Review: If You Would Have Told Me (by John Stamos)

My Rating: 3.5 stars

I recently started getting into audiobooks because I was seriously feeling the overwhelm of having a mile-high TBR and I figured this would be a way for me to get through more books.  I had actually tried audiobooks several years ago, but the experience wasn’t good, so I had abandoned the effort.  However, recently, as I was trying to figure out how to get through more of my TBR, I decided to look into audiobooks more and came across some articles that talked about understanding your own audiobook style.  Something clicked in my brain and I realized that audiobooks didn’t work for me before because I was “reading” the wrong kinds of books via audio. 

In assessing my own reading style overall, I realize that I have some perfectionist tendencies which cause me to take an overly disciplined approach to reading.  This manifests in different ways for me, but mostly, it means that I need to be very focused and pay close attention to what I’m reading – an approach that works well for the types of books I’m usually drawn to -- i.e.: literary and historical fiction with gorgeous prose, contemporary fiction about relatable society issues, emotionally nuanced fiction that makes me both laugh and cry, etc..  I can’t read these types of books via audio because it’s hard for me to concentrate, as I am usually doing something else at the same time, which distracts me from paying as close attention as I need to in order for the story to sink in.  So based on this, I figured out that the best books for me to “read” on audio are ones where I don’t need to pay as much attention and, more importantly, I don’t need to hang on to every single word – for me, this means memoirs, essay collections, narrative nonfiction, and some genre fiction such as mystery/thriller titles with compelling plots. This has quickly become a life-changer for me, as I am able to get through so many more books than I would have been able to otherwise – I just need to make sure I choose the right books.

One of the first books I decided to read on audio was John Stamos’s memoir If You Would Have Told Me.  There are not too many Hollywood celebrities whose memoirs I’m interested in reading (in fact, I usually try to stay away from celebrity memoirs if I can help it, but that’s a discussion for another time), but as a huge Full House fan back in the day, I unsurprisingly put this on my TBR as soon as it came out.

I have to admit that I was a tad bit disappointed with this one, but I think that’s because I didn’t have the right expectations going into it.  In my mind, the character that John Stamos will always be most associated with is Uncle Jesse from Full House, so I was anticipating that there would be a lot of behind-the-scenes insights about his experience on the show that, essentially, made him a household name.  While Stamos does talk about his Full House days here, that is actually a relatively small portion of the book overall.  Aside from the expected biographical stuff about his childhood and family (which I did find insightful), the chapters about his career mostly focus on his relationship with the Beach Boys, comedian Don Rickles, and the other entertainment industry folks who had mentored him throughout his long career.  Since I had never watched any of Stamos’s performances outside of Uncle Jesse (though I knew of his stints on General Hospital and ER), I was admittedly less interested in these other aspects of his career, so I ended up zoning out a bit during some of those sections.

Overall, the sections I enjoyed most were the ones where Stamos talked about the life-long relationships he developed with the Full House cast and crew.  The chapter on the late Bob Saget was especially moving and well done and of course, brought tears to my eyes. I also enjoyed the chapter about Stamos’s experience working with James Earl Jones on Broadway (I never would’ve guessed that Darth Vader was once a mentor to Uncle Jesse, lol).  It was also heartwarming to read about Stamos’s close relationship with his parents and sisters, which was a nice departure from the typically strained and messy relationships that so many celebrities have with their families.

I’m glad I finally got a chance to read this and while it wasn’t what I expected, it was still worth the effort, especially on audio where I was able to get other things done at the same time.  Speaking of the audiobook, I had a bit of an interesting experience that I wanted to share.  One of the reasons I had decided to read this as an audiobook was because I was told that this would be narrated by Stamos himself, which I thought would help me get into the book easier. Maybe it has been too long since I’ve seen or heard John Stamos on TV so I’m not able to recognize his voice anymore, but the narrator honestly did not sound like him at all – in fact, for most of the book, I couldn’t help but think that perhaps my library copy of the audiobook was defective or something.  Also, some of the sections where Stamos talked about some of the shows he was in, it seemed like he was reading copy from a plot summary or something similar, as those parts sounded awkward and overly professional, like reading from a script perhaps.  But this could just be my novice experience with audiobooks – I think once I have more of them under my belt, these type of narration nuances will make more sense to me.

Review: Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane (by Devoney Looser)

My Rating:  4 stars

My celebration of Jane Austen’s 250^th birthday continues with more Austen-centered books.  This time around, I chose to read the newest essay collection from Austen scholar Devoney Looser (whose Great Courses on Austen is also worth checking out).  Those of us who have studied Austen in any capacity are probably familiar with her family’s (specifically her brother Henry Austen and her nephew James Edward Austen Leigh) attempts to paint Austen as a quiet, timid, submissive woman who “never uttered either a hasty, a silly, or a severe expression” – a “myth” that many Austen scholars have “debunked” over the years through close study of Austen’s own words (as relayed through her surviving letters) as well as her various works of both fiction and nonfiction.  Looser’s latest book – also a tribute to Austen’s 250^th birthday -- is another worthwhile attempt to debunk the “Jane Austen as a quiet spinster” myth.  The title of Looser’s book says it all – through a deeply researched exploration of various aspects of Austen’s life (and writings), Looser sets out to show the “wild side” of the beloved author while at the same time, demonstrate why so many of us continue to be “wild for Austen” in a legacy that has lasted for more than two centuries.

The book is divided into 3 sections, with part I covering pretty much all of Austen’s writing, from the Juvenilia of her teenage years to her six completed novels, as well as her two uncompleted novels (fragments) and beyond – Looser even includes excerpts from Austen’s letters and some poems she wrote (the latter of which doesn’t get usually much coverage even among the most ardent of Austen aficionados).  Part II explores the Austen family’s “wild connections,” or what Looser states in her Introduction as “the relatives, neighbors, and friends who brought her close to wild adventures, experiences, fortunes, and misfortunes.”  Part III is perhaps the most interesting in that it explores Jane Austen’s legacy and fandom – the “people who’ve gone wild over her after her death, especially those who created new uses for and versions of her powerful stories.”  I found this last section quite fascinating, especially the chapter on the P&P adaptations that didn’t end up happening (not necessarily a bad thing, to be honest) as well as some of the stories about Austen’s various “afterlives” – the good, the bad, the ugly, and the weird(?) – several of which were truly “wild.”

As a Jane Austen fan, I definitely enjoyed this book.  Further though, I appreciate Devoney Looser’s take on Austen’s legacy and the necessity of finding the right balance in both how we approach her works and how we view Austen the author.  This quote from Looser’s concluding chapter I feel illustrates this point best: “By jettisoning the idea of [Austen] as perfect, timeless, or universal, we also allow ourselves to see the ways in which her outsized influence and popularity have done good for some but may also have caused harm to others…I believe those of us who say we love her owe it to her, to ourselves, and to those who say they’ve been harmed in some way by her books or their legacy to look more deeply at the full range of effects they’ve had, past and present.”  Sound advice that could apply not just to Austen, but also any other author or public figure essentially.

Review: Northanger Abbey (by Jane Austen)

My Rating: 4.5 stars

With this month being the 250^th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, the Austen fangirl in me of course could not pass up the opportunity to celebrate such an important milestone with an Austen-themed read-a-thon of my own (not to mention this gives me the chance to finally work my way through a few of the dozens upon dozens of Austen-related books that I’ve accumulated over the years). 

To kick off my reading celebration, I decided to start with the only novel of Austen’s that I had not yet read: Northanger Abbey.  In making this decision, the first order of business, naturally, was figuring out which version of the book I would be reading, since, like many English Literature majors who are also superfans of Austen’s works, I own several different editions of all her novels -- ultimately, I opted for the version annotated by David M. Shapard.  This is actually my first time reading a fully annotated version of a novel and I’m so glad I made this choice because it really elevated and enhanced the reading experience for me.  As the type of reader who enjoys learning about historical and other background context in my reading (especially when it comes to aspects of a story that I find interesting), an annotated version is right up my alley in that it allows me to indulge in all the nerdy delight of going down literary rabbit holes (though the downside, of course, is that it does take me longer to get through the book).

Northanger Abbey is the first of Austen’s six novels to reach fully finished, ready-for-publication form, though ironically, it was one of the last of her novels to be published, coming out together with her last complete novel Persuasion after her death.  As her first novel, Northanger Abbey can be considered Austen’s bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel, that serves as the bridge between the juvenilia she wrote in her youth and the more intricately complex and nuanced maturity of her later works.  It is perhaps because NA was written so early in Austen’s career -- along with the fact that the novel had already been submitted for publication many years before it was actually published (she had submitted it to a publisher in 1803 who never did anything with it, so her brother bought the rights back and published the novel 14 years later, in 1817) – that it lacks some of the subtle wit and sophisticated sardonic humor of say, Pride and Prejudice (my favorite of her works).  In comparisons, the humor here is more straightforward, as Austen makes it pretty clear that she wrote this book as a parody of the “novel” – specifically the Gothic novel (or what was referred to as “sentimental novels” during that time). That said, as someone who has read and studied the form, I must say that the way Austen parodies Gothic novels in here (the focus is mostly on Ann Radcliff’s The Mysteries of Udolpho, which makes sense given that Radcliff is the “godmother” of the form) is nothing short of brilliant.  Throughout Northanger Abbey, Austen subtly compares and contrasts the heroine and hero, Catherine Morland and Henry Tilney, with the heroine and hero typically depicted in Gothic novels to produce a satiric juxtaposition that is both clever and ironic.

Speaking of the main heroine and hero – the Catherine Morland / Henry Tilney pairing is now officially my third favorite pairing in Austen’s novels (after Lizzy / Darcy at #1 and Anne / Wentworth at #2).  I honestly didn’t think I would like Catherine much at first, as I’m not a fan of naïve (aka meek, ignorant, childish, weak, etc.) characters and that had been largely how I had heard Catherine described in much of the scholarship around the novel – but after finally reading this novel myself, I’ve found that those descriptions of her don’t do her justice.  Yes, there were quite a few instances where she acts immaturely and her naivete gets the better of her (she is only 17 years old in the novel, after all, and lived a pretty sheltered life before her experiences in Bath), but what I appreciate about her character is that she grows and evolves and ultimately learns from her mistakes.  Also, she is one of the few heroines who doesn’t get “duped” by the obvious villainous suitor (the iteration in this story being John Thorpe) – one of my favorite scenes is in Chapter XIII of Volume I when Thorpe (and his annoying sister Isabella) try to force Catherine into canceling her appointment with the Tilneys through backhanded power plays, but instead of falling for it (which would be the expected reaction due to her lack of experience in “seeing through” people), she literally (and physically) defies them and runs after the Tilneys to clear things up (I actually yelled out “you go girl!!!” during that scene, lol).

Regarding Henry Tilney – let me just say that he is one of the wittiest heroes in all of Austen’s novels.  I love the fact that he can be witty and engaging and fun yet also serious and level-headed when he needs to be.  And yes, he has one of the best lines in the entire book – in response to Catherine’s assertion that men don’t read novels (because that is what John Thorpe told her when he dismissed her reading habits earlier), Henry responds with: “The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” That response alone is enough to endear him to me forever, lol!

Lastly, I want to comment on my rating for this book.  As I mentioned in my previous reviews of Austen’s works, all her novels honestly deserve 5 stars in my book (and the reality is that I have rated all her novels as such except Mansfield Park, my least favorite of her works, which I still rated 4.5 stars).  My biggest complaint with Northanger Abbey is that the ending is super rushed and it also doesn’t address the fates of the supporting characters – specifically the “villain” characters such as the annoyingly duplicitous Thorpes – which makes the story overall a little less satisfying because for me, part of the “fun” of reading Austen is to see these characters get their comeuppance.  That doesn’t really happen in this case -- at least not to the extent that Austen does so in her later novels, which I would say is the one main blemish with this book that caused me to rate it 4.5 stars (which, of course, is still very high).

What a great way to kick off my Austen reading month!  Can’t wait to continue my immersion in the world of Austen in the coming weeks!

Katabasis (by R.F. Kuang)

My Rating: 3 stars

My first thought after finishing this book is that I am most definitely NOT the right audience for it, as majority of the story went way over my head. To say that I struggled with this book is an understatement -- if I had to assign a number, I would probably say that I only understood maybe 60% of the story (and that’s being generous).  My problem with this book wasn’t in the writing, as it’s a known fact that R.F. Kuang can absolutely write (and beautifully at that) – rather, I felt that Kuang tried to cram too much into this book and made it way denser than it really needed to be.  What I mean by this is that Kuang incorporates an insane amount of philosophical, mathematical, and scientific concepts (some explained, some not) and name drops numerous philosophers and scholars along with the theories they specialized in (to the point that she had to “explain” some of the scholarship in an Author’s Note at the end of the book) – which had the effect of convoluting and overwhelming the story in a way that I felt was unnecessary.  In fact, the academic overload felt so intense at times that I found myself having to dig deep in order to unbury the story that Kuang was trying to tell (and even then, I still felt like I didn’t “get” majority of what she was trying to say, lol) – the result being that this was a tremendously tedious and exhausting read that I’m not really sure was worth the effort.  At some point probably a third of the way through, I started skimming not paragraphs, but pages, as I felt like I was reading the same sentences 3-4 times but still not understanding a single word, and I was starting to get anxious about wasting my time.

As I was reading, one thing that became quite obvious to me is that this book was written by someone with a deep, intimate knowledge of academia – which makes sense given that Kuang, with her Masters and Doctorate degrees from Cambridge, Oxford, and Yale, is practically a scholar in her own right.  Now don’t get me wrong – I have nothing against pursuing higher education (I actually have a Master’s degree myself so I’m kind of partial to that world too), but I think that sometimes a background like that can have an unintended impact on the work you produce that is meant for mass consumption.  Specifically, the way that the book was written, it seemed to take for granted the fact that most “ordinary” readers would not be well-versed in philosophical theories, mathematical formulas, scientific hypotheses, etc. that someone from the academic world would probably be more familiar with (though with that said, even someone like me with a higher level academic degree was still completely lost in this instance).  In hindsight, if I had known how philosophically and theoretically dense this book would be (especially towards the subjects of math and science), I probably would not have chosen to pick this one up (at least not during this particular time when I’m already overwhelmed and exhausted from work and family obligations).

Given everything I said above, those reading this review might be wondering why I didn’t rate this book lower (as I would have in similar circumstances).  Part of the reason is because of the writing, as I mentioned earlier – Kuang is a skillful writer and her strength in worldbuilding (from her roots as a fantasy writer no doubt) definitely shines here.  The detail with which she describes Alice and Peter’s journey through Hell is truly astounding -- I can’t help but admire her ability to take such an obscure premise and build out such an intricate story from it.  Also, I truly did enjoy the last 50 or so pages, including the way the ending played out (which I felt like Kuang nailed this time, especially when compared to her previous novel Yellowface).

Overall, I would say that this was an “okay” read – not entirely a waste of time but also not the best use of my time either.  I’m just glad I finally got through it and can now move on to other books that will hopefully work out better for me.

Received ARC from Harper Voyager via NetGalley.