February book reviews
Finally feeling sort of on top of my life and sitting down to write my February book reviews. Whew! Lots of dud-reads for me this month, mixed in with some really good books.
Here’s how I’m stacking up on my 20-books-from-20-countries 2024 goal:
January: India, Canada, US, England
February: Sri Lanka, Canada, US, England, Poland, France (kinda)
We’ll call it 6.5 countries so far! Long way to go.
Literary Theory for Robots – Dennis Yi Tenen
A highly academic exploration of how computers learned to read. Traces the history of text generation tools from the medieval Arabic word generators to modern machine learning technology. A good reminder that AI is merely the latest in a long history of tools designed to express information. Steeped in literary theory, computer science design principles, and philosophy, Tenen reframes how readers should conceive of “intelligent” design.
Recommended, fittingly, by a machine learning algorithm in Goodreads
A Poetry Handbook – Mary Oliver
Reignited my love for poetry. A must-read for writers of all stripes. Oliver goes back to the basics of scansion and formal analysis in breaking down the craft of choosing just the right word, place for a line break, or image for a statement. This writer’s handbook is rife with examples from many of my favourite poets and broken into digestible chunks. Told in Oliver’s spare poet’s-prose, this quick read will make any writer pause for thought about the craft.
Recommended by Sophie
Slow Down – Kohei Saito
A manifesto for degrowth communism. An ecological economic deep dive into the unsustainability of consistent market growth under capitalism. A book that’s turned me into an annoying dinner companion all month because I keep spouting its ideals. Saito is a Japanese economist and avid Marxist – his book explores some unpublished and earlier drafts of Marx’s work to 1) address glaring Eurocentrist flaws of Das Kapital and 2) demonstrate how even in the 19th century Marx was concerned about capitalism’s fundamental incompatibility with preventing complete climate collapse. Saito advocates, with evidence, first for a degrowth economy, and then for a shift towards people-led collective ownership.
They Said This Would Be Fun – Eternity Martis
A must-read for anyone working in higher ed. While I was an undergrad who moved from the GTA to KW, Eternity Martis was moving from Toronto to London, Ontario. Coming from an exceptionally multicultural area, I was struck by the whiteness of the KW area when I first moved here. Martis, one of few Black girls at the University of Western Ontario, was in for an even worse culture shock. Her memoir accounts the abject racism, fetishization, sexual abuse, academic belittling and more she experienced as a student at Western and in London. It also shares powerful moments of triumph and community as she organizes fellow Black students together for creative enterprises. The recency of Martis’ experiences was a stark reminder for me as a university staffer that there is so much more we need to do to actively combat racism on university campuses.
Recommended by Grace
Bookshops and Bonedust – Travis Baldree
A tonic read if you’re feeling low. A prequel to Baldree’s popular Legends and Lattes. After a crippling leg injury, Viv the orc is stranded in the backwater town of Murk with little to do until her adventuring crew rolls through town again. Antics with locals, book shop revitalizations, talking skeletons, first loves, and necromantic whimsy ensue. I never knew cozy fantasy was a genre I’d come to adore, but I will read anything Baldree writes in this space. I liked this one even better than Legends and Lattes.
Wolfsong – TJ Klune
TJ Klune has become another auto-read writer for me lately, but I didn’t love this book. Part gay love story, part male navel-gazey bildungsroman, this book waved some big red flags for me when it came to the age of consent and emotional manipulation in relationships. This is the first in Klune’s werewolf series and was written before his more popular Under the Whispering Door and The House in the Cerulean Sea. It explores similar themes of found family, loyalty and belonging, and, like his other books, is replete with LGBT+ representation. I won’t be reading others in this series.
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida – Shehan Karunatilaka
The most inventive book I read in February. 1980s Sri Lanka. Maali Almeida is an irreverent, gay, and dogged journalist who has seven days in the afterlife to solve his own murder. Told in the second person, the reader’s journey mirrors Maali’s as he vacillates between memories from his life and desperate attempts at sending messages from the afterworld. A relentless look at the impacts of civil war, militant abuses of power, and corruption in Sri Lanka. Highly recommend if you’re looking for something to stretch your reading muscles.
Weyward – Emilia Hart
One of the most hyped historical fiction books of 2023, Hart’s debut traces three generations of women navigating life under the patriarchy. One woman is on trial for witchcraft in the 17th century. One is rejected by her wealthy family in the early 20th century. And the last is a modern woman who’s fled her abusive husband. Witchy, with hints of some inherent, chthonic connection that all women apparently have to nature. A complete, if somewhat unsurprising, read.
City of Laughter – Temin Fruchter
A solipsistic, meandering tale that blends Polish and Jewish folklore with a young woman’s quest for meaning. The protagonist Shiva enrolls in a Masters program in literature and travels to Poland with the hopes of undercovering the family history that her mother refuses to discuss. Explores queerness, family secrets and silences, and the role of cultural stories in fostering belonging. An academic, delirious sort of read where you don’t know quite what timeline you’re in.
The Alice Network – Kate Quinn
Another A+ historical fiction romp through post-WWII Europe. It’s 1947 and a well-to-do young American is searching for her cousin who disappeared during the war. But like all of Quinn’s novels, the past dovetails with the present, and we’re also treated to a 1915 storyline of a female network of Allied spies who worked behind enemy lines. Deliciously well-researched, compellingly paced, and served with an extra little love plot to give the reader some hope. Not my favourite Quinn (that’s The Huntress, or maybe The Rose Code) but very good.
Recommended by Aaron
The Double Life of Benson Yu – Kevin Chong
A weird little piece of metafiction. Narrator Benson Yu tries to contextualize his childhood sexual abuse by writing a comic book about it, but the characters – including a younger version of Benson – come to life and further complicate his processing. I enjoyed how this novel was steeped in flavours of the Toronto Chinatown of my youth – full of gossiping aunties and bone broth soups. The characters were pretty unlikeable for me though, and while the metafiction was an interesting element, I don’t know that it added to thematic clarity.
