Reviews of favorite books

Nonfiction: If Nietzche Were a Narwhal

9/25/2022

If Nietzche Were a Narwhal by Justin Gregg playfully asks if the tortured philosopher Nietzsche was too smart for his own good--and makes the case that Nietzsche likely would’ve been happier as a narwhal.
Read this book if you’re willing to see your place on the planet in an entirely new way.
I learned that many human traits are common to other animal species according to newer scientific research, including problem solving, awareness of death, emotions, social bonds, and language (about a small set of subjects among animals and including abstract concepts among humans).

From the book:

“Intelligence is not a biological fact. This idea of human intellectual or behavioral exceptionalism has no basis in science.”
“For humans, brain size is completely uncoupled from cognitive capacity. [And] brain size can’t tell us anything about intelligence in animals, either.”
“The illusion of intellectual superiority over your cat . . . is just that: an illusion.”
“[There’s] a mountain of evidence showing that not only is homosexuality not unique to humans, but it’s rather the norm for most animal species.”
“Human moral reasoning may be a bug and not a feature--an evolutionary spandrel that cropped up as our unique cognitive skills blossomed, but not itself a trait that natural selection selected for.”

Lest we think religion and law give us a moral edge:
“The history of our species is the story of the moral justification of violent acts resulting in the pain, suffering, and deaths for billions of our fellow humans who fall into the category of ‘other.’ “
“In contrast, most animal norms exist to maintain a social equilibrium that minimizes the need for pain, suffering, and death.”

The most impactful part of this book for me was understanding why, knowing we’re on a collision course with an ecological disaster, we can’t seem to stop our wanton burning of fossil fuels:

“Like all animals, our biology compels us to deal with the here and now, but unlike other animals, our decisions can generate technologies that will have harmful impacts on the world for generations to come [carbon emissions, nuclear power, etc.]”
“[Our] capacity to understand the future and even envision ourselves in it is competing with decision-making systems . . . heavily influenced by our problems in the here and now.”
“Our many intellectual accomplishments are currently on track to produce our own extinction, which is exactly how evolution gets rid of adaptations that suck. It is the greatest of paradoxes that we should have an exceptional mind that seems hell-bent on destroying itself.”
“Consider that a child born today is five times more likely to die in a global extinction event than in a car crash.”

Sobering facts delivered in an entertaining tone. Highly recommended reading for all humans.

Nonfiction (mostly): Every Father's Daughter

9/23/2022

I got Every Father’s Daughter from the library to read the essay by Jane Friedman, whose blog and online classes have been invaluable to me. Because I’m me, I started reading from the beginning.

In the foreword, Margaret McMullan tells the story of her own father and her quest for “a collection of intensely personal essays, written by great women writers telling me about their fathers and how they came to know their fathers” after her father’s death.

Some of the essays fulfill that mandate, but others were pulled from longer memoirs or novels. I got the impression those were included because the authors were “names” in the literary world. Two of the writers described their famous author fathers, one of whom wrote the introduction to the book, which gave the collection a cliquish feel--although the stronger essays made the book worth reading.

Barbara Shoup noted: “Life, like a good story, sets its own course. In time the ‘what ifs’ of your childhood fall away, the bits and pieces that brought you to the beginning of your adult life, combust, and begin moving you toward an ending you can’t imagine, but becomes clearer, inevitable, the farther you go.”

Johanna Gohmann, whose father developed Alzheimer’s said: “Losing someone this way--this subtle losing, piece by piece--is its own unique kind of sadness.” And: “His life stretches behind him full of heartbreaks and triumphs and mysteries that I will never really grasp. And through him I learn that understanding people and loving them sometimes have very little to do with one another.”

Lily Lopate attributed this to her writer father: “If you’re willing to roll up your sleeves and put in the time you can make words do anything you want them to.” He urged her to “write honestly, lean towards discomfort, attempt to delve into unresolved tangled territory and engage with humor.”

Jane Friedman’s father, “taught me to be true to myself, and to live life on my own terms . ..

My father died in December, 2015. I thought I’d thoroughly processed my tangled grief. I was surprised when I was up all night after reading the first few essays in this book, transcribing a poem about my relationship with my dad that took hold of me and didn't let go until I’d wrestled the whole thing into the writing notebook at my bedside.

This book was personally valuable to me (for the poem born of reading it, currently out on submission), but isn’t the book it could have been, due to the uneven tone and insular quality of the selections. I found many of the personal essays poignant; the other selections were less resonant for me.

Fiction Review: The Best of World SF

9/17/2022

The Best of World SF, edited by Lavie Tidhar is an anthology of twenty-six science fiction and absurdist fantasy stories.
Science fiction and fantasy published in the US is dominated by North American writers. I got this anthology of writers from around the world to expand my reading experience.
I loved some of the stories, found others mildly amusing, and a few were definitely not my style.

The collection begins with Immersion by French writer Aliette de Bodard. I struggled initially to follow the dual point of view, but once I understood the story world, I enjoyed the way the two narrative strands overlapped and collided. The poignant ending is a powerful indictment of the human desire to fit ourselves to outside norms.
Fandom for Robots by Vina Jie-Min Prasad of Singapore follows a sentient robot exploring fanfiction for a fictitious Japanese anime series. It’s a delightful commentary on online identity.
Chinelo Onwualu from Niger contributed What the Dead Man Said, a story about family secrets and forgiveness set in a far future where cities compete for the remaining humans.
Xingzhou by Ng Yi-Sheng of Singapore is a comical fairy tale of four grandparents: a Chinese rickshaw coolie (grandfather), a demon from India (grandmother), a hive intelligence (grandzyther), and a white fungus (grandniether), and how they transformed Xingzhou, the continent of stars.
Tade Thompson of the UK contributed Bootblack, the tale of an uneducated, epilectic Black shoeshine boy in the early 1900s who witnesses the arrival of a time-traveler from the future, as told through his statements to the police.
The Green by Lauren Beukes of South Africa tells the story of a “harvest operator” on an alien planet hostile to humans, serving a military-industrial complex intent on exploiting the planet. The alien biology is equal parts fascinating and horrifying.

At $32, this isn’t a book I love enough to buy, but it is one I’m glad I read.

Writing Craft: The Forest for the Trees by Betsy Lerner

8/23/2022

This is not a book about writing craft per se, but it's full of treasures for writers.
Written by editor-turned-literary agent Betsy Lerner, The Forest for the Trees, is full of insights about human nature relating to writers and the writing process.

Examples:

"Writing demands that you keep at bay the demons insisting that you are not worthy or that your ideas are ridiculous or that your command of the language is insufficient."
"The serious writer understands that her craft may take years to develop."
"Rejection is a fact of writing life."
"I see publishing more like a game of odds in which you increase your chances of acceptance simply by doing more than the next guy. It [isn't] about being at the right place at the right time but about being in a lot of places at a lot of times, showing up even when the odds seemed lousy."
"Write the book you want to read. Write the book that takes everything you’ve got."

The second half of The Forest for the Trees is an insider’s look at the publication process. She takes the reader through the editing, book production, and marketing process.
Her tips:

"Most of us [in the publishing industry] are in awe of a brilliant manuscript and will do everything in our power to see that it reaches readers."
"The best editors call attention to those parts of a book that have been bothering the writer, if only on an unconscious level."
"Treat your publicist like gold."
"Word of mouth is still the most powerful way to sell books."

Written in an accessible style, Forest for the Trees is full of realistic encouragement for up-and-coming writers. Highly recommended for writers preparing to submit for publication.

Fiction Review: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

8/21/2022

Silvia Moreno-Garcia does a lot of things exactly right in her NYT bestseller, Mexican Gothic.

The author plays with the tropes of Gothic Fiction (think Jane Eyre or Rebecca):
a determined heroine and a brooding house full of family secrets.
This isn’t a genre I tend to read, but Mexican Gothic kept coming across my radar, so I checked it from my local library--and I’m glad I did.
The main character, Noemi, is a flighty socialite sent to the hinterlands to rescue her newly married cousin who may be having a psychotic breakdown.
The musty, mist-enclosed house, High Place, is by turns forlorn and malevolent.
Similarly, the handsome elder son Virgil, her cousin’s husband, is equal parts threatening and enticing. Only Francis, the youngest son, seems to be an ally.

One technique Moreno-Garcia employs especially well is having the heroine insist on a logical explanation for the unusual events she experiences--which invites the reader to embrace the paranormal elements of the story. As the plot unfolds, we become concerned for Neomi long before she awakens to the danger.
Although I wasn't surprised by the cause of Neomi’s nightmares revealed at the end, I was still fully engaged in the narrative and the fate of the characters. The house’s fate felt a bit contrived, but the final paragraph anchored Neomi’s growth as a character, and provided a pitch-perfect resolution to the tale.
Mexican Gothic is a thoroughly satisfying reading experience.

Nonfiction: Sounds Wild & Broken by David George Haskell

8/20/2022

I loved David George Haskell’s The Forest Unseen so much I bought it. His second book, The Songs of Trees, was an interesting exploration of different biomes through key tree species--but the self-conscious language made it less enjoyable for me than his first work. His third book,
Sounds Wild and Broken, is filled with fascinating factoids about our natural world.
Examples:

Reptiles lack the complex musculature for sucking (which means I’ll have to significantly rewrite a short story based on alien reptiles)
Insects hear through vibratory organs on the surface of their exoskeletons and in the joints of their legs and communicate by stomping on vegetation or the ground, and often drum duets.
Mice and rats communicate in a range we consider “ultrasonic,” above the 20,000 sound waves per second (Hz) humans can hear, but well within the 80,000 Hz range of cats.
Elephants speak in rumbles pitched below the range of human hearing (“infrasonic”) that carry long distances through the ground--and hear them using dense patches of sensory cells in their feet that transmit the sound through their skeleton to their ears.
Fish hear through jelly-filled ciliated cells and watery canals spread all over their bodies just beneath their skin and with inner ears similar to our own.
Experiments with animals such as the European starling reveal their languages are as unique as those of humans.

The conclusion traces the vestiges of sound waves present in our universe in the form of regular spacing between galaxies and symmetrical ripples in cosmic microwave background radiation: An example of science catching up to ancient creation myths of the universe beginning with divine singing!

Unfortunately, Songs Wild and Broken is overly repetitive and I skimmed at least half. At 40% longer than The Forest Unseen, this book would have been more powerful and impactful had it been distilled to a concise narrative about half its current length.

Worth a read, especially for linguists, musicians, or science nerds, but try your local library before purchase.

Fiction Review: Even Greater Mistakes by Charlie Jane Anders

8/15/2022

The introduction to this collection of short stories, Even Greater Mistakes, has encouraging words for would-be authors. Anders says: “In my first decade of writing short fiction, I racked up over six hundred rejections and published ninety-three stories, mostly in small markets that no longer exist.”
She introduces each story with background details of her narrative intention and creative process, giving extra resonance to the tales themselves.
These were most successful stories for me:

The Time Travel Club (since planets move in their orbits, moving through time might land you in empty space--or within a solid object: fabulous premise)
Six Months, Three Days (the hellish choices faced by two people who can see into the future)
Love Might be Too Strong a Word (fascinating exploration of romance and sexuality on a generation ship where humans have six distinct genders: my favorite overall)
Ghost Champaigne (about a woman haunted by the ghost of her future)
Power Couple (heartbreaking story about a couple using cryogenic suspension to cheat time--sort of)
A Temporary Embarrassment in Spacetime (my favorite of her zany stories)

There is much to enjoy and treasure in this collection, though it is uneven in tone and style: veering from literary to space opera, painfully poignant to silly--but the stories have so much heart, it's hard not to love them all. I checked this book out from my local library and will definitely explore more of Ms Anders’s work.

Nonfiction: The Broken Heart of America by Walter Johnson

8/4/2022

A must read for anyone with ties to St. Louis and everyone who yearns for a brighter future.

I got The Broken Heart of America from my local library as background on St. Louis history for an essay I'm contributing to a St. Louis Writers Guild anthology. Wow. I had no idea how many “whitewashed” myths about my city were untrue.

The 1904 World’s Fair, often considered the highmark of St. Louis history, was a segregated affair that banned ragtime music from the grounds and staged the “largest human zoo in world history.” St. Louis was a staging post for Indian removal and imperial expansion throughout the 1800s, and this shameful legacy was celebrated at the fair by displaying fifty-one of the First Nations of North America, among other “primitive” peoples.

The iconic Gateway Arch was built on land first taken from the Osage Nation, then from thriving Black businesses in 1939, when city leaders bulldozed 40 blocks of the riverfront. Thirty years later, two protestors scaled the Arch in 1964 while it was under construction, objecting to the complete exclusion of Black workers from construction crews.

Written by a Harvard University professor, this book is filled with hard-hitting facts painting a legacy of racist bigotry--but also ordinary citizens joining together to create a more inclusive and equitable city.

The book's epilogue reminds me of a line from the Desiderata: “With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.”

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell

7/19/2022

Cultish explores the language charismatic leaders use to exploit people’s fundamental needs for community and meaning.

The author notes: “Human beings are really bad at loneliness. We’re not built for it.” Hence the attraction to people and groups offering us a way to belong.

Cultish language lures members with “love-bombing,” words that make us feel appreciated and special. There may be acronyms and “insider” terms that make members feel like they have all the answers and everyone else is foolish and inferior.

Cult leaders typically dismiss doubts as “limiting beliefs” and use thought-terminating cliches that make it difficult to question or disagree with them, things like:

“Everything happens for a reason” and “It’s all God’s plan” (so don't feel disappointed or angry)
“Boys will be boys” (and cannot be held accountable for inappropriate or hurtful behavior).

The sunk-cost fallacy plays a part in an inability to escape cults: having invested this much time, money, and energy, leaving now would mean failure and defeat--and psychologically, we prefer hope to loss.
People stay in cults for the same reasons people stay in jobs they hate or relationships they’ve outgrown:

fear of retribution or punishment
lack of outside support
fear of landing somewhere worse
the hope that if you just stick it out a little longer things might improve

Cultish explores direct-sales or multi-level marketing schemes that pressure members to sell to and recruit friends and family. Many of these companies operate like a pyramid: to make any real money, you have to recruit more and more people under you. The problem is, since networks of family and friends usually overlap, the market quickly gets saturated.
Also, according to basic math, if you recruit 10 people each month and they each recruit 10 people every month…in a year, you’d have a trillion people working under you, which is 142 times the entire human population of the planet! That’s some real money!
Cultish language and strong group dynamics can also be beneficial, such as 12-step groups helping addicts recover and fitness gurus encouraging members to exercise or adapt other healthy habits.
The book was a fascinating exploration of cults and cultish language, written in an entertaining and insightful style. Recommended.

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

7/14/2022

If you’re looking for a fun summer read, Light from Uncommon Stars is an engaging romantic science fiction/fantasy. I enjoyed this book, despite the fact that I’m not generally fond of urban fantasy or stories with demons.

The story follows a runaway trans violinist, Katrina, who escapes her abusive home and supports herself selling sex, and a violin teacher, Shizuka, who sold her soul for music and must condemn a student to redeem herself from damnation. The blossoming student-teacher relationship between these two forms the heart of the novel.

The book has many subplots and other point-of-view characters, which weren’t as effective for me as the dynamic between Katrina and Shizuka. Although I appreciated the idea of romance between Shizuka and Lan Tran at a donut shop, I felt distanced from their relationship. The donut shop subplot functioned as a deus in machina plot device, had a very different tone from the main story, and muddied the primary narrative for me. I wasn't as engaged with those characters as I was with Katrina and Shizuka.

There are a lot of technical references to violins and food that work in the context of the novel. By the end of the novel, I wanted to go to an Asian restaurant and order everything on the menu and take violin lessons!

Katrina’s characterization is the main strength of the novel. She felt like a real person, and I rooted for her throughout the story. I loved Shizuka for embracing Katrina as a musician, and standing up for Katrina when others misgendered or dismissed her.

Shizuka is clearly torn between her affection for Katrina and her need to condemn Katrina to save her own soul. Watching Shizuka struggle with this impossible choice, and seeing Katrina blossom as a musician and as a young woman, were compelling and made the last 25% of the book impossible to put down.

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