Review 617: Red Rising

Red Rising by Pierce Brown
My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I didn't like this one too much. First book in the Red Rising Saga, and I won't be continuing on. Too much of the book was about the war games between the kids at the training school. Felt like hunger games in some major ways, but not as appealing, the main character wasn't as likeable. Maybe it was how masculine this book felt? Not sure this is really a young adult book either.

Review 616: A Gorgeous Excitement

A Gorgeous Excitement by Cynthia Weiner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Maybe a beach read?

Summer 1986, in New York City. Nina Jacobs, is working various temp jobs before starting college, and hopes to lose her virginity before leaving.

This place of New York City almost becomes a character. Nina meets a new friend in Central Park and they hit it off right away, and she introduces her to cocaine, for a gorgeous excitement. Nina is also dealing with her mentally ill mother, unwanted sexual attention, such as the smarmy hugs the doorman always gives, and yet hoping to snag Gardner as her first. Plus, what's going on with her childhood friends, not feeling so friendly towards her lately.

There is a lot going on in the novel, which kept it interesting.

Short notes here, perhaps more later....

Review 615: I Who Have Never Known Men

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Maybe 3.75 is a better rating than 4.

A dystopian book, without a lot of answers. The narrator doesn't have a name, only called The Child, as she was young when her and 39 other women were put into the bunker. The men guard them closely. She knows nothing other than this bunker, can only learn what the women tell her. As she becomes a teenager she wants to know more.

Interesting and simple book, and yet it isn't.

Review 614: Speak, Memory

Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited by Vladimir Nabokov
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Superb writing! The book is composed of essays written over many years, and previously published, yet the come together in one book quite nicely. They were all titled as published essays, but that was not retained in the book, which is a detriment.

The majority of the book covers Nabokov’s years growing up. An amazing amount of detail and description from when he was very young is contained in the first several chapters. He was born in 1899, and a brother soon followed less than a year later. Nabokov had five siblings, after the brother were two sisters and the last another brother. They were a family of the upper class, having a country estate and a house in town. They went abroad quite often.

The book is chronological, with an occasional hint at what is to come, particularly exile. Nabokov doesn’t go into a lot of detail the Russian Revolution, it was a tumultuous time, and his father was in the thick of it. But he does provide some information that I understand slightly better what was happening during the overthrow on the Tsar to the next regime.

Nabokov and his brother were taught by various tutors and learned to read English before he learned Russian. They were of the kind of Russian family that he says is now extinct.

Nabokov loved butterflies, well butterfly collecting, or Lepidoptera as its scientifically known. He started at a young age, and was determined to find a new species while he was still a young school boy. It wasn’t until much later, as an adult, he finally got a named butterfly: Plebejus (Lysandra) cormion Nabokov.

One of the later chapters Nabokov talks briefly about both of his brothers. It was quite moving, as by that point when we was writing both of them had died, and somewhat young. His sisters weren’t discussed. The last chapter ends in 1940 as Nabokov, along with his wife and young son, were granted passage to emigrate to the United States.

I really enjoyed his writing style. I may need to read one of his novels later this year.

Review 613: The Best American Travel Writing 2021

The Best American Travel Writing 2021 by Padma Lakshmi
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

While I haven’t fully read a book yet in the “Best American Travel Writing” series, I was curious to read the final book in the series. The essays are all published during the year prior, so these are from 2020 when the world was not traveling so much. Was it a coincidence? Beginning in 2024 it was merged with another series, so going forward as “Best American Food and Travel Writing”. Both topics go well together and this last contained several essays that seemed more about food than travel.

Happily not all of the essays were lamenting about cancelled travel and pandemic related issues. The editor of the series and editor of this year both were heavily into that topic, as the foreword and introduction. I was ready to move on by that point. Yet the book opened with several more pandemic stories. The first one about being trapped in a cruise ship during the beginning, following several different groups of people. (Inside the Nightmare Voyage of the Diamond Princess by Doug Bock Clark) The story was well written, so I continued reading it.

Several more essays in we finally veer away from pandemic stories. Good Bread by Bill Buford was well done. He is living in Lyon, France looking for work as a cook and not having any luck. But the story is about the baker Bob, he makes the best bread in Lyon according to Buford. Buford spends some time working for him, learning Bob’s secrets and what makes good bread.

Several essays hardly seemed to be about travel at all. As mentioned food was prevalent in some essays, but there were other outliers. One about climate change being seen by a changing landscape of the coast off Louisiana (The Losing Coast by Elizabeth Miller), and another about fires in marijuana growing country in California (California's Weed Country is Lit by Jackie Bryant), among others. Maybe they were considered as travel since the writers of these essays weren’t from that area?

The book seemed short in comparison to other books in the annual “The Best American” series, such as the Science and Nature or the Essays. I’m not that much into food that I'd love reading about it, doubt I will read any of the new series. Instead I will read the prior years, especially the ones I own and have not yet read.