In the past couple of weeks, my reading has slowed down, but my time has been filled with some other fulfilling additions. I have never been someone who enjoys exercising. Quite frankly, I have avoided running and dreaded the idea of the discomfort of exercise. However, I’ve been disappointed with my lack of strength and wanted to commit to physical exercise more regularly for all aspects of my health. Yoga has been a positive in my life, but I wanted to add cardio. My dad used to run marathons and triathlons, and my fiancé and his family have run 5ks, half marathons, and full marathons for charity. I have so much admiration for that, but I have been too intimidated to start. It was easy to avoid the discomfort for this many years.
Getting a gym membership changed that for me. My salary is significantly lower in Guam with a much higher price of living, so if I was going to commit to a $65 monthly fee, I knew I needed to commit to being in the gym in a meaningful way. When I arrive after work, it’s pretty empty. There’s usually only one other woman on the treadmills, and the other women present are usually occupied in a group fitness class. The first day, I walked quickly for the majority of the time and jogged a little. I listened to my audiobook but really could not get into the movement. My mom suggested putting a video on my phone, and it made a big difference for me. Having something more engaging to listen to kept my attention for longer, but the real gamechanger was the numbers on the machine.
I am my own biggest critic, and I don’t like to disappoint myself. If I set out to do something, I want to see it done. Seeing the time and miles logged so clearly in front of me, it became easy to hold myself accountable to staying for a certain amount of time or to challenge myself to up the speed for a certain amount of time or distance. I might be uncomfortable, but I can see that there’s a clear end goal to that discomfort. Plus, I love being able to document my mile times and have a clear victory to celebrate. I’m not signing up for any races any time soon, but racing myself has brought me so much satisfaction. I can’t say I love running, but I definitely don’t hate it anymore.
Back to the books! In this edition, I’ve got a buzzy fiction title I have complicated feelings about and a highly anticipated nonfiction title that was a clear disappointment for me.
James by Percival Everett (major spoiler included)
Every year, there seem to be a few books that sweep the literary awards. In 2024, my Instagram and email feeds were flooded with notifications that James had won yet another award or recognition. It was named the 2024 Barnes and Noble Book of the Year, National Book Award Winner, one of the New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of the Year, part of the shortlist for the Booker Prize, and a Kirkus Prize Winner. Plus, Steven Spielberg is set to produce a film adaptation. I was curious about what made this book so compelling and laudable, and I was also intrigued by the concept: Everett aimed to retell Twain’s famous coming-of-age story, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, from the point of view of Jim.
Was James worth the hype? It certainly made for good book club material as it explores ideas about the power (or lack thereof) of language and identity as well as the importance of found family. If you’ve read books like The Vanishing Half or Passing, you would already be familiar with the power that passing for white would have for African Americans during slavery and Jim Crow, and the conversations surrounding the practice would be less revelatory. Similarly, having taken linguistics and literature classes in college, the power of language to make someone seem more or less intelligent, authoritative, threatening, capable, etc… was not a new concept for me. So yes, it has plenty of content to discuss, but, for me, it didn’t add any new epiphanies and these themes could become a bit heavy-handed.
While the original text sees Jim act as a surrogate father to Huck and demonstrate what honor, love, and care look like, Everett’s retelling takes the relationship a step further by revealing that Jim is SPOILER actually Huck’s biological father. This revelation adds a level of interesting complexity to the text and adds an explanation for Jim’s selfless devotion to the reckless and adventure-loving boy. This twist was one I enjoyed but also struggled with. I like that it adds depth to Pap’s conflict with Huck and adds a further layer of love to Jim’s protection of Huck through their many trials and tribulations. It raised questions about identity and whether that is something you can choose. In this case, Huck, in theory, has the choice to identify with his father’s race to remain a comfortable member of his southern society or to lose the privileges his passing grants him in order to gain a loving family. However, Jim’s secret parentage had stripped Huck of that choice, and any attempt to merge himself with Jim’s world would feel strange, inauthentic, dangerous, and foolish. As Jim persuasively argues, why would Huck abandon the safety of his identity that lets him live among kind and generous people and travel the country as he pleases for a father who can show him kindness regardless of his identity.
The reason I did not love this change is that, I feel, it minimizes the enormity of Jim’s sacrifices for Huck. While it does provide a much clearer reason as to why Jim would show such kindness to the orphaned boy, it also makes his actions seem less noble and heroic. As a parent, of course he would love and protect his child. As a friend, it is a far greater deed to love and protect Huck through all of the challenges and threats to their lives. Yes, it is selfless that Jim had Pap raise Huck so he could live as a white boy in their cruel community, but Huck’s mother could not have safely revealed Huck’s true parentage without devastating consequences from her husband and society. Plus, given the hatred of the time, Jim would have been killed had his relationship been discovered. Again, this results in a less genuine spirit of selflessness but a greater complexity surrounding identity. It is not a good or a bad change, I suppose. It is just different and leads to a different conversation.
I listened to this one on audio, and the narration really brings the dialogue to life. Everett’s fluent use of dialect is a crucial part of the narrative, and hearing it spoken adds richness and personality to the story.
Ultimately, do I recommend James? It’s not going to land in my top books of the year, but if the themes stir your interest, it may be one that you enjoy, especially for Everett’s commitment to dialect and adding agency to a classic but often overlooked character.
Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering by Malcolm Gladwell
I hate to say it, but Malcolm Gladwell let me down with this one. While Gladwell’s research and logical arguments can take some leaps and paths that don’t always convince me, I, for the most part, enjoy his eclectic collections of anecdotes and social science research that have made me think about success, communication, and the intricacies of the human experience in new ways. I had my AP Language and Composition class read Outliers for their summer reading book, and while we questioned some of his logic (as we all should), it was a great introduction to the rhetorical triangle and supporting claims with compelling evidence.
Gladwell’s research can definitely focus on the more depressing and disappointing choices humans make, but I felt like there was a new and unpleasant heaviness, disappointment, and pessimism with his work. The stories he chose to tell included COVID, the opioid epidemic, and Medicare fraud, and I felt like his research did not offer any information that we have not been inundated with in an increasingly decisive era of journalism. His argument about superspreaders raised troubling ethical questions whose implications are incredibly damaging, and this book has really turned me off from reading any of his future work. His eclectic points do not readily tie together, and the “big reveal” he tries to set up with his Sackler family drama has been so widely written about and investigated that I was left scratching my head as to why this normally creative author chose such an obvious event as the leading hook. I’m glad I did not purchase this cynical and more poorly written rehash of his first major work.
Watching: Bright Sun Travels has become my YouTube obsession lately. He documents his experiences on various cruise ships and staying in luxury hotels, and his humorous review of the Margaritaville ship is my favorite video I’ve seen in a while.
Eating: Tom and I made a homemade Chipotle spread at home because we’ve missed fast-casual Mexican food. It was genuinely one of my favorite meals in the past few weeks. I also made this delicious red wine and oyster mushroom sauce for some fresh salmon and this Lent-friendly chickpea salad that is going to be a staple in my lunch meal prep.
Doing: Tom and I had a date night at Leo Palace Resort, a weirdly empty and sprawling hotel and living complex about 15 minutes from our home. It’s been described as a zombie apocalypse ghost-town in some reviews, and while I wouldn’t go that far, it’s definitely a lot emptier and quieter than you would expect. Tom loves to play ping pong, so we rented paddles and had a fun competition with each other. I still prefer regular tennis over table tennis, though!
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