The Traitor Baru Cormorant

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickenson, 400 pages

Josh summed this up incredibly well here, so I'll try not to rehash what he wrote. I will say that the bulk of this book can be examined as the ways in which an indigenous savant can use her talents to gain power both in and out of the colonizing empire, as well as the central role of accountants can play in governing. In those elements, this is a pretty straightforward novel.

But the end. Well. Oof.

I'm curious to see how the Orcs & Aliens book group reacts to this one on Monday.

The Losers Club

The Losers Club by Andrew Clements 231 pp.

This was a re-read in preparation of the 4th-6th grade book club. Alec is one of those rare kids who reads all the time. He reads so much it is interfering with his school work. The school principal informs him that unless he starts paying attention in class, he will have to attend summer school which will ruin his family's annual vacation. It is also his first year in the after school program and he has to choose an activity but none interest him. He has the opportunity to create his own after school club which he names the "Losers Club" in hopes that no one else will want to join allowing him to just sit and read. Problems arise when it becomes the most popular club in the program and Alec's former friend, now the class bully, sets his sights on the girl Alec is interested in. The book is appended with a long list of all the books mentioned in the story. 

Dancing in the Streets

Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy by Barbara Ehrenreich, 320 pages

Ever since people started trying to rule over other people, there has been a crackdown on instances of collective joy. Festivals or dancing or carnivals, religious or spiritual or cultural, symbolic or just plain fun — they've all been targets of oppression from colonizers and rulers dating back as far as the written word can detail it. In Dancing in the Streets, Ehrenreich gives an overview of the ways in which collective ecstasy has been tamped down, and posits theories about why collective ecstasy keeps bubbling back up. It's a fascinating book, tying together culture, religion, music, sports, and more from Dionysis to Burning Man. I'd love to hear her thoughts on more recent events, as the book was published back in 2006.

A Great Reckoning

A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny (2016) 389 pages

Armand Gamache, former head of homicide for the Surete du Quebec, has taken a new job - to rout out the corruption in the police academy, which has been turning out graduates who are very often unethical, even brutal.

In spite of Gamache's firing of half the instructors, the culture of the police academy hasn't yet improved, and four months later, an instructor that Gamache was trying to find evidence against is found murdered. Inspector Isabelle Lacoste, a protege of Gamache, is joined by an outside independent investigator, Paul Gelinas. The details dredged up, sometimes from decades prior, are painful and make several people appear guilty of the murder, including Gamache. A warrant is imminent.

The cast of characters, both from Gamache's work life and from his home life in the tiny village of Three Pines, bring me next to the conversation and action. I can't say enough about Penny's writing: I am pulled into the story as a very involved character, holding my breath until the end.

Sword Art Online Progressive, Volume 005

Sword Art Online Progressive, Volume 005, Reki Kawahara, 188 pages

For those unfamiliar with it, Sword Art Online is an anime series, based upon a manga, based upon light novels (Japanese books catering to young adult demographics) written by Reki Kawahara for a writing competition. And this is a series written by Reki Kawahara that follows a more expanded time line of the base light novels. Still with me? Yeah, that is a convoluted path to this particular series. The basic premise is that in the near future (2022), a complete immersion VR game is released. While in game, the body is paralyzed and only the mind interacts with the world inside the game. Unbeknownst to players, the designer of the game has made alterations to the game, trapping all the players inside until they beat the game. In game death translates to real world death, so there is no way out except to beat the game by clearing all 100 floors of the game. The series follows the trials of Kirito and Asuna, the two protagonists as they attempt to beat the game. The original series and anime are told in parts, skipping large portions of the time spent in game to create a straight forward progress from game start to end. The Progressive novels take a much slower pace, going a level per novel. This is the fifth novel, and the first where Kawahara has broken from this mold of level per novel, only doing half a floor in this case. The novel is exactly what one would expect from it. It has action, risque moments, and a plot that is predictable but fun.

The Traitor Baru Cormorant

The Traitor Baru Cormorant, Seth Dickinson, 400 pages

Dickinson's The Traitor Baru Cormorant is this month's Orcs and Aliens book club book, and man is it a ride. Told from the vantage point of Baru Cormorant, a young woman of an imperialized island nation, as she becomes first a student of the Empire of Masks schools and "hygiene" regimens that destroy her native culture for its unclean ways, then as an account for the Empire of Masks in the country of Aurdwynn, where a feudal hierarchy has bred waves of rebellion and problems. All through the novel Baru uses play and counter-play, intrigue and savvy accounting, to confront the conflicts that arise around her. From secret rebellions to dukes vying for her hand in marriage, Baru keeps pushing her agenda of reclaiming and saving her land. And the ending. Oh the ending. I did not see it coming at all. This is the first in what is planned as a trilogy, and I am excited to read them and see where this goes.

The Golden Tresses of the Dead

The Golden Tresses of the Dead by Alan Bradley 327 pp.

Twelve year old Flavia de Luce returns for another round investigations into mysterious goings on in and around her home of Buckshaw in the English countryside near the village of Bishop's Lacey. As Flavia's reputation for solving crimes has grown she "had little choice but to turn professional" and has gone into business as a private investigator with Dogger, the faithful family retainer and former valet of the late Mr. de Luce.

Ophelia, the oldest de Luce daughter is getting married and the lovely occasion is marred by the discovery of a human finger in the wedding cake. This mystery is quickly followed by finding their first client dead from poison. The arrival of two women "missionaries" as houseguests at Buckshaw adds another level of mystery for Flavia to contend with. And then there is her annoying young cousin, Undine, who is always butting into her business. The first person narration by young Flavia is what brings this series to life. Her running internal commentary gives insight to the working of this highly intelligent girl's thought processes. This book reveals some of the ways in which Flavia has matured since the first book ten volumes ago. And who can resist a book which includes in the first paragraph someone who can break wind to the tune of "Joy to the World". Yes, murder can be fun.

The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up

The Life-Changing Manga of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo, 192 pages

Given the popularity of Marie Kondo's tidying philosophy, the premier of a Netflix show in which she helps people learn her methods for tidying up, and the internet hubbub that occurred when she explained that maybe people need to purge some books and not hold on to them if they are not sentimental or reread or referenced with some regularity, I had to pick up this manga when I saw it check in. The story of the manga focuses upon a young professional woman whose home has become overwhelmed by her accumulation of stuff, unorganized and thrown everywhere. Kondo comes and gives her tidying lessons that explain how she views organization and tidying up, and how that can improve your life. After reading it, I have to agree with and I use some of the methods she suggests to help make your home a happy place. Surround yourself with things that give you joy, but don't let them overwhelm everything else. Keep smaller collections of things you truly love, rather than an overlarge collection of things you don't have the time to enjoy. Clothing in particular is a hard part for many people, and I like her storage methods. Too often I've fallen into the trap of just wearing the same clothing repeatedly, because I do my laundry then put it on top in the drawers, meaning my other clothing just sits at the bottom, unworn and taking up space. If I had one criticism of Kondo's methodology and philosophy, it's that it often seems traditionally female clothing centered, with directions on how to nicely store bras and dresses, but nothing about more gender neutral articles, like jeans, slacks, suit coats, etc.

Every Heart A Doorway

Every Heart a Doorway, Seanan McGuire, 173 pages

Though seriously late in writing this, I did read Seanan McGuire's for last month's book club. I was about twenty pages short of the end when the meeting occurred, but I did find our discussion of choice and how McGuire presents the aftermath of the Narnia Other World trope to be engaging and wonderful. That the children get to live these full, adult lives in one world, and then are just shunted back into reality moments after they left. It is intriguing how the various worlds the children visit are categorized, with different key words to help relate to one another through shared experience, though each world visited, each doorway opened, is different. I really enjoyed the characters Jack and Jill, who had visited a world of gothic horror and Hammer films. I have already picked up the second book in this series, which focuses upon those two characters.

Journey to Ithaca

Journey to Ithaca: a Novel / Anita Desai, 312 p.

I recall enjoying Desai's Baumgartner's Bombay and Fasting, Feasting very much.  Journey to Ithaca is another novel of Westerners enthralled with the mysteries of the East, and not understanding those mysteries, to their detriment.  Sophie and Matteo are wealthy newlyweds who spend their honeymoon in India, seeking novelty, excitement, and enlightenment.  Sophie becomes overwhelmed and exhausted, but Matteo is pulled deeper into the country and the culture, and once he meets a famous guru called The Mother, their lives are changed forever.  Told from the points of view of Sophie, her children, and the Mother herself, this was simultaneously fascinating and a slog, and I can't figure out why, exactly.  The tone of bewildered disenchantment was so pervasive and heavy I became unable to engage with the particulars of the plot.