Book Report

[stormkeeper_lovedoris]

 

Two long flights equals lots of books read. (As does being sick, and not having much energy to write fic....) 

Speaking of writing, onto the first book - 

Write for Your Life by Anna Quindlen – This is a short book about the importance of writing, of telling your life story. The author has been around a long time and I admire her; in the 80s and 90s she was one of the only mainstream journalists talking about LGBT rights. She’s written a lot. But this book doesn’t really shed any new light, and it feels a bit pointless, as harsh as that sounds. I sense that her agent or publisher told her that she hadn’t published anything for a while and needed to pull something out of a hat. But hey, if the book inspires one person to work on their memoir, then that’s not bad. Grade: 3

 

American Prison by Shane Bauer – Not long ago, I read a book that this author cowrote; it was a memoir about several years he and two other Americans spent inside an Iranian prison. In this work of investigative journalism, Bauer goes undercover to work as a guard at a for-profit prison. The book is a compelling page-turner, but like “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson or “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander, it makes me want to scream with rage. Every bad thing you can imagine about racism and the criminal justice system and for-profit prisons – it’s 10 times worse than you think. Denial of medical care, of basic rights, of basic humanity inside these prisons which are understaffed and only driving towards the bottom line for shareholders. (And “little” things, like prisons forbid a long list of books by Black authors, while memoirs of KKK leaders like David Duke are allowed). Bauer also covers the history in this country of locking up Black people and forcing them into labor for profit. It’s so horrible to read this and think that none of this has to be this way – such pointless cruelty and destruction of lives (and at taxpayer expense). Grade: 8

 

Panpocalypse by Carley Moore – A contemporary novel whose protagonist is queer, disabled, and poly. She chronicles her life in NYC as the pandemic hits. It’s fast-moving, sharp, and fun. It’s not my usual genre and it gets a bit weird when she travels through time and space. <smile> But it was still worth a read. Grade: 6

 

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho – This is a primer on racism. I think it’s a good read and good information, though I’d also say that in the past few years, I read a few other books on racism that were a bit more informative and actionable than this one. If I wanted to nitpick, I need to point out that the author has no understanding of cishet male privilege, as he gives away several times in the book such as during the chapter on “broken” families. I could hit this point several times, but I’ll just leave it and say that there are books on racism that do a much better job understanding the subject (you never forget that this book is written by a cishet male). Grade: 6

 

The Hacienda by Isabel Canas – Ever read a movel that starts out great, with a gorgeous setting and characters, but then the storyline just fizzles out? This is that book. It’s historical fiction but also a gothic ghost story. The plot and setting: In 1820’s Mexico, young Beatriz gets married to escape a bad family situation but she finds that her new husband and his hacienda have many scary secrets. There was just nothing keep the plot moving or keep me turning the pages, and it was so repetitive. Like ‘I get it, the hacienda is haunted, scary stuff keeps happening, and the husband’s a jerk. Okay.’ What I don’t understand are all the good reviews it got. Grade: 2