Mini-Reviews: Final Class Reads of Freshman Year

Doing Oral History by Donald A. Ritchie (2003)
read for The History Sleuth
This is a little bit outdated in terms of the technology discussed, but otherwise it's an excellent introduction to the ins and outs of planning, completing, and using oral history projects. Occasionally some of the information repeated in the Q&A format, but this was overall very concise, readable, and helpful - a fantastic resource.

Midnight at the Barrelhouse: The Johnny Otis Story by George Lipsitz (2010)
read for The History Sleuth
I'm not that interested in the history of 20th century music, so at times I was a bit bored by this. While there's a great deal of good information contained in the book, outlining Otis's contributions to black music and history, its presentation was almost hagiographical. I was a little annoyed by Lipsitz's value judgments on music and way of portraying Otis in a better light than basically all the other musicians mentioned.

Retelling U.S. Religious History ed. by Thomas A. Tweed (1997)
read for American Religion on the Margins
I tend to enjoy revisionist histories because, if nothing else, they allow one to reconsider history and examine it from new and interesting angles. The essays collected in this volume were hit-and-miss with me. The first half of the book seemed like it would have been better if the authors had gone straight ahead to rewriting history books rather than writing about rewriting them, while I found the essays in the second half much more fascinating, thought-provoking, and worthwhile.

YA Sci-Fi: The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Publisher: Arthur A. Levine
Date: March 1, 2013
Format: hardback
Source: GoodReads First Look
Read: for review (disclaimer: I received my copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)
Pages: 290
Reading time: three days

From GoodReads: The lush city of Palmares Três shimmers with tech and tradition, with screaming gossip casters and practiced politicians. In the midst of this vibrant metropolis, June Costa creates art that’s sure to make her legendary. But her dreams of fame become something more when she meets Enki, the bold new Summer King. The whole city falls in love with him (including June’s best friend, Gil). But June sees more to Enki than amber eyes and a lethal samba. She sees a fellow artist. Together, June and Enki will stage explosive, dramatic projects that Palmares Três will never forget. They will add fuel to a growing rebellion against the government’s strict limits on new tech. And June will fall deeply, unfortunately in love with Enki. Because like all Summer Kings before him, Enki is destined to die.

My review: There were parts of The Summer Prince that I just loved and parts that confused me. I loved how different this was from other YA sci-fi novels: it's set in futuristic Brazil, and the background to the setting contains elements of Brazilian culture and the Candomble religion. Also, the society of Palmares Tres is obviously feminist, something which I haven't found much, if at all, in other recent YA dystopias. The novel just had a completely different feel to it than many others of the genre. The plot was pleasingly unpredictable - aside from the love triangle, which does have some twists of its own, there's few of the cliches of this brand of science fiction.

But there were aspects of the novel, however, that were not entirely satisfactory. I never got a good feel for June's character and what she actually felt and wanted. Her emotions and beliefs felt ambiguous. There were other times when it seemed like the reader was dumped too much in the middle of the futuristic society, with new technology and other elements popping up mid-novel without previous explanation. It took a while to figure out the political arrangement and jargon of Palmares Tres, and there were points where the plot just didn't seem to come entirely together. This had the potential to be an utterly stunning novel, but I think the issues in its details demote it to simply a decent and interesting read.

Maturity factor: Sexual content. Much discussion of sexuality, including LGBTQ relationships, with which some readers may not feel comfortable. (Personally, I'm a prude when it comes to sexual morality, and I felt a bit uncomfortable at times with the promiscuity of certain characters.)

What I've Been Up to Lately

Without realizing the passing time, I've been a lousy blogger and haven't posted anything in the past week. I was finishing up final exams and papers, then packing and driving halfway across the country back home. Of course, once I got home, I had to unpack all the books I've accumulated during my first year of college and shelve them.

I clearly underestimated the extent to which unpacking and sorting everything would make a mess. I have no idea how I managed to fit most of these books into my half of a small dorm room using only desk space and dresser drawers. I also have no idea where these books are going in my room, because I'm almost completely out of shelf space. Right now, half of the books above are back in boxes.

My apparent hoarding issues aside, I plan to get back to blogging regularly this week. That's the goal, anyway. I also start a museum internship (!!!) and online summer classes within the next few days, plus over this summer I plan on going on a couple of vacations, helping my mom with her home business, sewing some clothes, maybe volunteering at another historic site, and, oh yeah, reading. A lot. Because I came home to this:

Behold, the stack of ARCs that have come within the last 4-5 weeks and were held at home by my parents while I was away. I apologize to all the publishers and other review venues who have sent me these because I am super-duper behind with reading them. I'm currently on The Summer Prince and plan on basically just reading straight down this stack, which is mostly organized by release date. I promise to get caught up over the next few weeks!

Sci-Fi: City of Bohane by Kevin Barry

Publisher: Graywolf Press (U.S.)
Date: May 2011
Format: hardback
Source: WLT giveaway shelf
Read: for cleaning out Mt. TBR
Pages: 277
Reading time: five days

From GoodReads: Forty years in the future. The once-great city of Bohane on the west coast of Ireland is on its knees, infested by vice and split along tribal lines. There are the posh parts of town, but it is in the slums and backstreets of Smoketown, the tower blocks of the Northside Rises and the eerie bogs of Big Nothin' that the city really lives. For years, the city has been in the cool grip of Logan Hartnett, the dapper godfather of the Hartnett Fancy gang. But there's trouble in the air. They say his old nemesis is back in town; his trusted henchmen are getting ambitious; and his missus wants him to give it all up and go straight... And then there's his mother.

My review: This is a case of "it's not you, it's me." For one thing, I found it difficult to become accustomed to the dialect used by the author throughout the novel. At the beginning, there were some points where I really just didn't know what was going on. While my understanding of the dialect increased, it never became easy to read. Also, it seemed like there was no central plot, and I felt like I missed whatever the point of the book was. On the other hand, I did appreciate how different City of Bohane is from other sci-fi novels. The language and style are certainly unique, and there were some moments that seemed very Bladerunner or Gravity's Rainbow-esque (in positive ways). Even if you're like me and won't truly enjoy reading this book for the fun of it, it's definitely interesting enough to pick up anyway.

Recent Acquisitions VI

For review:
The Honey Thief by Najaf Mazari and Robert Hillman (publisher)
See my review and giveaway of this here.
The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau (publisher)
And for some reason I got two copies of this, so there will be a giveaway when I review it!
A Guide to Being Born by Ramona Ausubel (Early Reviewers)
Both this and Ausubel's debut No One is Here Except All of Us are highly-anticipated summer reads.
Every Boy Should Have a Man by Preston L. Allen (Early Reviewers)
Mind Games by Kiersten White (ARCycling)
The Kneebone Boy by Ellen Potter (ARCycling)
I was getting this confused with Clare Dunkle's The House of Dead Maids as a retelling of Wuthering Heights, but hey, I enjoyed Potter's The Humming Room last year.
A Far Piece to Canaan by Sam Halpern (TLC Blog Tours)

Purchased:
Introduction to Museum Work by G. Ellis Burcaw
For my internship that starts next week. :)

Library sale:
Rip Tide (Dark Life #2) by Kat Falls
The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch
The Glittering Plain by William Morris
The Hidden Hand by E.D.E.N. Southworth
Encyclopedia of Southern Culture (4 vols.) ed. by Charles Reagan Wilson and William Ferris
El Cid: The Making of a Legend by M.J. Trow
Serendipity and the Three Princes ed. by Theodore G. Remer
The Hanging of Thomas Jeremiah: A Free Black Man's Encounter with Liberty by J. William Harris
American Colonies by Alan Taylor
"Bayonet! Forward": My Civil War Reminiscences by Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

Fiction: The Hope Factory by Lavanya Sankaran

Publisher: Dial Press
Date: April 23, 2013
Format: ARC
Source: publisher
Read: for review (disclaimer: I received my copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)
Pages: 370
Reading time: six days

From GoodReads: Anand is a Bangalore success story: successful, well married, rich. At least, that’s how he appears. But if his little factory is to grow, he needs land and money, and, in the New India, neither of these is easy to find. Kamala, Anand’s family’s maid, lives perilously close to the edge of disaster. She and her clever teenage son have almost nothing, and their small hopes for self-betterment depend on the contentment of Anand’s wife: a woman to whom whims come easily. But Kamala’s son keeps bad company, and Anand’s marriage is in trouble. The murky world where crime and land and politics meet is a dangerous place for a good man, particularly one on whom the well-being of so many depends.

My review: I don't really have much to say about this. It was a decent read; there's not really anything that I didn't like. There's just nothing that really distinguishes The Hope Factory from similar books, besides the inclusion of servant Kamala's story. A lot of the themes of family values, urban life, the conflict between the traditional and the new, and combating corruption have recurred throughout several of the Anglo-Indian books I've read lately, like Oleander Girl and Family Matters. The writing style didn't stand out to me, and I never became very invested in the characters' personalities and stories. The construction of the plot was solid and interesting, I enjoyed reading the novel, but it's probably not one that will stand out in my memory.

Add It to the List! 5

One of my favorite things to do while procrastinating on homework is browse through books online. Generally, this results in a large number of books being added to my already-enormous wishlist on GoodReads (2866 and counting). Since such procrastination reduces my reading time left after finally finishing homework, I might as well use it to come up with some other blog content.

Countdown City by Ben H. Winters (Quirk Books, 7/16/13)
Sequel to the pre-apocalyptic mystery The Last Policeman, which I reviewed here.

The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu (Angry Robot, 4/30/13)
Quirky-looking sci-fi, just the way I like it.

Rapture Practice by Aaron Hartzler (Little, Brown, 4/9/13)
Memoir of a teen growing up gay in a very conservative Christian family.

The Hit by Melvin Burgess (Chicken House, 4/4/13)
YA sci-fi with contemporary theme(s).

Daughters of Icarus ed. by Josie E. Brown (Pink Narcissus Press, 3/19/13)
An anthology of feminist speculative fiction!

The Last Quarter of the Moon by Chi Zijian (Harvill Secker, 1/17/13)
Chinese historical novel about a member of the Evenki tribe.

The Eye With Which the Universe Beholds Itself by Ian Sales (Whippleshield Books, Jan. 2013)
Sequel to the novella Adrift on the Sea of Rains, which I reviewed here a couple months ago.

The Blue Kind by Kathryn Born (Switchgrass Books, Nov. 2012)
Dystopia focusing on the position of women within a drug culture.

The Gospel of Us by Owen Sheers (Seren, Oct. 2012)
Has something to do with a retelling of the biblical Passion of Christ.

Under the Moons of Mars: New Adventures on Barsoom by various authors (Simon & Schuster, Feb. 2012)
Anthology of modern stories about Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom.

Growing Up Amish by Ira Wagler (Tyndale House, 2011)
Once again, I am obsessed with non-mainstream religious groups/movements.

The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan (various publishers and dates since 2011)
YA sci-fi; looks dystopian and has a cool title relating back to a concept discussed in my English class this semester.

New Stories from the Mabinogion series by various authors (Seren, 2009-2012)
Series of eight retellings, some sci-fi and fantasy, of the Mabinogion stories. I also love the silhouette covers.

Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War by Joe Bageant (Crown, 2007)
I seem to be on a sociological bent lately; this one deals with small-town Virginia.

The Woman Who Loved an Octopus and Other Saints' Tales by Imogen Rhia Herrad (Seren, 2007)
Retellings of the stories of Celtic saints.

Melog by Mihangel Morgan (Seren, 2006)
Some kind of hilarious-looking Welsh satire.

Keeping the Circle: American Indian Identity in Eastern North Carolina, 1885-2004 by Christopher Arris Oakley (Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2005)
Of particular note is that this covers not just the Lumbee and the Tuscarora, but also a bunch of groups I've never heard of.

A Short Book About Love by Nicholas Murray (Seren, 2003)
The first story in this is a retelling of Tristan and Iseult.

Millie-Christine: Fearfully and Wonderfully Made by Joanne Martell (John F. Blair, 2000)
Biography of the conjoined twins (1851-1912) born as slaves in North Carolina.

The Only Land They Knew: American Indians in the Old South by J. Leitch Wright, Jr. (Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1999)

The Southern Colonial Backcountry: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Frontier Communities by various authors (Univ. of Tennessee Press, 1998)

The Dixie Frontier: A Social History of the Southern Frontier from the First Transmontane Beginnings to the Civil War by Everett Dick (Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1993)
Because I clearly need more Southern history books on my wishlist.

The First Century After Beatrice by Amin Maalouf (1992)
Sci-fi novel by a Lebanese author.

Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World by Jacquelyn Dowd Hall et al. (Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1987)
Reissued in 2000. I'm not sure people realize how important textiles used to be to Southern economies.