The Summer Tree

 Yikes. 

That is my first reaction after finishing The Summer Tree. Yikes yikes yikes. 

Straight forward high fantasy with not much new added to the genre and a whole bunch of cliches. After doing some more reading it seems that this book is generally regarded as his weakest and not a good representation of Kay as an author. I can see why!

The plot was boring, always stopping and starting in ways that were convoluted, and yet I was never given any real reason to care about this world or even much about our 5 heroes. Essence of tell not show, it seemed like every 3 pages he ended a section with some sort of weird omniscient narrator bit: ‘if it had been any other night they would have died’, ‘little did they know who watched them from afar’, ‘but there was one among them who understood’ which just seems downright lazy. 

The lady characters exist to be hot and have sex w or apparently, to be horrifically raped. Kim is sort of the exception to this except she is also incredibly one dimensional. All that matters is that she is the seer. She is a vessel. Even Rachel! Her memory and death just serves as a motivation for Paul and Kevin. I think that is why I ended up being somewhat endeared to Jaelle because even tho she too is one dimensional at least that dimension is ‘bitchy’ so she was somewhat interesting to read. 

Way way way too much world building. 382 pages just to set up a second book! So much crap that I could not keep track of. Absolutely no information given to us about the 5 graduate students who apparently have no issue just popping off to another dimension. They never really wonder about going home or seem to care at all about this magical trip they've taken. We know nothing about them when they arrive and we end knowing pretty much the same. 

I don't think you can be forgiven for the rape scene at the end. Gratuitous violence that felt really out of place EVEN WITH the constant sexualization of the women. 

Yikes. 

Solaris

 What an odd little book. My first thought upon finishing it was to spare a thought for the translators who translated this book into so many languages. Seems impossible. I read it in my native tongue and I'm not sure I understood the bulk of it. 

Why was humanity so obsessed w Solaris? Why, after failing so many times and losing people, did they continue to research the ocean? Why was Kelvin even there? I see he did his PhD (in psychology…??) About the place but I don't know how that could be relevant to his work. A lot that goes unanswered. 

What I will say is that Lem does an incredible job of setting up a Gothic atmosphere from the get go. It's immediately unsettling and he wanted no time having Kelvin fall under the spell of the station/ocean. I was unnerved throughout almost all of it. The problem was, I didn't really care about any of them. Not enough backstory maybe? But I could have cared less if they all lived or died.

I know Rheya was not “real” but even still the way Kelvin related to her was super gross. She's hot, she's always 20, she seemingly has no purpose besides being there to love him, she is a silent “wife” who sleeps besides him, cleans up after him, and deals w all of his moods. In the end she kills herself because she can never truly be w him or make him happy? Yuck. I hope he rots on that planet waiting for her return. Written in 1961 and boy does it show. 

I finished the book feeling like I had no idea what happened. 

The Gathering

 Where to start with this book. I think first off, a note on the writing style, which I found to be very confusing. The dreamy, stream of consciousness, never knowing if this memory is real or invented, whose POV it is, etc was a lot to get used to. I confess that I started listening to it rather than reading it and had to give up based on how the narrator read it. In fact, I had to give myself a week or two away from it to forget her voice. However, having now finished it, I understand why she read it the way she did. I still don't like it but I get it. Veronica is barely hanging on and the veering between anger, confusion, apathy, and sadness all make sense. 

How does one write a book about csa? It feels impossible. It feels impossible that as a society we allow such a thing to happen and even more so, to be normalized to such a degree. I think, in that vein, Enright was downright brilliant. She wrote a book that is dark, unflinching, bleak as hell, that implicates all adults. An achievement. 

I don't find Veronica to be particularly likeable but think that is besides the point. She too has had her life destroyed in a way by what happened to her brother, what happened to her mother, what happened to her grandmother, her uncle, so many others that even though she is “successful” she has inherited so much trauma and guilt that is has built up to the fever pitch where we find her once Liam has died. Does this mean she acts selfishly? Absolutely. I have real worry about how her own girls will carry forth that trauma as well. Does it make sense that at the end of the book she has run away and is daydreaming about leaving it all behind? Of course. Is that a fair or good move? No. 

This book made me confront the ghosts in my family, how my family relates to one another, and in a deeper sense, how I relate to children. I think there is something about the way she describes how she feels toward Rowan that is so salient. It's uncomfortable to read. But in a way, I think often we adults relate that way to children. We want them to love us unconditionally, to reflect the best of us, to fix and change patterns, to entertain us, to do “right” by us, to act on a way that reflects well on is, etc and so forth. So much heaped on them.

My Sister, the Serial Killer

 

Wow. I devoured this one really quickly. I think I read it in a day and a half. I love the fast pace, the modern setting of Lagos, and how we are shown and not told the differences in culture (corruption, gender roles, everyone trying to make a quick buck). 

One thing that really stuck w me is the lack of redemption arc or any real clarity about the violence in the family. Who killed their father? I'm assuming Korede or perhaps both of them. Is that what sent Ayoola on her path? We never find out and are left to think about it. In fact, we are never given answers at all and I think that was a clever choice. This novela sticks in the brain precisely because of that, all the lingering questions. 

I also appreciate that she didn't hammer the idea of the “unreliable narrator” even though I would argue that Korede is one. Whether it's due to her trauma or her inability to (until the end) reckon with her role in her sister's actions, it is clear that we can only trust her so much. Additionally, I like how she plays with the trope of the eldest sister. She is always cleaning up after Ayoola but we see that she also keeps herself in that role due to her inability to question her sister, herself, or anyone around them. It's like she had her one act of defiance w the aunt and that was all she had in her. 

All in all, I loved it. It felt really fresh and while I may have wanted more of a fleshed out story at times, I think it was clever to keep it sparse.

The Mercy of Gods Hannah

Wow. What a brutal book. Is it weird to say that my favorite character (besides Jessn and Kampar) was the swarm? I thought that bit was really interesting. 

I had trouble w this one. It is an incredibly thorough book and very heavy on science which I seem to remember folks commenting on on the expanse series as well..authors are obviously insanely smart. But I'm not a scientist so a lot of that went over my head. Wtf is a protein assay? 

I think it will be interesting to see where they take the other two. We already know from the final statements scattered throughout that everyone comes to hate Dafid. I'm not sure I want to go on that journey to hate him. I didn't even particularly like him…but my heart did hurt for him when he realized he had to stop the uprising and the deal he had to end up striking w Jellett. That sucks. No good option there. 

I grew pretty tired of the constant slew of aliens and I actually felt really really bad for the night drinkers. I had to sort of tune some of that out when the gang went to fight them or when the carryx finally killed them all. I felt bad for the berries and the not turtle. I felt bad for essentially everyone involved. Like I said, the book was brutal. 

Tough to read while we are enacting our own insane and ongoing genocide on a people on our own planet. Tough to not draw connections to slavery etc. I wonder what the message of this book is. From the expanse, I would wager that my politics often align w the authors’ but I felt this lightly veiled idea of “colonization&empire for the sake of it is bad” didn't move me the way it did in other aspects of the expanse. Maybe lacking on the political side? Maybe the characters aren't as well developed? I'm not sure. 

Something about it fell flat for me even as I was curious to see what happened in the end. You guys might have to read the other two and summarize them for me tho. 

Love that narrator tho! Wow. A real command of his voice and the absolutely bonkers vocab thru the whole thing. 

One question tho, what was the second species on Aijiin that the carryx were interested in?

Margo's Got Money Troubles - Matt

 This is a weird one in that there's already a Margo adaptation in production! Looks like they want:

Elle Fanning (Margot)

Michelle Pfeiffer (Shyanne)

Nicole Kidman (Probably Mark's Mom)

Not bad. Elle Fanning is the obvious choice since she narrated the audiobook and the other two are the biggest name older blonde women in the game right now. Also, it's all wrong. Elle, at 26 and shaped like a European runway model, will have a hard time being properly messy and powerless. Margo is a goof, the world is against her and she doesn't get a chance to really fight back til the end.

Shyanne (is that really how her name is spelled? Seems insane) is, despite kinda being the big bad, is also sorta the comedic relief. Can Michelle Pfeiffer do that? Probably, but I can't think of an example of it. And one of the most famous actors in the world as a character that, at least in the novel, has like two scenes? Maybe overkill.

We can do better. In our adaptation Margo is naive and impulsive, she makes more bad choices than objectively good ones. She's pretty, but her friends have to tell her so - she doesn't see it herself. She see's herself as cheesy.

MARGO

Veronika Slowikowska

I know I already mined the Davey & Jonsie's Locker show last time for my backup Nimue (and it's not even a show I like all that much) but this Veronika just would work so well as Margo. She's a comedian first - got her start doing sketch comedy YouTube videos - and has that 'I don't even know what I just got myself into' look down. She can glam on up, too, when it comes to the OnlyFans filming:

And playing into the comedy will be important here given how heavy the story gets. This is doubly important when it comes to Shyanne...

SHYANNE

Lisa Kudrow

Popping around in a full pink tracksuit sneaking some online poker rounds while casually saying the most brutal things imaginable to her daughter? Easy.

Mark's mom is, of course, a pivotal character - but not really a big one. I might not have even have been thinking about her for this if not for the Nicole Kidman thing. She could kinda be anyone who can pull off a powersuit and pearl lipstick but I'm partial to:

MARK'S MOM

Sally Phillips

Ok, now on to the rest - Apple, feel free to steal whatever. First up, the hardest and most important to nail:

JINX

Timothy Olyphant

He's charming (the most charming, even), he's jacked, he's 56, he can be an absolute mess. I know what you're saying: 'Isn't it in his contract that he can't be bald on camera? His hair is iconic.' And I'd have to remind you about that Hitman movie.

It's airtight.

MARK

Daniel Radcliffe

He's 5'5" and not afraid to be a nasty monster on screen. Mark is obviously a nasty monster but also kinda a doofus mommy's boy. Can Dan do an American accent? Does it matter? Mark is rich, British is shorthand for rich in movies, it works.

J.B.

Charles Melton

Our kinda awkward hunk. This dude was in Riverdale and this movie May December - neither of which I've ever seen BUT even though he's a little old at 33 he's really got the big, sort of oafy, mostly innocent look on lockdown.

SUZIE

Shioli Kutsuna

She has a funny bit part in the Deadpool movies but is also in a bunch of, I'm assuming, better Japanese shows. I know it's a little stereotypical to have the little Asian girl be the cosplayer but it's not a role that needs to reinvent the wheel - Suzie is sweet, supportive, lacks confidence but grows into a great little best friend. I can see it.

KENNY

J.K. Simmons

This is non-negotiable.

And that's all I got - doing the OnlyFans buddies would be fun but going full unknowns for them might be a smarter move. The rotten-to-the-core CPS worker would also have been smart but I couldn't bring myself to think about her for the five straight minutes that would've been required. So yeah, this one is for free Apple. 

Margo's Got Money Problems Hannah

 Wow. Just finished Margo and what a roller coaster! At first I was so caught up in whether or not this book delivered what I wanted it to that I had a hard time reconnecting to it. I made the mistake of taking a pretty long break from it during vacation. But once I got back into the story I was hooked. I think I finished it in a little over a day. Elle did a great job reading it even tho there were awkward pauses sometimes or an inflection was weird. She just got Margo’s voice, I think. 

Anyway. I am glad that it delivered is a happy ending and I think that that happy ending was actually very realistic. Margo went through hell before coming to this point of relative calm and ease. It is very likely she will have other challenges in the future but we all have that. She is at a point where things feel good and I think we can all look back at our lives and be like “oh yeah, that was a good moment” that is independent of the shitty times that came before or after. 

One thing that wasn't realistic was the lawyer stuff. I am so glad that fictional Margo had the means and support to retain a lawyer and fight CPS. In real life, at least in Maine, this almost never happens. I wonder if Rufi has had experience w CPS because the worker was written perfectly. I have dealt w those folks over and over again and they are all the same. She is right, they think they are doing good and in reality they are an evil cog in an evil wheel of an evil system. Never call them. 

I think the book put forth some really cool ideas about love, art, and parenting. 

The Bright Sword - Matt

The year is 2025 and a new series of films (four in total if the box office agrees) is announced. It's a big budget adaptation of the recent hit novel The Bright Sword by your boy Lev Grossman. Not sure how to approach the casting, A24 found the most famous book club blog on the internet called "Factual Magic" who had read the source material when it released. They contacted the webmaster and book club leader for his suggestions, which are as follows. (SPOILERS ALL)

The Bright Sword - Hannah

Thoughts after just finishing The Night Office (chp. 36)

My prevailing thought while reading and listening to this book is that Lev Grossman is vindicating all of the women from Arthur's story. I wonder if he read Mists or Avalon and was just as crushed as the rest of us to learn what a monster MZB and her horrible husband were. No one can re write Mists, obviously, but Grossman goes to real lengths to treat the various "whores" of this story with such care. Acknowledging Guenevere's intelligence, savvy, and her loyalty. Morgan continuing to offer chance after chance for humanity after they've all cast her as the devil. Nimue and her love for children and those who are less powerful being the root of all of her strength. 

I *love* the recasting of Merlin and Lancelot as the villains. In many versions of the story, Nimue is Merlin's lover and that never felt right to me. A powerful sorceress who trapped him under a hill so she could keep him for a while because he was a workaholic? Boring. The story Grossman suggests is much better. 

There is a part of me that grieves a little because I love magic and have grown up loving Merlin but after reading The Once and Future King you realize that Merlin is the one caping for nationalism all along. He convinces Arthur that that is the best way, to conquer Britain completely, to flatten it in the name of "unity". And of course, this leads to Arthur's eventual downfall. It makes sense that he would have done this to ensure that he is the only one who still remains the power of the "old ways" and to make himself indispensable. A man who facilitates a rape, banishes the child of said rape, only to use him when it's convenient and EVEN THEN keeps so many secrets about his life from him is obviously a villain. How could he be anything but that!

It's normal to still love the magic and the old ways. Grossman obviously does as well and gives us so many opportunities to celebrate those various sprites, deities, gods, spirits, witches, fairies, and others. I appreciate that addition and filling out of that world. Not to mention, he makes Morgan so funny.

I was struggling throughout the first third, half, maybe more, of the book with the idea that Arthur is a colonizer. I felt a little bit like when I was rooting for Cam/Gideon when they are fighting Cytherea, why am I rooting for the bad guys?? I am firmly on the side of the Picts and everyone else he is trying to conquer and yet I'm also rooting for Arthur the man because I love him? Why would I want him to come back, or Camelot to continue, or for the Old Ways to disappear completely? I love that Grossman lets Arthur finally acknowledge that he belongs in the Old World and that he was wrong about God. "We were whole the entire time" reduced me to tears! People are complex! Belief systems are complex! The problem is the binary! Grossman gives us so many examples of living outside of that, Nimue and her faith, Morgan and her love for Arthur while never forgiving him, Collum's parentage, Dinadan, Palomides choosing to stay in Britain despite loving Iraq and his own faith/upbringing,Scipio and his understanding of empire, and countless others. The real dangers are the zealots (see what I did there?) the Lancelots. The Merlins. 

The Bright Sword - Elliot

Up to Chapter 20 Quick Thoughts

1. Flashbacks - I have enjoyed each of the roundtable characters backstories so far. I always have a innate reaction to feeling set back from the actual story when these are introduced in book. But when the third character (Dinadan's) backstory chapter was introduced, I was actually excited. Each one has felt like a small self-contained fairy tale and gives you just enough to sympathize with the character of the roundtable and helps showcase how they are all kind of a bunch of misfits like Collum.

2. Collum's Perspective - I have been in love with Collum as a character and experiencing his perspective of this world from the start of the book. Kind of like the main character from the Magician's he somehow manages to be a dope but a hero at the same time without feeling like he isn't a realistic character, or that he's just incredibly lucky, or invincible cause he's the main character of the book. "Collum said a prayer and was met with a more resounding silence than usual." me too Collum. "God's feet! and toes, and Bollocks!"

3. Incredible Narrator - I love how the wry humor in the writing is performed so thoughtfully by the narrator. It's not delivered in a snarky or sassy way. A lot of the time character are having internal thoughts trying to make sense of the world and God, and it is written absurdly, but the narrator's delivery is very thoughtful, making it far funnier.

4. Down The Well - I was a little bummed when i learned Collums adventures after escaping the coffin and the well weren't real. The author does a great job with the transitions between the Fey and Real world. But I was a little let down when the boys from the round table were reintroduced and it turned out to be an ordeal to become a Knight of The Roundtable. Which leads me to...

5. Morgan le Fay, All the way, every day, Morgan le Fay. 

Underland

Hannah's font is courier.

Chp 3 really unsettled me. The idea of leaving our trash down in caves under the sea just to rot feels so….top of the food chain of us. In general, the cowboy tone of that chp made me feel like we are a bunch of children who don't understand repercussions even though we are literally living thru a mass extinction right TF now.

Glad that in chp 4 he finally mentions indigenous knowledge AND a female scientist. It was feeling v white and bro-y up until then. All the talk about world wood web and mycelium is up my alley and I'm finally engaged! Altho, the scientist drum circle at the end of the chapter….

Chp 5 all those people sound insufferable but I'm very intrigued by the catacombs. Though it's probably be enough for me to see the tourist version vs climb thru a bunch of bones. 

Chp 6 Pg. 190 — MITHRAEUM YOU SAY??? Oh Tamsyn. You are everywhere

Chp. 7 is what both sides-ism will get you. The right will never fairly judge an atrocity, will always use it to exploit their own motives, and in that way actually dishonors the dead. Reservation dogs ep where the deer woman revenge kills. 

Chp 8 “always Englishman doing stuff like this” and his sudden tears on seeing the red dancing figures. Speaks to our disconnectedness and what we lose in center whiteness. Impressions of when we saw early cave art in … New Mexico? Arizona?

Chp 10 ok, I'm calling it. I distrust this Robert MacFarlane. He's literally out there w an Inuit dude and still talking about how it's our individual choices that have fucked up the earth? Come on man. Not to mention the whole chp basically describes Geo as a noble savage, quiet&strong, man of few words bla bla bla.