The Dark Clue: A Novel - James Wilson

Review:

Despite my very good intentions, I can already tell where my new efforts at journaling are going to fail.  For one thing, I have more time to spend reading (while eating, while waiting for my husband to pick me up at work, etc) than I have to spend writing about my reading.  So, even though I'm making more notes as I read, and thinking more about my reading, the time to synthesize and distill those thoughts is lacking.  Also, I read fast and a lot.  Currently I'm seven books behind in my journal and I just know it's going to get worse.

So. Even though I'd like to say something about this book, I'm at a loss.  Because my youngest is sleeping on the sofa behind me, and I don't want to wake her up turning on the light to see what I wrote in my notebook as I was reading.  Seven books later I'm having a hard time remembering details.  Okay first:  my one big disappointment with the book.  I really expected a traditional mystery-that-will-be-solved.

Library copy

 

 

Original post: Kaethe.booklikes.com/post/2057729/the-dark-clue-a-novel-james-wilson

17776: What football will look like in the future by Jon Bois

 

https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football/chapter-1

 

 

Available online only.

 

This is a weird and wonderful thing. I don't care for football even a tiny bit, but don't let the title mislead you. As a work of storytelling it is brilliant. In 2018, the story won a National Magazine Award for Digital Innovation and was longlisted for both the Hugo Awards for Best Novella and Best Graphic Story.  But don't go looking it up: I think it's probably much more intriguing if you come at it cold.

 

Enjoy.

Original post: Kaethe.booklikes.com/post/2035890/17776-what-football-will-look-like-in-the-future-by-jon-bois

WORDSLUT: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language - Amanda Montell

Review:

Well done! Witty, zippy, a strong emphasis on the value of actual research. Montell addresses many of the topics that make so many cranky these days: all the things that are primarily ascribed to women or girls, of course. A bit of intersectionality, although without losing focus on the core theme. A good overview of linguistics for those who aren't already familiar with the field.

I just read through thirteen pages of definitions and examples on Urban Dictionary, a staggering number seemingly by offended men, which fail to mention Solnit's essay "Men Explain Things To Me", or the first recorded appearance of the word on LiveJournal, and also fail to provide a usable definition or an appropriate example. One entry appeared to conflate "manspaining" with "manspreading". The irony, it burns.

Library copy

 

Original post: Kaethe.booklikes.com/post/2035865/wordslut-a-feminist-guide-to-taking-back-the-english-language-amanda-montell

Asking for a Friend: Three Centuries of Advice on Life, Love, Money, and Other Burning Questions from a Nation Obsessed - Jessica Weisberg

Review:

Well, that was fun and enlightening. I love etiquette books, and am neutral on advice columnists in general except for Daniel Ortberg's Dear Prudence. But then there's that whole other aspect: the how-to-do-anything-better field is one I appreciate. Paradoxically, I have never been a fan of the Self-Help book genre. Yes, I think there is a great deal we can all learn from the billions of other people in the world, many of whom have struggled with the same issues and also, at the same time, skeptical of the idea that reading a book is ever going to really turn anyone's life around. Mari Kondo has much to teach me about how to best put things away, for example, but neither her book nor show is going to convince me to spend a month finding every book in the house and putting it into one big pile in order to hold each one and wait for the spirit to move me in a joy spark or not way.

Much of the historical stuff was completely unknown to me. I had heard of Poor Richard's Almanack, but knew next to nothing about Franklin or his publishing. I knew of Graham, but Alcott was a surprise. Etcetera.
Clever and also entertaining.

Library copy

Original post: Kaethe.booklikes.com/post/2024398/asking-for-a-friend-three-centuries-of-advice-on-life-love-money-and-other-burning-questions-from-a-nation-obsessed-jessica-weisberg

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper - Hallie Rubenhold

Review:

I'm not finished yet, but this is pretty amazing. Rubenhold has gone to primary and secondary period sources to discover a great deal about the women who have existed merely as "murdered prostitute" all these years. The scholarship is impressive, as is the imagination to start over, virtually from scratch. Given how very much has been written about their murders since 1888 it's kind of amazing how little we ever knew about the victims, when there was so much available.There is a bit much speculation on the mundane presented as fact: there is a great deal that can be inferred with high probability, but the construction "she would have" grates on me. There is also a rather constant refrain of how the women were assumed by the police of the time to be prostitutes in the absence of any positive evidence that they were. But that is a welcome reminder not to accept stereotype as proven fact. Everybody lies, including the police.

Dec 20, 2019

 

***

 

Now that I am finished my opinion certainly hasn't gone down at all. Although I knew generally how constrained the lives of Victorian women were, and how tenuous their survival, I didn't have a lot of specifics. It's kind of staggering how little progress we've made in the past 130 years. Forensics have improved but little else has.

Dec 23, 2019

Original post: Kaethe.booklikes.com/post/2024391/the-five-the-untold-lives-of-the-women-killed-by-jack-the-ripper-hallie-rubenhold