Book Review: Forward

Image: The cover for the press packet of the series is a navy blue in the top left corner that transitions to black at the bottom. Across the center from the bottom left corner to the top right is a wide set of thin lines in different shades of blue- light in the middle and darker on the edges. Above the halfway mark of the cover is the words "please enjoy" in small, white capital letters and below that "FORWARD" in letters transitioning from white to light blue, top to bottom. The "W" is bent like a fast-forward icon and is pink and light blue.

The six short stories in Amazon's Forward series are all listed separately on the website and on goodreads. I decided to review all of them at once since they are, by nature, short. The series features six prominent authors in fiction, most known for their science and/or speculative fiction. Like any collection of short stories, some are better than others. I enjoyed reading most of them, but the ones I didn't love weren't terrible or a total waste of my time. 

The only author I was familiar with before reading this series was the legendary N.K. Jemisin, so I can't speak to if this collection is definitely a good representation of these authors' longer form works. What I will say is that Blake Crouch definitely earned himself a new reader with his entry in the series. I will do my best to discuss each story without any spoilers. This means I'll be saying less about each one, but it's probably for the best.

The first story in the series is Ark by Veronica Roth which centers a botanist in charge of preserving pieces of nature before the end of the world via a cosmic collision. This story is all about what is going on between characters and the interactions and connections they have. I feel that the author did a good job capturing the complicated experiences and emotions in the lives of the protagonist and others. This is a slow, casual story involving themes that are anything but casual. It was not the most exciting of the collection, but it was an enjoyable read and a good starting off point for the collection.

The second story was my favorite of the collection. Blake Crouch's Summer Frost explores artificial intelligence in really interesting ways. It centers Riley- a video game developer who creates an artificial intelligence that performs differently than it was intended to. Crouch manages to include themes that I don't often associate with AI stories such as witty examinations of humans' interpretations of gender and sexuality, misogyny and gender discrimination in gaming and developer cultures, and how those things translate to an artificial intelligence that is analyzing them. 

The story has some decent representation as well, centering on a lesbian/bisexual/queer woman (she is married to a woman, thus could be any of those) who is a brilliant programmer. She has very real discussions about what it means to exist in a body and to feel for someone- or some thing- else. That said, I am not just giving it cookies because I liked the representation. It is a genuinely well written and rounded story. It held my attention the entire time and included a really cool twist and ending. It is a story that felt complete when it was over, which is something I find lacking in some short fiction. After reading this story, I added Crouch's books to my list of those I want to read.

N.K. Jemisin's Emergency Skin was the third story in the collection and I have quite a lot of feelings about it in multiple directions. This was the entry that sparked my interest in the collection in the first place. I will say that this is a story I liked more once some time had passed, but I am not exactly sure of the reason. I can say that I am the target audience for a story like this that is very heavy on leftist themes of anti-capitalism and communist utopia. The thing is, while it was written beautifully, I think Jemisin was a bit heavy handed with some of the messaging while failing to adequately tackle other intertwined messages. I am being vague because the progression of the story involves many reveals that I don't want to give away. 

Emergency Skin is about a traveler from a far off, tidally locked planet that is returning to Earth in order to collect necessary substances and information. It is narrated by those who are commanding the central character who is returning which was a very interesting narrative style. It becomes clear quickly that the commanders are white supremacists, capitalists, and all other manner of terrible things who believe those left behind are either all dead or are primitive savages. What the explorer finds is quite interesting to say the least.

As I mentioned, the delivery of the messages in this is very heavy-handed, which I have found not to be the case with other things by Jemisin that I have read. So, I would not call this story entirely representative of her work. Her famous Broken Earth trilogy is brilliant in part because the characters are very developed, very flawed, and the obvious underclasses in these books are still imperfect and capable of doing harm. This is not the case in Emergency Skin. I also think Jemisin missed the opportunity to tackle forms of oppression outside of class struggle. While there are mentions of others, there seems to be a suggestion of a simple solution for very large and complex problems. These are the reasons why I have ended up writing more about this story than the others. All of that said, I still enjoyed it. Sometimes it's fun to have something heavy handed, especially if it is well written, which it was. As time passes, I enjoy the story more as I recall the terrible and fantastically creative aspects of the supremacist commanders and their willingness to do anything to hold on to the worlds they have created.

The fourth story was You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles. This is another story focusing more on the characters than anything else. The science fiction aspect of it involves the likely future of designer babies via genetic engineering. The protagonist visits a fertility clinic that explains their work as similar to how credit scores are collected- by examining a variety of information and drawing conclusions about future behavior and other occurrences. Our protagonist is shown several full videos of his potential future children that were chosen by his wife in advance. What begins as an exciting experience becomes an unnerving awakening. I am on the verge of giving away too much about the story, so this one will remain brief. Overall, an enjoyable and interesting story.

The next story was one of my least favorite of the bunch. The Last Conversation by Paul Trembley is written in second person narrative which I generally find off putting with a few exceptions. This story was not one of the exceptions. However, it did hold my interest because there is a mystery to be solved. It surrounds someone waking up after being in a prolonged sleep, confined to what seems like a prison, and being both studied and cared for by a scientist who assures them that they are not in prison. The scientist is very focused on helping the central character recall the memories they have lost. I knew what the big reveal was going to be long before it occurred. The author does manage to capture the kind of fear and despair of existing in an apocalyptic world full of loss and struggle. It wasn't without merit. I was simply not a huge fan of the execution and story overall. If you are buying the whole collection, it is still worth reading.

The final story- Andy Weir's Randomize- was the one hard science fiction story of the bunch, which made it a fun and valuable read. My only exposure to Weir before this was seeing "The Martian" in the theater before knowing it was based on his book. I was not a huge fan of the movie, but it was entertaining enough. However, movies are often not representative at all of the books they are based on, so I did not know what to expect. 

Overall, I enjoyed the science more than I enjoyed the story. It is a story about capitalism and competition that doesn't seem to take issue with either one. It borders on making capitalist exploitation and ingenuity seem, for lack of a better term, cool. We have a brilliant scientist and a cutthroat business owner going head to head in craftiness. It didn't surprise me to find out that Weir identifies as "fiscally conservative." The writing style in general didn't blow me away either. The story is told, though, using super interesting descriptions of quantum computing and quantum entanglement which I found fascinating. I can't say I fully understand how all of it works, but things were still explained enough to create a real sense of wonder in me. It likely helps that I have interest in these topics outside of this story, despite my meager grasp of them. 

Because of how far this story leaned right, the science was not enough to make me fall in love with it. But, like the one preceding it, I don't regret reading it and still think the collection has value as a whole. Forward saved the least enjoyable for last, though perhaps that doesn't matter much given that these stories are all available as single items and are also marketed as such on some platforms. As far as short story collections go, this one has some high and low points but overall provided an entertaining escape from this dying world and gave me a glimpse into many possible futures.   

This was also posted to my goodreads with ratings at the following links:
Ark
Summer Frost
Emergency Skin
You Have Arrived at Your Destination
The Last Conversation
Randomize

Book Review: Oppression and the Body

 

Image: The cover of the book is a dirty pink color background with black abstract images in the foreground that resemble a person's body silhouette, their shadow, and patterns of lines over all of it that almost look like ribs from a chest x-ray. In large, capitalized, white letters that cover most of the space is, "OPPRESSION AND THE BODY." I smaller black letters across a dirty pink stripe at the bottom reads, "ROOTS, RESISTANCE, AND RESOLUTIONS." Below that in smaller white letters is, "EDITED BY CHRISTINE CALDWELL AND LUCIA BENNET LEIGHTON."

"Oppression and the Body," begins from a place of introspection and intentionality. Both editors took the time to explain where they are positioned in society via privilege or lack of it, how this may affect what they produce, and steps they took to even things out. Both editors come from a background of somatics and did make attempts to have representation across authors chosen for the book. There were some times where their language fell short, such as using "transgendered" instead of "transgender" on the back cover and elsewhere as well as taking Ta-Nehisi Coates quotes about Black peoples experiences out of context and generalizing them to everyone. I thought the former was because an Eli Clare essay from 2001 was included in the book using that term, but they also have another trans person in the book using updated terms. I found it a little strange that such an old (while excellent) entry from Eli Clare was chosen because he expands upon it and addresses some things he has changed his thinking about in his recent book, "Brilliant Imperfection." But, that could simply be a publishing/copyright issue. That said, it served an important function in discussing disabled, Queer, and trans bodies in Clare's consistently elegant ways.

The entries in the book are grouped into three main sections: Oppression of bodies in societies, marginalized bodies in society, and embodied action. The authors come at the topics using multiple mediums including descriptive analyses, therapeutic interventions, and poetry and other types of art. I really appreciated that some authors were inclusive of nonhuman animals in their discussions of somatic oppression and healing. Most of the essays are academic in style and nature. I am not a poetry person normally, so I am not sure if my distaste for it was because of preference or quality of the poetry. I really enjoyed and got a lot out of most of the other entries though. I also enjoyed that each essay contained both citations and bibliography offering the reader a lot of other sources that expand upon these topics.

The entries I enjoyed the most were the two at the beginning by each editor and those by Carla Sherrell, Beit Gorski, and Jen Labarbara. The first two gave me a better idea of studies in somatics and did well setting the stage for the rest of the book. Sherrell brought needed attention to the white centrism of many somatics practitioners and practices, leading many people to see the term "somatics" as meaning white. She explained how Black people suffer in unique and transgenerational ways, requiring tailored interventions such as those inclusive of their ancestors. Gorski shared xyr experience and knowledge as an intersex, nonbinary, trans person by explaining ways in which the medicalized binarism of sex and gender are problematic and harmful. Xie showed that it is not only gender that is socially constructed, but also sex. In xyr other essay, xie offered models for defining and coping with body and social dysphoria via "transforming distress" group intervention. Labarbara utilized her knowledge and experience as a Queer, Femme, woman to destigmatize Queerness as a response to trauma. She describes Queerness as a sublimation and "welcome effect" of sexual violence and other trauma, smashing ableist, rape culture ideas that stigmatize survivors and/or LGBT people or attempt to separate us from the whole of our lives. I chose to focus my review only on these entries because I enjoyed them the most, but do not take the intentional brevity as indication that the other entries did not have immense value as well.

While this book didn't hit on every demographic out there, there comes a point where attempting to do so can amount to destructive tokenism. Given that reality, I thought the authors did well finding voices across a pretty specific field of study. I also really enjoyed the graphic design of the cover and book, as a side note. You can judge this book by its cover.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Reimagining Death

 

Image: The cover of the book shows a colorful photo of a shroud. The body is wrapped in a white shroud and covered with wildflowers. There is an illustrated white ribbon added to the photo over the shroud. The top part of the ribbon says "Reimagining" in script, the next section says "DEATH" in capitalized letters, the next portion says "stories and practical wisdom for home funerals and green burials: in smaller capital letters. Across the bottom is a white box with the author's name and the foreword author's name in capital letters.

Reimagining Death tackles very important topics that many human beings shy away from confronting, often until the last minute when it is too late to have access to the most choices. The book definitely has a target audience- one that I thought I was part of but it turns out, not so much. This affects my review, but does not mean someone else would not enjoy this book more than I did. I am reviewing mostly on my own tastes and unmet expectations.

It is necessary to mention that I'm an atheist, but not the annoying internet dude kind that finds superiority in their lack of belief in God(s.) I respect that religion and spirituality have important and often positive roles in peoples lives and have no desire to take that away. That said, my opinions and outlook on green burial and other topics covered in this book come from a love of nature and desire to feed the Earth and those on it when I die. It comes from a rational place of wanting to avoid contributing to the suffering of others and to climate change in death. I also have thought about death fairly regularly from a young age, so I didn't need to learn a lesson that death should be spoken about and embraced as part of life. I was hoping that this book would teach me a lot about conventional and green practices in depth, how far reaching the negative effects of the former are, and the importance of viewing death differently. Instead, I got a book that is very heavy on the stories and very light on the "practical wisdom." Every time I would get past a long, drawn out story about a death ritual, I would get to a section I thought would teach me what I wanted to know. Unfortunately, I would just find a bullet point list with a few bits of information before the author moved on to another story. All of the stories were written in a style that just didn't work for me. Most of them seemed longer than they needed to be.

It is very clear that the author is writing from her perspective as a a "woo woo" spiritual hippie type who lives in a community on Whidbey Island that I assume is predominantly white, middle to owning class people of a similar bent. I have been to the island once and it is an absolutely gorgeous place, but is very unlike where most people live. Every story is written in this very new agey perspective, assigning extreme cosmic significance and meaning to all sorts happenings. There is a lot of psychic, spiritual, and other things that were of no interest to me, however much I understood the significance to the author and her friends. I think I was just hoping for something that didn't treat everything around death as a magical experience all the way down to washing the genitals of your mother's dead, rigored body or anointing your dead husband's perineum with oils. Sure, we can find spiritual experiences in after death rituals, but is all of it a fantastical experience full of immense meaning? It may be for some, and that is fine. But, the book is written as if it should be for everyone.

Another thing that makes the author's centering of her own experience clear is that cost is pretty much never discussed. Is a green burial and home funeral cheaper (after all of the legal paperwork and home hospice care many cannot afford?) I don't know. It was something I wanted to know. The author discusses her housekeeper nonchalantly as if it's something everyone has and all the stories focus on people who were able to afford home hospice care from what I can tell. Do I believe people should be able to die at home or wherever they prefer? Absolutely. But, many people don't. There is a section about if someone dies in a hospital, but it is not a centered experience throughout the book. Pretty much everyone discussed seems to be someone the author is related to or is in her community.

Even though I did not get a whole lot out of these stories, though, I do think that some people can. I think that reading these stories can help people realize that there are alternatives to many mainstream western after death rituals. I think that these stories could be comforting to someone who has recently lost someone or who needs to see death as a topic that should be embraced rather than avoided. I think people similar to the author in particular could enjoy these stories. I think people looking for story telling more than practical information on the topic would enjoy these stories. 

I didn't really get what I was looking for until the last two chapters of the book. The chapters, "Reimagining the Future in Ecological After Death Care" and "Be Prepared: Creating a Plan with Family and Friends," were the most useful to me. They were still too light on the information I wanted, but I did finally get to read more about what practices like embalming and typical cremation do to the body and the environment. There were a lot of things I learned such as alternatives to cremation if you don't want a burial and how these alternatives can actually be good for the environment rather than neutral. I found things like composting burials, the use of cryogenics, water processing and other methods to be very interesting. The appendices at the end also offer information and sources for those looking for more outside the format of the book. There are also a lot of lovely photos of green burials and rituals that were really cool to look at.

All in all, I don't regret reading this book. I would recommend it to someone looking to understand how after death rituals do not have to be as expected. If you are more looking for the kinds of information I was, I think you could easily skip around in this book, choose what you need, and leave the rest.

This was also posted to my goodreads.

Book Review: Empowered Boundaries

Image: The cover of the book has a white border with most of the center of the book coated in light blue to look like an uneven paint job. All of the fonts resemble hand-writing in capital letters. Across the top in black is, "EMPOWERED BOUNDARIES," with "power" underlined in orange. Below that is a horizontal orange strip with "SPEAKING TRUTH" written inside. Below that is "SETTING BOUNDARIES" in white. Below that is another orange stripe with "INSPIRING" in black letters. Below that is "SOCIAL CHANGE" in white letters. Coming out of the orange stripes are thin, curby arrows made of orange dotted lines. Across the bottom in yellow is the author's name: CHRISTIEN STORM.

Something that frequently goes through my head when reading various self-help books is the phrase, "must be nice." As in, "it must be nice to have the privilege and/or luxury to do (xyz.)" Many self-help books reflect the dominant culture or demographics which leads many of them to fall short. Different people experience the world in different ways based on how they are positioned in society. One of the best things about Cristien Storm's "Empowered Boundaries: Speaking Truth, Setting Boundaries, and Inspiring Social Change" is the author's intimate understanding of and connection with the great diversity of human experience.

Boundaries are something I have struggled with endlessly and I sought this book out in hopes it would give me more of a backbone and better communication skills. I did not expect it to be as relatable as it was. I didn't realize from the name that Cristien Storm is one of the founders of the group Home Alive which formed after the brutal assault and murder of a close friend. Storm not only has personal connections with oppression, but has educated herself about things she may not suffer personally. These things help create a book that includes the premise that societal oppression is intimately linked with boundaries. We all have power in some situations and lack it in others, thus there are always power dynamics at play in all of our interactions. As she states near the end of the book, "power cannot be communicated away." Thus, she offers a wide range of tools to navigate boundaries while also navigating human interactions in the real world.

I do think this book will be received best by people at least slightly on board with leftist ideas of collective liberation (i.e. people who at least believe oppression exists and have an introductory understanding of it.) There is a central theme of the issues with individualist, victim blaming culture vs creating supportive and functional communities. Storm communicates how setting boundaries can foster community-wide change for the better.

Something that adds a very human touch to the book, among all of the deep discussions of oppression dynamics and complicated social interaction, is the real anecdotes peppered throughout. Storm uses groups and interactions she has had over the years to give the reader examples of each concept as she goes along. These anecdotes represent a wide variety of voices, allowing her to better explore the nuance of these topics. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for boundary setting, self defense, communication, conflict resolution, or any other human interaction.

Storm is very thoughtful with her use of language and it shows. I could tell throughout the book that she made an effort not to leave anyone behind. She regularly brings up how one experience or technique will work for one person but not another. There are a number of helpful exercises included at the end so that people can practice and figure out what works best for them. Storm is also exceedingly kind and highlights the importance of being gentle with ourselves. This was especially evident in discussions of survivors who thought they didn't do enough to defend themselves or others. Storm re-frames things to help people focus on all of the things they did do to survive, once again breaking through patriarchal, victim blaming ideas that are internalized by many if not all people, feminist or not.

After reading this book, I feel like I have a much better understanding of boundaries and how to create and communicate them. I believe that if this book was not written from such a radical perspective, I would not have gained so much from it. I have been able to assess things throughout my life that make more sense now. I have a much better idea of how I can handle boundary setting in the future. It really brought the point home that boundaries are a critical aspect of all relationships. As the saying goes, "good fences make good neighbors."

This was also posted to my goodreads.