I’ve been reading a lot of books lately, so I thought I’d talk about some of them here!
The Power by Naomi Alderman
The Power is a very intense, exciting, and sometimes disturbing book by Naomi Alderman. The premise of the book is that women all over the world, in particular teenage girls, start developing the ability to shoot electricity through their hands. There’s huge variabilities in their abilities, but even a little of this power makes women able to overpower most men. Alderman’s book depicts the violent, chaotic, but perhaps just reckoning between men and women that occurs in the aftermath of this development, which upends the power balance between men and women. In the process, she hilariously satirizes the egocentric navel gazing of evolutionary psychology, anthropology, and many other fields that spend a shocking amount of time convincing themselves that women are naturally peaceful, gentle, and power-adverse.
This is one of the most startling and powerful books I’ve read recently. Alderman’s vision of a society where women rule is an unsentimental look at the corrupting effects of power and the devastating impacts of powerless on people worldwide. Fair warning: the scenes of violence in this book are not for the faint-hearted. The level of savagery and darkness that Alderman depicts feels like reading reports of human rights atrocities from third world countries. There’s a lot of visceral horror in this book, though unlike in most books, part of the horror is in recognizing the humanity of the victims of these abuses.
Overall, I’d recommend this book to anyone interested in exploring gender roles, undermining hierarchies, and more speculative science fiction. Just be warned this is not a book for anyone easily triggered.
Cover of “The Power” by Naomi Alderman
The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle
I loved The Last Unicorn movie as a kid! It inspired in me a very intense love and devotion for unicorns (who I was absolutely convinced were real). What I didn’t realize until years later was that the movie was based on a book, one of the great fantasy classics by Peter Beagle. So of course, I had to buy the book.
It’s a very interesting and profound book in many ways. While the plot is very similar to the movie, the book does add depth to many of my favorite characters, including Schmendrick the Magician and the Unicorn herself. The Unicorn, who I loved in the movie, is still an amazing character. She often struggles to really understand mortals in the same way that they struggle to understand her, and yet her friendships with Molly and Schmendrick, and her later love for Lir, form the emotional core of the story.
I will say that I felt the book sort of loses its way once the unlikely trio arrive at King Haggard’s castle. Perhaps because Amalthea feels like such an uncertain character compared to the Unicorn, who feels completely herself. Still, I think the story has so many profound implications. If the Unicorn had never become Amalthea, she would have never learned to love Lir, and it was her love that gave her the strength to defeat the Red Bull.
Overall, I’d recommend this book to anyone who loves fantasy and unicorns! I’d also recommend the movie, too, which I think really holds up. I watched it with my children and they were entranced.
Cover of Peter Beagle’s The Last Unicorn
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
I got this book in a local comics shop, and I was very curious. I’d known that George Takei had been imprisoned as a child during the Japanese internments, and I wanted to know more about his story. “They Called Us Enemy” is a profound book that looks at a very traumatic event in American History from the point of view of a child. As a parent, it’s both haunting and uplifting. The depictions of his mother holding his sick baby sister, packing a bag in the middle of the night and being forced to live in a horse stall, just broke my heart. The deep fear that you have for your children’s safety and their health under those horrible circumstances really spoke to me. Yet, George’s perspective (of a child on an adventure), gives the book so much uplift and even some comedy. As the mother of a young boy, I could one hundred percent believe that my son would be incredibly excited to ride a train or see the American West even under those circumstances.
Overall, this is an incredible real-life story that’s well written and beautifully illustrated. I’d recommend it to anyone, especially teachers. As a graphic novel that depicts a part of American History many students don’t know enough about, this could be a great book to have in History and English classes.
Cover of George Takai’s They Called Us Enemy