IN WHICH The Girl Lists Things

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. I'm double parking on this one. The list I really want to do - top ten books I've read so far in 2015 - is actually from a couple weeks ago. I'll throw in today's question - last ten books to come into my possession - as well.

Best Books of 2015 Part I

My Goodreads goal for 2015 has jumped up to 150, and I'm nearly halfway through (just one book off). Even though I've read 74 books this year, I still get stressed when Goodreads tells me I'm 5 books behind schedule. Stop pressuring me! Here are my favorites in the first half of the year. I had an incredibly hard time narrowing it down and can hear the runners-up yelling, "Why didn't you choose me???" in my head.

The Literary

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. This book will creep into your mind and never let go (see what I did there?). It's like watching a car crash; you just can't look away. I think my eyes were wide open in fascinated horror throughout the whole book, which I read in almost one sitting. The less you know about the book going in, the better, so I won't give anything away. My favorite so far.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. As one of the bestselling books in the last couple years, this one isn't much of a surprise. However, critics and regular old readers have hotly debated its merit. I really enjoyed it. Many people have called it Dickensian for good reason. It's a sprawling coming-of-age tale that despite its length (all 800 pages) actually left me wishing I had more details about the missing moments of Theo's life. And boy does it have some entertaining minor characters with great names: Pippa, Welty, Toddy, Hobie, and Boris.

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood. I have mixed feelings about Atwood's work, but I liked this little book a lot. We all know Penelope faithfully waiting for Odysseus, but she's got her own tale here that she is more than willing to provide from beyond the grave. It's a weird combination of styles, everything from memoir to chorus song to play, and deeply feminist. But Atwood's got a biting wit here that pulls me in.

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. I read this once before, but it was over ten years ago, and all I remembered was that putting salt on your food while at a dinner party deeply insults the host. Tan provides multiple perspectives on the mother-daughter relationship with all of its expectations, misinterpretations, and twisted acts of love. I found it best to read each story separately because it's a little like getting punched in the heart. Sometimes the losses each of these women experience are so subtly mentioned that they are all the more heartbreaking. Tan just has a beautiful way with words.

The Fantastical Adult

The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey. What if you were a monster and didn't know it? The Girl with All the Gifts is a new take on a old genre. It's not a genre I usually enjoy, but I found the character portrayal and the moral complexity interesting. I actually found myself losing a bit of interest once the book moves on to more action and less introspection. The book works better if you don't know the topic (though I think most people already do), so I'll just stop here.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik. Once upon a time, a little girl went into the forest and never came back. A common tale but I've rarely read a story with a forest as terrifying and alive as this one. The villagers must sacrifice one girl every ten years to the "dragon," or wizard, who protects the residents from the Wood. But the Dragon doesn't pick the expected girl, and the world starts falling apart. The complex relationships between the characters makes this fantasy stand out from all the others.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Man, I just want to live inside the world of this book. It's just so magically magical. In the book, two magicians start a contest between their young protegees. As the contestants age, their entire lives, and the lives of everyone in the Night Circus, revolve around this duel they know little about. Inevitably, the competitors fall in love and must find a way to break free. Morgenstern's language is incredibly visual, and I can easily picture how the circus and all of its inventions would look on screen.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Another unusual spin on a common genre. It follows the lives of several characters before and after a flu takes out all but a handful of the population. Beyond displaying the tragedy of witnessing an apocalypse and the harsh reality of living in its wake, Station Eleven focuses on the creative outlets people need to survive. For example, the two most prominent perspectives are of a Shakespearean actor and a Traveling Symphony. While most dystopian novels involve intense action and drama, Mandel's book is understated and elegant.

Youthful

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black. I must have a thing for scary forests lately. I don't always like Black's novels; they have a grittiness that leaves me checking for dirt on my skin. However, I loved this one. I read it back in January and it still keeps popping up in my head. Again we have villagers living on the edge of a dangerous forest - though this one is set in the modern world. Black plays with the childhood interest in fairy tales. Did you fight imaginary monsters as a child? Did you imagine a prince or princess trapped in a magical forest who would one day awaken and fall in love with you? The Hansel and Gretel-esqe main characters do both these things, but in their case fairies are real and the prince does awaken. But fairies are not always nice and both children have been dreaming of the same prince. Adventures ensue. Also, I like that this book is a standalone, which is rare in the young adult fantasy genre.

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan. You might be able to tell I love the fantasy and science fiction stuff. Unspoken wonders whether being able to read someone's mind is a good thing. Kami never really lost her childhood imaginary friend, but has convinced herself the voice inside her head is not real until the day he shows up as an actual person. Rees Brennan does a remarkable job at showing the complicated inner thoughts of her characters. It also brings up some intriguing questions about how we define our selves as unique from others and where we draw the line on sharing our deepest thoughts. Do you really want your best friends or significant others to know everything inside your head? The rest of the series doesn't quite live up to the first book, but it's an enjoyable read.

I have read so many young adult books this year that I couldn't fit nearly enough of them in here, so here are some honorable mentions: Angelfall, The Raven Boys, Shadow Scale, The Court of Thorns and Roses, Scarlet, and The Girl of Fire and Thorns.

And now for my recently acquired books, I will provide a picture of my latest haul from the used bookstore.

Happy reading all!

IN WHICH The Girl Relives Her Twenties

How much would you give to be 26 again? This question does not count if you are 27. Two shows - on surprising channels - took on this same theme during the spring, producing an interesting look at the ups and downs of reliving the good ol' days.

VH1's Hindsight goes the science fiction route back to the 90s. Becca, about to embark on her second marriage in her early 40s, suddenly travels back in time via a magical elevator to the eve of her first wedding twenty years earlier. Fully aware of her time travel, Becca must navigate the 90s and decide which past wrongs should be righted. This is the ultimate game of "what if?" What if you had quit that job before you learned it went nowhere? What if you had noticed your brother's drug problems earlier? What if you didn't marry the no-good man? We all wonder about different choices we could or should have made in the past, particularly the big life decisions of our twenties, and Becca has the impossible chance to find out the answers. However, while it seems easy to just make a new choice, Becca quickly finds out that knowing the future doesn't mean you can prevent it, and making "better" decisions can have disastrous effects. Becca ultimately just has to struggle through the 90s again, hoping she's doing the right thing like all the rest of us. At least she gets to listen to great music in her twenty-year-old body. 

Younger, on TV Land of all places, has a more realistic, if still somewhat unbelievable, premise. Upon leaving her husband and finding herself financially stricken (said husband gambled all the money away), Liza attempts to find a career after 15 years away raising her daughter. She quickly discovers that she's considered too old and inexperienced to get a book publishing job. Since she looks young and her daughter is studying abroad, the 40-year-old Liza decides to pretend she's 26 and lands a marketing assistant position. In this act, she befriends other twenty-somethings - who introduce her to the crazy hot mess of being young with some spending money - and she even starts dating a hot tattoo artist. However, Liza must learn the intricacies of social media, the lingo, and the norms (shaving trends have changed since she got married). She eventually loses out on some great opportunities only her age and experience could provide because she has to pretend she doesn't understand the perspective of a 40-year-old woman. Liza's adventures let us see how fun, but exhausting and limiting, returning to your twenties could be. 

These are both entertaining shows that feed on the nostalgia many feel for the past, but Younger is the better show. Hindsight provides an awesome time capsule of the 90s - the music, the clothes, the trends - which I love. Plus, it contains a great sidekick in Lolly. Becca, nevertheless, quickly gets annoying in her constantly switching love interests and ideas about how to fix the future. On the other hand, Sutton Foster's portrayal of Liza is utterly delightful. Younger is funny and cute with story lines that evolve steadily and keep the audience invested. It has the same feel as Sex and the City, which makes sense as it has the same producer. I can't wait for the next season in January!

Speaking of awesome shows on unlikely channels, everyone should check out UnREAL on Lifetime. My boss came in this morning explaining how she was so tired because she stayed up until two in the morning binge watching all the current episodes. I did the exact same thing last week. UnREAL is a scripted show about producing a reality series like The Bachelor. It follows the producers as they manipulate the competitors in truly awful ways to make drama. It's addicting as all get out!

IN WHICH The Girl is an American

Hey look, I'm actually getting through my summer reading list. I finished Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah a couple days ago, appropriately leading up to our most American holiday. We are about to embark outside in our red, white, and blue to sing about freedom and celebrate independence. All good things. But Adichie's book is a useful reminder that America the beautiful will pretend our many faults don't exist on this and most other days.

One of the book's characters asks, “Why did people ask "What is it about?" as if a novel had to be about only one thing.” And Americanah certainly pokes at many issues - immigration, race, love, identity, hair. Adichie may even try to take on too many things at once, as the narrative becomes a bit long and cumbersome. However, the novel mainly tells the story of Ifemelu's emigration to America during college and return to Nigeria many years later. Adichie looks at both countries, particularly the United States, with a scathing critical eye. 

As an immigrant, Ifemelu can see and discuss our flaws, particularly race, more clearly than most native born Americans. Race in America both fascinates and repels her, so she starts a blog called Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negroes) by a Non-American Black. The novel and its blog reveal what America looks like to outsiders, and it's not always pretty. One of the biggest conundrums Ifemelu witnesses is how Americans try so hard to appear politically correct and open minded, to the point of claiming race is no longer an issue here.

“The only reason you say that race was not an issue is because you wish it was not. We all wish it was not. But it’s a lie. I came from a country where race was not an issue; I did not think of myself as black and I only became black when I came to America. When you are black in America and you fall in love with a white person, race doesn’t matter when you’re alone together because it’s just you and your love. But the minute you step outside, race matters. But we don’t talk about it. We don’t even tell our white partners the small things that piss us off and the things we wish they understood better, because we’re worried they will say we’re overreacting, or we’re being too sensitive. And we don’t want them to say, Look how far we’ve come, just forty years ago it would have been illegal for us to even be a couple blah blah blah, because you know what we’re thinking when they say that? We’re thinking why the fuck should it ever have been illegal anyway? But we don’t say any of this stuff. We let it pile up inside our heads and when we come to nice liberal dinners like this, we say that race doesn’t matter because that’s what we’re supposed to say, to keep our nice liberal friends comfortable.It's true. I speak from experience."

Despite the harsh truths her characters spout, you can still feel a love for America peeking out from the novel's corners. America becomes one more piece of Ifemelu's identity by the time she moves back home to Nigeria. Sometimes reading Americanah can feel a little more like attending a lecture than reading a novel, but it is an enjoyable lecture. So for this 4th of July, keep your eyes clear and your hearts full - as Coach Taylor would say.

IN WHICH The Girl Beach Reads

Sadly, I'm not actually going to a beach, unless you count the lake shore beach here in Chicago. But whenever I think of summer reading, I think of beach books. Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and the Bookish in which they provide a weekly top ten list topic. This is my first go at the list. This week's topic is Top Ten Books on My Summer TBR List.

I'm always making a plan for what to read, but I get off track very quickly. Maybe making my list public will actually push me to read the books I intended to this summer. Since I know I will probably read 20 young adult fantasy novels, I'm mainly focusing on my other reading goals on this list. Here are ten books I hope to get through before September. 

1. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I have been meaning to read this for a while now as it has excellent reviews. This will be my first novel by Adichie, though I am a big fan of her TED Talk "We Should All Be Feminists." Plus, I finally got it from the library, so I can start reading this one shortly.

2. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Beyond being at the top of the bestseller list right now, this just seems like the perfect summer mystery. I haven't read a good mystery in awhile, so I'm looking forward to deciphering clues.

3. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

I need to lighten the mood after a thriller with some comedy. I recently borrowed this book from a friend, so I suppose I ought to read it soon. It's also set in New Orleans, which I just visited for the first time. 

4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

Since I plan to use this for a class in the fall, I need to actually read the book. You would think we teachers planned a little more ahead than that, but no. We are going to compare the book to its movie version, Blade Runner. As I've been so interested in science fiction lately, it will be good to read one of the genre's classics.

5. A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

Magic! Parallel universes! London! Need I say more? 

6. The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

I don't actually know much about this one other than the incredibly positive reviews it keeps getting from people whose book interests are similar to mine. I also like the black and white of the cover. Yeah yeah they say never judge a book by its cover, but you know we all do.

7. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

Adding one non-fiction for diversity. I rarely read non-fiction, and I need to start making up for the deprivation. Plus, once I read this particular book, I can watch the movie.

8. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

I lied. Here's one more non-fiction book. I try to sneak in books actually related to my job every once in awhile. I hit up my grammar requirement earlier this year with Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. Stephen King's background and prolific career should make for an entertaining read.

9. The Magicians by Lev Grossman

Often called the Harry Potter for adults, I'd like to see what this series is about. Also, Syfy plans to produce a television series based on the books next year.

10. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Let's add one classic. I loved the trailer for the recent movie version but am trying to hold off on seeing the movie until I read the book. Never hurts to knock one off the bucket list of classics as well.

Extra Extra 

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas 

This book doesn't technically get released until September 1st, so I'm not sure I count that as a summer read. However, I'm dying to read this continuation of the Throne of Glass series. I would trade all the other books to get this one sooner.

I need to get reading folks! Happy summer!

IN WHICH The Girl Wants Waffles

Random question of the day: do people actually meet up for breakfast on a weekday? While watching Friends the other day, I noticed how often the characters eat breakfast together. In fact, this group waffle time is quite common on television. Now this might just be my abhorrence of all things morning speaking, but really? These people take the time to move to another location and hang out together before heading to work at a normal time? I don't buy it. However, maybe real people do this regularly, and I just missed the invite. 

Let's address this one point at a time. First point of contention with television portrayals of breakfast: the characters actually eat a full breakfast at a designated place - i.e. not on the go. Yes, yes, I do know that people do this; I've just rarely really seen them. When I was very young, my mom got out the cereal and all that, but from my teenage years on we were each responsible for our own breakfasts. Therefore, mine usually consisted of a yogurt consumed standing while waiting for another family member to grab his coat or in the car on the way to school. These habits followed me into adulthood. As I mentioned, I hate mornings. I'm a night owl at heart and give myself the least amount of time physically needed to get ready in the morning. As a result, I always eat breakfast at work instead of at home. I've noted this habit in a good deal of the people I've lived and worked with as well. So, while possible, I find it unlikely that most people - real or fictional - give themselves enough time to eat a nice sit-down breakfast before work.

The young women of Gossip Girl at least eat fairly realistic breakfast items on the go, such as yogurt and muffins. However, they actually got up in enough time before school to meet before classes started. I remember a couple special occasions where my friends and I went to breakfast before the bell rang in high school, but there was no way I was dragging my butt out of bed early every day, even for social brownie points. Hmm, maybe that was the reason I wasn't part of the in-crowd. 

Point number two: these shows imply that people often get together for breakfast. I see this the most in sitcoms, such as Friends. Granted, I understand that all of the characters on this show live near each other except for Phoebe. It's not like they have to travel across the city. However, this still seems unlikely. I've lived in a Friends situation before where I lived with one friend, another lived on the floor below me, and another lived right across the street. We were pretty cool if I say so myself! Nevertheless, we never once got together for breakfast on a weekday. I don't think it was ever even suggested. On that matter, I've never eaten a weekday breakfast at home with a roommate. Everyone is in a hurry and on a different schedule in the mornings. Now, weekends are a different matter. I do love to brunch.

Last point: if the characters aren't cooks themselves, they venture out to get a full breakfast instead of grabbing something ready-made like yogurt. The women of Gilmore Girls go to Luke's diner almost every morning before school/work. For one, this takes even more time than eating at home due to transport, even if it's just a couple blocks away. Plus, you have to be completely ready before you leave.  It also cannot be good for you to eat all the yummy breakfast foods - eggs, bacon, waffles, pancakes - on a daily basis. I know I'm getting old when I really worry about the food a television mom gives her daughter. Almost all the meals Lorelai and Rory eat are bad for you. Lastly, isn't this an expensive habit?

If you are rich enough, however, you can get a cook to make you a nice fancy breakfast at home. Oh the beautiful lives of the Upper East Side. I must be craving a Gossip Girl binge. 

I know not every television show provides such idyllic morning gatherings, and some people probably do have a similar daily ritual to the Friends clan. But how common is the breakfast meet up? You tell me.

IN WHICH The Girl Buys a Pronoun

"How may I pronoun you?"

Apparently, I'm fixated on gender recently. I read Rachel Hartman's Shadow Scale, the sequel to Seraphina, last week. While I enjoyed the story overall, the one part I can't out of my head is the treatment of gender pronouns by one of the book's nations. Who wouldn't obsess over an interesting grammatical innovation?

Gender identity has gotten a lot of attention lately as people start to talk more openly about what gender actually means. Many people today accept gender as something defined by society and tradition rather than sex. Our ideas about gender roles have changed, at least slightly, over time, and are likely to continue changing. As we come to see gender as malleable, we can also see why people may identify themselves as a gender different from their biological sex or somewhere on the spectrum between sexes.

This understanding and acknowledgement of varying gender identities is starting to be seen in colleges. It is not out of the ordinary for a student to request a different name and/or pronoun from what is on the roster sheet at the beginning of a semester. Many schools are introducing gender-neutral bathrooms, and campus groups have made more effort to bring awareness to the faculty and students. In the orientation at the beginning of this semester, one such group came and talked to the faculty about gender identity. One suggestion they provided was to ask each student what name and pronoun he or she would like to go by on that first day. This is why I was so struck by a country whose customs require you to ask each person you meet which pronoun he or she prefers:

"You use cosmic neuter for a stranger, Abdo insisted. And he's a stranger until you've asked, 'How may I pronoun you?'"

However, the issue in America is not just a lack of understanding and acceptance of different gender identities, but a lack of pronouns. The English language doesn't accommodate unknown or indeterminate gender. We have he for males and she for females, but no gender neutral pronoun for people. No cosmic neuter like in Porphyrian. We often deal with this in two ways; we use it, which is inappropriate - and insulting - for humans, or we use they, which refers to more than one person. We can use he or she, like I did earlier, but that is just bulky. Our language encourages gender to fit into distinctly masculine or feminine boxes and excludes everything else.

The Porphyrian language in Shadow Scale addresses this issue by having a variety of gender options:

"Sounthlanders can't speak it, said Abdo sleepily. Too hard for your flimsy foreign minds. There are six genders and seven cases. . . naive masculine, naive feminine, emergent masculine, emergent feminine, cosmic neuter, point neuter."

Vocabulary adapts to the modern world constantly. For example, words like hot mess and selfie have been added to the dictionary. Nevertheless, it is very hard to change the more basic structures of the English language, such as pronouns. I feel like if people can accept that literally often means that something is not actually true, they can eventually adapt to a new pronoun or two. It will be interesting to see how English does or does not adapt in respect to gender over the next decade or so.

In Shadow Scale, we also get to see a character who has changed her gender identity and, therefore, her pronoun choice as well. Seraphina, the main character, encounters Camba for the second time without recognizing her because she had appeared masculine earlier:

"I racked my brains for the Porphyrian verb Abdo had taught me, a polite inquiry that didn't even exist in the Southlands. 'How may I pronoun you?' I hazarded. Camba smiled warmly and inclinded her stately head. 'I pronoun myself emergent feminine,' she said in Porphyrian, then added in my native tongue, 'Or I do now, at last. On my Day of Determination, I declared myself naive masculine. I was already ityasaari; it embarrassed me to be even more complicated than that.'"

Interestingly enough, Hartman also implies that this culture allows people to pick their gender on a celebration day, Day of Determination. However, we can see that in any culture it is difficult to be different from the expected.

The pronoun question is just one intriguing and progressive aspect of Hartman's Seraphina series. Plus, it's about dragons. Go read it!

IN WHICH The Girl Totes a Book

For those looking to buy me a birthday present (in three months), I have a suggestion: a tote bag with the text of an entire book on it! It will warm my nerdy heart.

As I was wandering about online today, I saw an ad for Litographs with the line "Best Gift for Booklovers" underneath it, and clearly had to click on the link. Look, spam does work. The products are pretty cute, and clearly cater to the teachers and librarians of the world, i.e. me.

Most everything they sell has the text of a classic novel on it arranged into a nice pattern. I particularly like the tote bags. There are my obvious favorites, like Pride and Prejudice and The Great Gatsby, but there are lots of other cool ones as well. How does one even choose? So again... gifts... hint hint.

Etsy always has a plethora of kitschy items like these as well. I can get lost on there for hours. Luckily, I'm usually too poor to buy anything. I do try to control the crazy cat-lady side of myself as often as possibly (plus I hate cats).