Black Birds in the Sky

 Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre by Brandy Colbert, 224 pages.

This work of young adult nonfiction is about the Tulsa Race Massacre, but it also more broadly covers the history of racism in America, especially in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Being a young adult book, the writing is simple, and breaks the history up into quick to read and easy to understand chunks. It also handles very dark subject matter in a way that neither sensationalizes its darkness nor softens it for the younger audience. My only real complaint is that it sometimes felt a little unfocused and meandering. However, despite feeling a little disorganized, the book gives lots of context on it's subject matter, and is very thorough. Contextual topics that get a lot of focus include lynching, Jim Crow laws, and race riots. Colbert also spends the last chapter discussing the legacy of the Tulsa Race Massacre, both in terms of popular culture and academic representations and in terms of how Oklahoma has dealt with this legacy in the present day. Overall I would say this is a very good book for young people about a long hidden tragedy.

Shubeik Lubeik

 Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohamed, 528 pages.

This Egyptian graphic novel takes place in a version of Earth where wishes are a real resource that can be mined, sold, processed, and regulated. Shokry has three first class wishes, inherited from his father, for sale at his little market stall. First class wishes are the kind of wish that can change the world (and carry less danger than lower class wishes), but Shokry cannot use them himself because of his religious convictions, and no one wants to buy them because a shop like his is not the kind of place where someone expects to get genuine first class wishes. The story follows Aziza, Nour, and ultimately Shokry himself as they are driven by pain and grief to find the right way to use these wishes.

This was a really excellent graphic novel. The characters were complex and engrossing, and I was completely captured by the story (I ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting even when I really should have gone to bed). It also felt like a story that was really strengthened by the medium it was in. I felt that Mohamed's art really helped capture the emotional weight of the story, and the fact that it wasn't all text kept it stark and efficient. I would highly recommend this book, as does Kara!

Cold Storage

Cold Storage by David Koepp (2019) 308 pages

I listened to the audiobook on Hoopla narrated by Chris Messina. This is a book I do not recommend. Perhaps if you have read every book by Michael Crichton and are desperate for another bioterror thriller this will fill your need. When I heard about this back in 2019 I had just read Crichton's The Andromeda Strain and its sequel The Andromeda Evolution by Daniel H. Wilson. Koepp has had a long career as a screenwriter, including often adapting books for Spielberg movies. In fact, Koepp adapted Jurassic Park and The Lost World. This is his first novel. I had high expectations that were not met. The first hour of the audiobook, which takes place back in the late 1980s felt the most like a Crichton sci-fi thriller. I didn't like most of the characters. I don't read horror often, so I was very disturbed by the disgusting, revolting, sickening fungal growth and explosions. There is something too cynical about the way the characters luck into saving the day.
 

The Delight of Being Ordinary

The Delight of Being Ordinary: A Road Trip with the Pope and Dalai Lama by Roland Merullo  367 pp.

When the Dalai Lama makes an official visit to the Vatican, Pope Francis comes up with the idea of a secret, unsanctioned road trip around Italy, the vacation that he is not allowed. He saddles his personal assistant and cousin Paolo with making the arrangements in less than 24 hours. Paolo helps the two holy men escape from the Vatican without their bodyguards. Rosa arranges for them to get them professional, movie quality disguises and borrows a friend's Maserati SUV for the journey. There is no real itinerary for the trip other than some vague and similar dreams the Pope and Dalai Lama have been having. They dodge the authorities and media who believe Paolo has kidnapped the holy men against their will and there is a reward on their heads. Paolo is increasingly neurotic and upset about some of the situations they find themselves in and neither the holy men nor his wife can calm his worries. The Pope and Dalai Lama are having a great time on their illicit vacation. The end of the journey is handled in a satisfactory way although I still wish I could to shake some sense into Paolo for some of his idiotic attitudes. 

Decline and Fall

 Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh 293 pp.

Paul Pennyfeather gets expelled from his Oxford college through no fault of his own but that didn't matter to the powers that be. He ends up taking a teaching position at a boys boarding school with no experience in the teaching field, one being a chronic liar. That doesn't matter because no one else working there is any better at it than Pennyfeather is. The school is a marvelous parody of British public schools (what we call private). The antics of the staff rival the antics of the students, rowdy and mostly harmless, except in the case of young Tangent, whose minor injury during games day grows gangrenous and ultimately deadly. Pennyfeather becomes entangled with Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde, the widowed mother of one of the students. On the day of their wedding, while attempting to fix a business problem for his future wife, Pennyfeather is arrested. His conviction lands him a five year sentence in prison. Other of the teachers at the school have similar bad ends, including suicide, a conviction for bigamy, and various financial misfortunes. Although Pennyfeather eventually comes out okay the ending is left open to wonder what else can befall him as he studies to become a minister. This is Waugh's first published novel and is a wonderful satire of parts of British society in the 1920s.  

The Curious Secrets of Yesterday

The Curious Secrets of Yesterday by Namrata Patel, 283 pages

Tulsi Gupta has been raised from birth to be the successor of her mother and grandmother in their spice healing business. At 30 years old, however, Tulsi still hasn't taken the final steps to take over her mother's role and allow her grandmother to retire. Why? Well, she's not so sure she wants the legacy, and while she doesn't know what her vocation should be otherwise, she knows she wants to travel and get experiences, and she's slowly been saving up so she can do those things as soon as she gets up the nerve to tell her mother and grandmother. Then two things happen to upset that particular apple cart: the shop suddenly has social media accounts that are blowing up BIG TIME (despite Tulsi and her family having no idea who's running the accounts) and a handsome ex-Marine has taken over the café next door (and much to the delight of her family, Tulsi seems to be hitting it off with him).

The writing was a bit clunky to begin with, and the story was a bit predictable, but if you can make it through the first 50 pages, this is a quick and satisfying read about secrets, family, duty, and love. Not my favorite book, but definitely not the worst I've read.

*This book will be published June 1, 2024.

The Woods All Black

The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo, 160 pages

Before I get into the summary of this book, please scroll and check out the tags on this post. Then tell me if you think those elements don't have the potential to be 1000% terrifying.

OK, onto the summary. It's 1929, and Leslie has been sent by the Frontier Nurse Service to the small Appalachian town of Spar Creek, where he is to administer vaccinations and assist with childbirth and other women's health issues. We learn from the first page that Leslie is transgender (or an invert, as he refers to himself in the language of the day), and while the fire-and-brimstone preacher isn't too excited about modern medicine reaching into the town, he's particularly upset by Leslie's "determination to not be a proper lady." Turns out there's another young trans man in town, and Leslie's arrival doesn't seem to be helping his own survival prospects. Oh, and there's a vicious supernatural creature prowling the woods behind the town, which further sets everyone on edge.

The first two-thirds of this novella ratchet up the realistic tension and terror of close-minded people in powerful positions physically and psychologically torturing these trans characters. But the final third of the book takes a turn that's...well, I'm not sure how well it sits with me. Without going into detail, I'm not sure the author's intention of revenge plays out exactly how he wanted it to. And there's definitely a scene that was disturbing in a not-great way. So as much as I was looking forward to this book (Mandelo's Summer Sons was EXCELLENT), I can't say I particularly enjoyed it when all is said and done.

*This book will be published March 19, 2024.

The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder

The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder by C.L. Miller, 287 pages

After a falling out with her mentor, Freya has been out of the antique hunting game for 20 years. But when that mentor, Arthur, turns up dead inside his antiques shop, Freya and her aunt Carole (who also happens to be Arthur's close friend) are tasked with solving his murder and bringing some antiquities forgers to justice. Or at least I think they're supposed to be doing that second part. Even after reading the book, it's hard to tell if that last bit was one of Arthur's assignments from beyond the grave. The plot's a bit murky, and several of the characters are a bit bland (though that definitely cannot be said of Carole, who is larger than life in the best possible way). This was definitely set up as a potential series starter, and I can only hope that the second book finds Miller on more solid ground.

Burma Sahib

 

Burma Sahib by Paul Theroux  (2024) 390 pp.

Writers writing about writers… often a literary recipe for disaster. And that is before taking into account the author’s age – Paul Theroux is about the same age as our prospective presidential candidates.  But enough age shaming, is the book worth reading?  The reviews are in and they are stellar. The last Theroux book I read, On the Plain of Snakes, was a wild ride, but ultimately a disappoint for me, a polemic diatribe wrapped in an old man’s travel romp.

Here Theroux is fictionally retracing young George Orwell’s life as a policeman in the British Raj in Burma. Over the years I have read most of Orwell’s novels (see above mentions of age shaming) and I was a bit perturbed that Theroux felt the need to revisit Burmese Days, Orwell’s semi-biographical account of his time in Burma.  Revisionism strikes again? Not really. Theroux is doing Theroux here. Seems Orwell is a just a vehicle for a clever historical novel that contains the author’s penchant for making value judgements – in this case on an ugly chapter of the British Empire. Unfortunately, I find I need to wash my hands after each chapter – lot of nerve to put fictional words and actions into Eric Blair’s formative years, he did it quite well himself.

All Systems Red

 All Systems Red by Martha Wells, 144 pages.

Murderbot (formally known as a SecUnit) has hacked its regulator and is now outside of anyone's control. Luckily it isn't interested in doing any actual murder, preferring to watch trashy TV and do enough of it's job that nobody realizes it's not under any real obligation to take orders anymore. Unfortunately for its commitment to do as little as possible, a series of dangerous and unpleasant coincidences seem to be increasingly pointing to someone trying to kill the research team it has been assigned to protect, and it is now obligated to get involved. Especially since it is getting troublingly attached to this team.

This was a really fun little novella! Murderbot is a really funny character, and its perspective is a unique twist on the story. I'm excited to see where Wells is going with this, and luckily for me I'm coming to this series pretty late, so there are plenty of books to catch up on.

How Long 'til Black Future Month

 How Long 'til Black Future Month by N.K. Jemisin, 400 pages.

This anthology of science fiction and fantasy stories accomplishes something rare, there were almost no misses in the entire collection. Jemisin is a master of the short story. Her stories feel very comfortable in their format. The premises generally feel fully realized even in their limited page count, a believed any relationships she built even in a very short time, and there weren't even any I felt would be better as novels. The collection was also very diverse, with stories that cover a whole lot of the subgenres of speculative fiction and many that weren't afraid to experiment with format. I will in particular call out Red Dirt Witch, The Effluent Engine, and On the Banks of the River Lex as particular favorites of mine, but really it's hard to go wrong with this collection.

Trace Elements

 

Trace Elements by Donna Leon  278 pp.

A woman dying of a terminal illness claims that her husband had "bad money" before he died in a motorbike accident. Unfortunately she dies as Commissarios Brunetti and Griffoni are talking to her leaving her two children orphaned. This disturbing event begins an investigation into whether her husband's death was truly an accident or a murder. Meanwhile, there is a pickpocket problem in Venice that Brunetti's boss wants removed from the city because it affects tourism but the Italian authorities keep releasing the perpetrators because they are juveniles. The investigation into the man in the accident leads to the water company responsible for testing the purity of the water supply and irregularities the victim knows about. This episode is more emotional than most in the series. 

Everyone Is Watching

Everyone Is Watching by Heather Gudenkauf, 320 pages

We've all heard this reality TV setup before: five strangers must live together in a giant house, do crazy challenges, and compete for a massive cash prize that only one person can win. One Lucky Winner, the reality show at the center of Everyone Is Watching, takes that idea and gives it a sinister twist, with truly dangerous additions to the competition (such as a sandbox laced with scorpions and a "Game Changer" token that's a switchblade). As the massive hit show progresses, the contestants become increasingly concerned that someone is out to get them, and that their presence on the show is anything but random. But the $10 million prize is too hard to give up on...

One of the blurbs on this book refers to it as "Big Brother meets Clue," and I guess I can see that — cameras everywhere, contestants who are linked but strangers to one another. The challenges are horrible, and there's a lot about this book that stretches the bounds of believability (that 20 million people would watch the torture without someone intervening, the bad guy not occurring to anyone, including the show's host, etc.). A quick read, but a meh one.

*This book will be published March 26, 2024.

His Only Wife

 His Only Wife by Peace Adzo Medie, 288 pages.

Afi is an amateur seamstress living with her mother in a house owned by the biggest businesswoman in her small Ghanaian town. Her whole life quickly changes when that same businesswoman asks her to marry her son. Elikem Ganyo is considered quite a catch; he's handsome, rich, polite, and good to his family. But he is also in love with a woman his family doesn't approve of, and they are desperately hoping that if he marries a respectable woman he'll finally leave his mistress. So Afi, knowing all of this, marries him in absentia and is determined to be the best wife possible, although she doesn't actually see her new husband until weeks after their wedding, and even then only rarely.  Yet somehow falling in love only makes everything harder.

Something I found fascinating about this book is that Eli only actually appears in a fairly small portion of it and the mistress, who I believe appears on the cover, is almost not shown at all. This means that the entire book is very focused on Afi and her development as a character. I also thought this book was fascinating as a snapshot into modern Ghana. The setting feels very significant in all aspects of the book, and I absolutely never forgot where we were, but enough context was provided that no prior knowledge of the country is required going in. This isn't normally a genre I read, but there were enough really interesting elements to keep my attention throughout, and I suspect that readers who enjoy the contemporary/literary genres more would like this book even better. 

Right on Cue

Right on Cue by Falon Ballard, 336 pages

The daughter of two Hollywood acting legends, screenwriter Emmy Harper is the ultimate nepo baby, though she hasn't acted since her disastrous debut at the age of 15. But when she and her co-producers can't find a leading lady for her new romantic comedy, Emmy reluctantly steps back into the spotlight. Unfortunately, her leading man is none other than Grayson West, the action hero heartthrob who broke her heart on set when they were both teenagers. Will they be able to put aside their rocky past and at least act like they like each other for the cameras?

Since this is a romance novel, you know the answer to that question. The enemies-to-lovers trope is one of my favorites in the genre, and this one definitely does that well. However, more than once this book falls victim to the "if you would only talk for five minutes, all problems would be avoided" pitfall, which happens way too often in romance novels. But it was a light, quick read, and certainly spicy, so if that's what you're looking for, this is the book for you.

When Among Crows

When Among Crows by Veronica Roth, 176 pages

Dymitr is a man with a heavy burden, and he hopes that by procuring a legendary flower and helping a cursed woman escape that which weighs her down, he'll also be able escape what troubles him. Set in Chicago and filled with the creatures of Polish folklore, this short book sets Dymitr and the cursed woman, Ala, on a one-night quest to save them both. There's not much more I can say about the plot without major spoilers, but I will say that it's an intriguing urban fantasy featuring creatures with which I wasn't previously familiar. It's definitely enjoyable, though I wish a few things had been fleshed out a bit more.

*This book will be published May 14, 2024.

Mislaid in Parts Half-Known

 Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire, 146 pages.

Antsy, older than she ought to be, is the newest student at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children. Fitting in is a struggle, since none of the students know that inside her teenage body she's still just a nine-year-old girl. But the other students take a much stronger interest when they realize that Antsy's talent for finding any lost thing could extend to their lost Doors as well. So Antsy and her new friends (which include both the old cast and the escapees from the Whitethorn Institute) escape through a door and go on a jaunt through worlds as they consider what it means to go home. 

This book was a more direct continuation than any of the other books in the series so far. Despite the large cast, it felt like less of an ensemble book than most of the forward plot books. The inciting incident also felt a little bit contrived. That being said, the writing in this series remains top-tier, and I continue to really like Antsy as a character. 

The Bright Side of Disaster

The Bright Side of Disaster by Katherine Center (2007) 249 pages

This book was responsible for me waking in the middle of the night to read more because the story was going so well, and then when things took a turn for the worse, I had to finish it, making me groggy the whole next day. But... it's the kind of story that a woman can relate to, even long past child-bearing years.

Jenny is engaged to Dean, and she is unexpectedly pregnant. Then Dean leaves her and the baby is born. All the details ring so true: Jenny's first-person narration of her pregnancy, heartbreak, labor, and then falling in love with her baby. It's a great story with its expected and unexpected ups and downs, a lot more than what I've indicated.  Plus what I've already said is on the book's flap, so it can't be called a spoiler. See if you can finish it before bedtime!

Getting Away is Deadly

Getting Away is Deadly by Sara Rosett (2008) 249 pages

Ellie Avery and her husband Mitch are in Washington DC while Mitch and his Air Force colleagues are getting a series of training sessions. The military wives, including Ellie and her best friend Abby, are touring the Washington sites while their husbands are busy during the day. Ellie's also taking the opportunity to see Mitch's sister, Summer, who is finishing up her final semester of college in DC. Summer has a job as a nanny to the spoiled child of Vicki Archer, who is somewhat of a media star, but who also has her hopes on getting into politics.

Instead of Ellie just enjoying the time away from home in Seattle (as she and her husband await the location of his next military move), she works on solving the murder of a man who was pushed onto the tracks in a Metro station. That becomes a priority when subway camera footage shows a person who looks remarkably like Summer who was near the man. It turns out that Summer actually knew the guy and had rebuffed his advances, and he had been stalking her, giving her a possible motive for murder. Summer says she was not there. There were a lot of people in the subway station at the time, including the wives' tour guide and Summer's boss.

This is just one crime, but Ellie and some of the other military wives encounter a number of other serious situations that seem separate, but are they?

This is the first book I've read in this series. Ellie is a professional organizer, and periodically there are tips at the end of the chapters. 

The Lost Book of Bonn

The Lost Book of Bonn by Brianna Labuskes, 384 pages

In 1946, war widow Emmy is in Frankfurt working on a project to return books that had been confiscated by Nazis to their rightful owners (and barring that, find a place to preserve them in the Library of Congress) when she discovers a volume of Rilke's poetry with an inscription that immediately draws her in: "To Annelise, my Edelweiss Pirate." 

In 1938, 18-year-old Annelise is part of the Edelwess Pirates, an outdoorsy group that has morphed into an organized resistance to the growing powers of the Nazis, when she falls in love with Eitan, a Jewish factory worker in her hometown of Bonn. But their love, and Eitan's safety, is in jeopardy thanks to Annelise's sister, who is a rule-following, uniformed member of the League of German Girls (the female equivalent of the Hitler Youth for boys).

In 1943, the aforementioned sister, Christina, has a cushy job in the Nazi intelligence-gathering department in Berlin when she learns that, despite being married to a gentile, Eitan has been captured and is headed for a concentration camp, unless she intervenes.

The stories of these three women interweave throughout the book, unfolding a story of resistance and self-awareness. It's rare to find a book that features German resistance to the Nazis on an organized scale — usually it's just one person or family or neighborhood, or the organized resistance is from the Allied Forces — and it was so refreshing to see a new take on what's become an oversaturated era in historical fiction, doubly so because the story is so well told. I absolutely loved this one, and will be recommending it widely.

*This book will be published March 19.

Time Enough for Love

Time Enough for Love: The Lives of Lazarus Long by Robert A. Heinlein  589 pp.

Lazarus Long (born Woodrow Wilson Smith) is the oldest person in the universe having lived many lifetimes on many worlds. His extended life of over 2000 years is a product of the Howard Families genetic experiments which are too convoluted to explain and I'm not sure I really understand it all. The story contains various episodes of his life with his wives and children mostly told by Long himself. To give a brief description of it is nearly impossible. I really enjoyed this book and rank it equal to, or even better than Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. Published in 1973, Heinlein channels the sexual freedom that took hold in the late 1960s through the 1970s in the attitudes of the characters toward free love. I won't reveal the ending but it involves Long time traveling back to see his parents.

Rabbit Hole

Rabbit Hole by Kate Brody, 374 pages

Ten years ago, Teddy's older sister Angie went missing. After a decade of obsessive searching for her, Teddy's dad has given up, committing suicide by driving his car off a bridge. Now Teddy and her mother are trying to deal with the compounded grief and the mess Teddy's dad left behind. But as she starts to go through his things, Teddy gets sucked into the search for Angie, particularly the online cold-case communities and a young woman who had helped Teddy's dad with the search.

While there is a mystery in this book, the main theme is Teddy's grief, and the ways in which she is poorly attempting to manage it. It's not a cheerful story by any means, and SPOILER ALERT doesn't have the happiest ending, but it is a very gritty and realistic look at grief and dealing with the trauma of the past. I'd recommend it for fans of Long Bright River by Liz Moore, and for those who are intrigued by unlikeable protagonists.

The Memory Librarian

 The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monae (2022) 321 pages

This could almost be called a short story collection, except the stories are loosely linked. There are five contributors listed on Goodreads that helped Janelle Monae put each part of the story on paper. I listened to the audiobook with the first part narrated by Janelle Monae and the rest narrated by Bahni Turpin. Fans of The Handmaids' Tale would probably enjoy this. The stories take place in a near-future totalitarian state. Even though there is less overt religious involvement in the regulations of public and private life, all the main characters are labeled "Dirty Computers." Janelle Monae's third album was titled Dirty Computer. I had seen their series of music videos that form an "emotion picture" for this album when it was released about five years ago. In this world, Dirty Computers have there memories erased to force conformity. This totalitarian state targets queer people of color. Concepts of Intersectionality are explored in each story. It is suggested, but not made completely clear, that each story advances in time and involves characters from the previous story living their re-invented life after their memory wipe. There is sci-fi tech controlled by the state for surveying the population and very little power left to the ordinary person. I don't read short stories very often. Just as you get invested in one, it is over. I wish the separate stories were more connected like chapters of a whole. I became a bit frustrated trying to guess how each connected to the previous one. And I wish there was more world building description that referenced the visual design of the music videos.

The Haunting of Velkwood

The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste, 256 pages

Twenty years ago, Talitha, Brett, and Gracie left their homes on Velkwood Street for the last time — hours later, the whole street disappeared... kind of. The Velkwood Vicinity, as it became to be called by paranormal armchair experts, was encapsulated in a paranormal bubble that killed anyone who tried to get in (even photography drones only survived for a few minutes) and only sporadically showed the homes of those inside (kind of like a ghostly Brigadoon). But a new researcher believes that Talitha and her friends can get inside, and is hoping he can convince them to explore the mysterious phenomenon. When Talitha reluctantly agrees, she unearths parts of her past that she never wanted to dig up.

This is a really fascinating idea for a story — the neighborhood itself is haunting the people who lived there and the nearby town — and the themes of running from the past and dealing with childhood trauma are perfect for exploration in a horror novel. However, the execution just isn't there for this book. It's a bit nebulous and not quite as scary as I think Kiste wants it to be, and while the researchers are intentionally anonymous, they come across as bland and boring rather than anonymously intimidating (which I suspect is what Kiste was going for). All in all, good idea, bad execution.

All's Fair in Love and War

All's Fair in Love and War by Virginia Heath, 384 pages

Georgie had a horrible childhood, getting dragged up and down the country with her ruthlessly strict military stepfather, and as a new governess, she's determined to help children learn and find joy in life. But when she's hired to teach and care for the three rambunctious Pendleton children, she finds her easygoing ways at odds with their punctual, exacting uncle Harry. But opposites attract, and Georgie and Harry can't deny their attraction to one another for very long.

There's something reminiscent of The Sound of Music in this story, though it's definitely steamier and has fewer kids. I appreciate the characters (the kids in particular are fantastic, as is their crazy dog), and the setup for a series featuring Georgie's governess pals. The changes that bring them together for their happily ever after are a bit rushed at the end, but overall, it's a solid Regency romance.

*This book will be published May 28, 2024.

Overture to Death

 

Overture to Death by Ngaio Marsh  336 pp.

This is the eighth book in the Inspector Roderick Alleyn mystery series. Once again it involves a theater presentation. This time it's a small town group mounting a play as a charity event. The characters are all townsfolk with varying degrees of friendship and/or animosity between them. I found this episode disappointing because of the overlong build up to the murder of an older spinster which doesn't happen until halfway through the book. The others characters include the rector and his daughter, the local squire and his son, the town doctor, a recently arrived widow(divorcee?), another older spinster, and a bratty young boy. Death is accomplished through a booby trapped piano. Both spinsters are unpleasant women who who have crushes on the rector while feeling entitled to butt into the love lives of the others. Alleyn has to deal with much misinformation from all the witnesses and suspects because of "propriety". No one wants to reveal anything to protect their own amorous activities from being found out. In the end the perpetrator turns out to be the obvious choice.

The Witch's Heart

 The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec, 361 pages.

Kara has actually written about this Norse-mythology inspired tale twice, but I'll reference here her first review of this new angle on Ragnarok. The book follows Angrboda, the witch and seer who both predicts Ragnarok and bears many of it's most notable figures (fun detail: they're all in her hair on the cover).

I really enjoyed this book, which feels like it has a firm enough grasp on the original myths to play with them very intelligently. For example, the character of Angrboda herself also fills the role of several other minor witches from Norse mythology (all outlined in the book's appendix). While I occasionally found the pacing a little slow, I was always invested. This is very much an inward-facing novel, and I found Angrboda well-written and compelling. I'll be very interested to see what other reader's thought of this one at Orcs & Aliens on Monday.
 

Delicious in Dungeon vol 1

 Delicious in Dungeon vol 1 by Ryoko Kui (trans. Sébastien Ludmann), 192 pages.

Laios and his adventuring party are thoroughly beaten by a dragon deep in the dungeon and teleported to safety with very few resources to speak of. Laios little sister was not teleported to safety, and he is determined to go back for her, no matter the difficulty (resurrection is possible, if they can only get to her body while there's something to recover). Unfortunately, going into the dungeon with no food or coin is suicidal but, as they don't have time to gather any, they're just going to have to eat the monsters. Luckily for them, they very quickly find a dwarf who is an expert dungeon chef (and very passionate on the topic of dungeon food), who is happy to tag along for the chance to cook a dragon. 

This is a delightful manga! It's a very smart and low-stakes version of the Dungeons & Dragons-type genre with the emphasis on characters that makes that genre thrive. I really appreciate the thought that went into making a plausible ecosystem in a classic D&D style dungeon (which were not traditionally designed with plausibility in mind). I thought the emphasis on botany and fieldbook-type notes were a really interesting touch, and overall this story feels like something both very unique and entirely familiar. I definitely plan to continue this series.

(This series is also commonly referred to as Dungeon Meshi, which is a more direct Anglicization of the Japanese name. It is also currently being adapted into a show on Netflix! I haven't seen any of that, but I will say that is looks interesting)

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years

 The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan, 320 pages.

After her mother dies, Sana and her father move to Akbar Manzil, a once grand house on the coast of South Africa that has slowly deteriorated into apartments for people who are fading away. The house wants to keep it's own sad secrets, and it's happy to keep the stories of it's residents as well. But Sana is not content to let the past lie, and her poking into the past of the first residents finally begins to loosen the stagnation that has gripped the house for nearly a century, just as poking into the lives of her new neighbors shakes them from their own stagnation. 

This is a beautiful book, but it is very difficult to describe. The lyrical, thoughtful prose reminds me quite a bit of The Starless Sea (a personal favorite of mine), while the plot reminds me a bit of the 80's movie *batteries not included. It's a coming-of-age plot wrapped up in a story that's a little too gentle to be a haunted house story and a little too ominous not to be. The fantasy elements were much less prominent than I expected from the description, putting this more in the realm of magical realism than true fantasy. Ultimately it's a book centered on the concepts of community and family, both where they are strong and where they fail. I would recommend it wholeheartedly, and I'm excited to see what else this author has to offer. 

(Kara beat me to writing about this book here last week, but I wrote out the whole summary anyway because I had a lot to say)

Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect

Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson, 320 pages

This sequel to Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone finds new author Ernest attending a small writing festival on a trans-Australian train. He's there with a few other crime writers, hoping to get some inspiration for a second novel — preferably one that isn't inspired by a spate of real life murders, which is how he got the idea for his first book. Unfortunately, with a train full of crime writers and their fans, these are just the sort of people to know how to creatively commit a crime, and sure enough, murder soon appears on the festival agenda.

I didn't read the first book, but that's not exactly required for this one. The characters and plot are interesting, and I honestly would have loved this book if it wasn't for the fourth-wall-breaking that kept taking me out of the story. It's very meta — a book that's from the point of view of an author who's writing a sequel to a popular debut murder mystery — and that in itself isn't unheard of or irksome. But the wink-and-nod "this is how you plot a murder mystery novel with word count markings for twists" and "this is how many times I'm going to mention the killer's name" and "hey, this is where we are on the word count and the number of times I've mentioned each character's name" breaks only served to distract from the otherwise compelling novel.

White Holes

White Holes by Carlo Rovelli (2023) 158 pp

In a seemingly endless string of popular physics scribes, Rovelli took the mantle with his hugely popular 2016 book Seven brief lessons on physics. In White Holes he returns to take us on a cosmic journey into a black hole and then out through a white hole. As in most popular physics tomes, Rovelli releases us from math phobia by omitting any formulas and equations. As with his previous books he intertwines quotes from classic works (Dante Alighieri) to illustrate his technical theories to non-technical readers. The book is a perfect companion to Space Time by Matt O'Dowd on PBS/YouTube which also plumbs the depths of all things “spacey” aka cosmology. As to the content of White Holes, I can’t help you; cosmological constants, standard model, time dilation, event horizon, quantum gravity -- ouch.  Just strap in and prepare for an out-of-body experience.

The Tusks of Extinction

The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler, 101 pages

In our present day, a woman named Damira is fighting a never-ending war against elephant poachers in Africa. Far in the future, after elephants have gone almost entirely extinct (there are just a few Asian elephants left in captivity), scientists have brought back woolly mammoths and have reintroduced them to their previous habitat in Russia, where they are led by a matriarch named Damira. But when species come back, so do their predators, including poachers...

For a very large portion of this book (more than 30 pages), I was VERY confused... until the a-ha moment when everything made sense and the story became infinitely compelling. Nayler has a track record for writing "angry endangered animal taking it out on humans" stories in a very compelling way — his novel, The Mountain in the Sea, had me firmly on the side of the hostile octopus species — and this novella is no exception. I do hope, however, that this isn't the ONLY type of story he writes, and that he shows off those skills soon, so he doesn't get a reputation as a one-trick pony. Because his writing is great and it would be a shame to have him swept under the rug. 

When All Is Said

When All Is Said by Anne Griffin (2019) 323 pages

Maurice Hannigan is eighty-four and has been widowed 2 years. He has one son, Kevin, who is an acclaimed writer who lives in the United States. As the story opens, Maurice is sitting in a bar in the nicest hotel in his Irish town. He has carefully planned out this evening. He makes a toast five times through the night, drinking alone for the most part, saluting the people who have been important in his life. While he's drinking, his unspoken narrative is addressed to his son.

It's clear that he and his son have not been close, and for many of those years, Maurice was disappointed that Kevin didn't follow his lead and become a farmer and a landowner. Kevin, if he could hear the narrative, would likely hear things about his father's life that he had never known‒how hard life was in general because of Maurice's family's poverty, how hard it was for him in school because of a learning disability (but he never had a name for it until more recently), how hard it was to have lost his beloved older brother to disease, the hard times he had when working for a rich man who had long ago owned this hotel, but back then, it was the man's house. And how hard it was when the rich man's son tormented him. There are many secrets. Maurice is not always likeable, but we can understand him. And wonder what lies ahead for him.

The Phoenix Crown

The Phoenix Crown by Kate Quinn & Janie Chang, 400 pages

It's April 1906 and opera singer Gemma Garland has just arrived in San Francisco ahead of a series of performances in the Met's touring production of Carmen (in the chorus, but hey, it's still the Met!). When she gets into town, however, she learns that her friend, artist Nellie, with whom she was going to stay, has disappeared. Soon, however, Gemma has found herself a wealthy patron and is set to be the toast of the town. Meanwhile, orphaned Suling is doing everything she can to avoid her gambling-addicted uncle from selling her off in marriage. What neither Gemma nor Suling can predict, however, is the deadly earthquake that will destroy the city in the middle of all of their plans.

In the afterword to this book, the authors note that the more they learned about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the more things they wanted to include in the book, and how hard it was to take things out. After trying to summarize it above, I'm realizing that they could have cut out several other elements to make it a bit less convoluted. The characters and overall plot were interesting (I'd definitely read a book about real-life botanist Alice Eastwood, fiction or nonfiction!), though I don't think the earthquake itself added much to the story as a whole — and considering the importance of setting in historical fiction, that's not a great thing. It was an interesting book, but it won't be topping my list of favorite historical fictions.

*This book comes out Feb. 13.

Heartstopper vol 2&3

 Heartstopper vol 2&3 by Alice Oseman, 704 pages.

These graphic novels continue to be aggressively sweet and wholesome. In these volumes Nick and Charlie begin a relationship and take a trip to Paris. They also start navigating some of the sticky parts of actually being in a relationship and coming out to people. I continue to feel a little silly that I waited to long to read these, because everyone who has been talking for years about how cute they are is absolutely correct.

The Lightning Thief

 The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, 377 pages.

Percy Jackson has dyslexia, ADHD, and is generally regarded as something of a problem child in the many private schools he's been kicked out of. Turns out these things are mostly actually symptoms of the fact that his father is actually a Greek god, and that means trouble is drawn to him. After his math teacher turns into a monster and tries to kill him, the supernatural world starts imposing faster and Percy finds himself at Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for kids like him. Unfortunately, even by demigod status he's irregular, and he ends up thrown into a cross-country quest to retrieve Zeus' lightning bolt, prove himself innocent in the matter of it's theft, and stop a war between the gods. 

I was inspired to reread this middle grade classic in light of it's new TV adaptation, and I am pleased to report that it holds up well. Although I enjoyed it more when I was closer to it's target audience, it's still extremely funny. Riordan has many very original takes on Greek mythology in the modern world, and this book is a whole lot of fun. I would wholeheartedly recommend it to middle schoolers, or anyone interested in mythology and a light read.

The Vulnerables

The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez (2023) 242 pages

The Vulnerables is a novel that reads like a memoir, set during the pandemic: people fleeing New York City for their second homes, others living in a suddenly quiet New York City, and yet others who are trapped far from home. Nunez's unnamed protagonist‒a writer who is also a creative writing professor‒ends up living through much of the pandemic in the very upscale Manhattan apartment of a married couple trapped in California at the time of the lock-downs. A college student who was house-sitting for them, caring for their beloved parrot, has left abruptly for his parents' home. Later, after a fight with his parents, the young man comes back to the apartment, which makes the narrator less happy; but she continues to stay there too because she has lent out her own apartment to a pulmonary doctor who came from out of town to work at a local hospital.

Nunez's writing style reminds me somewhat of Elizabeth Strout's Lucy By the Sea, which is also set during the pandemic. Not a lot of activity occurs, but the story keeps one engrossed anyway. The writer's narration is understated, seeming dream-like at times. She ruminates on the present and reflects on the past, including bits of her own history, especially with regard to a friend who died just before the pandemic hit. She has a lot to say about a number of famous writers, which I found interesting, too. The college student's role becomes more important. A book definitely worth a second read.

Faebound

Faebound by Saara El-Arifi, 386 pages

When the world was created, three deities created three races of beings — the fae, the elves, and the humans — but due to wars amongst them, the elves are the only race that remain, and they're now battling among themselves. When elven warrior Yeeran makes a mistake that leads to her banishment, however, she quickly learns that everything she was taught is wrong, that fae still exist, and they have a much more complex relationship with elves than she ever thought. Oh, and they REALLY don't like elves, which is particularly bad as Yeeran, her sister Lettle, and friend Rayan soon become lifelong prisoners of the fae.

This trilogy-starter is full of complex characters, excellent worldbuilding, and a clever magic system unlike any I've read before. While there were a few things that happened a bit more quickly than I anticipated, overall the book was excellent, and I look forward to finding out what happens in the second installment.

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan, 308 pages

In 2014, teenaged Sana moves with her father into a decrepit old house that has been remodeled into decrepit apartments. The rest of the residents are elderly and have no idea (or any curiosity about) who lived in the house before, why it was built, or anything related to the sprawling manor's history. But Sana's curious enough to go exploring, and she slowly unravels the history of a young woman who lived there nearly a century before. 

Told in alternating timelines between Sana's present and the first years of the manor, The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years is a meditation on grief, love, jealousy, and being an outsider. It's a captivating story full of flawed characters and literal hauntings. I hesitate to say more, but I will heartily recommend the book. It's absolutely excellent.

The House of Impossible Beauties

 

The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara  400 pp.

In the 1970s Drag Ballrooms were created when Crystal and Lottie LaBeija created the first "House" of black and Latinx queer, gay, and trans people to hold their first ball in reaction to the drag beauty contests where non-white contestants were ignored. The phenomenon spread in Manhattan and more "houses" were created run by the house "Mother" and sometimes "Father" and the queens who came to live with them. This novel is a historical fiction version of those days and many of the more famous queens of the time are featured as characters. Focusing mainly on House Extravaganza and it's members, especially it's founder, Angel Extravaganza, and Venus Extravaganza. Their lives were gritty and dangerous as many worked as gay prostitutes on the streets of Manhattan. Others were purveyors of drugs and often used what they sold becoming addicts. Then, with the appearance of the HIV virus, death became even more prevalent than before. Many succumbed to violence, drugs or AIDS during that time and this book doesn't shy away from the horrors of the period even as many tried to keep putting their best face (and costumes) out there for the world to see. The real Venus Extravaganza was murdered, probably by a john, both in the story and real life. It is heart wrenching how the Houses came together out of the need for places to stay and became found families for so many that were estranged from their blood families. The film "Paris is Burning" is about this era and the balls and Queens who populated them.

January totals

Hammy: 6 books, 2279 pages

Jan: 4 books, 1217 pages

John: 1 book, 250 pages

Kara: 15 books, 4924 pages

Karen: 9 books, 2647 pages

Kevin: 2 books, 768 pages

Regan: 8 books, 2836 pages

TOTAL: 45 books, 14921 pages