Published in 2019, it was almost as if the author wanted to predict our current situation. He has quotes from health officials and political leaders taken from this 1918 crisis that sound awfully familiar to anyone who partakes of any news in 2020. I liked his drawings showing the sick and weary succumbing to this plague by suffocation. A bit terrifying.
She Dwarf thinks she may be the last of her kind and sets off to find the lost Dwarven city of Dammerung which does not exist on any map. At the start of her quest she picks up a sidekick, the war barbarian Hack Battler. Along the way the two of them battle a wide variety of monsters and demons while trying to find the truth about the dwarves. This is a fun and amusing graphic novel which leaves itself open for a sequel, or not.
This is one of those books that I kept expecting to get better but it never did. It's not bad, but it just didn't grab me. The story revolves around the life of Su Lan, a brilliant Chinese physicist whose personal life goes off the rails after the birth of her daughter and the abandonment by the father. Su Lan emigrates to the U.S. but works randomly and moves around a lot. When she suddenly dies her daughter, Liya, takes her ashes back to China and meets the widow who helped care for her when she was an infant. She also discovers the name of her father and begins the search for him. There is nothing wrong with the story, or the writing but I was barely compelled to finish it. YMMV.
We're all pretty familiar with the story of Sherlock Holmes, brilliant London detective of the late 1800s, assisted by his faithful companion, Watson, a former army surgeon who had been injured in the war in Afghanistan. This fantastic book takes those classic characters and some of their most famous cases and turns them on their ear — Sherlock is a brilliant detective who happens to be an angel named Crow; Watson becomes Dr. Doyle, who sustained an awkward occult injury during the war; and Sherlock's nemesis Moriarty... well, let's just say he's there too, with a *perfect* twist on his character.
As in the classic tales, London is filled with mysterious murders, but this time Crow and Doyle must also determine if any vampires, werewolves, hell-hounds, or curses are in play. Oh, and then there's the problem of Jack the Ripper, who is running rampant in Whitechapel, leaving Lestrade and the rest of Scotland Yard flummoxed.
This is such a fun book to read, creating a wonderful mix of the familiar and the fresh, making these favorite classic characters even more likeable and relatable. I absolutely loved this book, and highly recommend it!
Sarah managed to escape New York City with just a few pieces of luggage and some ill-gotten funds in tow, settling in The Kingdom, a going-to-seed condominium tower in Bangkok, as she tries to figure out her next move. While she's there, she reluctantly gets to know a few other women who live at The Kingdom, all of whom have mysterious lives and questionable reasons for hanging out with each other. With a political coup brewing outside their glass tower, Sarah and her fellow Kingdom residents slowly devolve, with nobody really knowing what's going on in each other's condos.
This is a serious throwback to the thrillers of Graham Greene and Patricia Highsmith. Very atmospheric, mysterious characters, and a simmering tension running throughout. A very captivating read, recommended for those who don't necessarily need to like the characters they read about.
I love this recently published collection of Hurston short stories and I am not a fan of short stories in general. Some include characters that appeared in other works, especially the stories set in Florida. Other stories take place in Harlem. There is a recurring theme of couples having difficulties with infidelity, substance abuse, gambling, or other issues. Some of them are laugh out loud funny in spite of their serious undertones. My favorites are the ones like "Book of Harlem" that Hurston wrote in a Biblical style with numbered verses. This is a marvelous collection of her works. Included are a forward by Tayari Jones and a scholarly introduction by Genevieve West.
Aderyn (Ryn) is the town gravedigger after she took over the job when her father went missing. But the dead have a tendency to come back to life (of sorts) as Bone Houses, not exactly zombies but similar. The Bone Houses are part of an old curse originating from the nearby creepy and sometimes deadly forest. Ryn has taken it upon herself to destroy Bone Houses that threaten the town. In the mean time she is trying to keep the landlord from taking their home and turning her and her siblings in to the workhouse and orphanage. The arrival of Ellis the mapmaker coincides with an increase in the activity of the Bone Houses. Ryn decides to head into the forest to find the old mine and possibly what happened to her father. Ellis goes with her on his own mission to find the parents who abandoned him. They both must face their private demons while on the quest. It's a nice fantasy, not stellar, but good enough.
A common sense guide with fantastic photos. Great for beginners but there is something for everyone to learn. I liked the explanation of uneven growth and how to rectify it. Also the signs of over or underwatering that leave little to chance. Solid and helpful.
This play won the Pulitzer Price for drama in 1998. Li'l Bit is reminiscing about her teen years and her first sexual experience. At first is all seems pretty standard until you find out she is 13 and the "partner" is her 44 year old uncle. After that it is all just creepy and gross. Her father is kind of an ass and her mother and grandmother pretty much advise her that men are pigs but that is the way like goes. Later, you find out her mother is in tune enough to worry about the uncle and his attentions but it doesn't prevent the activity that is the center of the play.
Who can resist a book dedicated to themselves? Ok, "for librarians everywhere" isn't only me but come on...this author "gets" it.
A grandmother/granddaughter story set in NYC, Laura Lyons is a young wife of the superintendent of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue. The job comes with an apartment on the premises. She has two young children but it looking for something for HER. The family is fulfilling but she wants more so she enrolls in the newly formed Columbia School of Journalism. Her world opens up and she meets a group of women fighting for equal rights.
Two generations later, Laura's granddaughter is librarian and curator at NYPL, working in the same building where her now famous grandma lived. It is her dream job but the mysterious disappearance of some rare books puts her at risk as one of the few people who have access. As she looks for clues, she discovers that her grandfather was also suspected of stealing rare books back in 1913. Can there be a relationship between the two crimes?
I encourage you to listen to Fiona Davis on the KPL Podcast to hear more cool details about her research and process.
Edie is a young black woman, an artist with a job that pays the bills. She starts an affair with an older, white, married man in an open marriage. After losing her job, she finds herself living with her lover, befriending his wife and being a role model for their adopted black daughter. Yes, it is a little odd. But the inner voice of Edie, knowing what she is thinking and how she is feeling is very good. Ariel Blake does an interesting narration...despite the domestic drama, her voice is low key and steady. I think this reflects the character well but doesn't put it in the top of audiobooks for the year. Still, an interesting debut.
Raised in a very strict household where her parents wanted their kids to learn no cuss words, hear anything about the concept of sex, or listen to up-to-date music, the author was poking around one day and found something interesting. A bunch of "sex" books, many with illustrations, that were written by her father. She spent her childhood sneak reading the books but never asking about them. When her father develops Alzheimer's, and money problems, he tries to get her to co-author another crop of these books. This memoir has its very funny moments and the author does a great job narrating her own book but I didn't find it compelling enough to recommend widely.
Getting to know Eleanor Oliphant is a bit tough; I wasn't sure whether I would like her or not. She is 30 years old and works in the financial office at a small design company. Her strong opinions, unappealing clothing, and a large scar on her face are off-putting to some, and she feels friendless and unliked. As the story develops, her first-person narration is precious: her dry, factual manner of dealing with life is quite pithy. When she decides to set her sights on a local musician whom she's never met, everything changes. When she's also compelled to interact with Raymond, the IT guy at her company, her horizons expand. But what is the secret in her past that she has been hiding?
This book has been on my radar for a long time. I was not disappointed.
The Long Fall by Walter Mosley, 306 pages, Known to Evil by Walter Mosley, 326 pages.
When the Thrill Is Gone by Walter Mosley, 359 pages.
All I Did Was Shoot My Man by Walter Mosley, 326 pages.
Known to Evil by Walter Mosley, 326 pages
The first in the Leonid McGill series. I read Trouble Is What I Do a couple of months ago and was surprised to find that I had missed out on the other four books in this series (I thought there had only been four in total, but it turns our there are six).
While I read-read the sixth book, it's only 166 pages long, the first four books are longer, but they are all available on Overdrive. Leonid McGill is a private detective who inhabits a slightly off-kilter, 1950s noir world that is located in the modern, cell-phone and computer using New York. It was a bit disconcerting to me for a while, but I really enjoyed the world he made (or maybe described, I dunno). Leonid used to work with fewer moral guardrails, using his skills for the mob, tracking people down for retribution or to frame someone for a crime to get them out of the way. He works on his own now, using an office that he leased under some suspect circumstances and surrounded by a cast of characters who also navigate a murky, not quite amoral landscape. Women find Leonid irresistible and fearless, remorseless killers respect him, and a good part of the NYPD want to put him behind bars.
These four are all very ably narrated by Mirron Willi. He does a great job of inhabiting the characters.
Tasha starts at her new boarding school a couple of weeks into the term. Pretty much everyone is always on a diet and she is trying to fit in. One girl dies mysteriously and things just keep getting stranger. Later, a teacher dies and finally discoveries are made about the Head Master. This is told from a teen point of view, one who isn't especially interested but is doing her best to fit in. I thing the perspective is probably pretty realistic.
I don't think I'm the best audience for this book. I don't regret reading it but it isn't going to make my end of year favorites list.
When he was 12, Serapio's mother blinded him and put him through a harrowing ceremony ending in her suicide. Why? Because she claimed it would make him a god that would bring vengeance upon the Sun Priest and the Watchers that massacred her clan, Carrion Crow, many years ago. Now, 10 years and three tutors later, Serapio is making his way to the holy city of Tova to carry out this mission. But the new Sun Priest, Naranpa, is facing plenty of trouble even without Serapio's presence, with her fellow priests and the matrons of the ruling clans clamoring for her power.
While the reader knows from the outset that Nara and Serapio's paths are converging, the way their stories are told is masterfully done. Roanhorse presents us with the mythology, the politics, and the various factions of this world (based loosely on pre-Columbian indigenous folklore) to create an epic fantasy unlike any I've ever read. It's fantastic, it's amazing, and I can't wait for the next volume in this series.
*This book will be released Oct. 13, 2020.
Big ag, here we come. Two auditors for the U.S. egg industry go a little rogue and start stealing a hen here and there. But why stop there? Why not let them all go? So a plan starts being made. But these two auditors aren't just anyone. Their back story is fantastic, heart warming and wonderful. The ultimate heist - steal a million chickens! but also a story of friendship and finding yourself. I think the mix of genres and stories made this better but I'm not sure many other books could pull it off. Brittany Pressley does a great job narrating.
Almost a year ago, FBI agent Kendra Donovan slipped into a vortex and accidentally traveled back to the early 1800s in London. Since then, she's made use of her training to solve various crimes, albeit without the modern forensics (and ability to wear pants) that she's used to. In this, the fifth book in McElwain's series, Kendra once again has to figure out how to find the killer of a quiet bookkeeper and aspiring poet, all the while dealing with a potential con artist in her home and attempts on her life.
The premise for this series is certainly an intriguing one, but by the fifth book, it seems to be wearing a bit thin, even for a series newbie like myself. That said, a few of the things I was afraid would annoy me didn't, and the tale ended up being more enjoyable than anticipated. Best book of the year? No. But it's definitely interesting.
When he leaves his deteriorating forest home to assist his mother with hunting a vampire, Silver is not expecting to embark on an expedition into Fairyland. Yet that's exactly what happens when he finds himself partnered up with a bright-eyed young researcher of the supernatural (who took out the vampire that supposedly abducted her). But the fae are tricky creatures, and this journey into the titular drowned country is no easy one.
As the second book in a duology, this definitely isn't the place to meet these characters. Yet Tesh does a good job of giving this one enough backstory to allow it to exist alone. I don't know that I'd recommend reading this one without the other like I did, but it's definitely an intriguing enough story that I'll seek out the first volume.
Mary Trump writes extensively about her family, most notably her grandfather, Fred Trump; her father, Freddy Trump; and her uncle, Donald Trump. She delves into her grandfather's upbringing, and into his later relationships with his wife and children. Fred was not an emotionally supportive father and it's clear that this lack negatively affected his children. Mary (Fred's wife) did not attempt to moderate the harsh influence of her husband, but instead left the child-rearing to Fred, not trying to correct Donald's bullying behavior that was evident from a young age.
I found this book a fascinating look at family relationships by a psychologist who knows the family quite well, having grown up in the midst of it. Her vingettes capture a family whose values didn't seem to include love and emotional support. The writing flows well and the index is quite useful.
What a day for Martin and Ruby. A father daughter pair, she just out of college, unemployed and newly moved home. He, a super at a high end building in NYC that provides a basement apartment. Ruby grew up with friends in the building but today is the day she is going to learn the difference between them. Martin always aware of the differences between him and the tenants is frustrated with Ruby but loves her dearly. They both have a hard day that is documented in this book. I found this relationship of father and daughter engrossing. Amoss does a wonderful job narrating.
Julie Hall has made a career of this...how to clear things out when left with an estate full of "treasures." She gives excellent advice and tips on how to plan, deal with family members and keep things fair. Realistically, the best way is to deal with your own things and not leave them for the next generation but that is as tough if not tougher than dealing with someone else's stuff. If you have aging parents, give this a read now to figure out things you should be doing.
Mostly solid advice about letting people know that you appreciate them in the workplace. This isn't just for managers, anyone can give positive feedback that works. Only one sort of terrifying suggestion - physical touch. They do stress this is "touchy" subject but the advice seems very 2011. I think there are good points made but perhaps this suffers a little too much from "white guy advice syndrome" so not enough realization that there are other types of people in the workplace.
Suffragist Lucie has finally achieved a major goal for the cause: she's the new co-owner of a publishing house, meaning she can now publish a treatise arguing for the rights of married women to own property. But before she's even set up her office at the company, a major block has been placed in her path — the other co-owner, notorious womanizer and Lucie's longtime nemesis, Lord Ballentine. But he has his own problems, including a horrendous father who is holding Ballentine's mother as hostage until the lothario chooses a wife. Will the pair learn to work together and solve their problems?
This is a fantastic historical romance novel, with complex lead characters, believable challenges between them, and great chemistry. Dunmore obviously did plenty of research on the plight of women in the Victorian era, which provides a firm structure on which to hang this enemies-to-lovers story. And there are cats! What more could you ask for?
Leonardo da Vinci, Niccolo Machiavelli, and Cesare Borgia all lived in a turbulent era in Italian history. The different territories of Italy were in constant conflict over who was going to be in control with Pope Alexander VI's (Cesare Borgia's father) lust for power inciting much of it. The jewel in the crown was the city of Florence, the center of art, education, and culture once ruled by Lorenzo (de Medici) the Great. The paths of Leonardo, Machiavelli, and Borgia crossed and recrossed numerous times in various places. Leonardo was hired to create weaponry for Borgia's military campaigns. Machiavelli became a political strategist who found himself on the side of Borgia part of the time and against him at others. Borgia was a spoiled but ruthless leader of armies working for his father, the Pope while not always in agreement with him. I was unaware of the connections between the three although I knew Cesare Borgia was the model for Machiavelli's Prince. This book is well written and researched although I admit, had I not been listening to it on audio I probably would have set it aside because there are some slow sections.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I'm a sucker for a heist. And within the *prologue* Parish delivers a honey of a heist, with top of the line motorcycles ripping through the Las Vegas strip to steal a $7 million necklace from a jewelry store in a casino. I think you'll understand if I had high hopes for this one.
Unfortunately, it doesn't really deliver much heist-iness after that. Lead thief in the jewelry heist Alex is ready to call it quits on his career and settle into a new relationship with Diane (whose adult son's father turns out to be Alex's friend from a one-night stand 20-odd years ago), but as often happens, one last job comes up to pull him back into a life of crime. And this one involves a Mexican drug cartel that Alex DEFINITELY cannot say no to.
There's a lot of sex and drugs and violence in this book, which isn't necessarily bad in a book like this one, but it didn't leave much substance to make up for the problems of the book. Parish seemed to have a VERY loose reckoning of time, which my brain simply couldn't let go of as I read this book. How could a 20-something adult kid have parents that are in their mid-40s today, but met for that one-night-stand (that started in an Atlantic City bar, not a grade school) back in the 1980s? I mean, I know we all have trouble reconciling the fact that 1990 was 30 years ago, but c'mon... no editors caught that? If you can get past that, it's not a horrible book. But my brain couldn't get past the bad math.
Ten years after disembarking from the Mayflower, the Plymouth colonists is chugging along as best they can with marshy soil and fewer residents than they would like. Particularly troublesome to the community leaders is former indentured servant John Billington, who feels as if he's getting the short shrift on land and communal stores. And while this book checks in with Billington over the course of the fateful day on which most of the plot happens, it mostly focuses on two women in Plymouth — Billington's wife, Eleanor, and Alice Bradford, wife of the governor. Nesbit created a this story based on real people and real events, though by presenting the women's point of view, the motivations and politics take on a very different shade from that which is often seen in history books. I didn't think I'd be captivated by a novel set among the Puritans, but I was. A fantastic historical fiction novel.
For everyone who has been clamoring for new wild card categories, here they are:
These will also be posted on the Wild Card page, so you can reference them throughout the blogging season. Happy reading and blogging!
Every world or universe thinks it's alone until its apocalyptic death drives it to Driftwood, the place where all worlds go to literally drift off into nothingness. They come out of the Mist, to the Edge, and as parts of each world fade away, they become Shards that rub against each other in the pull of the Crush — the center of Driftwood and the place where all worlds are forgotten and smashed into nothing. As such, Driftwood itself is an odd land, with wildly variant inhabitants and their respective cultures, as well as different rules of physics in each of the worlds and Shards. But one man, aptly called Last, is famous throughout Driftwood as the last of his kind, a race that died out before the grandparents of anyone still alive were born. But when it seems that Last has finally died, the Drifters gather to remember the man or the charlatan or the god...whoever each person thinks he was or is.
This is a fascinating little book, with plenty to mull over after the final pages are done. And about those final pages... I'm not going to spoil this book by saying that they're odd. In fact, I'd love it if someone would read this book simply so I can talk about this ending! It's not my favorite book this year, but it's definitely thought-provoking and creative, so it gets a thumbs up from me.
Latino's The Savage Beard of She Dwarf is a wonderful riff on the Conan legacy of Swords and Sorcery, with goofy humor, quirky monsters and plays upon narrative traditions. She Dwarf fights dragons, shorks (shark-orcs), and a bear armed monster, all while seeking the dwarven homeland lost in time. My only complaint is that sometimes it has odd time jumps between chapters, where you go from one location to the next, with little explanation. There is a quite a bit of cartoon violence in these pages, so it has a solid pre-teen feel to it, but it's engaging enough that an adult would also be interested in it.
Neon Girls is a quick, wonderful read about Worley's experiences as a peep show stripper in San Fransico during the Grunge Era, and how she organized a union among her fellow strippers to advocate for their rights and better pay. She discusses the highs and lows of her experiences, how it positively helped direct her educational goals and world outlook, all while making an engaging text to read. It has the feeling of a story being told by a good friend explaining to you the excitements and struggles of their past, never becoming too academic nor too low brow. Worley's book treats the subject of worker's rights, in particular sex worker's rights, with an incredibly deft hand. Well worth a read.
Twenty years ago, popular high school senior Sam went missing and all efforts by his family and police to find him were in vain. But on the eve of what would've been his 20th high school reunion, his remains are found, buried under a casket in a local cemetery. True crime podcaster Jane Lawless is visiting a friend in town when she hears about the cold case being reopened, and decides to do her own investigation, leading to a complicated web of secrets that have long been buried.
Considering this was the first Jane Lawless book I've read and also the 27th (!) in the series, I was impressed by the fact that I had no trouble picking up the story. It was definitely intriguing, and great to see an older lesbian lead in a novel, though I'll admit that there were some story elements that I wasn't too keen on. That said, it kept me guessing until the end.
What would've happened had a meteorite struck the Atlantic in 1952, decimating Washington, D.C. and a large chunk of the east coast? The Calculating Stars imagines not only the immediate fallout, but also the knock-on effects of rapid climate change and an accelerated space race, this time with an international cohort seeking salvation among the stars. Yes, there are changes to the world we learned about in school, but you know what they say... the more things change, the more they stay the same.
In this FANTASTIC book, Elma York is a former WASP pilot, brilliant math computer, and wife of NASA's lead engineer when the meteorite hits. By some miracle, she and her husband survived the strike and both are hired on to the International Aerospace Coalition's team to work on sending a man to the moon, with eventual plans to put a base there for colonizing other planets. While she loves the math, what Elma really wants is to become an astronaut herself. But since this is taking place in the 1950s, Elma has to deal with the sexist policies that block her from joining the astronaut corps, becoming aware of the racist policies her friends face at the same time.
This is a well-researched, well-rounded story of an amazing woman, and I absolutely cannot believe it's taken me this long to read it. I loved every page, and I can't wait to hear what the Orcs & Aliens have to say about this next week!
Carly is doing her best to make it as a publicist after being laid off last year, but with her only clients being a rude old artist and a hip young (and definitely unstable) fashion designer, she's having trouble making ends meet, despite working 24/7. And her drama-filled family is no help whatsoever. Meanwhile, neuroscientist Max is up for tenure and juggling his own family issues, mainly stemming from concerns over his mostly-nonverbal autistic brother's care. You'd think that these two would never meet, but their paths cross when their stoner dogwalker mixes up their basset hounds. In the midst of tracking down their dogs, Carly and Max meet and quickly fall for each other.
OK, so yes, this is a romance and yeah, there's stuff with Carly and Max going on (some of it more believable than others). But let's talk instead about the true stars of this book: Baxter and Hazel, Carly and Max's respective bassets. If there's any reason to read this book, the storyline and antics of these two fantastic creatures are it. They're adorable in their floppy-eared, short-legged, sad-but-happy-at-the-same-time best basset ways, and the chemistry between them is way more believable than that of the human "lead" characters. So what if I read this while cuddled up with my own sweet basset hound? Does that make me biased? Well, probably yes, but still, the dogs are hands down the best part of the book.
Winner of the National Book Award for memoir. It was more than a little strange to be reading this book, in which Hurricane Katrina’s effect on the poorest sections of New Orleans is chronicled, as Hurricane Laura was bearing down on the area (which it thankfully missed, although with serious damage done elsewhere). It was even odder that some of Sarah’s relatives relocated to Vacaville CA after the storm where, at the same time Laura was hitting Louisiana, major wildfires were raging. Hopefully, the family didn’t suffer losses there too! Ms Broom, a successful writer for various well-known periodicals, such as O, even before this was published, is forty and the youngest of 13 children raised by her mother, Ivory Mae Broom. In her memoir, she focuses on all the people in her life who lived in or near the “yellow house,” an increasingly ramshackle structure even before the storms damaged it (it also suffered an earlier flood from Rita). It is a story of the complicated multi-generational history of her extended family, of where one considers “home,” and who we choose to care for. Although the house no longer stands, it symbolizes so much to its former inhabitants. It is also an affecting history of New Orleans seen through the eyes of those who don’t live in the famous neighborhoods, who struggle to be heard, and who continue love and live in New Orleans despite it all. 376 pp.
Jan 4/1383
Kara 18/5793
Karen 7/1756
Linda 5/1695
Patrick 19/7633
Total: 76/23,477
And with our August totals, we've also reached the end of the blogging year! Get ready for Kara to start bugging all of our slackers other bloggers about writing up their book reviews in the 2020-2021 blogging year!
Since humans first expanded to the planets around them hundreds of years ago, the Gaens of Earth and Mars have been warring with the Icarii of Venus and Mercury. The Gaens want the Icarii to share some of their resources, while the Icarii just want the Gaens to drop their crazy religion and allow the Icarii technology to take root in Gaen culture (and subsequently further enrich the Icarii). Against this backdrop, Icarii warrior Lito sol Lucius sets out on a new mission to upset the Gaens on Ceres (which Lito was unsuccessful in keeping in Icarii hands), with a strange new partner and plenty of pressure. Meanwhile, the mute and nameless First Sister of Gaen warship Juno finds herself unexpectedly dealing with a new captain, who is not at all what she expected. It seems inevitable that First Sister and Lito's paths will collide, but how?
This book, the first in a planned trilogy, sets up some interesting ruminations on war, peace, religion, identity, and humanity, which is quite a feat. But Lewis manages it admirably, with complex and appealing characters, as well as some truly surprising plot twists. I look forward to seeing what happens next.
