I kicked off this year fairly strong with reading. I tackled four books this month—including two non-fiction works. Who am I? My goal this year is to hit 40 books (50 is my stretch goal) and I’m already 10% there. Let’s get started!
Dolls of Our Lives by Mary Mahoney and Allison Horrocks • 🎧 • ★★★☆☆
I am an American Girl person. When I was 6, I got Samantha for Christmas. From that moment on, I was sold. The books, the doll outfits, the magazine, the catalog—I was in.
So it’s no surprise that I picked up Dolls of Our Lives, though it is surprising to me that I’d never heard of or listened to the authors’ podcast of the same name.
Perhaps if I had listened to the podcast first, I might have skipped the book. While I enjoyed reminiscing about the dolls and the books, I felt like the authors missed a few big tricks here.
First, they never interviewed Pleasant Rowland, the founder of American Girl, claiming they never wanted to meet their heroes. I am fortunate enough to have met Rowland when she visited one of my classes in college. She was better than I ever hoped. I feel like neglecting to talk with the founder of the company was a big miss for Mahoney and Horrocks (and their loss!).
Also, I felt like the perspective was a bit limiting. The authors focused exclusively on the original dolls (that’s Felicity, Kirsten, Molly, Addy, Samantha and Josefina) and their stories. Mahoney and Horrocks made some great points about the problematic nature (and woeful whiteness) of some of the American Girl books and the perspectives they shared (and neglected). These critiques are completely fair and warranted.
However, since the brand’s early days in the ’80s and ’90s, it’s done a lot to expand the stories they tell and to do it right (at least as far as I can discern). For example, American Girl spent the better part of a decade creating the Kaya doll. The brand assembled a committee of Nez Perce elders, teachers and more to ensure every detail—from the textiles to the hair color to the storyline—was accurate. I think that’s very cool. Similarly, the brand did some solid homework in creating Claudie, a girl growing up in Harlem in 1922. Designers took clothing inspiration from a children’s magazine headed by W.E.B. Du Bois and recruited author and AG superfan Brit Bennett to write the Claudie books.
So, in some ways, I enjoyed the nostalgia of the book, but I also felt like it was incomplete. This is such a serious review for a book about dolls, but I am forever about hot takes with low stakes.
The Unidentified by Colin Dickey • 🎧 • ★★★☆☆
I read Ghostland by Colin Dickey several years ago, and while I love the idea of ghosts and ghouls, I also enjoyed how he dismantled a lot of legends. I was expecting the same of The Unidentified but for cryptids, UFOs and other unexplained phenomena.
In some ways, Dickey accomplished this. His analysis of how UFO and alien encounters exploded in the Cold War era was very interesting. And I had never heard of Lemuria, an Atlantis-like lost continent.
But I don’t think that Dickey did service to indigenous communities and their relationships to what many would consider cryptids.
Overall, this was a mixed bag. I’m not sure I’d even recommend it. Should I demote to two stars? Does it matter?
The House of Special Purpose by John Boyne • ★★★★☆
Wintertime is Romanov time. When temps drop, I pick up stories set around the Russian Revolution. You can blame the 1997 animated masterpiece Anastasia for this specific and long-lasting interest.
I really enjoyed this book from John Boyne. I’ve read a few of his books in the past, and I think this is my favorite. In The House of Special Purpose (that was the name given to the home where the Romanovs were kept in exile before their execution), a young man from rural Russia is brought to St. Petersburg to be guard and companion to the the tsar’s son.
Does this guard later fall in love with Anastasia? YOU BET. That’s why this book was so good to me—and the lovely writing as well.
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld • ★★★★☆
I haven’t picked up a Curtis Sittenfeld book in an age. I read Prep while in high school where it was the talk of the school library.
Romantic Comedy is obviously a departure from Prep, and it was a really fun listen. The book turns the trope of average-looking comedians landing model gorgeous partners on its head all within the setup of an SNL-like show. As an SNL fan, this was a fun read.
And I didn’t even mind that it was partially set during the pandemic. In fact, it reminded me of the speck of goodness that came out of those early days of staying in one place and being still. Highly recommend.
Keep up with what I’ve read over on Goodreads! Also, if you’re an audiobook fan, I encourage you to try Libro.fm—you can support your favorite small bookstore while downloading your next listen.
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