Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay

  At times this was a difficult book to read and it is even more difficult to write about.

At age 12 Roxane Gay was raped by a group of boys, one of whom she had thought was her friend. For years she told no one. Instead Roxane turned to food. She began putting on weight to shield herself against the world, thinking that making herself less attractive would protect herself from dangerous men. Per the subtitle, Hunger is a memoir of Roxane Gay’s body, but really it is a memoir of her trauma. The trauma of her rape. The trauma of being overweight in a world that does not wish to try to accommodate overweight people.

I have mixed feeling about this book. I appreciate the raw honesty of the writing. She has been hurt and continues to hurt. But the story gets repetitive fairly quickly. Bad things and bad people happen to Roxane and she feels terrible. Good things happen to her and she feels like she doesn’t deserve it and self-sabotages. Good people happen to her and she pushes them away. Sometimes you can recognize a problem exists and even recognize that you're not handling it well but can't quite get yourself to act differently or to really address the problem. Hunger is all about that.

This is not a story of overcoming or of a triumph. It is not a hopeful story. I applaud Gay’s courage in telling this story but at the same time hope and wish that one day she can tell a happier story about herself. By happier I don’t mean a story where she loses a bunch of weight, but one in which she actually deals with her trauma and builds a life and a body that she can be content with. This book I think, and hope, is a step in that direction.

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

  Henry "Monty" Montague has been bred to be gentleman but would rather spend his time gambling, drinking, and shall we say hooking up with women and men. His father gives him one last chance. Monty is sent on a grand tour (think of it as a gap year for the 18th century set) of continental Europe. In addition to a chaperone, Monty is accompanied by his best friend and romantic crush Percy and his sister Felicity. The plan is that after a year touring around the continent Percy will be dropped off at a school in Holland (or so Monty is told) and Felicity will be left at a finishing school. 

Monty is a rich, white, spoiled boy who just wants to have fun and has no interest in becoming the next earl and running his father's estate. One of the things I loved about this is that Monty is called out for his privilege but not in a mean way. Percy is Black. Okay, technically he's biracial man born and raised in England but almost everyone assumes he's from Africa or that he is Monty's property. When Monty chastises Percy for not standing up himself when yet another person comments on his Blackness, Percy points out that he cannot afford to get away with the antics Monty regularly engages in. Likewise, when Monty complains about his planned future Felicity reminds him that at least he has choices while she has few. She would love to attend the school her brother got kicked out of, but because she is a woman finishing school is the only education Felicity's father will allow. At the same time Percy and Felicity don't dismiss Monty's complaints. They point out Monty's privileged life and status while still respecting and supporting his desire to live a different life than the one set out by his father. I love that.

Did I mention that the grand tour turns into a great adventure! Monty being Monty causes a bit of trouble at a party. Nudity and hijinks are involved. The bit of trouble leads to big trouble and even bigger adventures. The traveling companions have to hold their own against highwayman and robbers while also dealing with matters of the heart. Their adventures lead them to Barcelona, Venice, and the high seas. If you like a bit of adventure this is well worth the read.

Daphne and Velma: The Vanishing Girl by Josephine Ruby

  I love Scooby Doo! I still watch the cartoons today when I get a chance, even the movies. They were so just so much fun. Now thanks to Josephine Ruby (or whatever his/her/their real name is since Josephine Ruby is apparently a pen name) I get to enjoy new Scooby Doo adventures with an interesting take. Josephine and Ruby reimagines the cartoon and makes Daphne and Velma a mystery solving duo. As a kids they were best friends. As teenagers they hate each other, but when Daphne's new best friend goes missing and people start seeing ghosts, Daphne and Velma find themselves working together once again. Shaggy and Scooby are there too, stepping in to help when called upon. Fred makes an appearance as well, although he's plays such a minor role in the story that I would not have remembered his character's name if not for the fact of the cartoon. The mystery is perfect with ghost sightings and mysterious disappearances - classic Scooby Doo stuff. It's serious and silly all at the same time. I hope there are lots more books in this series to come.

Wolf's Curse by Kelley Armstrong

  Wolf's Curse is the conclusion to the story that began in Wolf's Bane. Kate and Logan go to supernatural summer camp. Instead of learning leadership skills they meet a bunch of supernaturals who want to do them harm. They quickly have to figure out which campers are friends, which are foes, and while people are trying to kill them. In the midst of dealing with dark magic, witches, hell hounds, demons, and assassins, the characters deal with issues of sexuality and identity. It's a lot but it mostly works.

Like the other books in the series there is a bit of romance, lots of action, and multiple mysteries to be solved, all set in a world where werewolves, vampires, witches, demons, necromancers, and other supernaturals live along side humans. This was a welcome return to the Otherworld series, although one big difference between this duology and the original Otherworld series is that this is very much a young adult book. That may be a turn off for some, but I enjoyed this a great deal.

I so hope Armstrong writes more book in the series. This felt like a little like she was laying the ground work for further books. I hope I'm right because I would so love to read about more about the new characters Elijah, Holly, Allan, and Mason, along with Kate and Logan of course.

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

In The Warmth of Other Suns Isabel Wilkerson tells the story of the mass migration of millions of Black people who felt compelled to flee the south, settling in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities in the northern and western states of the U.S. The story is both heartbreaking and inspiring. Heartbreaking because people were effectively forced to leave. Slavery may have technically been over but Jim Crow was alive and kicking. Heartbreaking because racism thrived in the west and north as well; it just wore different clothes. But it was also inspiring because this is story of people of were determined to survive and thrive. It is the story of people who took control of their destinies despite forces that tried to grind them down.

"All told, perhaps the most significant measure of the Great Migration was the act of leaving itself, regardless of the individual outcome. Despite the private disappointments and triumphs of any individual migrant, the Migration, in some ways, was its own point. The achievement was in making the decision to be free and acting on that decision, wherever that journey led them." (page 535)

Like many people educated in the United States, I have read and seen immigration and migration stories about people arriving at Ellis Island, navigating new cities in a new country, and moving from one area of the country to another in response to a drought or some other type of natural disaster. I love those stories but always felt that something, or rather someone, was missing. Actually, lots of someones were missing. Reading this book I feel like a piece of my personal history has been filled in. Beyond the personal, The Warmth of Other Suns sheds a little light on how certain cities changed and took shape over the last century.

The Warmth of Other Suns isn't just a history book of facts and figures. Wilkerson vividly brings history to life by focusing on three people:

• Ida Mae Brandon Gladney and her family left Mississippi and settled in Chicago after a family member was falsely accused of stealing a White man's turkeys and beaten within an inch of his life. 
• George Swanson Starling wanted to go to college but ended up picking citrus fruit in Florida. Faced with the threat of being lynched after asking for a fair wage for his work, George fled to New York.
• Robert Joseph Pershing Foster was a surgeon who served in the military and was still treated like a second class citizen. He wasn't even allowed to rent a hotel room at most places. Born in Louisiana he eventually made his way to Los Angeles. 

By telling Ida Mae's, George's and Robert's stories, Wilkerson makes history personal. It serves as a reminder of what our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents have achieved and survived. They had dreams for themselves and their children and sought to make them a reality

The Warmth of Other Suns lives up to its subtitle; it is truly an epic story well told.

Wolf's Bane by Kelley Armstrong

How I have missed the Otherworld series! I'm so glad Kelley Armstrong decided to carry on the series, if only for a little longer.

Wolf's Bane is the first book of duology focusing on the next generation of supernaturals, specifically Kate and Logan, the children of werewolf alpha Elena and her husband Clayton Danvers. Now teenagers, Kate and Logan are sent off to supernatural summer camp. In theory a supernatural camp is a great idea. Traditionally the supernatural races of werewolves, vampires, witches, sorcerers, demons, necromancers, and others have stayed far apart from one another. In fact, for a long time some didn't know the others existed. In theory camp gives the kids a chance to meet and make friends with other supernaturals and not hide who they are the way they have to do with regular humans. Even if they don't become bosom buddies it would give them a chance to build bonds and open the lines of communication between the races.

But this is the Otherworld so of course nothing goes as planned. Something or someone is amping up everyone's emotions, especially their rage. Instead of making friends and building bonds everyone either wants to make out or fight. In the middle of all this there is sibling drama. For most of their lives Kate and Logan have been super close and not they find themselves drifting apart. Both of the twins missed the bond they used to share and neither is quite sure what to do about it. Still they love each other and have each other's back even as they struggle to articulate words to explain what they're feeling. In addition to their sibling issues, the twins and other teens deal with regular teenage problems like dealing with the pressure to have sex, figuring out one's sexuality and dealing with a culture that may have a problem with one's sexuality, mean girls, and bullying. It's a delicious mix of mystery, the supernatural, family drama, and teen drama.

I loved this. I really hope Armstrong writes more books in the series about Kate, Logan, and other kids in the Otherworld series.

April 2020 Dewey's Read-a-Thon - Final Hours and Roundup

Ah, the final stretch. 

9 -11 p.m. /Hours 17-19 Read 50 pages of The Warmth of Other Suns (see previous post). Ate dinner. Watched a little TV. Started a new book, Wolf's Bane by Kelly Armstrong.

12 a.m. /Hour 20 Five hours to go and I am tired. For now, I'm hanging in there but my bed is definitely calling.

2 a.m./ Hour 22 Time to call it quits. I've been up for 22 hours reading, walking, doing yoga, and more. This is the longest I've ever lasted in a read-a-thon.

In the end I read 2 full books (The Bookshop and Fables Vol. 18 Cubs in Toyland) and made progress in two others (The Warmth of Other Suns and Wolf's Bane). I'm pretty happy about read-a-thon experience. It was fun and I read a lot.