April booklist
1. 5 Spices, 50 Dishes, Ruta Kahate.
Cookbooks totally count if you read them cover to cover, which I did. This one's excellent.
2. Edge of Eternity, Isaac Asimov
I like Asimov generally, but this one had me mostly going... huh? what?
Caveat: was listening while painting a ceiling, so I might have missed crucial plot points.
3. How the Heather Looks, Joan Badger
Lovely, nostalgic, charming - but skip the epilogue unless you want to be sad. Just picture them as a family, forever trapsing about England in search of storybook places.
4. Honeymoon Hotel, Hester Browne
Not my favorite Browne book, (try The Runaway Princess or the Little Lady books if you've never read her before) but as always I can count on a story with a good balance of fluff and heart.
5. Blacksad, Juan Diaz Canales & Juanjo Guarnido
Visually stunning - love the noir-ish, 1940s nyc aesthetic. The storylines are great (and contain some adult content, fyi) and the blending of animal and human characteristics is just beyond perfect.
6. The Geography of Time, Robert Levine
SUPER interesting look at how cultures experience time differently. I like being clock-bound, dangit, and would probably die in an event-based culture.
Of particular interest: New York City is only the 4th fastest city in the country when it comes to walking pace.
7. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett
Harder to read this time around. RIP, PTerry.
8. All the King's Cooks, Peter Brears
An exhaustive and rather exhausting delving into of the kitchens and larders of Hampton Court Palace during the time of Henry VIII. A bit on the dry side, but my goodness, if need to know how food was procured, prepared, and eaten in the court during that period, this is the book for you.
9. The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion
Really lovely - I fell for Don's narrative voice almost immediately.
10. Sandman: the doll's house, Neil Gaiman
There's a CEREAL CONVENTION only it's really serial killers and that just made the whole book for me.
11. So You've Been Publicly Shamed, Jon Ronson
(adapted from my GR review, which was adapted from some stream-of-concious twittering.)
A very timely book in this age of public calling-out. Mostly I came away with the feeling that since no one is perfect, we are ALL a moment away from public shaming. And that's frightening. One careless statement, overheard by the wrong person, one thing taken out of context - and the internet has the power to ruin a life.
The other thing I came away with is an intense feeling of discomfort with the calling-out culture in general.
Perhaps the thing bothering me most is the feeling that we're turning into a culture that takes delight in pointing out, amplifying, and publicly shaming other people for their faults, whether or not we know the full story, and almost without regard to how major or minor the fault is.
I don't know the answers. I think there are times to call people out, certainly, and things that we shouldn't let slide. But I know I don't want to be a person who enjoys tearing people down.