The Women by Kristin Hannah

So there's good news and bad news. Good news is, I loved this book. Bad new is that I had my top five already written up before I finished The Women, and now I have to rewrite it. It's definitely worth the extra work though (although the book that got booted might disagree).

The Women is set during the Vietnam war and follows the path of Frankie McGrath, who comes from an affluent family that proudly celebrated military service. Following the path her brother took, in 1966, idealistic 20-year old Frankie impetuously enlists to serve as a combat nurse. Her experience is so minimal that the only branch that will take her is the Army. And it's with them that she spends two years in Vietnam, treating not only servicemen wounded from the war, but local Vietnamese as well. In addition to seeing the horrific wounds caused by guns, bombs, and napalm, Frankie experiences attacks on the hospital and the loss of loved ones.

I couldn't believe Frankie's time in service took up only about a third of the book. It was so packed with information and so fascinating that I just couldn't understand what more there could be that was as memorable. But Hannah delivers from the first page to the last, continuing Frankie's story until 1982. 

After her 2nd tour, Frankie returns home to people spitting on her and cursing her for her service. Her  family denies she was ever in Vietnam, having told their friends she was studying abroad. Even the VA turns Frankie away after she seeks help dealing with her nightmares and anxiety, telling her "women weren't in Vietnam." 

With her family's refusal to acknowledge the war, the military's lack of support, and her closest friends hundreds of miles away, Frankie doesn't know how to keep her life together. And being with her through it all is captivating. Sure, this book is about the Vietnam war, but it's more about trauma. Hannah manages to remove the stigma of a lot of things Frankie deals with, like drug abuse, PTSD, and psychosis. She walks us through the metamorphosis of a bright-eyed, naive young girl to a broken, lost woman. And it all makes sense and feels so deeply personal.  

While the story is primarily about Frankie, The Women is ultimately about all the women who served in Vietnam, like Frankie's best friends Barb and Ethel. Although they and other characters play a smaller role, Hannah gives all of them dimension. And while they are all far from perfect, they are perfectly written. 

This is not just a good story, it has historical significance with themes that are still relevant today. Hannah's dedication to her research and to the women she honors is fully realized in The Women and I couldn't recommend it more!

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Lincoln in the Bardo is a story that you chew on. You can't just sip it and multitask and hope to passively absorb it. You have to pay attention and actively read (or listen, in my case). But it's so rewarding when you finish it, and worth the extra mental effort.

If you're like me and thinking a Bardo is something like a bar, you are completely wrong my friend. In buddhism, a bardo is a liminal space between death and rebirth. So we are visiting this space along with Willie Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's son, who died at age 11 from illness. Saunders uses both fact and fiction to weave a story of Willie's visit to the local cemetery after his death.

Willie meets a host of ghosts who have somehow avoided the judgement that sends them to their eternal fate, whether it's heaven, hell, or something in between. Saunders introduces various ghosts, each with their own backstory and...peculiarities...that have manifested in death.

Like Roger Bevins, who grows extra eyes, hands, and noses, among other things, when he can’t quiet his mind, which is pretty much all the time.

And there's the Reverend Everly Thomas, who has "eyebrows arched high...hair sticking straight up...mouth in a perfect O of terror." But despite his surprising appearance, he speaks with "the utmost calmness and good sense." If you're wondering why the Reverend hasn't managed to move on, his story delves into the judgement phase of death that we don't see with the others (and which was executed unnervingly in the audiobook).

Or Jane Ellis, who is surrounded by 3 gelatinous orbs - each representing one of her 3 daughters. Whether or not the orbs bear down on her, depart, or become life-sized manifestations of her daughters expressing a difficult situation, they cause Ellis severe distress. Also, sometimes Ellis saw everyone as a giant mustache with legs (which she despised of her husband).

And there's Mrs. Blass, once wealthy, but in death smaller than a baby, who gnaws at rocks and twigs, gathering and zealously defending them, counting and recounting her possessions, always short a few things.

And Trevor Williams - a hunter who has to briefly hold each animal that he killed, with loving attention while the animal is in the state of fear when it passed. And until that fear passes, he can't let go.

What the book reveals, that I won't, is each of their backstories - how they died and why they are stuck in the cemetery. Saunders makes each ghost unique and strange with paralleles between their lives and afterlives that are both compelling and at times, unclear.

What is clear, however, is that everyone is "stuck" in a way in the cemetery. Bound to the bardo. But there are ways to leave. In fact, a lot of the newly dead briefly come to the cemetery but quickly move on. But for those who don't, occasionally they are visited by sinister creatures, who come in a form most tempting to each individual and compel as many as they can to leave. Those who do, disappear with a lightning crack.

Another thing that is revealed is that the bardo is not a space for children. So when Willie shows up, the others become concerned after he lingers longer than he should. They don't want him to end up like Elise, the 14 year-old girl who ended up staying...

But there is something about Willie's father, who visits, and mourns, and holds Willie in death. Everyone sees something about him that makes them believe they can use him to help Willie leave.

There is so much to unpack in this book, which is strange, funny, and haunting all at once. You'll think about your life and death and everything in between. I'd say more, but I don't want to spoil some of the other themes that are explored in this book, mainly those having to do with why the ghosts won't leave the Bardo and the toll that staying takes on them.

A note about the format of this book: I listened to the audiobook and found myself scratching my head. There are so many characters who just...speak. Meaning, one person talks, then another, and there isn't any narration or even mention of "this person said..." or "replied this other person..." And there were a lot of characters, so I kept getting lost in terms of who was who.

So I was really curious about what the hardcopy text actually looked like. And when I saw the formatting, it all came together. Here's an example:

Efficacious

roger bevins iii

Yes, efficacious, thank you friend

hans vollman

So each character speaks and you know who it is by seeing their name below what is spoken. But that is lost in the audiobook. Although, the audiobook was great in that each character was a separate voice actor. So hearing Nick Offerman (as Hans Vollman) talk about pooping in his sickbox in the first chapter was a very rewarding experience, but also very confusing, because I had no idea what he was talking about.

The book is also written in alternating chapters. One is in the cemetery with the ghosts. The next is a series of citations, some real, some not, that gives context to the events leading to Willie's death. The citation chapters are also strange to hear via audiobook and might be a reason to pick up the actual book instead.

In the end, I listened to the last part of the book using both the audio and hard copy versions and felt like I got more out of it that way. I even went back and reread certain parts, which made more sense after I realized what was going on.

But whatever your medium, give it a try. This is a book unlike any other you've read. And it's worth the effort.

Circe by Madeline Miller

Whether or not you know anything about Greek Mythology is irrelevant when it comes to reading Circe. You could go in cold, like I did, or with a vast knowledge of the myths.  

If, like me, you thought of Greek myths as being about otherwordly beings who have little in common with mortals, you may be pleasantly surprised by this book. Miller makes the gods human, accessible, fallible, and vulnerable. And I guess anyone who knows anything about these stories might already know that, but I didn't. 

Circe is the daughter of Helios, who is the Sun God. She lives in a house occupied by many nymphs, or cousins, essentially. Although there are many things that are unusual about her upbringing (she is a goddess, after all), she also faces many things normal people face - mean siblings, crushes, jealousy. Circe grows up, not really having any indication that there is anything unusual about her, besides her upbringing and place in society. If she loves a mortal who is poor, for instance, she can go to a powerful relative on his behalf to better his life, but she seems unable to do much on her own. Yet Circe dabbles in the power of farmacia, mixing herbs into potions, and soon realizes strange things happen when she does.

Circe's creative use of farmacia eventually results in her forced isolation on an uninhabited island, Aiea. It is here she develops her skills in witchcraft, making potions and salves to cater to various needs that arise. She develops a skill for transformations, and has wolves and lions as her companions. She occasionally has visitors, like Hermes, who give her company and news of the outside world. She also hosts lost and seaworn sailors who land on her island, most notably the warrior Oedipus, who tells stories of the Trojan war and his conquests. She is even given a reprieve from her solitude when her sister Pasiphae summons Circe to help Pasiphae give birth to a son, who eventually becomes the minotaur.

I didn't realize how many of these stories I knew, at least peripherally. I also didn't realize how intertwined all these stories were. What I like about Circe is how Miller seamlessly relates all these tales in this one narrative. And throughout all these stories, we learn a bit about what it is like to be immortal and how immortal beings view mortal ones - as brief interruptions in their greater world. She also did a great job showing the gods and titans as beings who, despite their immortality, are just as petty, if not more so, than mortals. She really brings the drama of the gods and titans to this book like a great soap opera that's been running for centuries.

But unlike a soap opera, the writing is beautiful, almost wistful at times. Circe, although much maligned (it seems) is relatable and you want her to succeed in everything she does. She is a goddess who started out as a nymph and toiled to greatness, despite her solitude. In fact, she might have made the best bottle of wine from those sour grapes and we get to enjoy it with her in this beautifully told story.

The Invisible Life of Addie Laroux by V. E. Schwab

Addie Laroux was born in the 1690's in France. Paradoxically, her very normal life led her to the most abnormal of circumstances. Facing the shackles of marriage and domestic county life, Addie ran into the woods and prayed for her freedom. In her haste, she appealed to whichever god would listen. But in her desperation, she also prayed after the sun went down, and forgot a warning to never pray to the gods who answer after dark.

And it was Luc who answered. Make no mistake, while Luc often took the seductive form of Addie's sketches of an unknown lover, Luc was no mortal. And it wasn't in benevolence he answered Addie's prayer. He required a contract from her. So Addie agrees to submit to Luc when she no longer desires the freedom he will grant her. And she does live in freedom, which includes the possibility of immortality, but also the curse that no one will ever remember her.

The logistics of this curse are very complicated. Addie can meet the same people over and over again because they don't remember her once they turn away from her. Her family doesn't recognize her anymore, and intimate relationships last only as long as the other person stays awake. Addie isn't able to own anything, partially due to landlords not remembering renting her rooms, but also due to the curse - she loses anything she acquires. Even worse, she cannot say her name or write or draw anymore. It seems she cannot leave a permanent mark on the world.

But Addie finds ways to do this. Whether it's in a song that haunts a musician, or paintings of an unknown girl by an artist, Addie indelibly leaves a mark, as distinct as the constellation-like pattern of freckles on her face. 

Through the years, Addie is visited by Luc, who tempts her to end their deal. Like a true devil in disguise, he is both seductive and horrifying, and beautifully written. Any scene with Luc is intoxicating and you quickly understand how Addie hates Luc, but also is drawn to him nonetheless. 

By the time Addie meets Henry, in New York, about 300 years later, she has learned how to adapt to her circumstances. She finds places to stay each night, sometimes even with a companion, and because no one remembers her, she is able to steal almost everything she needs. So imagine her surprise when one day, she returns to a bookstore Henry works at and he remembers that she stole a book the day before.

Is it a glitch? What makes Henry so different from the multitude of people Addie has met over the last 300 years around the world? And what will Luc think about this turn of events?

This is a great book on its own, but I listened to the audio book and loved Julia Whelan's narration. She brought the characters to life and took an amazing story and made it even better. The writing has a lyrical quality that can make you feel like your're dreaming or caught in a bitter nightmare. A definite recommend.

Blindsight by Peter Watts

This book was so good, I read it twice. And I don't mean, I read it years ago and wanted to read it again. No, I read it (or rather, listened to it) about a week ago, finished it feeling I hadn't retained much, and then immediately re-read it. 

On the first go, I was constantly confused about what was going on and who the various characters were. I couldn't even really say what the basic plot was. This probably isn't making my case that this is a good book, and I wasn't feeling that way either. But despite this, I realized I was never bored while listening, and I liked a lot of the ideas I heard, it was just so dense with information that anytime I tried to multitask, I'd miss something (one of the pitfalls of listening to my books instead of reading them).

So I checked some blogs online, brushed up on the basic plot and characters, and tried again. This time, I focused on really paying attention, cut out the multitasking, and it paid off.

Blindsight is a hard science fiction book, written in 2006 by Peter Watts. It's full of interesting concepts like, well, blindsight, first of all, which is the ability to perform a task without consciousness. An example given in the book occurs when a person is temporarily blinded, yet is able to react to visual stimulus. This article, from the BBC, explains the concept much better: 

"Just how many of our decisions occur out of our awareness, even when we have the illusion of control? And if the conscious mind is not needed to direct our actions, then what is its purpose? Why did we evolve this vivid internal life, if we are almost 'zombies' acting without awareness?"

This quote could have been pulled directly from Watts' book. In fact, he also brings up the concept of zombies in a similar context. Watts explores consciousness as an abnormal, evolutionary quirk. Perhaps, humans are flukes of nature, slowed by our sense of self. Could there be intelligent life that isn't self-aware? What benefit to survival does consciousness actually provide?

Watts also includes concepts of AI, the observer effect, von Neumann machines, Turing machines, game theory, and even vapirism.

All is presented in the context of a society that is a few years away from achieving a single consciousness. The need for bodies is fast in decline - people can upload themselves to "heaven" while their bodies lay in storage, sex in the first person is considered old-fashioned, body modifications include brain treatments and tweaks, and alterations abound that basically turn people into biomachines.

Our narrator, Siri Keeton, underwent a hemispherectomy as a child to treat epileptic seizures. The debilitating surgery took most of his ability to have emotions, but enabled him to become a synthesist - someone who takes vasts amounts of complex information and relays it to others in a coherent way. 

In 2082, the fireflies came. The world was awash in light due to alien probes that surrounded Earth and took a picture of its entire surface. Earth responded by sending Siri and four others (not including their backups, who would remain in stasis unless needed), to follow a signal believed to be coming from a comet. Blindsight begins with the crew waking up five years into their  journey, having gone off course, and severely overslept.

Their ship is Theseus, which is described anthropomorphically and run by an AI captain. It has some kind of user interface that all the crew can interact with called ConSensus that allows them to upload and share information and communicate remotely. Theseus's AI communicates exclusively with Jukka Sarasti, a vampire who has been resurrected from the Pleistocene era, to command the crew. There is also Isaac Szpindel, the biologist and physician, who can hear X-rays and see in shades of ultrasound. Then there is Amanda Bates, whose military background provides expertise relevant to the ship's and crew's physical security. Finally, we have the "gang of four." This is a person who had multiple personalities induced - the primary personality being Susan James, a linguist. Also inhabiting the same body is Michelle (another synthesist), Sascha (I'm not sure of her specific role), and Cruncher, a male who mostly stays in the background, well, crunching data.

The crew can all be considered altered in various ways, so much so, a normal person wouldn't be able to comprehend interactions between them, which might occur in various languages and even without known language, which would seem nonsensical to a layperson. "No real scientist would allow their thoughts to be hamstrung by  conceptual limitations of a single language...It's just that once you get past a certain point, formal speech is too damn slow!" So it is Siri's job to observe and understand everyone's intentions and relay this information back to mission command. 

Theseus travels to Big Ben, a quantum particle as heavy as 10 jupiters. There they encounter Rorshach, a sort of civilization? Factory? Well, they're not so sure, so they attempt to make contact. Unfortunately for them, Rorshach is rife with radiation that means any forays into its environs result in radiation sickness, which can include physical symptoms such as blindness, tumors, and eventually, death, but also psychological symptoms reminiscent of hauntings, loss of self, and possession. Each trip to Rorshach requires the crew to spend time in the ship's medical bay, healing from the effects of their trip. And then they do it all over again.

If you're still with me in this review, it means you're finding these concepts as fascinating as I did. I'd recommend this book to you with one caveat - it's dense and requires your full attention. Save yourself the second read-through and pay attention the first time around. You'll be better for it.

And for some extra fun, check out Watts' website. He has extra content relevant to the book as well as some of his novels available in their entirety. I checked out Blindsight and found there were notes and references that provided fun information like a primer on vampires and the physiology of the aliens encountered. I'm kinda annoyed that wasn't a part of my audiobook. I also found some great art made for various versions of the book, and learned there is a sequel to Blindsight, called Echopraxia, so it was definitely worth a look.

Word by Word by Kory Stamper

 

Who would have thought a book about someone who edits dictionaries would be so delightfully engaging? Even better? I listened to the audio book, narrated by Stamper, and her personality and wit shone through the airwaves. Despite her self-deprecating descriptions of lexicographers as solitary, introverted shut-ins who would rather sit in a dark room alone than talk to another human, being in the room with her for this book was a great reading experience. 

Stamper regaled me with her stories of how she tackled the word, "took." In what might otherwise be painstaking detail, I was in non-ironic awe of Stamper's description of the system of index cards and makeshift piles she created in her cubicle in order to properly sort and define the many meanings and uses of the word - one of the many troublesome short and ubiquitous words in our language.

I reveled in how naive I was about the dictionary, always seeing it as an authority on what was or was not a word and what its *actual* meaning was. But Stamper taught me that words are in circulation, first verbally, then informally in writings like letters and notes, and finally more formally in publication. By the time a word is entered in a dictionary, it has been circulating for some time. And the definition is written by lexicographers who catalog a word's various uses and then try their best to parse out the sometimes myriad ways it is used. If anything, dictionaries are an authority on the common uses of words, recording English's evolution through time. 

I listened with rapt attention as Stamper explained how dictionaries are formatted and should be used. She also talks about the social and political backlash that occurs based on things like changing a definition (like marriage) or not changing a definition (like nude).

And throughout each lesson, she gives tidbits of the etymology of various words that are damn near as interesting as her discussion on the use of swear words in dictionaries. 

Stamper's book will make you think differently about words, and maybe the English language in general. If anyone is an "expert" in the English language, it is all of us, and lexicographers only reflect how words are used by its speakers. This book gives you a lot more confidence to shout out non-words like "irregardless" with wanton disregard for the so-called rules,. You'll feel free of the restraints of the English language and shout to the hills, "damned be the legalists!" You might even be tempted to pick up a dictionary for some light reading.

Whatever thoughts or actions this book inspire in you, you'll be better for it.  

Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo

This is one of those books about what could very well be about normal life. But it's told in such an engaging and intriguing way. Adebayo is able to take the things that we all deal with - longing, loss, infidelity, belief - and show us how extraordinary we all really are. In a lot of ways, Stay With Me is a mirror reflecting our own desires, shortcomings, and struggles.

We learn this by experiencing the lives of Yejide and Akin, who live in Nigeria in the 1980's. Yejide, and her mother-in-law, want nothing more than for Yejide to have a baby. But Yejide and Akin struggle to conceive. What follows is their story through 3 pregnancies (4, if you include a hysterical pregnancy) told against an almost casual backdrop of a government coup, polite extortion, a visit to a healer to conceive, polygymy, sickle-cell disease, and even possibly murder.

But to be clear, the book isn't a murder mystery, or a story of how magic can cause miracles, or a tale of what a polygymous marriage is like. It's about two people who met in college, fell in love, got married, and now want a baby. It's about how tradition competes with modernity. How fatherhood isn't necessarily about biology. It's a cautionary tale, much like the folktales Adebayo deliciously weaves in about how people will do almost anything to get what they want, including ruining their own lives. It's also about how the one thing you think you want, might be the one thing that causes you the most pain.

It's a hearthbreaking, beautifully told narrative that was enhanced by listening to the audiobook, narrated by Adjoa Andoh.

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

So I wasn't a fan of Horrorstor and had no interest in reading more of Hendrix's books, but I couldn't help grabbing How to Sell a Haunted House. I'm not even sure why. Honestly, I think it was just the cover. I mean, maybe we just got off on the wrong foot with Horrorstor and needed a second date to figure out if the chemistry really worked or not.

This may come as a surprise, but this story is about a haunted house. But even worse, it involves puppets and dolls...I think FlimFlamingo's description of "puppet gore" is appropriate. And it doesn't matter if they meant it ironically or not, the effect really is the same, which is to say it's horribly funny. 

What I liked about this book is that it kept me reading and wanting to go back to it when I put it down with the added bonus of ticking a lot of classic haunted house buttons for me. And it had the right amount of campiness - an issue I had with Horrorstor. One of the best chapters involved a funeral with overly zealous puppeteer attendees. And Hendrix knew the genius of this scene, as he reprises the funeral at the end of the book in a fun way that was reminiscent of Michael Rogalski's Horrostor illustrations - one of the best things about that book.

So I'm on the fence about Hendrix, I didn't really care for Horrorstor, but I liked How to Sell a Haunted House. I wonder if the issue is that I didn't quite get Hendrix's humor. Maybe he's an acquired taste...? I guess I'll have to pick up another one by Hendrix to break the tie and decide if we'll keep dating or not.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

This historic drama has all the elements I love about a book - great characters and a compelling story that we follow through several generations of the same family, from Korea to Japan and beyond. In the background of Pachinko is Japan's occupation of Korea and the experience of Koreans in Japan before, during, and after this occupation. 

We begin in the 1880s in Korea. Hoonie is the son of parents who run a boardinghouse for fisherman. Their lives are meager, but stable. Hoonie eventually meets his wife, Yangjin, through a matchmaker and she joins him and his parents at the boardinghouse. Hoonie and Yangjin have a daughter, Sunja who manages the boarding house with her mother after Hoonie's death. Eventually, Sunja's path intersects with two men and she is presented with different choices that will have far-reaching effects on her and her family's future. She marries and immigrates to Osaka with her husband, living with him, and her brother and sister-in-law.

Sunja has two sons, raising them in Japan with her husband and his family. During World War II, the majority of the family is relocated to a farm in the country until they can be reunified again in Osaka. Unable to return to Korea, Sunja's son's aren't able to fully realize their heritage and culture. And as Koreans in Japan, they aren't accepted as Japanese. In fact, they must hide their true lineage in order to avoid the pervasive racism experienced against Koreans. 

The book ends in the 1980's with the stories of Sunja's two sons and one grandson and how, despite following very different paths in their lives, they all end up in in the pachinko business - one embracing it wholeheartedly, another reluctantly, and the third, inevitably.

This book is about a family living their life and how seemingly simple decisions can have life altering affects. But, unlike some books where the circumstances are unique or exceptional, in Pachinko, this family is a picture of probably millions of families across the world, making the seemingly simple decisions people make make every day - should I give this person the time of day? Should I marry this person? Should I try to reconnect with an estranged family member? Should I accept someone's charity? 

In Pachinko, we have the benefit of hindsight to evaluate these decisions and question whether or not they were the right ones. But I suppose we can do that in our lives and the lives of those before us. It's just easier (and let's be honest, more fun) to do with someone else. 

What makes Sunja's family unique for me is their place in Japan, as Koreans. And while they are a seemingly ordinary family, they lived through extraordinary times. But what makes this story the same as my (and everyone else's) own is the family's desire for wholeness. It's a timeless narrative that we all can relate to.

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

This was a quick, fulfilling read and based on it, it makes me want to read Catriona Ward’s other novels. The House on Needless Street is her most recent, published in 2021. It’s one of those books that you're better off going into blind, which kinda makes for a tough review, but I'll do my best. Suffice to say, there's a murder and the story revolves around it. It's a story told from multiple viewpoints, including a cat's. And I have to tell you, when it comes to the cat, I am here for it.

The story centers around Ted Bannerman, a man haunted by his past, his mother, and little green men in the attic. Ted lives with his Cat, Olivia, and their daily monotony is broken up by occasional visits from Ted's daughter, Lauren. There is clearly a dysfunctional dynamic between Ted and Lauren, who have a love/hate relationship with each other. And while I'm not sure dysfunctional is the first word I'd use to describe Ted's relationship with Olivia, the fact that she talks (at least to us) and quotes the Bible isn't normal. And when Lauren isn't visiting and Olivia isn't doting in Ted, there are occasional visits from Ted's deceased mother. 

Ward's tale is a cross between horror, mystery, thriller, and ghost story. Her characters aren't particularly likeable (except maybe the cat), but I found myself wanting to keep reading to figure out what the hell was going on. It's an exploration of how horrors like abuse and murder damage our psyche and invade our mind - how the ghosts of the past continue to haunt and manifest themselves well after the dust settles. At its heart, it's a story of how people deal with pain and trauma, and Ward does it in a captivating way.

Pandemic: Tracking Contagions from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond by Sonia Shah

Now that flu season is in full swing, and our flu shots aren't doing us much good this year, it's a good time to talk about all the disgusting diseases that can kill you. But let's up the stakes and focus on diseases that spread worldwide, we're talking cholera, Ebola, SARS...pandemic level contagions.

Sonia Shah's book, Pandemic, focuses heavily on cholera, tracking its meager beginnings to its reemergence today. Shah believes that by studying cholera, many other world diseases can be understood. But she doesn't just talk about cholera, she uses it as a vehicle to segue into other diseases, explaining what exactly they are, how they spread, and how environmental or cultural factors contribute to this spread.

And it's this last point I found most interesting. She talks about how China's wet markets contributed to the spread of SARS, or how public sanitation, or lack thereof, contributed to cholera's spread.

Among social and economic factors, Shah talks about how a foreclosure crisis in South Florida contributed to an explosion of Dengue fever. The foreclosures allowed mosquitos to breed in abandoned swimming pools and gardens out of sight of mosquito inspectors and homeowners.

I particularly enjoyed her discussion of how the influence of Christianity basically made people dirtier than their ancient counterparts, who had elaborate water systems and rituals. She talked about how Hindus, Muslims, and Jews also have water based hygiene rituals, but Christians, just had to sprinkle a few drops of holy water to be "clean."

"The most holy Christians, with their lice-infested hair-shirts, were among the least washed people on earth."

And the European descendants who came to America had forsaken these ancient rituals, consuming up to 2 teaspoons of fecal matter in their food and drink a day.

via GIPHY

And don't get her started on global warming. We are protected from many fungal pathogens that decimate amphibious populations because of the temperature of our blood, which is too warm for these pathogens to survive. But could a slow warming of the environment allow certain pathogens to soon tolerate the warmth of our blood?

She also had a great example of how the loss of biodiversity in bird species can influence the spread of human pathogens.

While this review from the New York Times suggests Pandemic doesn't offer anything new to the genre, and in fact falls short of relevant disease discussion, I suppose an uninformed person like myself just might find the book compelling.

Dr. Mutters Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz

It's hard to think that there used to be a day when people would willingly go into surgery without anesthesia of any kind...without sterile procedures in place...and without a formally trained doctor. But that's just a taste of what people faced in the 19th century, when Thomas Dent Mutter practiced medicine. And the marvels that form part of his legacy are more than tangible curiosities in a cabinet.

Dr. Mutter was born into a loving family, but he lost both his parents at a young age. He also suffered from a chronic condition his entire life. But despite the setbacks life presented him, Thomas Mutter studied medicine and became a well-respected surgeon. And what I like best about him is the compassion he showed his patients, treating them as people, not mysteries to be solved. He revolutionized the way patients were treated by preparing them physically and mentally for days before surgery, and providing aftercare, rather than sending patients home within hours of experiencing the physical and mental trauma of surgery in the 1800's. His ideas on hygiene, in a time when germ theory was in its infancy, were ahead of their time. He also was one of the first doctors to use anesthetic on his patients, something that wasn't as popular as you might think among the medical community at the time. 

Mutter's contributions to medicine also include the eponymous Mutter flap surgery, a form of skin grafting used to treat the deformities of burn victims, that is still used today. And in the mid 1800's, there were a lot of burn victims, especially women, who wore flammable clothing while cooking over open flames. And such trauma often meant a lifetime of exile and shame for people who were shunned by society for their deformities. 

What's great about this book is that not only is Mutter himself an interesting person, but he lived in a strange and perplexing time. Aptowicz's narrative of 19th century medicine was the stuff of nightmares. This was a time when doctors assisted surgeons by holding the limbs of the patient, so he couldn't move, when society believed the more blood seen on a doctor's frock, the better the doctor, when surgeries were performed on stages with a live audience of medical students, and when patients were cut and bled to cure them of various ailments. 

We've come a loooooong way, and this book was an entertaining way to be reminded of that.

Roots by Alex Haley

Roots is a work of historical fiction written in 1976 by Alex Haley. He begins with the life and eventual capture of his great-great-great-great grandfather Kunta Kinte in Africa. In what follows is a mostly fictional story, except for possibly a few details and Kinte's lineage.

Fiction or not, Roots is an amazing saga of nine generations. The most intriguing part of the book, for me, was the beginning, which focused on Kinte's life. After Kinte was transported to America to be sold as a slave, I understood how he yearned for his village, the sounds of the monkeys in the trees, his simple hut, hunting for food, and being so self-sufficient. When I first started reading about life in his village I thought how horrible it must be to live in such primitive conditions. But by the time Kunta was kidnapped, I saw how beautiful and amazing his life had truly been.

It was also interesting to see how, when Kunta lived as a slave on two American plantations, he despised the American slaves. Their culture was so completely different from his, and they seemed more complacent to him, as he couldn't understand why they didn't all try to escape. In the first of many personal compromises he would make, he married a Christian American slave and struggled with instilling his heritage in his daughter, Kizzy. The fact that slaves were not allowed to read or write (and Kunta could do both, in Arabic), made it even more difficult. In addition, after Kizzy was sold to another plantation, her ties to her father and mother were completely severed. What would Kunta have thought, to know that his grandchildren would grow up to be culturally similar to those American slaves he despised? His dreams of a family, living as Muslims, repeating the traditions he grew into, would never be achieved.

In full disclosure, there is some controversy surrounding the book that might make it unpalatable to some. A few years after its release, Haley was sued by author Harold Courlander and Haley settled, acknowledging that some passages were taken from Courlander's book, The African.

There were also questions raised about how true certain parts of the book actually were, in terms of Haley's purported research into his family's ancestry. 

Controversy aside, this was quite the read, and so worth it. It's heartbreaking, eye-opening, and likely a  different perspective on American history than many of us were offered in school. Highly recommend. 

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

According to wikipedia, Anne Rice is an author of "gothic fiction, christian literature, and erotica."

One of these things is not like the other... 

I know Interview with the Vampire has been around for awhile, after all, I was in high school when Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt played Rice's vampires, much to her dismay. That was more than *gulp* 20 years ago. But crap, the book is 40 years old people!

So if you live under a rock, like me, or you just have yet to dabble in the literary vampire arts, here's a briefing.

The story is told in the present day, with the vampire Louie telling a young reporter about his life over the past 200 years. He begins in New Orleans in the late 1700's when he was made a vampire by Lestat, a sadistic, manic vampire who doesn't seem the type to play well with others. I kinda get the impression vampires, as a class, don't play well with others though. So Louie is really an outlier. He maintains a semblance of compassion and humanity. He struggles with killing people every night and doesn't have a penchant for playing with his food, like Lestat does.

The story is great. We travel from New Orleans to Eastern Europe to Paris. We cross the span of 200 years (although there aren't a lot of historic or social landmarks that highlight the different time periods). But what I really liked was Louis' voice. Like literally. The man who narrated my audiobook did a great job. He kinda sounded like he had an eastern European accent from...well, wherever the Count is from. Yes, I'm talking about Sesame Street again. Anyway, I liked how Rice wrote him too (Louis, not the Count). He struggles with questions of immortality and religion. One of my favorite scenes is when Louis is in a church, looking around at the relics and religious symbols. Disillusioned, he thinks to himself, "I'm the only supernatural creature in this church."

And when he is talking with Armand, one of the Paris vampires, about the purpose of life without God, he says, "And what constitutes evil, real evil, is the taking of a single human life. Whether a man would die tomorrow or the day after or eventually... it doesn't matter. Because if God does not exist, then life... every second of it... Is all we have.”

That struck me. I've heard only the opposite argument, that if there is no God or no cosmic repercussions of any kind for human behavior, then what is the point of morality? Louis argues that it just becomes even more important to make the most of this life. Leave it to a fictional vampire played by Brad Pitt to bring me to an existential epiphany.

Here's another one I liked.

"Consequently, if you believe God made Satan, you must realize that all Satan's power comes from God and so that Satan is simply God's child, and that we are God's children also. There are no children of Satan, really.”

This stems from Louie struggling with whether or not he is good or evil, given his religious background and carnal reality. Whether or not you agree with these things is immaterial. Rice's writing will make you think about why you do or do not believe as you do through Louis. And according to Brad Pitt (who played him) he's a lot better in the book, than the movie. So....

An oldie but goodie. But I'm gonna watch the movie anyway.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

One of my top five! And it's only January!

This book is soooooo good, you guys. It's eye opening and tragic and heartwarming and epic and so many other things.

Yaa Gyasi (last name sounds like "Jesse") is a Stanford graduate, born in Ghana and raised in America. On a visit to Ghana, while researching her book, she saw the Cape Coast Castle. This is one of many forts in Africa used by European traders. It is also the genesis of Gyasi's fictional story, which begins in the late 18th century with two half sisters. Effia's fate leads her to the upper parts of the castle, where traders live and keep their African wives. Essie's fate leads her to the dungeons below, where slaves are held before leaving Africa on ships to the Americas.

The Cape Coast Castle

Gyasi alternates her chapters between the two family lines, advancing generation by generation, until she's covered 8 generations, two continents, and over 200 years. She takes us to villages in Ghana, where a woman's "first blood" dictates when and where she will spend the rest of her life; to the plantations of the American south, where families are split up and sold for labor; to Harlem, New York, where racial tensions permeate daily life. Despite the heavy subject matter, there's something easy about Gyasi's writing that makes the reading palatable and exciting.

Homegoing not only examines slavery and racial identity (both in Ghana and America), it also explores family, intuition, religion, and fate. I loved hearing about the Ghanian views of life events in terms of spirituality, how Gyasi describes a churning body of water as having demons in the depths, waiting to call people to them. Do people drown, or are they summoned by those other worldly entities? Are seemingly random thoughts the result of an arbitrary synapse firing, or is there a more deep seated reason that surpasses space and time that causes us to think about something? A shadow of our past, or even our ancestral past, perhaps? Is a dream just a dream? Or is it our forefathers calling to us, warning us, wishing us home? Do we have full control over our own fate? How much of what we are is the result of pure luck?

One other note, I "read" the audiobook and the narrator, Dominic Hoffman, was wonderful. He could sound African, southern, Californian, male, or female. Although I had trouble understanding a lot of the names (and this might be a book you'll want to flip back and forth with the names and places and times), I really felt the audiobook format enhanced the story.

As this is Gyasi's first novel, I look forward to what she writes next. Highly recommend.

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley

This book is up there with Ready Player One and Lock In in terms of future and technology themes. It's also similar to Mission Impossible and X-Men, among others.

Basically, Myfanwy (rhymes with Tiffany), wakes up with no memory. Oh, and there's dead people all around. But she finds clues to her situation in notes left by...herself? Or whoever was in her body before her? Still not clear on that. Myfanwy learns right away she can take the equivalent of the blue pill or the red pill, and, well, you can guess which she chooses.

Turns out she works at a place similar to MI6 but with X-Men employees, or maybe even Miss Peregrine's recruits. Kinda like how the Ministry of Magic and the British Parliament work side by side, but not openly.

You may be wondering by now if there is a single original thought in this book. I'm not trying to denigrate this story by any means. It was interesting and entertaining for sure. O'Malley has a lot of great tongue in cheek moments and he doesn't take his story too seriously. I found the levity refreshing.

Basically, a solid recommend, and there's a sequel coming out that I'll probably check out at some point.

Wreckage by Emily Bleeker

I went into this book thinking it was going to be a lifetime movie throwaway. While Lifetime would probably salivate over this one, I was pleasantly surprised by the story as a whole.

It's a castaway story with a little before, but mostly during and aftermath kind of stuff. We follow two individuals who have endured a harrowing plane crash and Gilligan's Island scenario, and switch between their now and events on the island.

Bleeker did a great job of writing...life. She didn't allow her characters to take the easy way out of things and I believed the emotions and reactions of her characters. What's even more is how she handled their lives afterward. She writes about their struggles and how they deal (or not deal) with them.

But her ending, it was satisfying. I was just touched by the story and was invested in it the entire time. There really isn't much more to say about it. A great book.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Here's a bit of 80's pop culture/classic gamer porn for those of you who are into that kind of thing. It's a bit over the top complicated but fun nonetheless.

The year is 2044 and the internet has evolved into the OASIS. This is basically where everyone goes when they go online, and depending on your gear, you'll wear wear haptic gloves, a head visor, and maybe even a haptic suit. While the OASIS was originally created as a gaming environment, it evolved into meeting places (or planets) for any interest you may have. Kids can even attend school on the OASIS from the comfort (or discomfort as it may be) of their homes (for reasons not really explored, the world sucks and people live in mobile homes stacked dozens high in basically lawless societies). 

The story is told from the perspective of Wade Watts, a high schooler who pretty much lives in the OASIS and goes by the name Parzival. When the creator of the OASIS, (who was born in the 1970's) dies, he leaves his vast fortune to whoever can discover an easter egg he has left behind. Egg hunters, or gunters as they became known, begin their quest, but after years of searching, no one is able to unlock the first of three gates that lead to the egg. Until Parzival makes a breakthrough. 

The creator of the OASIS, James Halliday, was a big 80's fan and so his clues reference pop culture from the 80's. Gunters research Halliday and the 80's, creating grail diaries and training to find the egg, which includes watching movies like Monty Python and the Holy Grail enough times to quote every line from memory, or playing classic games like Adventure so many times it can be beat on one life. The actual tasks that must be performed to obtain keys to gates and clear the gates is a bit convoluted, but the story is entertaining. 

Interestingly, the basic premise of this book is similar to the book I read just before it, Lock In, by John Scalzi, an author who is referenced in Ready Player One. And like Lock In, I found the premise intriguing. Whether you care about videogames or the 80's as much as Wade doesn't matter. You'll become entrentched in the story and world Cline has created.

Also interestingly, according to Wikipedia, the 2016 version of the book is published with fan fiction written by Andy Weir (of The Martian fame). The short story is a prequel and now considered a legitimate part of Ready Player One. You can read it here.

Also also interestingly, (and again according to Wikipedia), Cline himself included an easter egg in the book, the winner being awarded a Deloreon in 2012. That's pretty cool and I think my rating for this book just jumped a bit higher.

The Martian by Andy Weir

This is an old review, and it will probably show. What I remember about this book is really more of what I remember from the move, tbh. One thing I CAN tell you is that I was turned on to this book by my husband who recently got his Kindle and was only reading free or 99 cent books, 'cause he's cheap. Anyway, The Martian was one of them. That's OG, y'all. 'Cause I can tell you right now this book 'aint free no mo.

That also tells you how overdue this review is.

Basically, if you haven't heard, The Martian is about an astronaut who is stranded on Mars and has to science his own survival. We're talking shelter, food, and water, for over a year. So a single guy on a desolate planet for over a year....seems like a snooze fest, I know. But think about this, Weir's book was initially published a chapter at a time for free on his website, then published for kindle due to popular demand for 99 cents, then things...then a movie starring Matt Damon. As my boss likes to say in otherwise routine emails, boom!

So what's the deal? Weir's writing is witty and humorous. Not to mention meticulously researched. Although there is a lot of science and technology involved in the story, Weir, through his character Mark Whatney, brings it down to human level in a funny and understandable way. It's one of those books with a lot of read-out-loud and quotable lines, none of which I can either read out loud or quote right now. But just another reason why you should read this book (now on Kindle for $8.99, suckers).

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

"How can ghosts be in your head?" my four-year-old asked me one day. I had been talking to my husband about this book, and my son overheard me. "Uhhh..." I began. How do you explain something like that to a kid? I tried my best with a preschool explanation of this book's title, all the while realizing that for many people, the topics in this book are not abstract at all, but disturbingly real.

While not a ghost story, this book is frightening. Told from the perspective of Merry Barrett, in her early twenties in the present day, the heart of this tale occurs fifteen years earlier, when Merry is 8. It is at this time that Merry's 14 year-old sister, Marjorie, spirals into darkness. Once Merry's playmate and confidant, Marjorie changes, her behavior turning more and more menacing. Stories Marjorie once made up of friendly animals turn to stories of monsters and death. Normal sisterly playtime is replaced with cryptic notes and nightly visits by Marjorie to Merry's bedroom as she sleeps. Although Merry keeps these things to herself, her parents take notice as well. Merry's mother believes Marjorie is sick and needs the help of medical and psychological doctors. Merry's father, however, seeks spiritual guidance.

What seems like any family, yours or mine, suddenly seems like any family you'd rather not be. Trembley writes the Barretts in such an accessible way, driving home the delicate balance upon which all our lives hang. The contrast between the sweet innocence of young Merry and the shocking devlishness of Marjorie is written so well, you'll find yourself as afraid as poor Merry was of what Marjorie will do next.

The story tilts toward the hyperrealistic side when Tremblay introduces an element that unfortunately is becoming all too familiar, reality TV. In a desperate attempt to save Marjorie, Merry's father teams with a production company to televise the family's life as they prepare to perform an exorcism. Yes. I said exorcism.

If this makes you want to check out, don't let it. It's not clear one way or another if Marjorie has schizophrenia or is in fact possessed. Regardless of the true diagnosis, the fact that both possibilities could present themselves similarly is what's truly terrifying and intriguing about this story.

There are a lot of angles in this book, and it keeps the story dynamic. Whether you relate with Merry as a child or an adult, or with her mother, father, or even Marjorie, you'll be just as eager to see everything unfold as if you were watching the family on reality television yourself (but because it's a book, it's even better!).

Definitely a solid recommend, I couldn't put it down.

And I hope that's a better explanation of the book than I gave my son.