Books, NonFiction

Dreyer’s English by Benjamin Dreyer

Worth a Read Yes
Length 291
Quick Review The closest thing to porn I’ve ever read for a word-nerd.

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Posing with my friend’s flowers in a very writer like pose with  Dreyer’s English. | Dress | Fascinator | Earrings | Lipstick |

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I love everything about language. How it functions. How it changes. How it’s used. How it can be manipulated. I think it’s fascinating on every level. Dreyer’s English by Benjamin Dreyer is my version of porn. It’s an amazing book for language lovers, seasoned writers, author hopefuls, and everyone in between. We’re all writers; we do it every day in emails, text messages, proposals, and more. 

Dreyer’s English is my favorite style guide I’ve encountered. It’s not as thick, all-encompassing, or menacing as the MLA, AP, or any other style guide because it’s for writers who want to write. Dreyer writes with a sense of humor. He simultaneously says his way is the best and also allows for every other writer/copyeditor/reader/editor/person to have their own preferences — outside of the Oxford comma — because, if we’re being honest, writing and language are an art and inherently subjective. Do not glaze over the footnotes; they are amazing, full of wit, side remarks, random tidbits, and even mentions notes his copyeditor jotted to him. Gold. Amazing quotes and excerpts from books and media of all genres and eras are used as good and bad examples throughout. Unsurprisingly, Dreyer’s vast vocabulary makes the book even more entertaining to read. It’s unusual I come across a word I don’t know, but I came across a handful I had to look up. 

One of the first sections of the book speaks to breaking rules because that is exactly what artists do, and great writers are artists, “…Great Nonrules of the English Language. You’ve encountered all of these; likely you were taught them in school. I’d like you to free yourself of them.”. Dreyer wants writers to know the rules and break them. He also wants writers to know the stupid rules, which should have never been rules to begin with because there are a great many of those. I was lucky to have brilliant professors who told me a lot of the rules were archaic and stupid, and many of the other rules are breakable. The few things they didn’t teach me, I learned through trial and error as a writer typing, reading, editing, deleting, and retyping my work. One of the best pieces of advice I learned, Dreyer pointed out more than once, “One of the best ways to determine whether your prose is well-constructed is to read it aloud.” Learning is done through visuals, and Dreyer’s English is littered with bad versions and  good versions of sentences. My particular favorite is the correction from: “A mother’s responsibilities are to cook, clean, and the raising of the children” to the much better grammatically and societally: “A father’s responsibilities are to cook, to clean, and to raise the children.” Another fun example mentions my home-state’s capital, “I think of the Internet as a real place, as real as or realer than Des Moines.” It may not be a totally fabulous nod in Iowa’s direction, but it is a nod.

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There’s one thing I always look for in grammar guides: The writer’s opinion on the series comma, or Oxford comma. I’m a groupie of the comma, and anyone who disagrees is an idiot. Luckily, Dreyer is not an idiot and had my vote of confidence when he said, “I don’t want to belabor the point; neither am I willing to negotiate it. Only godless savages eschew the series comma.” Not only does he advocate for the appropriate way to write a series, his advice is spot on, in my humble opinion. I have told every. single. writer. I have ever worked with the same. exact. advice. found in Chapter 1 — and to delete “that” from 98% of their writing. The only thing I disagree with Dreyer on is using an apostrophe s to show possession after words ending in s. (I argue “Jesus’ fish” not “Jesus’s fish” looks better, Mr. Dreyer.)

Language and grammar are political. I took an entire college class on the subject. Dreyer does not come out and say so in Dreyer’s English, but through his footnotes, writing, side comments, and examples, it is clear grammar and language are political.

By the way… GET RID OF THE DOUBLE SPACE AFTER THE PERIOD. It’s been out for a very long time, but some people still do it. It drives me crazy. Benjamin Dreyer is copy chief of Random House. He is literally in charge of grammar at the publishing house. If you don’t want to listen to little old me, listen to him. Also use the Oxford comma. Benjamin Dreyer, the big boss, says so.

I loved reading Dreyer’s English. It’s my kind of porn, or as other people would call it, an accessible and entertaining guide to using the English language. Benjamin Dreyer is funny and smart, while also being relatable. He doesn’t mind letting his inner nerd shine through, which makes him even more relatable to me because I also do this: “Sometimes I’ll read old books as much for the pleasure of their old-fashioned stylistic oddities as for their actual content. We all have our own fun.”

Memorable Quotes
“Copyediting is a knack. It requires a good ear for how language sounds and a good eye for how it manifests itself on the page; it demands an ability to listen to what writers are attempting to do and, hopefully and helpfully, the means to augment it.”
“As much as I like a good rule, I’m an enthusiastic subscriber to the notion of “rules are meant to be broken” — once you’ve learned them, I hasten to add.”

bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna

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Title: Dreyer’s English; An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style
Author: Benjamin Dreyer
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9780812995701

Books, NonFiction

The Black Book

Worth A Read Yes
Length 224
Quick Review A heartbreaking history of Africans’ struggle to gain humanity, recognition, rights, and the hope for equality in America from 1619 through the 1940s. 

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The Black Book is a devastating history lesson. | Dress | Sweater | Purse | Glasses | Shoes |

The Black Book is absolutely soul crushing and devastating. I read it through tears and fought back bouts of nausea. It is incredibly affecting. I have too many feelings and a lot of guilt during and after reading. I can’t get the words or the images out of my mind. 

Tony Morrison prefaces the book with an incredibly powerful piece. It took my breath away, and I was only on page one. 

History is white-washed more often than not. We have a tendency to romanticize and paint a much prettier picture than the realities people endured. This is particularly atrocious throughout American history and the treatment of the black community. The Black Book is dedicated to an honest history and depiction of life and society. Though it’s not a happy picture, it’s a picture deserving to be told and heard and taught. If history is not learned, it’s doomed to be repeated. We cannot repeat the history contained within these pages. 

The book contains first pictures, news articles, poems, songs, advertisements, excerpts, laws, myths, patents, facts, sports, legends, religion, and so much more. History is being told through the lens of the time period. There is no explanation. The editors give the reader the information and allow them to take away what they will. Although, it would be hard to read it without having a horrible view on history. The editors do not edit or politically correctisize (it’s a word now) the word usage. Racist words and expressions are kept to reflect the times and the hatred the black community faced. 

Death is better than slavery was a recurring theme throughout. There are stories of men and women fighting back, running away, supporting one another, and standing up for themselves and their community. For all the awfulness throughout The Black Book, there is more time spent highlighting the successes and brilliance of the black community than the nightmares imposed by the white people who dictated society. 

There is no part of society that has not been touched and improved by a black person. Throughout history they have fought for the basic right to exist and fought their way into every sphere of culture. Not only were they a part of these spheres, they excelled when everyone told them they couldn’t and weren’t allowed. The Black Book is a testament to black excellence in the face of oppression, violence, and subjugation. For the few who found success, changed culture, opened minds, and affected the law, there are thousands upon millions more who never received the chance. History is a horror, but it can teach us to learn from the mistakes already made. 

I have no doubt, you will be haunted by The Black Book if you take the time to read it, and I highly suggest you do. I finished it with tears in my eyes and hope in my heart. The world is changing. Not as fast as it should, but it is changing. Maybe someday, The Black Book will be a distant memory, but that day is not today. We can still feel the echoes of history loudly in our culture.  

Memorable Quotes
“Steal away, steal away, steal away home. I ain’t got long to stay here.”
“They failed to ask my name and called me negro.” Henry Dumas

bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna

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Title: The Black Book
Editor: Middleton A. Harris, Morris Levitt, Roger Furman
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9781400068487

Books, NonFiction

The Ice at the End of the World by Jon Gertner

Worth A Read YES
Length 448
Quick Review Greenland is more than ice. It’s even more than a history of the world and a predictor of the future at the top of the world. It is a call to action.

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The Ice at the End of the World by Jon Gertner in Minnesota. | Skirt | Sweater | Boots | Socks |

I love science. I love history. I love when they intersect, and intersect they did in Jon Gertner’s Ice at the End of the World. It’s more than a book on science and history; it’s a call to action. I read it and my emotions were on the scale of in awe and on the verge of an existential crisis.   

For much of history, Greenland has been an impenetrable ice sheet. The Norse settled it in the 1400s, but the settlement disappeared with no trace. The Inuits were the only people to survive there for an extended length. Over the last two centuries, it has become a location of great interest. At first, it lured explorers aching to discover and conquer what lay beyond the coast. Over the past hundred years, it has become a hub for exploration of another kind. Deep within the ice, the world’s secrets are locked away for scientists to discover and explore. Jon Gertner makes the knowledge of Greenland accessible in The Ice at the End of the World.  

Split into two parts: Explorations and Investigations. Gertner chronicles the explorations and discoveries of notable Greenland explorers: Fridtjof Nansen, Robert Peary, Knud Rasmussen, Peter Freuchen, Alfred Wegener. They all made great discoveries, but not all of them were good people. Fridtjof Nansen was the first to cross the ice sheet in 1888 “The crossing, he would later joke, was “just a little ski trip,” but it was a ski trip that could demonstrate humanity’s ability to overcome nature’s most formidable obstacles.” He had the genius to go about it in a way no other explorer had, which is why he was the first success story because he was not the first to attempt an ice sheet crossing. Knud Rasmussen was the first ethnographer to explore the people of Greenland. He made quite the impression on Greenland and vice versa, but he would go on to be a world wide phenomenon. Alfred Wegener lost his life on an expedition in Greenland. He was more than an explorer, he was one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century and penned the theory of continental drift, which is more popularly known as Pangaea, between trips to Greenland. 

Gertner has an amazing way of making complicated exploration and scientific processes accessible to all readers. He pulls the reader in with feats of humanity and tales of darkness while also delivering a deeper message of earthly desperation. Weaving facts with excerpts from the diaries and published accounts of explorers and scientists, Gertner brings the reader along on a wild adventure. It is simultaneously logical and profoundly emotional. 

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I do love snuggling animals of all kinds and sizes.

The Ice at the End of the World is a story of the stark and uncomfortable realities explorers and scientists face every day on the ice sheet. Gertner has an uncanny ability to reinforce the atrocities of the Arctic by separating the worst case scenarios into one sentence paragraphs to drive home the difficulty of survival. 

Greenland is melting. Scientists have been marking this change for decades. As the ice sheet melts into the ocean, sea levels will rise. Slowly and then at increasing rates. Until the past fifty years, it was believed climate does not and cannot change quickly within one lifetime or even many lifetimes. As research progressed, the results did not always agree with this belief, and “The scientific community tends to respond to unanswered questions about research results with a call for more research.” As scientists continue their research on ice cores taken from Greenland, it has become obvious: climate can and has changed drastically in a matter of years. It happened about 117,000 years ago, and it’s happening again today. The world’s climate is changing. And it’s changing quickly. Greenland is melting, and it affects the entire world. 

The Ice at the End of the World may not be the ice at the end of the world for long. As climates warm, the ice sheet is disappearing at unprecedented rates. Not enough is being done to combat it. Gertner points out, even if there is a drastic change, it might not be enough. 

I loved reading Gertner’s The Ice at the End of the World. I devoured it, but it also left me with a sense of hopelessness. I also have a new found desire to go back to school to become a glaciologist. If you are at all interested in history, science, climate change, or the urgent state of affairs, this book was made for you. 

Memorable Quotes
“This book is mainly about Greenland’s ice sheet – the vast frontier that “conceals a thousand secrets” and is among the most remote and inhospitable places on earth.”
“Was he more an explorer than a scientist? The distinction – largely a contemporary one and often used to distinguish men of ego and obsession from men of research – is perhaps beside the point.”
“Ice scientists are detectives at heart.”
“Breakthroughs don’t necessarily happen because of one big technological jump. More often it’s because a cluster of new technologies and ideas suddenly coalesce around a difficult problem, along with a headstrong person.”
“It seems as though history becomes scenery, and scenery becomes data.”

bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna

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Title: The Ice at the End of the World
Author: Jon Gertner
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9780812996623

Books, Fiction

You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld

Worth a Read Yes
Length 256
Quick Review A collection of short stories chronicling and eviscerating characters navigating everyday problems of the modern era and socioeconomic status, gender, and love.

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You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld | Dress | Earrings | Basket | Watch | Flower Crown
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You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld in a basket of flowers.
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You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld | Dress | Earrings | Basket | Watch | Flower Crown

Curtis Sittenfeld is one of my favorite authors; I have several of her novels sitting on my bookshelves – only one is unread. I came upon her writing in The New Yorker a few years ago, and I have been a huge fan ever since. In my opinion, she is one of the best contemporary writers. There is no hesitation in her stories to put words to thoughts, emotions, and judgements just about everyone can identify with. Her short story collection, You Think It, I’ll Say Itis no different.    

I was familiar with one of the stories in the book because The Prairie Wife had previously been published in The New Yorker, but that didn’t stop me from reading it again. 

Every story is told from the first person perspective. Sittenfeld has the ability to really bring the reader into the mindset of the character in that moment of their lives without having to spell everything or give an overwhelming amount of backstory. There is a rare artistry in the way she portrays each person with their own way of speaking, thinking, and processing the situations they find themselves in. Every story and character is a critique on the modern world and society; in one way or another, there is an essence of You Think It, I’ll Say It

Sittenfeld tackles the subjects of marriage, emotional infidelity, class, education, gender roles, sex, finances, and so much more. Each story creates a picture of what living in today’s world looks like and our unique ability to silently watch and judge the entire world’s actions from the comfort of our own homes. 

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You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld in a basket of flowers.

Relationships are at the center of You Think It, I’ll Say It, whether they are romantic or platonic relationships. Relationships are at the center of being human. Sittenfeld has no problem completely eviscerating her characters, their choices, and their motivations. It’s entertaining to read, but is entirely all too relatable. 

I really loved reading this collection of short stories. They’re beautifully told. Perfect for the moments you don’t have time to emotionally invest yourself in a novel, but you want something engaging and thought provoking. You Think It, I’ll Say It has everything I want in fiction. 

Memorable Quotes
“It’s not that she’s unaware that she’s an elitist asshole. She’s aware! She’s just powerless not to be one.”
“It turned out that simply by celebrating this particular birthday, I’d crossed some border of nonconformity, and while I still could – can – turn around, retrace my steps, and assume citizenship in the nation of wedlock, the expectation seems to be that I won’t.”

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Title: You Think It, I’ll Say It
Author: Curtis Sittenfeld
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9780525508700

Books, NonFiction

Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino

Worth A Read Definitely
Length 303
Quick Review Jia Tolentino is the kind of writer who proves the pen can be sharper than a sword. She cuts through bullshit in Trick Mirror, her collection of observational essays on American culture. 

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Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino
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Reading Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino | Skirt | Shirt | Watch | Earrings | Ring

I want to be Jia Tolentino’s friend. a) I think we have a lot in common. b) She’s probably smarter than me, so she’d be interesting to talk to. c) I have a feeling she’s hilarious. Tolentino is a writer for The New Yorker, and after reading Trick Mirror, I’m not surprised. It is a brilliant combination of observation and critique of modern American culture. She spares no one, including herself, as tackles reality TV, politics, feminism, marriage, poverty, religion, the housing crisis, college debt, and so much more. 

Trick Mirror is like reading a book about sticking it to the man, but really it’s about the institution of everything. Tolentino has strong opinions but the brains and eloquence to back them up. I have a huge list of quotes, and I could probably discuss this book at length, but I will keep this manageable.

Tolentino is a strong, independent woman, and it oozes through in every part of her writing. For me, the most memorable moments spoke to feminism and gender inequity. Women are at a disadvantage in this world; that’s not knew. Tolentino brings a beautiful perspective to the issue laced with anger. 

“When you are a woman, the things you like get used against you. Or, alternatively, the things that get used against you have all been prefigured as things you should like. Sexual availability falls into this category. So does basic kindness, and generosity. Wanting to look good – taking pleasure in trying to look good – does, too.”

Basically. You’re fucked if you do, fucked if you don’t. In a busy world of technology and the constant need to go, improve, work, and succeed, optimization seems to be on everyone’s mind. It is even more prevalent for women. 

“The ideal woman has always been conceptually overworked, an inorganic thing engineered to look natural. Historically, the ideal woman seeks all the things that women are trained to find fun and interesting – domesticity, physical self-improvement, male approval, the maintenance of congeniality, various forms of unpaid work. The concept of the ideal woman is just flexible enough to allow for a modicum of individuality; the ideal woman always believes she came up with herself on her own.”

There has always been a pressure on women, but it has never existed like it does today with the advent of technology and social media. Women are under constant scrutiny from the people they know to complete strangers. Tolentino speaks about the oppression and subjugation women deal with on a daily basis masquerading as free will, love, freedom, and more. I personally identified with the very last chapter, “I Thee Dread” and the sentiment “becoming a bride still means being flattered into submission.” Tolentino doesn’t even spare love. 

Fun fact I previously didn’t know: Louisiana still requires children to take the husband’s last name for a birth certificate to be issued. Fuck Louisiana! 

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I read a lot. My favorite books tend to be classical literature. In the span of a few paragraphs, Trick Mirror discusses all of my favorite books: House of Mirth, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Madame Bovary, The Awakening, The Second Sex, and Tolentino sums up the plight of female characters quite nicely, “Adult heroines commit suicide for different reasons than teenage heroines do. Where the teenagers have been drained of all desire, the adults are so full of desire that it kills them. Or, rather, they live under conditions where ordinary desire makes them fatally monstrous.”

If you’re into essays, nonfiction, or reading about how fucked up society is, Jia Tolentino and Trick Mirror are for you. She’s witty and engaging. Bringing her personal stories and rooting them in the problems the world. She’s relatable and interesting. I personally identified with the whole book, but I’ll leave you with this gem, “I don’t want to be diminished, and I do want to be glorified – not in one shining moment, but whenever I want.”

Memorable Quotes
” Even as we became increasingly sad and ugly on the internet, the mirage of the better online self continued to glimmer.”
“There was something, maybe, about that teenage religious environment, the way everyone was always flirting and posturing and attempting to deceive one another, that set us up remarkably well for reality TV.”
“The Trump administrations is so baldly anti-woman that the women within it have been regularly scanned and criticized for their complicity, as well as for their empty references to feminism.”

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Title: Trick Mirror; Reflections on Self Delusion
Author: Jia Tolentino
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9780525510543

Books, Fiction

The Farm by Joanne Ramos

Worth a Read Yes
Length 336
Quick Review Golden Oaks is a gilded cage for the very wealthy to know their babies are getting the best of everything including surrogates. 

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Reading The Farm by Joanne Ramos in Jacksonville, North Carolina. | Dress | Shoes | Sunglasses
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Cover of The Farm by Joanne Ramos. | Dress |

The Farm is Joanne Ramos’ debut novel. Ramos balances the outlandish and the painfully possible reality the near future could hold for privileged and not-so-privileged parts of society. 

Golden Oaks is a place where young, healthy, pretty, desperate-for-money women go to be Hosts for lavishly wealthy Clients in want of a baby or three. Located a few hours outside of New York City, it couldn’t be a safer or more beautiful place for a baby to grow under the watchful eye of trained health professionals looking after every aspect of the baby and the Host. Women of all colors, backgrounds, and ethnicities are hosts at Golden Oaks, which is not-so-lovingly referred to as The Farm by many of the Hosts. 

The story follows four women from vastly different backgrounds. Mae is an American of Asian descent who manages Golden Oaks. Jane is a Filipino immigrant trying to support her daughter. Ate is Jane’s older, Filipino, immigrant cousin who nannies for upper class New York families.  Reagan is a young, wealthy, white woman trying to make enough money to support her art career without her father’s money and control. The Farm dives into socioeconomic diversity and driving forces behind poverty, emigration, and choices women make based solely on need. 

Ramos fills The Farm with interesting plots and characters. There is a 1984 Big Brother kind of feel to the novel that is simultaneously overtly creepy yet almost comforting. Though, the plot has a happier rather than completely realistic ending, there are very realistic aspects and problems to Golden Oaks that ground the plot in human emotion and complexity. Ramos doesn’t simplify difficult concepts nor does she try to explain them. She tells a story about motivation, poverty, and womanhood allowing the reader to take away what they will. 

The quote “Sometimes a person has no choice but hard choices…” is incredibly insightful and the entire point of The Farm. Though simple in concept, it can be hard for people who have never experienced that kind of desperation to understand what women will do when their backs are against a wall looking into the mouth of a hippo.    

The Farm is heartbreaking and infuriating. Joanne Ramos’ has quite a literary career ahead of her if this is what she brings to the table with her debut novel. 

Memorable Quotes
“But babies are stronger than people think, and smarter.”
“the monumental efforts taken to make Clients feel food about outsourcing their pregnancies.”
“As if being a good girl and being strong willed were in conflict.”

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Title: The Farm
Author: Joanne Ramos
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9781984853752