Among Others

#1022
Title: Among Others
Author: Jo Walton
Publisher: Tor
Year: 2011
Country: Wales
302 pages

Quite a fine, funny, poignant novel that begins after the end and ends at the beginning, though the chronology is not at all disrupted. It's about development and individuation and emotions, kinds of love, and the worlds one inhabits simultaneously, including the world of books. I was pleased that the protagonist and I share some Delany in the Ace double tête-bêche editions.

The audiobook is delightfully narrated. Do yourself a favor and don't read anything about this book--the plot summaries and jacket copy misrepresent where the dramatic tension lies and spoil any number of story points that are otherwise enjoyable surprises

The Buddha and the Borderline: My Recovery from Borderline Personality Disorder through Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Buddhism, and Online Dating

#1021
Title: The Buddha and the Borderline: My Recovery from Borderline Personality Disorder through Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Buddhism, and Online Dating
Author:  Kiera Van Gelder
Publisher: New Harbinger
Year: 2010
248 pages

The author does a very good job of explaining borderline states from the inside. I enjoyed reading about how she experienced the different therapeutic approaches she tried, and hope Buddhist practice in any tradition has brought her peace.

The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice

#1020
Title: The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice
Author: Christopher Hitchens
Publisher: Verso
Year: 1995/1997
98 pages

I don't have good ways to evaluate the claims here independently, but this has the flavor of 2/3 useful and 1/6 picayune, and 1/6 churlish. I found it helpful in its elaboration of Mother Teresa's stated positions and goals (which I could verify elsewhere), which aren't what most people seem to think they were.

Dream Country (The Sandman #3)

#1019
Title: Dream Country (The Sandman #3)
Author: Neil Gaiman
Illustrators: Kelley Jones, Malcolm Jones III, Colleen Doran, Charles Vess
Publisher: Vertigo
Year: 1990/2010 (recolored edition)
160 pages

An enjoyable set of nominally linked stories. This arc seems like Gaiman is really getting the full feeling for his characters and settings.

The Killing of Worlds (Succession #2)

#1019
Title: The Killing of Worlds (Succession #2)
Author:  Scott Westerfeld
Publisher: Tor
Year: 2003/2008
336 pages

The satisfying second half of Succession. Westerfeld uses science and psychology to wrap up the story of The Risen Empire while leaving open options for a sequel. I will need to go back to Anastasia's thoughts as events were unfolding to check them against what she actually knew, but other than that, the plot unfolds and resolves briskly on both a vast and personal scale without too many now-wait-a-minute moments. Pleasurable and engaging science fiction that doesn't sacrifice emotion for physics.

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #8)

#1018
Title: The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #8)
Author: Alexander McCall Smith 
Publisher: Pantheon
Year: 2007
213 pages

Better, with some actual character depth and psychology, but still reasonably superficial and with mysteries that seem almost beside the point. 

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

#1017
Title: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
Author: Karen Joy Fowler
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Year: 2013
310 pages

Quite a lovely novel--poignant, funny, upsetting, redemptive. If possible, read this without reading any synopses or the jacket copy until you're about maybe 75 pages in (I listened to it, so I'm not sure) when you'll recognize the big reveal that, for some reason, everyone thinks it's fine to expose for you. I enjoyed the plot, as I think many psychology students would, and its narration by a smart and socially awkward young woman. I here disclose that I got in some trouble as a 4th grader in a way that this narrator would identify with: Asked by the teacher if anyone knew what made an animal a mammal, I shouted out, "Mammals breast-feed their young!" While accurate, this is evidently not how 9-year-olds are supposed to express this idea.

In addition, I would swear that Fowler sat at a cafe table behind me and my best friend one day as we were recapping events from our lives. In this fantasy, Fowler jotted notes like "Stanford" and "herb names for offspring" and "X dies in late 50s" and "cross-dressing Shakespeare??" and then appropriates these details for her novel. At some points it was uncanny. I've only had this experience with Maso's The Art Lover before, but Fowler manages to channel enough details about me and my friend that it's almost creepy.