This little book has two stories. Halloween Treat is a fun tale of trick or treating, and when you turn the book over and start from the back you find a curated sample of his Ghosts oeuvre. This is a fun little book, but I'd only recommend it to Edward Gorey fans. It's all about the art. The words are simply window dressing, and could be skipped entirely. The art though is something else. All that pen and ink. I would love to see some of these in a larger format as as to really appreciate the detailed cross hatching. I love this his artistic style, and it would be a fun exercise to make up your own stories for each page. Rating: 3 stars.
119. Pandora's Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong
Sometimes I wonder why I bother with fiction when there are nonfiction books like these waiting for me to dive into.
We often forget that what we consider advances today come at a cost. Sometimes the cost is bearable, other times it's not. Or at the very least it's not us that bear it. Smart people make mistakes. Smart people believe junk "science". Everyone is influenced by the cultural, political, social, economic, and scientific worlds they live in, and to pretend otherwise is naive. The path to hell is indeed often paved with good intentions, and as this book illuminates, there are many versions of hell.
This book is well researched and well written, and I was horrified, educated, and fascinated from the first page to the last. I knew about some of the events in these seven chapters, but the author does a wonderful job of connecting pieces in a way I had not know about, or even considered, but I don't want to review the specific histories mentioned as that would spoil the reveal. I was really disturbed by this one, so much so that I asked my partner to also read it so I'd have someone to discuss it with.
I listened to the audiobook which is well narrated by Paul Tremblay, and this should be required reading for every single person, even if the last time you attended a science class was in the 7th grade.
This book gave me a new framework with which to discuss these topics, educated me on things I didn't know about, and connected dots in a way that changed my understanding of the world. One of the best books I've read this year. Rating: 5 stars.
120. Night Waking
I've struggled with how to rate this book. There are 5 star sections, and 2 star sections. I was compelled to read on while I had it in my hands, but reluctant to pick it back up once I had put it down.
The setting is an isolated island in the Hebrides. Anna Bennett, her two kids, and husband have moved here so that hubby can count the puffins. Anna, a historian, in unable to get any work done as she is sleep deprived, and has her hands full with motherly and wifely duties. One day while digging in the garden the bones of an infant are uncovered. Whose bones are these?
There are stories within stories within stories in this novel. It is very atmospheric, and I was delighted with the frank and honest way Anna's ambivalence at being a mother is described. It is not often we get such direct light shed on this holy of holies. Work family balance? No such thing here. I was intrigued by the history of childhood, and the paper that Anna works on is interspersed throughout the novel. It was interesting reading about Anna's inner life and her struggles. However, I could have cared less about the mystery at the core of this story, though it was interesting to learn more about the natives and their history. All these various plot lines get rather muddled in the final telling, at least for me. This is a quiet, character driven story, so if you're looking for a fast paced plot, skip this one.
The author is wonderfully skilled at crafting these worlds within worlds, and as I've already said, there are sections of breathtaking beauty. I am still hard pressed to give this a higher rating because of my ambivalence with it overall. That being said, I do plan to read her other books as there is real talent here, and this is one of her earlier ones. Rating: 3 stars.
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