Becoming by Michelle Obama

I bought Becoming by Michelle Obama on a whim. It's been much discussed since its release and I've consistently heard nothing but good. But, not being a huge fan of memoirs, I resisted buying it or checking it out. Without bothering to find out, I think I must have assumed that the book was about her years as First Lady.

Well, I was wrong about it on all counts. First, it's the story of Michelle Obama's life, from how protective her brother was when she was a baby to her school life and how her jobs evolved, through to her years as First Lady. She talks about how her parents were never able to buy a place of their own so they lived in the cramped second floor of her aunt and uncle's home on the South Side of Chicago. She talked about the exodus of white people from the area and the schools she attended. She talked about her parents' rather laid-back assurance that their children could and would succeed and how they devoted their lives to making certain they had all the opportunities required to do so. She spoke about the schools she attended, the discouragement she ignored, how she met Barack Obama, and a little about his life. 

She shared her struggle with infertility and her frustrations and insecurities in life and in the working world. And then, of course, came the political years. You don't have to read very far into Becoming to find out Michelle Obama will never, ever go into politics. She went there as a supportive spouse but her family, especially the children and how their father's busy political life (and later life in the White House) would effect them, was always her main concern. I'd heard that her mother stayed in the White House and that relates to the way family permeates her story. She didn't want her children to miss out on having their grandmother near during their formative years, so she moved her mom into the residence. Michelle's mother kept a low profile and wouldn't let the Secret Service follow her around, so I understand now why I was never entirely sure that rumor about her mom living in the White House was true. 

I particularly enjoyed learning about how life in the White House works, what the current president pays for and what's provided, and the little details like how much work (on the part of the Secret Service) goes into stepping out on the balcony to get fresh air. 

I think everyone I know has read Becoming but if you haven't, it's worth the time. I already admired Michelle Obama as a First Lady but I found out she did even more than I was aware of. A lot more, actually. She was about as close as you can get to my hero, Eleanor Roosevelt. Both were indefatigable in their pursuit of programs to improve the lives of people both in the US and around the world. 

Highly recommended - Well-written and so heart-felt that you can't help but find yourself immersed and unwilling to put the book down till you must. At least, that's how I felt. Becoming is long at around 400 pages but it's quite a fascinating read. I've always known there are various reasons for the different cars in the presidential motorcade but she describes what each of the cars carries, what it's like to live in the White House, the challenges that a First Lady faces, how Barack Obama's days went, what effected him most deeply, how they made various decisions about their children, and which former presidents and first ladies were the most helpful to her. It's funny that a book I thought I would find so-so charmed me so thoroughly. 

Here are my favorite failed attempts to pose Becoming with Izzy. I like it when I manage to get her to put a single paw on the cover of a book but she just wanted to climb on it, the day I was trying to get an Instagram shot. 

©2020 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

More minis - Flowers for Algernon by D. Keyes, The Radium Girls by K. Moore, and Artemis by A. Weir

In my continuing quest to catch up with myself, I've sorted out three books that I purchased and decided to give them mini review treatment. I liked all three for dramatically different reasons.

I opted not to write a post about my 2018 reading goals but one of my goals is a continuation of my "one classic per month" goal for a third year. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes was my January choice.

Charlie Gordon has an extremely low IQ but a surprising amount of determination, so he's been chosen to be the first human in an experimental treatment. Only tried previously on mice (and not always with good results), the experimental surgery made a mouse called Algernon extremely smart. The book is told in journal form from Charlie's perspective as he goes through the surgery, quickly gains intelligence, falls in love, and then things fall apart.

I've seen a movie version of Flowers for Algernon, long ago, but this is my first time reading the book. All I could remember of the movie was that it was both moving and sad. And, as it turned out, the sadness toward the beginning almost overwhelmed me. Charlie has always been a happy man, in spite of his limitations. He has a job and people who watch out for him. But, after his surgery, he starts to become aware that people have been teasing him for years. Maybe they weren't his friends, after all.

At this point, my friend Kelly told me that it's one of her favorite classics. I was planning to finish the book, regardless, but I'm glad she gave me hope to help me push through the hardest part. Regardless of how it tugged at my emotions, I was really blown away by the writing. I knew the book was going to end sadly, all along. But, the way it was handled was perfect.

Flowers for Algernon is brilliant and heartbreaking and beautiful and awful and maybe even a little hopeful. And, definitely kind of deep, the way it makes you think about how we treat each other and how crucial friendship and love are to having a meaningful life. Highly recommended and a new favorite. I gave Flowers for Algernon 5 stars. I looked up Daniel Keyes and found that he wrote quite a few books, so I'm hoping to eventually find and read more of his work.

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore is even sadder than Flowers for Algernon because it's a true story. Subtitled "The Dark Story of America's Shining Women" -- the shining part is literal; they got radium all over their clothing and hair and faces, so they glowed in the dark. The Radium Girls is the story of women who painted watch dials and other instruments. Because they used paint brushes and the work was delicate, they used their lips to bring the brushes to a fine point each time they dipped into the paint. This meant they were actually ingesting little bits of radium all day, every day, at work. Because the paint had to be mixed from a powder, it also got all over their hair, clothing, and bodies.

At the time The Radium Girls took place, in the early 20th Century, radium was considered healthful. People drank radium concoctions and handled it without gloves, completely unaware of the damage it was doing to them. But, it didn't take long before the women at the first radium dial-painting establishment began to have serious health issues.

There were several companies involved in the painting of clock dials, over the time span covered. All went to great lengths to hide what they knew about the connection between the health problems their formerly-healthy and vibrant young female painters were experiencing (and then their deaths) and the paint they were using. And, the health problems were appalling. The vast majority of the early employees began losing teeth, getting infections in their jaws that would not heal, and even losing pieces of jawbone. Some had legs that shortened, giving them a dramatic limp, some developed back problems. All were in horrendous pain. When they died, their deaths were generally attributed to something entirely different from the actual cause. It took years and years, scores of deaths, miscarriages, and dismemberments, and a number of lawsuits before the surviving women successfully proved their case.

Highly recommended - While the descriptions of the health problems these young women experienced (and their equally horrific deaths) were heart-rending to read, The Radium Girls serves as an excellent reminder of why we have the "burdensome regulations" the current presidential administration is trying to do away with. When given the opportunity to do what's right, corporations do not regulate themselves but will fiercely fight to defend the bottom line, even to the extreme of letting people die to keep a company from losing money. It was particularly horrifying to find that even doctors were involved in the subterfuge. A heartbreaking read but an important one. It's notable that the author deliberately researched the individuals and described them in depth because she wanted to make it clear that they were living, breathing human beings. Getting to know them made it even harder reading about their deterioration, their hideous pain, and their deaths. I admire the author for that choice.

Artemis is the story of Jazz, a woman who lives on the moon colony Artemis. Her father is a welder and she's a smuggler. When she's offered a huge amount of money to sabotage four large machines, she agrees because she's perpetually broke -- her living quarters are so small they're known as a "coffin", a place to sleep and store her things with a low ceiling and a shared bathroom.

Basic storyline: Things go wrong, blah-blah, murder, danger, science stuff I didn't understand, everyone is going to die (literally, everyone on the entire moon colony). Will Jazz save the day?

Artemis is very entertaining (ignore the "blah-blah") but I didn't follow the science in Artemis as well as that of The Martian and I thought Jazz sounded more like a guy than a gal. In fact, I didn't realize Jazz was short for Jasmine for the first chapter or so, so I was picturing a male protagonist till I found out that was wrong. Jazz sounds a lot like Mark of The Martian -- lots of expletives. But, Artemis is a fun story and after a little initial boredom when the author was setting the scene, I really began to enjoy the book. At some point, it became can't-put-down exciting and I may have had a little reading hangover after the night I finished it.

Highly recommended - While Artemis didn't grab me from page one as The Martian did, I still found the idea of a moon colony captivating and hung in there. In the end, I liked Artemis enough that I wish I had my own copy to save for a reread. I read a borrowed copy. I just hope Andy Weir manages to vary his characterization a bit, next time out. There's only so much one can stand of protagonists who constantly swear. I did appreciate the fact that he tried to make his whip-smart, rebel character female but he should probably stick with males.

©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Thoughts about 3 quirky books: The Future for Curious People by Sherl, The Time Fetch by Herrick, 2 AM at The Cat's Pajamas by Bertino

This is kind of weird, really -- three quirky reads in under a month? That doesn't happen often. I'm just going to talk a little about each of them and what I thought was good or bad, as per my new commitment to kicking formality in the head and shoving it out the door.

The Future for Curious People by Gregory Sherl has an interesting history. The story idea was the very prolific and professional Julianna Baggott's. But she thought the story needed a twenty-something's perspective and basically turned over everything she'd written to Sherl, a poet she believed competent to handle her baby. She holds the copyright although his name is on the cover. Fascinating.

The Future for Curious People is about two people who are involved in relationships. Godfrey has proposed but not been accepted by his girlfriend, Evelyn is uncertain her boyfriend is the right person with whom she should settle. Both go to the same "visionist", a doctor who gives them each a drug and puts a wacky device on their heads. They then can see scenes from their possible futures with a specified person. This alternate reality is oddball, in and of itself, but it's the hodgepodge of crazy characters that make the book truly shine. I responded mostly as intended, I think. I loved the two main characters and hoped they'd drop their respective partners and end up together. I liked the goofy secondary characters and the idea of the visionist.

Otherwise, I thought the book had a sagging middle problem and  -- this is bizarre -- after finishing the book I completely forgot the ending by morning. Either I was really beat or it wasn't memorable, I'm not sure which. Still, I liked The Future for Curious People especially for the characterization, and I'd read it, again, sagging middle and all. I did like the beginning best, though, and would not hesitate to reread only the first 100 pages for the sake of character study. My copy was sent by Algonquin.  So was the next book . . .

The Time Fetch by Amy Herrick is either a middle reader or young adult. I'm not actually certain but it's suitable for either and I think it leans MR.  I've got the book here and I like the first paragraph from the cover flap so here 'tis:

Under normal circumstances, a Time Fetch sends out its foragers to collect only those moments that will never be missed or regretted. It then rests, waiting to be called back by the Keeper, who distributes the gathered time where it is needed in our world and others.

Going on in my own words, a rather strange boy (middle schooler, I think?) named Edward thinks the Fetch is a rock and pulls it out of its hiding place to take to science class, setting into motion a chain of dangerous events in which time, the earth and the people existing within Earth's time are put into jeopardy. Edward's two best friends and a snarky girl from school (acting out as bullying characters often do) have to eventually join together to save time and the world.

Again with the nutty characterization, which I loved, but The Time Fetch is fantasy. As I was reading, the main thought running through my head was, "This would have been a favorite if I'd read it as a child. I would have read it over and over again." When I sat down to write to friends about the reading, I thought the synopsis made it sound kind of ditzy. It didn't come off that way as I read but there were moments that I thought were less than stellar. The end was wild and hairy, twisty fun, though, so I closed it feeling satisfied. I may even try to foist it on my 22-year-old.

2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino (from Crown via Shelf Awareness) is a book that has a smidgen of magical realism mixed in with a large dollop of -- yes, again -- eccentric characters. Madeleine is a motherless child of 10 whose behavior is appalling. Her father has retreated to a drug-addled haze in his despair but she has a large support circle comprised of people who knew her mother and look out for Madeleine as they promised in her mother's dying days. Sarina is a divorced teacher who teaches Madeleine and is surprised to find herself still attracted to a man from her past. Lorca is the owner of The Cat's Pajamas, a jazz club. Three threads and a pretty good job of knitting the threads together in unanticipated ways.

I'd been in a bear of a slump when I picked up 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas and because it was the first book to suck me in for quite a while, it kept me up very, very late. In fact, I tried desperately to finish by 2 A.M. for kicks. I failed, but I didn't sleep long and finished it shortly after an early wake-up call.

The funny thing about 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas is that I was aware of its flaws (truly vulgar language that crossed the characterization lines, a failure to pull off the magical realism due to one particular scene in which that magical touch should have shown up but didn't, one of the three intersecting storylines' failure to be as compelling as the others, a tragically odd and confusing ending) but I loved it at the time for pulling me out of the slump. Upon reflection, it loses some of its glow because the vulgarity stands out in my memory.

The author's turn of phrase was what made the book particularly quirky and I was mesmerized by her use of language. 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas is one of those books that don't hold up as well upon reflection; they just happened to be right for the moment. I loved it, for the most part; I'm glad I read it. I will hesitate to read more by the author till I've heard whether or not future offensiveness in her writing is off the scale. That was the one thing that bugged me during the reading, although I had fun observing how the author played with words. She definitely has a unique style.

The cover . . . oh, my. That cover cannot possibly be properly portrayed photographically. It is sparkly-beautiful. I appreciate all three of the covers in this post but 2 A.M. is my favorite.


©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Quickie reviews - The Martian by Andy Weir, The Riverman by Aaron Starmer, The Big Needle by Ken Follett

A few quickie reviews to help me catch up.  Of the following three books, only one is an ARC: The Riverman by Aaron Starmer. The other two books are from my personal library.

The Martian by Andy Weir is a recent release. I looked it up after I noticed a bit of buzz and saw that Andi was reading and enjoying it. That fabulous cover art was also undoubtedly part of the reason I was seduced into buying. Before Andi finished reading her copy of The Martian, mine had arrived so I was relieved to find out she gave it 4 stars.

When a dust storm cuts an expedition to Mars short after only 6 days and astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead, he is left alone on Mars with little chance of rescue before he runs out of food. The dust storm has left him without a working communication system to inform NASA that he's alive.

The Martian has been compared to all sorts of things -- McGyver combined with Robinson Crusoe,  Apollo 13 with a touch of The Castaway. It's a little of all those, I suppose. Although the science and engineering that go into the inventions and alterations Watney makes to stay alive can be difficult for a non-technical person to follow (Marg called it "hard-core" sci-fi), the story is never dull. Most of the book is told from Watney's perspective but now and then the book veers to Earth or to the ship carrying his crew mates away from Mars. 

While the book is not without its flaws, they're minor and I so completely enjoyed the ride that I gave The Martian 5 stars. Watney is a delightful, clever and likable character with terrific sense of humor; and, the pacing is excellent. Boy, was I glad I spent some of my Christmas gift card money on The Martian! I'll definitely revisit this story and highly recommend it.

Engineers and scientists will probably get a special kick out of The Martian.  Also of interest: Michele of A Reader's Respite and The Lit Asylum (Tumblr) says the audio is excellent if you're more of an audio person. I am not, but I'm planning to see if my library has a copy, just for fun. 

Side note:  The Martian's opening line is a new favorite: "I'm pretty much f***ed." So much said in so few words.

The Riverman by Aaron Starmer says it's for ages 10-14 but I would be careful not to go too young because it seems like potential nightmare-inducing territory to me. Having said that, The Riverman -- about a girl named Fiona who has found her way to a magical place where she can create her own world by telling stories -- is fanciful and fun.  It's also incredibly realistic, at times.  

When Fiona shares her story with Alistair, it's with the hope that someone will know where she's gone if a dangerous creature known as "The Riverman" steals her soul and she goes missing in the real world. Alistair is convinced that the world Fiona describes doesn't really exist, that it's a story she's created as a defense mechanism to help her forget problems in her real life.  But, what if she's telling the truth and there is a Riverman who steals children's souls?  Is there anything that Alistair can do to save Fiona?

I found The Riverman fascinating, creative and surprisingly gripping, with believable characters, particularly in the Real World portions of the book. Alistair and Fiona are outcasts and dreamers but Alistair is also an 11-year-old with a rebellious streak. I found Alastair very realistic if slightly dense, at times. The ending of The Riverman unfortunately was a little too nebulous for my taste and left me feeling like I'd had the rug swept out from under me. However, I liked the book enough to only take off a point for its disappointing ending. Recommended, but I'd advise caution to those with particularly sensitive children on the lower end of the recommended age spectrum. I gave The Riverman 4 stars.

The Big Needle by Ken Follett was originally published in 1974 and made its way to a U.S. publisher in 1975.  His website says Ken Follett "burst into the book world in 1978 with Eye of the Needle", so The Big Needle predates his first truly successful book. I'm not surprised this early book was not the book that made Follett a household name.

There were hints of what was to come in his future mystery/thrillers but The Big Needle is clearly the work of a writer who had not yet fine-tuned his writing. The hero is a wealthy man whose daughter is near death from an overdose and he wants revenge. He investigates, attempting to work his way up to the top boss, the drug lord guilty of shipping heroin into England. During the investigation, he's pretty casual about killing anybody who gets in his way.

The Big Needle is very much a product of the times with drugs, sex (pretty kinky stuff, including wife-swapping and a threesome), rock 'n roll, and a hero who is fabulously wealthy and not afraid to use his money to get what he wants, for better or worse.  I loved reading about the hero's clothing more than anything.

A big negative: As in many books from the era, there is a rape in which there are no lasting emotional consequences. Grrr.  On the positive side: It was kind of cool to see the old usage of "an" with a word beginning with "h" (as in, "an hotel").  Nice reminder that not long ago students were taught that now-defunct English rule.

Overall, The Big Needle was interesting but not a particularly cohesive story so I gave it 2 stars and it will be going out the door.  Not recommended unless you're simply curious about Ken Follett's early writing. I've been a fan of Follett since I read The Eye of the Needle and The Key to Rebecca and found that I could clearly spot the elements that Follett continued to use, altered or dropped in the breakout novels that followed.  It was fun pondering the differences between The Big Needle and later works.  However, I probably would not have made it all the way through the book, had it not been a mere 175 pages long. His books have just kept growing in length, haven't they?

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.