I am definitely not going to finish my library system’s summer book bingo because I apparently never read anything I could even remotely stretch to fit the “soothing” square. Anyway, on Monday night I finished An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon.

This book takes place on a vast spaceship traveling for centuries, but the core of its story is an examination of racism and inequality. The dynamics between citizens of the upper decks of the ship and those from the lower decks is an allegory for the antebellum South, with the light-skinned upper deck citizens convinced of the moral necessity of their superiority over the dark-skinned lower deck citizens. Protagonist Aster and her friends and family aren’t slaves in name, but in practicality, they are.

Solomon excels in showing the myriad ways, large and small, that this dynamic breaks down Aster and those like her, particularly Aster’s companion Giselle. There’s scarcely a moment of Aster’s life where she’s allowed to forget “her place” and the constant stress of this wears on her. Aster is very intelligent, but none of that matters in a world where one look at her convinces people in power that she’s worthless.

I found Solomon’s writing engaging and her characters realistic. You may not like all of them, but they all feel like real people, and plausible products of the harsh lives they’ve been forced to live. When they behaved irrationally, it felt earned and real. When they were victorious, it felt like the story had provided enough support to back that.

Also at the core of the story is the passing down of information, stories, and traditions, which not only give Aster solace when times are difficult, but also guide her to the revelations she makes later in the book.

This is Solomon’s first book, and I do think it shows in some clumsy editing and dropped threads, but overall I think the book is a creative exploration of social dynamics with interesting characters and solid writing. If Solomon improves from here, I look forward to seeing what else they put out!

Spenser's Images of Life by C.S. Lewis

One of his literary works.

Or more correctly, his lecture notes for Spenser edited into book form. Discussion of his ideas, how it interrelates with the pageants of his day, how the knightly adventures were not allegorical for the characters in them, and more.

from amazon;

In the ballrooms and drawing rooms of Regency London, rules abound. From their earliest days, children of aristocrats learn how to address an earl and curtsy before a prince—while other dictates of the ton are unspoken yet universally understood. A proper duke should be imperious and aloof. A young, marriageable lady should be amiable…but not too amiable.

Daphne Bridgerton has always failed at the latter. The fourth of eight siblings in her close-knit family, she has formed friendships with the most eligible young men in London. Everyone likes Daphne for her kindness and wit. But no one truly desires her. She is simply too deuced honest for that, too unwilling to play the romantic games that captivate gentlemen.

Amiability is not a characteristic shared by Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings. Recently returned to England from abroad, he intends to shun both marriage and society—just as his callous father shunned Simon throughout his painful childhood. Yet an encounter with his best friend’s sister offers another option. If Daphne agrees to a fake courtship, Simon can deter the mamas who parade their daughters before him. Daphne, meanwhile, will see her prospects and her reputation soar.

The plan works like a charm—at first. But amid the glittering, gossipy, cut-throat world of London’s elite, there is only one certainty: love ignores every rule...

i'm not the kind of woman who reads romance novels, much less regency ones, but all of the talk about the bridgerton series made me curious.
it's really a beach read, something to read on an airplane, or a sitting in waiting rooms kind of thing. i didn't really understand the duke's motives, but i understood the hate he had for his father.

there's some sex scenes, as is to be expected.

this particular edition of the novel had the 2nd epilogue, "a peek at the story after the story". if you're reading this series and if any of the books (i think all later editions do) don't have one, find the book the bridgertons: happily ever after which has all of them. plus a novella about their mother.

I think we are winding down the “Women in Translation” rec list! Or at least, what’s left of it is significant outnumbered by the other things now on my TBR. But last night I finished We Had to Remove This Post by Hannah Bervoets, translated from Dutch by Emma Rault. This novella was book #19 from the list, and is about a woman who works as a content reviewer for a big social media corporation.

This book rockets by; it’s only 134 small pages, so things devolve quickly. The meat of the story is about the impact of the job on the protagonist, Kayleigh, and her coworkers, as narrated by Kayleigh to an attorney in the aftermath of the job.

I think the book could have benefitted from being a big longer, giving us some more time to get to know Kayleigh and her comrades at the start, but assuming they were all relatively normal people when they began, you get a pretty grim picture of their constant exposure to the utter dregs of the internet changes them.

One guy comes in with a taser one day to threaten a manager who gave him too low a ranking on his accuracy in deciding whether posts stay up or not. He’s back at work days later. Another worker, not long out of high school, becomes a flat earth conspiracist after reviewing their videos day in and day out. Holocaust denial starts sprouting among them. They drink, they smoke, the jokes they share amongst each other become increasingly dark and echo the language they see in the posts they review.

A lot of the impact is filtered through the lens of Kayleigh’s relationship with one of her coworkers, Sigrid. Kayleigh and Sigrid’s differing views on their relationship becomes a significant point of contention as the book progresses. As Sigrid turns to increasingly ridiculous solutions to the obvious trauma the job is inflicting on them (she’s convinced powdered supplements and going to bed at 7:30 can turn things around), Kayleigh continues to cling to Sigrid as a buoy, past the point of rationality.

It opens up a necessary conversation about the impact of jobs in content moderation. We started with a group of people who were, presumably, relatively normal, and watch how their sense of logic is eroded both by constant exposure to violence and conspiracies, as well as secondary trauma.

It also toys heavily with the unreliability of our own perception: who is more right about their relationship, Kayleigh or Sigrid? Is there a “true” answer, or only each of their increasingly disparate realities? It plays into the book's overall themes on censorship and viewpoint. Who decides? Who's version of truth is true? The hairsplitting minutia that govern the rules on what the moderators should or shouldn't leave up recur again and again; late in the story, Sigrid and Kayleigh argue over their own sex tape, about whether it would be taken down for sexual coercion or not.

I would have liked a longer book with a deeper dive into the characters and their descents, but the current length keeps the book punchy, if it leaves you with questions. As more and more of life goes online, what is the best way to handle content moderation? Because this book definitely portrays the existing system as untenable.

Once again managed to time things so that I finished both of my books on the same day…no idea how this keeps happening. Hours after wrapping up Sarah Gailey’s The Echo Wife, I also finished Mieko Kawakami’s Breasts and Eggs, translated from Japanese by David Boyd and Sam Bett.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part, which is roughly a third of the novel, takes place over only three days. Natsuko Natsume is in her early thirties and lost for direction when her older sister arrives to spend a couple of nights with Natsuko, bringing along her twelve-year-old daughter Midoriko, who has refused to speak a word to her mother for the last six months.

The Asexual Rep

I didn’t expect for this book to be a part of this segment, because I didn’t know it could be. Natsuko and the narrative never use the word “asexual” to describe her, but when she talks about her feelings on sex, I recognized so much of my own there it was impossible not to feel that she is.

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