Lauren > Recent Status Updates

Struggling... I really hate that so many adult books write children as small adults. Sure, there's a world building reason in this book, but it's still a character choice that I hate. I'm only continuing to read because I don't hate it and I am for once caught up enough on my library books that nothing is imminently due. Still expecting to either DNF or speed read it with the next 24 hours.

One of the things I'm always trying to figure out about these books is why I like them so much. It's not that it feels unearned, it's just that it's done so deftly that there's no one thing I can pick out. Reading currently, I think a big part of it is the sense of so many moving things behind the scenes that are deftly woven into the background. So many minor/side characters whose jobs and roles flesh things out.

Starting to feel like a DNF... If she was just going to write an adult book that's half flashback to the main character's childhood, why didn't she just write another YA book about the character's childhood?

On the one hand, Jemisin's writing style is always fantastic. On the other hand, this book is so heavy handed, it's more lecture than art. Not sure I'm going to finish this one... If I want a lecture, I'll read non-fiction.

Premed students don't care about plants because you only like plants or nature if you're studying it... Goo to know that my vet school choice means I can't get it. Her own biases are so frustratingly deep and I know it's supposed to be some deep thing that we don't get without her help but it's repetitive and frustrating.

I really liked where she took the discussion of immigrants becoming naturalized, so I take back most of my complaint except to note humans aren't plants, and everyone on this side of the world immigrated here.

And last, buying into stereotypes about any group is harmful in the long run. Every time I sort of settle into this slow, rambling read and start to enjoy it, some absolutely foolish nonsense crops up. I get why white people love this - it's the very stereotype that makes them all claim to be 1/16 Cherokee - so they can feel magical and "at one with the earth." Newsflash, you can be white as snow and do that too.

And now we have reached "the immigrants can't understand the earth like we, the indigenous people do and it's so sad and they're broken." First issue: this othering of immigrants is mostly harmless when it comes to the group in power - white people, but it sure hurts other groups. Second, I assure you, immigrants are capable of stewarding the land and there's plenty of evidence of that if one merely looks.

The research wasn't even groundbreaking - as stated, anyone who works with grass knows grazing/removing some of it grows it back lusher. That is not to say the sweetgrass study wasn't important - we do studies to prove that what we "know" isn't based on bias but a repeatable finding even when scrutinized. It just wasn't something ecologists should have pooh-poohed and it felt disingenuous at best.

The scientists who just don't get what you're trying to do because they don't love the earth like you do, so they question you - if they let you do the study? They're doing what they do for every study and poking holes in your idea to make sure you know to plug those holes before you present. Again, the shorthand for "science is too hidebound to get us," like scientists aren't squeeing over their work every day.

Time to keep a running track of frustrating things: the clearly carefully chosen anecdotes that are really just tropes. Including my least favorite: the girl who dresses up and can't handle a bio class. I had that fancy dressing girl in my bio glass, she was brilliant, she just liked to dress up for class. I really hate the shorthand of "this clothing means dumb woman out of her comfort zone."

The author just referred to a man who considered the place he felt most at home as his car. It gets him where he wants to go, it plays his favorite music, etc. She then tells how he attempted suicide in his car because (according to her) he never grew a relationship with the land. What a myopic, self-centered view of the myriad reasons people struggle with mental health.

The author just referred to a man who considered the place he felt most at home as his car. It gets him where he wants to go, it plays his favorite music, etc. She then tells how he attempted suicide in his car because (according to her) he never grew a relationship with the land. What a myopic, self-centered view of the myriad reasons people struggle with mental health.

Hoo boy... I don't know what I was expecting with this book but probably not a rambling memoir of anecdotes, opinions, and find memories. It's an enjoyable enough read but it's starting to sour on me.

These. People. Talk. Too. Damn. Much.

It's amazing to me how I started reading these books for the thief's point of view, and yet each new book brings me a new narrator or POV, and I'm still enthralled!

I just want to take a quit break to say the ship names in this story are fantastic and I want more sf to name ships this way.

The Shadow's Child?
Sharpening Steel into Needles?
Pomegranates Buried in Sand?

Beautiful. Brilliant. A little scary.

A thousand time better than The Destroyer or The Silver Hawk or The Xfinity or whatever militaristic sounding name the latest sf has produced.

This book really skims over the whole "America hand chose fancy horses to steal away from the people already laid low by war," with just a sentence or two. And then, oh no, the spoils of war can't be registered? Boo hoo.

In the middle of a war, safety unclear, people starving, food dwindling, and they were still breeding these horses and training them hard enough to require rations and daily work to keep these fit animals calm and healthy. Just incredibly stupid.

Y'all, read this book!

First 3 stories:
Escaped slave narrative by white woman.
Inupiat story by Asian American woman so poorly researched she thought sled dogs were controlled by reins and didn't see anything wrong with a "good guy missionaries" narrative.
Story about black woman learning she should marry a black man and not a white man written by a white woman.

I'm going to DNF this b/c reviews imply it doesn't improve.

Out of 3 stories:
Escaped slave narrative by white woman.
Inuit story by an Asian American woman who did so little research she thought sled dogs were controlled by reins and didn't see anything wrong with missionaries as the "good guys" narrative.
Story about black woman learning she should marry a black man and not a white man written by a white woman.

I'm giving this collection 1 more story to turn it around

This book came highly recommended by everyone. Personally? It's almost unreadable. I love reading about writing but it spends so much time adding fluff instead of content, I'm basically skimming. Beyond disappointed.

I gotta tell you, if you want to make sure I don't finish your book, making your male character ogle and measure up every woman he sees as a sexual object, and then having him ask how old the youngest is to find out if she's old enough to have sex with him is a really sure way to get your book on the burn pile.

Note to self: stop reading social science nonfiction by white men. It just pisses you off because they are utterly blind to all sorts of social interactions going on around them which punch big old holes in their adorable theories.

It's "humorous" how the white people of the town just don't see a problem and think everything is fine and dandy...

This is it! This is officially the most sexist nonfiction book I've ever read. Congrats sir! I knew it would be bad and racist but the sexism was a nice surprise!

First impressions: this guy does a terrible job of interrogating "history" and this book is an excellent look at superficial exploration of a theory in order to fluff his confirmation bias.