Sarah O'Connor

Book Review: Shoot the Horses First by Leah Angstman

NotSarahConnorWrites

January 10, 2023

I received this book from The Next Best Book Club in exchange for an honest review.

Historian and author Leah Angstman’s newest book, Shoot the Horses First follows a variety of character from different historical times, showing their struggles and the time they live with care and realism. From a young boy being inspected on the Orphan Train, a wife caring for her husband suffering with PTSD from the Civil War, the yellow fever, cowboys, a woman botanist looking for the same respect as her male colleagues, a disabled woman hidden away by her wealthy family, and many more stories that tell these characters truths and bring reader’s into their lives.

Do I think it’s funny that the first book I reviewed in 2022 was by Leah Angstman and that I’m following that trend in 2023? Yes. It’s even better to be continuing the pattern and enjoying both books immensely!

I’m not very familiar with American history, so there were times some of the stories confused me based solely on my own lack of knowledge, but I still learned a lot from Angstman’s short story collection. You can tell she’s passionate about history and the stories she’s telling. I appreciated the context she gave for each of the stories at the end of the book. Angstman is also willing to write the cold, hard truths about what life was like for these people. She doesn’t romanticize things, doesn’t turn people into caricatures or make life for these characters look more beautiful than it was. It’s real, and sometimes it hurts, but it’s necessary to know the truth. It’s a truly remarkable collection that any history lover would love to have on their shelves!

I was amazed that Angstman had not one but two stories which featured disabled characters and handled them both with great respect. It’s rare to read about disabled characters in fiction, it’s even rarer for these stories to be told with respect and care and Angstman handles both these stories wonderfully. It filled my heart to see her do this and I hope we see more historical fiction (and fiction in general, honestly) write disabled characters with the same respect, care, and love that Angstman has done.

You can read my thoughts on each of the stories below: Continue reading

Surprising Saints – Saint Guinefort

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January 9, 2023

I could think of no saint more appropriate for the first post on Surprising Saints then the one and only Saint Guinefort (Geen, as in green, four), who was in fact a dog.

Yes, a dog. A greyhound to be exact!

An illustration done in a style like stained glass. A brown dog stands on four legs in the centre of the picture with a yellow halo over his head. The dog, St. Guinefort, stands on green grass and below his two front paws is a dead snake. The sky is blue behind him.

I first learned about Saint Guinefort from artist Jessica Roux’s Woodland Wardens oracle deck in which the twenty-third card, which signifies loyalty, shows a hound dog and a pear. In her description of the card, Roux tells the story of Saint Guinefort, and I was stunned to be hearing about a dog saint for the first time. Stunned, but I also couldn’t stop laughing. I mean, it’s a dog saint! I then started thinking of an alternate universe in which I had chosen Saint Guinefort as my Saint’s name instead of St. Joan of Arc (not that I actually regret choosing her, you’re the real MVP Joan!). Continue reading

Where’d You Go, Sarah?

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January 8, 2023

Nowhere, really I’ve been here. Unlike some times in the past, I’ve actually been doing a good job of keeping this site active. I changed the layout colours this year to something more me (though I do wish WordPress made it easier to customize colour themes. I pay for this domain, why can’t I customize them myself instead of using the pre-determined colour codes?), and I made this site look more like a Portfolio than a blog. I always wanted this site to look professional, to showcase my writing past, present, and current and I think it finally looks the way I want it to. And of course, the blog is important, it’s what directs most of the traffic on this site.

So what’s my issue? Continue reading

Book Review: Newborn by Agustin Maes

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December 30, 2022

I received this book from The Next Best Book Club in exchange for an honest review.

“Shafts of afternoon light rained through oak and willow and eycalyptus, the boys’ small faces stippled with fine golden sunspots as though behind lacework mourning veils knitted from shadow…Neither spoke,” (Maes 1).

I didn’t know what this book was about going in. The back of the book featured only a quote from another author praising Newborn, and another on Goodreads sharing a quote from the book. So I put together that there was a creek, that something was discovered there in a Stephen King coming of age way. So I went in blind, and I think you should do. Continue reading

Book Review: Shameless: A Sexual Reformation by Nadia Bolz-Weber

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December 23, 2022

“Whether we realize it or not, we often find ways to alleviate feelings of existential aloneness through the seeking of unity…Food, entertainment, success, sex, relationships, busyness, gossip — there are plenty of ways to divert our attention from the unavoidable, terrifying aloneness of human existence,” (Bolz-Web, Nadia, 21).

Sex has long been a taboo subject in the church, but pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber calls for a reformation of it in Shameless. Inspired by Martin Luther, Bolz-Weber listens and shares experiences from her own life as well as those of her parishioners while also looking into biblical text to normalize sex, sexuality, sexual orientation and gender identity that many church folk need to heal the harm the church has caused. Continue reading

Book Review: Everything’s Changing by Chelsea Stickle

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December 20, 2022

I received this book from The Next Best Book Club in exchange for an honest review.

“Your past is chiseled into the earth; your future is written in the air. Your time alive was precious because it was limited,” (Stickle 13, “Modern Ghosts”).

I’ve never read or reviewed a chapbook before, so this should be fun! At forty-one pages, Everything’s Changing is chalk full of truly surreal stories that I was obsessed with. Since many of the stories were very short, I won’t give each one my individual thoughts because they all deserve to be read, loved, and appreciated the way I did to them. Continue reading

Book Review: The Company of Strangers by Jen Michalski

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December 16, 2022

I received this book from The Next Best Book Club in exchange for an honest review.

“That morning he had waited at the station for the train to start running again, his head low, body shaking, and he understood why people killed, why people stopped feeling, why people stopped believing in God. He heard the first train of the day burrowing through the tunnel to his hub, and he thought of throwing himself on the tracks. But then he thought of his mother, his sister, Alvin, Elizabeth, and knew that giving love to the world was more important than the pain it gave you” (Michalski, 131, “The Goodbye Party”).

I’m always ready to read a short story collection, so when Jen Michalski’s The Company of Strangers landed in my inbox with promises of queer Gen-Xers trying to find happiness, I was excited to read more. When I started though I was shocked by how moving these stories were, how sad. The sun-drenched beach and silhouetted surfers really give the wrong idea of what this anthology is about. I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by it’s cover, but it’s something we almost can’t help doing, and the cover of The Company of Strangers really simplifies the breadth of the stories inside. I felt for so many of these characters, my heart ached for them and what they were going through and I just wanted them to find happiness. The theme of grief weaves it’s way through many of these stories, realistically and heartbreakingly so. I felt seen by these characters grief, especially in the absolutely devastating “The Goodbye Party.”

My one criticism is some formatting issues. I was given a PDF copy, so there were some strange things like the repetition of ¾ throughout that I’m sure will be fixed in it’s printed form.

The Company of Strangers is a truly marvellous collection of short stories. Michalski knows her characters and how to make her reader’s feel. I can’t wait to read more of her work!

You can read my thoughts on each of the stories below: Continue reading

Book Review: I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

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December 14, 2022

“I fear that I’m bitter. I’m too young to be bitter. Especially as a result of a life that people supposedly envy. And I fear that I resent my mother. The person I have lived for. My idol. My role model. My one true love,” (McCurdy 120).

Former child actor Jennette McCurdy reveals all about pursuing her abusive mother’s dream of becoming an actor, her struggles with eating disorders, addiction, anxiety and her struggles with accepting who her mother was and not who she believed her to be. Continue reading

Book Review: Half Life by Krista Foss

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December 12, 2022

“The trick was not to let them see you suffering,” (Foss 142).

There’s too much happening in middle-aged single parent Elin Henriksen’s life. Her distant mother’s health is declining, her teenage daughter Betts is planning on going somewhere but won’t tell Elin where, the new high school principal where she teaches disapproves of how she teaches physics, and now the art gallery in her town is going to be renamed after her late father. Tig Henriksen was a modernist furniture designer whose pieces have a cult following, and the renaming of the art gallery means Elin will have to see her estranged siblings: her singer-songwriter sister Mette and emotionally closed architect brother Caspar. With a party to plan, and her carefully balanced life seemingly falling through her fingers with her only confident a dead physicist Elin speaks to through voice notes on her phone, Elin’s own secrets that she’s been holding on to threaten to explode as they did once years before. What more damage could be done from them? Continue reading

Book Review: Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda

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December 7, 2022

“Neither the void or the cliff above it look the same to me as they do to normal people. The void, for me, has stuff in it, so it’s not a void anymore; and the cliff is engulfed by a black and measureless haze,” (Khoda 17).

Twenty-three year old Lydia is living alone and away from her mother for the first time. Recently putting her mother in a long-term care home, Lydia has just moved into a studio space in London and is about to start interning at a famous art gallery. But she’s hungry, and the only food that will keep her fed is blood, because Lydia and her mother are vampires. Long since shamed into surviving only on pig-blood, which her mother identifies as a filthy animals, Lydia yearns to eat the sashimi and ramen that her Japanese father, who died before she was born, ate and spends her time not working on art watching YouTube eating videos. Struggling with her mixed-ethnic identity, Lydia struggles for how to be in the world on her own. Continue reading