Tonya's Book Blog: May: Spring Reading in Isolation

Hi friends,

We just finished our 12^th week at home. The kids’ school closed on March 13, and we’ve pretty much been together at home since then. While our state and county are beginning to lift restrictions, the virus is still very present in our community, so we’re being cautious. The girls still seem to be doing well. They’re young enough that they’re happy to spend all day every day with us, although Chloe has expressed that she misses her friends at school. Both my and my husband’s work have given us flexibility to watch our kids while also trying to do our jobs.

I did get some good reading in during May including some recommendations from my sister and old friends.

As always, let me know what you think of any of these books and if you have suggestions for future reading.

Thanks!

Tonya

Age of Emypre by Michael J. Sullivan

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: yes, if you read all the other books

Review: This is the last of a six-book series, and based on the previous five books, I had some high expectations, which were mostly fulfilled. Sullivan definitely delivered a page-turning conclusion that kept me glued to my e-reader. He managed to wrap up almost all of the plotlines and character arcs that I was invested in, and I wasn’t disappointed with the action scenes and plot twists. I was disappointed because Sullivan failed to resolve one major character arc, and if you’ve read it, you know which one I’m talking about. I know that I’m supposed to assume that it was resolved, but I really wanted a final scene to wrap up the story of two of the main characters.

Grunge (Monster Hunter Memoirs #1) by Larry Correia, John Ringo

Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Recommendation: If you like guns, you should read this book

Review: If you like guns, you should read this book. This is a spin-off series from the Monster Hunter series, which I haven’t read. The premise of the world is that monsters – i.e. werewolves, vampires, fairies, trolls, zombies, etc – exist and that the government contracts with private, monster-hunting companies to remove any monster threats that crop up. The narrator, a Marine vet named Chad, is literally the personification of perfect male, and the book is a collection of stories describing his entry into and first few years in the monster hunting world. He is very intelligent, able to learn languages in hours; extremely attractive and charming but unwilling to commit to any real relationship, sleeping his way through dozens of girls in this book alone; a gun and weapons expert; a violin virtuoso; and very good at hunting monsters. About a third of the book talks about weapons and guns including all the modifications and specs of his arsenal; another third talks about the beautiful women he sleeps with, and the final third actually moves the plot forward. With the exception of a come-to-Jesus moment at the beginning, Chad doesn’t undergo any interesting character development. There are some well-written and exciting fight scenes, which kept me reading, so it had that going for it.

Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: maybe

Review: This book was recommended to me as a good one to read during the pandemic when it feels like the world is ending and we’re trying to figure out why we should go on and keep trying. It’s a combination of biography about David Jordan Starr, who was the first president of Stanford and an eminent taxonimist who discovered hundreds of species of fish, and a memoir of the journalist author, Miller. Miller becomes obsessed with Starr after reading about how his entire life’s work was destroyed twice: once in a fire and again following the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. Both events destroyed the hundreds of fish specimens that he had laboriously collected, labeled, and classified over decades of work. Somehow, after both events, he finds the strength to repair what he can and continue his work, and Miller wants to know how and why he reacted that way. The book took an interesting turn as Miller’s hero-obsession with Starr revealed some darker insights into his life including his immediate and stalwart support of the eugenics movement that tried to scientifically justify racism and resulted in the forced sterilization of thousands of “unfit” women. In the end, Miller concludes that even though chaos may reign supreme in the universe, we humans can and do find meaning in our relationships with each other.

Weather by Jenny Offill

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendation: Maybe

Review: I read Offil’s earlier book Dept. of Speculation, which told the often uncomfortable story of a woman discovering her husband’s affair. This book has a similar writing style that reads almost as stream-of-consciousness in short paragraphs that jump from topic to topic within the grater structure of the chapter. It was hard to understand at first, but I got used to it and liked it more as the novel progressed. The protagonist is an under-qualified university librarian who decides to help out a professor-mentor by responding to emails from her popular Hell and High Water podcast where she’s daily entrenched with questions about climate change and the end of civilization. She also acts as a therapist for her drug-addict brother as he gets sober, gets married, has a kid, and then breaks his sobriety. While it was an interesting and enlightening read, I got to the end and felt that nothing was resolved. I understand that that’s also the case with real life, so it was more genuine than most novels. It just kind of left me wondering, “what’s the point?”

Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities by Vaclav Smil

Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Recommendations: yes

Review: I’ve read several books by Smil about energy, and just like in those books, Smil discusses the immense problem facing all humanity: that the biosphere cannot indefinitely support the continued growth of humanity’s consumption and then fails to offer any solutions. He begins the book with discussing growth across all organisms starting from microorganisms and progressing through animals, humans, cities, economies, and civilizations. It’s a huge endeavor, which he executes very well. I found reading about all of the growth curves and trajectories strangely relaxing as the numbers rolled past my eyes, and I learned about exponential, sigmoidal, and logarithmic growth across many of the earth's systems. Definitely a good, enlightening read. Just wish there was a discussion of solutions.

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