Good Day to all my fellow bibliophiles! I've been tearing up my TBR pile and reading some stories on my Kindle Paperwhite, though I have to say that after choosing to download some free ebooks, I discovered that they're free because they are so poorly written they are unreadable. That said I still have a couple of them to go through that were priced at 99 cents to 2.00, and those look more promising. I'm contemplating getting Kindle Unlimited membership for the summer because it would save me a lot of dollars and cents on the ebooks I want to read from authors whose other books I've gone through, so I know that they are able to create decent novels with interesting story arcs and fascinating characters. Meanwhile, here are a couple of tidbits and four book reviews.
I am hoping that my friend Roger B, who lives in Des Moines, will be able to stop by this new bookstore and take photos to show me via email or snail mail, what kind of bookstore it's going to be. I'm deeply envious that there will be yet another bookstore for him to visit that is close to where he lives. We haven't had any bookstores in Maple Valley since well before we moved here in 2001, which is a shame.
Storyhouse Bookpub Opening Bricks-and-Mortar Store in Des Moines, Iowa
Storyhouse Bookpub http://www.shelfawareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz48485754, a general-interest bookstore that began as an online store and pop-up shop last year, will open a bricks-and-mortar store in Des Moines, Iowa, in June, Business Record reported Owner Abigail Paxton has found a space at 505 E. Grand Ave., in Des Moines's East Village. She plans to host children's storytime sessions, as well as plenty of book events geared toward adults.
Paxton founded Storyhouse Bookpub last March, just in time for the beginning of the pandemic. She began with a children's pop-up in a local gift store called MoMere while selling additional books online. In December, she turned her garage into a temporary, open-air bookshop http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz48485756 featuring new and used titles. She plans to continue doing pop-up shops throughout Des Moines even after the bricks-and-mortar location opens.
It's no surprise to me that there's inherent sexism/misogyny/racism in healthcare, or that the healthcare industry is in bed with the sleazy billion dollar diet and exercise industry to exploit the health of larger women (and really, any woman who isn't anorexic) in America. It's shameful that here in the 21st century, there are still these old prejudices and biases that prevent women from getting the healthcare that they need and deserve.
Book Review
Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World
Elinor Cleghorn offers an epic yet approachable social, cultural and scientific history of women's health in Unwell Women, tracing the sexism and racism seen in modern Western medicine from ancient times through the present day.
"We are taught that medicine is the art of solving our body's mysteries," Cleghorn writes in the introduction. "And we expect medicine, as a science, to uphold the principles of evidence and impartiality." But, as she shows over the following chapters, medicine is anything but impartial, steeped as it is in social and cultural histories. From its earliest recorded days in ancient Greek texts, medicine has both inherited and reinforced the socially constructed gender binary, falsely reducing womanhood to a person's "capacity--and duty--to reproduce."
Drawing on extensive research, Cleghorn reveals medicine's long history of misdiagnosing--and mistreating--women, with sections on ancient and medieval times, the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the mid-20th century to today. The resulting tome is massive in scope, but in Cleghorn's expert hands, this long history does not feel unwieldy. Each chapter carries clearly into the next, as Cleghorn peels back the layers upon layers of misogyny and sexism baked into medical concepts of "unwell women"--and the corresponding "treatment" options that often did, and do, more harm than good.
Throughout, she also acknowledges the depth of racism inherent in the already sexist system, calling out the horrors inflicted on enslaved Black women in the United States in the name of research, for example, and the non-consensual testing of birth control methods (including sterilization) on women of color across history. She traces the ties between the women's suffrage movement and today's access to birth control, and reveals links between Victorian ideals of a chaste womanhood and the modern fight for reproductive justice.
Despite the dark side of this history--including Cleghorn's own experience having chronic symptoms dismissed and overlooked--Unwell Women is ultimately hopeful. As Cleghorn reveals how medicine's evolution has continually been hampered by the constructs of gender norms, she also spotlights the incredible voices that have agitated for change for centuries, "women raising their heads above the parapet to ensure that women are represented, cared for, and listened to." These women are a model for what we can carry into the future, regardless of gender identity: a call to women to advocate for themselves, true, but also for the system to acknowledge the change it needs to make from within--making Unwell Women a powerful and necessary work of social and cultural history. --Kerry McHugh, blogger at Entomology of a Bookworm http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz48485831
Malice by Heather Walter is a reboot of several fairy tales, from Sleeping Beauty to Rapunzel and Beauty and the Beast (there's even a bit of Cinderella tossed in for good measure). The prose is engaging and silken, so it glides along the glittering plot like a ballerina on a sprung dance floor. I found that I couldn't put this page-turner down, though it took me all day to read through its 470 pages. The main character is mesmerizing, though I found her lack of confidence and her cowardice to be a bit too "romance novel damsel in distress" to be real or grounded in reality. I mean, if you're going to update the sexist fairy tales with women as the main characters, you could at least give them spine enough to do the hard things that need to be done, without temper tantrums or whining. Still, Alyce comes through in the end, and turns her "ugliness" and "evil" into a positive plot point, and along with her love of the princess, that makes this lesbian spin on a fairy tale well worth a read. Here's the blurb: “Walter’s spellbinding debut is for all the queer girls and women
who’ve been told to keep their gifts hidden and for those yearning to
defy gravity.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
Once upon a time,
there was a wicked fairy who, in an act of vengeance, cursed a line of
princesses to die. A curse that could only be broken by true love’s
kiss.
You’ve heard this before, haven’t you? The handsome prince. The happily ever after.
Utter nonsense.
Let me tell you, no one in Briar actually cares about what happens to
its princesses. Not the way they care about their jewels and elaborate
parties and charm-granting elixirs. I thought I didn’t care, either.
Until I met her.
Princess
Aurora. The last heir to Briar’s throne. Kind. Gracious. The future
queen her realm needs. One who isn’t bothered that I am Alyce, the Dark
Grace, abhorred and feared for the mysterious dark magic that runs in my
veins. Humiliated and shamed by the same nobles who pay me to bottle
hexes and then brand me a monster. Aurora says I should be proud of my
gifts. That she . . . cares for me. Even though a power like mine was
responsible for her curse.
But with less than a year until that
curse will kill her, any future I might see with Aurora is swiftly
disintegrating—and she can’t stand to kiss yet another insipid prince. I
want to help her. If my power began her curse, perhaps it’s what can
lift it. Perhaps together we could forge a new world.
Nonsense again. Because we all know how this story ends, don’t we? Aurora is the beautiful princess. And I—I am the villain.
Things got a bit crowded toward the ending, where the author tried to cram as much as she could into the last two chapters, and ended up with a kind of fairy tale train wreak. Because I know there's one more book coming, I can understand why Walter felt the need to leave readers with a breathless cliff hanger, yet I was hoping for just a bit more about the princess and her safety to set my mind at ease as I wait for a year until the next book comes out. Still, this breathtaking, exciting reboot deserves an A, and a recommendation to anyone who enjoys reshaped legends that are inclusive and exciting.
Cloud Watcher and Mindhealer by Lilith Saintcrow are the 4th and 5th books in her Watcher series. Having read the other three books, I was sure I knew what to expect, and while that proved to be true for Cloud Watcher, Saintcrow broke away a bit from the formula of "self-loathing but broodingly tall, dark, handsome and dangerous Watcher finds his reluctant petite witch, falls in love and protects her from her foolish and reckless self" to tell the tale of a very old Watcher who was part of the Crusaders sent to wipe out the witches historically, who falls in love with a healer Witch who has already had a Watcher give his life for hers and therefore refuses to be a part of the Witch/Watcher pair bonding scenario. So I was expecting great things from Mindhealer, only to discover that nearly every chapter had at least a few paragraphs that started with the same description of Caro, the mindhealer, as being "thin, fragile, paper-white skin with dark circles under her eyes, yet has a sensual, irresistible scent, and is addicted to drinking coffee, but never eats, or if she does, feels like vomiting soon after." So it appears that Saintcrow took a page from Seanan McGuire's October Day books and has a bulemic/anorexic female protagonist who somehow manages to summon the strength to do magical feats of spiritual/mental healing when she can barely stand up, because she's starving to death and not sleeping. WHY either of these authors seem to lionize deadly eating disorders is beyond me...it's so sexist and stupid.Why the men are all the same, too, doesn't make sense. The only variation is eye/hair color. Anyway, here's the blurbs: Cloud Watcher: The Lightbringer:
Anya Harris’s unwanted talents have made her a
refugee, flying from city to city ahead of a tide of burning terror
nobody else can see. She’s hoping Santiago City will be different, but
deep in her heart of hearts, she knows nowhere is safe enough for
someone with her secrets. When the gray-eyed man with guns and a sword
shows up, claiming to be sent to protect her, Anya has to believe him.
After all, she has nowhere else to go.
The Watcher:
Jack
Gray is one of the oldest Watchers around, scarred by the battle
between Circle Lightfall and the Crusade. He's found his witch, and
nothing is going to get in the way of protecting her. But being a
Watcher is never as simple as it looks. Anya’s talent makes her worth
millions, if she’s delivered alive to the right corporate bidders.
Jack’s the only one who can save her. But when she finds out who he
really is, he might lose her for good.
Mindhealer: The Witch:
The attacks are brutal, leaving the victims
unconscious and broken. A powerful Mindhealer might be able to piece
together what's happening to these crushed bodies and shattered minds,
so Caroline Robbins is pulled away from her relatively quiet life. A
Mindhealer is incredibly vulnerable to the Dark—and Caro refuses even
the idea of having a Watcher. She won’t have another man die in front of
her, and that’s that. Unfortunately, the Watcher she just ran into has
other ideas . . .
The Watcher:
Caro, the witch Merrick
rescues from the dogs of the Dark, is obnoxiously stubborn,
infuriating, and seemingly determined to throw herself into every
dangerous situation possible. It’s enough to drive a man insane, and
definitely enough to make a Watcher frustrated. How is he supposed to
protect her, especially when she insists she doesn’t need a Watcher? But
Caro is going to need all of Merrick’s skill and strength sooner than
anyone guesses. The attacks haven’t stopped, and the closer Caro gets to
solving the mystery, the more danger she’s in. Because she’s the next
victim—unless Merrick can save her. And Merrick just might die in the
line of fire if Caro can’t find a way to keep her Watcher safe.
By the 5th book, this series got to be very formulaic and trite. There was also no people of color or anyone from the LBGTQ community in these books, which was really disappointing, and makes me wonder why Saintcrow couldn't spice things up a bit and move into the 21st century with her characters and their romances. These are short novels, however, so you at least know that you can read her well wrought prose and swift plots within an afternoon. I'd give these last two books of the series a B-, and only recommend them to those who've read the first three books and don't want anything to change.
Red Letter Days by Sarah Jane Stratford is a fascinating novel about women trying to make it in the early days of TV in Hollywood while dodging the McCarthy Communist witch hunters, who had the power to make or break careers and destroy lives during the 15 years after WWII. The racism, sexism and misogyny that ran rampant through these men who hunted down women (and men) suspected of being communists was unreal and definitely unsavory. I knew about the McCarthy hearings from history class, but I had no idea that even after McCarthy was forced out of the House on UnAmerican Activities (HUAC) that they paid men to travel overseas to kidnap and beat up women suspected of being a "red" and bring them to trial, though the trials were a mere formality, since you were considered guilty until proven innocent. I was also not aware that people were bribed or paid to "rat out" those who they had a beef with, somewhat like the actual Salem Witch Trials or the Nazis paying people to rat out those suspected of hiding Jewish people or trying to get them to safety. Here's the blurb: When two brave women flee from the Communist Red Scare, they soon discover that no future is free from the past.
Amid
the glitz and glamour of 1950s New York, Phoebe Adler pursues her dream
of screenwriting. A dream that turns into a living nightmare when she
is blacklisted—caught in the Red Menace that is shattering the lives of
suspected Communists. Desperate to work, she escapes to London,
determined to keep her dream alive and clear her good name.
There,
Phoebe befriends fellow American exile Hannah Wolfson, who has defied
the odds to build a career as a successful television producer in
England. Hannah is a woman who has it all, and is now gambling
everything in a very dangerous game—the game of hiring blacklisted
writers.
Neither woman suspects that danger still looms . . . and their fight is only just beginning.
I found this whole area of history horrifying, as the parallels from the Nazi persecution of Jewish people to the American persecution of anyone suspected of being (or working for, or married to, or even just knowing) a communist were flagrant and nauseating. The "taint" of being a suspected "red" or "pinko" was pervasive and ridiculous, and I was appalled anew at HUACs vile methods of destroying lives in the name of "safety" (mostly for WASPs). Stratford's prose is elegant and rich, while her plot sizzles with tension and anxiety. I enjoyed her realistic and strong characters, though I felt their self-loathing was a bit much, considering how smart these career women actually were. I'd give this fascinating historical novel an A, and recommend it to anyone who is curious about trailblazing women in the TV and film industry during the 1950s.
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