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Post by scrubb on Aug 20, 2023 2:08:02 GMT -5
I should note that there is controversy about whether a person so profoundly affected by autism could write these books, or whether it's a "scam" by his mother. I read several descriptions by different people of conversations with the author, where he responds to verbal discussion by spelling words out on his keypad. The people all said that his responses were in line with the sort of things he writes. Of course, they could be lying or deluding themselves, but I found their accounts convincing.
I did a smidge more looking into it, and learned that in the '90s studies on facilitated communication indicated the people assisting nonverbal austistic peope were guiding them strongly and probably it was their thoughts, not the autistic person's, being written. Since then, the "accepted wisdom" is that nonverbal autistic people have severe cognitive impairments and can't express their own thoughts (or don't even have coherent thought). However, more recent studies indicate that is likely not the case, and that the cognitive abilities of nonverbal autistic people have been greatly underestimated.
It's still very controversial and many people do not accept that Naoko wrote these books.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Aug 20, 2023 7:34:03 GMT -5
I had a severely physically disabled student (cerebral palsy, not autism) who used a keyboard to communicate and write exams. Because so many students thought her aide was doing the work for her, I supervised some of her school exams. In my opinion, the student was cleverer than the aide assisting her.
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Post by lillielangtry on Aug 20, 2023 7:56:21 GMT -5
Angele Rawiri, The Fury and Cries of Women translated by Sara Hanburgh
My read for Gabon. This was very interesting, and I think I need to give a few spoilers, so if you're planning to read this perhaps move on, but I suspect not too many of you are ;-)
So the main story is about a young woman called Emilienne, who is professionally successful and the highest earner in her household. She lives with her husband, daughter, mother-in-law and 2 nephews of her husband. Unfortunately she has found herself unable to have any more children - notably a son - much to the displeasure of her own family, her husband and her in-laws. Everyone agrees that in this crucial aspect, she has failed in her duty as a woman. Much of the book concerns her search for a cure, covering both Western and traditional medical routes, and her relationship with her husband, who has several children with a mistress but is not above coming home every few weeks to sleep with her. Emilienne's distress further leads her into a brief relationship with her female secretary and only at the very end of the book does she fully assert the strength we know she has in her. It's a striking but ultimately puzzling book, especially from the perspective of a non-African. The daughter, Emilienne's only child, is killed off early in the book and then barely mentioned again - her death does not seem to stop either of her parents pursuing their own extramarital relationships or obsessing over the mother's failure to conceive. The same-sex relationship is, at best, a temporary distraction. There's a twist(?) near the end which I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be a twist - I'd been expecting it for at least two-thirds of the novel.
I would say a strength of the book is its portrayal of educated African women and the dilemmas they face in balancing their working and home life and their values. Anyway, yes, from an academic point of view very interesting and I'm glad I read it, but I didn't exactly "like" it.
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Post by lillielangtry on Aug 22, 2023 5:38:02 GMT -5
Ingrid Rojas Contreras, The Man who Could Move Clouds The author is Colombian, I bought this thinking it was translated from Spanish, but apparently it's not, she now lives in the US and writes in English. Oh well. It's a memoir of the author's family, in particular her mother and her maternal grandmother, both of whom have - hm, fortune-telling/traditional healing powers, depending on how you look at it. Also, both the author and her mother at some point suffered accidents that left them with temporary amnesia, so part of the book deals with that as well. It is very interesting and nicely done, there is a nice balance of looking at the esoteric elements - ghosts, enchanted water, prophetic dreams etc - with complexity. She's open that some of her family members believed in them completely and others were totally sceptical.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Aug 22, 2023 7:24:51 GMT -5
57. Sand Talk, Tyson Yunkaporta. A fascinating journey through the oldest culture in the world. He is very sceptical of “settler” concepts such as civilisation and domestication. Really thought provoking, and really timely with our referendum coming up. Recommended, especially to Australians.
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Post by Webs on Aug 22, 2023 14:20:54 GMT -5
I'm not recommending "The Lost Bookshop". It had the potential for being really interesting but got itself lost in bad cliches and tropes. It filled plot holes with sand then sent a flood down the street.
It wanted to be mystical and failed. It wanted to be a romance but the characters kept getting in their own way for stupid reasons. It wanted to be dramatic but instead needed a whaaaaambulance.
Don't read it unless you're lured in by bookreads recs.
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Post by Liiisa on Aug 22, 2023 16:17:26 GMT -5
61) Mike Barnes, A New Day Yesterday
I heard an interview with the author on the radio and immediately ordered a copy. It's a history of prog rock in the UK, which I found endlessly entertaining because I was all into that back in the day... well ok still am, all that good stuff from the early 70s like Gong and Henry Cow and Matching Mole and such. There were some chapters about the cultural ambience that I didn't find quite as interesting, but that might just be me.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Aug 26, 2023 8:07:22 GMT -5
58. The Joy and Light Bus Company, Alexander McCall Smith. Another excellent book in the No 1 Ladies series.
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Post by Q-pee on Aug 26, 2023 15:35:41 GMT -5
Marple: Twelve New Stories
Twelve writers, all women, write a new Miss Marple short story.
The writers are: Naomi Alderman Leigh Bardugo Alyssa Cole Lucy Foley Elly Griffiths Natalie Haynes Jean Kwok Val McDermid Karen M. McManus Dreda Say Mitchell Kate Mosse Ruth Ware
I've read these on and off over the last couple of months and it's been fun. Each writer has put their own spin on classic Miss Marple and while she does an awful lot of knitting and her blue eyes do a lot of twinkling, she also visits other parts of the UK, travels to the US, and visits Asia.
In fact the Asia Story - set on a cruise ship for the most part - had the most Marple solution IMO.
Some good writers in there, some who don't usually go in for crime. The best stories were the Jade Empress (Jean Kwok) and The Second Murder at the Vicarage (Val McDermid).
Nothing too deep and meaningful - Each story is about 20 minutes long, making it a good light holiday read.
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Post by scrubb on Aug 26, 2023 22:58:18 GMT -5
The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton's Endurance, by Mensun Bound.
I've read several books about Shackleton's journey and was very interested in reading about the expedition that found the Endurance where it sank. And it was worth reading, but the book is not a great book, I'm afraid. Bound just isn't a great writer and doesn't know how to tell a story well.
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Post by Q-pee on Aug 27, 2023 1:30:27 GMT -5
Pretty sure I've heard a podcast about the ship and it's discovery... I don't think I'm fascinated enough to read a whole book about that. I do follow the South Georgia museum on insta though - and that's fascinating and beautiful. https://www.instagram.com/p/CvjcHXMtPHv
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Post by Liiisa on Aug 27, 2023 6:38:27 GMT -5
62) Maryse Condé, The Gospel According to the New World
A baby is found in a shed in rural Martinique, and rumors surround him that he is the son of God. He grows up and tries to figure out if that's really true, and if so, how he's supposed to fulfill his calling, to spread love and peace throughout the world. I really enjoyed this book - the protagonist is kind of cranky and skeptical about all the religious nonsense that surrounds him, and everything is richly described and centered on a Black/Caribbean experience.
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Post by scrubb on Aug 27, 2023 20:23:26 GMT -5
Cool, thanks, Q. The crew that found the Endeavour (which they did on the anniversary of the day Shackleton was buried on South Georgia) stopped there on he way home and had a ceremony at the grave.
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Post by Q-pee on Aug 28, 2023 4:46:42 GMT -5
62) Maryse Condé, The Gospel According to the New World A baby is found in a shed in rural Martinique, and rumors surround him that he is the son of God. He grows up and tries to figure out if that's really true, and if so, how he's supposed to fulfill his calling, to spread love and peace throughout the world. I really enjoyed this book - the protagonist is kind of cranky and skeptical about all the religious nonsense that surrounds him, and everything is richly described and centered on a Black/Caribbean experience. That sounds interesting - I read "The Liar's Gospel" in 2019 (hurrah for Goodreads) and loved the premise that Jesus might not have been all that! It's based on the idea that Jesus was one of many local itinerant preachers at the time (apparently historically true), and it's a historical surprise that he's become a big deal. This sounds even more interesting.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Aug 28, 2023 4:50:29 GMT -5
59. The Blackout, Ruth McIver. Australian thriller, set in Melbourne and Perth, told by 3 principle characters, with a shock ending. Audible freebie, well done, and quite short.
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Post by scrubb on Aug 28, 2023 18:06:00 GMT -5
These Impossible Things, by Salma El-Wardany. About 3 British Moslem women. It was chick lit but with some depth - it showed the difficulties of reconciling conservative/traditional family and family expectations with living modern lives and possibly falling in love with non-Moslem men. The 3 main characters are each quite well drawn; their male partners are less realistic and turn out to be either perfect or stereotypical in a bad way. Kind of the female version of the Madonna/slut complex, maybe?
Anyway, worth reading but not ultimately memorable.
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Post by scrubb on Aug 30, 2023 0:47:55 GMT -5
75. Just One Damned Thing After Another, by Jodi Taylor.
A time travelling mystery, first of a series. I enjoyed the start quite a bit but there were plot holes from here to next week, and the writing got really sloppy, quite often.
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Post by lillielangtry on Aug 30, 2023 6:04:17 GMT -5
I have a couple of tiny books to slip in at the end of the month.
Tove Ditlevsen, Kindheit (Childhood, in English) The first in the autobiographical trilogy by a Danish writer. This one tells the story of her childhood - as you might guess! - growing up in Copenhagen in very difficult financial circumstances. The family barely has enough to eat. Tove, who dreams of becoming a poet, wants to stay on at school, but of course that's out of the question. The book is beautiful, sad and lively.
Ana Paula Maia, Of Cattle and Men This Brazilian novella is about some men who work at a slaughterhouse. The work is already hard, violent and almost dehumanising, and then something seems to be wrong with the cattle. I'm probably not selling this very well, am I?! And indeed, the descriptions of killing animals are difficult to stomach - but, as the book points out quite clearly, if you eat meat you are somehow involved in this process. The language is very sparse (unusual, from what I've read of books translated from Portuguese). A tough read, but impressive.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Aug 30, 2023 6:34:32 GMT -5
60. Pineapple Puzzles, Amy Vansant. An absurd cozy mystery set in a retirement village in Florida. Another Goodreads challenge read, but funny.
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Post by sophie on Aug 30, 2023 15:45:14 GMT -5
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh. The first novel of a three part series set in India/China in 1830’s onwards. Finalist for the Man Booker in 2008. This is the second novel I’ve read by him, and again, loved his writing. Great characters, accurate historical information… I’ve just started the second book in this series. Not sure how I’ve missed his work previously.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Aug 31, 2023 4:46:52 GMT -5
61. No one is too small to make a difference, Greta Thunberg, short audiobook challenging our generation to act on climate change. 62. The Voice to Parliament Handbook, Thomas Mayo and Kerry O’Brien. Should be compulsory reading for all Australians over the next 6 weeks, as it answers all the misinformation out there.
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Post by Liiisa on Aug 31, 2023 19:57:18 GMT -5
63) W. Somerset Maugham, The Skeptical Romancer: Selected Travel Writing
A reread. I thought I hadn't read this before despite having this copy for ages, but then I got nearly to the end and found where I'd written a note in the section about India describing how much Maugham's impressions of Varanasi (then Benares) echoed my own, so many years later.
It is writing of its time (early 1900s), so there are occasional generalizations about people that wouldn't be appropriate today. But it's the writing of someone who was honest and open to the world. His descriptions are marvelous and often funny.
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Post by scrubb on Sept 1, 2023 1:20:27 GMT -5
Just had a quick reread of one of the later Mrs. Pollifax mysteries. Not sure why, as it's one from later in the series and it just isn't very good. I thoroughly enjoy the first 6 or maybe 7 in the series, regardless of how ridiculous they are, but they start going downhill after that, and keep getting worse.
Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled, by Dorothy Gilman.
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Post by ozziegiraffe on Sept 1, 2023 2:55:45 GMT -5
Just had a quick reread of one of the later Mrs. Pollifax mysteries. Not sure why, as it's one from later in the series and it just isn't very good. I thoroughly enjoy the first 6 or maybe 7 in the series, regardless of how ridiculous they are, but they start going downhill after that, and keep getting worse. Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled, by Dorothy Gilman. Interesting to know. I have read 2 or 3, and have a couple more, one paperback and one on kindle.
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Post by Liiisa on Sept 1, 2023 20:10:43 GMT -5
64) Derek Owusu, That Reminds Me
A small book of tiny pieces describing the life of a British man from a Ghanaian family who moved to London. The pieces shift back and forth across the line between poetry and prose, and also between between beauty and heartbreaking sadness, all observed with exacting honesty. Very very VERY good.
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Post by Webs on Sept 5, 2023 14:13:16 GMT -5
75. Just One Damned Thing After Another, by Jodi Taylor. A time travelling mystery, first of a series. I enjoyed the start quite a bit but there were plot holes from here to next week, and the writing got really sloppy, quite often. I thought the same thing. Put me off trying to read anymore in the series. Shame on the editor.
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Post by sophie on Sept 5, 2023 14:34:03 GMT -5
River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh. Second in a series. I thought this one wasn’t as tight or well organized as the first novel (Sea of Poppies) but it did continue with the whole story and characters well. Much of the story was centred on Canton and just prior to the opium wars. I’m looking forward to the third novel when I get it.
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