So, here are two books I read back to back. They have nothing really to do with one another but they were both superb reading experiences.
Bossypants
24. Bossypants [2011] by Tina Fey [Kindle]
Am I the last person to finally read this book?
I had no idea if I would really enjoy this book, mostly because I'm old enough that my clearest memories of Saturday Night Live far predate Tina Fey's tenure there, and partly because I don't watch much television any more (Who does with Netflix and such? Commercials? Not for me!). I have never seen 30 Rock (although it is time to troll Netflix for it) and the idea of staying up late enough to see SNL fled from my consciousness by at least 1990, perhaps much sooner.Read this book.
However, anyone with an IQ in the positive numbers who was a grown up by the time of the 2008 election knows who Tina Fey is. And, of course, that she is both funny and successful. Who doesn't love a funny and successful woman? Ok, well, some people, mostly male, rude, and creatures from a thankfully bygone era, but I digress.
So, I picked up this book (Or, rather, I picked up my Kindle, which, by the way, is not the best format for reading a few figures in this book - most notably the hand drawn chart and the several pages of script dialogue) to give me a much-needed mental break from the endless series of serious science fiction, Swedish crime procedurals, and classic literature of England and Norway I've been reading this month. My motives were purely selfish, of course.
However, in addition to being funny (about every 4 seconds) and successful (Improv? Television? Film? Writing?), Tina Fey is not only erudite but also penetrating. She slices through the Italian rum cake and stale sandwiches to remind us about big important life lessons. These lessons are not just applicable to a woman having a career in comedy and entertainment, but to all of us. Big important life lessons.
For example, she gives excellent advice on how to deal with sexism (racism, ageism, whatever-ism) in the workplace. She also gives brilliant advice on finishing a dissertation. OK, so she didn't even mention the word dissertation, but the advice is nonetheless applicable. Trust me.
But, she doles out this advice under the cover of humor. Incredible amounts of humor. You won't even notice you are being given fantastic life advice, really, because you'll be giggling and hooting and having people on the plane or train or bus or your spouse in the bed beside you looking at you like you've lost your mind. We all know you have not lost your mind, you have just regained your sanity, if only temporarily.
Read this book. Read it and laugh. Then, apply those surreptitious life lessons with gusto.
P.S. If you are avoiding this book because you think Tina Fey's political persuasion is too different from yours, you are an idiot. It's full of humor and life lessons, which are so much more important than who you voted for in a bygone election.
The Bees
25. The Bees [2014] Laline Paull [Kindle]
How does one categorize this book? It has a bit of science fiction, personification of animals (insects), dystopia, fantasy, and, well, did I mention bees?
The Handmaid's Tale meets Logan's Run meets Watership Down. Holy cow. The story exhausted me, in the most wonderful terrible way. Bees! Who has thought of what goes on in a bee hive? This author has, clearly. She weaves the classic dystopian story with feminist undertones and a cultist flavor.
Moreover, the idea of a socialist utopia mixed with a dictatorship and, all, it becomes a multi-allegory. Yes, the whole story revolves around the life of one bee, a worker bee.
At once astounding and intimate, loving, violent and sexual, it is unlike any other novel, but has flavors of both the familiar and the unfamiliar. It will entertain you, scare you, and make you think. This is no children's story but a broad massive intricate novel of what could be and, perhaps, what is or has been.Read. This. Book.
Books Completed in 2015
I have read (or listened to) 51 books so far in 2015! Here is a list of completed books (most) with links to their info page on Goodreads and to the reviews I have written on Goodreads and Amazon (or Audible). More links added as the reviews go live (some have been posted but are not yet live on Amazon or Audible). I'm getting the blog up to date in the coming week or two with all the reviews and comments.
51. The Hangman's Daughter [2008] by Oliver Pötzsch [Kindle] Review: Goodreads; Amazon
50. Out from the Underworld [2015] by Heather Siegel [Kindle] Review: Goodreads; Amazon
49. Inkheart [2011] by Cornelia Funke [Kindle] Review: Goodreads; Amazon.
48. Legion [2012] by Brandon Sanderson [Audible] Review: Goodreads; Audible.
47. The Reader [1995] by Bernhard Schlink [Kindle] Review: Goodreads; Amazon.
46. Station Eleven [2014] by Emily St. John Mandel [Kindle] Review: Goodreads; Amazon.
45. My Brilliant Friend [2012] by Elena Ferrant [Kindle] Review: Goodreads; Amazon.
44. Cold Comfort Farm [1932] by Stella Gibbons [Kindle] Review: Goodreads; Amazon
43. Rabbit Proof Fence [1996] by Doris Pilkington [Audible] Review: Goodreads; Audible
42. The Daughter of Time [1951] by Josephine Tey [Kindle] Review: Goodreads; Amazon
41. Outlander [1991] by Diana Gabaldon [Audible] Review: Goodreads; Audible
40. Illegal Action [2007] by Stella Rimington [Audible] Review: Goodreads; Audible
39. Secret Asset [2006) by Stella Rimington [Audible] Review: Goodreads; Audible
38. Magic's Pawn [1989] by Mercedes Lackey [Audible] Review: Goodreads; Audible
37. Witch Hunt [2012] by Annie Bellet [Kindle] Review: Goodreads; Amazon
36. Three Wishes [2003] by Liane Moriarty [Audible] Review: Goodreads; Audible
35. The Evolution of an Empire A Brief Historical Sketch of Germany [1892] by Mary Platt Parmele [Kindle] Review: Goodreads; Amazon
34. Dear Committee Members [2014] by Julie Schumacher [Kindle] Review: Goodreads; Amazon
33. Dept. of Speculation [2014] by Jenny Offill [Kindle] Review: Goodreads; Amazon
32. The Specter of Salem: Remembering the Witch Trials in Nineteenth-Century America [2008] by Gretchen A. Adams [Kindle] Review: Goodreads; Amazon
31. Command Authority [2013] by Tom Clancy [Audible] Review: Goodreads; Amazon
30. Emerald Green [2010] by Kerstin Gier [Audible] Review: Goodreads; Amazon
29. Sapphire Blue [2009] by Kerstin Gier [Audible] Review: Goodreads; Audible; Amazon
28. Ruby Red [2009] by Kerstin Gier [Audible] Review: Goodreads; Audible; Amazon
27. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants [2001] by Ann Brashares [Audible] Review: Goodreads; Audible; Amazon
26. Dying for a Cupcake [2015] by Denise Swanson [Audible] Review: Goodreads; Amazon
25. The Bees [2014] Laline Paull [Kindle] Review: Goodreads; Amazon
24. Bossypants [2011] by Tina Fey [Kindle] Review: Goodreads; Amazon
23. Night Rounds [1999] by Helene Tursten [Kindle] Review: Goodreads; Amazon
22. 13 Days: The Pythagoras Conspiracy [2006] by L. A. Starks [Kindle] Review: Goodreads; Amazon
21. Detective Inspector Huss [1998] by Helene Tursten [Kindle] Review: Goodreads; Amazon
20. Crocodile on the Sandbank [1975] by Elizabeth Peters [Kindle] Review: Goodreads; Amazon
19. Redemption in Indigo [2010] by Karen Lord [Audible] Review: Goodreads; Audible; Amazon
18. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August [2014] by Claire North [Kindle] Review: Goodreads; Amazon
17. The Mysterious Howling [2009] by Maryrose Wood [Kindle] Review: Goodreads; Amazon
16. My Life in Middlemarch [2014] by Rebecca Mead [Audible]. Review: Goodreads; Audible
15. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up [2010] by Marie Kondo [iBooks].
14. The Wreath [1920] by Sigrid Undset, translated by Tiina Nunnally [Kindle].
13. The Riddle-Master of Hed [1976] by Patricia A. McKillip [Audible Audiobook] [review: Goodreads; Audible]
12. If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O [1990] by Sharyn McCrumb [Audible Audio] [review: Goodreads; Audible]
11. The Knitting Book [2011] by Frederica Patmore and Vikki Haffenden [hardcover].
10. Americanah [2013] by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche [audible.com audiobook] [review: Goodreads; Audible]
9. The Handmaid's Tale [1985] by Margaret Atwood [Kindle]. [review: Goodreads; Amazon]
8. The Lady Astronaut of Mars [2012] by Mary Robinette Kowal [Kindle]. [review: Goodreads; Amazon]
7. At Risk [2004] by Stella Rimington [audible.com audiobook] [review: Goodreads; Audible].
6. The Dispossessed [1974] by Ursula Le Guin [Kindle]. 5/5 stars [review: Goodreads; Amazon]
5. The Story of My Life [1902] by Helen Keller [Kindle] 4/5 stars [review: Goodreads; Amazon].
4. Middlemarch [1872] by George Eliot (aka Mary Anne or Marian Evans) [Kindle]. [review: Goodreads; Amazon]
3. Interpreter of Maladies [1999], short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri [audiobook]. [review: Goodreads]
2. Knitting for Beginners [2014] by Susan Wilters [Kindle]. 2/5 stars [review: Goodreads; Amazon].
1. Among Others [2011] by Jo Walton [Kindle]. 5/5 stars [review: Goodreads; Amazon].
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