fiction

“Flying in Place” by Susan Palwick

February 17, 2015 by Sonia Connolly 1 Comment

A twelve-year-old girl is being abused by her father, and is ultimately rescued by their next door neighbors. Her older sister had died, and at the end of the book, the neighbor says, “No one can help her. That’s what being dead means.”

Susan Palwick’s blog title is Rickety Contrivances of Doing Good. That does describe this book’s satisfying rescue, and at the same time, the book realistically portrays gaslighting and abuse and the necessary mechanisms for survival.

I’ve had the book long enough that I don’t remember how I first came across it. I went back to it looking for that quote. Highly recommended, if you don’t mind crying at the end.

Available at bookshop.org.

“Sea Change” by S. M. Wheeler

October 4, 2014 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

Recommended to me by: s.e. smith at this ain’t livin’

This wild fantasy felt true to me, true to inner journeys and struggles and transformations. It has violence in it, but not a lot compared to the modern fashion, and deaths are grieved instead of being passed over without comment. Heroes, villains, and monsters alike are complex, whole people. Friendships are important enough to endure loss and hardship for.

Definitely worth spending an afternoon on the porch in the sun with this book!

Available at bookshop.org.

“Core Awareness” by Liz Koch

September 27, 2014 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

Subtitle: Enhancing Yoga, Pilates, Exercise, and Dance

Recommended to me by: David Mitchell

I enthusiastically endorse this book’s focus on awareness, especially in core areas that we often learn to block out. The psoas muscles connects the front of the lumbar spine to the inside of the pelvis to the inner upper femur, all areas we largely ignore. I like the image of telling small children, “Sense yourself!” rather than, “Be careful!” to avoid injury. My own experience supports that the psoas does not like to be deeply palpated, but responds better to gentle invitations to relax.

At the same time, while Part I is nicely poetic, it desperately [needs citation], as well as an editor who knows how to spell muscle names and types of bodywork. The statement that the psoas only contracts eccentrically is simply false. (More information at wikipedia’s psoas article.)

Part II contains carefully described exploratory exercises to connect with and relax the psoas, illustrated with photographs of people with a diversity of body types.

I recommend this book to explore new ideas around internal awareness, as long as the first part is read as metaphorical. It is helpful to look at a good anatomy book such as Trail Guide to the Body to visualize the psoas muscle.

Available at bookshop.org.

“Long Hidden” edited by Rose Fox and Daniel Jose Older

May 3, 2014 by Sonia Connolly 2 Comments

Subtitle: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History

I expected this book to contain speculative stories about marginalized people, creating worlds where they/we are not marginalized. I did not expect it to be about the experience of marginalization, and thus dripping with violence. Maybe I should have expected that, but I didn’t.

There was a single story that didn’t contain at least one violent death. That story was about Nordic (white) people.

Loved the diversity in this collection. However, reading stories imbued with that much violence feels intense, overwhelming, invasive. Not a good fit for me.

“The Stone Lions” by Gwen Dandridge

November 28, 2013 by Sonia Connolly 1 Comment

Recommended to me by: Knowing the author and reading early drafts long ago

I expected this book to feel a little repetitive since I read so many early drafts. Instead, it was riveting! I found myself not wanting to stop to go to bed, and wanting to pick it up again the next morning instead of working. (I did exercise some self-discipline.)

I sent off that copy to my sister for her kids, and ordered a few more to give to families with kids of the right age. I love that it centers on girl and women characters, as well as teaching about Muslim culture, the Alhambra, and a little math.

The only issue I had is that even though characters advocate for mercy toward the villain, we only see him acting in evil ways. In my experience, the worst villains are nice most of the time, especially to people with more power. One-note evil breaks my suspension of disbelief more than mathemagics.

Highly recommended for girls, boys, and anyone who is tired of the same old tropes in fantasy.

Content Note: Some cruelty to small animals, and off-stage violence at the end, so not appropriate for very young readers.

Available at bookshop.org.

“Bloodchild and Other Stories” by Octavia Butler

August 2, 2012 by Sonia Connolly Leave a Comment

Recommended to me by: Marissa Lingen

Octavia Butler wrote apocalyptic science fiction stories full of the rawness of humanity and survival. One story addresses how stranded humans could pay rent on a foreign planet. Another looks at a terrible disease that is genetically dominant. Another is a vignette from a future when an epidemic has wiped out most people’s language abilities. I remembered that story from long ago but thought it was by James Tiptree, Jr., who also writes about terrible epidemics. This second edition has two newer stories as well.

The book includes afterwords for each story, and two autobiographical essays about being the only black female science fiction writer she knew of. Sadly, she died a few years ago before others became more widely known.

Butler’s characters have varying skin-color and ethnicities. She doesn’t write directly about racism against blacks, but her stories are steeped in the difficulties of surviving while being a minority, while being Other.

Recommended as food for thought. Not recommended reading just before bed, since some of the stories blur the line between science fiction and horror.

Available at bookshop.org.