The Thing Around Your Neck

#875
Title: The Thing Around Your Neck
Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Publisher: Knopf
Year: 2009
224 pages

I enjoyed this collection of 12 short stories by the author of Half of a Yellow Sun. The audiobook was well-narrated by Adjoa Andoh. Some stories stood out for their content, notably the daily details showing the effects of intra-Nigerian conflicts. Others ably unfolded internal dialogues and emotions that show the strain of balancing different aspects of identity and experience, such as US vs. Nigerian ways of understanding or enacting relationships. What I found most effective, though, was the effect Adichie creates by layering the 12 stories, whose related topics and themes accrue across the collection.

I'd have ended about half the stories earlier to increase tension or uncertainty. Since many already include substantial tension and uncertainty, I'd have wished for a stronger emphasis on language and rhythm at the end of at least several pieces. The endings often seemed deflated, which I do not think was Adichie's intention.

Fifty Shades Freed (Fifty Shades #3)

#874
Title: Fifty Shades Freed (Fifty Shades #3)
Author: E. L. James
Publisher: The Writer's Coffee Shop Publishing House
Year: 2012
551 pages

A big part of my problem here is that I don't like either protagonist. They weary me with their constant conflict, boring emails, and lack of introspection. I don't know why anybody would stay in a relationship with either of them. Throw on top of this the self-consciously "kinky" sex scenes that made me fall asleep, and my general dislike of the romance genre, and there was little to hold my interest. If your idea of hot is calling each other "Mrs." and "Mr." Surname, sniping about birth control, and talking post-coitally about how your fetus will like sex, enjoy.

Matilda

#873
Title: Matilda
Author: Roald Dahl
Illustrator: Quentin Blake
Publisher: Puffin
Year: 1988/1998
240 pages

It's a revenge fantasy. At least there's one non-horrible adult, always a pleasure. I'm calling this "young adult," or perhaps "middle reader," because like much of Dahl's work it's got a lot of moral ambiguity. I'm all for it, and find it refreshing. I probably wouldn't give it to a kid under 10 or so, at least without discussing some of Matilda's actions (in the same way I'd want to discuss Harry Potter's use of an unforgivable curse).

The Sagan Diary (Old Man's War #2.5)

#872
Title: The Sagan Diary (Old Man's War #2.5)
Author: John Scalzi
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Year: 2007
100 pages

	As a short story, the language is more literary than the series it derives from and the character is much more philosophical. It was pleasant to read, but doesn't fit well with the series for both of these reasons. It can't stand alone, but will be fun for those already familiar with the Old Man's War series.

Boy: Tales of Childhood

#871
[Title: Boy: Tales of Childhood]
Author: Roald Dahl
Publisher: Puffin
Year: 1984/2001
176 pages

Reread in 2012 (review posted in 2008) as a prelude to reading Matilda. Previous review:

 Roald Dahl's memoir of his childhood is deceptively simple and pastoral. As is also often the case in Dahl's fiction, a darker substrate is present as well. These include almost losing his nose in a motoring accident, stuffing his sister's fiance's pipe with goat droppings, and an incident with a dead mouse. Dahl tells his story with understatement and affection. For those unfamiliar with the English boarding school experience or narrative, this would be an informative book to read along with the first Harry Potter books. It captures the horrible and ridiculous aspects of that experience without being overly graphic (as some boarding school memoirs are), providing a social and institutional context for understanding the Harry Potter books as well as another example of the English school boy genre.

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA

#870
Title: Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
Author: Tim Weiner
Publisher: Doubleday
Year: 2007
702 pages

	I don't really know how to evaluate the veracity of this history. On the one hand, it appears to be very well researched and referenced; on the other, the CIA has made arguments to refute it in its book review. To the extent that I've read about the CIA, this appears to coordinate generally with other accounts.

Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West

#869
Title: Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West
Author: Blaine Harden
Publisher: Viking
Year: 2012
221 pages

I started by listening on BBC 4, but quickly discovered that it was a highly truncated version and switched to the book.

Written in a style that will please readers who like a personal story told journalistically, with sections providing information, collateral reports, and related news stories. If you liked Demick's Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea but wanted a more extended story from one of her participants, you may like Escape from Camp 14. If you want to lose yourself in a memoir, without external intrusions, try The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag. I appreciated the blend, especially because Shin Dong-hyuk is, depending on your perspective, either an unreliable narrator or a person with a great deal of shame and good reasons to mistrust authorities. Compare to many of Elie Wiesel's Holocaust narratives, where disclosures about one's behavior depend on many factors, or any account of a conflict (such as the war in Vietnam) where people did things that shame them and are shocking or disgusting outside that context.

The Last Colony (Old Man's War #3)

#868
Title: The Last Colony (Old Man's War #3) 
Author: John Scalzi
Publisher: Tor
Year: 2007
320 pages

This third (or third.5, depending on how you count The Sagan Diary) installment of the Old Man's War series is in some ways less emotional and more action-packed. John Perry, wife Jane Sagan, adopted daughter Zoe, a dog who has no particular plot function and Zoe's two Obin escorts move to a new colony. Interstellar intrigue erupts for a variety of reasons and with a cascade of consequences. Some make more sense at the tie; some are elucidated later; a few still leave me puzzled; for example, (view spoiler) Ah, well. It moves right along and makes more sense than a lot of brain candy.

Scalzi can over-rely a little on the device of having his characters know something the reader doesn't, a la the sitcom technique of Lucy leaning in to Ethel and saying, mad gleam in her eye, "So what we'll do is... [whisper, whisper, whisper].

I appreciate that Scalzi and his characters wrestle with questions about governments' intentions. John's conversation with General Gau were useful in this regard.

It's a little rushed at the end; another 25 pages would have been welcome.

Zoe's Tale approaches these events from Zoe's perspective. Since the last retelling I read was probably Midnight Sun's plodding recounting of Twilight from a dull and listless perspective, I'm looking forward to having Scalzi save the subgenre.

Fifty Shades Darker (Fifty Shades, #2) (Fifty Shades #2)

#867
Title: Fifty Shades Darker (Fifty Shades, #2)
Author: E. L. James
Publisher: Vintage
Year: 2011/2012
532 pages

Seriously empty writing about ill-drawn characters with boring sex scenes and laughable dialogue. Really, if I wanted to read this for free, I'd just confiscate some high school student's cell phone and read the texts. I cannot believe in a multi-multi-million dollar CEO who plays "No, you hang up first." What is sadly believable is that many readers of this series as well as Twilight think a little love is all it takes to fix your man. Fortunately for Ana, Christian doesn't seem to be an actual sociopath, just a romance novel sociopath. I'm sort of finding the Twilight books more engaging in retrospect. I'd rather be reading for religious allegory than reading for fanfic allegory. "Oh, he's just like Edward" is not even as interesting as "Oh, he's just like Joseph Smith."

If you liked this, by all means, enjoy. I found it flat and vapid.

Jane on Her Own: A Catwings Tale (Catwings #4)

#866
Title: Jane on Her Own: A Catwings Tale (Catwings #4)
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Illustrator: S. D. Schindler
Publisher: Scholastic
Year: 1999/2003
48 pages

Thematically, all four of the Catwings books feature the threat of familial relationship rupture as their central concern. Since I have two cats from a litter of four whose prior owners still have the mother and the other two, yet look misty-eyed and bereft when we talk about the cats for too long, I can see why this is a compelling focus.

It should be said that most of the illustrations in this series really capture cat movements naturalistically, even with the addition of wings. 

Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings: A Catwings Tale (Catwings #3)

#865
Title: Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings: A Catwings Tale (Catwings #3)
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Illustrator: S. D. Schindler
Publisher: Scholastic
Year: 1994/2003
48 pages

In this third Catwings volume, there's a character for children to identify with. Alexander is the apteryx of the cat world (as is Mrs. Jane Tabby, but a mommy cat is not how children see themselves). Despite his flightlessness, he is able to help Jane fille master her (view spoiler) PTSD and speak again, solely by means of rapport, unconditional positive regard, and the talking cure. This will be very useful in some future Catwings/Rats of NIMH mashup. 

Catwings Return (Catwings #2)

#864
Title: Catwings Return (Catwings #2)
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Illustrator: S. D. Schindler
Publisher: Scholastic
Year: 1989/2003
56 pages

Here, some of the Catwings seek their mother in the city, and find a half-sister. The Catwings are the opposite of the Warriors; they are kittypets* who want to be fed sardines. Nonetheless, several crave adventures.

*To be fair, in my house all clan members are called "kittypet" and all twolegs are called "cakesniffer."

Catwings (Catwings #1)

#863
Title: Catwings (Catwings #1)
Author: Ursula K. Le Guin
Illustrator: S. D. Schindler
Publisher: Scholastic
Year: 1988/2003
40 pages
 
It's written by Le Guin and it's got flying cats, like a hallucinatory Jenny Linsky. A re-read of this very sweet children's book.

Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots

#862
Title: Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots 
Author: Deborah Feldman
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Year: 2012
272 pages

I didn't grow up in a Hasidic community, though I've worked with a mixed range of Orthodox/Hasidic groups, so I'm not unfamiliar with these cultures, nor do I exoticize them. I've had experiences that accord with Feldman's depictions of some practices (such as keeping information about sexually transmitted diseases from adolescents) and the way stories spreads through the teen girl rumor mill, which is often more concerned with shocked and disapproving titillation than with accuracy. I've experienced questioning of my living arrangements, devaluing of my own expression of Judaism, intrusions on my personal life, and work requirements that posed moral dilemmas for me. I did hand-expurgate copies of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich when I was directed to do so. And I did make the decision to risk my job in order to tell teenagers how they could and could not get AIDS, because some of their beliefs were wildly inaccurate, hurtfully homophobic, and based on the assumption that the larger community worked actively to harm Jews. (For example, I was told earnestly and more than once that gay gentile waiters hate Jews because they recognize that the Haredim are better than the goyim, so they spit on their salads in restaurants in order to give them AIDS.) I also experienced more welcome, solidarity, and kindness than Feldman describes receiving, despite my being worse than an outsider--from their perspective, I was an apostate Jew, one who had lived in Israel, who spoke Hebrew, who was an enticement for good children to slide into the world of assimilationist Judaism, an unmarried woman who could have been a bridge to sin and chaos. And that's without knowing about the lesbianism, Patti Smith albums, and shrimp.

The way I read Feldman is different from many reviewers, who are focused on the questions of veracity and how the author represents the Satmar community. Being familiar with and not entranced by it, my interest and attention is drawn elsewhere. Stripped of what I might think of as the distractions of evaluating family timeline and cultural truths, instead reading this simply as a personal narrative, I see a person with pervasive distress, suspicion of others' motives, a deep lack of trust, extreme sensitivity to disapproval, and the gnawing fear that she is inadequate. Feldman describes a no-win world, where others fail to value or cherish her so she preemptively denigrates them. She consistently compares herself to other people and finds them wanting, while secretly worrying that she is the odd one. She can't attach with them emotionally and frequently describes herself as empty, hollow, alienated, or otherwise disconnected. When one desire is met another takes its place, perpetuating the grinding failure to hold onto happiness.

I agree with some of Feldman's cultural critiques and her sense of being constrained, but the problem this memoir describes goes far beyond that. For the first third of the book, her descriptions of herself and others so aggrandized her and belittled others that I assumed that the structural twist, the book's emotional hinge, would be the story of how she learned to balance a brash and self-centered adolescence with the maturity of adulthood, how she rejected or made peace with aspects of her upbringing and religion, and how she recognized her own and others' humanity. However, this is not that story.

This is the story of someone who depicts herself as judgmental and cruel as if this were justified, clever, or a way to join with the reader, and as a person who attracts (or automatically ascribes to others) judgment and cruelty directed toward her. From her perspective, she is surrounded by mean people. She describes herself as lying, deceiving, hiding, manipulating, and then feeling contempt for others when they take her at her word. This is a lonely stance and puts me in mind of Laing's The Divided Self. From the reader's perspective, Feldman is harshly insulting and critical of others, unable to describe them empathically or as people who might ever have good intentions or altruistic motives, or who might even care for her. I don't know what may have happened in her life to put her in this state, but at the end of the book, despite a vaguely described flight from Brooklyn and the Judaism of her upbringing, she doesn't appear to have gained liberation from her more pervasive demons. This is a memoir of despair that may not know its own causes, or how it depicts Feldman to the reader. In this regard it's painful and embarrassing to read. I feel great compassion and concern for her, though she might see this as a reviewer's ploy rather than as a real feeling.

100 Birds to See Before You Die

#861
Title: 100 Birds to See Before You Die
Authors: David Chandler & Dominic Couzens
Publisher: Thunder Bay Press
Year: 2009
224 pages

Big format with big photos make this a browsing pleasure. The text (one page per bird) varies from interesting and engaging to repetitive and jocularly anthropomorphically sexist. There are a few in-page editorial errors (for example, "elicit" when "illicit" is intended), and some overall continuity problems (for example, a page defining "lek" after leks have been referenced a number of times). Some descriptions end with weak and repetitive filler text to round out a full page. B+ for text, A for photos.

I've seen 8 and hope to pick up a 9th that's not rare but is location-specific in 2012.

The Ghost Brigades (Old Man's War #2)

#860
Title: The Ghost Brigades (Old Man's War #2)
Author: John Scalzi
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Year: 2006/2007
374 pages

Like Old Man's War, fun science fiction. It's somewhat more emotional than the previous book and Scalzi's other books I've read. It's also more serious in its approach to its existential themes, though the themes themselves, particularly "what makes me human?" and "what makes me me?" recur across his body of work.