Z is for Zeitgeist

I’m doing folklore and book review posts to reach and please a larger audience. Previous years have shown select interest in both and to minimise blogging throughout the year, I’m focusing my efforts on April.

Focusing on an A to Z of my TBR (to be read) list, each letter will have books starting with that letter on my list, a book I’ve read and reviewed (with the review!) and one of my books matching the letter with a link about more info about the book.

I chose the books this year quite randomly from my Goodreads Want to Read page. Some are quite creatively added to letters.

If you’d rather check out my folklore post for today, go here.

You can read reviews for from previous years for this letter here, here and here, and my year-end reviews here, here, here, here, and, most recently, here and here.

My TBR

About the Book I’ve Read

zeitgeist n the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

This book captures the current climate quite well.

About the Book

She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey

For many years, reporters had tried to get to the truth about Harvey Weinstein’s treatment of women. Rumors of wrongdoing had long circulated. But in 2017, when Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey began their investigation into the prominent Hollywood producer for the New York Times, his name was still synonymous with power. During months of confidential interviews with top actresses, former Weinstein employees, and other sources, many disturbing and long-buried allegations were unearthed, and a web of onerous secret payouts and nondisclosure agreements was revealed. These shadowy settlements had long been used to hide sexual harassment and abuse, but with a breakthrough reporting technique Kantor and Twohey helped to expose it. But Weinstein had evaded scrutiny in the past, and he was not going down without a fight; he employed a team of high-profile lawyers, private investigators, and other allies to thwart the investigation. When Kantor and Twohey were finally able to convince some sources to go on the record, a dramatic final showdown between Weinstein and the New York Times was set in motion.

Nothing could have prepared Kantor and Twohey for what followed the publication of their initial Weinstein story on October 5, 2017. Within days, a veritable Pandora’s box of sexual harassment and abuse was opened. Women all over the world came forward with their own traumatic stories. Over the next twelve months, hundreds of men from every walk of life and industry were outed following allegations of wrongdoing. But did too much change—or not enough? Those questions hung in the air months later as Brett Kavanaugh was nominated to the Supreme Court, and Christine Blasey Ford came forward to testify that he had assaulted her decades earlier. Kantor and Twohey, who had unique access to Ford and her team, bring to light the odyssey that led her to come forward, the overwhelming forces that came to bear on her, and what happened after she shared her allegation with the world.

In the tradition of great investigative journalism, She Said tells a thrilling story about the power of truth, with shocking new information from hidden sources. Kantor and Twohey describe not only the consequences of their reporting for the #MeToo movement, but the inspiring and affecting journeys of the women who spoke up—for the sake of other women, for future generations, and for themselves.

Check it out on Goodreads.

My Review

This in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at how investigative reporting works and how these reporters were able to find, verify and use incriminating evidence of a predator over decades was quite fascinating. How it all came together to help women heal – and put a predator out of business and behind bars – felt like a fairy tale, as there’s a pervasive, global culture of victim blaming.

I liked that there was focus on more than just one bad guy, as not all of them faced consequences. The attitude of some of the people regarding survivors was quite despicable. And those who enabled the predators and even defended them are, IMO, as bad as the rapists.

With victims refusing to come forward, it reminded me of an old TV ad about women on a bus, two out of three had their mouths taped shut, and the voice-over said that keeping quiet about sexual assault doesn’t help you, only makes the problem worse (or something like that) and a helpline to call for assistance. Though some still blamed a tokoloshe instead of the real predator, they got medical and other help. I hope the #MeToo movement is as powerful as that ad (we even have female artists doing activist displays to raise the issue in South Africa decades after that ad ran) and that the shame falls squarely where it belongs: on the predator, not the victim.

Heavy reading material, but with lots to think about. I liked that the narrative was factual and not emotional, making it easier to read. Highly recommended.

About the Book

Shamed: The Honour Killing That Shocked Britain – by the Sister Who Fought for Justice by Sarbjit Kaur Athwal

In 1998, Sarbjit Athwal was called by her husband to attend a family meeting. It looked like just another family gathering. An attractive house in west London, a large dining room, two brothers, their mother, one wife. But the subject they were discussing was anything but ordinary. At the head of the group sat the elderly mother. She stared proudly around, smiling at her children, then raised her hand for silence. ‘It’s decided then,’ the old lady announced. ‘We have to get rid of her.’

‘Her’ was Surjit Athwal, Sarbjit’s sister-in-law. Within three weeks of that meeting, Surjit was dead: lured from London to India, drugged, strangled, and her body dumped in the Ravi River, never to be seen again.

After the killing, risking her own life, Sarbjit fought secretly for justice for nine long, scared years. Eventually, with immense bravery, she became the first person within a murderer’s family ever to go into open court in an honour killing trial as the Prosecution’s key witness, and the first to waive her anonymity in such a trial. As a result of her testimony, the trial led to the first successful prosecution of an honour killing without the body ever being found.

But her story doesn’t end there. Since the trial, her life has been threatened; her own husband arrested after an allegation of intimidation. Shamed is a story of fear and of horror – but also of immense courage, and a woman who risked everything to see that justice was done.

Check it out on Goodreads.

My Review

It’s the type of book that has you reeling.

Sarbjit does her best to explain her culture and why some things a western woman would question was just part of life for her and so many others. Being female made her a second-class citizen since the moment she was born. I’m not going to go into my disbelief that people can treat a girl that way in the latter half of the 20^th century or my anger that she was merely a slave in her husband’s house without any agency.

I think what truly angered me was the authorities showing no concern to any of her brave attempts to tip the CrimeStop helpline or the letter she wrote about the planned murder on her sister-in-law. Seriously? Was it because it was a young woman who had been murdered or was it because she wasn’t white? It’s bad enough that young women got murdered and dumped in a river by their own relatives…

Throughout the abuse (mostly psychological), Sarbjit stayed strong. And when it was the right time, the right person, she spoke up. Not just for the sister-in-law she lost, but for every young woman who could possibly “shame” their family by having any agency at all – and end up murdered for it.

This idea of shame and honour being everything is an odd concept to me, but is was clearly illustrated throughout the narrative, making what Sarbjit did so much braver as she didn’t just stand up for what’s right, but against everything she’d ever been taught to believe.

An interesting read.

Trigger warnings: physical and psychological abuse by family members and community members.

About the Book

Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll

An extraordinary novel inspired by the real-life sorority targeted by America’s first celebrity serial killer in his final murderous spree.

January 1978. A serial killer has terrorized women across the Pacific Northwest, but his existence couldn’t be further from the minds of the vibrant young women at the top sorority on Florida State University’s campus in Tallahassee. Tonight is a night of promise, excitement, and desire, but Pamela Schumacher, president of the sorority, makes the unpopular decision to stay home—a decision that unwittingly saves her life. Startled awake at 3 a.m. by a strange sound, she makes the fateful decision to investigate. What she finds behind the door is a scene of implausible violence—two of her sisters dead; two others, maimed. Over the next few days, Pamela is thrust into a terrifying mystery inspired by the crime that’s captivated public interest for more than four decades.

On the other side of the country, Tina Cannon has found peace in Seattle after years of hardship. A chance encounter brings twenty-five-year-old Ruth Wachowsky into her life, a young woman with painful secrets of her own, and the two form an instant connection. When Ruth goes missing from Lake Sammamish State Park in broad daylight, surrounded by thousands of beachgoers on a beautiful summer day, Tina devotes herself to finding out what happened to her. When she hears about the tragedy in Tallahassee, she knows it’s the man the papers refer to as the All-American Sex Killer. Determined to make him answer for what he did to Ruth, she travels to Florida on a collision course with Pamela—and one last impending tragedy.

Bright Young Women is the story about two women from opposite sides of the country who become sisters in their fervent pursuit of the truth. It proposes a new narrative inspired by evidence that’s been glossed over for decades in favor of more salable headlines—that the so-called brilliant and charismatic serial killer from Seattle was far more average than the countless books, movies, and primetime specials have led us to believe, and that it was the women whose lives he cut short who were the exceptional ones.

Check it out on Goodreads.

My Review

Though a fictional account from the POV of various women who either fell prey to or survived the serial killer everyone knows of all over the world, it felt like a true-crime podcast with a before, during, after skip through time to bring it all together – with jumps to the future (our present) to know that at least one of the women lived a fulfilled life after all that had happened.

I liked that the psycho who got so much gushing media attention was merely referred to as The Defendant throughout the book.

It felt like one was transported back to the 70s for most of the tale with fashion and the way people acted strong in the worldbuilding without detracting from the horrors of what only a few of the women survived. I’m glad that the horrors were given in a factual manner instead of hidden or glamorised.

Personally, I’ve never watched a documentary/movie about this guy because the media had already turned him into a reality star instead of just telling the truth of what had happened and condemn him for his actions. Why would I watch something that would make someone like him seem like a misunderstood hero? Grr. The premise of this book, giving voice to the women – the victims and survivors – and robbing him of his reality TV stardom, intrigued me.

The psychological questions throughout (why people hero-worshipped him) was an interesting layer to the story, mostly because only a true psychopath could do what he had done and then say with conviction that they’re the victim.

Heavy reading but well-written.

Trigger warnings (in case the review and blurb weren’t enough): rape (women and girls), abduction, necrophilia, misogyny in all its horrible forms, homophobia, victim blaming, grooming, murder, blood, physical and psychological abuse of women and girls, assault with a deadly weapon.

About the Book

The Furies: Women, Vengeance, and Justice by Elizabeth Flock

Renowned journalist and author of The Heart is a Shifting Sea Elizabeth Flock investigates what few dare to confront, or even imagine: the role and necessity of female-led violence in response to systems built against women.

In The Furies, Elizabeth Flock examines how three real-life women have used violence to fight back, and how views of women who defend their lives are often distorted by their depictions in media and pop culture. These three immersive narratives follow Brittany Smith, a young woman from Stevenson, Alabama, who killed a man she said raped her but was denied the protection of the Stand-Your-Ground law; Angoori Dahariya, leader of a gang in Uttar Pradesh, India, dedicated to avenging victims of domestic abuse; and Cicek Mustafa Zibo, a fighter in a thousands-strong all-female militia that battled ISIS in Syria. Each woman chose to use lethal force to gain power, safety, and freedom when the institutions meant to protect them—government, police, courts—utterly failed to do so. Each woman has been criticized for their actions by those who believe that violence is never the answer.

Through Flock’s propulsive prose and remarkable research on the ground—embedded with families, communities, and organizations in America, India, and Syria—The Furies examines, with exquisite nuance, whether the fight for women’s safety is fully possible without force. Do these women’s acts of vengeance help or hurt them, and ultimately, all women? Did they create lasting change in entrenched misogynistic and paternalistic systems? And ultimately, what would societies in which women have real power look like?

Across mythologies and throughout history, the stories of women’s lives frequently end with their bodies as sites of violence. But there are also celebrated tales of women, real and fictional, who have fought back. The novelistic accounts of these three women provoke questions about how to achieve true gender equality, and offer profound insights in the quest for answers.

Check it out on Goodreads.

My Review

This book left me seething: it’s clear that if the man had killed the other man in defence of the woman, it was okay. But because she defended herself, it wasn’t. And the rapist’s friend saying you can’t rape the willing… Really?

Though I read nonfiction to learn more about other people and cultures, there’s something about this book that sets my teeth on edge.

DNF 15%

My Book

Irascible Immortals Volume 1-9

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