Book Review: Whose Names are Unknown by Sanora Babb

Published: January 1, 2004
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Received: purchased through Life's Library
Read from July 19. 2021 to January 9, 2022

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Originally written and slated for publication in 1939, this long-forgotten masterpiece was shelved by Random House when The Grapes of Wrath met with wide acclaim. In the belief that Steinbeck already adequately explored the subject matter, Babb's lyrical novel about a farm family's relentless struggle to survive in both Depression-era Oklahoma and in the California migrant labor camps gathered dust for decades.

Rescued from obscurity by the University of Oklahoma Press, the members of the poor but proud Dunne family and their circle of equally determined friends provide another legitimate glimpse into life on the dust-plagued prairies of the Southwest and in the fertile, but bitterly disappointing, orchards and vineyards of the so-called promised land. Babb, a native of Oklahoma's arid panhandle and a volunteer with the Farm Security Administration in Depression-era California, brings an insider's knowledge and immediacy to this authentically compelling narrative. A slightly less political, more female-oriented, companion piece to The Grapes of Wrath.

Review:

Whose Names are Unknown was one of the Life's Library picks for 2021. The novel was meant to be published in 1939, but when The Grapes of Wrath was published, it was decided that the book was too similar, and it never went to print. It wasn't until 2004, right before Babb's death, that the University of Oklahoma Press finally published the book.

As I haven't read The Grapes of Wrath, I can't judge how similar the two books are, though I admit that it does seem strange to me that two books that focus on something so large in US history would be too similar to exist at the same time does seem strange to me.

The novel focuses on a family during the Great Depression. At the start of the novel, they're living in the Oklahoma panhandle struggling to survive despite frequent dust storms. Later on in the novel, they travel to California to find work.

While I'm not sure exactly how many years the novel covers, we're with the characters for what felt like a long time, and I enjoyed getting to see the same characters for that long. When the family leaves for California, they also leave their neighbors behind, and we don't get to hear much about those characters again, which was sad after spending so much time with them. The characters were the best part of the book for me. I felt very attached and wanted to help them somehow.

This book is far from a quick read. It took me about six months to finish, but that's not because it's long. The only plot the book has is a family trying to survive. While I was very drawn into the family's struggles, it wasn't a story where I was on the edge of my seat and desperately needed to keep reading to see what happened next. My experience felt much more contemplative, and I was comfortable reading it in small doses over a longer period of time instead of flying through it.

The ending of the book is also ambiguous. There's no real closure. At the end of the story, they're still in the midst of the Great Depression, and the characters don't know how they'll survive. You get the sense that it'll be more of the same for a while. That made the characters' suffering feel even more real because there was no easy fix to it.

I did enjoy this book as a slower read. If you want something faster paced, it probably won't be for you, but if a slower book isn't a problem for you, I recommend picking it up.

Book Review: An African American and Latinx History of the United States by Paul Ortiz

Published: January 30, 2018
Publisher: Beacon Press
Received: purchased
Read from November 30, 2021 to January 6, 2022

Synopsis from Goodreads:

An intersectional history of the shared struggle for African American and Latinx civil rights

Spanning more than two hundred years, An African American and Latinx History of the United States is a revolutionary, politically charged revisionist history, arguing that Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa—otherwise known as "The Global South"—were crucial to the development of America as we know it. Ortiz challenges the notion of westward progress, as exalted by widely-taught formulations like "Manifest Destiny" and "Jacksonian Democracy," and shows how placing African American, Latinx, and Indigenous voices unapologetically front and center transforms American history into one of the working class organizing themselves against imperialism.

In precise detail, Ortiz traces this untold history from the Jim Crow-esque racial segregation of the Southwest, the rise and violent fall of a powerful tradition of Mexican labor organizing in the 20th century, to May 1, 2006, International Workers' Day, when migrant laborers—Chicana/os, Afrocubanos, and immigrants from every continent on earth—united in the first "Day Without Immigrants" to prove the value of their labor.

Incisive and timely, An African American and Latinx History is a bottom-up history told from the viewpoint of African American and Latinx activists revealing the radically different ways that brown and black people of the diaspora addressed issues plaguing the United States today.

Review:

An African American and Latinx History of the United States is the fourth book in the series ReVisioning American History, which attempts to look at the history of the United States through the lens of groups who have been underrepresented in mainstream history books. This particular book focuses on the history of African American and Latinx people in the US, especially in ways that the two groups' histories intersect.

I'd never read a book that wove together the history of Black and Latinx people in the way this one did, and I enjoyed the (unfortunately) unique view of American history that the book provides. There are many ways in which the two groups have been connected throughout US history, and placing them together in one book really put that into context.

The book focuses a lot on labor and independence movements. I had a basic understanding of a lot of what the book talked about, but I enjoyed learning even more. Because of the timespan that the book, it really helped put what I did know into a larger context than I'd previously considered.

Despite the book being focused on the United States, a lot of the it focuses on the United States' relationship with Latin America. That's not surprising since it's incredibly important to the history of Latinx people in the US, and it's also a very important part of US history that's frequently overlooked.

This book offers a great look at both African American and Latinx history, especially in ways that they intertwine with each other, and I enjoyed getting a look at US history that we often don't.

The Book of Boba Fett "Chapter 2: The Tribes of Tatooine" Review

Episode two of The Book of Boba Fett pulled me in more than the first one, which is essentially what I was expecting as we got deeper into the story. I want to find out where this story is going.

The episode starts in the "present" with Boba Fett as a crime lord. An assassin that was sent to kill him says that it was the mayor who hired him, so Boba Fett and Fennec Shand visit said mayor, who cryptically tells Boba Fett that he has other things to worry about. Sure enough, two cousins of Jabba arrive, wanting to claim Jabba's territory.

I'm curious how big of a threat both the mayor and Jabba's relatives will be. Are they both going to be equal threats as the season progresses? Or will one become more important over the course of the story? As of right now, I find myself more interesting in the mayor than the Hutts, but since we've only seen them each once, that's only a first impression. Who knows how I'll feel after a few more episodes.

After what I think was about fifteen minutes or so in the "present," we go back to the past and stay there for the rest of the episode, which was an interesting decision. The past must have something to do with what's currently happening, but I'm still not sure how. Both timelines take place on Tatooine, so I'm assuming that's part of the connection. I don't know if Jabba is going to show up in the past and do something that makes Boba Fett want to take over his territory or what. Or are the Tuskens going to show up in the "present"?

In the "past," Boba Fett helps the Tuskens take down a train that has been shooting at them. I find his dynamics with the Tuskens odd. I don't really understand why he's helping them when they were holding him prisoner and not even giving him water to drink. It just feels very strange, and I keep waiting to learn more about what his motivations are. Right now he seems to have developed some sort of fondness for them, but that feels very weird considering how they treated him at first.

The weirdest element of this episode is that the Tuskens give Boba Fett a lizard that enters his head and makes him hallucinate. This was...bizarre. A lizard of all things? I have no idea. I don't even know what to say about it.

This episode has drawn me further into the story. I can't say that I'm in love yet, but I am invested in finding out what happens next.

Star Trek: Discovery Review: 4x07 "...But to Connect"

This episode was unexpectedly the mid-season finale, which I didn't realize until I reached the end. But it definitely has left us on a cliffhanger.

We start the episode with Zora refusing to give Stamets the coordinates to the DMA, so Zora gaining emotions has become a central part of the season. I'm enjoying seeing how her "evolving" is creating problems. I think it's an interesting thing for the show to explore even as Zora continues to personally freak me out.

Because of Zora's refusal, Kovich arrives to inspect her and see if she needs to be taken off Discovery. For the whole episode, the crew members who are there really want her to stay, except for Stamets who is skeptical. I was on Stamets' side here because Zora makes me uneasy. It's great that the others trusted her, but I'm surprised no one else was at all wary.

In the end, Zora is dubbed a new lifeform, which means she's allowed to stay on the ship. Honestly, that is more off-putting to me than if she was AI, even though I realize it probably shouldn't be. I am curious what will happen in the second half of the season now that they've realized what Zora is. I'm also curious if I'll come to trust her more myself.

While the conflict with Zora is happening, Michael and Book are at a meeting with many different planet leaders to vote on what to do about the DMA, but Michael and Book disagree. I really like that they've done this. Even though Michael had a hard time with it, it was nice to see her stick with what she believed was the right decision.

It was frustrating to watch Book disregard the vote and act on his own with Tarka. It doesn't help that I don't really care for Tarka's reasoning. It doesn't excuse his actions to me, and I don't even trust that his story was real. I'm incredibly suspicious that he's going to double cross Book and leave him in danger.

The saddest part of this episode was hearing that Gray was leaving. I'm happy that he's doing what he wants, and the scene where he and Adira talked about doing long distance was adorable. I figured this would happen once he got his body back, but I desperately hope that we get to see him again this season.

But we'll have to wait a while to see, since we aren't getting any new episodes until February. I'm curious because, with Book and Tarka doing their own thing, I imagine the next episode will pick up right where this one leaves off. But Adira was meant to go with Gray for a little while, and I think they were in the teaser for the next episode. So I'm very curious about how that's all going to play out. (But would be excited if both Adira and Gray stuck around a while longer because of the Book and Tarka thing.) We'll just have to wait a few weeks to find out.

The Book of Boba Fett "Chapter 1: Stranger in a Strange Land" Review

The Book of Boba Fett is finally here!

I admit that I wasn't as excited about this series as countless other people probably were. Boba Fett was never a character who I had many feelings for one way or the other. He was just a character who was there in a few scenes of the movies.

From the way that the series was introduced in The Mandalorian, I was more interested in Fennec Shand than anything else in this series, and after the first episode, that remains true.

So far, this show is very similar in tone to The Mandalorian. It almost feels like it's an extension of that show, but while The Mandalorian felt new, in a way, this just feels like more of that. I'm not sure if it's doing it any favors. I read an article on Pajiba about how Boba Fett is really just another Mandalorian, and at this point, I really feel that too. This is a lot like watching an alternate version of The Mandalorian.

A lot of this episode doesn't have dialogue at all or it's in Tusken with no subtitles, which I do think it an interesting decision.

Half of this episode takes place in the "present" when Boba Fett is a crime lord while the other half are the nightmares he has while in a bacta tank. In the nightmares, he's been captured by Tusken Raiders. The Tusken Raider nightmares don't really get resolved in this episode either. By the end of the episode, he's earned respect from them for killing a creature, but it's up in the air whether they consider him a prisoner or not.

We also don't get a reason why he's having these nightmares. Presumably, he could have them just because being a prisoner and essentially treated by a slave is traumatic, but for them to take up half of the episode, I'm going to expect that they have something to do with the show's larger story. We don't get much information about what that is yet though.

In the end, I wasn't blown away by this episode. I definitely still prefer The Mandalorian, but I was intrigued enough to keep watching and see how it goes.