After the Eclipse

Book 40 of my 2019 Reading Challenge

read from June 8 - 18

After the Eclipse: A Mother's Murder, a Daughter's Search

by Sarah Perry

Summary (via Goodreads)

published 2017

When Sarah Perry was twelve, she saw a partial eclipse of the sun, an event she took as a sign of good fortune for her and her mother, Crystal. But that brief moment of darkness ultimately foreshadowed a much larger one: two days later, Crystal was murdered in their home in rural Maine, just a few feet from Sarah’s bedroom.
 The killer escaped unseen; it would take the police twelve years to find him, time in which Sarah grew into adulthood, struggling with abandonment, police interrogations, and the effort of rebuilding her life when so much had been lost. Through it all she would dream of the eventual trial, a conviction—all her questions finally answered. But after the trial, Sarah’s questions only grew. She wanted to understand her mother’s life, not just her final hours, and so she began a personal investigation, one that drew her back to Maine, taking her deep into the abiding darkness of a small American town.
 Told in searing prose, After the Eclipse is a luminous memoir of uncomfortable truth and terrible beauty, an exquisite memorial for a mother stolen from her daughter, and a blazingly successful attempt to cast light on her life once more.

My Opinion

4 stars

The preface was an excellent starting point for the book; it was emotional yet clinical and I immediately wanted to know more both about the case and about her.

I had a moment's pause at the irony of her not correcting someone in person when they were talking in order to "let him keep his myth" of how certain events transpired but then going on to write about how wrong he was...maybe he's passed away?

I happened to have just started watching old "Forensic Files" episodes on Netflix so I'll have to see if the episode about this case is there.  It would be interesting to put a face and voice with what I read.

A Few Quotes from the Book

"The prosecution kept the story necessarily simple: here's the man who killed her; this is how he did it. But a violent act is an epicenter; it shakes everyone within reach and creates other stories, cracks open the earth and reveals buried secrets.  I want those stories, those secrets."

"Finding the man who'd killed her would mean once again imagining life if he hadn't. And I'd gotten so used to ignoring her absence. To pretending that I wasn't supposed to have a mother. That mothers were just something other people had."

Full Cicada Moon

Book 39 of my 2019 Reading Challenge

read from May 30 - June 13

Full Cicada Moon

by Marilyn Hilton

Summary (via the book jacket)

published 2015

As the Apollo 11 mission prepares to go to the moon, Mimi Yoshiko Oliver gets ready to move to a new state. But in 1969, Vermont is mostly white, and for half-black, half-Japanese Mimi, her appearance is enough to make her feel alien. She struggles to fit in with her classmates, even as she defies stereotypes by entering science competitions and trying to take shop class instead of home ec. And though teachers and neighbors balk at her "unconventional" family and her refusals to conform, Mimi's dreams of becoming an astronaut never fade - no matter how many times she's told no.

Judged because of her skin color, and boxed-in because of her gender, Mimi is determined to break the mold. 

This lyrical novel-in-verse follows her journey to fit into the world - and to better it.

My Opinion
4 stars

I read this after my 15 year old daughter finished it and said I had to read it immediately.  

The style of prose was really good for this story because it covers heavy topics in a light way for young audiences but there is still enough there to read between the lines for those with more experience to see it.  I've read a few books by different authors in this style and think it should be used more often.

Randomly, Mimi celebrated her 13th birthday on June 14th in the book and my youngest daughter's birthday is also June 14 and turned 13 this year (and I finished it on June 13 so it was definitely on my mind reading it).

Lots of quote-worthy lines, I can see why my daughter wanted me to read it and will be passing it along to my other children as well.  

A Few Quotes from the Book

"But I am not Other;

I am

half my Japanese mother,

half my Black father,

and all me."

"The Apollo 8 astronauts

watched Earth rise above the moon

and were changed.

Now I am seeing what they saw,

and it is changing me."

"That is why I've decided

that even after I hand in my journal to Mr. Pease

in June, I'll keep writing in it.

I don't want to forget,

and I don't want someone else

to tell a different story about me."

The Daily Show

Book 38 of my 2019 Reading Challenge

read from May 27 - June 7

The Daily Show: An Oral History

as Told by Jon Stewart, the Correspondents, Staff and Guests

by Chris Smith

Summary (via Goodreads)

published 2016

For almost seventeen years, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart brilliantly redefined the borders between television comedy, political satire, and opinionated news coverage. It launched the careers of some of today's most significant comedians, highlighted the hypocrisies of the powerful, and garnered 23 Emmys. Now the show's behind-the-scenes gags, controversies, and camaraderie will be chronicled by the players themselves, from legendary host Jon Stewart to the star cast members and writers-including Samantha Bee, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver, Steve Carell, Lewis Black, Jessica Williams, John Hodgman, and Larry Wilmore-plus some of The Daily Show's most prominent guests and adversaries: John and Cindy McCain, Glenn Beck, Tucker Carlson, and many more.
This oral history takes the reader behind the curtain for all the show's highlights, from its origins as Comedy Central's underdog late-night program hosted by Craig Kilborn to Jon Stewart's long reign to Trevor Noah's succession, rising from a scrappy jester in the 24-hour political news cycle to become part of the beating heart of politics-a trusted source for not only comedy but also commentary, with a reputation for calling bullshit and an ability to effect real change in the world.
Through years of incisive election coverage, Jon Stewart's emotional monologue in the wake of 9/11, his infamous confrontation on Crossfire, passionate debates with President Obama and Hillary Clinton, feuds with Bill O'Reilly and Fox, the Indecisions, Mess O'Potamia, and provocative takes on Wall Street and racism The Daily Show has been a cultural touchstone. Now, for the first time, the people behind the show's seminal moments come together to share their memories of the last-minute rewrites, improvisations, pranks, romances, blow-ups, and moments of Zen both on and off the set of one of America's most groundbreaking shows. 

My Opinion

4 stars

I really like this format but whether or not someone will like this book or not is entirely dependent on their enjoyment of the show and a review isn't going to make much of a difference.

I don't watch as regularly anymore because the news makes me sad and angry but reading it made me miss Jon Stewart.  What I've seen of Trevor Noah is fine but I think it's similar to the "Saturday Night Live" cast someone likes the most - defer to the one they "grew up with".

Re-reading the innocence of being outraged at the 2000 election was sad, as was reading about all his efforts to help 9/11 first responders and knowing that it's still a fight they're dealing with today.  

Even though most of what I've said sounds negative or sad there were many funny parts as well and lots of interesting "behind-the-scenes" stuff.  I liked the show so I liked the book.

A Few Quotes from the Book

"You have to find some way to disarm natural suspicion, and also, the job of the show is to still present something mildly entertaining. If not funny, interesting. If not interesting, at least somewhat smart, and if not smart, weird." ~ Jon Stewart

"[Jon Stewart] is like Mark Twain or Will Rogers. He is a modern-day humorist of that genre, of that level." ~ Senator John McCain

"I don't think the world is any more absurd now than it's even been, or more tragic, or more beautiful. But Jon took advantage of these new ways of seeing the world and took out his magic marker and drew circles around the idiocy. He set out to be a working comedian, and he ended up an invaluable patriot. He wants his country to be better, more decent, and to think harder." ~ David Remnick

Outline

Book 37 of my 2019 Reading Challenge

read from May 18 - 27

Outline

by Rachel Cusk

Summary (via the book jacket)

published 2014

A novel in ten conversations, Outline follows a novelist teaching creative writing during an oppressively hot summer in Athens. She leads her students in storytelling exercises and meets other writers for dinner and discourse. She swims in the Ionian Sea with a man she met on the plane. The people she encounters speak volubly about themselves: their fantasies, anxieties, pet theories, regrets, and longings. And through these disclosures, a portrait of a woman learning to face a great loss.

My Opinion

3 stars

The author has very vivid characters descriptions and phrasing that made it easy to fall into. The chapters were long but that only became noticeable when looking for a place to stop reading or in the one chapter I didn't find particularly interesting (the dinner with Paniotis).

A Few Quotes from the Book

"He spoke a refined and formal kind of English that did not seem wholly natural, as though at some point it had been applied to him carefully with a brush, like paint."

"The interesting [people] are like islands, he said: you don't bump into them on the street or at a party, you have to know where they are and go to them by arrangement."

The German Half-Bloods

Book 36 of my 2019 Reading Challenge

read from March 24 - May 19

The German Half-Bloods
by Jana Petken
Book 1 of The Half-Blood series

Summary (via Goodreads)
published 2018

Germany, September 1939. At the outbreak of War, Dieter Vogel and his family face catastrophic events and separation as each member embarks on their deadly paths towards survival, love, and freedom. 
Dieter Vogel, a German industrialist, believes in protecting his family at all costs, but in a bid to keep his English wife and children safe, he is plunged into a well of deceit that tears the family apart. 
Doctor Paul Vogel is coerced into working in the Nazi eugenics program and soon discovers that sterilizing handicapped and mentally-ill Germans is just a prelude to a more lethal plan against those the Reich deem unworthy of life. Paul, trapped by the SS, seeks help from the unlikeliest of people and is plunged into a world of espionage and murder. 
British Army Major, Max Vogel, is attached to The British Intelligence Services and Winston Churchill’s Special Operations Executive. His missions in occupied Europe are fraught with danger, and his adulterous affair with a woman he cannot give up leads him deeper into the quagmire of treachery and lies. 
Wilmot Vogel dreams of winning the Iron Cross, but when he confronts a mass killing of Jews in Poland, his idolatry of Hitler is shaken to its roots, and he finds himself imprisoned in the infamous Dachau concentration camp with no release date in sight. 
Hannah Vogel has no ambition other than to marry her English fiancé, Frank, before the lines of war are drawn. Against her father’s wishes, she leaves Berlin on the eve of the German invasion of Poland, but when she arrives in England, she learns that Frank is not the civilian engineer he claims to be. 

My Opinion

4 stars

**I received an electronic copy of this book via NetGalley and would like to thank the author and/or publisher for the opportunity to read and honestly review it**

I had no trouble keeping all the characters straight even though I took breaks while reading it - I wouldn't have held it against the author if I couldn't since my timing would've affected it but it was a pleasant surprise that I didn't have any issues.

Everything is presented on such an individual level that it was hard to read because it made me realize how people allowed the Nazis to gain so much power.  They just kept their heads down and tried to live their lives and ignore as much as possible until they couldn't anymore.  I wish there weren't parallels to the things going on today.

The book ended on such a cliffhanger that I was upset until I realized there was a second book.  I haven't read it yet but if it had been available the moment I finished this one I would've jumped right in.

Wrestling With the Devil

Book 35 of my 2019 Reading Challenge

read from May 7 - 17

Wrestling with the Devil: A Prison Memoir

by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Summary (via Goodreads)

published 2018

Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s powerful prison memoir begins half an hour before his release on 12 December 1978. A year earlier, he recalls, armed police arrived at his home and took him to Kenya’s Kamiti Maximum Security Prison. There, Ngugi lives in a block alongside other political prisoners, but he refuses to give in to the humiliation. He decides to write a novel in secret, on toilet paper – it is a book that will become his classic, Devil on the Cross.

Wrestling with the Devil is Ngugi’s unforgettable account of the drama and challenges of living under twenty-four-hour surveillance. He captures not only the pain caused by his isolation from his family, but also the spirit of defiance and the imaginative endeavours that allowed him to survive. 

My Opinion

3 stars

A note about the edition I read: this was a reprint of a book originally published in 1982 and he took the time to edit out dated historical references and documents and added information about how the novel was received.

I'm not knocking his story or the telling of it but even with the editing I still felt very removed since so much has happened since the '70's and he became such a prolific author after being released.

I rated it neutrally because I also think the timing of when I read it (as I was recovering from surgery) impacted it as well.

A Few Quotes from the Book

"Yes. No. Ndio. La. Two of the tiniest words in any language. But one had to choose between them. To say yes or no to unfairness, injustice, wrongdoing, oppression, treacherous betrayal, the culture of fear, and the aesthetic of submissive acquiescence, one was choosing a particular world and a future."

"A narration of prison life is nothing more than an account of oppressive measures in varying degrees of intensity and the individual or collective responses to them. Even if one was getting the best possible food, accommodations, and health care, the fact of being wrongfully held in captivity at presidential pleasure, the forcible seizure of a person for an indefinite time entirely determined by somebody else's fears, is in itself torture, and it is continuous torture to the last second of one's detention. All others forms of torture, not excepting the physical, pale beside this cruelest of the state-inflicted wounds upon one's humanity."

I Know How You Feel

Book 34 of my 2019 Reading Challenge

read from April 20 - May 7

I Know How You Feel: The Joy and Heartbreak of Friendship in Women's Lives

by F. Diane Barth

Summary (via Goodreads)

published 2018

“Do I have enough friends?” “Why did my friendship end?” and “What makes a good friendship work?"
These are questions that F. Diane Barth, a psychotherapist widely recognized for her expertise in women’s relationships, fields all the time. In I Know How You Feel, she draws out engaging stories from a lively and diverse cast of women, many of whom speak about feelings they haven't shared before. She explores how life changes affect women's friendships in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Interweaving examples from classic women’s literature to chick flicks, she provides grounded advice on how to manage betrayal and rejection, how to deal with a narcissistic or bossy friend, what to do when your best friend and your family don’t get along, how to let go of a friendship that has stopped working, and much more. A timely, empathetic guide for women in their twenties to their sixties and beyond.

My Opinion

2 stars

I was recovering from surgery as I read this so that could be why it wasn't really connecting with me but I didn't understand what kind of book this was trying to be.  It was presented like a scientific book but the stats were basic and anecdotes aren't research so it didn't really fit in there, yet it wasn't really anecdotal enough to be an experience-based "look at how others live" kind of book either.

I don't know...this review sounds harsher than I feel but I'm not sure exactly how else to say that it was fine I'm not sure what the point of the book was.

Quote from the Book

"[Sharing small, insignificant details about our lives] is the wisdom of women's friendships in a nutshell: when we pay attention to the details, of one another's lives, everything gets simpler, deeper, and richer."