Then and Now #59 (20/22/23 - 26/1123)

Happy Sunday!  The Sunday Post is a blog news meme hosted @ Caffeinated Reviewer. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.  It is hosted weekly over at Mailbox Monday and every Friday they do a round-up of some of their favourite, shared reads! 

Last Week

So I haven't posted in about two weeks because live has been hectic! Middle of November we had our big conference which went incredibly well! All the speakers were so engaged and friendly and all the papers were super interesting and we've definitely forged some strong connections which we're going to try and keep up in the future. But it was also an incredibly stressful process, and afterwards we had to make a financial report so we could get the bills paid. But that's behind us now. Except that someone came to the conference with a cold which turned outt o be Covid, so a number of us got sick. Which just sucked, not just because people got ill but also because it was such a great event which then felt a little tainted. But everyone recovered well and I somehow, miraculously, did not catch Covid! I tested negative for 7 days straight, so I could then get back to work.

The upside of quarantining at home was that I could really focus on my research, as all the usual commitments, including time for commuting, fell away. So that was a definite silver lining. And then we had a warning strike, which I took part in, so that took some time away from work as well but it felt very important to me to, first of all, not be a scab, but also to support workers at our university and in our town who are not being paid properly for the important work they do and to strike for better working conditions (financially, socially, etc.) for all of us.

I did also suffer from something of a reader's block lately, With everything going on at work I didn't really have the mental space to dedicate time to a book. That did change recently, however, as I bought Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, which absolutely blew me away. I was in tears when I finished it yesterday and can't wait to share my review next week. But I am having some laptop trouble this weekend, as my laptop doesn't seem to be charging properly? I'm not sure what's going on but I bought a new cable, which should be here by Thursday. Finegrs crossed it's just the cable that's broken and not my laptop's battery or something. Don't think I can afford a new laptop right now and there is no way I can do my work without a laptop...

No blogposts, but I did manage to post two Book Central episodes!

• Book Central #13 - 'Often Rebuked, Yet Always Back Returning' by Emily Bronte
• Book Central #14 - How To Get Past a Reader's Block
• BC Let's Get Medieval #5 - How Were Manuscripts Made?

Recommendation

So I'm still on the Hozier train and have been enjoying listening to 'Northern Attitude' by Noah Kahan and Hozier lately!

Mailbox Monday

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (2023; Pantheon)

Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America's own.

Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. It's the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE's corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar's path have devastating consequences.

Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system's unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means.

Like I said above, this book absolutely blew my mind. I don't know how Adjei-Brenyah did it, but my heart absolutely broke during the book and I love how he was able to at once tell a fictional story and also share facts about incarceration and systemic racism. It's truly  a stunning, stunning book, but also incredibly violent, so this is your warning.

One of the Good Guys by Araminta Hall (1/9/24; Zando)

Newly separated from his wife and desperate to escape the ghosts of his failed marriage, Cole leaves London for a fresh start in the countryside. He accepts a job as a wildlife ranger and settles into his cozy seaside cottage, relishing the respite from the noise, drama, and relentless careerism that curdled his relationship along with his mental health. Then he meets Leonora, the reclusive artist living next door, and is instantly charmed by her warm and gentle spirit.

But as the two forge a connection on the cliff’s edge they call home, two young women activists raising awareness about gendered violence disappear while passing through. Cole and Leonora find themselves in the middle of a police investigation and resulting media firestorm as the world learns of what happened, and as the tension escalates, they quickly realize that they don’t know each other that well after all.

A propulsive page-turner with razor-sharp sociopolitical insight, One of the Good Guys asks: if most men claim to be good, why are most women still afraid to walk home alone at night?

I got this one through NetGalley and I'm looking forward to reading it over the winter break, as I have decided to take the week between Christmas and New Year off! Love me a thriller with sociopolitical insights and a male character whose perception of himself is about to be questioned.

And that's it for me this week! What are you reading? How was your week?