T5W | Books You Want To See As TV Shows

Top 5 Wednesday was created by gingerreadslainey and is moderated by Sam of Thoughts on Tomes. Here is the Goodreads group if you want to join!

Hey!! I got this one out on Wednesday! Miracle of miracles! It's probably because this one is easier, less thinking required. Anyway, proud of you, me.

This week's topic is to choose which books you would want to see as TV shows. This one is pretty easy. Here are my picks!

1) Goosebumps Series by R. L. Stine

    

Listen, I know this was already a TV show, but imagine an updated version! Better CGI and modern takes on some of the stories? (Also, yes, I know there was a movie but we don't talk about that.)

2) His Dark Materials Series by Philip Pullman

Okay, this one has already been licensed for a television adaptation, but that was back in late 2015. Where the heck is it? (Another one with a movie that we don't talk about. Sorry, Daniel Craig.) 

3) Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling

I'm sure this one has been said a million times, but Harry really does deserve to be on television. There are so many intricacies to the story that the movies missed. It could go into more detail, and be mostly child-friendly (except for all the murder and stuff in the later books).

4) Graceling Series by Kristin Cashore

Graceling is the shiiiit! A TV show would be like, high fantasy, political intrigue epicness. Although I think it would only work if Kristin Cashore was on the writing team. 

5) Cormoran Strike Series by J. K. Rowling

This would a sweet murder-mystery show. All the characters are so likable, and ever though the endings are usually a little predictable, it would still be pretty fun in my opinion.

#DiverseAThon TBR

I'm not sure if you were privy to it, but this week, a discussion has flared up in the booktube/book blogger/bookish whatever community about the importance (or non-importance) of diversity. This discussion began after a twitter argument between author V.E. Schwab and someone who had a bone to pick with her about the majority of the characters in her books being white.

And even though Schwab admitted that maybe she had some reflection to do and that she would try and do better in the future, a booktuber took it upon herself to make a 23-minute video about how she thought diversity is 'the worst word in the English language.'

Really, what I have to say about the video is: this lady is mad. Why you so mad, though? Why are you so threatened by the desire of people who are different than you to see themselves in the literature they read? It isn't like there will ever be a shortage of white/straight/able-bodied protagonists for you to intellectually masturbate to. At one point, she even says, 'I don't give a rat's ass about diversity.' Well, obviously you do, if it makes you so upset.

I mean, this lady seems to imply that segregation is a good thing put in place to protect culture and that diversity destroys different viewpoints (???) and that people who want diversity actually want to exterminate white people or something along those absolutely absurd lines. What the fuck? For real, what the fuck.

Anyway, the marvelous response to this was a Diverse-A-Thon by hosts Monica of shemightbemonica, Joce of squibblesreads, Whitney of whittynovels, and Christina Marie a.k.a. LCMarie19. The challenge of this read-a-thon is basically to seek out books that are more diverse than what you would usually read; there's no rules about how many books you need to read or anything like that, it's pretty chill. The group book for the challenge is Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, which is optional. Diverse-A-Thon lasts from 9/12 to 9/19.

I've already read Homegoing, so I chose the diverse books I know I have in my possession and I'm armed and ready for this challenge. Here's my TBR:

 In Order To Live by Yeonmi Park. This is the story of a young North Korean girl's struggle to find freedom. I saw a video of her describing her and her mother's escape across the border into China and my heart broke. I know this read will deal with heavy topics, but I also know it will be worth it.

Ash by Malinda Lo. A gay Cinderella retelling? Hell yeah!!

 Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown. This is about a girl who's out of the closet who suddenly has to go back in when her priest father moves her family to a small town. She enjoys the way people treat her as a faux-straight girl until she meets a girl who makes her gay little heart race. 

I'm hoping to go to the library soon and get some more but that's all I have for now. 

I really appreciate this challenge, as a lesbian who struggles with mental health issues. I hope a lot of people participate and learn new things!

Review | What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Genre: Short Stories

Published: March 8th 2016

Goodreads Summary:

"The key to a house, the key to a heart, the key to a secret—Oyeyemi’s keys not only unlock elements of her characters’ lives, they promise further labyrinths on the other side. In “Books and Roses” one special key opens a library, a garden, and clues to at least two lovers’ fates. In “Is Your Blood as Red as This?” an unlikely key opens the heart of a student at a puppeteering school. “‘Sorry’ Doesn’t Sweeten Her Tea” involves a “house of locks,” where doors can be closed only with a key—with surprising, unobservable developments. And in “If a Book Is Locked There’s Probably a Good Reason for That Don't You Think,” a key keeps a mystical diary locked (for good reason). 

Oyeyemi’s tales span multiple times and landscapes as they tease boundaries between coexisting realities. Is a key a gate, a gift, or an invitation?"

I was pleased to go back and find out that this was on my 16 Most Anticipated Books of 2016 list. I hadn't even remembered that I had read the description for this when I picked it up by coincidence at the library. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again - I love short story anthologies. There is so much potential for storytelling if they are done right. And What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is done so right! Starting each new story felt like opening a present. Each is unique, and although all of the stories are connected, they felt like their own little strange universes. I would definitely classify What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours as magical realism, but it ventured beyond that and took on a level of absurdity that was so entertaining to read.

One of the most surprising things about the book is the effortless diversity in each story. Oyeyemi integrates everyone into her book and I couldn't help feeling happy that so many people might find reflections of themselves inside.

I think the best way to review this book is by reviewing each story, so here goes:

Books and Roses might be my least favorite. Although the setting is creative and I cared about the characters, it didn't feel like it had a solid resolution. It might just be that I missed The Point, but it felt like it ended abruptly without answering some of the most important questions.

Sorry Doesn't Sweeten Her Tea might be my favorite. It's so grounded in reality - the fangirl disappointed by her erring idol - but it has this mounting feeling of magic like you're waiting for something extraordinary to happen. I was much happier with the ending of this one.

Is Your Blood As Red As This? gets a little confusing at times; it switches perspectives and the relationships between the characters are kind of unclear, although that might just be a reflection of real life. I did like the element of puppetry and the unique way that the puppeteers...puppetted? It was a fun read.

Drownings, I wasn't really fond of. It felt different from the other stories, kind of detached like it was from a different world. I guess it was set in some medieval time, which felt wrong and incompatible with every other story. I feel like it could've been taken out and the book would be the same or maybe even better.

Presence was sad. It made me really sad and I don't know why. Marriage and children are minefields and Oyeyemi definitely portrayed them well. I did enjoy it, though.

A Brief History of the Homely Wench Society was short, a little like Romeo and Juliet, but it was cute and the message was sweet.

Dornicka and the St. Martin's Day Goose was an inventive Little Red Riding Hood retelling and one of the stories that really blew me away. I'm not even sure why; it was just so well-written and fantastical, but with an earthy feel.

Freddie Barradov Checks...In? I don't really remember; in fact, I barely remember reading it, which means it must not be very remarkable.

If A Book Is Locked There's Probably A Good Reason For That Don't You Think (what a long-winded title) is the last one, and it wasn't the best story, but it was good. The mysterious character of Eva was intriguing and her weird demonic book even more so. I wish I knew what was up with that thing... It was a nice way to end the collection.

Phew, that was a lot of stories. I hope at least one of them interests you because I seriously recommend this book!!!!

Review | Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Genre: Historical Fiction

Published: June 7th 2016

Goodreads Summary:

"Two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle’s dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast’s booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. One thread of Homegoing follows Effia’s descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana, as the Fante and Asante nations wrestle with the slave trade and British colonization. The other thread follows Esi and her children into America. From the plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, from the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, to the jazz clubs and dope houses of twentieth-century Harlem, right up through the present day, Homegoing makes history visceral, and captures, with singular and stunning immediacy, how the memory of captivity came to be inscribed in the soul of a nation. 

Generation after generation, Yaa Gyasi’s magisterial first novel sets the fate of the individual against the obliterating movements of time, delivering unforgettable characters whose lives were shaped by historical forces beyond their control.Homegoing is a tremendous reading experience, not to be missed, by an astonishingly gifted young writer."

Review:

I first heard about this book from shemightbemonica and the premise really grabbed me; I'm grateful to her because without her channel I would never have picked up this fantastic book!

I was so moved by this book. I don't even know how to accurately describe it; this book is just so much. So much history and pain, but also love and healing and family. 

At the beginning of the book, there is a little genealogy chart that shows you all of the generations that will be followed throughout the book. The book starts with Effia and Esi, two sisters who never meet, and from there, Yaa Gyasi dives deep into the movings of the two branches of this family. I felt like I was personally getting to know each of the descendants, even though each chapter only gives a brief glance into their lives. It was an almost surreal feeling, reading each relative's chapter and finding the hints of their parents and grandparents in their lives, and flashing forward to read about their children. 

And each character was so alive, so nuanced, with their own hurts and desires; I almost felt like a peeping tom, intruding on something I shouldn't have. I half-expected the characters to jump from the page and start breathing and speaking in front of me. 

As the book is about the dual histories of one family in Ghana and the States, of course this book deals with racism and its effects on both lines of the family. I learned so much by reading this book, parts of American history I'd never heard mentioned before, like the arresting of free black men post-slavery so they could be sent to labor camps (which is just slavery under a different name) and the diffusion of drugs throughout Harlem in the 60's. I also learned a lot about Ghana and the wars with the British. The whole book is so informative!

Yaa Gyasi's writing is no joke. I wish I had the book in front of me so I could give some examples but instead, I'll just say how gorgeous it is. It's lush and has this crispness to it, a naturalness like she was born to put words down on paper. Even as I'm writing this, I know I'm not doing it justice. You need to read it firsthand to understand the beauty of it.

So long story short: read Homegoing! Like, for real! Go get it right now right this minute right now go!

Review | Excellent Daughters: The Secret Lives of Young Women Who Are Transforming the Arab World by Katherine Zoepf

Rating: 2.5/5 Stars

Genre: Political/Feminist Nonfiction

Published: January 12th 2016

Goodreads Summary:

"For more than a decade, Katherine Zoepf has lived in or traveled throughout the Arab world, reporting on the lives of women, whose role in the region has never been more in flux. Only a generation ago, female adolescence as we know it in the West did not exist in the Middle East. There were only children and married women. Today, young Arab women outnumber men in universities, and a few are beginning to face down religious and social tradition in order to live independently, to delay marriage, and to pursue professional goals. Hundreds of thousands of devout girls and women are attending Qur’anic schools—and using the training to argue for greater rights and freedoms from an Islamic perspective. And, in 2011, young women helped to lead antigovernment protests in the Arab Spring. But their voices have not been heard. Their stories have not been told.

In Syria, before its civil war, she documents a complex society in the midst of soul-searching about its place in the world and about the role of women. In Lebanon, she documents a country that on the surface is freer than other Arab nations but whose women must balance extreme standards of self-presentation with Islamic codes of virtue. In Abu Dhabi, Zoepf reports on a generation of Arab women who’ve found freedom in work outside the home. In Saudi Arabia, she chronicles driving protests and women entering the retail industry for the first time. In the aftermath of Tahrir Square, she examines the crucial role of women in Egypt's popular uprising.

Deeply informed, heartfelt, and urgent,Excellent Daughters brings us a new understanding of the changing Arab societies—from 9/11 to Tahrir Square to the rise of ISIS—and gives voice to the remarkable women at the forefront of this change."

Review:

Before I start the review, I'd like to inform you all that I found a way to avoid that awkward double colon problem that happened with my Quarantine: Stories review, that way being to not have a colon after the word 'Review' in my title. Not a groundbreaking discovery but I'd thought I'd share why my titles will look different from now on.

Now, Excellent Daughters is by no means a terrible book. It shows that Katherine Zoepf has had a career in writing for a long while. The real problem with it is that it misrepresents itself.

Excellent Daughters is not really about the lives of young Arab women who are changing the East's perspective on women's rights; instead, it's about Zoepf and her travels around the Arab world, vaguely telling the stories of people she met while she was employed as a stringer. It all comes off as a little naive. She writes as though she's too afraid to make any judgments  on the culture, even in the face of horrific civil rights violations like brutal honor killings and humiliating virginity tests.

It is also rife with run-on sentences. I wish I could speak to her editor, to ask why they didn't say anything to her. There were some sentences that were so long that they took up an entire paragraph. It was ridiculous and easily avoidable. If you think you would run out of breath speaking the sentence out loud, that's a good indication that you should trim it down. This might sound nit-picky but it took away from the reading experience.

Despite all of this, I was happy to learn about the Arab World, something far removed from the United States. Zoepf makes a point in the beginning of the book that because of all of the terrible things going on between the West and the Middle East, that we are eager to learn about this culture that's so different from ours that we're clashing with; it's similar to how interest in Russia increased during the Cold War, as she mentioned. She went into detail on the intricacies of the manners and laws that govern Islam and the Arab nation as well.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this book unless someone is interested in learning about the Arabian peninsula and its surrounding countries. 

September 2016 TBR

I think September's going to be a good month for me, reading-wise; I don't have too much to do, and I have a bunch of books I have checked out from the library that I'm anticipating. I hope I'll be able to get to them before I have to take them back. Overdue fees are the woooorst.

A book I started reading last month and hope to finish in September is Uprooted by Naomi Novik. I'm almost done with it and I'm so sad because I don't want it to be over! This is one that would make an amazing movie or miniseries. 

The books I'm hoping to read this month are:

Ash by Malinda Lo. I need more LGBT books in my life! Hopefully, this will fulfill my mighty need, I've never read Malinda Lo before and I don't hear people talk about her very often, but it's a gay Cinderella retelling and that sounds right up my alley.

The Muse by Jessie Burton. The Miniaturist was an absolutely fantastic book, brilliant storytelling, and going off that example, this book should be great as well!

In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park. I find North Korea fascinating in a morbid kind of way; there are millions of people trapped there, living under a sick dictatorship and escape seems unlikely. However, this girl was able to do it, and I'm interested to hear her story. 

Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown. This book only came out on the last day of last month. It's another LGBT book, a contemporary romance this time. I'm really excited for this one.

Coping with Anxiety: 10 Simple Ways to Relieve Anxiety, Fear, and Worry by Dr. Edmund Bourne. This last one is just a self-help book that I wanted to read, to learn some coping mechanisms. I'm sure there are a lot of readers who also struggle with anxiety; I know they go hand-in-hand a lot of the time. 

So that's what I'm hoping to read this month! We'll see if I'll be able to get to them all - it's unlikely but a girl can dream, right?

August 2016 Wrap Up

I read about 4 books with month, which I think is a pretty good number (for me at least), considering that school started this month and I've been sick. I have gotten a lot of reading done while I've been sick; not much else to do when you're stuck on the toilet!

The first book I read this month was Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton. I really enjoyed it and I'm excited for the second! I gave the book 4 out of 5 stars. My review is here.

I haven't written reviews yet for the other three books I read, but here they are:

Excellent Daughters by Katherine Zoepf, which is pretty good although not as good as it could've been.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, which was amazing! Beyond my highest expectations.
















What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi and I have to say, this might be one of my favorite books of the year!



















I did try to read two other books this month but didn't finish them because I didn't like them. They were:

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I didn't enjoy the writing style. It's hard for me to stomach first-person in any circumstance but the weird 80's fetish really put me off and I didn't feel like sitting through the rest of the book.
















The Incarnations by Susan Barker, which wasn't necessarily bad but was too focused on location and not enough on character and didn't capture my attention in the way I was wishing it would. I might try to read it again in the future.
















I am still reading one book at the moment:


Uprooted by Naomi Novik. This book has got its claws in me! I am so obsessed with this story I can't stop reading. This looks like it'll be a five-star review from me.