I started this blog mid-year, so it doesn't capture all of my 2020 reading. As I'm sure is true for most people, it was a weird year reading-wise. Some months I read a ton, and in other months I couldn't read at all. Despite that, I wound up reading 64 books--not quite my goal of … Continue reading 2020 Wrap-Up
The Train to Crystal City by Jan Jarboe Russell recounts the story of the World War II internment camp at Crystal City, a small South Texas town not far from the border with Mexico. Russell interviewed several survivors of the camp, and she uses these personal stories to illustrate not only the betrayal and displacement … Continue reading Review: The Train to Crystal City
One of the Reading Women 2020 Challenge prompts is to read AND watch a book-to-movie adaptation. I had a hard time finding a book for this because I had already read (or watched) many of the good choices, but also because I don't necessarily look for the same things in books and movies. I settled … Continue reading The Eternal Book vs. Movie Question
I found Zahrah the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu in looking for a book for the "Afrofuturism" prompt for the Reading Women 2020 Challenge. I had a hard time finding something I wanted to read for this prompt because futurism of any kind is not my usual fare, and almost everything I saw involved a dystopian … Continue reading I’d Like Some Social Spice
I bought The King Must Die by Mary Renault a few years ago, and the Reading Women 2020 Challenge prompted me to read it. If you're doing the challenge, it fits the "inspired by folklore" and "by an LGBTQ+ author" categories. Renault tells the story of Theseus as a young man, starting with his childhood … Continue reading The King Must Die
I read A Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata for the Reading Women 2020 Challenge, and it’s an example of why I like trying these challenges: I would not have found this book without a push to read a book translated from an Asian language or set in Japan. The narrator, Keiko, doesn’t view the … Continue reading What is “Normal”?
