Celebrating Seven Months: A Rather Lengthy Wrapup
Dear Readers,
How are we halfway through the year already! And believe it or not, this blog is almost 7 months old! If you've read my ramblings and rants this far, I cannot thank you enough. I would write about books even if I was the last person on the planet, but it's great to know I'm not alone in this endeavour.
This set of books was pretty good, and even the worst thing I (re)read gave me some more clarity into my own life. As usual, this isn't a complete list of everything that I've read. If you want to see all that I've been reading, you can find me on Storygraph @readdwarfreviews. Still working on getting a guestbook in and maybe setting up RSS feed or email subscriptions to this blog, but the latter two are not my biggest priority. Until I get the guestbook working, you can email me at reddwarfreviews@gmail.com. Without further ado, here is some of what I've read from the end of May to the end of June.
Jelly, Baby: Essays on Disability and Vulnerability by Therese Estacion - This is a really slim volume that looks at the author's own relationship to her disabilities. Disabled folks have been fighting against narratives that our disabilities make us wretched and pitiful, and there have been great strides in growing community pride. However, that type of pride doesn't come naturally to a person - it has to be carefully tended to and cultivated. Estacion's essay "My Prosthetic Legs" is one of the standouts from the collection for me. In it, she navigates her relationship to an early pair of prosthetics, and it isn't an amicable one. There is rage and frustration, and a sense that her legs are a burden. It's not an easy journey to love her legs, and by the time she does get to that point, she's outgrown that pair. I am not an amputee, but I am disabled. I keenly felt her rage as though it were my own at times having gone through some rough times with my own body in the past year. If you are not already, you will become disabled someday. It is not an if, but a when - if you are blessed with a long enough life, disability will become an inextricable part of it. It will change how you interact with yourself and the world around you. What was once familiar and easy becomes an uncertain terrain to navigate, but you aren't navigating it alone. In the process of becoming proud of your bodymind, cultivating that pride isn't enough. It requires an active uprooting of ableist narratives that hound us, and listening to disabled people in their own words can help start that process.
Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings - With the full force of fascism being felt around the world, it's no surprise that we are seeing the return (it never truly left) of heroin chic and explicitly anti-fat politics. This should be required reading for everyone to understand the link between anti-fatness and anti-Blackness. Strings argument is simple - she argues that the push towards anti-fatness was rooted in a disgust and degradation of Black women and a project to keep white women in line. The first part is a retrospective on fatness and how it was perceived in Europe. Part two traces the rise of eugenics and how fatness soon came to be seen as indicative of one's character. I found it especially fascinating to see how the results of imperial plunder - namely sugar - played a part in lamenting on the state of people's souls. After tracing the rise of this project in Europe, she then takes us to see how it plays out in America. Where the book fell a bit short for me was in part three. There's a profile on John Harvey Kellogg, and then a somewhat abrupt jump to anti-fat bias in the medical field today. Now while I could see the platform she built to get to that point, it could've been constructed a little better. I also wish she lingered a little more on anti-fatness today, though I can see that wasn't the intention of this. I do recommend this as an accessible introduction to the topic - her bibliography also provides other avenues to look into if it interests you.
The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Volume 2 by Beth Brower - These are growing on me! As of writing this blog, I am on volume 3. It's been a fun one to pop on while I do routine errands and cleaning. It reminds me of some unholy mix between Anne of Green Gables and Welcome to Night Vale. I do wish to keep my ears close to the going-ons of the residents of St. Crispians.
Land of the Lustrous Volume 13 by Haruko Ichikawa - I read the final chapter for this when it first dropped in April of 2024, but this was my first time reading the bindup of the final volume. Whenever I'm following a series in real time, I like picking up the translated volumes whenever possible afterwards because I've found it can be hard to see the forest for the leaves when reading chapters in real time over the course of several years. Of course with this being the final volume, not much I can say that doesn't spoil all that led to this, but ah. Phosphophyllite the character that you are.
A Woman's Battles and Transformations by Édouard Louis - "I've been told that literature should never attempt to explain, only to capture reality, but I'm writing to explain and understand her life. I've been told that literature should never repeat itself, but I want to write only the same story again and again, returning to it until it reveals fragments of its truth, digging hole after hole until in it all that is hidden begins to seep out. I've been told that literature should never resemble a display of feelings, but I write only to allow emotions to sprint forth, those sentiments that the body cannot express. I've been told that literature should never resemble a political manifesto but already I'm sharpening each of my sentences the way I'd sharpen the blade of a knife. Because I know now what is called literature has been constructed against lives and bodies like my mother's. Because I know, from here on, that to write about her, and to write about her life, is to write against literature." Another slim volume that packed quite the punch last month! Louis writes of his middle-aged mother leaving her second marriage and the years that led up to her leaving - many of which Louis was privy to while growing up. What I really liked about this was the focus on class - his mother is working class, and that played a significant part of her being unable to just up and leave Louis's father. There's also Louis, who appears to have escaped his class later down the line, grappling with the shame he felt with his mother in public due to what he perceived as her poor socialization. Towards the end of the book, well after she's left her husband, we see that reversed - a scene of Louis and his mother in a restaurant, his mother looking to him for cues on how to behave in this context. The passage quoted I quite liked, seeing whose stories are lost from the archive when the parameters for what constitutes literature are so rigidly defined.
One Piece Volumes 7 - 10 by Eiichiro Oda - This wouldn't have warranted a mention were it not for the fact that it covers volume 9, one of my favourites in spite of the cesspool of misogyny that the series devolves into. For a lot of folks, myself included, Arlong Park is where One Piece cemented itself in people's hearts. The corruption of the Marines was highlighted as early as volume 1, but in this volume, we saw and will continue to see how deep the rot runs and how piracy positions itself as a genuinely liberating force against that. Nami's backstory remains in my top three among the Strawhats (the other two being Chopper and Robin's)!
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry - In a previous entry, I reread Book Lovers and decided that she could find a better home. As much as I dreaded to do so, I decided to revisit PWMOV as an audiobook and can safely say she will not be staying on my shelves. This story follows Poppy and Alex, two best friends, who at the start of the novel, are no longer talking to each other for reasons that are unbeknownst to us. Poppy is a writer for a high-end travel magazine, and when we meet her, she is in a rut. The things that formerly brought her joy - namely, travelling - don't anymore. We learn that she and Alex regularly went on vacations together until something happened. In realizing that the last time she was happy was with Alex, she springs a somewhat convoluted scheme to go on a perfect vacation with him. Reader, these words I write are dripping with sarcasm and I hope that carries through. The story alternates chapters between their previous vacations to their current one, while we wonder what on earth could have fractured such a beautiful friendship. Surely it can't be because a woman and a man can't be friends, right? Surely it can't be they stopped talking to each other because their friendship got a little physical, right? Surely that wouldn't be worth throwing years of friendship away, right? (spoilers: wrong!). I think what frustrated me the most about this was that I could pinpoint exactly what I liked about this, what drew me in on my first read. I liked being in Poppy's head. She never shuts up and she feels everything so deeply, and on my relisten, it hurt to know what her happy ending looks like. It feels vulnerable to share the passages that struck me, the ones that have little orange post-it tabs sticking out on my soon to be sent to the thrift store copy. I think Henry does a good job of creating these two dissimilar characters and making me believe that they love each other so much - I am saddened that their platonic love is seen as secondary, as not enough. There are passages where Poppy laments Alex getting a girlfriend, worries about him getting married one day because she knows that in the society we live in, she could never be his best friend - not without his partner getting jealous of them. There are times she wonders what it would be like to know him sexually, but it's a notion she never lets herself entertain seriously - at least not until their relationship has progressed to a romantic one. I liked Poppy, and while she made some convoluted calculations, I liked her on the reread too! However, I can't bring myself to see her ending as a happy one. I think there was something incredibly compelling about her friendship with Alex, how they were the most important people in each other's lives, but the changing relationship by the end of the book rings hollow to me. It's supposed to be this grand moment where Poppy realizes what she wants from life, what she wants from Alex, and how she would be happy anywhere so long as he was there. How she loves him, no really, she Loves him, she wants to get married to him, and be The Most Important Person in his life, but now in a way that is socially acceptable to everyone who suffered their weird friendship. Which is a shame, because I quite liked their weird friendship. One of the sweetest gestures comes early on in their friendship, where Alex promises her that so long as they could afford it, he'd keep his summers open to vacation with Poppy. I thought that was the sweetest thing ever to promise that, to carve out that time for someone who is gasps just a friend. To value that time as fiercely - if not more than - any romantic relationship. For the longest time, I just thought I didn't like contemporary romance because I kept picking up duds. I know now it's because I just don't feel the same way about romance - I never have. It can spark something in me when crafted well (Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy, anyone?), but it's something I'd rather observe than partake in myself. There's a moment in the novel where Poppy is remembering how lonely she used to feel, how she felt she was the odd one out in her family and that everyone seemed to have someone else. Upon reading the draft for one of Alex's stories, she's moved to tears. I can't say why, but I was moved to tears myself on my relisten - not just by his story, but by Poppy's reaction to it. I am cutting out a lot from this quote because it's a good page and a bit: "When I was a kid, I used to have these panic attacks thinking about how I could never be anyone else. I couldn't be my mom or my dad, and for my whole life, I'd have to walk around inside a body that kept from ever truly knowing anyone else. It made me feel lonely, desolate, almost hopeless. When I told my parents about this, I expected them to know the feeling I was talking about, but they didn't. ... The fear lessened, but the feeling never went away. Every once in a while, I'd roll it back out, poke at it. Wonder how I could ever stop feeling lonely when no one could ever know me all the way. When I could never peer into someone else's brain and see it all. And now I'm crying because reading this story makes me feel for the first time that I'm not in my body. Like there's some bubble that stretches around me and Alex and makes it so we're just two different coloured globs in a lava lamp, mixing freel,y dancing around each other, unhindered. I'm crying because I'm relieved. Because I will never again feel as alone as I did during those long nights as a kid. As long as I have him, I will never be alone again". I don't quite know how to put this into words, but I used to feel unsettled in my relationships to other people. Like Poppy, I worried that I would always be lonely, that it was just inevitable that eventually these bonds would become secondary when boyfriends/girlfriends/partners entered the picture. I felt I carried with me a lot of love, but it would never be the right kind. It was only when I started learning about amatonormativity, when I started learning about aromanticism that I thought for the first time I wasn't alone in what I was feeling. Now of course, Henry's novel is not an ode to this, but I found more of myself in a place I least expected to.
The Summer Hikaru Died Volume 7 by Mokumokuren - I wouldn't buy it, but I just know the final boxed set for this series will look so cool with the gradient. We are in what I believe to be the start to the end of this series, and so I cannot say anything without spoiling what's come before. The compositions in this are so neat, and I found myself tearing through pages to get to the next.
Crossing Lines: Comics About Human Migration - I often pick up completely random books just because I can - such is the freedom of the library card! This was one such title that I saw had recently been added to the catalogue, so I was like, why not see what it's about? The comics in this anthology were borne out of a workshop hosted by the University of British Columbia's Centre for Migration Studies. It was a collaboration between artists and academics, and it's powerful that the editors explicitly defend their decision to tell these stories in this medium. Each entry looks at a different facet of immigration and while some are specific to the Canadian context, there's a lot that is a universal for migrants. I liked the title comic the best - the format was really interesting, showing the different immigration journeys and how some are relatively straightforward depending on things like your class our country of origin while others are in a perpetual limbo. I'd recommend this to teachers - I feel it'd be an excellent resource for perhaps a middle school social studies class. Each comic comes with discussion questions, and recommendations for further reading.
Kokoro by Natsume Soseki -
Medalist Volume 9 by TSURUMAIKADA - Even though Inori's journey is still young, this volume felt a bit like a culmination of Inori and Tsukasa's relationship. I am forever grateful they have characters in the audience explaining things like the scoring system so I am not totally lost on the technical aspects, but even still, my jaw was on the floor when I realized what had happened. Chapters 34 - 36 have to be my favourites for the series so far. I was bawling and I reread those chapters several times! Mentor-student dynamics really do make the world go round. I do want to pick up the anime eventually because I know Kenshi Yonezu sung something for it.
The Apothecary Diaries Light Novel Volume 8 by Natsu Hyuuga - I think this may well be where I leave the light novels for now. I quite enjoyed the anime when I watched it last year, but I find that the plots get a lot more esoteric and for lack of a better phrase, somewhat like reading a fanfiction? It's a shame because I wish I felt compelled to stay long enough to watch Yao and En'en's characters grow, especially since Maomao now has friends with her again, but alas. My suspension of disbelief was nonexistent for some happenings this volume. Sure. Let's let Lakan drive the bus.
Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children by Mac Barnett - I'd seen this one around and glad I got my hands on it. There's certainly a theme this reading wrapup with small books that pack big ideas, and this is my favourite of the bunch. Barnett is the US's National Ambassador for Young People's Literature (or as he would cheekily call it, just literature). This book is his impassioned plea for adults to treat children's literature with the respect that it deserves. There are plenty of great points here, such as the fact that children need good books now, not for the theoretical adults they might grow up to be. Barnett doesn't fool himself by claiming that all children's books are brilliant works of art - many are not, and that isn't unique to children's books. The continued dismissal of children's books is an extension of the dismissal of children as a whole. I get asked a lot by adults in my life on how they can get their children to be like me. They presume that because I like to read, that I must subsist on a diet of only the greatest of books. Often I hear laments of how their kids "only" read manga, "only" read Dog-Man (libraries can't keep those books on the shelves long enough!), how they never read what they're pushing them to read. There's often surprise, then a sense of regret of having asked me at all when I tell them to let them read whatever they want and to try reading what their kids are interested in. There's more to say on the matter, such as how parents often aren't modelling the behaviour they wish to see in their children, but that's not the point here. The point is that they reject their children's interests, reject what they perceive to be subpar. They wish to hand their children books that they believe will mold them to be some upstanding moral citizen. My parents don't read, and at times they wished I read less. Still, they never forced me to read what I didn't want to nor did they monitor what I was reading - though they kept a lose eye on what we watched as a result of a rather funny misunderstanding. As a result, I read whatever I could get my hands on, even if it may have been deemed immoral in any other medium. Some of my favourite books featured kids who found themselves in horrific situations, orphans who never seemed to escape tragedy, a young boy bonded to a man responsible for much of his misery, and they were my favourites because they never lied to me. There was no pretending that it could be better, and I found great comfort in that. My own childhood could be tumultuous at times, and so the last thing I needed was yet another story selling me a saccharine sack of shit. This rhetoric of needing to protect the children from exposure to immoral and seemingly taboo topics is insulting. There are ways for adults to discuss difficult topics with children - not all children experience idyllic childhoods. To use an example here, take a look at children's literature that looks at police brutality. Children's books on the topic are not new, but we saw more titles on the subject following George Floyd's murder. There have been organized efforts to censor these stories, to say that it is not appropriate for kids to read about. Anything a kid or one of their peers may experience they certainly can read about. All this to say, there's a passage in here that really struck me: "Really, children's books must be as varied as the lives of the children who read them. When children cannot find their experiences and emotions -- even (and especially) their fear, jealousy, sadness, and anger - reflected in the stories they read, two things can happen, both bad. Kids may abandon reading and seek out art and media that better reflects their lives. Or, instead of deciding that there is something wrong with books, children may decide there must be something wrong with themselves, and become ashamed of the very human feeling, which adults have excluded from their literature. As an author, I find the first possibility dismaying. But, the second outcome should be unbearable to us all". I may look into buying a copy of this myself because I liked it so much.
Currently reading:
The Adventures and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - I must admit my progress on this has slowed a bit because I have of all things been watching a Sherlock Holmes adaptation :}
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - An old friend to me, hoping to finish it this weekend.
The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Volume 3 by Beth Brower - I'm quite endeared to the storyline unravelling in this volume. Oh St. Crispians and your collection of odd residents!
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind - I saw the cover for this and was like this looks cool! I'm veryyy early into this, but I'm liking what I'm reading so far.
Until next time,
-memoria