We Cast a Shadow

We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin, 324 pages

The barest description of this book is simple: A black lawyer is doing everything he can to climb the ranks in his law firm, trying to do what he can to make his young son's life easier, both now and in the future. But the intricacies of what he's doing, what he's trying to do, and the hoops he's willing to jump through are what elevate this book to flat-out amazing.

Set in a future where black Americans are not-exactly-forced to live in fenced-off projects and where it's possible (but VERY expensive) to surgically erase blackness through "demelanization" and plastic surgery, our unnamed protagonist must, in turn, become a stereotype and a token POC to "earn" a promotion that will allow his son to get the procedure that will remove a growing dark birthmark from his lighter-skinned face — despite his white wife's protestations.

No matter how many ways I try to type and retype a description of this book, I realize that I'm never going to capture the power of it. All I can say is that, by setting this book in the future, Maurice Carlos Ruffin manages to illustrate the world we live in today better than just about any book I've ever read. This book is incredible, and I'll be shocked if it isn't taught, discussed, and dissected alongside Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man in the future.

The Travelling Cat Chronicles

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa, translated by Philip Gabriel, 277 pages

Nana the cat was a stray before Satoru took him in, and in the five years they've lived together, the cat and his human companion managed to form a loving bond. But now Satoru is seeking someone to adopt Nana, for reasons that he does not explain to either the cat (who can, of course, understand him perfectly, despite what humans seem to think) or to any of the friends he asks to take the cat.

Much like the wonderful memoir Cats I've Known, The Travelling Cat Chronicles isn't so much the story of a cat as it is the story of Satoru's life. It's a wonderful, beautiful story of an independent and intelligent boy making friends as he moves from one part of the country to another, told through flashbacks and punctuated by modern-day sections, some of which are from Nana's point of view (which, I've got to say, is a fantastic point of view). I loved Arikawa's sparse, beautiful writing (wonderfully translated by Philip Gabriel), which gives the same sense of peace and adventure that I get from watching My Neighbor Totoro. A truly wonderful book.

Gone Girl

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, 419 pages

OK, so I'm reading Gone Girl, thinking "This is an OK story about a guy dealing with and trying to solve his wife's disappearance on their fifth anniversary." It's interesting, how Flynn alternates chapters between the husband Nick's post-disappearance point of view and wife Amy's pre-disappearance diary entries. Nice view of a crumbling marriage, and interesting to think about how the marriage went from the halcyon early days to the monotonous. Not bad, but nothing to write home about.

Then  POW! About a third of the way through the book, Flynn whips us around a left-turn so sharp that I've still got whiplash a week later. Totally did not see that coming. I don't want to give anything away, but Flynn is as manipulative in her writing as her characters are to one another. I shouldn't like being manipulated like that, but I do. Awesome book. I'll be interested to hear what the book group thinks of it.

Tiny beautiful things

Tiny beautiful things:  advice on love and life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed 353 pgs.

The advice contained in this book is a beautiful thing but I would not describe it as tiny.  Dear Sugar is an advice column on therumpus.net.  The writer is unpaid but for a time it was Cheryl Strayed, recently of the very popular "Wild: from lost to found on the Pacific Crest trail" fame.  An Oprah pick no less.  It seems that a lot of problems would get a "That is a rough one..." at the start of the reply but none of it seems to hard for Strayed to figure out.   She has a straight forward and logical view of everything and she is willing to share.  I started out reading just one "letter" at a time because some are pretty tough but then I could not stop reading.  I found this to be uplifting despite all of the people out there in need of advice and having terrible events litter their lives.

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George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I by Miranda Carter

This book offers stunning insight into the lives of two of the 20th century's most powerful monarchs...and the King of England! Detailing the shockingly poor education all three royals received, their unimaginably opulent (and lonely) lifestyles, and the juicy details of their psychological hangups, Miranda Carter's work paints an engaging picture not just of the roles these men played in history but also of the world they lived in. Bottom line: If you want to know how kings and emperors lived in the twilight years of empire, this is the book for you.