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I sure do have a lot of tomatillos growing ...
I was on an Augusten Burroughs jag when I found this available at the library. Much to my surprise, instead of a dose of fun snarky humor I got a self help book. No, I didn't see or read the full title till I looked at it on Goodreads. As it turns out, the title is really the only funny thing about the book. I usually steer clear of shelf help books because they are generally unhelpful and make you feel worse about yourself. Fortunately, Burroughs isn't into emotional blackmail and doesn't use dubious credentials to establish credibility. This is mostly advice from someone who has been around the block especially if you believe what happened in [b:Running with Scissors|242006|Running with Scissors|Augusten Burroughs|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1438898196s/242006.jpg|828773] and has taken to heart some tough lessons.
OMG! I can't remember the last time I read a book from start to finish in a matter of hours. I couldn't stop reading. I had to know. I knew I wouldn't get any rest. Is this book without flaws? NO, but the fact that it was so engrossing and took over my day, it deserves 5 stars for entertainment.
Insight.
I haven't read Street Lit in over a year. I know it can become stale and redundant but Ashley always brings it. I haven't read a book by her that was lower than a 4 star read.
As we pass the halfway mark of the year, we find the first of the new 'best of' anthologies flooding the market. Currently I have 4 monster tomes that I've been reading through, jumping around between favorite authors and intriguing titles. I'm not one to read an anthology from cover-to-cover, but I try to give the bulk of the stories a fair shot.
Ironically, while it was the fun, light, action-packed space opera that I was looking forward to here, what really struck me was how powerful (and entertaining) the political and social themes really were. There's a lot of sexism and racism buried in these stories, not to mention some deep exploration of what it means to interfere with other civilizations, regardless of the reason or justification. Environmental and religious themes are prevalent in many of the stories as well, and while I often find that particular nice a little overbearing and heavy-handed, it was actually handled very well within these stories.
Favorites for me in Horton's collection were THE KNIGHT OF CHAINS, THE DEUCE OF STARS by Yoon Ha Lee (a great story of strategy and gamesmanship), SAVING TIAMAAT by Gwyneth Jones (a fascinating exploration of the ethics of civil war, and the moral choices involved in choosing sides), FINISTERRA by David Moles (an exploration of the ethical dilemmas involved in hunting an endangered alien species),SEVEN YEARS FROM HOME by Naomi Novik (another that explored the ethics and agendas of taking sides in a civil war), BOOJUM by Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette (with a different sort of take on deep-space pirates), HIDEAWAY by Alastair Reynolds (a tale of aliens, ethnic cleansing, and one last chance for salvation), and TWO SISTERS IN EXILE by Aliette de Bodard (which actually made me care about the friendship between faiths).
Space Opera was higher concept and less pulp than I expected, but I think Horton did a fantastic job of choosing stories that did something powerful within the bounds of the genre.
A friend wanted my opinion on the accuracy of this book. It is that, disturbingly so. Several times, I laughed at things that I recognised about myself or about my family. Still, not all Finns think exactly alike and there were things I thought were tasteless exaggerations too. The facts were presented in a humourous way whenever possible and when not, it crossed the line to tragedy as all best comedies do. If you know nothing of Finland you can enjoy reading this book (I think), but if you know something you'll appreciate the jokes that much more.
