I had high hopes for this book. Seems like everyone I know was going on about how heartfelt and heartbreaking it was. But it did not break my heart, and that was disappointing. Let’s discuss. Summary: Nadia Turner, seventeen, recently lost her mother to suicide (not a spoiler! you learn this on like page 2). She is beautiful, smart, going to Michigan on a scholarship. After her mother’s death, she’s grieving, hanging out with her new church-going bff with Aubrey, looking forward to getting out of Dodge […]
This book is now at the top of my “books to give to friends” list
Narfna told me to read this, so I did, and you should too. I blame the toddler for the fact that it took me three days to finish, because what I wanted to do was sit down and read straight through. I hesitate to give away too much of the plot because it was a joy to go in knowing nothing. So how about just a tiny summary? Ada adores her father David, a single father who directs a computer science lab in 1980s-era Boston. […]
Bringing a whole new meaning to the phrase “veg out.”
This is a sticky book. It’s kind of stuck in my imagination. I keep turning it over in my head, feeling a little closer to picking up what Kang was putting down. It’s clever but unassuming, sharp, subtle, violent and serene. I don’t really know what to do with it, and that makes me like it more. (I’ll include a few tiny spoilers in this review, but it might be best to go in cold.) Set in South Korea (this is a translation of what was […]
A monstrous planetary romance.
Kicking off the year with an intense sci fi exploration of language and Language! Embassytown is a human colony/outpost on a distant planet Arieka—accessible only by a dangerous trip through some timey-wimey wishy-washy-space-travel stuff called the immer. The Ariekei live on Arieka and they communicate with Language: They can only speak literally, with a dual mouth that speaks in unison, and their intent must be known and match the words, or it has no meaning. They cannot lie; they cannot understand human language. So to speak with any creativity, […]