Kingdom of Ash

 Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas (2018) 980 pages

The 7th and final book in the Throne of Glass series, this book wraps everything up quite nicely. 

Aelin, Firebringer, Queen of Terrasen, has been captured by Maeve, Queen of the Fae. She is trapped in an iron box which stifles her immense magic and firepower. The rest of her generals and cadre are scattered about the world, attempting to assemble in order to track her down and save her and Terrasen. Erawan, the demon threatens all life and in order to stop him, Aelin or King Dorian must forge a magical lock in which to trap Erawan, and so he cannot bring his demon brothers through the portals and cause more destruction. 

Luckily Aelin's mate, her commanders and most trusted friends track her down and help her escape. Dorian brings down Morath, Erawan's lair. The Wyrdkeys are captured and the lock is able to be forged. But all of this still comes at a cost, Dorian or Aelin must sacrifice themselves for the lock. 

This book is full of battle scenes, magic, heartache, but also glorious victory, love, rekindling of friendships and new forged empires. I'm personally glad to be done with the series. I enjoyed it, but think the first 3-4 were superb. The last several books were just kind of...so-so. But overall!!!! A fantastic fantasy world. I'm glad I read them all.

On the Curry Trail

 On the Curry Trail: Chasing the Flavor That Seduced the World by Raghavan Iyer, 208 pages.

As a cookbook I found this book to be very alright. The recipes tend to be very involved and use some specialized equipment (I think there's maybe three recipes in the whole book that don't call for a spice grinder), and I had only middling luck making them. However, it is fascinating as a culinary history book. Iyer goes continent by continent tracking the history of how curry got to many countries and how it adapted to local tastes. I was surprised to learn that, despite Japan's fairly long trade history with India and current love of curry, the dish wasn't actually popular in Japan until the English brought it over. Iyer also includes a number of helpful general prep tips and ingredient advice. This is a fun book to flip through, and it's graphic design is very enticing to do just that.

Sea Prayer

 Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini, 48 pages.

This short book is essentially an illustrated poem by the author of The Kite Runner. The book is from the perspective of a father telling his son about their home in Syria, which they have to flee on a refugee ship. The art is achingly beautiful, and the book is very sad. It is an extremely fast read and I would definitely recommend more people read it.

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop

 

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa  149 pp.

This is a sweet, small book translated from Japanese by Eric Ozawa. It's about two of my favorite things to read, Asian culture and bookstores. The protagonist, Takako has an unfortunate romance and while she is recovering from it and the loss of her job, she goes to work in her uncle's used bookshop (formerly her grandfather's shop). Her uncle has been running it alone since his wife left him. Soon Takako moves on to a new job when things take an interesting twist. Actually two twists. The characters are gentle people going about their quiet lives without much turmoil. In spite of the tranquility of the tale, there is just enough movement to carry the story along. 

Invisible Cities

 Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, 165 pages.

This book is difficult to describe. The frame device is famous explorer Marco Polo describing the cities he has seen to Kublai Khan. The actual book is mostly dozens of vignettes no more than a few pages long about the fantastical cities that he has seen. But really it is a meditation on the possible ways that cities could be, and what that means on a human scale. The book is extremely philosophically compelling, and once I managed to stop taking it so literally I thoroughly enjoyed it. My ebook copy is very full of bookmarks. The short chapters (and short overall page count) make it very easy to casually pick up this book. A great book to read at a leisurely pace, I thoroughly recommend it.

Advika and the Hollywood Wives

 Advika and the Hollywood Wives by Kirthana Ramisetti, 384 pages.

Advika is 26 and bartending in Hollywood as her dreams of being screenwriter flounders. Then one of the Oscar winners at the Governor's Ball flirts with her and she ends up in a whirlwind romance (and soon after, elopement) with a man 40 years her senior. Soon cracks begin to show in the surface of the happy couple veneer, but Advika doesn't really begin to ask questions until her husband's first ex-wife dies and leaves a million dollars and a mysterious film reel to "Julian's latest child bride." Then the questions, and a reconstruction of Julian's three former marriages, get to pressing not to ask.

The premise to this book sounded super interesting! It seemed like a fun mystery and the cover is really cool. Unfortunately it fell very flat for me. The book is written like a thriller, but there's just not enough actual danger to justify the tone. There are also several plot holes and characters that are hard to buy. To top it all off it's one of those books where the ending is so bad it retroactively makes the rest of the book worse. Overall, very disappointing.

Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light

 Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light: Fifty Poems for Fifty Years by Joy Harjo, 160 pages.

Despite hearing a lot about Joy Harjo, I had never actually read any of her poems. This collection was on the new shelf, and I was very interested in the title, plus the collection filled a prompt on a book challenge I'm working on, so I decided to give it a try. 

The concept for this collection was extremely interesting. It takes one poem for each year of her writing career and arranges them in order, which allows the reader to see how she developed as a poet really dynamically. As with any collection I liked some better than others, but there were some really exceptional poems in this collection. I read all of the notes on the poems at the end, but I would recommend not doing that and instead reading them as you go, the context is definitely helpful for many of the poems in this collection.

My Lobotomy: A Memoir

 

My Lobotomy: A Memoir by Howard Dully (2007) 288 Pages

This memoir goes recounts the tragic tale of Howard Dully, one of the youngest people ever to receive a trans-orbital lobotomy. Dully, now a special education bus driver, husband, recounts his childhood and what may have led his stepmother to bring him to several psychiatrists at the age of 12, and their fateful meeting with Dr. Freeman who performed the lobotomy. Freeman is one of the foremost doctors in the country to have performed thousands of lobotomies, some inside a makeshift van for "mobile" procedures. Many patients were not able to consent to this procedure. It must be stated that Howard, a fairly normal child was never properly listened to, and had multiple step siblings, and lost his mother when he was very young, which may explain his acting out. However, the ways in which he acted out were quite normal for boys his age. It was stated in this memoir that the stepmother went from doctor's office to doctor's office looking for someone to agree with her. She treated Howard differently than the other children, and called him names, such as stupid, dimwit, and would often confine him to his room or punish him with beatings. One account mentioned that the psychiatrist told her that the problem wasn't Howard, but herself which she of course had a huge problem with. So, the lobotomy didn't fix him, it made his problems much worse and led him into countless inpatient psychiatric care units, rehabs, jail and turning to alcohol. Howard didn't begin to piece together his past until his 40s, and was able to acquire documents from archives which recounted his lobotomy. He went on a search to track down this information in order to help himself and others heal from this type of (now) inhumane procedure. Luckily, he now lives a stable life with his wife and kids, but the road to get there was quite tumultuous.

I don't know why I read this other than pure curiosity, and pulled it off the shelving cart. Its absolutely terrible what countless people with mental health issues went through during these years. The experimentation on human beings in the name of science has always been disgusting.

Hestia Strikes a Match

Hestia Strikes a Match by Christine Grillo (2023) 386 pages

With the second American Civil War as a backdrop to the story, we meet Hestia (named after a Greek goddess by her classics-educated parents). She is 42. The year is 2023 and the setting is Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States of America. The New Confederated States of America is comprised of 12 States which have seceded from the U.S. Rather than the Civil War being a military operation, more often it is a series of terrorist attacks of movie theaters and grocery stores, along with sabotage of water, sewer and power systems. The U.S. residents live with nightly curfews and U.N. Peacekeepers watching over them.

Hestia's husband, a Unionist like herself, has abandoned her to join a paramilitary group to fight against the confederates. He's been gone a while, and Hestia is finally thinking about trying to get a divorce.

Oddly, against the uncertainty of everyday life, Hestia's life is somewhat ordinary. She's a writer who works in a retirement community, where she is tasked with growing the community's online presence. She finds friends there, including her boss and her office mate, and with one of the residents in particular, a thrice-widowed woman named Mildred, who is a bit of a wild child. Mildred is always trying to get the details about the men that Hestia is dating or considering dating. Mildred is part of a group of residents that Hestia meets with regularly, to write out memories and opinions in answer to historical questions. As a bonus, we see the questions and their answers to the questions interspersed throughout the book.

Perhaps this book's storyline sounds depressing, but I thought it worked, and includes fine character-development and a slew of great details regarding war, dating, and life in general.

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto  338 pp. 

Kara already blogged about this book and pretty much says it all. I don't have much to add other than I enjoyed the busybody Vera Wong and the way she copes with her failing teahouse, the dead body in the teahouse, the police, and the other characters/suspects, although I don't know why she wasn't arrested. The descriptions of the meals Vera makes had me drooling. Can you bribe police officers with food (aside from donuts)? I agree that there should be at least one sequel starring Vera. This is a fun book.