Scruffy’s Comments (group member since Nov 12, 2022)

Scruffy’s comments from the Ranting and Reading Collective group.

I feel very mixed about this book, so I have sat with it for a bit before writing a review.

I found it a really interesting read and the perspective Ta-Nahesi brought to the three places he wrote about was challenging and brought up a few insights and perspectives I hadn't heard or considered before. However I have been keeping in perspective this is one person's take on the scenarios and I would love to have a series of books like this with different people sharing their honest experiences.

The section on Dakar I found interesting to hear the tales that the stories of slavery and colourism are influencing culture as negatively there as he'd seen in the US. Making it feel more urgent to bring in critical race theory universally to challenge some of the deeply ingrained beliefs that we all need to question more. However, this was only a small insight, and I would love to hear of experiences of others.

The section on South Carolina actually made me more hopeful than I thought it would, the fact the community came out in support for the school meeting made me think we can overturn the seemingly endlessly depressing backwards direction the world seems to want us all to think is what the majority want. My favourite bit here was how the author talked about his books being like his children he has released into the world - I really like that, and I think more authors could do with not trying to police how their work is revived or interpreted once it's published.

The section on Palestine was a hard read, which I was expecting, hearing of just how much history has been erased by the Israeli regime made me cry and the treatment of people generally was expectedly depressing. I did makee reflect more on just how much has gone on over the last 80 years and how many missed opportunities the world has had to stop us getting to this point of blatant horrific genocide.

I came into the book unaware of the previously problematic comments the author has made, comparing the need for reparation on slavery to how Germany made reparations to Israel. A part of me questioned his early comments about separating himself from his books, is that actually a way to divorce himself from criticism. That said, he clearly was challenging himself to learn and keeping his understanding, which I appreciated.

My only other comment, I found the little reminders that the book was a letter to his students a little jarring - having the preface apology and mention of the build up behind this book was good, but the occasional "as you are so young" type comments within the sections, entirely unnecessary and took me out of the moment to question why that line was there and remember the preface.

Overall, I'm glad I read it and I will be seeking recommendations for similarly accessible work to expand and deepen my own knowledge and understanding of the many complex issues engaged with by this author.

This felt like a really interesting thought experiment fleshed out into a novel. it was inconsistent and confusing to me - why was everyone but Doris speaking in pigeon English? Why did Nonsa have self help books - when was this set exactly? Why were some country names flipped but others not?

The unfortunate consequence of the race flip is that we lack any sympathy to the black characters - which to me took away any benefit in trying to cast white people as slaves in order to help white readers get how awful it was.

I was also disappointed that the story itself never really gripped me. I liked the idea of the slaver writing his biography as a way of expressing the hypocrisy or white saviour narratives.

That said - I do agree with Caroline, the descriptive language was probably the saving grace, she didn't shy away from describing some of the horrors.

I also accept the challenge from Caroline to think about how this would have hit me if I'd read it in 2009 - perhaps I would have found it more impactful? A much needed eye opener? I expect it would have been.

i agree with both of you!

I really enjoyed the adventure, found lots of little moments moving and laugh out loud funny - the author had a lot of fun thinking of the sorts of things each historical character would have struggled adjusting to.

I loved the flawed voice of the main character, I did not see the reveal coming at all - I almost want to re-read bits, but I think that's a danger with time travel books that sometimes the more you know, the less it makes sense!

I agree the ending felt a little too glossed over on detail and I wasn't getting the emotion through, but I really liked the idea that hope lives on.

I really enjoyed this refreshingly slow drink of water of a book!

It was far more of an experience than a novel. It really had me thinking about my own priorities and how the grind of the 9-5 office job is set up to fail us all now. Capitalism should not be the number one consideration in planning ones future.

Its one of those books that I definitely read at the right time for me, and I wonder if I wasn't feeling very reflective I may have found the slow pace frustrating.

But that would be on me and not the book, and I am glad we met each other at this time.

I have to admit I was a little disappointed with this, I adored Weyward so went into this with high expectations.

Unlike other duel/multi time framed stories, I didn't feel the two were as deep and interconnected as they could have been, in some ways I could have read about the convict ship as part one, then about the present day sisters before the last part interweaves. Although that may have exposed its lack of depth sooner.

I found that very early on I had put the pieces together about some of the reveals, and so I spent the middle half of the book just waiting for the main character to catch up to where I was so we could actually find out what happened.

Although, even that last 40-50 pages didn't feel like as satisfying a pay off as I was hoping for.

I am a fan of magical realism, but I found it hard to suspend belief with the skin condition turned scale production and could perhaps have accepted more the unknown than them all actually becoming merfolk. I also didn't like that after 200 years, Mary finally had her baby, abandoned it and then their song seemed to end? I was sad to think that they disappeared from the visions and the songs, felt that loss too.

Anyway, I have done a lot of moaning, but I didn't find it hard to read and I still look forward to what the author does next!

I read this book a mini section at a time, I don't think I would have enjoyed it if I tried to just read it.

I really enjoyed the biographical element of her ancestors woven through the themes and the reflection of how hard it is to put together a 3D portrait of a person from 100 years ago, let alone the work done to find so many women in history.

I find it tantalising that we have managed to keep some womens names from the ancient world - I really believe we were there, and its more recent religion & victorian values that has re-written us out of history.

The things that struck me were just how many women in the book died young - I was trying to work out if that is why we still know who they were, because they were still in public eye when they died, and obituaries were written about them by contemporaries? Where as if a women did amazing things up until her 50s but perhaps disappeared and died 30 years later, maybe they were already forgotten?

The other thing that struck me is that it felt like a high number of queer women were registered, which again got me thinking if its people slightly outside of societies expectations that do break down barriers and cut through all areas of their life.

I feel sad that having read thousands of names in this book, there are very few I have retained. I wish I could do more than explain my overall feelings of the book, but I am grateful the work has been done to pull this book together.

I can see myself revisiting this book, re-reading in the hope that I can spread some of these amazing womens stories further into consciousness.

I really enjoyed this - I have a feeling there are lots of things to pick holes in, but I was there for the ride!

Given the heavy topics of climate disaster, control, slavery, surrogacy, drugs, death, total collapse of civilisation etc, I found it quite a light read.

I found myself rooting for each of the main characters - with the exception of Jacqueline perhaps - but even for her journey, I could see she thought she was doing something good to start with and just surrounded by yes people absolutely lost her sense of reality.

The only thing that left me a little disappointed was the very end - although I'm not sure I would have liked any direction a reunion of Ava & Orchid might have gone and I really liked the relationship developing with Ava & Olympia.

But the main question posed - can we build a better world if we remove the men who have grown up in this one? I wish we'd seen more of the kids mixing - how was that panning out? I wanted more analysis, but perhaps thats a different book!

Anyway, I enjoyed the provocations and definitely glad I read it.

I adored this book too! The depiction of loneliness, mental health and suicidal ideation really resonated with me, and made it feel very so grounded in personal experience that I couldn't help but be routing for Harley.

I really appreciated the depiction of young male friendship, something that I can't recall reading so well in any book before. The solidarity and support shown, despite outwardly displaying some "laddish" behaviour, really made me appreciate the nuance of the "rugby lad" behaving despicably in the pub, making lazy homophobic comments and generally being exactly the sort of group I would avoid, but under the surface showing a softer more vulnerable side and stepping up (if sometimes violently!) and growing in to maturity.

It really gave me hope and that feeling that this group of found family really will be there for each other through it all! I would love to dip back into their lives 20 years later and see how these foundational years influence further into their lives.

I had this lined up as an ebook to read, but hearing from Caroline that Sandi read the audiobook, I upgraded to listen to it too!

I am so glad I did, her tone added and emphasis to the comedy really highlighted this in a way I wonder if I might not have found as amusing if I had read the ebook. I do love it when an author reads their own work.

I agree with Jem's comments that it was a little light touch on some of the darker elements, but I was also happy to suspend my disbelief while I spent time with the residents of Grimaldi Square.

It felt like a much needed commentary on how we can rebuild community, even when we things don't feel like they are working out, and we think we have nothing and people want to come in and smash it to pieces, there is love & light in coming together for the sake of everyone's happiness. As the world tries to make everything feel dark and isolating, we need to take a different approach, and I want to be more Dorothy in the world in 2025!

Thank you Sandi!

I loved this messy, stream of conscious style delve into life. The themes of navigating the body, mind and society were hard not to relate to. I loved how honest it felt, in admitting to all the lies made - and the reasons for. Really had me thinking how different the world would be if we could openly talk about things without worrying about how they would be received.

I related more than I should have done probably! There was a lot that made me uncomfortable, but even in those moments, the honest humanity was easy to connect to. The bathroom scene, plotting the suicide attempt was humours as it was tragic.

I loved the stream of consciousness style, at times I felt compelled to read it out loud, which is a huge testimony to the translator as well, I can't imagine how hard it must be to translate such poetic prose! The insight in the end of the book from the translator was really eye opening. I am sort of fascinated to speak to someone who read it in the original Spanish and compare notes!

I am curious to read the other books in the tryptic.

I really liked the message in this book - basically we're stronger together, and when you feel like you are all alone and have no choices but bad decisions, its never as bad as you think it is.

I was very sceptical of the relationship between cop & convict, but as the book progressed, I found myself routing for them!

I wanted more of the story of the struggle of trying to rebuild a life after prison - there was a lot of hinting at how luck our MC was and how bad the situation could be for others, but it was reasonably light touch.

I loved our teenage YouTubers and seeing them step up brought me joy!

Oh, and Conor, he was the real star - everyones relationship with him was precious. I need someone who can tell me a joke on command in my life.

The whole story wrapped up in the fairy tale really worked for me and I will definitely be reading more from this author.

I loved this too! I have to confess I had to put it down for a bit after the shock of death of Calvin (I may have read too many happy endings recently!) .

I adored Elizabeth and Mad and Six-Thirty and Harriet - in fact all the cast felt like three dimensional characters.

The social commentary and the hits at the media were spot on, and in so many ways show how little we have really moved on. These "artificial cultural and religious policies" still dominate our lives, but the hope in this book for a future where we can all live without these limitations is amazing.

I also loved the queer family element - who is on our family trees & even if we don't know them, the influence they have had can still be counted.

I also really enjoyed having six-thirty's voice, never underestimate animals either!

This was a fun, light read. It challenged me a couple of times when I assumed where it was going & threw me a curve ball to check my bias on chick lit!

I read a lot of sapphic romance, so was intrigued to see what I'd make of heterosexual version (although happy to have a sapphic background character - I wanted more of them!), but somehow it didn't give me the feels, I didn't feel the connections as deeply as I would have thought I might.

That said every time I thought it was getting predictable & far to easy, they did throw in some deeper emotional conversations about mental health etc. I did like the conversation around the similarities we all have no matter who you are, societal expectations on women are set at a level none of us can live up to, which is something my feminism over the last 15 years has really opened my eyes too.

My absolute favourite character was Cricket, and I could read a book purely about her anytime!

Perhaps if I wasn't set up with my network of amazing women, it would have felt more meaningful to follow the journey of all of us living our messy lives without worrying.

That said, do as I say, don't do as I do!!

I wasn't looking forward to reading this one based on what little I knew, and I was right it isn't something I would have chosen to pick up.

I'll start with the positives, so I enjoyed the book-within-a-book premise, with the intrigue of what may be taken from historical accuracy and what is complete fiction, I like the stories from Scotland of the grave robbers and the advances in medicine that came from the illegal sale of corpses, so having this set adjacent to that had me interested. I found myself googling to try & separate fact from fiction!

With that said, it goes along a theme we seem to have inadvertently taken with this years picks with another unreliable narrator - well, several of them! Unlike Yellowface, I found next to nothing redeemable about Candle. His narration on the whole sub-book was just plain weird and two dimensional. (Which was perhaps on purpose?) It felt like him trying to insert himself as the main character when he was clearly a background support at best.

I hated the lack of women - even with Bella/Victoria having her right of reply in the letter, she did at least bring in God's mother, and made her something other than housekeeper, and gave some back ground on her own mother, but it was such a weirdly male only view point and with things only seeming to happen to men.

The infantilisation of Bella is disturbing at best, I was trying to work out if the addition of the brain swap for the baby did anything other than make me thing he was a paedophile. He fell in love with a woman behaving around 5 years only - but that was fine because her body as adult. I genuinely think it would have felt less disturbing to just have had her re-animated, without the need for this addition - using the story they made up as the truth. I can't see this as anything other than a disturbing thought on what men really want from women.

The idea that a baby growing in a grown body would make them somehow less afflicted by feeling inferior because of their size was such a weird male take - no matter your age, brain or body as a women, you are oppressed in this patriarchal society, and the idea that not having grown up from a baby would somehow make you live without inhibitions is plain weird, and again just felt like a concocted way to suggest she was sexually open.

The author inserting themselves as the neutral voice to just bring facts to you felt like a red flag of ego and self indulgence, and again, speaking on behalf of the other man who supposedly made the initial discovery of the book - I would have liked to have heard his voice, rather than the authors character speaking for him.

As an homage to Victorian era gothic books, I don't know that it really added anything - perhaps other than the glimpse back from mid-20th century, but I think I'll stick to reading Frankenstein and Carmilla.

Completely agree, I loved this! The persistent pace of the unknown, expecting the worst on every page - and often finding it there, but yet it had a hope strung through it, even at the darkest points.

I loved the Haints weaved in, and whatever Gloria's future visions were, such a great way to explain the history meeting the present (in the past!).

The detail in the description made the people & places seem entirely real to me, brilliantly written.

I happened to watch a documentary about Harper Lee & To Kill A Mockingbird whilst reading this, and it made me think a lot on exactly the experience in small towns, and how Lee publishing that in the 50s when this is set makes me think full circle. The documentary interviewed Black Americans who won't read the book, they lived it. Just how important a white woman publishing that was, how much isn't said and hasn't changed. I am curious what the author thought about that - given she named the nasty dog Scout, I am leaping to a conclusion there.

Although fiction, it is deeply disturbing that this is all based on a real place & the secrets it held until recently, and all only in the last 100 years. I hope things truly will improve one day soon, as the author's comments at the end said, although she put all the evil into one main character, it takes a village for these things to be allowed to happen, and to some degree we are all still looking the other way.

This book had me sobbing. I found myself equally annoyed and sad for the main character. Caught in impossible feelings that seem overwhelmingly permanent and unable to really move on, I found a very relatable frustration.

That said, I hated how two dimensional the main two female characters felt through out the story, the brief appearance of Betty in the first and last section had her as a far more fleshed out character than the mother or wife.

The meeting of tragedy and beauty, the full an complex experience of being human felt real on the page to me.

TL:DR Spend 8hrs in bed every night and don't take sleeping pills. If you're looking for tips on getting a better nights sleep, save yourself from reading the book see page 22 of this magazine (as referenced in the appendix of the book): https://magazine.medlineplus.gov/pdf/...

I was nervous about reading this book, I have trouble falling asleep - I'm a night owl, and struggle with getting going in the mornings, so I was grateful for the intro of the book that acknowledged it might be an uncomfortable read. I was also glad to have read early on how the industrialised world is set up to fail us night owls - forcing us to conform to an unnatural sleep pattern & painted as lazy by larks for not being up with the dawn.

That said, I found so much about this book infuriating! Never have I read a non-fiction book that I wanted to label as having an unreliable narrator more than anything. His style seemed to flip from 2 page long expositions about a graph that was pretty self explanatory to using obscure analogies that in no way helped to explain a concept at all. For example, at least a page explaining that light bulbs have a side product of producing heat, but then a flippant one line comparison about how neurons fire by comparing it to how protein affects metabolism. I am none the wiser.

Through out he is obsessed with telling you to get 8hrs sleep every night, but every single time he references an actual study it clearly states its 8hrs of sleep opportunity. Not actually 8hrs sleep - but not only does he constantly use this shorthand, he also has a chapter later in the book where he scoffs headlines about research into a tribe, unaffected by industrialisation, that showed they only got 6-7hrs sleep and how ridiculous it is for people to not understand that its 8hrs sleep opportunity... WHICH HE HAD BEEN DOING THE ENTIRE BOOK!

There is also zero hope offered - basically, if you haven't always had 8hrs in bed, then there is now catching up or fixing the terrible effects it will have had on your physical & mental health and you will die earlier than if you had always slept! He fails to acknowledge the privilege within this - he does mention sleep deprived parents and professions which "force you to get less sleep" (he quotes army, doctors, nurses, police... although later in the book acknowledges that we need to change all these professions with long shifts), and he pushes for schools start times to be later and work places to offer more flexibility so that employers get the best out of employees, but then will wipe out any good will and thoughts with some sweeping statements, such as referring to PTSD sufferers getting triggered as "emotion had not been properly stripped away from the traumatic memory during sleep" or the absolutely unnecessary statement that "accurately reading expressions and emotions is a prerequisite of being a functional human being". I apologies to Caroline who had me ranting over whatsapp, calling the author a smug, neurotypical twat!

There is zero reference to anything hormonal in things that might affect the brain & sleep - nothing when talking about teenagers, nothing on menopause and although he does make mention of sleep effecting fertility, he spends much more time talking about erectile disfunction than anything else.

There is also a lot of references to things as fact, that I don't think one study with 3 subjects can entirely justify, I just wish he was a little less bull in a china shop with his points and a bit more humble - we definitely do not yet have a full understanding of how the brain works and if I would find it easier to trust a scientist who acknowledges this more humbly.

And don't get me started on the pop culture references, it honestly felt like someone had told him that he need to get a mainstream audience, but, wow, he picked some absolute doozies. The first that sent me down a rabbit hole was a whole page worth of what an amazing analogy to sleep "darkness" is in The Sound of Silence (hello darkness my old friend...) which I personally related more to depression/sadness and actually googled to check I wasn't completely missing that it was about sleep! Thankfully, I was closer to the mark than he is on the official explanation. The one that made me laugh out loud was in the chapter talking about sleep paralysis and his thought that this phenomenon is probably what people who claim alien abduction are experiencing. Utterly bizarrely he then throws in that both ET and Close Encounters are set at night. Neither of which are alien abduction movies AND ARE FICTION, PROVING NOTHING!! I think the only good thing about these utterly bizarre asides is that it helped me take the entire book with a pinch of salt, and made me less worried about just how soon I'm going to die because of my insomnia!!

All of that said, I do think there is a kernel of some really useful and helpful info (probably a pamphlet) that we should all be aware of and how we should be treating sleep with more respect that we do in our daily lives, along side education on a good diet & exercise for instance. I was concerned with his frequent mention of how bad sleeping pills are, but actually he persuaded me he's not an anti vacs, but that the sleep you get with pills (similar to alcohol) is sedation rather than sleep, so you don't get the good restful and restorative REM & NREM - he is pro pharma companies finding a way to trigger more natural sleep.

So, I can get behind us all treating sleep with the respect it deserves and the admiration of all the stuff that is going on in our brains while we seemingly rest. Sweet dreams!

I found the initial part of the book a case of too many names and not really knowing who was who and a bit hard to understand the world I was in. However, once I got through the first third of the book that settled in my head.

I loved the bone orchard idea itself, and I feel like we didn't hear enough about it, the idea of growing bones to build creatures sounds amazing and the horse tree dropping its "over ripe" bones, led to so many questions and ideas that I would love to see developed further!

I was most fascinated by the idea or splitting your mind/personalities into separate people and letting them face the world with their flaws and strengths and each leading their own specialities. Had me thinking about all sorts of disability/mental health situations that could be examined alone and then to realise you come back together strongly. Could a "mindlock" be a useful temporary tool if it existed in the real world.

I loved the murder mystery plot and it kept me guessing along with the MCs all the way, who can we trust, what cheeky move can we make next to upset the status quo.

I enjoyed it so much, it almost helps me forget the horrendous things that powerful men do, no matter what worlds get built to tell stories.

I am usually not a fan of an unlikeable narrator, but I found this book compelling and at times unsettling, even shocking - especially the opening.

As someone who has a lot of thoughts on the publishing industry (see American Dirt review!) I loved all the inside info and the commentary on how to become a best seller.

As the book goes on I found myself intrigued as to just how much of it was the authors personal experience, and did attempt to look at her 1* reviews on other work and found some evidence that she could have experienced at least some level of the trolling & doubt as an author.

I'm also really intrigued if some of the Chinese author vs American author was a dichotomy of the Chinese American author herself, and in fact both characters were essentially herself in some kind of tug of war/imposter syndrome episode, but perhaps I am projecting too much on that front!

As a fan of Asian horror manga & movies, I did enjoy the descent into madness over the ghost - that element alone I could have envisioned as a Junji Ito comic book! Having re-watched the Exorcist recently, I had a very visual image of the steps.

I found this to be a really interesting and well written look at a whole heap of difficult topics to examine.

The book was written in a really engaging and easy to understand way that made it accessible and for the theme of the book to really come through strongly.

The feeling that so many of us could be in the situation of any of her clients just with one or two minor changes of events in our lives was really powerful, the attempt to make us instantly question anyone called "evil" in the press was well made, but had me questioning if I could get there - all the empathy I could be walked through with her clients I can't quite seem to apply when I think about the murder of Sarah Everard or Brianna Ghey. I would like to think I could extend an element of empathy and understanding, but I am just not that good of a human!

The clear message that as a society we need to do better with mental health services was made abundantly clear, so sad to read the stories where earlier intervention could have made a huge impact and saved lives in the long run. Something that I know our NHS service doesn't have the capacity for, but how exactly we get the case made in the current climate is yet another battle I struggle to see a good result for.

As someone who has experienced sitting in the other seat in a therapy session, it was so intriguing to hear the insights from the other side.