Books I Read This Month – May 2024
Blink – Malcolm Gladwell
Cat’s Eye – Margaret Atwood
Childhood’s End – Arthur C. Clarke
Sharp Objects – Gillian Flynn
I did some spring cleaning recently, which meant going thru my foot locker and throwing out all the shit I didn’t need. In the process, I dug out ” 1001 Books to Read Before You Die” and flipped thru it for some suggested reads. All the books this month, save “Blink”, were included on that list.
If there’s a theme to this month’s reading, it’s that little/teenage girls can be bitches to each other.
” Cat’s Eye” is a semi-autobiographical novel about an artist returning to her hometown of Toronto for an exhibition. Elaine hasn’t been back in decades. Visiting familiar landscapes and monuments spurs on the recollection of her childhood and early adulthood, specifically her relationship with bff Cordelia.
When they were young, Cordelia was the queen bee of the group, bullying Elaine and almost killing her during pranks. As they get older, however, their roles reverse, and Cordelia’s life unravels. Their last meeting occurred in the psych ward Cordelia inhabited, where she plead Elaine for money and help to her out. Elaine is haunted by the memory and not knowing what happened to Cordelia afterward.
Overall, a vivid account growing up in the post-war period and coming of age in the 60s, with the advent of second (third?) wave feminism.
“Sharp Objects” is a horrifying depiction of Munchausen-by-proxy and its casualties. A reporter returns home to cover the murders of two young girls, and stays with her estranged mother. In the process, she meets and befriends her sexually-precocious teenage half-sister, who runs the middle school with an iron fist.
Recently released from a psych ward, she’s a longtime cutter, carving words into her skin (which is a bit of a heavy-handed conceit for a journalist). The closer she gets to the truth of the story, the more it threatens to engulf her entirely.
“Childhood’s End” begins with an alien invasion. The Overlords, as they’re called, park a spaceship above every big city, and communicate with the leaders of the world without revealing themselves. Without firing a shot, they have seized power over human society, but their rule is beneficent. After ushering in an utopia, they promise to reveal themselves in 50 years.
When that time arrives, their reason for secrecy becomes clear–they look exactly like popular conceptions of the devil and demons. Prior to that, a scientist sneaks aboard an Overlord ship to see their home planet for himself, and returns to earth 80 years later to find the world completely different. This is considered one of the seminal works in sci-fi’s golden age in the 1950s.
Rapid cognition is the subject of “Blink”, the first two seconds of thought that comprise our first impression. Gladwell explores how startlingly accurate these judgments are. In many situations, more information makes us dumber by confusing the issue and obfuscating the salient facts. Rapid cognition is often better than deliberate decision-making in areas as disparate as authenticating art and diagnosing cardiac problems.
In typical Gladwellian fashion, he then demonstrates how these powers of quick judgment can be distorted and abused, using the example of a lethal encounter between the police and a black immigrant in the Bronx as an example.
In almost everyone of his books, a violent police encounter is used to illustrate his argument… This is the type of thing readers of the New Yorker eat up. Gladwell’s style is eminently readable and lucid, written so your average 15 year old honors student can understand, but he acts like he’s dropping revelatory knowledge.
Easy Trouble 