January Pt. 2

Already slowing down for the second half of the month, or so it feels. Hopefully that doesn't portend my reading habits for the remainder of the year.

1. This is Water by David Foster Wallace
• Listened to it for the first time after reading it eons ago. Just as good, if not better, than the first time I encountered this graduation speech. If this is the sort of thing I missed when I didn't go to my undergrad ceremony, I might sort of regret it, but I get the feeling it wasn't anything close.
2. Too Many Moose by Lisa Bakos, illustrated by Mark Chambers
• I love the illustrations, the rhythm, the playfulness of the whole thing, and how it all ends (just as you knew it would).
3. The Reasons for Love by Harry G. Frankfurt
• Re-read.
• Well I suppose wholehearted self-love does come with rather a bit of difficulty to some of us, so if we refuse to take ourselves too seriously, as Frankfurt advises, it should blunt the failure in ourselves of our inability to live such a satisfactory life.
4. Wave (2015)
• Quite enjoyed this one, even as I found the probability that the entire family should have survived to be quite slim. Why couldn't the dad have died at the end? I suppose that would've been a sour point for the son to live with. How did he survive in that car with the other woman when the wave hit? I also get the feeling that death by drowning looks much less painless than is portrayed in this movie.
5. Big Nate: In a Class by Himself by Lincoln Peirce
• Much better than Diary of a Wimpy Kid in my opinion! I'm not sure how well it captures a sixth grade boy's mind, especially in terms of the writing, but Peirce definitely does a better job balancing silliness with some semblance of reality.
6. How to Fall in Love with Anyone: A Memoir in Essays by Mandy Len Catron
• The whole notion of being deserving of love and having value as a person that doesn't depend on being as unnoticeable as possible, catering to people, being the best doormat that ever was, was great to see in print. I mean, I know all of this, yes, but at the same time I feel like there are certain times in life when you need someone to sort of slap you across the face and remind you that no, you don't need to be a "good" person in socially conventional gender norms for girls* sort of way in order to be deserving of anything good. In fact, the whole thinking about deserving anything is a bit odd, considering the way the world is and the way we might think it ought to be don't always coincide - the ratio varies person to person, I should think.
• *I write "girls" rather than "women" because of the infantilization of women and the way in which the qualities that characterize a "good" girl (in any stage of her life), from the way I perceive it at least, seem to coincide a lot with passivity and taking power and autonomy away from them, as though we were children that needed coddling... or perhaps "someone older and wiser telling [us] what to do" (there were some problematic aspects to Sound of Music, looking back).
• On not needing someone in your life but still wanting them to be in your life, and how that's really honestly probably the best you can hope for.
7. 5 to 7 (2014)
• So... in the end, we have a return to the white heterosexual monogamous norm that I for some reason or another thought ever to question, or assumed this movie was out to question?
8. Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give by Ada Calhoun
• Hmmm.... it was all a bit too focused on the religious aspect of marriage for me. I preferred How to Fall in Love with Anyone more than this, though I get the feeling I'm probably getting some of the chapters confused between authors because I read both in close succession.
9. To Die Like a Man/Morrer Como Um Homem (2009)
• I feel as though this could have been so much better. There were parts I genuinely enjoyed, such as when Tonia & Rosario go digging in their little garden for everything the dog had hidden away, and the film as a whole got better towards the end, but the majority of it had this odd momentum to it, as though it couldn't decide whether to stop or go.
10. The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
• AMAZING.
• Bradley perfectly captures the petulant, confused, and completely overwhelmed Ada as she navigates the differences between what she has always been told by her mam and what she now encounters outside her home with Susan. The tantrums, the insecurities that cause Ada to go into herself while everything horrible happens around her, were relatable and also portrayed in a realistic light: she knows at times she is being horrible, yet cannot stop herself from doing so because of her doubts, her insistence on not letting herself believe she can be completely happy lest it all be taken away the moment she lets her guard down.
11. Good Neighbors (2010)
• For a movie that takes place in Montreal, why is "neighbors" spelled the American way rather than the Canadian "neighbours"?
• Weird. Creepy. Crazy cat lady on full blast?
• Even if Louise left it all alone, wouldn't the police have identified Victor anyway? Considering she used his sperm? Though I suppose she would've had to clear up the whole fiancée business, and Spencer would still have been around. Well that certainly wrapped up nicely.
12. Warriors: Into the Wild by Erin Hunter
• This was surprisingly well written! I'm actually genuinely impressed and see how the craze I hear surrounds this series should have arisen. At some point I did start getting tired of the endless description, but overall, I would recommend this book in a heartbeat.
13. A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
• It's my first time reading this series, and I think I might have enjoyed it more as a child, precisely because there are all these remarks that break the fourth wall and address the reader directly both assuming the reader has a decently sized vocabulary while simultaneously assuming otherwise. There were a lot of things that happen in this installment that were way out there (e.g. Uncle Olaf striking Klaus, the complete apathy of Mr. Poe, the entire plot to marry fourteen-year-old Violet - I assume there has to be something that prevents that situation from happening anyway... I mean, you can't both be the husband and be the guardian that allows a minor to enter into a legal marriage, right? Any way you look at it that sounds plain wrong), and I'm not sure what for, if that makes sense? Yes, I expect a certain sort of suspension of belief, but it almost seems like Snicket was simply trying to shock the reader. Or push the boundaries of what is considered acceptable in children's literature? (Of course, there's much worse that happens in children's literature, I'm sure, but still!)
14. Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West (audiobook)
• It's my first time really listening to an audiobook, I think, and I'm having a surprisingly good time of it! It helps that the author is a comedian and is reading her own work. (The last audiobook I remember being forced to listen to is for The Giver by Lois Lowry, and I don't know which version of it we listened to in elementary school, but it was sheer torture. The voice just droned on and on and on and on! I remember being fond of the novel, but the audio really kind of ruined it for me. Over a decade later, I am finally giving audiobooks another chance. Wait, I do remember listening to Tom Hiddleston reading some children's novel - I don't even remember the title, to be honest - but let's be honest: I didn't care a fig about the novel (which wasn't that great, by the way, because I was actually listening to the content and not just Hiddleston's rendition of the whole cast of characters - arguably the best thing about that whole audiobook).) Part of the issue for me personally in terms of whether audiobooks work for me is that I don't drive, and if I'm playing the audio off my computer, I want to be doing something with my hands and looking at/watching something - knitting is great up until your wrists are in pain and you need to give them a rest except you also want to continue listening. I suppose I could in theory download the mp3 off Overdrive and listen to it on the bus, but I'm a bit wary of taking myself away from receiving as much input from around me as I can when I'm crossing streets (enough cars seem to want to run me over as it is while I'm crossing at the signal and looking drivers in the eye) and waiting for buses (what if it just passes me by?).
• I guess that's part of why listening to a book can strike someone as being less worthy, as counting less (see below article linked), than reading a book, though that doesn't actually make sense considering how much effort goes into following along to the spoken word. It feels like you're not doing anything productive, and if there's one thing you learn to do in North American society in order to be a good human being, it's to be productive. With listening to audiobooks, I feel the need to be doing something actively with the rest of my body - as though listening to something shouldn't be absorbing enough to merit my full attention - whereas with reading, there's precious little else I could be doing because my eyes are on the page and my hands are doing their job keeping the book open and if I try to do anything else, well, we know how multitasking is actually just you switching between tasks and doing all of them less well. And with audiobooks, you get a certain version of the book that isn't quite the same as you might get with a physical book where you might still be conjuring up your own version and interpretation, but the voice doesn't actually exist as in the audio.
• The chapter on rape jokes and how they can be acceptable depending on what they aim to do was enlightening.
15. Adrift/Á Deriva (2009)
16. Francis, the Little Fox by Veronique Boisjoly, illustrated by Katty Maurey
• Beautifully illustrated - I love all the buildings as we walk through town and how palpable Francis' emotions are, from when he spills the frozen yogourt on himself to when he sees Mouse up on the closet. That being said, I'm not too sure about the pacing of the story, or even just the entire plot in general? Perhaps this would've worked better if split into separate chapters in this picture book, I'm not sure.
17. The Sisters Grimm: The Fairy-Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley, illustrated by Peter Ferguson
• Very well written, and I find myself wondering how the rest of the series is going to go. You get a pretty good breadth of characters from fairytales and folklore all over, and different types of them, too. What's even more interesting is that Prince Charming and the Big Bad Wolf are characters that are shared amongst all the different fairytales in which there are prince charmings and big bad wolves. I wonder if Mr. Seven is one of the seven dwarves?
• Sabrina in all her foibles is equal parts maddening as well as endearing, because you feel for her in her situation - really, you do, as she's just an 11-year old girl trying to do the best she can for her and her younger sister - and yet you can't help wanting to smack her upside the head because of how incredibly obstinate she is!
• A cookbook that teaches you how to make all of Relda Grimm's secret recipes would be amazing.
18. Casa Grande (2014)
19. Men: Notes from an Ongoing Investigation by Laura Kipnis
• I'm pretty sure I've read some of these essays before in some incarnation or other (as Kipnis herself addresses in the acknowledgements), and there were certainly one or maybe two that were a particular joy to read, but this volume fell rather flat for me. I find this was more about Kipnis' self-investigation than anything, outing herself for whatever foibles she diagnoses in the men she talks about, except in a more roundabout way for herself.
20. Women & Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard
• It was interesting definitely to see how despite how far we have come from the ancient Romans & Greeks that we haven't come quite as far as we might think in terms of shutting women up and the discomfort women in positions of authority arouse in men. (This was also a topic of much interest in Men by Laura Kipnis, above.) That being said - and Beard addresses this in the afterword - I think these two lectures would have made a great introduction to a larger volume.
21. The Adventures of Captain Underpants: Color Edition by Dav Pilkey
• What foray into children's literature would be anywhere close to complete without Captain Underpants? Again - surprisingly? Or perhaps no longer surprisingly, all things considered - another very popular series even back when I was the target audience that I didn't veer anywhere near. (I think there was a bit of the hipster in me as a child. Or I suppose it's just that I was a literary snob? I'm not too sure.) All this to say, I didn't expect to be delighted by Captain Underpants, especially seeing how pointedly un-delighted I was reading other well-loved series such as Dork Diaries and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. And yet Pilkey managed to deliver something lighthearted and funny, that operates by the rules we normally go by but stretches them a little bit to sci-fi or fantasy, and includes the reader (and the book itself) as you make your way through the book. The flip-o-ramas were a wonderful (and evidently well loved) feature, and at no point did I feel as though the illustrations got in the way of my reading of the text, as I sometimes felt in Diary of a Wimpy Kid or Dork Diaries (less so with Big Nate, I think?). I also really enjoyed the little bit at the end introducing the author in many more pages than are usually allotted this kind of thing.
22. A Little Lumpen Novelita by Roberto Bolaño, translated by Natasha Wimmer
• Bolaño builds up the suspense through Bianca's narration of the whole tale, and you kind of get the feeling this is what will happen, which is exactly nothing. Which is also kind of great? What was the crime, if nothing was committed? Is it more that "leading a life of crime" constitutes such a great part of her identity now that she cannot but look at what she did as a crime? (Unless she just means prostitution. I'm not familiar with the laws around sex work in... I don't actually remember the exact setting for the novel.) Anyway, everything presents itself as somewhat surreal: you're never sure how total and complete the story you're getting is.

On the back burner/working on:

1. Magic for Beginners: Stories by Kelly Link
2. On Truth by Franklin
• I've got no clue where my copy of On Bullshit went, so I'm just going to go ahead and re-read this as a standalone.
3. Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
• Re-reading this.
4. We Real Cool: Black Men and Masculinity by bell hooks

A selection of articles I've been reading:

1. Do Audio Books Count as Reading? on Lithub
• This came up completely independently of my decision to give audiobooks another go.
2. Actually taking a look through my Nautilus magazines instead of filing them away on a shelf never to be looked at again. Some interesting articles.