I did not mean to read so much in March, but I guess I just found a lot of good books. And also finished some books that I had been reading at slowly for months.
1. Evening is the Whole Day by Preeta Samarasan (2009) -- this book came to my attention because Preeta is a musicology friend of Jeremy Grimshaw's. I ordered it through ILL, and it came months ago, and it just didn't appeal to me anymore for awhile, and I read other things instead. But then I felt guilty for making the library go the expense of getting it for me, and it was due on about March 2 or something, so I quickly started to read it at the end of February, and finished it on March 1. This book is set in Malaysia, and there is some conflict between Indian, Chinese, and Malay people that is shown through the story, which is about an Indian family, mostly seen through the eyes of Aasha, the youngest child. This story was actually fascinating, and I am glad I read it. But don't be expecting a happy ending. Expect to be a bit horrified by some of the things that happen in this family.
2. Predators, Prey, and Other Kinsfolk: Growing up in Polygamy by Dorothy Allred Solomon (2003) -- my friend and colleague Denise Halverson mentioned this book by her friend Dorothy when we were in a meeting, and the title captivated me, so I read it. Holy cow. This was a riveting story. Dorothy is the daughter of Rulon Allred, a notorious polygamist and doctor who was murdered at his office, and Dorothy just missed being there at that time. Phew. So interesting how people will rationalize things to match their worldview. So, while Dorothy loves her father most assuredly, she also raises her eyebrows at him, as do I.
3. The birth of Korean cool: how one nation is conquering the world through pop culture by Euny Hong (2014) -- Rachel Wadham recommended this book to me, along with a long list of juv and YA fiction about Korean culture, even as Ava and I shared with her our recommendations of K-Dramas. Super interesting! So...what do you think? “In a {Korean} quiz show, one of the questions was “What is Korea’s biggest cultural export?” It was a multiple choice question: films, K-Pop, K-Dramas, video games, food, fashion. Nobody answered the question correctly—video games! “Korean video game exports bring in 1200% more revenue than K-Pop!” 1200%!! Actually, 58% of Korea’s pop culture export revenue comes from video games.[1] As a result of this book I learned about MapleStory, the video game, even though she gave the name incorrcctly, and am in the midst of preparing an academic paper on this topic, which I will be presenting in a virtual symposium sponsored by the University of North Texas in about 27 days.
4. Wineskin: Freakin' Jesus in the 60's and 70's by Michael Hicks (2022). Well, I read this because Michael is my friend. I knew that he grew up having very interesting born-again Christian experiences, and this book confirmed what I already knew, only it was filled with all the details that I did not know. Let me quote Amazon: "Michael Hicks’s story is a tale studded with awkward episodes of sex, drugs, and rock and roll (not necessarily in that order), along with alcohol, sci-fi, theft, radical politics, cartooning, halfway houses, and the musical avant-garde. The one constant is the brooding figure of Jesus Christ behind Hicks’s various personal reclamations and metamorphoses, often via methods admittedly off the books. While many readers know Hicks as a Mormon academic—thirty-five years a professor of music at Brigham Young University—Wineskin excavates the path, from boyhood to a PhD, that led him toward a faith that is both primitively Christian and highmindedly Mormon."
5. The Noh Family by Grace K.Shim (2022). This YA book was one of the books on Rachel's list of recommended Korean culture books. I really liked it. Chloe Chang lives in Oklahoma with her Korean-born mother, who is a nurse. Her father died in a car accident before she was born, and her mother was an orphan, so Chloe's family unit is very small. Her friends buy her a 23andMe kit, and Chloe is surprised to discover a first cousin! The cousin is very interested in meeting her--she finds out that she is a daughter of the Noh family, who are chaebol (large family-owned business conglomerate in Korea, very wealthy) but confusing. Do they care that they have found Chloe--or are they only interested in her liver?
6. My Almost Flawless Tokyo Dream Life by Rachel Cohn (2019) is a book I found while on my daily walk on a snowy day in the YA section. It is kind of hilarious that I picked it up while reading book #5 above, because the stories are similar, only in this case, Elle Zoellner is a foster kid because her drug-addicted mother burned through all her money, lost her job and home, and ends up in prison. It has been six months of h-e-double toothpicks for Elle, when her mother's friend, who she calls Uncle Masa, shows up to take her to Tokyo to live with her father. What?!! Elle didn't even know who her father was. And she had no idea that "Uncle" Masa is actually her father's cousin. Dad is unspeakably wealthy, and Elle ends up at an international private school in Tokyo, world's away from her foster child in inner city Wasington D.C. existence.
7. Better than the movies by Lynn Painter (2022). What a fun YA read this was! Liz Buxbaum is crushing hard on Michael Young. She gets her obnoxious neighbor Wes to help her get noticed, and hopefully dated, by Michael, and is completely oblivious to how very much Wes likes her himself. Liz's mother was a screenwriter and died in a car accident when Liz was young. Liz looks at life through her mother's movie-making eyes, and life is not a movie, so Liz is not always in touch with the realities around her. The book is complex-- Liz's relationship with her dad, her step-mom, her best friend, and the young men around her. Really well told story.
8. Classical Cooks: A Gastrohistory of Western Music by Ira Braus (2006). I wrote about cooking and composers for a short article I wrote for our MPMLA newsletter a year ago, and then I ordered this book for the library. Eventually we got it, and it was processed, and I checked it out for my six month period, and read it slowly slowly and finished it in March! I liked it but I did not like the organization. It was organized into courses, like a meal, but the main course was soooooooo looooooong. 160 pages. Yikes. I prefer shorter chapters.
9. Beehive Girl by Mikayla Orton Thatcher (2023). LOVED IT!! BCC Press book, so kudos to Andrew Heiss and his book designing! I have known Mikayla since she got engaged to her now husband, Nate, and I have known Nate for about 14 or 15 years or so. Mikayla found out about the Beehive program circa 1915, and sets out to be a Beehive girl of that era 100 years later, in 2015, the year that their daughter Jane was born. So fun to watch Mikayla discover things about the Beehive program and herself.
10. Hawaiian Masquerade by Rachelle J. Christensen (2018). It took me months to read this book! It wasn't terrible, it just wasn't riveting. But really, if you are a billionaire, when is the right time to tell the person you are dating about that? This is the masquerade for Lexi Burke--she wants to be taken as normal, and her person of interest, Derek Mitchell, has a chip on his shoulder about wealthy people, so she hesitates to tell him. Which, she has a point.
11. Elegy for a Disease: A Personal and Cultural History of Polio by Anne Finger (2006). I don't remember how I heard about this book, but I ordered it through ILL and then read it so fast that when I turned it in, they emailed to say "Did you really get and read this book?" And I said, "I did! It was really good!" This made me really think about ADA compliance, because it is hard for people with lack of ability to get around. Like, they have to think so carefully about where they park, and how far they have to walk, and going up the stairs--all the things we take for granted. That is only dealt with a little bit in the book, but have caused a lot of thinking in me. Very complex book. Also, did you know that smallpox vaccine, which we are taught was all down to Edward Jenner, was actually used for thousands of years in China and India, long before people in Europe thought about it. Anyways--great book.
