Imago (Xenogenesis #3) by Octavia E. Butler

Format: Audio

Narrated by: Barrett Aldrich

Lenght: 8 hrs and 18 mins

Series: Xenogenesis (#3 and Final)

Previous Book: Adulthood Rites

Source: Audible

Genres: Science Fiction

Publisher: Audible Studios

Publication date: May 2nd 2014 (first published 1989)

First impression

What an amazing trilogy. I am so glad this was my first contact with the work of Octavia E. Butler, because I completely loved every book and the series as a whole. In this book we encounter Jodahs, another son of Lilith and her Oankali family; a construct. For the first time, a construct that is turning into an ooloi, the first one to come from human parents. Once again, Butler explores how we deal with the unknown and the changes this brings to everyone including yourself.

Final thoughts

I think I have never encountered and author that makes me question what identity really is like Octavia E. Butler with this series. Not only to what a human is, but all those little labels that we gather through our lives: male, female, foreign, normal, etc. This third book is off course not exception, and it comes in the form of a coming-of-age for the main character, Jodhas, who as it turns out, won't be male or female, since the ooloi are neither. First we see its own struggle it has accepting what he is becoming and at the same trying to explain to others so they will not only understand this new step in the Oankali-Human relationship but also so they will accept it and hopefully embrace it.

Once again, as in the rest of the series, the subject of xenophobia is discussed at large, except that in this book, is not just humans who are afraid, the Oankali don't know what to do with Jodhas, and fear what its presence might mean. I loved that she (Butler) shows so beautifully how the unknown is always scary, independent of our background, but that at the same time, we don't need to be afraid. Acceptance is always present in this trilogy, sometimes reluctantly, but always there.

Jodhas has this ability to modify its appearance to make whoever is around more comfortable, to adapt to others and I found this extremely interesting, as it cannot help but do it, most of the time it wouldn't realize this was happening until someone else pointed this out. This is something so common in relationships, we change a bit, not to much that we lose ourselves, but enough to reflect our new situation. The problem of changing so much that our identity is lost is also addressed, but I don't want to discuss it too much, as I fear it might give some spoilers.

I particularly enjoyed the feeling of family portrayed in the book. While sometimes it would seem like a more complicated structure, at the end it is always a net of support, with all of the members being woven together by love, expectations and belonging.

The other thing that the trilogy addresses in an impressive way is sexuality, and what it might mean to a person (or to an Oankali). What it might mean to feel and identify as male, female, both or neither and how others that might be more accustomed to a more black-and-white perspective would respond to this perspective being challenged. I can only say that Octavia E. Butler was a genius being able to put herself in the skin of so many issues and most importantly being able to transmit these feelings in her writing.

I would recommend this series to anyone seeking a brilliant sci-fi series with a lot of social subtext.

Introducing My Own 2015 reading Challenge

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I wanted to use today's free topic post to talk to you guys about something.

For the past 2 or so years, I have participated in the GoodReads reading challenge, the Where are you Reading Challenge (hosted by Book Journey) and the Sequel Challenge (hosted by Novel Heartbeat and Writer Grrl Reads). This year also joined other monthly events. But this has also been the year where the talk about reading more diversely has been all over my radar. I joined the A More Diverse Universe challenge (Diversiverse for short), hosted by Booklust and I tried to incorporate more diverse reading by the end of the year. It was good, but it can be better.

So I have decided to hold my first ever challenge! I will call it: Diversifying 2015. My goal is to read at least one diverse author every month. Diversifying can also be applied to reading more LGBTQ authors or POCs off course. Every month I will do a wrap up post, and I would love it if you can add on those posts your own Diverse readings of the month! That way we are all exposed to more diverse reading and get the wheels turning!

But I want to also give a tiny incentive. So here is the deal, every entry every month will give you a registration and at the end of the year I will randomly select a lucky winner for a 20$ gift card from Book Outlet! (If the winner leaves in a country that is not covered by them we will figure something out :D)

So here is the registration form and as I said every month there will be a wrap up post. I hope you guys join me on this!!

Nonfiction November: Diversity and Nonfiction

Week 3: Becca from Lost in Books asks: What does diversity in nonfiction mean to you? Is it about the topic or theme of the book? Or is it the race or ethnicity of the author? Do you have any recommendations for diverse nonfiction books? Are there any topics that you’d like to see written about and/or read more widely?

Guys, I am so ashamed, so so ashamed. I've spend several minutes looking at my nonfiction reads, fro the last 3 years (say since I started blogging regularly and actually having reviews) and you know what I found? Out of 28 books (which is already very low mind you) only 2 books was written by a non white person, and that is if we count the one that I haven't read yet.

Gender wise things are more even, but boy oh boy, it is a huge black star over my head to realize that I read so little diverse nonfiction. Is not even that I could compensate by saying that the subjects are a bit more diverse, because I don't feel right down so. 

Here is the thing. I have made a decision, an early new year resolution if you may: 2015 will be my year of reading diversely, both in fiction (where I am happy to tell you guys, I am doing much, much better) and in nonfiction. I am lucky to have discovered this event, because so many of you guys are giving a lot of fantastic recommendations. I had already thought about the fact that, since it might be my last year of PhD and hence I will have to actually start writing my thesis, the amount of books I will be able to read for leisure will go down, compared to later years. But I think as long as the quality and the spectrum of what I read improves I can't be sad about it, right?

So I am asking you guys to leave me a comment with the book you think I HAVE to read next year in diverse nonfiction. I can't promise I will read them all, but it would be nice to start with a strong list.

Thank you!!!!

Three Daughters: A novel by Consuelo Saah Baehr

I asked and received this book through NetGalley for free. This review is not sponsored nor influenced in anyway. Thanks to Lake Union Publishing for the book. The expected publishing date is November 25.

First impression

When I first saw this on NetGalley it grabbed my attention almost immediately; beginning with the gorgeous cover and then reading that it was a three generation saga of Palestinian women. I had to read it!. I have to admit that when I saw it was 720 pages I was a bit overwhelmed, but I was so interested in the story I told myself to just start reading. While I am happy I did, after finishing it I still feel the book could've been considerably shorter.

Final thoughts

The story begins with the story of Myriam, from 1882 to 1920. She is the first daughter in this trigenerational story. Daughter of Jamilla and Mustafa who happens to be deaf. Her fair skin and reluctance to speak marks her as the odd one, and then when she finally speaks she has a very deep voice, which doesn't help her. She will feel ostracized by her own mother, but she will have the opportunity to go to school learn not only to speak but also to write a bit. She is the first step into improving (to my eyes) the conditions of the women in her clan. Myriam will give birth to 4 kids, the last one being Nadia (the second daughter) who will go even further in her education and way in live, having the last daughter: Nijmeh. I don't want to give anything away, but both Nadia's and Nijmeh's stories are way more than what you might think.

That said, since every daughter in the story was going further, at least education wise, I was expecting this to be more relevant in their outcomes. Don't get me wrong, it did have certain relevance, but inevitably the women in the story seemed to be framed by the man they would marry or get involved with. I though Nadia was going to be a stronger character but then she gets pretty much swayed away and for me it felt like a flickering light going out.

I mentioned that the book could've been shorter. Once again, this is just my opinion. You see, a lot of times the story would go on the branches; several situations would be developed to all of the sudden get closed abruptly. For a book this long there were many sudden changes that at times felt out of nowhere. In the same chapter I would be confronted with side stories that didn't bring that much to the main story, yet will take a big part of the chapter while at the same time there would be a completely change of character that felt random and awkward.

It was certainly a lovely story, and if you are looking for a multigenerational story set in the middle East this would be perfect for you.

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

First impression

After I finished Dawn I knew I had to continue the trilogy. The world that Butler built in for this story is full of complicated, rich characters, both human an alien. Xenogenesis explores the union or fusion of these two groups through the main character Akin, the first human-Oankali male construct. Butler continues to explore human nature, a contradiction in itself, this time seen from the eyes of someone that is not fully human, nor fully alien.

Final thoughts

Butler touches so many subject in such a swift, seamless manner that you don't realize you are thinking about social issues until you put the book (or headphones in my case) down and have this feeling of "wow"

Lillith takes a secondary role in this installment; as I mentioned it is Akin who takes center stage trying to merge the two points of view: a very guttural, visceral one coming from his human side and partners, and a more logical, cold one from this Oankali side. He represents, to me at least, the struggles a lot of immigrant kids have during their life time, Of course, Akin's struggle and his definitions will affect the future of what is left from humanity and the future of the trade.

Racism is also a constant subject so far in this trilogy; while Dawn dealt a bit more with sexism, in this case I felt this point was left aside, but not ignored. The rage against Lillith, the prejudices against her and whatever might come through her is still present, not only with those who actually met her, but her "legend" has grown, to a point that there is even talk of her being possessed. That said most of the women present in the rebel camps are delegated to secondary roles all the time and most of the men turn to "macho" behavior.

Seeing Akin grow, not only physically but in his mind was so interesting. The approach of him being a teenager in both communities puts him in multiple situations where he was feeling frustrated and has to learn not only to be an adult but to express as one and be able to share and convince his piers of the changes he is bringing.

I think that doing this trilogy in audio has given me the opportunity to identify the different Oankalis better and to sort of pin point their personalities; I've read several reviews mentioning that it is hard to differentiate between them.

From a biologist point of view I think the concept of trade, the way the Oankali see it, is fascinating. The concept is mostly explained on the first book, but is always present during Adulthood Rites.

I would totally recommend this series so far to anyone who loves SciFi and society construction. 

 

Sunday Salon: Getting ready for September

Ok, ok, so September is already here but I was away on vacation so bear with me. This is going to be a very busy month, both in my reading life and my personal life, so I figured I will tell you a bit about it.

First off, we have the Readers Imbibing Peril IX. You can check my sing post here and there you will also find the titles I plan to read. This gives me my first September read: The Haunting of Hill House. My dearest Andi from Estella Society is hosting the readalong. I will also have to at least tackle on of the books from my list. Since the R.I.P Challenge coincided with the Read-a-Thon in October I am not überly nervous about managing my reading for this challenge, but still, I cannot leave the 4 books for October only.

Now, September is also NetGalley Month, an event hosted by Tay at Chicks that Read. For this event I want to read and review the following books: Sudden Light, Mademoiselle both coming out on September 30 and maybe The French Executioner, but this is a maybe, since I have a bit more time for it. Right now my NG ratio is 62.5% and that's with Sudden Light already reviewed. I would love to increase my ratio, but since I am certainly not lacking books to read, I won't be asking anymore books from NG until October probably.

This is also the month for A More Diverse Universe or Diversiverse, an event organized by Aarti from Booklust.

For those who have not heard about #Diversiverse before, it's a very simple challenge. For those of you who have participated in the past, it's even easier this year. The criteria are as follows:

Read and review one book

Written by a person of color

During the last two weeks of September (September 14th - 27th)

I have two candidates for this being: Stories of your life and Others by Ted Chiang, which incidentally is the month's pick for the Sword and Laser book club and Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler, but once again, the second one is a maybe IF I manage to get to it.

That takes us to at least 4 books this month doesn't it? Well, the thing is I've been a bit behind with all my reviews, and this off course affects future reviews. So after trying it 2 times I've decided to start doing some Mini reviews. I believe there is always something to say about a book, but sometimes since I have very little to say (for example with certain sequels) I postpone the review in hopes I will get more to say later...but I don't. I don't think I will go back to write mini reviews for some of the books I've finished but haven't reviewed but you never know.

In the matter of my 2 year long challenges "Where in the world are you Reading" and "Sequel and Prequel Challenge" I think I am doing well. You can see my general progress in their respective tabs.

So that's it for the Blog life. Now for the personal part. This month A and I will celebrate 5 years together. I am so very lucky to have him, he is sweet and supportive and a big geek. It is also the first month that he is officially out of the lab. He still has to finish writing up his thesis and we are waiting for news on a job he interviewed for before we left for a week.

It will also be (hopefully) the month when I finally get my driver's license...well, I have mine from Colombia, but it took me a while to do the process to change it for a Canadian one because...I really don't like driving, guys. But with A no longer going to the lab with me, and the winter coming, we both agreed it will be who might be needing the car more often and so, here I am, getting ready for my driver's exam.

Now I am off to read. Happy September everybody!