Friday Fun! (Book Recs From My Job!)
Hello my lovely readers!
I had a wonderful vacation last weekend, thanks for the warm thoughts. It was awesome seeing my dad and visiting the family in general. Plus I got lots of sleep. Also last week I got my stitches out (and by that I mean I took them out myself) and was finally able to resume most of my fitness routines this week! I still can’t do girl pushups because it hurts to put that much pressure directly on my wound. More reasons to work up to guy pushups, yes?
So last week our campus news magazine came out, and they went around asking doctors and professors from different departments for various book recommendations. It was really fun to see from a group of people (scientists) that stereotypes say “don’t read for fun.” So I thought I’d share the recs that made it to my own wishlist with you all today. Descriptions all swiped from the book blurb, because I obviously haven’t read them yet!
- The Social Transformation of American Medicine: The rise of a sovereign profession and the making of a vast industry
by Paul Starr
“Winner of the 1983 Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize in American History, this is a landmark history of how the entire American health care system of doctors, hospitals, health plans, and government programs has evolved over the last two centuries.”The definitive social history of the medical profession in America….A monumental achievement.”–H. Jack Geiger, M.D.” - Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health
by H. Gilbert Welch, Lisa Schwartz, and Steve Woloshin
“A complex web of factors has created the phenomenon of overdiagnosis: the popular media promotes fear of disease and perpetuates the myth that early, aggressive treatment is always best; in an attempt to avoid lawsuits, doctors have begun to leave no test undone, no abnormality overlooked; and profits are being made from screenings, medical procedures, and pharmaceuticals. Revealing the social, medical, and economic ramifications of a health-care system that overdiagnoses and overtreats patients, Dr. H. Gilbert Welch makes a reasoned call for change that would save us pain, worry, and money.” - Righteous Dopefiend (California Series in Public Anthropology)
by Phillippe Bourgois and Jeffrey Schonberg
“This powerful study immerses the reader in the world of homelessness and drug addiction in the contemporary United States. For over a decade Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg followed a social network of two dozen heroin injectors and crack smokers on the streets of San Francisco, accompanying them as they scrambled to generate income through burglary, panhandling, recycling, and day labor. Righteous Dopefiend interweaves stunning black-and-white photographs with vivid dialogue, detailed field notes, and critical theoretical analysis. Its gripping narrative develops a cast of characters around the themes of violence, race relations, sexuality, family trauma, embodied suffering, social inequality, and power relations. The result is a dispassionate chronicle of survival, loss, caring, and hope rooted in the addicts’ determination to hang on for one more day and one more “fix” through a “moral economy of sharing” that precariously balances mutual solidarity and interpersonal betrayal.” - How Doctors Think
by Jerome Groopman
“How Doctors Think is a window into the mind of the physician and an insightful examination of the all-important relationship between doctors and their patients. In this myth-shattering work, Jerome Groopman explores the forces and thought processes behind the decisions doctors make. He pinpints why doctors succeed and why they err. Most important, Groopman shows when and how doctors can — with our help — avoid snap judgments, embrace uncertainty, communicate effectively, and deploy other skills that can profoundly impact our health.” - Your Genes, Your Health: A Critical Family Guide That Could Save Your Life
by Aubrey Milunsky, MD, DSc
“New advances in genetics have dramatically expanded our ability to avoid, prevent, diagnose, and treat a wide range of disorders. Now, more than ever, families need to know about these new discoveries, especially as there are some 7,000 rare genetic diseases that afflict about 1 in 12 of us. In Your Genes, Your Health, Aubrey Milunsky provides an invaluable and authoritative guide to what you should know about your genes. Illustrated with poignant family histories that underscore the lifesaving importance of knowing one’s family medical history and ethnic origin, the book highlights the importance of recognizing seemingly unrelated disorders in a family as due to the same gene mutation and it outlines the key genetic tests needed for diagnosis, detection of carriers, and prenatal diagnosis. Many genetic disorders are discussed including cancer, heart disease, autism, mental illness, birth defects, neurologic disorders, diabetes, obesity and much more. The message of this book is clear–know your family history, be cognizant of your ethnic origins, seek appropriate consultations, and opt for meaningful genetic tests. Recognition of your risk(s) enables prompt preemptive action. By knowing your genes, you may save your life and the lives of those you love.” - Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard
“James A. Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman. Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the corrupt political establishment. But four months after his inauguration, a deranged office seeker tracked Garfield down and shot him in the back.
But the shot didn’t kill Garfield. The drama of what happened subsequently is a powerful story of a nation in turmoil. The unhinged assassin’s half-delivered strike shattered the fragile national mood of a country so recently fractured by civil war, and left the wounded president as the object of a bitter behind-the-scenes struggle for power—over his administration, over the nation’s future, and, hauntingly, over his medical care. A team of physicians administered shockingly archaic treatments, to disastrous effect. As his condition worsened, Garfield received help: Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, worked around the clock to invent a new device capable of finding the bullet.
Meticulously researched, epic in scope, and pulsating with an intimate human focus and high-velocity narrative drive, The Destiny of the Republic will stand alongside The Devil in the White City and The Professor and the Madman as a classic of narrative history.”
I hope some of these will make it to your wishlist as well!
Happy weekends!
Cookbook Review: Living Cuisine: The Art and Spirit of Raw Foods by Renee Loux Underkoffler
Summary:
With an intro endorsement from actor Woody Harrelson, who just so happens to also be vegan, Chef Renee Loux Underkoffler seeks to present not just the ins and outs of raw cooking, but also the beauty in it.
Review:
So, I picked up a copy of this via Better World Books back when a close friend and I were getting into trying some new raw food recipes. They’re great in the summer for a change from salads when you want something cool, fresh, and healthy to eat. Plus, I’m always interested in learning more, so I was excited to see that Underkoffler provided more than just recipes, but also chapters featuring the benefits of the various raw ingredients and preparation techniques. Unfortunately, ultimately this cookbook really did not work for me.
First there’s the fact that a book seeking to show the beauty of raw foods has zero color pictures and almost no black and white illustrations. It is almost entirely straight text. Very unattractive in a cookbook!
Second, the background information goes on for an excruciatingly long time. The recipes do not start until page 261 of the book! And as much as I like learning more about some veggies and fruits, it felt like information overload to me. If I really wanted to know all the properties of every fruit and vegetable out there, I’d become a nutritionist. Knowing the basics, such as what is provided by the scientists in DASH–lots of servings of brightly colored fruits and vegetables are good for you–that’s really all the consumer needs to know. Well, that and how to properly assemble the foods for the right tastes and textures.
So I was pleased to get to the recipes, but only found three that I found to be at all doable by me. The rest required either an insane amount of prep time, special tools, or special ingredients that even with all of my grocery options in a city like Boston I was unable to even fathom where I would find them. (Vegans should also note that the recipes make abundant use of raw honey).
I, admittedly, have yet to try the three recipes I did find, primarily because they all require a blender, and mine is broken. I did save them to try in the summer during a hot spell of a week. But even if Underkoffler’s recipes are delicious, they are overly involved and intimidating, even to someone like myself who cooks a ton. I suppose her market might be raw chefs, but then why have the entire beginning of the book be toned toward beginners with no idea what’s in fruits and vegetables? The book is a bit of a mystery to me, honestly.
Ultimately, although the title of the cookbook is lovely, the recipes and content themselves are not. Underkoffler’s cookbook lacks a true direction. It is unclear if her target audience is talented raw chefs or the average American developing an interest in raw foods. As such, neither audience is properly served. I would not recommend starting with this book if you have a new interest in raw cooking, but chefs may be interested in flipping through the recipes in the back to see if any are new ideas to them.
2 out of 5 stars
Source: Better World Books
Book Review: Evolution in a Toxic World: How Life Responds to Chemical Threats by Emily Monosson
Summary:
Monosson attempts to explain both current and possible future impacts of chemical pollutants on humans by examining how life responded to toxic threats in the past.
Review:
Allow me to preface my review by saying that although I am not a scientist, my profession is that of a medical librarian, so scientific jargon is not new to me. I would therefore say my understanding of science is somewhere above average American but below actual scientist. I had the impression from the description that this book is written by a scientist for public consumption aka the average American. It misses the mark.
The content is great and informative, but it is couched in such an overload of scientific jargon and an assumption of an above average understanding of how the human body works that it was incredibly difficult to get through in order to glean out the interesting information. Thank goodness I had the kindle version and could look up words easily as I went, or I would have given up within the first chapter. Additionally, just when things were starting to get interesting, such as with how DDT impacts development in utero, Monosson would switch topics. Very frustrating!
That said, I did learn quite a bit from this book. It was just difficult to get to these understandable tidbits given the writing style and structure. Here are a few interesting things I learned:
Like some pervasive computer operating systems, p53 is an archetypical example of the unintelligent design and compromise that is inherent in evolution—a multifunctional, multipurpose transcriptional coordinator that has only lately been retasked to the job of tumor suppression in large, long-lived orgasms….At the end of the day p53, together with all our other suppressor mechanisms, fails half of humanity. (location 1314)
Though two species may share a common ancestor and hence a common ancestral receptor or enzyme, once they part ways on the family tree, the branches evolve independently. (location 1670)
For a genetically male mammal to come out looking and functioning male, he requires in utero exposure to hormones like testosterone and its more potent derivative, dihydrotestosterone, along with a functioning AR. An embryo lacking either hormones or a properly functioning AR (or exposed to chemicals that disrupt either receptor or hormone production) will take on a female appearance, despite possessing a Y chromosome….work by Kelce, Gray, and others revealed that a metabolite of the pesticide DDT was an even more potent inhibitor of the AR than was vinclozolin. Given the ubiquity of DDT and its metabolites, this was a potentially explosive finding. (location 1716)
If our CYP enzymes are increasingly metabolizing a variety of pharmaceuticals, what happens when we add one more, or change our diet, or breathe in chemicals like polyaromatics bound to micron-sized air pollution particulates? (location 2509)
Ultimately though, although I learned a lot, the reading experience itself was a bit daunting for the average American. I believe this book would best be enjoyed by a scientist for whom evolution is not their normal research area. They thus would have an easier time with the jargon, but also not already know what Monosson is talking about.
3 out of 5 stars
Source: NetGalley
Book Review: Acacia: The War With the Mein by David Anthony Durham (Series, #1) (Bottom of TBR Pile Challenge)
Summary:
The Akarans have ruled the Known World for twenty-two generations, but the wrongfully exiled Meins have a bit of a problem with that. They enact a take-over plot whose first action is assassinating the king. Suddenly his four children are flung to different parts of the Known World in exile where they will need to come to terms with who they are, who the Mein are, and the wrongs past generations of Akarans committed in order to help the Known World make a change for the better.
Review:
I have a big announcement to make. Huge even. THIS IS THE FIRST HIGH FANTASY BOOK I HAVE LOVED. There. I said it! And it’s true.
I wish I had some vague idea of how this ended up on my TBR pile. The only clue I have is that I acquired it via PaperBackSwap, so I know I got it very intentionally after reading a review or something somewhere. But where? And why? Who knows! It was entirely out of my comfort zone, took me much longer than my norm to read (over two weeks according to GoodReads), and yet. I loved every moment of it.
A momentous occasion such as this obviously leaves me asking why. Why when I generally am irritated by most high fantasy did this one not just not bug me but worm its way into my heart? This is a key question, because it’s something that helps stories cross genres. I do have an answer, but of course it has many elements.
First, although this primarily depicts a war, no side is depicted as pure evil or good. Both sides have good points and flaws. Good people work for both. Bad people work for both. The Akaran king isn’t a bad guy per se, but he’s allowing things to happen under his rule that are bad. The Meins have a just cause, but they do horrible things in the process of achieving that cause. This realistic complexity is something that I have found to be sorely missing in other fantasy. The Known World is its own fantastical place with its own cultures and history, but it is realistic in the fact that everything is complex and nothing is clear-cut.
Second, the female characters are incredibly well-written. They are well-rounded, strong and yet vulnerable. Beautiful and yet terrifying. They are innately a part of the world depicted, not just princesses in a tall tower or the girl at the side of the field whose beauty inspires the men. Women are historically a part of the Akaran army, and the two Akaran princesses have strengths and flaws of PEOPLE. They are not “female flaws.” They are people who happen to have vaginas. It is some of the best writing of women I’ve seen from a male writer in a while.
Third, the Known World is complex and eloquently imagined, yet clear and easy to understand. It is its own thing, but it is similar enough to our own real world that I wasn’t left grasping for straws trying to understand things. People in cold climates are pale, and people in deserts are dark. The animals range from recognizable horses and monkeys to fantastical creatures that are a mix of rhinoceroses and pigs. It is creative yet fathomable.
Finally, the storyline is complex. I could not predict what was going to happen next at any moment, really. The ending caught me completely by surprise, and I am baffled as to what Durham will be doing with the middle book of the trilogy. Baffled and impatient.
My god. I love a fantasy story.
Overall, this is now the book I will hold up when people ask me what is good fantasy. It is what leaves me with hope for the genre that it can be more than pasty white men wishing for a patriarchal past of quivering ladies in waiting and knights fighting dragons. Fantasy can imagine a world where some things are better than ours, and yet other things are worse. It can be a reflection of our own world through a carnival mirror. Something that makes us think hard while getting lost. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for those things in their reading.
5 out of 5 stars
Source: PaperBackSwap
Friday Fun! (Updates Ahoy)
Hello my lovely readers!
Wow what a crazy week it’s been! Between being slowed down by hobbling everywhere, getting settled in at work, and getting ready to go out of town….it’s just flown by!
I *did* play one of my xbox kinect dancing games in spite of my stitches a couple of days in a row (I know, bad Amanda). Also over my weekend I managed to get some time in on Waiting for Daybreak‘s edits. It’s so close you guys. I’m thinking a July blog tour. Anyway, I finally got back into the gym last night, and got praise from my trainer, so it appears my attempts at healthy eating/drinking to keep my fitness going in spite of injury are working!
Things may be a bit slow around here next week, since this week I’ve been working on a chunkster, one of my Bottom of the TBR Pile Challenge booksAcacia: The War with the Mein. PLUS even if I do finish up some books this weekend, I won’t be blogging them for a bit since I’m spending the weekend visiting my dad up in Vermont. It’s a mini-vacation yay! One I sorely need too. I haven’t seen him since Thanksgiving. Crazy, I know.
Progress continues, even when it’s not obvious. Writing, reading, fitness, bonding……it all plugs along as long as you keep at it!
Happy weekends all. Care to tell me a chunkster that you feel is worth the time?
Book Review: Grey by Jon Armstrong (Audiobook narrated by Macleod Andrews)
Summary:
In the near future capitalism has entirely taken over, and the world is ruled by a few families….and their corporations. People from all walks of life are also completely obsessed with fashion. Michael Rivers is the heir to the River Corporation and is being sent on worldwide-aired dates with Nora, the heir to another company. Just when they are about to announce their engagement, however, a freeboot shoots at Michael leaving the families blaming each other for the incident. Michael refuses to accept his father’s demands that he marry a different woman, however, and his quest to figure out a way to Nora leads to some deep dark scandals hid on all levels of the company.
Review:
I have to say that this is the first time I was sorely disappointed by a read I originally discovered via Little Red Reviewer’s blog. I was intrigued by the idea of fashionpunk, which is what this book is supposed to be. Fashionpunk is a new genre. Think scifi with a heavy focus on fashion. It’s unfortunate that the fashion aka world setting was the best part of the book.
Armstrong richly presents the near future he has imagined. People’s tendencies to reflect their world views via their fashion choices is completely exploded in this world. Michael identifies as a Grey. He wears only shades of grey and chooses everything from what bands he likes to what restaurants to eat in based on the grey fashion’s magazine. Every other type of fashion is similar. Even the Rivers security team are referred to by the type of clothing they wear–the Satins. I know! This sounds awesome and delicious to be in, and it was. But…..the story, you guys. The story.
This book’s plot is like the Kardashian show if it was written down and entirely sympathetic to Kim Kardashian. I know, right? Even reading that sentence is painful. It’s not that I’m saying someone wealthy can’t be a main character, but it helps if some aspect of them is sympathetic, and Michael is just not. He’s whiny and wimpy and sooooo obsessed with inane things and his “love” of Nora completely squicks me out. It reads more like an unhealthy obsession than star-crossed lovers. And he never really changes! No matter what he learns or what happens he’s still the same Michael by the end as he is at the beginning. There’s just….no character development. No underdog to root for. No nothing. I liked seeing Michael’s world, but I really would have preferred to wander off and follow the life of the director or a chauffeur or even the inane girl he goes on a date with who has pink fur growing out of her skin. See what I’m saying? Someone with a more interesting perspective. The problem with Michael is that grey truly is the best way to describe him. He’s dull and annoying. Like a grey, rainy day.
So why did I continue listening to it and finish it so quickly? The audiobook narrator, Macleod Andrews, is completely brilliant. It was like listening to a one-man show. He somehow managed to breathe some life into the dull plot. For that I thank him, and I also will be checking out what else he’s narrated on Audible.
Overall, the concept of fashionpunk that Armstrong has worked out is intriguing and makes for a visually and culturally rich world. Unfortunately, I found his plot completely unappealing. Perhaps people who enjoy the lives of the rich and famous would feel differently, however.
3 out of 5 stars
Source: Audible
Book Review: Succubus on Top by Richelle Mead (Series, #2)
Summary:
Georgina Kincaid, the succubus that wishes sex with hot men didn’t always steal their life energy, has held up her side of the bargain with her demon supervisor. She’s been going after quality men in exchange for him not wiping the memory of her human boyfriend, the hot writer Seth. Of course, they can’t have sex together without yanking some years off his life, so when they sleep together, it’s literal sleeping. But life continues in spite of boyfriends and job accolades. Georgina finds herself caught up in helping an old incubus friend, as well as trying to find out what has her coworker, Doug, so full of energy.
Review:
Ahhh, Georgina. You are quite possibly my favorite urban fantasy heroine, although your fixation on Seth kinda bugs me. Anyway, everything that made Succubus Blues so fun is back with a bang this time around. We’ve got crazy sex scenes, paranormal mystery, and an every reluctant succubus.
The story itself is a bit more predictable than the first one, but that’s ok. I may have known right away what was up with the incubus’s project as well as what was wrong with Doug, but it’s so much fun to be in Georgina’s world that I honestly didn’t care that I knew. I mostly delighted in this new version of Seattle that Mead has created.
Georgina is complex and so well-rounded. We constantly learn little snippets of her long life, this time around focusing in more on her succubus years than her human ones. She may have sex down pat, but she still doesn’t have relationships figured out, which is part of what makes her character work. Men can still surprise her sometimes. Especially Seth.
There is honestly not that much else to say about this book. The world is delicious, the plot predictable, the heroine delightful. It’s drizzled in intelligent wit and topped off with some red hot sex scenes. This series is definitely remaining my go to for urban fantasy. Fans of the first won’t be disappointed, and anyone with even an inclination toward the genre should definitely check it out.
4 out of 5 stars
Source: Public Library
Previous Books in Series
Succubus Blues
Friday Fun! (PSA: Never Run for the Bus. Ever.)
Hello my lovely readers!
So today was the 100 year anniversary of Yankee/Red Sox rivalry. This is totally awesome, but the game was at 3pm when I was at work. ALAS I commute right through Kenmore (where Fenway Park is), just about when the games that start at 3 tend to get over. Knowing this, I decided to walk from my lovely place of employment to Kenmore where I would hopefully be able to catch a bus home.
So there I was. Walking along. Listening to one of my all-time favorite songs “Sexy and I Know It,” when in the distance I saw that my bus was boarding. My natural Bostonian inclination was to sprint for the bus.
Wrong. Decision.
I have no idea what happened. Maybe my feet slid around in my shoes because of my nylons. Maybe the sidewalk was uneven. Maybe I am just an incredibly klutzy mess. Regardless, I tripped my feet up and went flying a couple of feet (I am not exaggerating) onto my hands and knees. But mostly my knees.
Immediately an incredibly sweet young lady about my age stopped to see if I was ok. I thought I was, since, well, adrenaline had kicked in. But when I tried to get up, it hurt. Three more people stopped, including two BU students and a fabulous southern gentleman who was a tourist in my city. They gave me water and tissues for the blood. One identified herself as a medical student and pointed out that I needed stitches. I argued that I was fine and poked me knee, at which point one of the girls almost passed out.
It turns out what I was poking was my own “subcutaneous fat.” Trust me. It hurt a LOT later when the adrenaline wore off.
These awesome strangers convinced me to go to the ER to get stitched up. They flagged down a cab, gave him directions, and one of them almost insisted on coming with me, although I managed to argue that I would be fine, it was just stitches.
At the ER, they plopped me into a wheelchair and everyone basically glanced at me and said “Oh honey,” accompanied by a head shake.
I told the nurse that the Red Sox had wiped out worse than me. *snort*
So I got 4 stitches, which was an entirely new experience. It felt…..weird. You’re numb so it doesn’t hurt, but you still feel *things* dragging along underneath your skin.
Also, they told me I can’t do anything rough on my knee for 10 to 14 days. No spinning, running, squats, etc…. *sighs* What’s a fitspo gal to do?
On a serious note though, major thank yous to the strangers who stopped to help me. This single lady seriously appreciates it. Especially since I was adrenaline high and may not have had the foresight to drag my butt to the ER on my own. You guys were great, and I wish I had some iota of an idea as to who you are. People could easily have laughed at the gal going flying across the sidewalk running to catch the bus. Instead you stopped and helped, and that is seriously awesome.
Book Review: Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic edited by Eduardo Jimenez Mayo and Chris N. Brown
Summary:
This collection gathers 34 contemporary Mexican short stories featuring fantasy, scifi, and literary, clearly a wide range.
Review:
For me this collection was very hit and miss, and alas even the hits weren’t that wonderful. Part of the issue is there seems to be no rhyme or reason behind the order in which the tales are presented. It feels as if 34 completely random stories were selected with the only thing they have in common being Mexican authors. I generally prefer a short story collection to have a more universal theme or play upon similar tropes, but there is none of that here. The stories range from young boys hunting iguanas to figuring out how to dispose of a body to a trophy wife on vacation in Las Vegas to a pact with the devil. It was a bit of an exhausting collection to read. That said, I’d like to highlight a couple of my favorites that kept the read from being an entirely troublesome experience.
“Hunting Iguanas” by Hernan Lara Zavala both gives a glimpse into country Mexican life, which isn’t something we get to encounter very much, and provides commentary on colonization.
“Lions” by Bernardo Fernandez was particularly delightful for an animal rights activist to read. In a time of budget cuts the less attractive animals of the zoo are let loose in the city park and gradually take over. Delightfully tongue-in-cheek.
“The Nahual Offering” by Carmen Rioja features a disturbingly prophetic dream by a tribal woman. It is a great example of the beautifully grotesque.
You can see, though, that I was only able to pick out three short stories from a collection of 34 to highlight as particularly enjoyable to me. The collection simply lacks a universality of theme or talent.
Overall this collection is an interesting peek into contemporary Mexican writing, although it does seem the editors could have done a better job in selecting what to include. Recommended to those with a marked interest in modern Mexican writing.
3 out of 5 stars
Source: LibraryThing EarlyReviewers
Book Review: Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion (Audiobook narrated by Kevin Kenerly)
Summary:
R is a zombie, and he remembers nothing about his life before he was one–except that his name starts with the letter R. He and his group of the other living dead inhabit an old abandoned airport and are ruled by the bonies. They hunt the living not just for the food, but also for the memories that come from ingesting their brains. It’s like a drug. One day when he’s out on a hunt, R eats the brain of a young man who loves a young woman who is there, and R steps in to save her. It is there that an unlikely love story begins.
Review:
Now that I have a new job I decided to stop going through the rigamarole that is finding something you actually want to read as an audiobook in the public library and subscribe to Audible, especially since I always have my kindle with me anyway. I decided to choose audiobooks to read from the bottom of my wishlist, so everything you’ll be seeing on here (unless it was free on Audible) was put on my wishlist a long time ago. Half the time I couldn’t remember why it wound up there. That was the case here. I mean; I’m assuming it was there for the zombies, but I basically had no other idea about it heading in. This is partly why my mind was blown, so if you want a similar experience I’m telling you to go get yourself a copy right this instant! Vamoose! For those who need more convincing, though, please do read on.
Perhaps surprisingly, I have read zombie love stories before, so I wasn’t expecting too many new or particularly engaging ideas. This book is overflowing with them though. Everything from zombies getting high on other people’s memories to getting to see both the zombie and living side of the war to the concept of what the war is ultimately about to even what a zombie is was all brand-new. And it pretty much all makes sense in the world Marion has set up and is engaging. I could not “put the book down.” I listened to it in every spare second I had. Nothing went the way I predicted and yet it all made complete sense.
R is far more complex than what you’d expect from a zombie, even before his symbolic awakening. Julie is everything you would want from a heroine. She’s pretty, smart, and she says fuck! She can hold her own but is still emotional and vulnerable. She’s exactly what any artistic, strong woman would be in a zombie apocalypse. Even the more minor characters are well-rounded, and there is the racial diversity one would expect from a zombie apocalypse in a big city.
Alas, the narration was not quite as amazing as the story. Although Kenerly does a very good job, sometimes he fails to convey all of the emotions going on in the scenes or doesn’t switch characters quite quick enough. Don’t get me wrong, it was very good and didn’t detract from the story at all, but I also don’t feel that it added a ton to it.
This is a book that I know I will want to read again, and I may even need to buy an ebook or print version just to do so in a whole nother way next time. It is an engaging new look at a zombie apocalypse that reads more as a dystopia than post-apocalyptic. Anyone who needs restored faith in the ability of humanity to fix where we’ve gone wrong should absolutely give this book a shot.
5 out of 5 stars
Source: Audible
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