Tag Archives: book reviews

Reading

Some thoughts about some books: Goats and taxes, Han Solo’s origin story, and a life of danger

“Flat Broke with Two Goats” by Jennifer McGaha


I stumbled on this one via the Big Library Read. “Flat Broke with Two Goats” was purported to be a charming memoir about a life in Appalachia that doesn’t go as planned. The author is surprised to learn that they owe a large amount of back taxes to the government, so McGaha and her husband let their house go into foreclosure and wind up living in a “rustic” three-story cabin at the base of a waterfall, where they proceed to make a series of even more questionable financial decisions. I didn’t find the story all that charming.

“The Paradise Snare” by AC Crispin

I don’t think I’ve read a paperback sci-fi yarn since high school, when I found out that Rockford liked “Dune” so I decided to read it so I’d have something to talk to him about (and then before I knew it I’d read the whole series and was looking for all the sci-fi to consume). But then awhile ago someone on Twitter was talking about AC Crispin’s Han Solo trilogy, and it sounded intriguing. I requested a copy of “The Paradise Snare” from a library in a galaxy far, far away, and once it finally got here I read it in just a couple of days. I love Han Solo, and I enjoyed this origin story enough to read the next one. “The Hutt Gambit” should be arriving any day now. I’ll be curious to see whether “Solo” takes any cues from Crispin’s stories.

“I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death” by Maggie O’Farrell

I think I originally read about “I Am, I Am, I Am” in the New York Times Book Review. I was expecting to be moved, to cry and to emerge with a greater appreciation for life and all its frailty. But the essays really just left me a little more paranoid than usual about life and all its frailty. This shouldn’t have surprised me, knowing me as I do.

If you’re interested in seeing everything I’ve read this year — and why wouldn’t you be? — you can check out my 2018 Reading Challenge at Goodreads.

Reading

The portrait of a family falling apart

Among the Ten Thousand Things “Among the Ten Thousand Things” is the story of a family falling apart. Julia Pierpont shows the reader in exquisite and funereal detail all the ways in which the Shanley family — Jack the philandering artist, Deb the former dancer, teenage Simon and pre-teen Kay — is uniquely unhappy.

It’s a well-written, sometimes lyrical book, but it isn’t a particularly enjoyable one. I slogged through it, but I didn’t like any of the characters and every chapter left me feeling melancholy. Which I guess is the purpose of the Unhappy Family genre.

Reading

I read a book, and I liked it

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BlogHer Book Club @ Butterscotchsundae.comI’m reviewing books every now and again with the BlogHer Book Club, and my first review went live today. Here’s the plot-summary bit of it:

I so enjoyed reading Jean Kwok’s “Girl in Translation,” even though the book twisted my heartstrings at nearly every turn. It’s the story of a young girl who moves with her mother from Hong Kong to New York on the promise of a new life. When things don’t pan out as expected, Kimberly and her mother are forced into what I’m pretty sure qualifies as indentured servitude at a sweatshop.

You can read the rest at BlogHer. It’s a really good book, and I think you’d like it.