STACKED

books

I Had a Baby

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It’s been a minute, hasn’t it? And by a minute, I mean…a few months. A lot has happened in my life since I last posted here. I’m reading a lot less and writing basically none, and that’s due mainly to the fact that I added a small human to my family in May. While I had an overall average pregnancy (no major complications, the usual aches and pains – uncomfortable but manageable), my birth and postpartum were pretty traumatic. I’m fine and so is the baby, but it was definitely not the birth experience I hoped for. However, now that we’re currently exiting the “fourth trimester” and kinda sorta getting the hang of taking care of a baby, I find myself with some time to do a little more than just feed the baby, burp the baby, change the baby, rock the baby, and try to squeeze in some food and sleep for myself.

As far as my reading life goes, I did read a few helpful pregnancy books before delivering, plus I occasionally page through a couple of baby-care books when I can. I’m also forcing myself to read a chapter or two of an actual print book – not related to babies, just for fun – every week. I thought I’d be able to continue my audiobook listening, but I’ve found it difficult to be able to focus enough on the stories while caring for the baby. Those tasks demand just enough of my mental energy to make following a book at the same time mostly impossible. Instead, I put on some low-energy television that I can still follow while only paying half attention to it (Survivor was our show of choice in the first month, but I mainly re-watch crime procedurals now).

I’m hoping to be able to get back into reading and writing more as the baby sleeps longer and my family gets more efficient and practiced with our baby-care duties. To kick off this goal, here’s a rundown of my recent reads.

Pregnancy and Baby-Related

Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom is Wrong – and What You Really Need to Know by Emily Oster

I dislike the clickbait subheads on Oster’s books, but I really appreciate her straightforward discussions about pregnancy and caring for an infant. She’s an economist who writes about where the “conventional pregnancy wisdom” comes from – namely, the studies behind the advice and guidance doctors, other mothers, and the internet give new parents.

I found this book super helpful for right-sizing the actual risk of my activities to my baby in utero, and the conclusions I drew are mainly that there’s a lot less risk than you’d think. Just as I expected, much of the guidance about what to avoid (anything that tastes good or is mildly exciting) is fear-mongering and not based on science. For the most part, the only things that will harm a fetus are binge drinking (small amounts of alcohol are fine and not shown to cause harm), excessive caffeine (two cups of coffee a day are fine), and smoking and other recreational drug use (any amount). Foods pregnant people are often told to avoid, like sushi, are fine to consume if they’re from a provider you trust and stored safely. In my area of the world, food-borne illness such as listeria has more widely been found in melon, ice cream, and prepared salads, none of which pregnant people are told to avoid.

Oster does a good job of laying out the facts about each study, including whether it’s a good study in the first place or if there’s actually been a study done on a particular piece of guidance at all (it’s really hard to do ethical studies on pregnancy!). She repeatedly emphasizes that she wants the reader to draw her own conclusions about what she should or should not do/consume, giving examples from her own life (she chose to continue to eat turkey sandwiches; a friend of hers chose to avoid them). For my part, it helped me as a first-time mother calm my fears about harming my child and made me feel a bit freer in those precious months before my life would change entirely.

Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, from Birth to Preschool by Emily Oster

What I remember most from this follow-up to Expecting Better is that women who forego the epidural tend to push for shorter amounts of time and have faster recoveries. Because of this, I wrote in my birth plan that I wanted to wait and see how my pain was before getting the epidural. I ended up asking for it before I was even admitted to the hospital because the pain was so bad – I believe I would have passed out from it if I hadn’t gotten the pain relief. It was definitely the right choice for me and if I have another baby, I will take the epidural immediately again. (I also only pushed for about 15 minutes so it doesn’t seem like it had any effect on that!) This is another good book from Oster, though I admit not a lot of it stuck with me.

Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy, Second Edition by Myra J. Wick, M.D., Ph.D.

I chose this as my pregnancy preparedness guide because I wanted an alternative to What to Expect When You’re Expecting, which had reviews that indicated even the most current edition had out of date information and the writing style spoke down to its audience. This is a straightforward, no-nonsense book from the experts that breaks down a pregnancy week by week, discussing what symptoms are normal, what symptoms are more serious and may require medical attention, and other useful ways to prepare for a new baby.

 

Mayo Clinic Guide to Your Baby’s First Years, Second Edition by Walter J. Cook, M.D., and Kelsey M. Klaas, M.D.

More of the same from the Mayo Clinic. This guide discusses common themes in the first half (feeding, sleeping) and then goes month-by-month in the second, covering milestones and normal growth.

 

 

 

Baby 411: Your Baby, Birth to Age 1 by Dr. Ari Brown and Denise Fields

This is a great dip-in, dip-out guide to everything baby. We’ve used it when we had a specific question or concern – just turn to that page and find the answer. It’s interesting to see what advice conflicts with the Mayo Clinic book or the pediatrician. The authors of Baby 411 suggest using distilled water, then boiling it, before mixing it with powdered formula (the former because of fluoride that newborns don’t need; the latter to sterilize the powder, which does not come sterilized). Our pediatrician says neither is necessary for an otherwise healthy newborn. So while there are many good books on the subject of babies, some discretion and decision-making will always be required.

 

Just for Fun

There Will Come a Darkness by Katy Rose Pool

This is the print book I’m currently making my way through. I bought it at the last Texas Book Festival pre-Covid; it was among the set of books I purchased that I read fairly quickly after buying them, which is unusual for me (like many a bookworm, I acquire many more books than I actually read). This was one of the few I hadn’t gotten around to yet. It’s an epic YA fantasy with an ensemble cast about a world whose Prophets disappeared many years ago – and a prophecy that speaks of the birth of a new Prophet that could either save or destroy everything. Five teenagers, some with magical powers, are each caught up in the adventure.

I’m halfway through it, which feels like a minor miracle considering my reading is constantly interrupted or simply relegated to the back burner in favor of other activities (mostly feeding myself and sleeping). I’m enjoying the book, but not loving it, and I think that’s largely due to the fact that it’s really difficult for me to push from my mind thoughts about what I Should Be Doing (laundry, listening for the baby waking up, washing bottles, tidying the house, etc., etc.) and focus on just reading. The book is a bit of a slow burn as Pool slowly reveals how each character is connected to each other and to the larger story. Chapters cycle through each character’s point of view, making this a good readalike for teens who enjoyed that aspect of Game of Thrones but want something a bit more on their level.

The Mother in Law by Sally Hepworth

I had never heard of this author before, but I really enjoyed this story about the tense relationship between a woman and her mother-in-law, and what happens when the mother-in-law is found dead (presumably murdered). This is less domestic noir and more tragic family story with a bit of suspense thrown in. Hepworth is really good at crafting three-dimensional, difficult, but sympathetic characters, and the mother-in-law in this story stuck with me long after I finished the book and learned how she died. If you enjoy psychological thrillers but want something a bit less soapy, I recommend giving Hepworth’s books a try (I also read and can recommend The Good Sister).

 

The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

This author duo specializes in melodramatic psychological thrillers with a huge twist (or two) at the end. They are a lot of fun, though not of the highest quality. I started this one on audio while pregnant and finished it while caring for a newborn. I got a bit impatient with it, though, knowing that there would be a trademark Hendricks/Pekkanen twist at the end, and I looked up spoilers online before finishing it. The twist isn’t nearly as clever or satisfying at the one in their first hit, The Wife Between Us, and it made the book mostly forgettable for me, but it was an enjoyable few hours that helped pass the time in those first few long nights with a newborn at home.

 

 

A Few Brief Reviews

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I had such good intentions to get back into blogging when I wrote my post back in January, and now it’s been over two months and I’m just getting around to it now. Life happens. The second trimester is over and I’m well into my third (8 months along!), and with it has returned fatigue plus some exciting (read: irritating) new pregnancy symptoms. I’ve been frantically trying to get all my ducks in a row at work so my coworkers aren’t overwhelmed while I’m on maternity leave, plus getting ready for the baby. As I’m sure is typical of first-time parents, I feel like there’s always something else to be done for baby prep, and it’s left little time for other things. But I wanted to get in a quick update here at Stacked.

Firstly, we chose Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson as our Cybils winner. We all really enjoyed this magical story about a socially anxious necromancer. You can read more about the book and why we chose it, plus more about the other winners, on the Cybils page here.

Aside from Cybils books, I’ve been reading mostly audiobooks, and most of those have been thrillers for adults that I don’t need to pay 100% attention to. Spoiler alert: most have been kinda bad. But still enjoyable! I go to the library’s Overdrive site, select audiobook thrillers available now, and basically choose the standalones that sound kind of interesting. Here are brief reviews of a few of them.

 

No One Will Miss Her by Kat Rosenfield

This one was pretty good. It’s one of those that relies on a big twist partway through the novel, and how much you enjoy the book will likely depend on whether you saw the twist coming – and whether you think it’s any good. It’s about two women, one suspected of killing the other, and is narrated by both – the dead one from beyond the grave. Characterization is good and I feel like the twist was well-executed and fun. I also appreciated that this one didn’t end like I thought it would.

 

 

56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard

This is another one that I thought was pretty good. It’s one of the growing body of books that addresses Covid-19 directly: a man and a woman meet in Dublin, start dating, and then lockdown hits. They’re not allowed to visit each other, so their solution is to…move in together. After only knowing each other a few weeks. This will go well, right? Of course, both people have their own hidden reasons for choosing to put their relationship on superspeed, and they both have a lot to hide from their pasts. Howard is good at unraveling all these secrets through the course of the book, not giving too much away at once but not holding it all for the end either, and again this one didn’t end like I thought it would.

 

While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams

I regret to write that I didn’t think this one was that great. It was…fine. I liked that it was about intrigue with the Supreme Court (a justice falls into a coma and gives power of attorney to one of his law clerks, who must unravel a huge international conspiracy while avoiding being assassinated), but I felt the pacing was off – it kind of dragged, surprising for a book with such an exciting premise. I didn’t love the narrator either.

 

 

Falling by TJ Newman

A pilot’s family is kidnapped mid-flight, and he’s told by the kidnapper that he must crash the plane or his family dies. The kidnapper tells the pilot he has a confederate on the plane, and he can’t trust anyone or call law enforcement. What will the pilot choose? Is there a way to save both his family and the plane full of innocent people? And where exactly is the kidnapper directing the pilot to crash the plane, and why? I really didn’t care for this one. It’s suspenseful, but left a bad taste in my mouth. My biggest issue was the main character’s (and other characters’) takeaway that the hijackers kind of had a point. Yuck.

What I’m Reading Now: Greek Mythology-Inspired Fiction

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Hello everyone! I’m still here. I’ve been reading a fair amount, but my desire to do any writing whatsoever has really taken a dive these past couple of months. I’ve officially moved to working from home on a mostly permanent basis (as opposed to doing so out of necessity), and it’s been more of an adjustment that I thought it would be, despite the fact that I’ve been working from home for over a year now. Coupled with the surge in Covid cases and the subsequent restrictions on a lot of activities (it’s 2020 all over again!), I’ve been feeling kind of bummed and not up for a lot of things I normally do. I know I’m not alone in this. I’m trying to focus on the things that bring me joy – it’s still safe to see family and friends in small groups, for instance, since we’re all vaccinated. And today I feel a bit more like writing.

I’ve noticed that my reading lately has been clustering around a few common topics, so over the next few weeks I’ll focus on each of them in turn. Up first this week is Greek Mythology-Inspired Fiction.

 

A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

One of two audiobooks on this list, Haynes reads her own story about the Trojan war told from the women’s perspectives. There are a bunch of characters here (I’m only halfway through but there are chapters from at least a dozen different women’s POVs so far), and while Haynes is an able reader, imbuing her characters with emotion and gravitas, she doesn’t differentiate the voicing at all. If I set the audiobook down partway through a chapter, it is sometimes difficult to remember which character’s story she is currently telling.

This is a fairly straightforward retelling of the Iliad/Trojan War that I hesitate to call it a retelling at all, though it’s well-written and certainly gives the women much more humanity and depth than the original did. But the events happen in the same way, just as you likely learned about them in high school, so don’t pick up this book looking for a twist on the original tale. Think of it more like a book that fills in all the missing parts of the original – and does it exceptionally well.

 

Daughter of Sparta by Claire M. Andrews

This YA book is a loose retelling of the story of Daphne and Apollo, told from Daphne’s point of view. Unlike A Thousand Ships, though, Andrews changes quite a bit of the commonly-known myth, leaving only a few bits and pieces that readers might recognize if they’re familiar with the tale. In Andrews’ version, Daphne is called upon by Artemis to recover things that have been stolen from Olympus – things that lend the Olympians their power. Without these things, the Olympians not only lose their special powers but also become mortal. Artemis sends her brother Apollo to “help” Daphne in her quest – first to determine what exactly has been taken, then to take them back. A romance ensues, but it’s not quite as you’d expect if you’re familiar with either the original myth (which is not a romance at all) or a lot of YA fantasy romance.

The romance isn’t actually front and center in the book; instead, this book is mainly a grand adventure, with Daphne, Apollo, and a few other companions they pick up along the way traveling across Greece and meeting gods, demigods, and humans with secrets. It’s reminiscent of the Percy Jackson books, perhaps not as funny, but fun and a page-turner. I found the writing a bit clunky, and it was frustrating how all the characters jumped around Daphne’s true identity, ostensibly leaving it as a surprise for future installments (which anyone who is familiar with the myth will already know), but overall, this is a solid read for fans of Greek mythology. Andrews’ twist on the original myth is a creative one.

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

This one is less directly related to Greek mythology than the other two. It’s a classic thriller with a hell of a series of twists at the end – just the kind of thriller that I love. Group therapist Mariana is visiting her niece Zoe at Cambridge to comfort her after a friend of Zoe’s was found murdered. When yet another girl dies, Mariana becomes determined the culprit is suave professor Edward Fosca, who teaches Greek tragedy and seems to always be followed by a coterie of young female students he calls “The Maidens.” Not so coincidentally, Mariana thinks, the murder victims were both members of this group of Maidens. As Mariana digs deeper, she becomes more and more obsessed with the myth of Persephone (the maiden in Greek mythology), as it seems to pop up everywhere in relation to the murdered girls.

Michaelides is good at ratcheting up the tension. Mariana does make some almost too stupid to be believed decisions in order to further the plot (such as choosing to meet up with Fosca alone in his room while she actively suspects him of being a serial killer), but it’s a fun ride nonetheless. When the biggest twist arrives (and there are several smaller ones preceding it), I thought back on some small events and was pleased to realize that Michaelides did indeed lay the groundwork for it earlier in the book. Yet this groundwork, at least for me, was not so obvious that it gave everything away. While I always try to guess the twist, I like it best when I’m completely surprised. The last bit of the book does go a bit off the rails, and it left me feeling pretty despondent about all characters involved, but it’s the kind of wild ride that’s fun to the very end.

Louise Brealey narrates the bulk of the audiobook, and she does a fantastic job; I was completely lost in the story and didn’t want to stop listening.

 

 

The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman

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His Dark Materials is my favorite book series, and I’d been eagerly anticipating the release of The Book of Dust for at least a decade, from its first inception a set of short stories and anecdotes about the world of HDM to its current incarnation as full-length novels. I was thrilled when Pullman made it a trilogy, the first of which, La Belle Sauvage, is set when Lyra is a baby. I really enjoyed the first half of the book, which involves the son of an innkeeper named Malcolm Polstead, around age 11, who gets caught up in the efforts to protect baby Lyra from those who wish her harm. At this point, Lyra is being kept in a priory by a group of nuns, and she hasn’t made it to Jordan College yet. Malcolm occasionally helps to watch her while also becoming acquainted and eventually studying with Hannah Relf (Dame Hannah from the original), who is part of a secret society that is covertly working against the Magisterium.

It’s very cool to see Hannah as a fully-fledged character here, ten years before Lyra meets her and eventually comes under her tutelage. She’s smart and interesting and fills the role that Mary Malone filled in the first trilogy. Other characters from the first books, like Coram van Texel (Farder Coram), make an appearance in this prequel as well. And the first half of the book is really interesting, told from the familiar perspective of a boy on the cusp of puberty getting involved in things way over his head. Then a huge flood hits Oxford, and the entire city is underwater for several days. Malcolm, along with his friend Alice, must rescue Lyra from the priory and keep her safe from all the people who want her for their own ends, eventually (they hope) getting her into the care of her father, Lord Asriel.

This second part of the book, which follows Malcolm and Alice and Lyra in Malcolm’s boat, La Belle Sauvage, is so markedly different from the first half that it almost feels like a different book entirely, and not in a good way. They encounter all sorts of magical creatures that feel out of place in Pullman’s previously well-regulated fantasy world, as if he threw all his carefully constructed rules out the window and just decided to throw everything he could think of back in, making it a mish mash of fantasy tropes that don’t seem to have a point. There are fairies, a city of people who may or may not be dead but are certainly ensorcelled in some way, a monster-type creature that feels like a sort of Old God, and a main villain who just can’t seem to stay dead, popping up unbelievably at various points on the children’s journey to twirl his moustache evilly and (spoiler alert) rape children.

This last part is what really threw me off the story for good. The original trilogy was blessedly free of sexual violence, but the threat of sexual violence pervades this entire book, finally culminating in Malcolm witnessing it happening in person. I don’t really get the point of it. The villain is interesting in some ways – his evilness causes a kind of schism between himself and his daemon, a really fascinating idea that isn’t explored well enough – but ultimately he’s there just to hunt baby Lyra and, I suppose, show that bad people do bad things? I’m not really sure. It left a bad taste in my mouth, and I finished the book feeling like I had read some bad fanfiction instead of a loving addition to a set of stories I cherish.

 

A Few Recent Reads – Historical Egypt themed

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I’ve been on an Egypt kick lately, reading a mix of historical fiction and nonfiction. Here are a few recent reads.

Mirage: Napoleon’s Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt by Nina Burleigh

I knew nothing about Napoleon’s ill-considered foray into Egypt in the late 18th century. Intending to invade the country and use it as a springboard to conquer other parts of North Africa and the Middle East, Napoleon brought not only his army but also a small group of savants, scientists whose job it was to study anything and everything about a country most French people knew nothing about. In fact, the savants (and most of the soldiers) had no idea where they were going when they agreed to follow Napoleon on his latest jaunt; they were persuaded by a combination of scientific curiosity and Napoleon’s star power. They included over 150 astronomers, mathematicians, naturalists, artists, chemists, and even a musicologist. Many of these men were pioneers in their field.

They were in Egypt for just over three years, were the first Europeans to uncover the Rosetta Stone (though it became the property of the British – and remains so despite Egypt’s requests to have it returned – when they defeated the French not much later), and compiled a huge 23-volume book describing what they had observed and learned. I found Mirage interesting in a number of ways: the history of science and scientific study including the advent of Egyptology, how 18th century Egyptians lived, the clash of cultures and how the savants embraced or rejected colonization and conquest, the character of Napoleon and how and why so many of his countrymen idolized him, and much more. Two details in particular that I remember vividly: in their thirst while trekking across the hot and dry desert, the French would often gulp down seemingly fresh water that was infested with tiny leeches, which then became stuck in their throats and grew; and in 1799, Napoleon abandoned his army in Egypt to return to France, leaving his army and his savants without their leader in Egypt for two more years, during which they suffered from bubonic plague, attacks from Egyptians and Turks, and finally succumbed to the British army, which forced them to surrender most of their artifacts.

 

Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie

For most of us, Agatha Christie’s books were written far enough in the past that even though they were set in her own time, they feel like historical fiction. But much to my delight, Christie did write a genuine historical mystery, one set in ancient Egypt around 2,000 BC. It’s still classic Christie though: a murder in a family home, with a limited suspect pool made up of the family members and servants. Here, the new concubine of a ka-priest is murdered, and everyone in the home had reason to want her dead, including the ka-priest’s three sons, their wives, a resentful servant, a scribe new to the household, and the ka-priest’s elderly mother. The only person beyond suspicion is the de facto protagonist Renisenb, the ka-priest’s only daughter who has returned to the household after her husband died.

There are some interesting details about Egyptian daily life, in particular the job of a ka-priest, someone hired by an Egyptian to maintain a loved one’s tomb (in this book, the ka-priest is a respected and wealthy landowner). And as the concubine is only the first of many murders, Christie has ample opportunity to show ancient Egyptian death rites. The book opens with a letter from Christie herself to Professor S. R. K. (Stephen) Glanville, an Egyptologist and friend of Christie’s who inspired the idea of a historical mystery set there. Christie clearly did some research into ancient Egypt, though the book never does feel truly immersive; historical fiction was not her forte. The mystery, though, is a good one – details all come together in the end, and while the rising body count narrows the suspect pool substantially so that readers may likely guess the culprit before the reveal, it’s still satisfying. Moreover, it’s just an interesting thing to read about how Christie imagined Ancient Egypt.

 

The Painted Queen by Elizabeth Peters and Joan Hess

I wrote a bit about this one a couple of weeks ago, when I was partway through it. Now that I’ve finished it, I think I appreciate it more than most other readers have. The story was engaging, with two dual mysteries, two dastardly villains, and two dramatic reveals where both villains met their somewhat grisly ends (one involves a crocodile). I wish Hess had brought back more of our favorite characters for a last hurrah, particularly Evelyn, but overall I think she did a really solid job.

To be honest, the series had tapered off a bit ever since Ramses and Nefret finally got together. The mysteries followed the same cadence each time, and with Sethos being a good guy and no real romantic tension left to explore, the characters felt reassuringly familiar but not particularly interesting (the mysteries themselves were never the highlight). The Painted Queen is set before Ramses/Nefret reconciled and Sethos left behind his villainous ways (and his true identity was revealed), but it didn’t quite recapture the old excitement. I wish there had been more scenes from Manuscript H with Ramses and Nefret sharing page time; that most of all feels like a squandered opportunity. Still, The Painted Queen matches some of the later Peters books in quality. Fun fact: this book actually references Napoleon’s expedition and the savants briefly!