jiujensu's reviews
439 reviews

I read this concurrently with the digital version. Review is there

Must of the interviews are focused around the last chapter of the book where he tells about his awakening on the Palestine issue that he started on a recent visit with a group from the Palestine Festival of Literature. (His talk with Rashid Khalidi at Palfest is on YouTube, excellent). He had written some things in A Case For Reparations that he wanted to correct after the trip. He's done there what many writers should be doing - going to the source. When you know better, you do better. He sort of makes you think throughout this chapter, though, that maybe he hasn't learned as much as he thinks (as represented by interviews) but by the end, he addresses that problem in thoughts on learning about Deir Yasin after retuning home.

But to ignore the rest of the book would be a huge mistake. He talks about falling in love with language, his trip to Senegal, identity, journalism, who has the right to tell the stories, something that has always interested me.

All in all, by the very end, great book. Though I'd be lying if i said I wasn't taking notes because I thought I was going to have to write a super critical review through most of the last chapter. He saved it in the end. 

Historical fiction. This was a really good multigenerational story. Most of the drama was in the lives of the characters such that you'll learn about the Nakba and Israeli violence in an organic way. The consequences of displacement are more far reaching than people might expect and the characters all handle it differently. 

If you are reading this in 2024, the events in the story will hit even harder. The events in the book occurred before 2013. In 2014, Israel launched a seven day offensive with much death and destruction. So you keep thinking - but as bad as this is, they have no idea what's in store if they survive this. 

So even a happy ending for the characters in the short term ends up uncertain. I can't fathom how they'd fare in this wave of genocide. Or does the sadness lie in the fact that we do know? We are watching the genocide livestreamed. Buried in the rubble, limbs blown off. Get to a hospital with life threatening injuries, death by bombing. Run to a school, death by bombing. Stand in line for food, death by bombing. Walk outside to get water, death by sniper. Call for help like Hind, get shot 355 times. Write a poem like Refaat, death by bombing. Go south, go north, go here, go there where we absolutely won't bomb, death by bombing. Get rounded up, zip tied and shot to death. Help an injured person in the street, death by sniper. Watch soldiers throw flour and food from your home at each other while wearing your bra and jewelry while you starve to death because Israel won't allow aid in - and has deemed the aid workers' organizations terrorists via coerced false confessions extracted by waterboarding.

The next chapters of these Nakba stories I absolutely dread. But you need to read them. We have to stop Israel in this inhumanity, occupation, apartheid, genocide. 

If you like Twilight Zone and or poetry, you NEED this book. It's a creative new way to experience our favorite franchise. I recommend you read it with a rewatch. It's fun by itself but you can make it interactive and write your own. The best art inspires more art.

Spooky, haunting stuff with an anarchist undercurrent. Not your average short stories. Asheville and the Appalachian Mountains feature in some of the stories and there are more gay and trans characters than I've encountered before. There's a little dystopia, fantasy, sci-fi, ghost story. I loved this collection. 

My faves are: Imagine a World So Forgiving, Everything That Isn't Winter, Into the Gray, It Bleeds, It Burrows, It Breaks the Bone. 

I think I preferred Svetlana Alexievitch's Voices of Chernobyl to this one. She wrote four, including War's Unwomanly Face, that are made of more personal accounts of big wars/disasters in Russian history. 

But this one probably addressed the sequence of events and causes more directly.

Schutt avoids sensationalism of what could have been a true crime sorry of book. I much preferred the scientific take. The approach and topics were familiar territory, as life science major. The first part was pretty standard, invertebrates, myths and facts of praying mantis and black widow cannibalism, dinos, Neanderthals. Of course the Andes flight and the Donner Party were covered. The recent placenta eating fad fit with my love of wellness debunking. Ritual cannibalism and taboos temporarily veered from the evolutionary or necessity argument. The section discussing kuru in New Guinea was a good detective story with amusing shade for anthropologists - some deserved (they tended to assume cannibalism occurred without proof and probably overestimated), some...just eh yikes (sleeping with research subjects).

I was pretty excited about this - it only partially met expectations. There aren't personal stories or a cohesive thread like I love, but pretty solid survey of interesting cemeteries. Everything from theme parks, subdivisions and parks were inspired by cemeteries - that's pretty cool. And the descriptions really make me want to visit these places I usually feel unwelcome or like I'm trespassing unless I'm there on family business. They were built to visit - and picnic?? - in most cases, after all!

This is a favorite. I'll have to see how it ranks for me among Poisonwood Bible and Prodigal Summer after I sit with this awhile. I didn't know if she could top Poisonwood Bible.

She makes the character's specifics - where he was born, in foster care, with opioids, with death of his parents, friends and dreams into universal struggles we all can relate to. The plot moves along and hooks you again at each turn and the ending is tied up just enough but leaves plenty to chance and imagination.

Other thoughts:

Home and the draw of a place where you're known, but also as a place you need to leave. I feel like everyone's got a literal or metaphorical experience like this. 

The harsh critique of systems and loving care for individuals in DSS (and other places) was done masterfully, contrasted through several characters. 

I can't say for sure, not being from the mountains, but I hope the Appalachian aspect was done respectfully. A few characters (Tommy, June) even analyze the situation for the reader in case you aren't familiar - could give some folks a lot to think about. For my part, I felt the characters and setting were more than stereotypes - they are the heart and you're on their team. She's even incorporated local quirks like the use of whenever in place of when and other area specifics like a discussion of Melungeons.

And, as usual, Kingsolver evokes the natural world so vividly you'll be disappointed you're aren't really there in the woods when you look up from the book.