Books Bought, Books Read March 2022

The image is of Inkwood Books in Haddonfield, New Jersey.

 

Books Purchased March 2022

The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich. (audible audiobook).13 March.

The Man without a Face: The unlikely rise of Vladimir Putin by Masha Gessen. (audible audiobook). 16 March.

Bad Blood: Secrets and lies in a Silicon Valley startup by John Carreyrou. (audible audiobook). 25 March.

 

Books Read March 2022

Pure Colour by Sheila Heti. (library hardcover). 224 pgs. 224 running pgs. 4 March.

First off, take a moment to admire the book cover. I love it.

The book is an experimental novel about, well... perhaps the plot is not the most important part of this book. At just over 200 pages this is a quick read that will appeal to people interested in experiemntal literature and how it might intersect with religion and philosophy.

Mercy Street by Jennifer Haigh. (library hardcover). 352 pgs. 576 pgs. 11 March.

Like Pure Colour, I think the plot is not the most important part of this book. However, it has a traditional narrative; it is not an experimental book. The best part of this book is the characters, especially the main character. The main character, Claudia, works in a women's health clinic that provides abortions. The book goes into some detail describing who gets an abortion and why.

The Flintstones. Volume 1. by Mark Russell. (Comixology ebook). 167 pgs. 743 running pgs. 12 March.

Russell uses the television Flintstone characters to offer commentary of contemporary American society. I especially appreciated the issue where Fred and Wilma went to a couples group workshop that included some gay cavemen.

New From Here by Kelly Yang. (kindle and overdrive audiobook). 368 pgs. 1111 running pgs. 13 March.

A middle grade pandemic novel about a family who moves from Hong Kong to California with the father staying behind. I really enjoyed Yang's previous novel Front Desk when I read it; this book is just as good.

The Unwomanly Face of War: An oral history of women in World War II. by Svetlana Alexievich. (kindle and audible audiobook). 357 pgs. 1468 running pgs. 16 March.

A remarkable book collecting the stories of Soviet women during what they call the great patriotic war.

The Man without a Face: The unlikely rise of Vladimir Putin by Masha Gessen. (kindle and audible audiobook). 322 pgs. 1790 running pgs. 19 March.

When you consider that Putin has been the chief executive of a major Eurasian country since 2000, it is remarkable that there are things still not known about the man. For instance, was he adopted?

Bad Blood: Secrets and lies in a Silicon Valley startup by John Carreyrou. (kindle and audible audiobook). 353 pgs. 2143 running pgs. 27 March.

Perhaps all you need to know is that Theranos was a fraud from start to finish. Their technology was NEVER able to consistently perform the blood tests they claimed it could. Elizabeth Holmes was obsessed with becoming Steve Jobs, but I think she failed to recognize was that while Jobs exaggerated, Apple produced devices that worked before they were sold.

A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous. (kindle and audible audiobook). 300 pgs. 2443 running pgs. 27 March.

Perhaps it is best to just quote the summary on goodreads: 

 

For eight weeks in 1945, as Berlin fell to the Russian army, a young woman kept a daily record of life in her apartment building and among its residents. The anonymous author depicts her fellow Berliners in all their humanity, as well as their cravenness, corrupted first by hunger and then by the Russians. A Woman in Berlin tells of the complex relationship between civilians and an occupying army and the shameful indignities to which women in a conquered city are always subject--the mass rape suffered by all, regardless of age or infirmity.