Review 113: Becoming

Becoming by Michelle Obama
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Excellent book, perfectly narrated. Already an admired woman, and now even more so.

Definitely recommend this book for anyone, no matter where you are in your politics. This is not a political book. It's about her life.

Review 112: The Widower's Tale

The Widower's Tale by Julia Glass
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

This just isn't working for me. Learning to move on, instead of just powering through.

Review 111: Hayduke Lives!

Hayduke Lives! by Edward Abbey
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This book seriously disappointed me in many ways. At one point, about to quit going any further, I told myself I wasn't giving the book enough of a chance. Plus I'm generally reluctant to abandon a book I start. It's a problem I'm trying to learn to let go easier, and move on to something else.

Well, I gave Abbey some more room. This book is a sequel to his more popular book Monkey Wrench Gang, and as I remember it was okay, but not great. I think I rated it higher than the book deserved. More for some of the sentiment. Well, this one sank, and far. Maybe, just maybe, it was due to the book being unfinished and published after Abbey died. But I doubt it. The book was awful in the writing.

There were parts of the story that started to be interesting, yet I could not get beyond the characterizations of the people. It would not quit. Everyone was sexualized and it was completely unnecessary. Then there was racial slurs. I cannot believe that this book published in the 1990s was allowed to let this go. There was no reason for it. Surprisingly, I got to around 30% of the book and I could care less about any of it.

Review 110: Men Explain Things to Me

Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been meaning to read some of Solnit's works. I have some of her books, and here I finally get to one, a short book of essays. As with most compilations, some are better than others. Overall the work is good. Solnit makes a lot of sense.

The title piece is one of the better essays. In it she describes what she means, and about the word mansplaining. Solnit explains that she did not create the word. She also thinks it's a little more derogatory towards men than she'd like. Solnit also goes on to clarify that she likes being explained something she has no idea about, it's just all those other times that men explain something to a woman when that man has absolutely no idea what he is talking about and disregards the woman who actually does know something about that topic.

Anyway, there's more than this in the book. Glad I read it.

Review 109: Midnight Cowboy

Midnight Cowboy by James Leo Herlihy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Having not seen the movie, I had no idea about the story line. It is surprisingly sad, with the loneliness of Joe Buck. I found the first part, how he grew up to be the saddest part. How can a boy who is ignored grow up not quite understanding human relationships; how to get along with people? Joe is a very naive man, but does learn, and knows himself at least to some degree. Even before getting to New York he proclaims he is stupid, that he doesn't know a thing. Once in New York his naivety made me so worried for he was clearly going to be taken advantage of, it was just a question of how bad was it going to get.

One thing I enjoyed in this book is the language, the writing. The descriptions are surprising and pleasant to read. Or in my case, listen to as I read this as an audiobook. The narrator did a superb job, with aptly differentiating various characters.

We have foreshadowing, dreams to give us information that Joe doesn't acknowledge in himself. The writing, really, is very good. This is one of those books that would give you more on a second reading. I don't know if I will, I mean some of the subject matter, Joe trying to be a hustler, and such, well, not my typical read. In spite of that this book was a good read. Perhaps I will instead look for another book by the author.