In our monthly book club, we discuss whatever we happen to be reading and ask everyone in the comments to do the same. What Are You Reading This Month?
The Monarchy Of Fear by Martha C. Nussbaum
The holiday season is one of my favorite times of the year, full of magic and joy and presents and goodwill toward men and all that crap. So naturally my reading tastes around now start trending toward analyses of why we’re so filled with hate and anger the other 11 months. Hence my interest in The Monarchy Of Fear, political philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum’s new book exploring why she believes fear to be at the root of so many of the problems illuminated by our current political situation in the United States. Working from the premise that emotions always undergird our political beliefs—to a far greater degree than most of us would likely care to admit—she traces the effects of fear on the climate we see around us every day, arguing that anger, disgust, envy, sexism, and other visceral responses we wouldn’t normally consider fear-based are, in fact, connected to that fundamental emotion.
The book has the unfortunate subtitle “A Philosopher Looks At Our Political Crisis,” which makes it sound as though the whole thing is an eye-rolling exercise in ponderous and simplistic digressions along the lines of “So America in 2017 seems to be a lot more anti-Semitic than it was in previous years! Let me tell you what Aristotle would say.” Thankfully, Nussbaum mostly avoids such trite correlation, instead focusing on psychological case studies and hard data from which she extrapolates arguments about the reasons people turn to seemingly irrational political positions, be they anti-immigrant or religious bigotry. (When ancient philosophers do appear, it’s in the service of sharp and insightful rhetoric about the human condition.) Her chapter on anger is especially powerful, performing a valuable auto-critique on self-righteous leftist positions that seek retribution rather than positive justice. “People may think anger is powerful, but it always gets out of hand and turns back on us. And, yet worse, half the time people don’t care,” she writes. “They’re so deeply sunk in payback fantasies that they’d prefer to accomplish nothing, so long as they make those people suffer.”
It’s not without its failings; those looking for a deep dive into theory will find themselves underwhelmed by the broader-based general audience Nussbaum is addressing. And she can get a bit touchy-feely at times, playing the role of the optimistic progressive in a way that could irritate those of a more radical persuasion. Still, it’s thoughtful and engaging stuff, and a more astute stating of the case than you’ll get from yet another op-ed bemoaning the American conservative voting against their own self-interest. [Alex McLevy]
The Name Of The Wind, 10th anniversary edition by Patrick Rothfuss
I received a copy of the 10th anniversary special edition of Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name Of The Wind last year, and I’ve just finished its 700-plus pages. It’s a re-read for me, but no matter. It’s always worth revisiting Rothfuss’ sumptuous, extravagant prose, and this extra-thick, red-trimmed-page edition contains some extremely interesting additions from the author. There are nuts and bolts explanations about the formation of the Aurturian empire, its calendar (a “span” is 11 days!) and currency systems, and a lovely, meandering author’s note from Rothfuss.
As for the story itself, I always find a little more to love when I go back to the as-yet unfinished Kingkiller Chronicle trilogy. The final lines of the first two books remain a personal favorite: “It was the patient, cut-flower sound of a man who is waiting to die.” I’ve also come to appreciate how Rothfuss grapples with money and class concerns in his made-up world, one of the only fantasy writers I’ve read to do so. Main character Kvothe is constantly scrounging, toiling, plotting, and bargaining to make ends meet, thinking about and borrowing money to survive.
There are some scenes that stretch on too long, with a bit too much melodrama and sentiment for my taste. Regardless of minor quibbles, the book is still worth reading to enjoy the poetry of the prose. That’s another thing I noticed on this re-read that I hadn’t before: Rothfuss’ Kvothe is a trouper and singer who bashes poetry as an art form several times throughout the story, which is pretty funny considering how much poetry his writer puts into every sentence. [Caitlin PenzeyMoog]
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
It became clear to me recently that my virtual stack of books to read was looking more and more like a chore and less like fun. Encouraged by an episode of the delightful podcast Reading Glasses (episode 37, titled “Drop That Book Guilt And A Review Of A Plastic Bag”) that gave some specific tips on rediscovering the pleasures of reading, I decided to try something I’d never done before: read a romance novel. The Kiss Quotient had been recommended by some Twitter friends, it was available as an e-book from the Chicago Public Library, so why not? I consumed the entire book in an afternoon, itself a pleasure I haven’t had in some time, and it was exactly what I needed to reclaim some joy in my reading. Sure, the happy ending is predictable, but Helen Hoang’s writing is quick and smart, the main characters are multidimensional, and even if their problems are heightened for the sake of the narrative, they’re still relatable at their core. The plot was inspired by Hoang’s desire to write a take on a gender-swapped Pretty Woman: Protagonist Stella Lane has autism spectrum disorder, but is determined to take control of her love life, and hires a male escort to give her the relationship and sexual experience she thinks she needs in order to start dating. You can already guess what happens, but it’s so enjoyable that I was happy to spend an afternoon lost in Hoang’s narrative. Stella is written sensitively but not pityingly, and the book’s progressive values are handled with an extremely light hand. And no, there are no enameled pepper grinders in Hoang’s well-written sex scenes. [Laura M. Browning]
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I’ve been recovering from surgery for the past couple of weeks and likely will be for the rest of December, so I have more time than usual to read. The last book I finished was Maplecroft, which I saw described in the comments here for The Lizzie Borden Chronicles (I also have plenty of time to catch up on shlocky-but-fun TV) as “Lizzie Borden vs. the Cthulhu Mythos”. Well shoot, how could I possibly resist that?
Currently I’m on the next step of my “read all the Faulkner” project with the first book in the Snopes trilogy, The Hamlet. On audio, I’m still working my way through The Emperor of all Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Next up: The Indifferent Stars Above, because the winter solstice is a perfect time to read about the Donner Party!
Hope your recovery goes well!
for the sake of the fact that the protagonist is also looking to occupy themselves whilst recuperating I’d recommend “the daughter of time” by joesephine tey…if you haven’t already read it & don’t mind something from the 50s…
I started reading United States of Japan by Peter Tieryas. So far it’s not what I was expecting from a book with a giant robot on its cover, but it’s intriguing enough to keep me attention.
Currently reading Angela’s Ashes which is simultaneously hilarious and utterly depressing.
Right now I’m reading The Conspiracy Against the Human Race by Thomas Ligotti. I’ve been meaning to read Ligotti for a long time and I actually purchased it assuming it was one of his works of fiction. From the 50 or so pages I’ve read so far, it has definitely piqued my interest in his fiction. I’m really impressed by his wit. I’ve found myself laughing out loud multiple times despite the fact that it’s a somewhat dense philosophical musing on the merits of suicide and/or ending procreation to bring a premature end to humanity. I’m currently listening to Fool Moon (Book 2 of The Dresden Files) by Jim Butcher. I wasn’t in love with the first book but it held my attention enough to keep going. I’m more or less at the climax of Book 2 now and, frankly, I’m really disappointed. It feels like a lot of the story beats are just minor tweaks on the beats from the first book and I’m finding it pretty absurd how many independent groups of werewolves there are in one city lol. Maybe it will all come together in a satisfactory way at the end but I don’t have high hopes. I’m told book 3/4 is where the series really finds its footing and I already have books 3& 4 on audible so I’m gonna push through at least to there and reassess if I want to keep going with the series.
People often overlook how funny Ligotti is. He isn’t all just monotone doom and gloom, although that certainly is there. I’d say you probably picked the worst place to start with his books, but if you enjoyed Conspiracy I have no doubt you’d like the rest of them too. I’d recommend picking up the Penguin edition of Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe. I read the first three books of the Dresden Files and hated every second of it. This type of urban fantasy is not for me. After being very impressed with David Peak’s short story “House of Abjection”, I picked up his novel Corpsepaint and enjoyed it very much. It’s a horror novel set in the black metal subculture. It gets pretty abstract at times, which is not something I usually like, but it wasn’t too annoying in this case. Mostly I’ve been working my way through the set of Datlow and Windling’s Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror that my wife bought me for last Christmas. It’s been nice to revisit all the old 80s and 90s stories that I’d mostly forgotten about.
Re: Ligotti, I definitely feel like I picked a strange place to start. I saw it in a bookstore with one of those personalized recommendations, (“if you like X, you’d love this” though I can’t recall what X was). I had been meaning to read his fiction for a really long time so I just picked it up without even bothering to read the back to realize it was non-fiction. From what I’ve read so far, I’m even more eager to read his fiction now. Dead Dreamer/Grimscribe will definitely be one of my next endeavors.
I’m about a third of the way through Virgil Wander by Leif Enger. Someone recommended it as a good “book to buy mom” and since I’m a fan of Enger but apparently not enough to know this book was published, I bought it for myself as well.
On a recommendation from a friend, I’ve just finished reading Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler and started only the first few pages of Parable of the Talents before sleep knocked me out last night. Although I wasn’t sure exactly where Parable of the Sower was going for the first third of the book or so, I can say after reading it that Octavia Butler had a clear, if not incredibly grim, picture of where our country and our planet were headed when she wrote it. In fact, everything felt so current, right down to a politician actually using the “Make America Great Again” phrase, I kept checking the publication date, hardly believing it was written over 20 years ago.
10th Anniversary copy of ‘Name’ huh?
Hey, Patrick… Book 3?
The Kiss Quotient is such a fun quick read – I’m glad to see it rec’d here!I just started All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung, who is an international adoptee. It’s her story of deciding to find her biological family and how the story she was told wasn’t the whole truth. It deals a lot with race (she’s Korean) and the complicated politics of international adoption. I haven’t finished it, but the writing so far is very clear-eyed and kind.
After busting through the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy last month (as bad as I expected, although it still had its moments, and not as bad as I feared), I’m reading two books now:1. Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero. Scooby-Doo mixed with the Cthulhu mythos. Cantero’s prose is imaginative, although sometimes that imagination sacrifices coherence without adding any poetry. The plot zips along, not getting bogged down in the reader’s nostalgia. The references to Scooby-Doo are fun without being overbearing, and I like the allusions to other series children’s lit (the setting of Blyton Hills, the nearby town of Belden).2. Tiberius the Politician by Barbara Levick. In-depth look at the second Roman emperor. This is not a book written for a dilettante in the classics, like me; the prose is occasionally impenetrable, a knowledge of a detailed history is assumed, and the names of Roman politicians are lobbed at the reader at a furious pace. I can hold my own during (and maintain interest in) the chapters that based on a chronological history, and if nothing else, I’ve learned something: how Augustus ensured the transition of power to his uncharismatic stepson. But the chapters dealing with Tiberius’s political platforms are a slog, and occasionally the arguments seem too tenuous for Levick’s detailed narratives.(I have no idea how Tiberius fell into my library — probably something to do with my wife’s master’s program in history, but I might have picked it up two decades ago in my undergraduate days.)
ever since i read “les miserables” when i was in backpacking in central america, i was resting in guatemala for 2 1/2 months learning spanish, i vowed to read it in french if i could. fast forward 12 years later, living in france and speaking the language, i found it in the local library. it is the abridged version for teens, but what the hell… it is a good way to try to fulfill my self-promise.
i am still reading “outlander,” though i still have no idea why i ordered this book. my motivation at the time still eludes me. i swear i was not drunk at the time! :Di am looking forward to recieving my book order “the witch: a history of fear.” hopefully x-mas deliveries won’t be too screwed up by the protests.
This month I’ve been wandering through Demanding The Impossible: A History of Anarchism by Peter Marshall, which is very readable and enlightening, and dipping in and out of Christopher Buehlman’s Those Across The River for a nice bit of seasonally inappropriate Southern gothic fun.
I continue to have several untouched books piled up on the bedroom floor and I continue to quietly seethe every time I look at them.