Hmmm, we’re a week into October and I haven’t done anything about my reading recap for last month. Some days it’s just not possible to accomplish anything.
Let me start with two titles I did not finish. The first was Paul Tremblay’s The Cabin at the End of the World, which I picked up because I had been encountering a lot of talk about it. I was warned that it was disturbing, but I underestimated my ability to deal with how disturbing it actually was. I’m not sure I’ll ever be willing to go back to it, but you never know.
The second was Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. I honestly can’t tell you exactly where or why I lost interest. Patchett’s prose is lovely, and the developing story looked to be interesting enough. But one day I just closed the book and moved on. Again, I don’t know that I won’t ever go back to it, but right now it doesn’t seem likely.
Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr – This was the first book I finished last month, and in all honesty, I think it was my favorite. In part, I suppose, that had to do with the fact that I spent a lot of time watching The Sandman on Netflix, and found myself deeply involved in questions about the power of stories, and why we need them. Cloud Cuckoo Land is a book about stories, one in particular, the threads of which inform all the story arcs within the novel. One story, five arcs each revolving around a single character who is somehow tied to an ancient manuscript. Each one of them leads a wholly different life from each of the others, but the ancient tale is meaningful to all of their lives. It’s an extraordinary book about how we need our stories, we need to hear them and we need to tell them to truly understand who we are.
Sandman deluxe edition Vol 1, by Neil Gaiman– Once I started watching the series on Netflix I wanted to go back and reacquaint myself with the graphic novel it was based on. And then I watched the series again and reread this volume, all of which gave me new things to think about so I’m going to re-review it this month.
As with Cloud Cuckoo Land, Sandman is about the power of stories as well. There’s a reason why Morpheus is also known as the Prince of Stories. The Endless (Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delirium who was Delight) are siblings who serve humanity via their roles, but all of them except for Dream are stark realities of life. Only Dream can really expand on the meaning of that life through the dreams he fashions from the sleeping minds of humans. He’s the one who gives a greater meaning to all the others, the one who helps us understand and assimilate the others.
This first volume contains the whole of the first season of the show, and if you’re a fan of the latter, I really recommend you read it. Though I will say that much of it is harsh, some of it is dated, and ultimately I think the series does a better job of explaining the mythos of the Endless than the books do. Not a surprise, really. When an author has a chance to revisit their work after several decades, of course things are going to change. Any decent author has spent those decades thinking “If I could do it over again, I’d change _____.”
Earthseed: Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler – I picked this up on the strength of my enjoyment of the Lilith’s Brood trilogy from last month. And while I enjoyed it, it felt weirdly over-familiar to me, as if it was setting up the Lilith stories from the other side, with humans as the space-faring race. I didn’t find the characters as interesting as in the Lilith books, or the plot quite as involving. The net result was that I haven’t bothered to look at the sequel. I suspect this is partly due to the fact that Butler never finished this series. If I can’t really know where she was going with this, I’m not sure I need to travel along any farther.
Berlin: Life and Death in the City at the Center of the World, by Sinclair McKay – As a long-time student of the era between about 1850-1950, I have read a good deal about Germany during the first and second World Wars, albeit most of it from a political/military standpoint. McKay focuses on one city, Berlin, and the people who lived there between the wars, during WWII, and just after it ended, and the city was divided. It’s highly informative, as I would have expected, but oddly moving because it’s so human.
There’s no attempt to excuse the German people for their part in the war, and the Holocaust, but there is a deeper understanding about the lives of ordinary people caught up in a situation, for whatever reason, they never saw coming. And honestly, who hasn’t succumbed to the desire to hide their head in the sand sometimes and pretend the bad things aren’t happening?
Whatever else you can say about the citizens of Berlin, you will find how dearly they paid for Hitler’s insane aggression. Wonderful book for anyone who wants a deeper dive into the history of the city.
Easy Chicago Cookbook, Book Sumo Press – Excuse me a moment, I’m going to go scream.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Okay I’m back. But that should give you some idea of my response to this cookbook that has absolutely nothing at all to do with cooking in Chicago. Nothing. You simply cannot append the name of a Chicago suburb to some mundane recipe and have it be an accurate reflection of how people eat here.
They don’t get anything right, not even the cut of meat used for our Italian beef. The damn sandwiches don’t even look right! I don’t know who did the homework on this (if anyone actually did) but they need to be fired. This book is absolute crap. I got it free. I’m not sure it was even worth the download time.
The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – I had to read this book in HS and hated it. It struck me as the worst sort of child-worshipping BS. You know what I’m talking about, right? Oh children are so pure, why can’t we all be like them? But I thought I might try again. Maybe I was wrong all those years ago.
I wasn’t. The prince himself is still tiresome. So is the aviator. So are all the creatures they encounter. I’m sorry Miss Karsh (Senior year English teacher) but you were wrong. This isn’t charming, it’s pretentious as fuck.
So I hope to read more in October. I just started Siren and I’m really liking it so far. But I’m also doing more writing so the reading is taking a back seat right now. I’ll be back in November to yammer some more about books.
Tales from Crazy House 