Ponder: House of Eve

House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson ©2023 tells the story of two young black women. Ruby is in high school striving to win a scholarship to college and become an optometrist. Eleanor, slightly older, is in an all Negro college as a history major and is aiming to specialize in a field she loves as a library archivist. Both come from poor backgrounds and will be the first in their respective families to earn a college degree. Both women struggled with unplanned pregnancies complicating their lives.

Since this is a black-themed novel, prejudices were to be anticipated; but I found the story stereotypical and predictable. Note: stereotypical and predictable do not equate to acceptable. In raising awareness to the plight of blacks, however, I encountered only one bias I found to be a surprise and that came from an unexpected source. Eleanor had stellar grades and a great deal of community service to her credit when she applied to be a member of Alpha Beta Chi, a campus sorority. She was rejected because her skin was too dark and her hair was not straight enough. This  example did make me question if internal racial prejudices are also an issue.

Eleanor married into a fiscally privileged lifestyle but still suffered from emotional snubbing due to skin color. Ruby struggled financially and suffered physically from biases in a home for unwed mothers. House of Eve was an angst filled book, and far from pleasurable. The minimal insight I gained into the plight of the Negro did not offset the drudgery of the read. House of Eve was a recommendation of the Reese Witherspoon Book, whose selections I usually like; Amazon rated this book 4.5 stars out of 5. Both of these indicators let my down. I rate House of Eve...

★★☆☆☆ Ok, not great; some redeeming features; I finished it

Ponder: Night of Cake and Puppets

Night of Cake and Puppets by Laini Taylor © 2017 is a companion book to the Daughter of Smoke and Bones trilogy reviewed in my blog posts for 5/31/23 (Smoke & Bone, Blood & Starlight)  and 6/17/23 (Gods & Monsters). I needed to request it from a sister library since mine did not have it. After picking it up from my local library Saturday morning, I read it in its entirety after dinner that night. At less than 200 pages, its brevity was a welcome relief after the 500-600 page tome of each of the trilogy books. 

Enchanting and sweet, Night of Cake and Puppets is a simple tale revealing how two human characters out of the Daughter of Smoke and Bones trilogy, Mik, a violinist, and Zuzana, a puppet maker, meet and become boyfriend/girlfriend. It is sprinkled with the awkwardness of first introductions between young adults and frosted with just enough magic to be delightful. A treasure hunt, complete with map and clues takes Mik throughout the City of Prague to say "Hi" for the first time to Zuzana, a tiny wisp of a girl he has admired from afar for quite some time. Those who like scavenger hunts will like this aspect of the tale. Softly falling snow adds the perfect ambiance for a first kiss.

Night of Cake and Puppets has black and white renderings throughout created by Jim Di Bartolo, the author's husband, a mixed media illustrator, painter. and visual storyteller in his own right. I enjoyed these few sketches inserted at the chapter beginnings. Per the table of contents there is a graphic novel at the end that is relevant to an excerpt from the first book in the trilogy. I only glanced at this. I am not fond of graphic novels. Plus, I wanted the images in my mind of the creatures in the trilogy to stand strong, unblemished, and unaltered by another person's concepts.

This book was a fun read. It can stand alone but is very much enhanced by having read the trilogy and seen the roles these two characters play later in life. There are texts between Zuzana and her best friend Karou, heroine of the trilogy, that are bemusing. Knowing no more than that Karou and Zuzana are a best friends, does not diminishing enjoyment of the tongue-in-cheek texts. The texts contain a few obscure references that leave the reader scratching her head if unfamiliar with the trilogy, but those are a minor inconvenience.

I rate Night of Cake and Puppets five stars. It is not deep literature but I thought it was dessert-like escapism very much worth the read. It put a smile on my face.

★★★★★ Great! Read it!

Ponder: Gods and Monsters

Dreams of Gods and Monsters ©2014 by Laini Taylor is the third book in a trilogy whose target demographic audience is young adults. The first two books in the series were reviewed in my blog post for 5/31/2023 and given four stars each. As in the first two books, Dreams of Gods and Monsters is a fantasy novel packed full with visually imaginative creatures — angels, seraphs, chimaera, humans  — but also introduces different universes. So many new mind-bending concepts were introduced that my head was spinning from all the implications. There were veils between universes, telekinesis, wishes from stolen "coins", multiple betrayals, an introduction of scientific forensics, and luxuriating in lavish penthouse accommodations contrasted with roughing it in a dusty hot kasbah.  

As a stand-alone novel, I rated Dreams of Gods and Monsters two stars. One or more of the following reasons sparked that relatively low rating

a)  this paperback book at 600+ pages, almost two inches thick, was too long
b)  there were too many leaps of imagination to resolve conflicts
c)  mental fatigue set in from having read several books in a row by this author

★★☆☆☆ Ok, not great; some redeeming features; I finished it

After having read the first two in the series back to back, (each rated four stars) I actually bought the cheapest used version I could of the third novel from Amazon. The wait time for Dreams of Gods and Monsters at the library was lengthy enough that I was afraid if I delayed too long, or interspersed reading a different book, I would forget the characters and intricacies of the plot. 

As the third book in the trilogy, I would upgrade Dreams of Gods and Monsters to three stars since it did resolve, not all, but the majority of the issues of the first two in the series, Daughter of Smoke & Bone and Days of Blood & Starlight. Do not read this book without the benefit of having read the first two. Do not start this trilogy unless you are willing to make the commitment to read all three. Dreams of Gods and Monsters had a happy ending, thanks goodness for that! After having investing time in reading this lengthy trilogy, I would have been majorly annoyed had love not triumphed. 

Reading the fantasy genre is a good diversion to keep me on my toes while introducing a variety of fun into my free time. I enjoyed submersing myself in "Daughter...", "Days...", and "Dreams..." for a week and a half. For you fantasy fans out there, it will not disappoint. With the benefit of the groundwork laid by the previous two books, I rate Dreams of Gods and Monsters

★★★☆☆ Better than average; not a waste of time

Alex Birthday Weekend

Alex turned 37 on Friday, May 26th. St. Denis held a happy celebration for him that afternoon after his day program. Of course for dinner they made him his favorites, spaghetti and lumpia. (In the Philippines, spring rolls are called lumpia. They’re usually filled with pork and vegetables like cabbage and carrots. The wrappers are thinner than spring roll wrappers, and they’re pan-fried in hot oil until they’re crispy and flaky.) There was a cake for Alex, but Frank and I also brought donuts, his definitely preferred dessert. Both cake and donuts can hold candles and Alex takes great joy to (1) huff and (2) puff and (3) blow them out! Yay! Here a few action shots.

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YAY!

Those familiar with Alex may notice that he is not wearing his signature Green Bay Packers hat. Now he will occasionally be willing to wear the yellow hat for Mission Hope Day Program where he goes during weekdays. Alex then opened a few gifts. There were a silky shirt with monkeys from Mom and Dad and a soft blue fleece over shirt from St Denis.

Frank and I also got him a portable corn hole toss game. He tried it immediately and really liked it. Of course there must be audience participation with clapping after each successful toss.

On Sunday, Frank and I took Alex to the live action movie The Little Mermaid which had been released on his birthday, note the date MAY 26 at the footer of the large trifold publicity poster.

Try as I might I could not manage to get a photo of Alex with his eyes open in front of the poster. Perhaps he felt he was underwater and needed to keep his eye closed? The songs from the original movie excited him; but the new ones written for this movie, not so much. There was a song titled The Scuttlebutt that did not phase him at all. It was a fast moving rap song with percussion but little music, speedily voiced by Scuttle the seagull – a female in the live action movie. You can listen to it here on YouTube. Maybe it takes listening to a song at least 50 times over or more to become ingrained. Or maybe it just takes notes and a melody...? Oh, well, he liked the movie even though it was over two hours long. The large popcorns with refills may have had an influence.

Contra Costa County Fair

On Sunday May 21 Frank and I took Alex to the Contra Costa County Fair in Antioch. This fair is not nearly as extensive as the one for Alameda County which runs two weeks and three weekends. The Contra Costa County fair runs only one weekend and is on a much smaller fairground than the 270 acres of the Alameda county one in Pleasanton.

The first activity we encountered when we entered was the K-9 Kings dog show, where the pups ran after and caught Frisbees, did flips, jumps, and stretches. They all seemed enthusiastic, energetic, and happy. There were no more seats in the bleachers but Alex was quite enthralled with his ringside seat on the grass, up close and personal. The eight canine athletes performed for about 30 minutes and then there was a meet and greet with the dogs.

Normally at a county fair we spend an hour or so in the bunny section with Alex, his favorite. For some unknown reason the livestock section was closed when we were there. This was a bit of a bummer but we walked back and forth the length of the fair and ate some typical fair food. Frank and Alex had a hot dog each. We all shared a funnel cake and a large lemonade. Then we headed home. We stopped and watched the K-9 dog show again, this time from shady seat in the bleachers. Alex was just as engaged the second time, clapping and shouting "yeah". 

The day had been low key. The weather was quite warm but not unbearably hot.  If Alex smiles and laughs at least for part of an outing we consider it a success. He had a dog gone good time.