SFBA Book Club

Dysmorphia reviewed Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler (Patternmaster, #1)

Octavia E. Butler: Wild Seed (Paperback, 2001, Warner Books)

Doro is an entity who changes bodies like clothes, killing his hosts by reflex or …

Review of 'Wild seed' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Not as good as "Dawn" but still a very compelling read.

In the chronology of the Patternist books, this is the first book, but it was the last to be written. If I could do it over again, I would read the books in the order they were written rather than the order of the story. Octavia Butler clearly matured as a writer or at least developed her ideas for this series by the time she got tow writing Wild Seed. It's the best of the Patternist books.

Dysmorphia reviewed Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Review of 'Jane Eyre' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I hate to give this more stars that Villette, because it's not as good, but it is more enjoyable. The only new thing I have to say that isn't completely covered in other reviews, is that you can see the template of contemporary romance novels in this book.

Dysmorphia rated Imago (Xenogenesis, #3): 4 stars

Octavia E. Butler: Imago (Xenogenesis, #3) (1997)

Imago (Xenogenesis, #3) by Octavia E. Butler

Dysmorphia rated Adulthood Rites: 3 stars

Octavia E. Butler: Adulthood Rites (1997, Warner)

Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler (Xenogenesis, #2)

The second book in the Lilith's Brood trilogy, this story takes place years after the arrival of Oankali aliens in …

Dysmorphia rated Dawn: 4 stars

Dawn by Octavia E. Butler (Xenogenesis, #1)

Lilith Iyapo has just lost her husband and son when atomic fire consumes Earth—the last stage of the planet’s final …

Dysmorphia reviewed Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë). by Barbara Nathan Hardy (Notes on English literature)

No cover — Barbara Nathan Hardy: Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë). (1963, Blackwell)

Review of 'Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë).' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Unsympathetic jerks are cruel to each other and then die of mysterious ailments. I don't know how to read this book. It's sometimes advertised as romance, which just sounds like something people made up because it was written by women and people get married in it. There's a lot of cousins marrying each other. There's a lot of people up and dying for no clear reason. There are issues of female non-inheritance. There's some serious classism, which is really what it all hinges on.

You get a lot of incidental information about Victorian life. For example they had dinner at noon. They were not surprised by people dying all the time. They thought of servants as non-entities and did and said all sorts of intimate things in their presence. They had mixed feelings about the reality of ghosts.

I really hated this book in the beginning and now that I've …

Unsympathetic jerks are cruel to each other and then die of mysterious ailments. I don't know how to read this book. It's sometimes advertised as romance, which just sounds like something people made up because it was written by women and people get married in it. There's a lot of cousins marrying each other. There's a lot of people up and dying for no clear reason. There are issues of female non-inheritance. There's some serious classism, which is really what it all hinges on.

You get a lot of incidental information about Victorian life. For example they had dinner at noon. They were not surprised by people dying all the time. They thought of servants as non-entities and did and said all sorts of intimate things in their presence. They had mixed feelings about the reality of ghosts.

I really hated this book in the beginning and now that I've finished it, I might still hate it. I hated the characters and the weird plot and all the goddamn whining. And yet I finished it and now I'm thinking about it. So there is something compelling there. By the way I think it was all tuberculosis, that mysterious ailment everyone had.

Dysmorphia rated Villette, Charlotte Brontë: 4 stars

Villette, Charlotte Brontë by Charlotte Brontë, Pauline Nestor (New casebooks)

Dysmorphia reviewed How to suppress women's writing by Joanna Russ

Joanna Russ: How to suppress women's writing (1983, University of Texas Press)

Review of "How to suppress women's writing" on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

If you have ever wondered as a woman writer what your place in the tradition is, or wondered how to ask the perennial chauvinist questions "well why aren't there more women writers?" this book will help resolve the questions in your own mind and arm you in arguments. The first 100 or so pages of this book are the strongest as far as rhetoric goes. The latter half is more along the lines of literary criticism. While Russ acknowledges the limits of her research and her argument (including an afterword of quotes by women of color), the book does focus on white women writing in English.

The hidden value of the book is the list of female writers who've been neglected in the canon and of suppressed works of writers who are praised for something else.

I recommend it to women writers, women creators, women, feminists, students of literature, fans …

If you have ever wondered as a woman writer what your place in the tradition is, or wondered how to ask the perennial chauvinist questions "well why aren't there more women writers?" this book will help resolve the questions in your own mind and arm you in arguments. The first 100 or so pages of this book are the strongest as far as rhetoric goes. The latter half is more along the lines of literary criticism. While Russ acknowledges the limits of her research and her argument (including an afterword of quotes by women of color), the book does focus on white women writing in English.

The hidden value of the book is the list of female writers who've been neglected in the canon and of suppressed works of writers who are praised for something else.

I recommend it to women writers, women creators, women, feminists, students of literature, fans of the gothic novel, and anyone who seriously wants to know the answer to "why aren't there more women writers?"

Dysmorphia reviewed Sisterhood is Powerful by Robin Morgan

Review of 'Sisterhood is Powerful' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

First as a general statement, I found this book was still relevant to the development of my feminist thought. With a collection like this you get a diversity of voices, which I appreciate. There is a boldness in second wave writing that was missing in feminist thought for a long time with the cheerful populist 3rd wave and extremely complex academic 3rd wave. Only recently with intersectional feminism in online spaces have I seen anything close to this kind of brave facing of the world and radical calls for change.

Second, historically, this book is huge for me. Seeing the origins of second wave feminist thought all like this just fantastic.

In short, one of my favorite books of second wave feminism.

Dysmorphia reviewed Psmith in the City by P. G. Wodehouse

P. G. Wodehouse: Psmith in the City (Paperback, 2006, BiblioBazaar)

Novel - one of four by Wodehouse with Psmith as the hero.

Review of 'Psmith in the City' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

It was enjoyable in the general Wodehouse way, but not as good as the Jeeves & Wooster stuff. I recommend it to fans of Wodehouse. It's set in New York in the Gangs of New York era and while I'm no historical authority it seems a bit off.