My Month of Mediocrity
It has been a hot minute since I've last posted dear readers. Part of the radio silence is because I was so busy in April, and part of it is because April was a mostly mediocre reading month. I dropped a lot of books, and I subjected myself to some pretty middle of the road reads, which is just unforgivable. Thankfully, I have broken out of the mediocre book curse since then.
In the interest of sparing you all my month of mind-numbing mediocrity, I'll only speak of reads from April to present that were memorable - for better or for worse. As usual, if you wish to see everything that I've been reading, you can find me on Storygraph @readdwarfreviews. In other exciting news, I am fiddling around with a guestbook function so that folks may be able to leave comments! More news on that to come when I finally figure out how to do so :) You can also email me at reddwarfreviews@gmail.com.
Starting off strong, I finished reading Serafinski's Blessed is the Flame: An Introduction to Concentration Camp Resistance and Anarcho-Nihilism. I first picked this up back in January at the recommendation of two of my friends. It's a relatively short text and the language is accessible, but there were times I thought I might be unable to finish it. Serafinksi looks at resistance in contexts where victory was not even an option on the table, where the mere whisper of resistance spelled a swift death. History and public memory are my brand, my bread and butter, and so much of this book illustrates why the project of cultivating public memory is so important. "By engaging ourselves in this project called "history", we can find ways to turn past struggles against current forms of domination and to "ensure that the memory of the dead continues to haunt the living"". With the rise of fascism worldwide, it is a sobering read, but a necessary one.
This next read was not mindblowing to me, but I include it here because it might help folks who are looking to rekindle a relationship with reading. Hwang Bo-Reum's Every Day I Read: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books reflects on the author's own relationship to reading, as well as advice for reading more. The book consists of short chapters, each with a tip and book recommendations. The cover is really cute so I'll give it that.
Back in March, I watched season 2 of the One Piece live action. I have an on and off relationship with One Piece - it was among the first anime I ever watched, and when it's good it can be so good, but I dropped it because the overt misogyny further down the line was really dampening a lot of my enjoyment. The live action made me want to reread - as of now I am on the Baratie arc. There is a charm to the East Blue saga, what was once a novelty for 14 year old me now imbued with nostalgia on my reread. I wouldn't be lying if I said if it does not infuriate me to see how charming some characters are when we first meet them coughs Sanji coughs in contrast to what I know becomes of them in later arcs. I doubt I will fully catch up, but I do intend to read up until the end of Marineford at least.
Julian Barnes's Departure(s) was perhaps one of the single rays of brilliant light shining through an abysmal April reading record, and I cannot recommend it enough. This is a story within a story, a medley of fiction and fact, and a long introspection down memory lane. It's a look back on the author's life, his relationship to his craft and his own mortality. I quite enjoyed the metatextual references and elements, and it may or may not have convinced me to get back to In Search of Lost time. Such mesmerizing prose throughout, and for a veritable memory enthusiast as myself, this is one line among many that I latched onto: "We all know that memory is identity. Take away memory and what do we have? We have nothing. Memory is the place where degradation and embellishment overlap." I'm trying to be more intentional about book buying, and this is an addition I see joining my home library.
Next on the list is Hooked by Asako Yuzuki. Having read Butter by the same author the year before, I knew going in that marketing the novel as a thriller was a disservice to the story. It's a page-turner for sure, but don't expect a typical thriller. Instead, we get portraits of two seemingly very different women who struggle against the mundane terror of the patriarchy. Eriko's downward spiral was so messy to read about and I could not look away. In comparison, Shoko's spiral was a lot more grounded in reality that it felt painful to read. By the end though, I felt that the initial bite of the themes had lost its sting - I felt the same way about the ending of Butter.
I recently took up embroidery and have been listening to audiobooks as I work. I've started Beth Brower's The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, and it's oddly fitting. Set in London in the late 1800s, we follow our heroine through her day to day going-ons at Lapis Lazuli house. I quite like the audiobook narrator and the voices she did for a rather eccentric cast of characters. For the most part it's a lighthearted read, but it's also a journey through Emma's grief at losing both her father and her partner.
As of my last entry, I've finished volumes 7 and 8 of Medalist. I can't say much on these as it contains spoilers, but I'm quite fond of it. I've come to really treasure stories where teachers respect the autonomy of children in their care.
Every spring, I weed my personal library and part of that process involves rereading titles and deciding whether to keep them. I have no idea what went through my brain to consider weeding out Zoe Thorogood's It's Lonely At the Centre of the Earth, but I'm glad I chose to reread before making that choice. This is an autobiographical comic about the author's depression. It really makes the most of the medium and employs some really neat tricks. It may read as pretentious to some, but I love experimental works like this a lot.
Now a book I did decide to remove from my personal library was Book Lovers by Emily Henry. I remember really liking this when it first came out, but every Emily Henry title that was released after that was really not my cup of tea, and so I thought to revisit it. Upon my reread, I was wondering what I even saw in this. We follow Nora, a literary agent who has decided that she is cursed to occupy the trope of "the other woman". The coldhearted businesswoman, the one who is dumped in Hallmark movies after the guy realizes that he wants to be with someone more "real". It was frustrating to revisit because women are punished for being ambitious, for wanting more than the life that is expected of them. However, Nora (and the author!) leaned too hard into these stock tropes and as a result, everyone felt like a cariacture of a character - like if you look at them from the side, you'll see they're being propped up by a plank of wood. I did find that there were passages that still resonated with me, but not enough to salvage the rest of the story. In the field of mainstream romance, it may be revolutionary for a woman to not end up barefoot and pregnant by the end of the story, but I'm clever enough to know that there are other ways of looking at love. I had to delete a good chunk of what I wrote about this book because it quickly delved into a meanspirited ramble, but I will leave it at this. I don't read many romances, but I have a friend who reads a great deal of indie romances. She can attest to the fact that there are truly genre-defying romance reads out there, explorations of love that mainstream publishers don't think will sell.
Another disappointing read was Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. The premise was so intriguing - a tradwife influencer is somehow sent to the 1800s. I was expecting to see an exploration of the ideals of being a tradwife clashing against the brutal realities that women suffered under the patriarchy. I was expecting an incisive look at the link between tradwives and white supremacy. Instead, I got Natalie, a woman who is presented time and time again as a victim, as someone who doesn't fully buy into this lifestyle, who doesn't really share the same beliefs as her right-wing circle. Now Natalie certainly was a victim of the patriarchy in some ways, but she was an active beneficiary and enforcer of white supremacy and the novel shies away from looking at that. I also could not help but notice that the author really seemed to shy away from looking at the associations between race and tradwives. Beyond a single comment and vague mentions about indigenous people, Natalie has no real contact with any characters of colour throughout the story. This wouldn't have been a sin on its own, but that the author refuses to look the links between white supremacy and this glorified return to the past was so frustrating. The twist at the end was beyond disappointing. It turns what could have possibly still been salvaged into a totally different story, one that demolishes any systematic critique. Natalie becomes the problem, rather than the symptom of one. In different hands, this could have been so good. Instead, we get a half-baked book by someone who does not understand or does not wish to interrogate the connections between labour, patriarchy, colonialism, and white supremacy.
Now my next read was actually a reread. In November 2024, a manga artist by the name of inee tweeted about how the first volume of her manga was facing potential cancellation due to low sales. A group of fans (an English scanlation team I believe) embarked on a campaign across several social media platforms promoting the series and showing fans around the world how to signal their support and interest - including how to buy digital and physical volumes. Physical volumes sold out on multiple sites, and the series was saved from cancellation. Yen Press picked picked up rights to licence the series in English a year later. I had read a scanlation of the first volume in 2024, and I finally got my hands on the English translation a week ago. It was just as brilliant, if not better than my memory served. Love Bullet follows Koharu, a girl who is reincarnated into a cupid after a tragedy cuts her life short. The art and compositions are so cleverly done and the story itself is so much fun. I sincerely hope inee is able to see this story to completion, and I eagerly await future volumes.
Now the book that I believe definitively ended my string of mediocre reads was James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain. I had been meaning to pick up Baldwin for a while now and I'm glad I finally did. I'm still thinking about it, so I'll leave a review for another day. I highly recommend it. For folks who have read more by Baldwin, I'd love suggestions on what to pick up next.
My adventures through the Sherlock Holmes canon continue with an omnibus edition that collects both The Adventures and the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. I'll leave this for a more thorough post later down the line, but I am so entertained by these stories. So far, I've read A Scandal in Bohemia (so many thoughts on the bastardization of Irene Adler in adaptations) and A Case of Identity (Sherlock Holmes I would've supported you whipping that scoundrel)!
Currently reading:
The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Volume 2 by Beth Brower
Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fatphobia by Sabrina Strings
How to Suppress Women's Writing by Joanna Russ
The Adventures and the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Francisca and the Forgotten by Solaris Santaella - Solaris Santaella is a dear friend of mine, and Francisca and the Forgotten is their debut novel. It's a young adult horror and I'm really enjoying it so far. I also want to note that another one of their stories, Lemon Squares in All Dimensions is free to read on their website, and it won an honourable mention at the Writers of the Future in 2024. They have been working on the novelization, and it's set to release in March 2027. I had the honour of reading the short story early on a couple of years ago and it really stuck with me. This will not be the last time you hear of Lemon Squares because I will be blocking out the release date on my calendar and having a date with SARA <3
TJ Powar Has Something to Prove by Jesmeen Kaur Deo
Kokoro by Natsume Soseki
Jelly Baby: Essays on Disability and Vulnerability by Therese Estacion
Divine Incursions Volume 1 by Oumi Kifuru and Kouya Ashitaka