Cannonball Read 13

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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I like books, but I'm SUPER picky about them. To clarify- a three star rating means that I liked the book and found nothing objectionable in it. As 3 is the average between 1 and 5 this means the book is an average read, perfectly competent but not outstanding.

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Ghost Ships and Magic

Ship of Smoke and Steel by Django Wexler

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Ship of Smoke and Steel is an enjoyable fantasy that squeaks into the YA label because the protagonist is a teenager. The violence and sex in the book make it suitable for older teens at best, and boy do I feel like a prude saying that. I found out about this book thanks to John Scalzi’s wonderful segment on his blog “The Big Idea” where an author tells you about a book they have coming out and how they came up with it. I find a lot of interesting books through that segment, and I want to plug it. Anyway, I’m a casual fan of Wexler’s and I’ve enjoyed his books, although I’m beginning to wish he would write a heterosexual romance from the POV of his female protagonists as a male author writing only female/female romances is starting to feel a little icky. To be completely fair, Isoka (the protagonist here) is bisexual and has sex with both men and women, but her romance is with another woman.

I’m getting ahead of myself. Isoka lives in the slums a coastal city. She’s a mid-level mobster, ruling her given territory with a killing fist. She has two secrets. The first is an open one, she has magic which is forbidden to anyone not of noble blood or in the service of the empire. The second is better hidden, her sister living in the wealthy area of town and supported by the money Isoka earns with her magic swords and ruthless killing. And then her life is upended when a representative of the empire captures her, reveals he knows her both of  her secrets, and threatens her sister if she doesn’t manage to capture and deliver the giant ship that has been collecting magic users from all over the world.

Wexler wrote in his ‘The Big Idea’ post that he wanted to tell a story about a character growing into empathy, instead of growing into power. Isoka starts out powerful, and while she may have to navigate a new power structure in the book that isn’t her main story, because Isoka also starts out as an unfeeling killing machine who has to learn empathy. It works, kind of. I don’t like the story of a person learning empathy because of the love of a woman no matter if said person is male or female. It cheapens the growth of the character, and makes it hard to believe the growth will last beyond the romance. However, Wexler also manages to avoid the trap of “I’m only good to you” kind of ’empathy’ that I see so often in these types of stories. So it’s kind of a balancing thing. I wish he’d managed to do it without making Isoka’s character arc about romance, but I can live with the fact that he did.

I have other issues.The magic system feels very RPG-esque (I have a similar issue with Brandon Sanderson’s books, so take that as you will). The emotions Isoka feel for Meroe kind of come out of nowhere, and so therefore does her character growth. Lastly, there were just one too many  fight scenes, totally personal but fight scenes bore me. However, despite these issues, I really liked this book. The action moves along at a breakneck pace and the characters are all well developed and realistic. The various mysteries unfolded in ways that make sense and were answered by the end of the book despite this being the start to a series. I am looking forward to the next book.

If you’re looking for a lightly Asian flavored, magic pirate book with a bisexual protagonist then you should check this one out.

It’s Not the Destination, It’s the Journey

The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

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This was reviewed recently on Cannonball Read and it piqued my interest enough that I not only purchased it, I moved it way up the TBR pile. It is an excellent novel that is let down by it’s execution. The concept is great, the theme is thought provoking and well executed but there are moments where the plot needed tightening and there is one section where the gross prejudices of the author come out in ways that almost stopped me from reading (and stopped many Goodread reviewers, as they all stopped right around the same place).

Essentially the book is Agatha Christie by way of Black Mirror and Groundhog Day. If all three of those appeal to you, then you’ll probably like the book, but if you’re not interested in 1920s/30s murder mysteries set in decaying manor houses with fantastical twists then this isn’t going to be your book. See, Evelyn Hardcastle is going to be murdered tonight at 11PM, and there are three people who have to solve her murder. Not stop it, mind, solve it. They get to relive the day over and over and over again in order to do so. Unfortunately, their minds are wiped at the start of every day so they can’t actually retain any information beyond the 24 hours. Well, except for the protagonist of the story, for whatever reason, he gets to live the day through the POV of 7 different people. The question of ‘can he solve it’ is less important then why he needs to solve it, and the journey to finding the murderer is more important then finding the actual murderer.

It’s a really good concept, and for the most part it’s done quite well. I loved the end of the novel a lot, but I don’t want to get into why because it contains spoilers. However, there is a section, during the third POV, that really made me angry. This section contains some really ugly fat phobia. It’s right around the 20% mark, and if you go look at the one star reviews on Goodreads, you’ll see quite a few people stopped reading here. At this point, I needed to know who done it and so read the last chapter in hopes that I could count this one done. Unfortunately, it’s not a who done it murder mystery, as I said the who isn’t as important as the discovery of who, and so I was so confused by that last chapter that I kept reading beyond that section. Ultimately, I’m glad I did but I certainly don’t blame anyone who stopped there. What’s even more frustrating is that I read part of the interview with the author that’s at the end of my Kindle edition, and that fat phobia was an attempt to make this character seem less perfect, to give him a flaw that makes him grotesque.

I do recommend this book, and I’m giving it four stars because the concept and theme of the novel really worked for me. I think if it weren’t for the fat phobia, and some areas that let the tension lag a little, I would give this one five stars.

Everything I had worked for, all my years of study, had been to purchase for myself this one privilege: to see and experience more truths than those given to me by my father, and to use those truths to construct my own mind.

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

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Educated is the memoir of Tara Westover who, despite being in her early thirties, really does have a story to tell. My mother read this in her book group this past fall and raved about it to me, so much so that I bought it immediately on my kindle. I started reading it about week ago, and was immediately mesmerized. The prose in this book is compelling and hypnotically readable. I’ve been sitting on this book for a week trying to figure out how to review it beyond just saying “OMG READ THIS BOOK” (which I may or may not have been doing at work, oops). I have a lot of thoughts about the book, don’t get me wrong, but they’re about how Westover chose to compile her memoirs, including things she left out, and not so much about the book and why you (yes you) should read it.

The book follows Westover’s life from early childhood through her post-graduate degrees and is mainly about her relationship with her family. Her family, and their attitudes about women, education, the government, religion, and the end of days were the mountain that Westover had to climb over in order to educate herself. She had no formal classroom training until her first day of college at Brigham Young University in Provo, UT and a lot of the book is dedicated to the struggles of learning in an environment that doesn’t appreciate formal education.

While I do use the shorthand “she was raised in a fundamentalist Mormon household and got out” to describe the book, that description isn’t completely accurate. Although Westover deliberately removed a lot of Mormon markers from the book (as many as she could without changing the story), my reading of the book put her family as members of the mainstream Latter Day Saint Church headquartered in Salt Lake City. Though there are many fundamentalist Mormon offshoots, Westover wasn’t raised in a Warren Jeffs type polygamist compound. Her family may have been ‘home schooled’ (and they definitely took a lot of the church’s teachings to an extreme), but they grew up in the same church that I did. The idea of having a year’s worth of food storage was very common in the mid-80s and 90s, and I’m guessing it’s still something that’s brought up every once in a while. That the Westover family took it to an extreme is an important point, but nevertheless, I can’t say it was a fundamentalist family without qualifications.

Honestly, the removal of Mormon elements was something I found fascinating in the book. They aren’t removed completely, Westover couldn’t have told an honest story about growing up and going to BYU without some Mormon elements, but the ones she chose to remove fascinate me. I’m positive her brothers all served two year missions, she only mentions her father’s, but she talks about her older brother ‘coming back’ and I wondered if it was from his mission? Her father’s rants on various subjects, how tied were they to General Conference? This is a bi-yearly meeting where the leaders in SLC give sermons to members, it’s filmed and broadcast around the globe. It is also four to six sessions (four general and then one for men and one for women), each one two hours long. And while Westover mentions her father preaching to other members of her congregation, I wonder did that happen during Fast and Testimony meeting? I’ll eat my shoes if it didn’t. I find it interesting that Westover removed the Mormon elements in order to make it more relatable to the general public, and yet it creates a kind of cultural gap in her story. It’s not something that people unfamiliar with the Mormon church would recognize, but once I thought about them I found them very obvious.

Related to this, I found it fascinating that in a book which deals heavily with memory and how mutable it is Westover would choose to paraphrase letters and emails instead of quoting them. Whenever she mentions a correspondence, she never quotes it directly, instead she summarizes it. She doesn’t hid this, after each chapter where there is such a summation, there’s a small note that lets the reader know this is not an exact quote but that the meaning has been maintained. This does raise the question though, whose meaning? Is it the intended meaning of the writer? Or is it the meaning that Westover gleaned from it? And if it’s the latter, is it the interpretation of Westover at the time the letter was received or the Westover who is writing this memoir and trying to put together the pieces of her life into a coherent story. Like I said, it’s an interesting technique to use in a memoir that delves into unreliable memories and how memories can change us. I also find it a fascinating technique from a historian. In a way, it is Westover’s way of claiming her memoir as the final word on her life, there are no other interpretations that matter. By denying the reader the actual words in those letters and emails, Westover is staking her claim as a primary source. This is her life, and no one else’s words on her life matter. For a woman who has struggled to get to that point, it’s a strong statement.

Anyway, if you’ve gotten through this, thank you for reading. If you skipped down to the end in hopes of getting a summation, I’m afraid the only thing I have to offer you is OMG GO READ THIS BOOK.

Falling in Love with the Spirit in the Sword

Swordheart by T. Kingfisher

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I have sung the praises of T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon many times here on Cannonball. Her books are autobuys for me, and I have never been disappointed with them. They are funny, clever, sensible fantasy romps and I love them to pieces. I love her world building and they way that so many of her novels are reactions to other stories. For example, in this book Kingfisher was annoyed by Elric (Michael Moorcock’s Elric? I haven’t read them, I’m not familar) and claimed the real victim was his sword, and from that grew this book and the start of a trilogy.

Swordheart is the tale of Halla, a respectable (and poor widow) who has the misfortune of being willed a substantial amount of money when her late-husband’s uncle dies. This wouldn’t really be an issue, except that the other relatives of this uncle are not pleased by this will and have decided that the most simple remedy is to marry Halla, whether she will or no. After several days locked in her room, for daring to refuse the marriage proposal, Halla decides she’s just gonna kill herself and so unsheathes the sword that had been hanging on her wall. Much to her surprise, this unsheathing unlocks the person in the sword and Hallla discovers that the dusty sword she had hanging on her wall was actually an enchanted one. What follows is a love story between Halla and Sarkis as they journey to find a lawyer and straighten out this family nonsense.  This story does take place in the same universe as The Clockwork Boys novels, but you don’t need to read them in order to read this one (I think you should though, those are also awesome).

I found myself laughing quite a bit during the book, and the relationship that develops between Sarkis and Halla is just lovely. I definitely recommend this and I”m looking forward to the next two books in this trilogy.

 

Sable *in context* means black, and other crafting annoyances.

Ami Ami Kittens: Seriously Cute Crochet! by Mitsuki Hoshi

Literary Yarns: Crochet Projects Inspired by Classic Books by Cindy Wang

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When I received Ami Ami Kittens as part of the Cannonball Book Exchange I was super, duper excited. I had put it on my Amazon wish list as a kind of “hm… this craft looks fun and I think I would like to learn more” kind of thing and wasn’t much more motivated to pick up the craft then that. And then it arrived in my book exchange and I got excited, because it gave me an excuse to try it. For the record, I’ve been crocheting for about 20 years and in that time I’ve made blankets, scarves, hats, doilies and one partial tablecloth (I swear, I’m working on it). However, making little dolls? Well, that’s new to me. As an avid cat fanatic, Ami Ami Kittens seemed like the perfect place to start. This misconception was quickly dispelled when I opened the book and started reading. It very quickly became clear that I was gonna need another book to help me start this craft, and so I got my hands on Literary Yarns and got started there.

From the many projects in Literary Yarns, I chose to start with Hester Prynne. The Scarlet Letter has been a favorite book of mine for a long time, and Hester seemed like one of the less complicated projects. The instructions here were very clear, and while I have thoughts on the various mistakes I made during the crafting, I have only my inexperience with the craft to blame for that.

I still have a couple of issues with the book though. For example, instead of a page with a depiction of each crochet stitch (something most crochet books have) the book directed you to a website and advised you to be familiar with crochet. The website was helpful, but I didn’t really appreciate having the book out, the project in my hands and then discover that I needed to access a website in order to figure out how I was supposed to decrease the stitch. This doesn’t make the book a bad book, but it does make it one that isn’t for beginning hookers.  I also need to give a shout out to the ladies in the Pajiba Yarn Wall Facebook Group, who helped me with the eyes. I didn’t want to get the plastic eyes recommended in the book (and I don’t do hot glue guns, at all), and those ladies gave me some options, including a knot that that I ended up using and I wish had been an option in the book. Finally, and here’s where I get pedantic, the line is “On a field, sable, the letter A, gules”; meaning a red letter A on a black background. The directions wanted you to do Hester’s dress in brown. And while that’s valid, as the ‘field’ could be a patch instead of the whole dress, for a small doll you’re not going to do a patch like that. So I rebelled and did Hester’s dress in black. You guys, I love her. I love her so much. Overall, the instructions were easy to follow, and I’m excited to try my hand at a few more literary figures (and adapt a few patterns to make other dolls).

I’m a rebel and changed not only her dress color but her bonnet as well.

So, having finished that project and being quite happy with it (despite Hester’s crooked bun), I turned my attention back to Ami Ami Kittens. As I said above, I have some issues with the book. It is super cute to page through, the first half of the book is various pictures of Hoshi’s kittens. But as an instruction book, it leaves much to be d

esired. The first problem I have, and this is a me problem, is that the patterns are diagrams and not written out in the manner that I am used to. Fortunately there is a section that tells you what each symbol on the diagrams represents and so I was able to figure it out. Ok, I just wrote out the pattern using the diagram as a guide. I’m not super happy with some of them, I had trouble with the ears and nose especially.

The patterns in diagram form might have been a blessing in disguise though, as the written instructions were…. unclear. As I gave the book a more thorough look over, I realized that it was translated from another language and my suspicion is that the translator is either not familiar with crochet at all or does not know English crafting terms well enough to do a good translation. It’s the only thing I can think to explain directions that say “take the thread and pass one end through the hole of the needle…” Instead of “thread the needle”. Some of the instructions read more like they were passed through google translate then translated by a human who understands enough about crafting to be proficient in both English and the original language. Another example of this misunderstanding comes from the materials suggested area. Yarn is simply listed as “crochet yarn”, now you may not know much about crochet or knitting, but I want you to understand that this is basically saying “welp this uses yarn” and as the weight (size) of the yarn is fairly important for the size of the finished craft this instruction is less then helpful. Fortunately I had the other book, and I filled in a lot of blanks using the experience I had from making Hester.

Muzzle pattern with my written out instructions

Despite some struggles, I managed to make a kitten I’m relatively happy with. I again went off script for the eyes, so the fact that I’m not happy here is entirely on me. But I’m blaming the uneven ears and the crooked muzzle on the pattern. The muzzle was 100% straight when I embroidered the nose, so how did it end up crooked when I sewed it to the head? I have no idea.

Over all, I had a lot of fun delving into these books. I am excited to try more patterns from Literary Yarns, and I will likely return to Ami Ami Kittens at some point. I would like to make a more accurate representation of my cat, for example. Anyway, thank you to Teresaelectro for jump starting me on this crafting path, it’s going to entertain me for quite a while.

Finished kitten and actual, unimpressed, cat

The sky looks comfortingly mundane compared to the garish kaleidoscope of the stained glass. It makes Rose yearn to be reliving any one of a thousand ordinary days spent with her ordinary older sister, who has now done this extraordinary thing and died.

The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty

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Every time I find a Liane Moriarty book that I haven’t read yet, I celebrate. However much I end up liking the book, I know that I’m in for some kind of treat. Her writing is engaging, and her characters lively. No exception here. I quite enjoyed the book, despite some irritation at one of the character arcs. It might be my second favorite Moriarty book.

The book is about the various relationships between sisters, daughters, mothers, grandmothers, and friends. Oh sure, there is the secret of the Munroe Baby Mystery that ties everything together, but the draw of the book is the various women and how they approach their relationships with each other. The book also has one of the most heartbreaking depictions of postpartum depression that I’ve read. (Did you know Australians call it post-natal depression? It was both a little jarring, cause it’s not the terminology I’m used to, and very sense making whenever it appeared in the book.) Back in the 1930s the Munroes, a young couple renting a house on an isolated island, disappeared leaving behind their baby for Rose and Connie Thrum to find. The mystery has never been solved and Enigma-the baby- is now a great-grandmother. The island she was found on is a tourist destination that has tours of the Monroe house, and a big anniversary festival every year. And then Connie, who has been the leader on this venture, dies and the family must decide what is important and what can be revealed.

To be honest, I figured out the ‘mystery’ about half-way through the book. There are enough hints dropped that I think most people will figure it out. But as I said, the mystery isn’t the main point of the book, it’s the lives of everyone around the mystery. My one issue with the book is the character arc of Marjorie, one of Enigma’s daughters. She’s overweight, and it’s not handled well. She’s fat-shamed by her family, I mean her daughter gives her a Weight Watchers subscription for Christmas and it’s treated like a joke. Marjorie’s arc is one of re-self discovery, after a marriage that has pounded her into a person she doesn’t recognize she re discovers her sense of humor and love of life. But it only happens when she starts to loose weight. Shedding the weight becomes a metaphor for becoming herself again. It’s… not great. It’s only a small portion of the book, and the rest of the book is so good. I just wish that Marjorie’s self acceptance hadn’t come after weight loss, it sends a gross message about weight and self love.

Issue aside, I liked the book quite a bit. If you’re a Moriarty fan, check this one out.



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