Indie Press - A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing

Image courtesy of Washington Post

A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimar McBride almost lost me at the get-go.  This book has caused a lot of buzz in the reading community, though, so I forced myself to push through.  Whether I was happy that I did or not I am still unsure about... but there's no denying that this is a book that lingers with you.

A girl grows up in an unstable household, with a controlling single mother and an uncontrollable brother with special needs.  Their relationship remains extremely complicated through a series of life events, as well as the introduction of various characters.  It's not giving too much away to say that the main character makes some objectively poor choices, almost compulsively, and the way that she deals with them speaks to the depths of the trauma she has lived through.

Told from the point of view of a girl growing up in Ireland, it begins with barely any recognizable speech.  In fact, throughout the whole book, the Irish dialect mixed with the idiosyncrasies of the main character rule the page, in such a way that by the end when I was reading it semi-fluently, I still wasn't sure if the writing got clearer as the main character grew up or if I was just getting used to the style of writing. Certainly, the half-formed thing that this girl is also carries through in her manner of thinking and thereby how her thoughts are being expressed on the page.

This is the most Irish thing I have read in a good long while, It has influences of James Joyce stamped all over it.  Once I learned to let go and simply try to feel the narrative rather than actively read, it was a better go-around for me.  This was an intense experience and I'm not sure I'll be putting myself through it again, but it is the first book in a long time that has stuck out to me so much.

Takes Place in Asia - A Thousand Splendid Suns

From Amazon - Believed to be fair use.

A Thousand Splendid Suns,from Khaled Hosseini (best known for Kite Runner), had all of the things you loved in Kite Runner and yet another story to take with you wherever you go.

This book tells the lives, almost-lives, and not-lives of two women as they attempt to survive, persevere, and thrive in Afghanistan during much of its tumultuous recent history.  Each must make impossible decisions and sacrifices in the pursuit of justice, their dreams, and love.  As their stories come together, these choices become harder.

Hosseini has certainly found his bread and butter in reflecting the complexity of the human experience.  Once again he tells a story of friendship, and the exploration thereof was as important to this text as it was to Kite Runner.  I keep comparing these two books, and that's not a bad thing!  What Kite Runner was to the exploration of a male experience, A Thousand Splendid Suns is to the female.  Both are easily universalized, and I enjoyed them immensely in part because of this. It was also an easy read, language-wise.  In fact, in some moments the forced grandness feels a bit contrived, but not so much that I was put off my reading. Additionally, many have said that the similarity to Kite Runner is a bad thing - to them, it feels a little "Dan Brown" in the way it sticks to a formula.  But I like the way Hosseini writes, and I look forward to picking up And the Mountains Echoed as a continuation of the positive experience I've had with his work.

YA + Poetry - Brown Girl Dreaming

From NationalBook.org -
Believed to be common use.

I am a teacher, and have taught K-8 (except, for some reason, I've never taught 6th graders!).  Most of my kids are brown, and so when Brown Girl Dreaming came onto the scene, I knew I had to read it and hopefully pass it along to my kids.

This one's written in free verse and telling (singing, really) the author's childhood, from Ohio to South Carolina (minus a father), to Brooklyn (plus a new brother), and her life with and without those she loves.  It's a story of finding your voice and whatever will be your gift to the world, and a snapshot of a world changing for the better.  Not every memory is beautiful but each is beautifully told.

Published in 2014 - Station Eleven

Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven's very creation is a testament to the fact that, as the book notes, "survival is insufficient."  Twenty years have passed since the Georgia Flu swept through the world faster than anyone could have imagined.  It has been twenty years since civilization has collapsed.  This book follows the pasts and (if they dare to dream them) futures of a loosely connected group of characters.  Their connecting thread is an actor dead just one day before the world began its descent into chaos.

Romance - A Rogue By Any Other Name

Goodreads.  Believed to constitute fair use.

Sarah MacLean's A Rogue by Any Other Name was a fun romance to read for my 2015 Read Harder Challenge! I like MacLean's historical romances because they often stand the gender conventions of the time on their head.  It's not the most historically accurate, but it's a delight to read, which is precisely what I am looking for.

This story revolves around Penelope and the disgraces Marquess of Bourne.  When the Marquess loses his fortune and family's legacy in a hubris-fueled moment of gambling, it is clear that he will stop at nothing to get back his family home.

Author From Africa - Americanah

Wikipedia. Believed to be fair use.

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was all I heard about during the lead-in to summer, so I knew I had to read it during my time off from work.  Ifemelu grows up in Nigeria, but does a lot of growing up when she moves to the United States, as well.  She goes there to study when dictatorship and unrest in her home country make it impossible for her to get the education that she deserves.

Guilty pleasure - Outlander

Qualifies as Fair Use

Claire is enjoying a lovely, quiet vacation with her husband, Frank, in Scotland.  This is certainly well-deserved, after their prolonged separation through WWII, during which Claire served as an Army nurse.  Their vacation (or at least Claire's?) is abruptly ended when she traverses 200 years backwards in time as the result of some magic hanging about the standing stones near where they were staying.  When Claire regains consciousness, it is in the exact same place she left, but the century has changed.

She is held captive briefly by the British (a predecessor of her husband Frank in fact!), and then captured by the Scottish clansmen that inhabited the area.

Through more and more complicated politics, intrigue, and plot twists, Claire must ultimately decide whether she will try to return to Frank, or leave her "past" behind her once more to build a life with her new husband Jaimie, a Scottish clansmen.

This book was recommended to me, and that surprised me!  There are an awful lot of explicit sex scenes in this book.  I'm all for a historical fiction romance, and even a straight romance novel now and again, but I was blindsided by this book.  It has an epic sweep (and an epic length!) and I wasn't expecting it to fall into some very common romance novel patterns. I feel like I ultimately learned more about the recommender than anything else!

The central plot device is always fascinating to me, so I dove in with both feet to wade through this novel.  If we were to travel time, what would be the consequences?  Is it possible to change the course of history?  Are there others out there doing the same?  How do I get home?  Do I want to get home?  What is home? The length of the book works to the advantage of these questions, because there was a good amount of time for Claire (and the reader) to ponder these things as the book went along. I felt, given the book's obvious romantic bent, this part of the book helps to add interest to what could have been a straight historical fiction romance novel. And, intentionally or not, I've been reading a lot of time traveling books lately!

There were, however, a lot of unanswered questions (not nearly so philosophical) that compel me to read the sequel.  The great thing about reading something published in 1991 is that I don't have to sit around waiting for sequels to come to me! They'll be there, waiting for me to finish my currently unmanageable library book pile. George RR Martin, you could learn a thing or two from that model...

I enjoyed Claire as a "strong female character" (I hate that term!!!), and actually enjoyed that, really, Claire's strength of will and opinion was anachronistic in both of the times that she occupies.  The writing was, at times, clever for a romance novel as well, which is what I am a sucker for in romances.  The dialogue between Claire and Jaimie is way better than the sex scenes in my opinion.

I just might try to watch the Starz show in its second season based off the book!  Wish me luck.  I'll recommend this one to anyone who's looking for a meatier romance novel. Leave a note in the comments if you'd like to hear what I think about the show compared to the book!