Images from Goodreads
[78] Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
Fiction / Science Fiction / Time Travel, heard about first on Currently Reading “Season 2, Episode 46, Say Hello to our Newest Host + Books that Shook Our Worldviews,” and again on Currently Reading “Season 3, Episode 6: Are you “Book Bossy”? We are!”
Trigger warnings: violence, abuse
Synopsis: Dana is a young Black woman living in California in 1976, who involuntarily time travels back to Maryland in the early 1800s. On her first short trip she saves a young boy from drowning and leaves unscathed, but as the trips recur and increase in length, it becomes incredibly dangerous for her to be an educated Black woman on a plantation using slaves.
Review: This story is amazing and horrifying and hard to read. Dana witnesses many inhumane acts against the other slaves, and experiences them herself. The writing is not graphic – but it doesn’t need to be to feel how appalling it is in the pit of your stomach. It’s such an interesting story though, and a huge mindf*ck to think about not being able to control your time travel and what you’ll do to survive. I was completely engaged with this story, desperate to see what happens to Dana. The ending feels a bit abrupt, but it was still a satisying one.
Recommend? Yes
[79] A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti
Young Adult Fiction / Social Themes / Physical & Emotional Abuse, Currently Reading “Season 3, Episode 5: A “Book Voldemort” + Special Guest Roxanna Kassam-Kara”
Trigger warnings: violence, abuse
Synopsis: High school senior Annabelle Agnelli has reached her breaking point – she is over acting like she’s happy when she’s not, being complacent when she’s furious, and the guilt from last year’s tragedy. She decides on a whim to run from her hometown of Seattle to Washington, D.C., hoping she can forget the past and why she needed to run away, but the guilt is still there.
Review: I picked this up since it’s about a runner (duh) and knew it would be about a hard topic, but not which one. And what happened is not revealed until 90% in! I thought that would make me crazy but it didn’t. I liked the suspense of trying to figure it out, even though I was guessing at horrible tragedy scenarios. And I liked seeing Annabelle work through what she hoped would be a 100% mind-numbing run across the country, but wasn’t.
Recommend? Yes
[80] Finding Gobi: A Little Dog with a Very Big Heart by Dion Leonard
Biography & Autobiography, saw on BookBub
Synopsis: Dion Leonard was running a multi-day multi-stage ultramarathon across the Gobi Desert in China in 2016 when a stray dog showed up and ran with him for three days of the race. Leonard bonded with the dog, whom he named Gobi, and was determined to adopt her and bring her back home to Scotland, but Gobi went missing in China after the race.
Review: This is a great story, but I didn’t click with the author, or his storytelling style. He mentions a little about a rough childhood and being ostracized for not knowing who his father is, then being kicked out of the house by his mother as a teenager, which is all horrible, but he told so little of the story that the significance was lost, especially when trying to connect it later to the Gobi story, by saying he showed her the love he never got as a teenager. And I completely understand his search for Gobi in China, and being dedicated to your pet only, but he and the search crew were searching among all the stray dogs, including puppies (which we never find out what happened to), and… I guess it just sucked that Gobi is going to be adopted and there are still all these unwanted strays. He mentioned that the people he worked with advocated for the strays, but we never learn how or the outcome. This is such a wonderful and unique story, especially that Gobi ran three marathons in a row, and that she got to go home with Leonard to Scotland, but, eh, I didn’t love how it was told.
Recommend? Nah
No way, Deb Caletti! She was my favorite author when I was in high school! Gosh, I haven’t thought about her books…well, probably since high school. I liked a line in her book Honey, Baby, Sweetheart so much that I wrote it down on a piece of paper and I’m 99% sure I still have it in my desk. And I liked The Nature of Jade so much that I legit wanted to give a future daughter of mine the name Jade after I read it (though I was thinking of it as a middle name rather than a first name. I don’t know if I’d still use it, like 14 years later, but that’s how much I liked that book!). I found her main characters to be so relatable to how I felt as a teenager. I wonder if I’d still feel the same way! I should pick up one of her books one of these days and see – maybe after I finish Beyond the Point (which I am STILL working through >.< Library holds coming in really got in the way of me making progress on that book! But I'm 92% of the way through, so I should be done really soon!)
Wow! And this is my first time hearing of her so that is awesome she’s been a fave of yours for so long. It sounds like she was a big influence on you growing up! I wonder if you’d still relate to the characters as well! I really though this book was well done!
What are you thinking of Beyond the Point?
Wow – you are still getting a lot of reading in! The first two books sound like something I might enjoy although they sound like tough topics…
I am currently reading Michelle Obama’s autobiography, which I am finding more interesting than I thought!
They definitely were! I didn’t feel a huge hangover from them though. I think I will with the memoir I am reading now though, about this runner who had the hardest upbringing. I already wish I could unread some of it.
Becoming? Or something else? Did you think it would be kind of vanilla or not have much detail or something because of her former position? 🙂
Kindred is on my list to read, but based on your review, I’ll have to make sure to read it during a good period, haha. Probably not right now when my anxiety isn’t the… best, but hopefully soon!
Yes, I agree! Wait until it’s right, but definitely read it at some point!