Ms. Hen reviews Our Little World

 

Our Little World

Karen Winn

Dutton

2022

Ms. Hen decided to read the novel because she won it as a prize! She went to a Zoom meeting that was the annual book party for the National Writers Union of Boston, and she won the trivia contest. She got to pick one book that an author read, and she picked this because it was the only novel. Ms. Hen prefers novels most of the time.

This book is about two sisters, Borka and Audrina, growing up in 1985 suburban New Jersey. Borka, or Bee, as she prefers to be called, is the narrator, and she is jealous of her younger sister, because she is beautiful and popular. A family moves in across the street, with a boy Bee's age, Max Baker, and a four year old girl, Sally. They become friends.

The children and Mrs. Baker go to the lake, and Sally disappears. They police scour the lake and the woods, and she isn't found. Both Bee and Audrina are devastated, they don't know how to handle it. They both adored Sally. Max and his family are crushed. When Bee goes back to school she becomes popular because she is associated with Sally. Bee enjoys her life for a short time, albiet for a price. The next school year, things are different for Bee.

Ms. Hen thinks this novel is a wonderful example of writing through the eyes of children, which is something as a writer she does not do often. In order to write like a child, an author has to get into their mind, and think like one, with their fears and anxieties and childlike obsessions. Bee is a great character because she is realistic, she has a small view of the world, like a child should. She thinks mostly of herself and her problems, and doesn't understand life yet.

Even though Ms. Hen was interested in the story and the relationship between the sisters, she found some inconsistencies in the research. Ms. Hen was the exact age that Bee was in 1985, so she remembers that era. The term "playdate" was not used in the Eighties, but it is used in this novel. Two boys meeting Bee were both wearing North Face jackets, and nobody wore those in the Eighties. Also, Mrs. Baker smokes cigarettes, and the girls think that is strange, but most women smoked in the Eighties, so it wouldn't have been unusual. Ms. Hen thinks the author might not have been old enough to remember these facts, but Ms. Hen does, because she is a hen who remembers.

Ms. Hen liked this novel. It is not the kind of book she has been reading lately, but it's nice, a heartwarming story, one that's about family, and the complexities of love within a family. Life happens, and we have to keep going on.

Ms. Hen reviews A Book of Days

 

A Book of Days 

Patti Smith

Random House 

2022

Ms. Hen bought this book as a Christmas present for herself, but did not get around to reading it until her birthday, which was yesterday. She read the entire book in one day: it's a photography book, with a picture for every day of the year, including leap day, for people whose birthdays are on that day. Every picture is something that Patti Smith loves or is interested in, birthdays of artists/ activists/ intellectuals she admires, some are random pictures from things around her house, or travel photos. Ms. Hen thinks this books is like walking through someone else's dreams, or subconscious, it's lovely, some pictures are in color, and some are in black and white, but all are ones that Smith cares deeply about. She used to travel the world with a Polaroid camera, but the company stopped making the film, so now she uses her phone or another camera. Ms. Hen has read a few of Ms. Smith's books, and they always leave her feeling better about the world. On Ms. Hen's birthday in A BOOK OF DAYS, Patti Smith is with Werner Herzog working on German and English interpretations PEYOTE DANCE by Antonin Artaud. Ms. Hen admires Herzog, and has seen some of his films. Ms. Hen is another year older today.

Ms. Hen became a person with glasses for her birthday

Ms. Hen reviews Chance

 

Chance

Matthew Fitzsimmons

Thomas & Mercer

2023

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel, because she read the first one in this series, CONSTANCE, and she loved it. She does not usually read a lot of books that are series, but she decided to read the second book, since the first one was so fabulous.

Ms. Hen came to the conclusion that a reader would not have to read the first book to understand this one. In CHANCE, the protagonist is Chance Harker, a young man who has been cloned several times. In the opening scene, he is about to jump out of an airplane without a parachute, and possibly die, because he can be cloned as many times as possible. He has been cloned four times up to that point.

In this world, only the very wealthy can afford to have clones. Chance's father worked for Palingenesis, the company that clones people, and Chance has options to become a clone, so he takes advantage of it to the full extent.

Chance and his brother, Marley, were kidnapped and murdered five years before, but came back as clones. Chance never found out who the kidnappers were, and it still haunts him. He awakens, and discovered he has murdered someone named Lee Conway, but he doesn't remember, because he had died, and came back a clone before he could have his memory refreshed. 

This phenomenon is called "lag," when a clone has no memory of what happened right before they die. People who have clones go into a lab to have their memories downloaded, called a "refresh," so their clone can be the same person up to a point. Chance has to solve the mystery of why he murdered Lee Conway.

Ms. Hen thinks this book is a lot of fun, but the writing style takes acclimation. The metaphors and similes are high camp, some were lost on Ms. Hen, but they were charming. This book is full of celebrity references.

This novel takes place in Los Angeles, and it's a very L.A. book. The talk of climate change and how it devastated California will probably be accurate in the future. Celebrities still dominate, even though California is a wasteland.

Ms. Hen thinks she might have like CONSTANCE better, because she thinks Chance is an unlikeable character, a cool jerk. Constance appears in this book, but her future is not bright. Clones fascinate Ms. Hen, so much, that she would read the next book to find out what happens. Ms. Hen doesn't think she would like to be cloned, but it she were given the chance, she would consider it.

 

Ms. Hen reviews Orlando

 

Orlando

Virginia Woolf

The Hogarth Press

1928

Ms. Hen has read this novel before, but she decided to read it again to refresh her memory of it. She originally read it after she graduated from college, but she doesn't remember which year that was. This is her favorite Virginia Woolf book.

This novel is a biography of Orlando, a duke who lives for over three hundred years, and starts as a man, then turns into a woman. No explanation exists why Orlando becomes a woman, but she does. When she is a woman, she is the same person she was as a man. Orlando strives for "Life, and a lover!" but she does not always get what she wants.

When Orlando is a man, he falls in love with Sasha, a beautiful Russian princess visiting England. She leaves the country, and devastates him. Orlando dreams of being a poet, and becomes friends with one to help him with his writing, but the duke becomes discouraged. Throughout his life, he strives for art and love. When Orlando is a woman, she understands that women are expected to only think of love, but that is not all she desires. 

When time passes, she becomes transfixed by the changes in England that occur around her. The eighteenth century turns into the nineteenth, with Queen Victoria and her values, and the twentieth century comes with motor cars and aeroplanes. The present day intoxicates Orlando so much that she becomes overwhelmed shopping for sheets in a department store.

The first time Ms. Hen read this, she wondered what Orlando would think of the rest of the twentieth century, and the twenty-first as well. So much has transformed in one hundred years, back then, they marveled over flying in the sky and cars, but now we've gone so far beyond that, both Orlando and Virginia would be stupefied. 

Virginia wrote this novel as a love letter to her lover Vita Sackville-West, an aristocratic woman she had an affair with while they were both married to men. Vita was smitten with Virginia, and they enjoyed each other's company. They remained friends after their affair was over.

This novel discusses subjects that were not talked about in the year it was published, 1928, such as gender issues, queer theory, and transgender characters. Ms. Hen likes to wonder what Virginia would think of today's society, with transgender issues at the forefront of discussion. Orlando, he/him, she/her, either is fine, they/them, but Orlando is what she is, and that's superb.

Ms. Hen reviews The Mists of Avalon

 

The Mists of Avalon

Marion Zimmer Bradley

Ballentine Books 

1982

 

Ms. Hen decided to read this book because a rooster friend recommended it to her. She wanted to wait until the depth of winter to consume this, since it is lengthy. She pictured herself spending a lot of time inside, away from the cold, reading this magical tale.

This novel is a reimagining of the legend of King Arthur, from a feminist perspective. The priestesses of Avalon keep the old traditions alive, and the Lady of the Lake, the one who gives the sword Excalibur to Arthur, is the head of the community. Nobody can get to Avalon unless that person can call the barge to take them across the lake to get there. Morgaine is the foster daughter of Viviane, the lady of the lake, and Morgaine is supposed to be her successor.

This novel revolves around Morgaine. When she is young, she has to take care of her brother, Arthur, which she doesn't enjoy. Her mother, Igraine, marries King Uther after Morgaine's father dies, who gets sent away to live in Avalon with Vivianne, to learn to be a priestess. She travels to the king's wedding, and is invited by Gwenhwyfer to be one of her ladies in waiting, and unbeknownst to the queen, Morgaine gave birth to her brother Arthur's child. Morgaine keeps this a secret for as long as she can. Gwenhwyfer and Arthur do not have any children.

This is a long novel, and it contains too much to summarize in a small review. Even though the book is over 800 pages long, it is a fast read, and action packed. Ms. Hen became mesmerized by all the characters, and the depth of the writing. 

Ms. Hen admires the worldbuilding through historical legend in this novel. She likes the feminist viewpoint and the Druids with their traditions. She did some research on the legend of King Arthur, and the story has been around for thousands of years, but every so often, a renewed interest appears.

Ms. Hen thinks this novel is a big time commitment, but it's worth it. She enjoyed reading about the myths and legends of King Arthur, the Lady of the Lake, and the Druids, during the dark of the winter. The Druids pay attention to the seasons, and the winter is the time to rest and rejuvenate. Ms. Hen recommends resting and reading this novel at the same time...

Ms. Hen reviews Mirror Mended

 

Mirror Mended

Alix E. Harrow

Tordotcom

2022

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she read the other one in this series, SPINDLE SPLINTERED, and loved it. That was a modern day version of SLEEPING BEAUTY, and this book contains the same characters, but is a spin on SNOW WHITE.

Fairy tales are all stories that have changed in different ways throughout history. The Brothers Grimm wrote down the stories that had existed for years and years, and put them into print, but no definite variation on each tale is solid. Disney might have tried to make audiences believe that their stories are the true ones, but they are farthest from the truth.

This novel takes us back to Zinnia Gray, who has become a SLEEPING BEAUTY hopping savior, fixing each story, so the endings are what they should be. Her friend, Charm, married a princess, Prim, and is living life in the suburbs. Zinnia gets sent to a SNOW WHITE world by the evil queen through a magic mirror. The queen wants to know how Zinnia travels from world to world.

The queen captures Zinnia, and almost kills her. The two travel around to different SNOW WHITE worlds, and meet different incarnations of Snow White and the evil queen. They try to save a young girl from a queen who is a cannibal, and they almost get murdered. Zinnia and the queen realize they have more in common than they thought.

Ms. Hen loved this novel. She adored seeing SNOW WHITE from a different perspective. Zinnia is queer, and likes to fight, and save people, even though she is sick, and should be taking care of herself. Ms. Hen doesn't know what the Brothers Grimm would think of this new queer spin on the fairy tales they put into print, but tales change over time, and people change as well.

Ms. Hen thinks fairy tales are important because they show us a stories that we know are already true somewhere in the universe. Fairy tales are like a magic mirror, that show us honesty, similar to the queen's mirror that shows the truth. The truth is difficult to see, but necessary and painful and lovely all at the same time.

Ms. Hen reviews Dawn

 

Dawn

Octavia E. Butler

Hatchett Book Group

1987

Ms. Hen decided to read this book, because she was browsing in the library in her city, and she was looking for a particular book that was supposed to be there, but was not, but she came across this author in the science fiction section, and she has read several books by her before, so she picked this one up, and checked it out. When she was checking out her book, a little girl nearby said, "Do people actually get books here?" Ms. Hen worries for the future of the world when she hears things like this. Does this child think a library is a place to plug in her phone?

This novel is about a woman named Lilith who is trapped in what she thinks is a prison for a long time, but she finds out later that she is on a space ship, and is being held by aliens. A nuclear war on Earth devastated the planet, and most of the inhabitants ended up dead. These extra terrestrials rescued some, and put them in stasis, waiting for the Earth to be able to repopulated again.

The aliens, called the Oankali, want to take genes from humans and mix them with their genes to make a better race. They decided that Lilith should be their leader, and instructed her to awaken a group of humans. At first, Lilith is angry that she was captured by aliens, but eventually she accepts it. She works to wake up the other humans on the ship, and they prepare to go to Earth, but conflict occurs.

Ms. Hen thinks this might be the most uneventful novel about abduction by aliens that she has ever read. The first half of the book is very slow, and she almost gave up reading it. This novel gets better in the middle when the other humans wake up, and they have to decide how to work together. None of them want Lilith to be their leader, because they think she's one of the aliens.

Ms. Hen continued reading this because she is a huge fan of Ms. Butler, and admires her other books. She understands that some authors write bad books at times, but there are four in this series. She doesn't think she could read the rest, at least not any time soon.

At the Boston Public Library