Book Chats with Malea: Episode 3

Below is a slightly cleaned up transcript of my third Book Chats video. Links to all of the books I discuss and a few other items are linked as you come to them in the transcript, but I've also made a list of all the links at the bottom of this post. I tidied up the transcript a little to make it easier to read as a blog post. To watch the video, you can head to YouTube HERE.

Please note, some links are affiliate links in nature and I may earn a small commission--at no extra cost to you--if you purchase through them. Thank you in advance!

Hi friends, welcome to my YouTube channel for another book chat video. 

This is my third book chat. I meant to do one a little while ago, but life kind of side tracked me, and I slowed down my reading, and really felt like I didn't have a lot to say. But today we are going to review 1-2-3-4-5-6, 6 books, and talk about three additional ones. 

I apologize if you hear cars honking, or any sirens, or traffic noise. I do live in a downtown core of my city, and I have my patio door open. It's a really beautiful day, and I just want to enjoy the breeze from outside. 

So, with that in mind, grab yourself a cup of coffee. I have mine in one of my favorite coffee mugs from Case Study Coffee Roasters in Portland, Oregon. 

And let's get to it. 

So, first we're going to talk about a book that I'll pop here on the screen, The Littlest Library by Poppy Alexander. If you see me looking over this way, I have a little note card for the books that I read in ebook form. I do read in both ebook and physical book form, but I read The Littlest Library by Poppy Alexander. 

Initially, when I mentioned this book in one of my first videos, I didn't think I would like it. I was just not really getting into it. It wasn't really flowing for me, but the more I read it, the more I enjoyed it. It's really cute. It's definitely cozy romantic comet comedy. It's like a cozy rom-com set in the English countryside in a tiny little village. 

I identified a lot with the main character, she's very shy. She's feels socially anxious and socially awkward. She feels like just like when is life going to start for her? Things aren't really going her way, but she ends up finding community in really unexpected ways, and the community pulls together around her as well, and it's just a lovely little story. 

By the end, I was hooked. I loved it. On the Story Graph app, I gave it five out of five stars. 

I am generous with my with my stars on Story Graph, unless I just really hate a book. So, most of the books that I end up finishing end up being between four and five stars. Story graph does let you differentiate a little bit with quarter stars, so 4.25 4.5 4.75 and so on. 

But I gave The Littlest Library by Poppy Alexander five stars. I just enjoyed it. I liked the coziness. I think when I initially started reading it, I just wasn't in the mood for something cozy, but I did end up loving it. 

The next book we're going to talk about, I also read as an ebook. So, this is Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson. I also gave this one a five star. 

This is not cozy. Much of the story centers on the shooting death in, in the middle of a robbery of a boy and his sister as a witness to it, the death and shooting, and the trauma that our main character, I don't know if it's Eby or Eby, her name is Ebony, but she goes by a nickname. She has to endure all this trauma from that incident. 

She was the younger sister, and she and her brother were home alone when somebody broke in, killed the brother, and a very special, important jar was broken in the process. This jar was a part of the family lore for generation after generation after generation. It was made by an enslaved ancestor and was carried through generations and used through generations in a variety of ways, including helping people escape enslavement. 

This story encompasses a lot of historical fiction, but it was also modern contemporary fiction. We follow our main character, Evie, from the New England states in the United States to France, and then back. We go through a few different time periods. We go to the time period of this enslaved person learning about making pottery, and I learned a lot about how enslaved people were used to create pottery. You know, I think a lot of US history books teach us that enslaved people were just used in fields and for as servants and homes and things.
 
They actually were used and forced to do a lot of types of work, sometimes this work they didn't, they didn't have creative freedoms, but it included things that now are considered creative, beautiful art objects, but their original purpose and the way that they were made has deep, deep rooted history in slavery and negative deep roots, but the way that this book talks about the jar is just so beautiful. 

The way that it treats the development of this family over generations is so beautiful, despite the generational trauma, despite the slavery trauma, despite the racist trauma. I really liked the main character. She was not an upbeat, happy, cheerful character with all this trauma, both from ancestral trauma, racism, the trauma of losing her brother, and all these other things, but I really enjoyed the main character, and I really understood her motivations for a lot of the things that she did in the book part of this book, and you learn this really early on, so I'm not spoiling anything, but she is engaged, and her fiance calls it off. He basically disappears--he doesn't even call it off--he's just gone, which starts her journey to France, and sort of, you could say, running away, but I really like this book, and I like the way that the end of the book wraps up all these different threads, the historical threads, the modern threads, her trauma from her brother dying, the trauma of this really significant, important object in the family being broken, and her, the life she was starting to build in France, also gets wrapped up in a really nice way. 

I highly encourage you to read Good Dirt. I am definitely going to look for more by Charamine Wilkerson. I really enjoyed the writing style as well. She was direct and descriptive enough without overdoing it, and she wasn't overly sentimental around some of these really horrible, horrible, horrible things that historically, as well as in the modern timeline of the book, she didn't really shy away from very much, she was very upfront and realistic, and I think a lot of the ways that she described her characters and the things they were going, and the historical aspects. It was a great read. 

So, that was Good Dirt by Charamine Wilkerson. 

The next one I read, the physical copy, I got this. This copy is an advanced reader's copy. I got it through volunteering at a literary festival, and they invited all the volunteers to come, and we got to a party celebrating the volunteers, and they had a lot of books out, and we were able to select books and take them home. 

Inside the Wolf by Amy Roland, I, I admit I judge books by their covers. I loved the cover of this. That's what really drew me to it. 

In this book, we follow the main character, whose name I can't remember--It's written in first person--anyway, we follow the main character. She has returned home from life in the city, where things didn't work out the way she expected them to. She was an academic, and things just weren't going the way she wanted them to. She was really focused on storytelling and myth, and how those things are woven into our lives, and just academically things weren't happening the way they were supposed to. 

She ends up coming home to the family farm. We find out that both of her parents are dead and her brother is dead. So, trigger warning: this does involve suicide. It does also involve two accidental deaths of children by gunfire. So, if that is difficult for you, skip this book, although the way that the main character and the author treat the aftermath of the children involved is really sensitive and caring. 

The main character, her brother died by suicide, and her best childhood friend, when they were children, died by a gunshot wound, not by suicide. It was an accident, which you do find out towards the beginning of the book, but the details and circumstances around that get unwoven as the book goes on, and as another tragedy in the community happens involving a gun. 

I really enjoyed this book. I really like the characters, even though the characters weren't so nice. I liked them, and I would say that the main character is not really a nice person. She's very stuck in herself, she's very, you know, stuck in her own grief over losing her brother and her parents, and this childhood tragedy that happened in her life, but she builds new community. She tries to make amends, and there's a lot of storytelling woven in throughout this. 

If you have a deep interest in historical storytelling, or in myths and fairy tales, and how those influence real life, that is woven throughout this book, and I really enjoyed it. 

Inside the Wolf by Amy Roland, beautiful cover, you can see the wolf there, amid the greenery, amid the plants. I really enjoyed this one. Also, five stars out of five. 

Next, this one was very funny. I also gave it five stars. Completely different genre from Inside the Wolf. I'm Not the Only Murderer in My Retirement Home by Fergus Craig--tells you right there that our main character is a murderer. She, at the very beginning, she's let out of prison. You find out she was a serial killer, but she's apparently reformed and recovered--if you can recover from being a serial killer. Anyhow, she gets out of prison. 

She's been in prison for a long time, so things have changed a lot. She's learned a lot about being out in the world, but she ends up in this retirement home where somebody is murdered. Turns out they aren't the only person that gets murdered, but the people that she meets at the retirement home, they don't know she is a serial killer when they first meet her. They discover this over time, so she's developing these friendships. 

They find out the truth, and they're like, "Hmm, should we still be friends with her? Oh, did she commit the murder of this person?"

So there's a lot of navigating of friendships and relationships in the middle of the murder mystery. It's, it's just a fun whodunit. If you watched "Inside Man" with Ted Danson, it's a series on Netflix, and you enjoy that [Correction: It's "Man on the Inside"], I think you will enjoy this book. 

It's funny, it is in some ways cozy. It does take place in England, sort of the outskirts of London. 

I very much enjoyed this. I definitely would consider reading it again. If you read this and enjoy this one, you will also enjoy these two books by Helen or Helene Tursten: An Elderly Lady Must Not be Crossed and An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good. You can read these two books in any order, you can, doesn't matter which one you read first. Although there is a tiny reference in one to something that happens in the other, it's not enough to make a difference in the order that you read these. These are hilarious, an elderly lady going around killing people, but in very funny, "Huh, how did an elderly lady manage that" kind of way, and her reasoning for these murders is it's just hilarious. I, I really enjoyed these. They are an excellent compliment to I'm Not the Only Murderer in My Retirement Home. All right, moving on. Also, 5 out is five stars.

Oh, the next one. This One is Mine by Maria Semple. I give this one a 4.0. I have read almost everything by Maria Semple. I think there's only one book by her that I haven't read yet, and everything else I've given a 5.0. 

This One is Mine. . . I just, I really wanted to give it a 5.0 but the characters are horrible people. They are odious, they are terrible. You do find out at the end that one of them is a much better person than you think she is, going through the novel, but I just disliked her so much that I didn't find these things redeeming. I didn't like her. 

I think Maria Semple's other books are vastly better. This I did enjoy it enough to keep reading it, and to finish it, and to give it a 4.0. 

I have to admit, I like books where the characters are terrible people, but usually you find out that one of them is terrible for a reason, or you find out that they actually are a terrific person, and the horribleness was misunderstanding. There's some of that in this book, but not a whole ton. 

I would say read it if you like Maria Semple's work. I would say read it if you enjoy reading books where the people are terrible, but I think they were just so terrible that I just couldn't get past their terribleness. I promise I'll stop saying terrible. 

All right, the next one is another 5.0. I loved this book. I read it so fast, I wish I had picked it up sooner, because I loved it. I've actually had it on my shelf for quite a while, but this is Joe Nuthin's Guide to Life by Helen Fisher. 

Joe seems to have autism, although you never find out if he's formally diagnosed or not. You can tell from the back of the book that his mother dies, and she leaves him two books that are guides to life, how to live, how to do things, how to care for yourself when the person who's been your primary caregiver is no longer there. You get the sense that she knows she's going to die soon, but her death is still a surprise when it happens, and the way it happens. 

Joe is bullied at work, and there's two primary bullies, but he sets out--he's determined to make one of them his friend, and he uses his mom's two guidebooks to help him along the way. 

You learn a lot about Joe through this book, but you also learn a lot about the people who care for him, and he learns a lot about life through the book; he makes friendships in likely and unlikely places. It's a sweet book. I wouldn't say it's cozy, but it's very sweet. It's very tender. 

There are a couple. . . There is some domestic abuse in the book, so be wary of that. Be aware of that. It's not so much abuse of Joe as another character. Joe is bullied for sure, but there's another character who is definitely suffering domestic abuse, so you want to be aware of that if that's a problem or difficult for you. 

But this book is also very funny. It's very humorous. Helen Fisher does a good job of balancing the humorous and the sad, scary, traumatic. 

I really enjoyed this book, and if there was a sequel, I would definitely read it anyway. 

The last thing I want to talk about isn't a book review, although I have read this book a few times. On my Facebookpage and my blog, starting today, June 1, I'm doing a read-along: A Blueprint for Revolution, I think the author's name is Srdja Popovic. I'm not 100% on the pronunciation, but it's Blueprint for Revolution: how to use rice pudding,Lego men, and other non-violent techniques to galvanize communities, overthrowdictators, or simply change the world.

We're going to be doing this chapter by chapter, one chapter every other week. The first discussion, starting this week, will focus primarily on the cover and the introduction and table of contents, or the preface and table of contents. 

If you are interested in reading along, the links will be in the description, and I would gladly have you there if you find this after June 1, next year, the year after, and you still are interested, follow the links. I don't plan to take them down. 

Just remember, be kind, be courteous, be open to hearing other opinions, but it is my read along, and if somebody is, you know, if somebody is violating boundaries or being abusive or bullying, I will block you. So Blueprint for Revolution read along starts today. 

Thank you, and I'll see you for the next book review. 

Bye.

~*~*~*~*~

Please note, links may be affiliate in nature. If you purchase through them, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you in advance!

The books and other things mentioned:

• The Littlest Library by Poppy Alexander
• Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson
• Inside the Wolf by Amy Rowland
• I'm Not the Only Murderer in My Retirement Home by Fergus Craig
• "Inside Man" [Correction: "Man on the Inside"] with Ted Danson on Netflix
• An Elderly Lady Must Not be Crossed by Helene Tursten
• An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good by Helene Tursten
• Joe Nuthin's Guide to Life by Helen Fisher
• Blueprint for Revolution by Srdja Popovic
• The first discussion post for Blueprint for Revolution is HERE.

Find me on Facebook HERE where you can join the "Blueprint for Revolution" read along and get other reading and bookish updates.