society is indicative of anything other than a person’s willingness or ability to perform the duties imposed by society. The assumption that adherence to the forms of manner means that someone must be trustworthy not only allows for significant harm but enables it.

I like it already!

 

[seela]

I read a non-fiction book that told the story of one Jewish family spread around Europe from 1930s to 1960s. It was mainly focused on the Finnish and Polish branches of the family and how they dealt with the Holocaust, but also the Swedish and Dutch connections were prominent. There were photos and snippets from letters they sent. I learned a lot from the book.

There were German troops fighting against Russia alongside the Finnish, and thus also Finnish Jewish, troops and that caused a lot of added stress to the Jewish troops. Often the Jewish troops fighting alongside the Germans here is told as a curiousity - the Jewish had their field synagogues and all. But it's rare that the emotional stress the situation has caused to the Jewish is mentioned. They knew what was going on in the German occupied areas, yet they were forced to fight side by side. And later they were blamed in the international Jewish communities for actively supporting the holocaust by fighting alongside the Nazis. There were also Jewish refugees from other countries here, and there's a lot of unpacked history there that I didn't know about. I only knew about the ones who sadly were deported under the pressure from Germany, but I had never known about what happened to the ones who stayed.

It was a very interesting book, but also heartbreaking. Only available in Finnish.

 

[IrisAlthea]

I read a non-fiction book that told the story of one Jewish family spread around Europe from 1930s to 1960s. It was mainly focused on the Finnish and Polish branches of the family and how they dealt with the Holocaust, but also the Swedish and Dutch connections were prominent. There were photos and snippets from letters they sent. I learned a lot from the book.

There were German troops fighting against Russia alongside the Finnish, and thus also Finnish Jewish, troops and that caused a lot of added stress to the Jewish troops. Often the Jewish troops fighting alongside the Germans here is told as a curiousity - the Jewish had their field synagogues and all. But it's rare that the emotional stress the situation has caused to the Jewish is mentioned. They knew what was going on in the German occupied areas, yet they were forced to fight side by side. And later they were blamed in the international Jewish communities for actively supporting the holocaust by fighting alongside the Nazis. There were also Jewish refugees from other countries here, and there's a lot of unpacked history there that I didn't know about. I only knew about the ones who sadly were deported under the pressure from Germany, but I had never known about what happened to the ones who stayed.

It was a very interesting book, but also heartbreaking. Only available in Finnish.

It sounds very interesting. It’s a part of history we don’t hear much about. To be honest, we hear very little about finnish history in general in school here.

I don’t know if it’s the same in Finland but here we are seeing a change in how that time is talked about.

 

[seela]

It sounds very interesting. It’s a part of history we don’t hear much about. To be honest, we hear very little about finnish history in general in school here.

I don’t know if it’s the same in Finland but here we are seeing a change in how that time is talked about.

Yes, there is a definite change, but it's very slow. I understand why it's a sore subject to many here and the conversation is still very polite and only focused on the successes. They were very dire times, we almost ceased to exist as an independent country and had to dig very deep and do things no one can be proud of in order to survive. But it also brought us together as a nation, the country was extremely divided until then.

I think the conversation here and in Sweden is very different in that regard. It wasn't an active war for you, so your perspective is different. People here still refuse to admit that we fought alongside the Nazis - not for Nazi reasons (although there were plenty of Nazi sympathizers here, won't deny that) but anyway. It's ridiculous. There is actually a word that's used to describe the kind of war relationship Finland had with Germany back then and it isn't used in any other context, ever. I mean, if that doesn't make your bells ring that maybe it's a madeup concept, I don't know what will. My 8th grade teacher did not like me pointing this out.

And don't get me started on how many people here think that Finland "won" the war. As in forced the Soviets to stop shooting and that's why we remained independent. The discussion about the war and the following decades is very clouded here, but it's slowly changing.