Progress Notes | May 2019

Happy June-Eve, y’all!

I hope everyone had a productive, happy, and sun-filled May! Myself? I’ve been alternating between denial and panic all month. With the start of spring — like, real spring — my brain has switched over the YOLO-IT’S-SUMMER mode. The more logical part of me is keenly aware that — (oh, sweet baby Jesus) — I only have 2.5 months left for data collection. And, thanks to a whole host of technical errors, I haven’t yet started. There have been many stressed out conversations with my mom these past few weeks — and many more late nights / weekend spent in lab.

PhD-angst aside, it’s been a pretty good month for reading. I finished Crown of Midnight late last night, and am starting to appreciate why so many people love Throne of Glass … Fox 8 might just be the single most touching book I read this year … and I’m still surprisingly pleased with how Eleanor Oliphant ended.

Fingers crossed for a word-filled June!

My monthly reading goal:

• The oldest book on my TBR – Dreams and Shadows by C. Robert Cargill
• Any book on my TBR – Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas
• The monthly motif: One Sitting Reads – Fox 8 by George Saunders
• An academic book on my TBR – She Has Her Mother’s Laugh by Carl Zimmer

Other books I read in May:

• Years, Months, and Days by Amanda Jernigan ** from the TBR
• Basic Witches by Jaya Saxena and Jess Zimmerman
• Celeste by I. N. J. Culbard
• P is for Pterodactyl by Raj Haldar and Chris Carpenter
• Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman ** from the TBR
• The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
• Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell ** from the TBR
• Whose Boat Is This Boat? “by” Donald Trump
• A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss
• The Witch Elm by Tana French ** from the TBR

Tags:

• I’m starting to approach the end of the ABC Book Challenge! Check out my P, Q, R, and S books
• Top 10 Tuesdays: Bookish pet peeves; Books I will NEVER read; Fictional crushes; Books that made me cry; and, Fictional BFFs
• But first: Let me take a shelfie

Tag | T10T: Fictional BFFs

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly prompt by The Broke and the Bookish and The Artsy Reader Girl. The list is 400+ strong — so, not wanting to miss anything, I started at prompt #1. This week’s prompt is “Fictional Best Friends”.

---

• Diana Bishop, A Discovery of Witches – I’m not sure if this is “friendship” as much as it is “Oh my god – I’m Diana Bishop.” Young academic? Check. Rower? Check. Introvert? Check. Tea-loving fiend? Check. Obsessed with Oxford? Check.
• Hermione Granger, Harry Potter – Like Hermione, I had the habit of walking out of undergrad exams and proclaiming: “Well, that was pretty fun.” Hermione and I would have either been the bestest buds or the greatest keener rivals Hogwarts had ever seen.
• Vasya Petrovna, The Bear and the Nightingale – Vasya’s wildness and strength of character is completely inspiring.
• Kell, A Darker Shade of Magic – While Kell’s doesn’t strike me as someone who’s particularly easy to get along with, I empathize with how he feels like an outsider. He seems like a good person to read a book alongside.

• The Archeron Sisters, A Court of Thorns and Roses – While I’d love to be BFFS with all three, I expect I’d get along best with Elain — our friendship fueled by a mutual love for flowers and baking.
• The Illyrians, A Court of Thorns and Roses – This is the sort of entourage you’d want to backpack Europe with.

• Jacob, City of Ghosts – To risk sounding a bit creepy: having a dead best friend might be the best best friend. Especially if they’re as helpful and loyal as Jacob.
• Solovey, The Bear and the Nightingale – A talking, loyal, smart, food-loving, know-it-all horse? Oh, yes please!
• Gabriel, Cainsville – Dark and brooding, but wickedly smart and ultimately a big cinnamon roll. (wait … wait. Dark-haired, powerful, damaged male lead? This is the wrong list … )

Review | The Witch Elm by Tana French

Spoiler: This book is not a supernatural-horror.

My bad for not reading the description before adding it to my TBR shelf. But, in my defence: (1) the cover is rather similar to The Changeling, and (2) the title is very similar to The Witching Elm.

Bonus points after I got around to reading the description: (3) the podcast Unexplained covered a very similar event back in season 2. (Listen to part 1 here and part 2 here).

While there are dashes of mystery mixed in, the book is fundamentally a character study: telling the story of Toby, — PR rep and happy-go-lucky charmer — as he falls from golden boy to … not.

What I liked:

The Narrator. I opted to listen to Witch Elm rather than read it … and I will forever congratulate myself for that decision. Paul Nugent did a fabulous job.

The Writing. Pacing issues aside (below!), French’s writing is descriptive and lilting and lovely to listen to.

What I didn’t like:

The Pacing. When it comes to audiobooks, I prefer listening to (1) stories that I’m familiar with (like The Bear and the Nightingale or A Court of Thorns and Roses) or (2) books that are slower. This is because I multi-task when I listen and often find myself distracted … so fast-paced action-packed books are a no-no. I’ll still miss stuff with a slower book – but, I still walk away with a pretty good idea of what happened.

My lesson? A book can be too slow to listen to. Nothing happens in The Witch Elm. Like, nothing. The story is fluffed up like cotton candy: lots of air, but very little substance. Not only did this make for a really boring story, but — as a listener — it was exceptionally difficult to follow. Nugent’s lively narration was the saving grace … If it wasn’t for him, this definitely would have been a DNF at page 50.

Favourite quote:

“The thing is, I suppose,” he said, “that one gets into the habit of being oneself. It takes some great upheaval to crack that shell and force us to discover what else might be underneath”

---

The Details:

• The Book: The Witch Elm by Tana French
• Published: 2018, Viking
• My Copy: KFPL
• Read date: May 20-28, 2019
• Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
• You should read listen to this if you like … Irish accents
• Avoid this if you dislike … slllllooooooowwwwwww stooooooories

 

Tag | ABC Book Challenge: S

Wow! We’re getting close to the end! Welcome to my “S” books!

---

Memorable Books Starting with S

     

Sabriel by Garth Nix | 🍁 Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson  |  A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

---

TBR Books Starting with S

   

🍁 Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq  |  🍁 The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson  |  🍁 Scattered Minds by Gabor Mate

 

Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft  |  Secret Passages in a Hillside Town by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen  |  The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac by Sharma Shields

Review | A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss

Mama mia. Here I go again.

(Two American political picture books in one week? This one is also courtesy of the bookshelf beside my friend’s couch.)

This is a cute little book that tells the story of Marlon Bundo: a lonely bunny who lives at the Naval Observatory. One day, Marlon meets another boy bunny and the two fall in love … but are told by the nasty Stink Bug that they aren’t allowed to get married. Marlon and his friends realized that they are able to vote-out the Stink Bug and make their own rules.

What I liked:

The Illustrations. This isn’t the best-illustrated children’s book I’ve ever encountered, but the pictures – whimsical little watercolours – are nonetheless lovely to look at. Plus: Marlon Bundo is wearing a bow-tie. No explanation needed.

The Humour. There are a number of dry chuckles hidden within these pages. I don’t think kids will ever get them … but, they’re certainly nice to stumble across as a grown-up reader.

The Message. The themes are communicated simply but effectively: (1) Love is love, (2) Friends support you, (3) By engaging in the democratic process, you can change the world for the better.

What I didn’t like:

The Politics. OK … A book whose sub-theme is democracy is going to be inherently political … but adding rather-overt political imagery detracts from the message and comes across as a publicity stunt. Further: arguments like this aren’t usually effective in changing people’s opinions. If anything, they’re likely to polarize people even more.

Favourite Quote:

Dill Prickle

… look. It’s a HEDGEHOG named DILL PRICKLE!
You cannot not love that!

---

The Details:

• The Book: A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss
• Published: 2018, Partially Important Productions
• My Copy: The-bookshelf-beside-my-friend’s-couch
• Read date: May 18, 2019
• Rating: ★★★☆☆
• You should read this if you like … punny animal names
• Avoid this if you dislike … not-so-sneaky political messaging

Review | Whose Boat Is This Boat? “by” Donald Trump

A couple week ago, – with my “Books I will NEVER read” Top 10 Tuesday – I stated that (1) my knowledge of US politics is non-existent, and (2) I have no interest in reading books on US current events.

I will now admit to being a liar. This past weekend – while crashing at a friend’s house – I read Whose Boat Is This Boat?

… which weighs in at a hefty 24 pages.

Consequently, my knowledge of American politics hasn’t improved much. And I’m thankful for that. I choose ignorance.

Given my ignorance, — and given the fact that the quotes are (presumably?) cherry-picked and out-of-context — I don’t think its fair to judge the content. It’s also not fair for me to provide a wider commentary/opinion on what’s happening in the States.

… so, why don’t we just take the book at face value? Whose Boat? was created by the crew of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert – with all proceeds going to natural disaster victims. It’s a quick little read – mostly composed of illustrations – with a spattering of quotes from Donald Trump. The book is … about a boat? And not knowing who’s boat it is? … Yeah. That’s about it.

What I liked:

The Video Animation. Yup. That’s right. The entire book has been turned into a video. In fact, the video has even more content than the book. You can watch it here. Uncle Sam’s dance (at 3:30) is particularly brilliant.

The Illustrations. Simplistic yet silly.

What I didn’t like:

The Quantity. Quantity. Not quality. Twenty-four pages. About ten lines.

The Humour. Was this supposed to be funny? I really didn’t get it …

---

The Details:

• The Book: Whose Boat Is This Boat? “by” Donald Trump
• Published: 2018, Simon Schuster
• My Copy: The-bookshelf-beside-my-friend’s-couch
• Read date: May 18, 2019
• Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
• You should read this if … it’s December 31 and you really need one more book to achieve your GoodReads Challenge
• Avoid this if you dislike … political commentaries

Tag | T10T: Sobbing

Welcome to another round of Top 10 Tuesday! This week’s prompt is: Books that made me cry.

^ Yup. Just like that.

---

• Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosch – Starting off with happy tears.
• The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger – It’s those last 50 pages. Come armed with an handkerchief.
• A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness – The book is marketed as a quasi-horror. It isn’t … but it will still destroy you.
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Midnight release + The end of an era + HEDWIG! = One emotionally exhausting all-night reading event.

• 🍁 I Love You Forever by Robert Munsch – The waterworks start at page 1, and continue all the way through to the end.
• When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi – I was doing pretty good until it gets to the end — where Paul stops writing, and his wife starts …
• Me Before You by Jojo Moyes – It raises your hopes then crushes you. (Even knowing where it was headed …)

• The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – I honestly thought that this was a happy book. Plunked myself down in the middle of a public park – on a beautiful July day – and proceeded to spend the next hour sobbing.
• Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley – I haven’t actually read this book yet, but if the description is anything to go by …
• 🍁 Wenjack by Joseph Boyden – I can’t remember if I cried, but Wenjack definitely hits you like a punch to the gut.

---

Have you read any of my books? Any tear-jerker suggestions?
Let me know!

Review | Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

DNF at 10%.

Ironically: not a huge fan of Fangirl.

Fangirl follows Cath – a first-year student and Harry Potter Simon Snow fanfic author extraordinaire – as she ventures to university and is confronted with the real world. And, boy, is she confronted: her twin sister doesn’t want to be her roommate; she doesn’t know how to feed herself; she balks at all social contact.

Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

So much young-adult-life-transition angst.

While aspects of this book were moderately relatable, — if not personally, then from my work in the student counselling centre — the overall package just didn’t do it for me. The book felt rather blah and flat, and I couldn’t bring myself to care about the characters or their struggles.

What I liked:

#DormLife. Ha ha ha ha. Oh my. The good ol’ days.

What I didn’t like:

Cath. Miserable. Passive. Emotionally stunted. Naïve. Judgemental. Static. Dull. Rigid.

University. I hold a BA in English Lit, and lemme tell you: there is no way that a first-year student would be granted permission to take a 300-level English class. You might be the greatest writer ever … but university doesn’t work like that. A first-year student lacks the theoretical knowledge, critical skills (including self-reflection), and exposure to diverse styles to meaningfully engage with 300-level coursework.

The Product Placement. Ray-Bans. Chipotle. The Big Bang Theory. Blah blah blah blah. I don’t care.

Fan Culture. I was hoping that this book would offer a celebration of fan culture. What it actually does is reinforce the stereotype that fans are weird / quirky / eccentric / socially incompetent / incapable of having a life … Look: we live in the age of fandoms. It’s perfectly normal to be passionate about things.

The … plot? Presumably: anxious and introverted girl goes to university and grows up? I’m guessing here based on the usual university-coming-of-age trope. I actually had no idea where this book was going. (And, I don’t mean that in the pleasantly-surprising twist sort of way.)

---

The Details:

• The Book: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
• Published: 2013, St. Martin’s Press
• My Copy: KFPL
• Read date: May 17, 2019
• Rating: DNF

Tag | ABC Book Challenge: R

I’ve seen this challenge posted on a number of different blogs – the very first one being The Bibliophagist! It seems like a fun way to reflect on past readings and to look forward to the TBR.

---

Memorable Books Starting with R

 

The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway

---

TBR Books Starting with R

       

 The Radleys by Matt Haig  |  Rapture by Carol Ann Duffy | 🍁 River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay

   

The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher  |  The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida & David Mitchell  |  Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

Review | The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden

I’m starting to feel like a broken record when it comes to this series … but, screw it: I love it. I love it, I love it, I love it. The Winternight Trilogy is everything I ever wanted in three neatly-bound volumes.

The Girl in the Tower is the second book of the trilogy, following Vasya as she flees Lesnaya Zemlya and journeys across Russia — ultimately ending up in Moscow and with her family. Like Bear and the Nightingale and Winter of the Witch, a primary focus of the book is family/kinship … But there’s also a healthy dose of self-discovery/identity, feminism, politics, faith, and folklore. Overwhelming? hardly. Arden is a master storyteller who has woven an absolutely luscious tapestry.

Believe it or not, this was my very first re-read of Tower. Upon my first reading, the book had struck me as good … but lacking the wonder of Bear and the Nightingale and the scale of Winter of the Witch. I’ve changed my mind with this reading. It’s a fundamentally different sort of book – smaller, quieter – but the story … **dreamy sigh**

What I liked:

Vasya. Courageous. Stubborn. Soft-hearted. Hopeful. So, so alive. The world would be a better place if there were more people like Vasya in it.

… and all the other characters. Three-dimensional, and ready to leap off the page. Every character is thoughtfully-rendered and complex.

The Atmosphere. I’m stealing citing this from a GoodReads reviewer, as it’s so perfectly worded:

It’s intricate and mesmerizing and complex and embodies the best of the timeless fairy-tale aesthetic. With haunting imagery and gorgeously supple prose, Arden’s work inspires deep musings about identity, love, family, and commitment. She combines the hardships and beauties of Russian wilderness and grafts it seamlessly onto a world that intricately straddles the seen and the unseen. The result is a fast-paced and exhilarating novel that’s somehow also languorous, thoughtful, and intimate.

The Romance. Pure precious. The budding romance between Vasya and Morozko fits beautifully with the plot and characters — but, it takes a backseat against Vasya’s growth and the larger story.

What I didn’t like:

The Pacing. While the book is excellent — action, character growth, world-building — it’s also painfully obvious that this is the second of a trilogy. It isn’t until the c. 75% point that the story really starts to move.

Favourite quote:

Every time you take one path, you must live with the memory of the other: of a life left unchosen. Decide as seems best, one course or the other; each way will have its bitter with its sweet.

---

The Details:

• The Book: The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden
• Published: 2017, Del Rey
• My Copy: Personal copy
• Read date: May 9-16, 2019
• Rating: ★★★★★
• You should read this if you like … magic, mysticism, and feminism
• Avoid this if you dislike … medieval feminism