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juushikaFinally done with 2023 backlogs.
Title: Tegan and Sara: Junior High (Tegan and Sara, #1)
Author: Tegan Quin, Sara Quin
Illustrator: Tillie Walden
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 305
Total Page Count: 485,310
Text Number: 1719
Read Because: fan of the artist and authors, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: After moving to a new city, twins grow up and grow apart when they encounter the trials of a new school, puberty, and first crushes. This is autobiographical in nature but set in present day, and that decision boggles me. I imagine it was done to make the text accessible to a modern middle grade audience; I'm not that audience, and that's okay. But it for sure doesn't work to reach the the audience I am in (fans of Tegan and Sarah who also grew up queer in the 90s) because the prevalence of cell phones and the internet chances the baby queer experience so fundamentally that what's left almost unrecognizable. I don't hate it, and I never regret picking up something Tillie Walden has touched, but I found this pretty forgettable.
Title: Slonim Woods 9: A Memoir
Author: Daniel Barban Levin
Narrator: Jay Myers
Published: Random House Audio, 2021
Rating: 4.5 of 5
Page Count: 290
Total Page Count: 500,290
Text Number: 1783
Read Because: personal enjoyment, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A cult memoir from a survivor of Larry Ray which is exactly what I want in a cult memoir: an honest, interrogative account of a singular experience, one person's perspective. Criticisms of this seem to be a) it doesn't discuss the entire case (it's a memoir!), b) Levin's account of himself is skewed (probably, understandably, and not a deal-breaker), and c) it doesn't convincingly illustrate why Levin became involved, how Ray was able to control him - which I think is what this does best. Levin takes many approaches, some more flawed/creative writing-y than others, to attempt to illustrate how a cult leader controls and influences his followers, and how an individual's identity can make them vulnerable. These things are frequently petty, frequently small, frequently mundane, and sometimes are not, and all still have a powerful cumulative impact.
Title: Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World
Author: Laura Spinney
Narrator: Paul Hodgson
Published: Blackstone Audio, 2017
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 340
Total Page Count: 502,345
Text Number: 1788
Read Because: pandemics/epidemics are perpetually in my TBR post-COVID, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: An absolutely serviceable overview of the 1918 flu pandemic with a productive international and intersectional focus. No stronger opinions than that except that Spinney's takeaways/theorycrafting about future epidemics are less egregious than some I've seen, even if they're destined not to age poorly now that we've all experienced COVID.
Title: Tegan and Sara: Junior High (Tegan and Sara, #1)
Author: Tegan Quin, Sara Quin
Illustrator: Tillie Walden
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 305
Total Page Count: 485,310
Text Number: 1719
Read Because: fan of the artist and authors, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: After moving to a new city, twins grow up and grow apart when they encounter the trials of a new school, puberty, and first crushes. This is autobiographical in nature but set in present day, and that decision boggles me. I imagine it was done to make the text accessible to a modern middle grade audience; I'm not that audience, and that's okay. But it for sure doesn't work to reach the the audience I am in (fans of Tegan and Sarah who also grew up queer in the 90s) because the prevalence of cell phones and the internet chances the baby queer experience so fundamentally that what's left almost unrecognizable. I don't hate it, and I never regret picking up something Tillie Walden has touched, but I found this pretty forgettable.
Title: Slonim Woods 9: A Memoir
Author: Daniel Barban Levin
Narrator: Jay Myers
Published: Random House Audio, 2021
Rating: 4.5 of 5
Page Count: 290
Total Page Count: 500,290
Text Number: 1783
Read Because: personal enjoyment, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A cult memoir from a survivor of Larry Ray which is exactly what I want in a cult memoir: an honest, interrogative account of a singular experience, one person's perspective. Criticisms of this seem to be a) it doesn't discuss the entire case (it's a memoir!), b) Levin's account of himself is skewed (probably, understandably, and not a deal-breaker), and c) it doesn't convincingly illustrate why Levin became involved, how Ray was able to control him - which I think is what this does best. Levin takes many approaches, some more flawed/creative writing-y than others, to attempt to illustrate how a cult leader controls and influences his followers, and how an individual's identity can make them vulnerable. These things are frequently petty, frequently small, frequently mundane, and sometimes are not, and all still have a powerful cumulative impact.
Title: Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World
Author: Laura Spinney
Narrator: Paul Hodgson
Published: Blackstone Audio, 2017
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 340
Total Page Count: 502,345
Text Number: 1788
Read Because: pandemics/epidemics are perpetually in my TBR post-COVID, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: An absolutely serviceable overview of the 1918 flu pandemic with a productive international and intersectional focus. No stronger opinions than that except that Spinney's takeaways/theorycrafting about future epidemics are less egregious than some I've seen, even if they're destined not to age poorly now that we've all experienced COVID.
