“Shakespeare for Squirrels” by Christopher Moore

This book was given to me by my partner’s mom, she read it and liked it and thought she would pass it on to us. We are a bunch of Shakespeare fans, so it makes sense. I found the book confusing more than anything else, and while it has the potential to be funny it largely does not fully deliver on it. Still, it is a fun take on “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and I imagine the other books in the series hit a little better. 

The book opens with Pocket, a fool, adrift at sea with his friend Drool and monkey Jeff. They shipwreck on Athens and meet Cobweb who is recognizable as a fairy to us and not to Pocket. From there, the two wander into the Mechanicals practicing a play, and get stopped by the watch. Pocket narrowly escapes (and thinks he is a ghost for a minute) while Drool is captured. Turns out Pocket was turned invisible by the Puck and that’s why he thinks he is dead. Pocket heads into town and runs into the lovers on the way. One back, he is enlisted by Hippolyta to take a message so he goes back into the woods where he finds the Puck murdered. He is arrested by the watch, taken in, and then enlisted by Theseus to find the love flower. Pocket goes back into the woods, runs into Titania and her fairies, and joins up with the changed Bottom, Cobweb, Moth, and Peaseblossom to find Oberon. Also there’s occasionally appearances from Rumor, a big guy in a cloak of tongues who tells Pocket that he’s ruining the plot.

They get to Oberon and find out that a goblin killed Puck, but the better question is who paid the goblin to do it. From there, back to town where the sad Mechanicals are met and Pocket decides to rewrite their entire play to try and reveal who killed the Puck. Rumor shows up as well, and then Puck is frolicked back to life by the fairies to reveal that he is Titania and Oberon’s son, Puck’s son is the little fairy child, and he wanted to kill all of the nobility. Pocket and Drool head on with Cobweb, while the monkey Jeff stays behind with Moth.

Alright so my main critique is that the plot is far too complicated. Pocket runs into all of these people and is paid to do different things by all of them, and then he makes very little headway on the whole solving the mystery thing. You just find more and more layers until the play at the end where Pocket just kinda lights the whole thing on fire to see who gets smoked out. (And honestly I still don’t fully understand who killed Puck.) Whole thing was kinda incomprehensible.

And the humor primarily relies on sex jokes. Which is Shakespearean, yes, but after hearing about how the fairies are naked and the goblins shaved their bits for the fifth time you get a little tired of it. Rumor was funny, especially when his hat is stolen by the fairies and Jeff, but it is also quite weird to have this guy show up and be useless and then yell at Pocket for being dumb. Like do it myself my guy.

Having said all that, Pocket and the fairies are quite fun. I liked that the fairies can’t count or anything so any number they say is almost immediately proven false. Drool wasn’t around as much but I bet he is a good time as well, especially playing off of Pocket. And regardless of everything else, if you know “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” you will likely have a good time seeing the same characters in a different situation.

So anyways, I did not think much of this book or its mystery. And the humor left something to be desired. But apparently this is part of a series about Pocket, so the other books might be better crafted, I’m especially interested to see if any are based on Shakespeare’s tragedies, that might provide more of a space for the humor to flourish.

This Is Beautiful: End of the Semester

 I am so ready for the summer, I won't have to be teaching and will have more free time. Of course this means that it'll be more time for me to work on my research and manuscript preparation so I won't just be sitting around but I will definitely have more flexible time. I'm dropping all of my leadership roles so I'll not be worrying about organizations or meetings that I have to lead. It sure will be nice.

“The Accidental Medium” by Tracy Whitwell

I had picked up this book at a bookstore in the UP of Michigan and thought it looked like a silly goofy mystery time. And for the most part it is, but there’s a pretty severe issue that I have with it that is probably going to ruin the whole series for me.

The book centers on Tanz, an actress in London who is struggling to find work. She ends up getting a job at the till of a New Age shop to make ends meet and from there gets friendly with Sheila, one of the readers there. Sheila recognizes that Tanz has a pretty good sense of the dead, and together they start cultivating her senses. Tanz also lands an advertisement that takes her to Spain where her makeup artist recognizes her as Romani and says that her ancestry is where she gets her powers from.

Back at London, a woman comes in for a reading with her boyfriend and both Sheila and Tanz get images of a screaming woman the entire time they are both there. Together they manage to sort out that the dead woman is Mona, and that the couple killed her. Tanz is spooked, but they eventually decide to try and find Mona’s body. They locate her, but then the man shows up and kidnaps them. They manage to get away and get to a police station, where they learn that the man killed his new girlfriend and then committed suicide. Tanz decides to stay in the business of talking to ghosts, although she still doesn’t want to take money for it.

Overall, the book is a really fun, light read! The characters are really amusing and funny, Tanz is a bit of an alcoholic and so are all of her friends really. It is very light on the mystery side, you know from the beginning who murdered Mona, and the mystery doesn’t even take up half of the book really.

My main issue is the stupid bit where it is revealed that she is Romani. That whole thing could have been dropped and the book would still work just as well. It just feeds into dumb stereotypes about gypsies and whatever, totally not necessary. Not to mention that I am pretty sure the author is white as hell and the character keeps being so “proud” of her ancestry, nope, no thanks. Get that out of here.

So while this is fun I am probably giving the rest of the series a pass. I do not want more of the “exotic bloodline” nonsense.

This Is Beautiful: Recovering from Being Sick

 Last week I was down for the count with a real bad cold. It started on Tuesday and went all the way until the weekend. Thankfully not that much was going on, but it sure sucks having to spend my free time being sick. But I'm over it now! And nothing quite makes you appreciate a non-stuffy nose than not being able to breathe for a few days.

“Psychopolitics” by Byung-Chul Han

I grabbed this book from a partnership a philosophy YouTube channel was doing with Verso books. The host had talked about it before, and from what I heard this book talks a lot about what people are feeling right now. Oh boy was I right! This is such a prescient summary of how people are feeling in our hellscape of a world right now.

Han starts by talking a lot about this idea of the “entrepreneur” and how that is different from the proletariat of old. As entrepreneurs, we are both our own boss and worker, and what that allows us to do is subjugate ourselves. We feel like we owe ourselves to do work constantly. This becomes a far more effective way of monitoring everyone, similar to the idea of the panopticon. Now everyone is their own security guard. This intersects with the rise of social media where we all use likes, friends, upvotes, etc to measure out our worth. And all that data goes straight to giant algorithms that know things about us that we do not even know. And yet we still have a drive to collect more and more data! He discusses the limitations of this a bit, how data can’t tell a human story, and that reminds me a lot of STS books I’ve written about previously.

He also uses this to bring in a critique of Foucault, and what he didn’t get. Foucault talked a lot about biopolitics and how the body becomes political. Han takes this farther into our psychology and mental state. He talks about how we are now anxious and depressed by default because entrepreneurs we are constantly forcing ourselves to work and be productive. This keeps us in our shackles as we seek to be ever more productive and positive. I really liked a passage early on that talks about how life can’t be only positive, you have to have negativity as well or it gets bland.

I think I really needed to read this this morning, I am sure that the above summary is flawed and oversimplifying, but the main ideas were so big and bold that it really gripped me instantly. This really does capture so much of the moment with the focus on productivity and grind mindset. Particularly in my grad school burnout right now, I just needed to hear that this is not a normal way to feel or live, but also that I’m not alone. Even if you aren’t into philosophy, this is only like 80 pages so it’s a quick read and you will find something in these pages.

This Is Beautiful: End of Semester

 The semester ended yesterday and my goodness have I needed a break. The passage of time is still freaking me out, but I need more free time and more capacity than I've had the past few weeks. I am dropping a lot of responsibilities with the end of the semester, so this is a great feeling to be having! Summer here we are.

“Royal Assassin” by Robin Hobb

This is the sequel to Assassin’s Apprentice that I wrote about a while ago. I feel pretty much the same about the series, which is that it’s good, but it is a big of a slump. And while the magic system is clearer I still find the politics a little confusing.

The book starts where the last one left off, Fitz has been poisoned and nearly killed a few times and as a result is pretty much disabled by his injuries. He has frequent seizures and is really weak. He heads home with Burrich and tries to heal. Once back he finds that Molly, his childhood crush, is now a maid at the castle. They eventually start up a romance, against the guidance of pretty much every adult around them. The new Queen Kettricken is getting used to the castle and Fitz starts helping her out and providing guidance, while also continuing to help King-in-Waiting Verity. Fitz has been forbidden by the ailing King Shrewd to do anything against Prince Regal, despite how Regal is responsible for the attempt on his life and for trying to derail the kingdom most of the time. Fitz also finds a wolf puppy and raises it, they share a strong bond through Fitz’s ability to Will, or telepathically communicate with animals.

Verity eventually decides to go on a quest to find this mysterious race of beings and leaves Regal in charge. Meanwhile the Forged ones (people kidnapped by raiders and made into like zombies that feel nothing and just attack people) continue to terrorize the area. Kettricken and Fitz head out to fight them, while Kettricken is pregnant. Her bravery earns her the heart of the people. When news comes back that Verity is dead, Fitz doesn’t believe it. He hatches a plot with Kettricken, Burrich, the Fool, and Chade to try and get the King to Skill (telepathically communicate with people) to Verity. The Fool thinks this will kill the weak King, and it does, but primarily because two other Skill-users have been draining him. Fitz manages to both get in touch with Verity and realize what they are doing. He takes the King’s knife and kills both of them.

The book ends with Fitz in jail being tortured into admitting he used the Will (a taboo ability) to kill the King. Fitz stays strong, and Burrich ends up getting him out by convincing him to abandon his body to inhabit the wolf’s body. They then pretend his human body is dead before digging it back up and putting him into it.

Alright well there’s a whole lot going on here. A lot of characters, each with their own motivations and abilities. I think I grasped this book much better than the first one since I had that familiarity with the characters, but there were still points that I mixed up names or affiliations. It both helps the book feel very realistic and a little overwhelming. I definitely grasped the Will versus Skill distinction better this time, it helps that Fitz knows what they are and can give them a name. And I just really enjoyed all of the returning characters, Burrich is as gruff as ever and giving Molly a larger role was a nice touch.

The series ends up hitting a kind of happy medium with run-of-the-mill fantasy where wild things happen and you just accept it, and a type of George R. R. Martin hyper-realistic and gross fantasy. I am into it, you aren’t guaranteed that any characters will be safe but there are still rules that the genre is playing by. I particularly enjoy that it shares how traveling both takes time and is dangerous with Game of Thrones.

I’m interested to see how this wraps up, the characters are at a particularly low point right now. Hobb will have her work cut out for her to resolve everything.