Ava's Updates en-US Sat, 07 Jun 2025 15:18:10 -0700 60 Ava's Updates 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Review6656623746 Sat, 07 Jun 2025 15:18:10 -0700 <![CDATA[Ava added 'I Cheerfully Refuse']]> /review/show/6656623746 I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger Ava gave 5 stars to I Cheerfully Refuse (Hardcover) by Leif Enger
"Sometimes a favorable ending cannot be found." So ring the words of bookseller Lark in her musician husband, Rainy's ears. "I Cheerfully Refuse" opens in the not-so-distant future of an America that has fallen prey to depleted resources and the hoarding rich elite who view laborers as commodities and lab mice. Relatively untouched by this world, Rainy and Lark have cobbled together a relatively idyllic existence among thieir supportive, independent community of Ice Bridge, MN.

And then, one day, a stranger comes to town.

And so begins the crumbling of the world Rainy and Lark have constructed, as Leif Enger masterfully draws upon such classics as Don Quixote (think Romantic hopefulness that resolves to be folly, Orpheus desperately seeking to reclaim his wife from the Underworld, and a little bit of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World." Soma, anyone?) As Rainy sets sail on Lake Superior in his rickety, faithful sailboat named "Flower," he encounters a few small, warm rays of humanitarian kindness, but he also makes his way deeper and deeper into the depths of destructive forces determined to destroy him.

When Rainy encounters a wayward spitfire of an orphan in an abusive situation, he draws deep on his own humanity, and Sol (yes, that's her name - and I think you get the metaphor) joins his journey toward the Slates, a place where Lark was sure she met her idol, the elusive author Molly Thorn, well after her death. His hopefulness for reuniting with Lark post-mortem crashes against the hard rocks of reality, and Rainy slowly begins to draw on the title of Molly Thorn's extant book, "I Cheerfully Refuse" (think a more balanced "Bartleby") as he faces the world he has, until now, managed to avoid.

I positively devoured this book and was sad with the turn of each plot twist, only because I loved the language, characters, writing, Easter eggs of literary allusions, and strands pulled from classic adventure narrative arcs. I didn't want it to end. But in the end, I must amend what Lark said about favorable endings - sometimes it doesn't have to be a wholly happy ending for it to be wholly favorable. ]]> ReadStatus9488924603 Fri, 30 May 2025 18:42:10 -0700 <![CDATA[Ava started reading 'The God of the Woods']]> /review/show/7524078771 The God of the Woods by Liz Moore Ava started reading The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
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]]> ReadStatus9478285670 Wed, 28 May 2025 03:40:51 -0700 <![CDATA[Ava started reading 'I Cheerfully Refuse']]> /review/show/6656623746 I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger Ava started reading I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger
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]]> Review7523138391 Sun, 25 May 2025 14:24:51 -0700 <![CDATA[Ava added 'Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection']]> /review/show/7523138391 Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green Ava gave 4 stars to Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection (Kindle Edition) by John Green
Is there anything John Green can't write about and make me care about it? Probably not.

After reading "The Anthropocene Reviewed," I gained a stronger sense of Green's Eeyoresque perspective on the world - a place fraught with human error, hapless inaction, neglect, and a lack of respect for the truth of our history. "Tuberculosis" was a deep dive into a disease we might thing mostly if not wholly distinct - a disease that is wholly curable, but entirely destructive even to this day.

In tracking the history of Tuberculosis and the cultural biases attached to it over time (from white European romanticization of it to the blatant dehumanization of its victims in remote, impoverished areas), Green's excellent research, scholarship, and ultimately his personal connection to Henry, a TB patient in Sierra Leone, opened my eyes to how inequities are shaped by politics, government, and big Pharma. Green's own admission of his pathological fear of germs humanizes this story to some extent, but at the heart of it all really is Henry's story, one that will bring you up sharp and make you take notice of what's at stake.

]]> Review7524078067 Sun, 25 May 2025 13:52:18 -0700 <![CDATA[Ava added 'Invisible Things']]> /review/show/7524078067 Invisible Things by Mat Johnson Ava gave 4 stars to Invisible Things (Hardcover) by Mat Johnson
Even though speculative fiction usually isn't my jam, "Invisible Things" caught my eye and hooked my imagination after just a few sections introducing characters. You ready for a ride? Here we go.

Nalini Jackson embarks on trip to Jupiter as way to build her sociology resume studying the crew and their interactions and experience with cryogenics. But when she and her colleagues, a bunch of Yes Men she calls "The Bobs" - named for the power player on board, a real Ross Perot type - are abducted into a dome covering Jupiter's moon, Europa, they are quickly absorbed into a new culture not too dissimilar from the Earth's. New Roanoake, as it's called, is economically stratified and run on propaganda by more Bob-types, giving Nalani plenty to apply her sociology lenses to.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Chase Eubanks, a limo driver, is drafted into service for his wealthy boss who has bought his way onto a mission to rescue Nalini and the Bobs from New Roanoake. Chase is wholly unequipped for the adventure except for one thing: his wife, Ada, went missing years ago and he's convinced she was abducted by Aliens.

What Chase and Nalini discover on Europa becomes a satiric riff on the mess we've made on Earth. In a riff that resembles "The Leftovers," a several generations of Earthlings have, indeed, been removed from Earth without a trace. While New Roanoake promises to be a better place to live, its caste system quickly becomes evident, though the Bobs don't hold all of the cards. In fact, the titualr "Invisible Things" is a euphemism for a powerful force that holds the puppet strings of everyone living in this city-sized terrarium. And in classic human ignorance, New Roanoakans have all agreed to treat this force like Voldemort - don't speak its name, and further, don't acknowledge that it exists. You know - pull the covers over your head and act like there's not a dangerous intruder in the house.

The writing wasn't "great" literature, but Johnson's story captured my imagination and held a mirror up to our own dysfunctional political scene. Definitely worth reading if you want some perspective on your own world! ]]>