Weekly Reading Wrap Up | Book Reviews

[00:00:00]Hello and welcome or welcome back to my channel. My name is Nicole and today I have two books to talk to you about and yeah, I really enjoyed both of these in different ways. They were very different books and I'm looking forward to talking about both of them and sharing my thoughts. I think yeah, that very different people potentially would like these two different books. So let me just go ahead and get into it. The first one was a reread for me. This is a book that I read in high school and that is Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. This is a work of science fiction. It was first published in 1966 and I would say it is a psychological realism where you are following the story of the internal experience of a person and it is definitely a character study. So if that is something that you like in books, you will probably like this one. This story is about Charlie Gordon. He is 32 and a janitor at a local bakery in New York City and he his entire life has been classified as someone with a very low IQ. I think it's in like the high 60s, low 70s and he is considered to be very slow at processing things at best. Now keep in mind that the time period of this book, they had very different ideas of what a low IQ meant as well as your place in society and Charlie is vaguely aware of this. He has always wanted to be smart.

[00:01:28]He just recognizes to some extent that that is a core desire and something that's really important to him. Mainly he thinks that he can just better communicate and understand and hang out with those he considers his friends. So when the opportunity arises for Charlie to try an experimental surgery so that he can become more intelligent, he decides to join the experiment and give the surgery a try. But as his intelligence begins to increase, he discovers that that may only be the beginning of his problems. This book is told in a really interesting fashion through a series of dated progress reports that are written by Charlie, and they start before he has his surgery, so when he is at a lower intelligence level, and they follow him over the course of quite a few months as the results of the surgery start to take place, and as they impact his life almost over the course of a year. Is it even a year? Now that I think about it, I never checked the final date. Well, it's over for the course of most of a year. I believe it starts in about March and ends in about November. In terms of what this book discusses, it's definitely looking at what it means to be human, which is a topic that I like to read a lot about a lot. It is about friendship and human connection, as well as intelligence and emotional IQ. It looks at trauma in a person's life and the way that we can psychologically cover that up or how our brain works in covering that up in general, and it's definitely got hints of biomedical ethics going on in the background. And the other huge discussion that goes on throughout this book is that of self-knowledge. This book is mainly keyed off around um a statement from Plato in the Republic, and it is actually the quoted passage at the beginning of this book.

[00:03:21]And I won't read the whole thing to you, but I'll just read the opening sentence or the opening couple of lines of the first sentence. It says, "Anyone who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light."

[00:03:40]And I think that is like such a key idea, the entire passage as well as those first couple of lines, as to what this entire book is about and what Charlie's experience is like coming into the light and going back out of it Um and all of that kind of thing and there's so many elements of that that are written back into this book. So, I would definitely say if you're going to read this book, start by making sure that you read and understand to whatever extent possible that opening passage which occurs before the story even begins. So, there were a lot of parts of this book that I thought were really well done. I think that the author's intention of highlighting those who are on the fringe of society and what needs to happen in order for them to be brought into the fold that we call humanity was really well explored. I really liked the writing style in this book and the way that Daniel Keyes used these progress reports and Charlie's writing to show the development and how he was changing to show what was going on internally inside Charlie.

[00:04:45]It feels like a first person, but it also has that epistolary diary type of feel to it. And I I think it really just showed and allowed Charlie's character and characterization to unravel and unfold as the story went on and it brought a lot of sad irony into the story as well because we as the readers always understood slightly more than Charlie did and that puts you as a reader in a really unique position.

[00:05:13]I think the major shortfalls in this book for me or really shortfall in this book for me had to do with the characterization of women. The characterization of Charlie was so good that it made honestly the characterizations of a lot of other people in the book feel weak in comparison. He had a really strong character arc, but I felt like everybody else's was kind of like a little more flat and the women themselves I felt like fell into your classic like 1960s, 70s like stereotypical science fiction women characterization or really book characterization. Basically, all the women in this book were one of the three H's. They were harpies, they were hysterics, or they were hedonists. And that was about as good as most of them got. Even the one woman in the book who I thought was the most interesting and I had the most hope for, towards the end of the book, kind of had a reaction that may have been somewhat realistic for the time period, but seemed so out of character for her that I went from kind of liking her and rooting for her to almost hating her. And that didn't feel right. I think the thing that kind of brought this book together for me in the end though was that I do feel like Daniel Keyes had a very good understanding of the time and place and audience that he was writing for, which was definitely the people of his time.

[00:06:33]There was a definite feel that he understood what the issues were and what people's mindsets were in terms of how they were treating what at the time they would call like morons and idiots. They had a lot of like names that he clearly felt like were derogatory that were very common at the time. And it really just gave me this sense that this was basically kind of a protest novel where he was protesting the treatment of those who were being othered simply because they had lower IQs. He really just forces you to read it or to look at how you're treating someone who's different than you, to consider what is intelligence and why do we use that as a system of classification that we can use to determine someone else's value.

[00:07:21]I would really recommend this book to anyone who one is willing to read this book contextually and understand that the terminology and that kind of thing that are used in this book are being used to protest against the way they were being used during a time period where it was even considered okay to use those terms. I think that this is a great book for anybody who likes character studies or like psychological realism. If you like epistolaries, there's a lot that you're going to like about this book in terms of it being something that is going to feel like an epistolary novel written in letters, but in this case written in progress reports, which do kind of end up being a type of letter to people.

[00:08:03]I also think if you like looking at bioethics and medicine and science and just you know, whether or not different types of experiments in science on people and in humans and animals. The people are humans.

[00:08:16]But whether the experiments on them are okay and where is the line of consent and all of that and if you like reading about mental health, this is also a really good book for that. I think this would actually be a really good book for mental health May. A little late of a recommendation for this year, but if that is something you participate in and you haven't read this book or haven't read in a while, you might want to consider it for next year if you don't want to pick it up sooner. The next book I read, it was completely different than Flowers for Algernon other than the fact that it also happens to be blue and that is Cocoon. Okay, the sun is coming out weird. So I'm going to hold it over here so that hopefully I'm the only one getting bright shiny light on me. I mean look at this here. Anyway, this was All right, I'm interrupting this video real quick. Well, not real quick, real long because I realized that I have three other books to talk to you about and I totally telling you that there's only two because originally there were two, but then when I stopped and I looked at this videos I have scheduled for the month, I realized if I don't talk to you about these three books in this video, you're not going to hear about them. So I decided to do myself a solid and just going to insert this and then we'll go back and talk about the last book. So unlike usual, I'm going to talk about a lot of books that I've read this month in here. A lot of my videos this month on Saturday are going to be weekly reading wrap-ups, but they kind of have a theme or some sort of premise going behind them. And this one was the only one that was just whatever random book I read. So, here you go with whatever the other random books were that I read. And I guess I'll start with talking to you about the two that I read that I liked but just weren't favorites. And the first one is The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I know this is a really popular book and I've had a couple of people say, "Oh, Nicole, you've definitely got to read this." I did pick up a copy.

[00:10:05]It's this cute little olive edition.

[00:10:07]It's pink. I love it. And this is a book that I really thought I was going to love. The basic premise of it is it's about a teacher of these young girls um whose name is Jean Brodie. And she is known at her school for being very atypical, very eccentric teacher, especially during this time period. And she is definitely on the cutting edge of the women's movement and she wants to teach the girls the important things in life, about love and passion. And she really desires to shape and mold them and make them her own, as she kind of puts it. Is she a bit of a narcissist?

[00:10:46]Yeah, I kind of feel so. Um but let me give you some better idea of the ideas that are discussed in this book because as the book goes on, the girls get older, which I was not expecting. I for some reason thought they were going to stay young throughout the whole thing.

[00:11:01]But as the whole book goes on, the girls age and they get older and they move on in life and they go through high school.

[00:11:07]And the head of the school is always kind of looking for some way to finally get Miss Jean Brodie out of the school, but her girls are loyal to her. It's just this clique of girls that she has gotten into this group, but eventually one of them it does betray her. And this is a story of kind of her quick formation of the girls, how they became this group, how they stayed connected with her, and how one of them one day decides to betray her. I I thought this was going to be all the things that I loved and I didn't hate it, but it definitely covered some ideas that I thought were interesting. So, I guess let's talk about those first and then I'll talk about what I liked and didn't like and all those kind of things. So, yeah, let me open my notebook and find out.

[00:11:47]>> [snorts] >> Cuz it's been a hot second uh since I read this book. So, this is in a sense a coming-of-age novel. I wouldn't say it's like completely within that trope, but you do get to follow, you know, I think it's like five or six girls sort of very quickly from the age of 10 when they're in class with Miss Jean Brodie until after high school and you see a little bit of their later adult life as well. This is definitely about shifting values and um in the areas of love, sex, independence of women, and education. This is I You know, I don't actually know when this was originally published. 1961, but I think it's set slightly earlier than that. And so, you do get this sense that the times are changing, but not as quickly as Miss Jean Brodie is and not as much as she wants the girls to. And you definitely have it set against um major world events. Uh I believe World War I is uh when this book is set. So, early 1900s, so probably about 30-40 years earlier than when this was actually published. But I could see why in the 1960s this book would still be relevant in terms of like women's movement, women's rights, women's independence. And yeah, this book is also about betrayal, friendship, and influence um by your peers and elders, if you will. And there were some things that I really liked about this book. I think for me the saving grace in this book was that it was pretty well-paced and that it was a quick read. I mean, it's a very short book. The writing style is fairly engaging. I don't know. I feel like I was kind of on the fence about that. But where it really lost me was I felt kind of unclear about the author's intent. Not about the different things that she was talking about, but just what she wanted me as a reader to walk away from. And that's pretty important to me when I'm reading a book, and since I felt like I was kind of lacking in this book, I think that's one of the reasons that I just didn't like it as much as I thought I would. I did find it a tiny bit on the predictable side as well, and at the end of the day, I just didn't find it as gripping a story as I expected it would be. I was really hoping this was going to be like Katherine Schidgiel's um Story Pet, which I mentioned somewhere at some point. Did I already talk about this book? I'm going to have to check my weekly reading wrap-ups. I'm so confused. I feel like I've talked about all of these books like four times.

[00:14:07]But then I didn't find the footage on that. Anyway, it doesn't matter. So, um yeah, I was hoping that this book was going to be more like Pet, which ended up being kind of a thriller, which I wasn't expecting, didn't necessarily need. But uh if you like this, you will probably like Pet, especially if you want a more modern version of the same idea that maybe gets a little bit questionable. Well, it gets a lot questionable. This also was very questionable, but um I think lighter than Pet. So, if you if you want to dive even deeper into some of these ideas, you could read Pet. I think the most successful part of this book was definitely the characterization.

[00:14:45]There was a lot of characters in here, but like Dickens does, I thought um Muriel Spark did a really good job of having like tags related to the characters, like little things that helped you remember and separate the characters. So, whether it was something about the way they dressed or acted or behaved or that kind of thing. So, that did um keep it easy to keep track of. My battery's about to die. I will come back, but let me see if I can finish talking about this book. I gave it three and a half stars, which is kind of on the low side, but doesn't mean I disliked it. Uh I think this book would be good for anybody who likes books set in this time period. If you like character studies, and interestingly enough, if you liked the book The Remains of the Day. And that's all I'm going to say about that connection. So, let me change my battery and we'll move on to the next book that I haven't talked to you about yet.

[00:15:32]Oh my goodness, guys. Can I just say that I am happy >> [laughter] >> that I finished that review before I switched my camera battery. Because, believe it or not, I went on to film about the next two books before going back to the other footage of the other last book, and I filmed the second part of this with no sound and in slow motion again. So, >> [laughter] >> here we are in the third inserted edited take to try and talk to you about these books, which I think is hilarious. And if my eyes look a little wet, it's because I'm also simultaneously reading David Copperfield and crying in the background.

[00:16:12]So, there's a lot going on, but I do want to tell you about these last two books. So, let me just go ahead and do this so I can immediately watch this footage back and make sure it worked. And I apologize in advance if these next two reviews are like way shorter and to the point than usual, and if I just read basically directly out of my notebook. So, the next book I'm going to talk to you about is Grevers. This is by Adrianne Marie Brown. This is book one in the I'm a little confused now about what the series is actually called. I think the series is called Grevers and that the Black Dawn series is this publisher's set of books. I could be totally wrong on that. If you know better than I do, please fill the rest of us in. This was published in 2001. It's a work of spec- speculative fiction. It has to do basically with a pandemic setting. It is about a woman named Dune. I thought it was about a younger girl. She's actually, I believe, around 20 at the start of this book, and she is just kind of trying to figure out what her life is and put her life back together after a recent breakup, while simultaneously living in the shadow of her highly activist mom, her formerly activist grandmother, and while at the same time grieving and missing her father who has passed away. And her struggles began when her mother becomes patient zero of a new syndrome that is affecting the entire city of Detroit.

[00:17:33]They end up calling that syndrome H8, I believe it is. Yeah. And her mother basically one day freezes up in the middle of her activities and completely loses herself. Stops watch watch stops washing the dishes, stops talking everything and then just stands totally still and basically can no longer move.

[00:17:53]And June suddenly finds herself all alone having to navigate life in a city that is starting to fall apart, become quarantined, while taking care of her mother and trying to figure out how to survive this new and unknown disease.

[00:18:08]They're not even sure what it is yet.

[00:18:10]And the story really just goes on from there. I saw it pretty much as a love letter to Detroit where it's talking about the people and the history of Detroit kind of in a metaphorical and allegorical way while at the same time being set more or less so in present day as far as I could tell. Um it also shares about how Detroit has been used and exploited and communicates idea of how it has just been sort of left to itself and left behind. So I really do think that the pandemic in this is very much less about pandemic and disease and more about how people have responded to the city of Detroit as a whole over the course of its history. This book is also about grief, about home. It's somewhat of a coming of age story. It's also about um hospice care and care of loved ones, families, friends, neighbors, and about death and dying. So there are definitely some heavy topics that are discussed in this book. So you might want to check trigger warnings or content warnings if that's something that concerns you. For me the strongest part of this book had to do with just the way the author talks about Detroit in this book, both past and present, and like I said, allegorically. I think that was so well done. I visited Detroit multiple times myself, and I actually really like the city, but you can definitely get a sense of like the history of its past, both good and bad, when visiting it. And that was partially why I wanted to pick up this book. I ended up giving it a 3.5. And it was largely because I felt like I was kind of lost partway through, and I never got a good sense of where this particular book or the series as a whole was going. And not in a like the mystery hasn't been revealed to us yet, you got to keep reading kind of way, but in a I didn't understand what the author's intent was other than to write about Detroit. Like I didn't understand why she was telling this story or what the message of the story was supposed to be. That may just be me. I did watch an author interview, and she did talk about a lot of spiritual things. So, I don't know if it's just that she's more spiritual than I am, and that came across in the book, and I it just lost me, or what. And I do say spiritual and not religious. Like there's no particular religion that is talked about or that I could identify in this book, but there is some talk of like spiritual ideas and a certain spirit and energy and that kind of feeling more in general than anything. And that seems to be something that is very important to the author. In her interview, she talked about being spiritual and that kind of and that kind of thing. I own book two, so I will read book two, which is I think Maroons or Marooners or something like that. However, after having read this book, I don't know that book two is really going to make me feel that much different about the series. And I have to be honest, if I didn't already own book two, I wouldn't be rushing out to get it, and I don't know that I'd necessarily continue the series at all.

[00:21:04]Since I own it and the books aren't long, I will definitely read book two and hopefully it will like straighten some things out for me or get me more invested.

[00:21:13]That that would be best case scenario for me.

[00:21:16]Um best case scenario for this month so far is the next book which is a five-star read for me and that book is The Perfect Nine. This is by uh Now I should know how to say his name because it um there is a pronunciation guide within here that talks about the accented letters. Let me tell you about this book real quickly. On the back it describes it as a dazzling modern myth and feminist reimagining of Kenyan's origin stories that subverts patriarchy and roots for social equality. And um that I do think is an accurate description of this book and I think the author did achieve all of those things.

[00:21:53]So let me tell you a little bit more about what this actual story is. So at the heart of it this story is the epic tale of 10 sisters who are all demigoddesses that make up the perfect nine. And the book does explain where the perfect nine name comes from even though there are 10 sisters. The nine sisters are approached by 99 suitors who are seeking black beauties to marry and they end up being led on a sort of wild journey by the sisters as they are sent out on basically a journey of a lifetime where they have um where they're having their skills, merit, and character tested by the various events along the way to see which of these men is worthy of winning the hands of the sisters. And this there's pretty high stakes because the outcome of this is basically going to determine the survival of the Gikuyu people and the people of Kenya as a whole um because out of these marriages and these families that are going to be created are the tribes that are going to make up those of Kenya. I think some of the best parts of this book are the plotting, the way it really does feel legendary and the way the story is told.

[00:23:05]I love that it's inclusive in scope, and I think the entire story is beautiful by design, and I just love how he talks about the idea of beauty in here. I think the things that are going to stay with me from this book are definitely the writing of it. I think the allegorical nature of the adventure in here, particularly their encounters with the ogres. At one point they run into ogres in the mountain side, and that part of the book was just so clearly layered with multiple meanings. It's a section of the book that I really want to take the time and go back and read and reread, and I can honestly see myself revisiting multiple times. One of the other things that I loved in this book was just the explanation of what makes 10 Sisters the perfect nine sisters. I thought that was so beautiful and so interesting, especially in the history of Kenya and its people and the tribes that are acknowledged and aren't acknowledged. I think anybody who likes epic verse will really enjoy this story. So, if you've read The Odyssey or Gilgamesh and you liked them, especially in a more modern translation, or you just like their stories in general, even if maybe you haven't enjoyed reading them, I think this is a story you would enjoy reading.

[00:24:13]I would also really recommend the audiobook. I didn't listen to it because I couldn't find it available without having to pay for it, but I have heard part of the audiobook before and it also sounds like it would just be amazing to hear. Um this is a great book for anybody looking for a one-day read. It's also pretty short and because it's in verse, like you don't have a ton of words on each page, but you have a satisfying amount.

[00:24:36]You don't feel like, "Wow, I just paid how much for what?"

[00:24:39]>> [laughter] >> Uh and I think this would be a great gift for anybody who's a recent graduate or knows a recent graduate or somebody who is starting out on the journey of life and they're looking for a truth and beauty and goodness and that kind of thing and they're hoping to figure that out along the way even though life may throw some hurdles at them. It's that kind of story and narrative but told in a really different way that I think is common because it is a story from outside the Western canon basically. So, if you're used to the sort of epic poetry that you get in the Western canon quote and quote, then this may be a similar type of feel from a place that is not Greece or Rome basically. Okay, so I think I'm going to leave it at that in terms of this. There's so much more I could say about this book honestly. I mean it's hard to see my tabs, but I did tab it. But, because I know that I need to incorporate this into the other two videos now, and I still have one other book to talk about in the original video, I'm going to send you back to where I left off talking about um the fantasy novel I was reading Cocoon here.

[00:25:42]Anyway, this was published in 2022 and is put out by Europa Editions. It is translated by Cathy Hirano and is written by Nahoko Uehashi and this is translated from Japanese. And this is book one in um the Cocoon series. Um it is a completed series or I don't know how many books are out in that series, but at least as far as Europa Edition is concerned, so far this is the only book that they've released. I don't know if they have plans to release the rest of the series that's written so far. I hope so because we'll talk about the end of this book in a moment. But, this is a work of fantasy and it is definitely fantasy that is looking at the political side of sort of court intrigue and that kind of deal. Even though well, I guess saying court intrigue is not quite fair, but like intrigue across an empire, how about that? The basic premise of this book is that we are following a young girl named Aisha. She is royalty from the western part of the empire, thus the girl from the west, and her troubles began when her grandfather is dethroned for not being willing to use the sort of miracle grain and rice that is prevalent throughout the entire empire. And her and her family are forced to flee for their lives. Her and her brother end up being caught and sentenced to death, but they're given a second chance through an unexpected path. Shortly thereafter, however, the magical Ohale rice in the empire itself is put at risk, and it may turn out that only her superpower of smell can save them. And yes, I said smell. This is probably one of the most interesting sort of magic systems, if you will, that I've heard of. Basically, Aisha has the ability to smell things really, really well. And in this empire, that is not a strange thing because there is a sort of goddess figure that is reborn every 13 years known as the cocoon, who is the title of the book, and she is known as having a powerful sense of smell and presence. And the only issue going on with Aisha is that there is already a goddess cocoon in the political court.

[00:27:59]So, yeah, things go kind of on from there, and it's definitely a like can the grain in the empire be saved? Will things fall apart? How do they handle the problems that are coming up as she moves into the imperial court life?

[00:28:14]This is a book that is definitely, like I said, about the politics of this empire and there's a lot of political intrigue as there are multiple factions who are mostly working together, but have different self-interest involved in everything that they're doing. It is also about plant growth and the issue with pest and single crop farming.

[00:28:39]If this sounds kind of bizarre to have in your fantasy, in some ways it made it kind of unique and interesting, and in other ways, it was just kind of bizarre to be talking about these things. This is also a book that deals a lot with the idea of loneliness and feeling like an outsider. So, what did I like about this book? I thought that um it was entertaining. It was an interesting story. I thought that the entire idea of focusing on plants and a green and that being sort of the thing that is like make or break for this empire was really um different and something I hadn't read about before. I thought it was mostly well-paced and kept moving from beginning to end. I didn't feel like there were any parts of the book that were really a slog to read through. And I thought the idea of her having a power of smell that was going to help her figure things out and maneuver and help the people and possibly save the empire was also a really different sort of magical system, if you will, to have in a book. Now, that doesn't mean I loved or liked this book significantly. I thought there was a lot of telling and not showing. This is a work of Japanese literature. I do find that to be um pretty prevalent in Japanese literature in general. And so, I think whether or not you like that um will determine how you feel about this book. Just know that you are going to get a lot of that. I did think that there were a few chapters for quite a while where we just got a humongous info dump. As in like people sitting down at a table and let's explain everything. We're going to talk about the problem. We're going to figure out the solutions. We're going to reveal all this stuff in multiple chapters. Um and it went quickly by like at some point you became aware of the fact that we're just getting a huge info dump. Um and again, that goes back to the telling not showing. The writing in this also felt kind of young for me. I do feel like this would have been better as a late middle grade {slash} young adult fantasy, as opposed to I believe it's just marketed as adult fantasy. So, that was something that was a bit of a turn-off for me. And then the final thing, and probably the main thing that I really did not like about this book, is that it ends on a cliffhanger. Like it ends where you're like, "Okay, go read book two."

[00:30:56]>> [laughter] >> Um it literally ends with them like being like and they opened a door and they all gasped at what they saw.

[00:31:04]What did they say? I don't know. You won't know until book two. I personally don't like when books end like that, especially when you have something like in this situation where you don't have book two and I don't know if they're ever going to publish book two.

[00:31:17]Um so, I like it when book one in a series ends and feels like a complete story. And if it's that good of a story, like trust and believe and have faith that I will move on to book two, not just because you left me on the edge of a cliff.

[00:31:31]Anyway, um I did think that this was a pretty straightforward read. There was a lot to enjoy about it. I think that it's hard to get lost in the story because so much of it is explained. So, yeah, those are my basic thoughts. I think again that I would recommend this book to someone who um either likes young adult fantasy um or even, like I said, maybe middle grade fantasy. Um and I think uh you would probably like this book if you like those vibes. you're just looking for a different type of fantasy and you like a lot of political intrigue in your books, this will provide all of that.

[00:32:07]Also, if you like gardening, you might also like this fantasy because you could probably like relate to a lot of the gardening/farming issues that come up in here. So, it's it's kind of a random topic, but I know a lot of people like gardening and there's a lot of discussion about flowers in there and planting and what can go near. So, if you're into all that kind of stuff, you might appreciate some of those discussions more than I did. Anyway, that's it. Those are the two books that I read recently. I've got a lot more books coming up and planned to talk about this month and it's going to be interesting to see how they come out. I think that the next time I do a weekly reading wrap-up, it's actually going to be a couple of weeks of of reading because I have some other videos that I'm throwing in between there, I think.

[00:32:53]I don't know. Anyway, let me know what you're reading. I hope your reading week is going well and I will talk to you next time. Bye.