I also fell off the thread! Too thinly stretched right now.
84. Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me, Kate Clanchy
I read this after the Twitter row. Positives: Clanchy writes brilliantly about the alchemy of teaching and working with young people, about the way that an idea introduced into a child's mind can take root and grow in directions that the teacher could not have taken it. She has obviously made it her life's work to teach and inspire young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, and she writes about her job and the kids with a lot of love. She is honest and often insightful on issues of culture and class. HOWEVER this is often an uncomfortable read due to her strange propensity for describing her students, and their families, in terms of their bodies and appearance, often in unnecessary racialised terms. There is often a feeling that she is describing people (both those she likes and those she doesn't) as exhibits - she others them, almost fetishising them.
It's a tricky perspective to pull off: this book is about her students but really its about Clanchy (the title reflects that tension) She loves her students but she doesn't see them as equals - and that, presumably, is because they are kids and she's their teacher, but it sits really uncomfortably when she is opining bluntly about matters relating to their class, their ethnicity, their body shapes. I really don't think she is a bad or a racist person, but I totally get why readers have found this book problematic and patronising. There's so much good stuff in here, I can't believe that an editor didn't challenge her more - the good stuff, including her blunt opinions and honesty, could still have made it through.
85. Summerwater, Sarah Moss
In a group of isolated lochside holiday cabins, a variety of guests are trying to get through a week's holiday while outside it rains and rains without stopping. The weather means they don't interact much outside their family groups - some of them go out, running in the fells or kayaking or driving too fast, but they only glimpse each other in passing, through a rain-misted window. Moss conjures up an uneasy, threatening atmosphere, hinting at both thriller and folk horror - you feel something is going to happen but you're not sure what. I enjoyed the atmospheric writing but felt that the ending was rather rushed and a bit "was that it?" after the painstaking build up.
86. The Offing, Benjamin Myers
Felt I'd read this plot before. Young man, escaping the trauma that the recently-ended war has inflicted, sets off with a knapsack to explore the British countryside; meets a wise, outspoken old lady with a scandalous and tragic past who teaches him about life. Eventually, this version mostly won me over - in direct contrast to the Moss book, the build up here felt clunky and unconvincing but the culmination was really skilfully pulled together, and managed to be sad, happy and satisfying. Myers is a poet and the writing is heavily lush - overly so for me, I'm afraid, although I did
appreciate the evocative description of 1940s rural Yorkshire. Lots of people have absolutely loved this - I didn't, but but there were good bits which made it worth the read.
87. The Startup Wife, Tahmina Anam
Asha is a young Bangladeshi-American scientist, working in a lab at MIT, when she bumps into her high school crush, Cyrus, who is leading the tributes at a funeral for one of their old teachers. They hook back up and Asha discovers Cyrus's particular talent for making meaningful secular rituals and spirituality out of things that matter to people - he's one of those guys who can make everything into a "moment". She starts to tinker around with a platform which will capture Cyrus's ability - users can answer a few questions about things that they care about, whether it's a beloved pet, a book or a favourite TV show, and the AI suggests rituals to celebrate meaningful points in their lives without involving religion. Soon Asha and Cyrus are co-founders of a scarily fast-growing social media platform based on Asha's idea, and while their business and their influence grow, they find themselves being pushed apart as they face difficult ethical decisions.
This is a comedy with shades of Sourdough and Silicon Valley but it's also a philosophical exploration of the role played in our lives by social media companies and their charismatic founders, of the strange power dynamics of the tech world, and about what else might fit into the space where religion sometimes goes.