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Had I never read The Handmaid‘s Tale, this would be getting a higher rating, but Erdrich‘s try at dystopian fiction felt derivative to me. The three parts of the story are disjointed and feel like different novels that don‘t quite fit together. The world was not fleshed out, and the open ending left me underwhelmed. However, Erdrich‘s prose can‘t be ridiculed. Her writing is deeply satisfying even when the story leaves something to be desired. 3⭐️

Structured as Cedar‘s journal to her unborn child, our knowledge of the impending genetic catastrophe is limited to what she knows/experiences, resulting in an undefined world and a novel with bad pacing. The first section slowly establishes the apocalypse as Cedar‘s world diminishes. The second part is tightly knit with a dramatic turning point followed by a disjointed and anticlimactic final section. Rushed to print, it needed better editing.

Readathons are a great motivator for me! This time I‘m focusing on a mix of #bookspin, #authoramonth, and a “morbidly curious” non-fiction book group I belong to (plus, I still need to finish “The Facemaker”). It‘s really rainy here today in the PNW (again), and it‘s putting me in the reading mood. 😀 #fabulousfebruary

This is where we parts ways. The story MAY be picking up but probably not. Every few chapters they drop a hint of something mildly interesting to keep you going but it‘s just not enough for me. I do kind of want to know how it ends but I‘m sure I‘ll get over that fast. #sorrynotsorry #authoramonth

January resolutions for #20in4
Read (finish) the tagged for #authoramonth. It started off interesting enough but the current chapter's not sitting well.
Finish my #Doublespin The Book of M by Peng Shepard
Finish the Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee

I'm declaring it a snowed-in weekend so I think the above is all doable!🤞🤞

A low pick for the tagged book. Dystopian fiction about government control especially in regards to the reproductive rights, or lack there of, for women. There is an unnamed issue that is changing everything. The characters are in the dark as is the reader. Erdrich‘s writing kept me reading but the story lacked something and the ending was unsatisfying. #Pantone2023 #AuthorAMonth #Booked2023 #Reproductiverights #52Books #DystopianFiction

I expected this to be more sci-fi Handmaid‘s Tale…and it was almost there. But the timeline being so rushed took me right out of it (perhaps the pandemic has shown this both can & can‘t change overnight?). I also hate that the science was not explained - everyone was just reacting to things on fear (but I suppose that‘s believable).

#AuthorAMonth @Soubhiville

I liked this but didn‘t love it.

I actually listened to the audiobook, and I have to say I don‘t think Erdrich should be narrating her own books. Is it just me? She sounds like she‘s reading, instead of telling it, and it pulled me out of the story many times.

The ending was unexpected for me, not in a great way, so low pick at best.

#AuthorAMonth #Booked2023 #AboutReproductiveRights #DoubleDip 😁

My January 2023 #BookSpin list! Somehow I keep fighting the urge to write September..? How is it already 2023?!
Wishing all a happy, healthy new year 💖🥳

Finally finished putting together my January #Bookspin list.

This book is a dystopia story where women are having babies with “unnatural“ features. It is such a huge concern that every pregnant woman is turned in to the government, shipped to a special hospital for monitoring, and the babies are often taken or killed. I found myself frustrated with this story, especially as was never clear why babies were taken away and what was done with them.

I did not want to put this book down once I picked it up. I never felt it was too slow, nor verge too far out of the realm of believability, which could have been easy to do. Erdrich deftly builds suspense in a way that doesn‘t feel forced. I had not heard of Erdrich before reading this, and I was surprised to find she‘s written something like sixteen novels! Needless to say, I will be reading more of her work.

I hate to compare books that have one or two similarities, but I feel the need to do it here. The Handmaid's Tale does it better. The Handmaid's Tale made me angry and hopeful. FHOTLG just bored me.

For my first Erdrich book, this may not have been the best place to start. We enter the story as pregnant Cedar is going to meet her biological Ojibwe mother. The story is told in journal entries to us, her unborn child. Throughout the story,⬇️

It was an interesting retelling of The Handmaid‘s Tale but I was left wanting more. I felt very unfulfilled by the ending.

I didn‘t get a #Bingo but did both the #Bookspin and #Doublespin and read 8 total. Other stats: read 22 books, 7 on #audio , 9 BIPOC, 6 LGBTQ+, and 5 from #MountTBR. #Januaryreads #Jan2021

Oof! What an amazing, upsetting, startling book! Ms. Erdrich delivers another lyrical gut punch of a novel that you can‘t put down. Cedar Hawk Songmaker is trying to keep herself and her unborn baby safe in this dystopian world where women and babies are commodities. With Handmaid‘s Tale vibes, this story is filled with strength, poetry and perseverance. My #Bookspin book, got this one in just under the wire! @TheAromaofBooks #20in4 @Andrew65

Did well today, most of my reading was on audio but started my #Bookspin book tonight. #20in4 @Andrew65 @TheAromaofBooks

It's time for #NewYearWhoDis, my favorite litsy "swap" of the year where @monalyisha pairs up 2 people to swap reading lists and read at least one book off the new list in January.

This is so fun and I've been introduced to great books I might not have checked out otherwise (like @sprainedbrain introducing me to Future Home of the Living God this year)

It's already more than half full, so sign up if you're interested!

Why do I keep picking up dystopian novels this year?!? 😂 This isn‘t my favorite book of Louise Erdich‘s, but her writing is so beautiful and descriptive that I was captivated by it. Maybe it wouldn‘t have been as nerve wracking if I had read it in 2017. Oh well. #lennox #catsoflitsy

After being here for almost a year and a half...Huey is cuddling with us on the couch. 🎉 He would sit by me occasionally, but if my other half or Lennox was around he left. Suddenly over the last week, he loves the couch and I‘m here for it. Could it be the recently added electric blanket? Perhaps, but I prefer to hope that this anxious little guy is finally getting comfortable here. ♥️ #lennox #huey #catsoflitsy

Yet another dystopian pick. Devoured this one.

Sounds vaguely familiar 😑

Cedar's internal life, her struggles with isolation, and her gradual adjustment to the New Normal feel truthful, and I like the way Erdrich handles race in this novel, but the nature of the dystopia seems a little forced. It requires there to have been a level of coordination that existed beforehand that I find difficult in our current situation to accept.

Audiocooking with the tagged book, but this rose on my back patio is more photogenic than the stir fry I made (stir fry is almost certainly yummier, although perhaps not as high in vitamin C).

Welp, I think I might enjoy this but now is not the time. I need reading to be an escape since everything at work is so anxious-making. I loved Last Confessions so much, she‘s such an enigmatic writer but hiding in a house with the world going sideways in a terrifying way isn‘t feeling like escape right now.
Also, the Overdrive app annoys me because I can‘t tell how long I have been listening and how much I have left...so bye-bail for now!

Biting my leg is my cat's way of saying, "Stop wandering around listening to your apocalyptic audiobook and get me some food."

"When I tell you that my white name is Cedar Hawk Songmaker and that I am the adopted child of Minneapolis liberals, and that when I went looking for my Ojibwe parents and found that I was born Mary Potts I hid the knowledge, maybe you'll understand. Or not."

Side note: What is up with me picking up all of the end-of-humanity books on my TBR? I don't even mean to and yet, here I am.

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

Interesting premise, but it wasn't a big hit for me.
⭐⭐⭐☆☆

4/5

I'm very glad @sprainedbrain had this as a #newyearwhodis read because I don't think I would have picked it up otherwise.

It's an apocalyptic tale where evolution starts happening in reverse and society crumbles as a result. It's all told through the journal Cedar keeps for her unborn child. It's both hopeful and bleak at different points. There are comparisons to Handmaid's Tale, but I think this novel stands on its own.

@monalyisha

⭐️1/2
Yeah... So I thought this was kind of a mess... The story felt all over the place to me, like it didn‘t know what it wanted to be. Things were set up that ended up going nowhere. Cedar got on my last nerve. The world building was practically nonexistent and left me with more questions than answers the latter of which I wouldn‘t necessarily mind except some things just seemed so out of left field and/or so implausible given the zero ⬇️

1. Future Home of the Living God (Erdrich), The Birds and Other Stories (du Maurier)
2. “You‘re so very alive.”
3. Water
#weekendreads

I can‘t, in good conscience, rate a book anything other than 1 star when my first 3 thoughts upon finishing were “wtaf” “are you f‘ing kidding me” and “f you” (but in my head, I didn‘t use letters... 😬). So yeah. Most definitely NOT for me. Other 1-star reviews will probably well-enough explain my reasons, but I‘m going to go and *not* think about this book anymore.....

#unpopularopinion #sorryifthisisyourfavoritebook

Excited for my September #reallifebookgroup picks! The tagged one in particular, but having heard such good things about Educated, I look forward to that too! 👏🏽👏🏽

Also — received a lovely surprise from @AmyG yesterday! Thank you so much!! ♥️🥰🥰🥰 #CozySwap

TMW you finish three books in one weekend. This was the last of my summer break starters...so I imagine my pace will slow down some.

And don‘t think I haven‘t noticed my @Litsy score going up. I can‘t wait til I break 1000!

This is the love-child of Atwood‘s Oryx and Crake with Handmaid‘s Tale, yet is certainly strong enough to stand on it‘s own two feet. Great read talking about, as the inside flap states, female agency, love, self determination, biology, and natural rights.

My love affair with Louise Erdrich‘s writing continues.

Dystopian tale of a near future where evolution starts to reverse, women are forced to conceive, and pregnant women are imprisoned. Cedar is a woman fighting for her life and the life of her unborn baby, telling her story in a journal written for the baby. Very original (this is not The Handmaid‘s Tale at all, despite the comparisons I‘ve seen), beautiful, scary, and haunting.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

@Jerdencon @Shakespearience @RavenLovelyReads I think I'm going to go with future home of the living god for #lmpbc unless anyone has any objections. Getting started on it tonight as long as you all approve 😊

My first Erdrich and certainly not my last. The beginning took a bit to get into, but the plot moves faster in Part II. Some strong similarities to THE HANDMAIDS TALE, but it stands strong on its own and I might like it better. 😬 A haunting tale about women‘s bodies and the power given to and taken from them. An important reminder today. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #booked2019 #indigenousauthor

This book was originally part of #botmchallenge 2017, and ever since then, I didn‘t feel like I gave it a proper shot. So now I‘m going to try it or #indigenousauthor for #booked2019. I‘m feeling a little dystopian. 🤞🏻🤞🏻 I like this cover more than the creepy sonogram!

I read a whole bunch of books in May. I also started 5 that I hope to finish in June!

Set in an indeterminate future, the characters are expecting a crisis. Cedar Hawke Songmaker was adopted and raised by a hippie couple.She knows that her heritage is Ojibwe.Now that she is pregnant, she travels to visit her birth mother to find out if she needs to worry about inherited medical conditions. Meanwhile, pregnant women are being rounded up by the government, and that begins Cedar‘s flight to save her baby. #indigenousauthor #booked2019

In a world that‘s turning back evolution at an alarming rate, Cedar and her family must escape great and dangerous odds to protect the mysterious fetus that‘s growing inside of her.

Read April 11-14
Book 21/55

Passed this statue that reminded me of Aslan on today‘s #audiowalk . #litsywalkers

I passed this beautiful tree in bloom while doing my #audiowalk. Also admired the lovely swing under the tree.
Just started this “play away” for #booked2019 #indigenousauthor

#tbt to when I saw the paperback edition of the tagged book (which I read as a #BOTM in 2017) at the local bookstore in Pam Beach last week. This cover makes me want to #reread this book (just as soon as I‘m ready to jump into rereads again!)

It was a lovely shop & I was reminded that I need to make a better effort to #shopindie. Looking forward to warmer weather on this #springsolstice & to upcoming #audiowalk adventures with my Little Dude!