Mike's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 04 Apr 2025 02:49:30 -0700 60 Mike's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Wandering Stars 220687890 A TIME MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK � The Pulitzer Prize-finalist and author of the breakout bestseller There There delivers a masterful follow-up to his already classic first novel. Extending his constellation of narratives into the past and future, Tommy Orange traces the legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School through three generations of a family in a story that is by turns shattering and wondrous.

Colorado, 1864. Star, a young survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre, is brought to the Fort Marion prison castle,where he is forced to learn English and practice Christianity by Richard Henry Pratt, an evangelical prison guard who will go on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, an institution dedicated to the eradication of Native history, culture, and identity. A generation later, Star’s son, Charles, is sent to the school, where he is brutalized by the man who was once his father’s jailer. Under Pratt’s harsh treatment, Charles clings to moments he shares with a young fellow student, Opal Viola, as the two envision a future away from the institutional violence that follows their bloodlines.

In a novel that is by turns shattering and wondrous, Tommy Orange has conjured the ancestors of the family readers first fell in love with in There There—warriors, drunks, outlaws, addicts—asking what it means to bethe children and grandchildren of massacre. Wandering Stars is a novel about epigenetic and generational trauma that has the force and vision of a modern epic, an exceptionally powerful new book from one of the most exciting writers at work today and soaring confirmation of Tommy Orange’s monumental gifts.]]> 336 Tommy Orange 0593311442 Mike 0 to-read 4.15 2024 Wandering Stars
author: Tommy Orange
name: Mike
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Rusty Brown 43475261 A major graphic novel event more than 16 years in the making: the new epic masterwork from the brilliant and beloved author of Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth and Building Stories.

Rusty Brown is a fully interactive, full-color articulation of the time-space interrelationships of six complete consciousnesses on a single midwestern American day and the tiny piece of human grit about which they involuntarily orbit. A sprawling, special snowflake accumulation of the biggest themes and the smallest moments of life, Rusty Brown literately and literally aims at nothing less than the coalescence of one half of all of existence into a single museum-quality picture story, expertly arranged to present the most convincingly ineffable and empathetic illusion of experience for both life-curious readers and traditional fans of standard reality. From childhood to old age, no frozen plotline is left unthawed in the entangled stories of a child who awakens without superpowers, a teen who matures into a paternal despot, a father who stores his emotional regrets on the surface of Mars and a late-middle-aged woman who seeks the love of only one other person on planet Earth.]]> 356 Chris Ware 0375424326 Mike 5 comic 4.30 2019 Rusty Brown
author: Chris Ware
name: Mike
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: comic
review:
Do I give this 4-stars because it's not my favorie thing that Chris Ware made? (That's still Jimmy Corrigan.) Or do I give it 5 stars because it contains heartfelt story telling with the deceptively simple art style that contains worlds of beauty and feeling—just like everything else Ware has written. I say 5 stars. No need to grade on a curve.
]]> Black Punk Now 123033597 A canonizing, bold, and urgent anthology setting a new precedent for Black Punk Lit, created by generations of Black punks—featuring both new voices and those from the not-so-recent past

Black Punk Now is an anthology of contemporary nonfiction, fiction, illustrations, and comics that collectively describe punk today and give punks—especially the Black ones—a wider frame of reference. It shows all of the strains, styles, and identities of Black punk that are thriving, and gives newcomers to the scene more chances to see themselves.

Curated from the perspective of Black writers with connections to the world of punk, the collection mixes media as well as generations, creating a new reference point for music-lovers, readers, and historians by capturing the present and looking towards the future. With strong visual elements integrated throughout, this smart, intimate collection is demonstrative of punk by being punk itself: underground, rebellious, aesthetic but not static—working to decenter whiteness by prioritizing other perspectives.

Edited by graphic novelist and filmmaker James Spooner, and author Chris L. Terry, contributors to the collection include critic Hanif Abdurraqib and Mars Dixon, conversations with Brontez Purnell, and a roundtable of all femme festival organizers.]]> 256 James Spooner 1593767455 Mike 4 nonfiction 4.31 2023 Black Punk Now
author: James Spooner
name: Mike
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: nonfiction
review:
This book is well worth the time if the subject appeals to you. It's probably even better for you if the subject doesn't appeal to you, but that's a different conversation. It's hard to review an anthology as a whole. Some of the pieces resonated with me. Others were just ok. I suspect it's the same for everyone but they're thinking of different pieces when they say it.
]]> <![CDATA[Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop]]> 215149232
For the first few months all Yeongju does is cry, but the long hours in the shop also give her time to mull over what makes a good bookseller and store. As she starts to read hungrily, host author events, and develop her own bookselling philosophy, she eases into her new setting. Surrounded by friends, writers, and the books that connect them all, she finds her new story as the Hyunam-dong Bookshop transforms into an inviting space for lost souls to rest, heal, and remember it's never too late to scrap the plot and start again.]]> 320 Hwang Bo-Reum 1639736379 Mike 0 to-read 3.76 2022 Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop
author: Hwang Bo-Reum
name: Mike
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Stand 60311454 Stephen King's apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by plague and tangled in an elemental struggle between good and evil remains as riveting and eerily plausible as when it was first published.

Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read

A patient escapes from a biological testing facility, unknowingly carrying a deadly weapon: a mutated strain of super-flu that will wipe out 99 percent of the world's population within a few weeks. Those who remain are scared, bewildered, and in need of a leader. Two emerge--Mother Abagail, the benevolent 108-year-old woman who urges them to build a peaceful community in Boulder, Colorado; and Randall Flagg, the nefarious "Dark Man," who delights in chaos and violence. As the dark man and the peaceful woman gather power, the survivors will have to choose between them--and ultimately decide the fate of all humanity.

(This edition includes all of the new and restored material first published in The Stand The Complete And Uncut Edition.)]]> 1439 Stephen King 0307743683 Mike 4 fiction
My only major complaint was the pinnacle scene. I had read 1200 pages up to that point, I could have done with a bigger, longer confrontation. ]]> 4.25 1978 The Stand
author: Stephen King
name: Mike
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1978
rating: 4
read at: 2012/08/12
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: fiction
review:
King's a hell of a story teller. 1400 pages and I never considered giving up. Though, I do feel like I deserve some kind of trophy for just finishing. I thought it was kind of funny how King got around the deus ex machina problem by essentially making god a character. Perhaps I'm looking a little too deeply, but I also found the book to be an interesting meditation on free will versus destiny.

My only major complaint was the pinnacle scene. I had read 1200 pages up to that point, I could have done with a bigger, longer confrontation.
]]> Dream Count 219520778 A publishing event ten years in the making�a searing, exquisite new novel by the best-selling and award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists�the story of four women and their loves, longings, and desires.

Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets. Zikora, her best friend, is a lawyer who has been successful at everything until � betrayed and brokenhearted � she must turn to the person she thought she needed least. Omelogor, Chiamaka’s bold, outspoken cousin, is a financial powerhouse in Nigeria who begins to question how well she knows herself. And Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, is proudly raising her daughter in America � but faces an unthinkable hardship that threatens all she has worked to achieve.

In Dream Count, Adichie trains her fierce eye on these women in a sparkling, transcendent novel that takes up the very nature of love itself. Is true happiness ever attainable or is it just a fleeting state? And how honest must we be with ourselves in order to love, and to be loved? A trenchant reflection on the choices we make and those made for us, on daughters and mothers, on our interconnected world, Dream Count pulses with emotional urgency and poignant, unflinching observations on the human heart, in language that soars with beauty and power. It confirms Adichie’s status as one of the most exciting and dynamic writers on the literary landscape.]]> 416 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 0593802721 Mike 0 to-read, 4, fiction 3.92 2025 Dream Count
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Mike
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: to-read, 4, fiction
review:

]]> Night Watch 212012146 Alternate cover edition of ISBN-13: 9781101972793, ISBN-10/ASIN: 1101972793

From one of our most accomplished novelists, a mesmerizing story about a mother and daughter seeking refuge in the chaotic aftermath of the Civil War

In 1874, in the wake of the War, erasure, trauma, and namelessness haunt civilians and veterans, renegades and wanderers, freedmen and runaways. Twelve-year-old ConaLee, the adult in her family for as long as she can remember, finds herself on a buckboard journey with her mother, Eliza, who hasn’t spoken in more than a year. They arrive at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia, delivered to the hospital’s entrance by a war veteran who has forced himself into their world. There, far from family, a beloved neighbor, and the mountain home they knew, they try to reclaim their lives.

The omnipresent vagaries of war and race rise to the surface as we learn their their flight to the highest mountain ridges of western Virginia; the disappearance of ConaLee’s father, who left for the War and never returned. Meanwhile, in the asylum, they begin to find a new path. ConaLee pretends to be her mother’s maid; Eliza responds slowly to treatment. They get swept up in the life of the facility—the mysterious man they call the Night Watch; the orphan child called Weed; the fearsome woman who runs the kitchen; the remarkable doctor at the head of the institution.

Epic, enthralling, and meticulously crafted, Night Watch is a brilliant portrait of family endurance against all odds, and a stunning chronicle of surviving war and its aftermath.]]> 304 Jayne Anne Phillips Mike 0 to-read 3.67 2023 Night Watch
author: Jayne Anne Phillips
name: Mike
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us]]> 33947154
In the wake of the nightclub attacks in Paris, he recalls how he sought refuge as a teenager in music, at shows, and wonders whether the next generation of young Muslims will not be afforded that opportunity now. While discussing the everyday threat to the lives of black Americans, Abdurraqib recounts the first time he was ordered to the ground by police officers: for attempting to enter his own car.

In essays that have been published by the New York Times, MTV, and Pitchfork, among others—along with original, previously unreleased essays—Abdurraqib uses music and culture as a lens through which to view our world, so that we might better understand ourselves, and in so doing proves himself a bellwether for our times.]]> 291 Hanif Abdurraqib Mike 0 to-read, 2, nonfiction 4.57 2017 They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us
author: Hanif Abdurraqib
name: Mike
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: to-read, 2, nonfiction
review:

]]> The Silmarillion 178936880 The forerunner to The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion tells the earlier history of Middle-earth, recounting the events of the First and Second Ages, and introducing some of the key characters, such as Galadriel, Elrond, Elendil and the Dark Lord, Sauron.

The tales of The Silmarillion are set in an age when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils, the jewels containing the pure light of Valinor.

Included on the recording are several shorter works. The Ainulindalë is a myth of the Creation and in the Valaquenta the nature and powers of each of the gods is described. The Akallabêth recounts the downfall of the great island kingdom of Númenor at the end of the Second Age, and Of the Rings of Power tells of the great events at the end of the Third Age, as narrated in The Lord of the Rings.

This brand-new unabridged recording is read by the acclaimed actor, director and author, Andy Serkis.]]> 19 J.R.R. Tolkien 0008585881 Mike 4 fiction, audio 4.25 1977 The Silmarillion
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Mike
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1977
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: fiction, audio
review:
The only way I was going to get around to reading the Silmarillion was by listening to the audio book. And while I'm sure I retained less than if I had read a traditional book, I'm really happy that I found this new(er) edition narrated by Gollum himself, Andy Serkis.
]]> <![CDATA[Black Hammer, Vol. 7: Reborn, Part III]]> 60413848 The Eisner Award-winning superhero saga returns in this ongoing series picking up twenty years later with artist Caitlin Yarsky.

Things have gotten crazy in Black Hammer! First a parallel Spiral City collided with the actual one spawning a multiverse nightmare of heroes and villains from both worlds going to war, and now Lucy Weber picks back up the mantle of Black Hammer and teams up with Skulldigger for answers on how to end the madness.


Black Hammer: Reborn is the next era of the Black Hammer Universe; a twelve-issue series by Jeff Lemire, Caitlin Yarsky, Malachi Ward, and Matthew Sheean that juxtaposes an achingly human story of domestic life, marriage, parenthood, and destiny with a pulse-pounding superhero thriller that peels back new layers of mystery, and pulls the Black Hammer history into the present.

Collects Black Hammer: Reborn #9-#12.]]> 112 Jeff Lemire 1506720153 Mike 4 comic 3.67 2022 Black Hammer, Vol. 7: Reborn, Part III
author: Jeff Lemire
name: Mike
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: comic
review:
An interesting wrap up to this arc. I like the way Lemire continues to play with the genre of superhero comics. Right when you get used to superhero logic, he injects a bit of real world logic when you least expect it.
]]> Bitter Root, Vol. 3: Legacy 57286501
Collects BITTER ROOT #11-15
]]> 152 David F. Walker 1534319174 Mike 3 comic 3.85 2021 Bitter Root, Vol. 3: Legacy
author: David F. Walker
name: Mike
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: comic
review:
I liked this series. I wanted to love it. It's so smart and the art is great. But there were so many characters and it jumped around in time so much that I had trouble holding onto the thread. Maybe it's for people smarter than me.
]]> A Little Life 22822858
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride.Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.]]> 720 Hanya Yanagihara 0385539258 Mike 5 fiction
On another level, this book is about unconditional love and was truly touching. I cried more often over the acts of deep love and kindness than I did over the acts of depravity and sadism.

Be forewarned, this book only lifts you up to make the plunge that much more jarring. This book is for those who find Crime and Punishment or Wuthering Heights too uplifting. But this book is also for those who understand that you don't care about someone to save them, but because caring is an end unto itself. ]]> 4.28 2015 A Little Life
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Mike
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: fiction
review:
This book was brutal and unflinching. It was in no way fun. But nothing in this book struck me as unrealistic or implausible. While Jude's life is certainly in the 1% of hard lives, many people have endured this much. On an individual level, I don't totally understand why Yanagihara would want to spend so much time with so much tragedy and sadness. But on a societal level, I think it's important that books like this exist.

On another level, this book is about unconditional love and was truly touching. I cried more often over the acts of deep love and kindness than I did over the acts of depravity and sadism.

Be forewarned, this book only lifts you up to make the plunge that much more jarring. This book is for those who find Crime and Punishment or Wuthering Heights too uplifting. But this book is also for those who understand that you don't care about someone to save them, but because caring is an end unto itself.
]]> Yellowface 213562784
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]> 322 R.F. Kuang 0063250853 Mike 0 to-read 3.80 2023 Yellowface
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Mike
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Fourteen Days 213344068
One week into the COVID-19 shutdown, tenants of a Lower East Side apartment building in Manhattan have begun to gather on the rooftop and tell stories. With each passing night, more and more neighbours gather, bringing chairs and milk crates and overturned pails. Gradually the tenants - some of whom have barely spoken to each other - become real neighbours. In this Decameron-like serial novel, general editor Margaret Atwood, Authors Guild president Douglas Preston, and a star-studded list of contributors create a beautiful ode to the people who couldn't get away from the city when the pandemic hit. A dazzling, heartwarming and ultimately surprising narrative, Fourteen Days reveals how beneath the horrible loss and suffering, some communities managed to become stronger.

Includes writing from:
Margaret Atwood, Douglas Preston, Celeste Ng, Emma Donoghue, Dave Eggers, John Grisham, Diana Gabaldon, Ishmael Reed, Meg Wolitzer, Luis Alberto Urrea, James Shapiro, Sylvia Day, Mary Pope Osborne, Monique Truong, Hampton Sides, R. L. Stine, Scott Turow, Tommy Orange, and more!]]> 384 Margaret Atwood 0063280183 Mike 0 to-read 3.57 2024 Fourteen Days
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Mike
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> You Dreamed of Empires 221081944 From a visionary Mexican author, a hallucinatory, revelatory, colonial revenge story that reimagines the fall of Tenochtitlan.

One morning in 1519, conquistador Hernán Cortés entered the city of Tenochtitlan � today's Mexico City. Later that day, he would meet the emperor Moctezuma in a collision of two worlds, two empires, two languages, two possible futures.

Cortés was accompanied by his nine captains, his troops, and his two translators: Friar Aguilar, a taciturn, former slave, and Malinalli, a strategic, former princess. Greeted at a ceremonial welcome meal by the steely princess Atotoxli, sister and wife of Moctezuma, the Spanish nearly bungle their entrance to the city. As they await their meeting with Moctezuma � who is at a political, spiritual, and physical crossroads, and relies on hallucinogens to get himself through the day and in quest for any kind of answer from the gods � the Spanish are ensconced in the labyrinthine palace. Soon, one of Cortés’s captains, Jazmín Caldera, overwhelmed by the grandeur of the city, begins to question the ease with which they were welcomed into the city, and wonders at the risks of getting out alive, much less conquering the empire.

You Dreamed of Empires brings to life Tenochtitlan at its height, and reimagines its destiny. The incomparably original Alvaro Enrigue sets afire the moment of conquest and turns it into a moment of revolution, a restitutive, fantastical counter-attack, in a novel so electric and so unique that it feels like a dream.]]> 240 Álvaro Enrigue 0593544803 Mike 0 to-read 3.72 2022 You Dreamed of Empires
author: Álvaro Enrigue
name: Mike
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rendezvous with Rama (Rama, #1)]]> 112537 243 Arthur C. Clarke 1857231589 Mike 0 to-read, 1, fiction 4.12 1973 Rendezvous with Rama (Rama, #1)
author: Arthur C. Clarke
name: Mike
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1973
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: to-read, 1, fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life]]> 171889 291 John Fahey 0965618323 Mike 0 to-read, 1, fiction 4.18 2000 How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life
author: John Fahey
name: Mike
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: to-read, 1, fiction
review:

]]> James 173754979 A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with nuanced humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780385550369.]]> 303 Percival Everett Mike 0 to-read, fiction, 2 4.46 2024 James
author: Percival Everett
name: Mike
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: to-read, fiction, 2
review:

]]> Orbital 123136728
Contudo, mesmo tão distantes do mundo, os seis astronautas não conseguem escapar à sua constante influência. Chegam notícias da morte de uma mãe, trazendo pensamentos de regresso e de saudades de casa. A fragilidade da vida humana torna-se um tema central nas suas conversas, nos seus medos e nos seus sonhos.

Apesar de tão longe da Terra, nunca antes se haviam sentido tão protetores dela, tão parte dela. Começam a refletir: o que será a vida sem a Terra? O que será a Terra sem a humanidade?]]> 207 Samantha Harvey 0802161545 Mike 0 to-read, 3, fiction 3.56 2023 Orbital
author: Samantha Harvey
name: Mike
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: to-read, 3, fiction
review:

]]> Whiskey Tender: A Memoir 158649919 An Oprah Daily "Best New Book" and "Riveting Nonfiction and Memoir You Need to Read" * A New York Times "New Book to Read" * A The New Yorker "Best Book out now" * An Esquire "Best Book (so far)" * A Zibby Mag "Most Anticipated Book" * An Elle "Best Book" * A Washington Post "Book to Read this Summer" * Publishers Weekly "Top 10 Memoir and Biography" * A San Francisco Chronicle "New Book to Cozy Up With" * A Publishers Weekly "Memoirs & Biographies: Top 10" * The Millions "Most Anticipated" * An Electric Lit “Books By Women of Color to Read" * An Amazon Editors "Best Book of the Month"

“We have more Native stories now, but we have not heard one like this. Whiskey Tender is unexpected and propulsive, indeed tender, but also bold, and beautifully told, like a drink you didn’t know you were thirsty for. This book, never anything less than mesmerizing, is full of family stories and vital Native history. It pulses and it aches, and it lifts, consistently. It threads together so much truth by the time we are done, what has been woven together equals a kind of completeness from brokenness, and a hope from knowing love and loss and love again by naming it so.� � Tommy Orange, National Bestselling Author of There There

Reminiscent of the works of Mary Karr and Terese Marie Mailhot, a memoir of family and survival, coming-of-age on and off the reservation, and of the frictions between mainstream American culture and Native inheritance; assimilation and reverence for tradition.

Deborah Jackson Taffa was raised to believe that some sacrifices were necessary to achieve a better life. Her grandparents—citizens of the Quechan Nation and Laguna Pueblo tribe—were sent to Indian boarding schools run by white missionaries, while her parents were encouraged to take part in governmental job training off the reservation. Assimilation meant relocation, but as Taffa matured into adulthood, she began to question the promise handed down by her elders and by American society: that if she gave up her culture, her land, and her traditions, she would not only be accepted, but would be able to achieve the “American Dream.�

Whiskey Tender traces how a mixed tribe native girl—born on the California Yuma reservation and raised in Navajo territory in New Mexico—comes to her own interpretation of identity, despite her parent’s desires for her to transcend the class and “Indian� status of her birth through education, and despite the Quechan tribe’s particular traditions and beliefs regarding oral and recorded histories. Taffa’s childhood memories unspool into meditations on tribal identity, the rampant criminalization of Native men, governmental assimilation policies, the Red Power movement, and the negotiation between belonging and resisting systemic oppression. Pan-Indian, as well as specific tribal histories and myths, blend with stories of a 1970s and 1980s childhood spent on and off the reservation.

Taffa offers a sharp and thought-provoking historical analysis laced with humor and heart. As she reflects on her past and present—the promise of assimilation and the many betrayals her family has suffered, both personal and historical; trauma passed down through generations—she reminds us of how the cultural narratives of her ancestors have been excluded from the central mythologies and structures of the “melting pot� of America, revealing all that is sacrificed for the promise of acceptance.]]> 304 Deborah Jackson Taffa 0063288516 Mike 0 to-read, 4, nonfiction 4.11 2024 Whiskey Tender: A Memoir
author: Deborah Jackson Taffa
name: Mike
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: to-read, 4, nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling]]> 165938555
Political instability, poverty, climate change,andtheinsatiable appetite for cheap labor all fuel clandestine movement across borders. As those borders harden, the demandfor smugglers whoaid migrants across them increases every year. Yet the real lives and work of smugglers—or coyotes , or guides, as they are often known by the migrants who hire their services—are only ever reported on from a distance, using tired tropes and stereotypes, often depicted as boogie men and violent warlords. In an effort to better understand this essential yet extralegal billion dollar global industry, internationally recognized anthropologist and expert Jason DeLeón embedded with a group of smugglers moving migrants across Mexico over the course of seven years.

The result of this unique and extraordinary access is SOLDIERS AND the first ever in-depth, character-driven look at human smuggling. It is a heart-wrenching and intimate narrative that revolves around the life and death of one coyote who falls in love and tries to leave smuggling behind. In a powerful, original voice, DeLeón expertly chronicles the lives of low-level foot soldiers breaking into the smuggling game, and morally conflicted gang leaders who oversee rag-tag crews of guides and informants along the migrant trail. SOLDIERS AND KINGS is not only a ground-breaking up-close glimpse of a difficult-to-access world, it is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction.]]> 367 Jason De León 0593298586 Mike 0 to-read, nonfiction, 2 4.31 2024 Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling
author: Jason De León
name: Mike
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: to-read, nonfiction, 2
review:

]]> Ghostroots: Stories 200196202 A debut collection of stories set in a hauntingly reimagined Lagos where characters vie for freedom from ancestral ties.

’Pemi Aguda opens her collection of twelve stories with the chilling tale of a woman who uncannily resembles her sinister, deceased grandmother. When the woman shows a capacity for deadly violence, she wonders—can evil be genetic, passed from generation to generation?

Set in Lagos, Nigeria, Aguda’s stories unfold against a spectral cityscape where the everyday business of living—the birth of a baby, a market visit, a conversation between mothers and daughters—is charged with an air of supernatural menace. In “Breastmilk� a new mother’s inability to lactate takes on preternatural overtones. In �24, Alhaji Williams Street� a mysterious disease wreaks havoc with frightening precision. In “The Hollow,� an architect stumbles on a vengeful house.

Evocative, strange, and yet familiar, “the speculative conceits of these stories are elegantly balanced with the gorgeous fullness of human emotion, all the hunger and longing and fear and delight of being a human in the world� (Lauren Groff).]]> 224 Pemi Aguda 1324065850 Mike 0 to-read, 4, fiction 4.04 2024 Ghostroots: Stories
author: Pemi Aguda
name: Mike
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> Wednesday's Child: Stories 65215744 A new collection—about loss, alienation, aging, and the strangeness of contemporary life—by the award-winning, and inimitable, author of The Book of Goose.

A grieving mother makes a spreadsheet of everyone she’s lost. Elsewhere, a professor develops a troubled intimacy with her hairdresser. And every year, a restless woman receives an email from a strange man twice her age and several states away. In Yiyun Li’s stories, people strive for an ordinary existence until doing so becomes unsustainable, until the surface cracks and the grand mysterious forces—death, violence, estrangement—come to light. And even everyday life is laden with meaning, studded with indelible details: a filched jar of honey, a mound of wounded ants, a photograph kept hidden for many years, until it must be seen.

Li is a truly original writer, an alchemist of opposites: tender and unsentimental, metaphysical and blunt, funny and horrifying, omniscient and unusually aware of just how much we cannot know. Beloved for her novels and memoirs, she returns here to her earliest form, gathering pieces that have appeared in The New Yorker, Zoetrope, and elsewhere. Taken together, the stories in Wednesday's Child, written over the span of a decade, articulate the cost, both material and emotional, of living—exile, assimilation, loss, love—with her trademark unnerving beauty and wisdom.]]> 256 Yiyun Li 0374606374 Mike 0 to-read, fiction, 4 3.72 2023 Wednesday's Child: Stories
author: Yiyun Li
name: Mike
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/01
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]]> Night Watch 62951865
The omnipresent vagaries of war and race rise to the surface as we learn their their flight to the highest mountain ridges of western Virginia; the disappearance of ConaLee’s father, who left for the War and never returned. Meanwhile, in the asylum, they begin to find a new path. ConaLee pretends to be her mother’s maid; Eliza responds slowly to treatment. They get swept up in the life of the facility—the mysterious man they call the Night Watch; the orphan child called Weed; the fearsome woman who runs the kitchen; the remarkable doctor at the head of the institution.]]> 276 Jayne Anne Phillips 0451493338 Mike 0 to-read, 3, fiction 3.55 2023 Night Watch
author: Jayne Anne Phillips
name: Mike
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/01
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]]> You Dreamed of Empires 127938747 From a visionary Mexican author, a hallucinatory, revelatory, colonial revenge story that reimagines the fall of Tenochtitlan.

One morning in 1519, conquistador Hernán Cortés entered the city of Tenochtitlan � today's Mexico City. Later that day, he would meet the emperor Moctezuma in a collision of two worlds, two empires, two languages, two possible futures.

Cortés was accompanied by his nine captains, his troops, and his two translators: Friar Aguilar, a taciturn, former slave, and Malinalli, a strategic, former princess. Greeted at a ceremonial welcome meal by the steely princess Atotoxli, sister and wife of Moctezuma, the Spanish nearly bungle their entrance to the city. As they await their meeting with Moctezuma � who is at a political, spiritual, and physical crossroads, and relies on hallucinogens to get himself through the day and in quest for any kind of answer from the gods � the Spanish are ensconced in the labyrinthine palace. Soon, one of Cortés’s captains, Jazmín Caldera, overwhelmed by the grandeur of the city, begins to question the ease with which they were welcomed into the city, and wonders at the risks of getting out alive, much less conquering the empire.

You Dreamed of Empires brings to life Tenochtitlan at its height, and reimagines its destiny. The incomparably original Alvaro Enrigue sets afire the moment of conquest and turns it into a moment of revolution, a restitutive, fantastical counter-attack, in a novel so electric and so unique that it feels like a dream.]]> 220 Álvaro Enrigue 059354479X Mike 0 to-read, 2, fiction 3.75 2022 You Dreamed of Empires
author: Álvaro Enrigue
name: Mike
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/01
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science]]> 208580608 The acclaimed Pulitzer Prize finalist and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Galileo’s Daughter crafts a luminous chronicle of the life and work of the most famous woman in the history of science, and the untold story of the many young women trained in her laboratory who were launched into stellar scientific careers of their own

“Even now, nearly a century after her death, Marie Curie remains the only female scientist most people can name,� writes Dava Sobel at the opening of her shining portrait of the sole Nobel laureate decorated in two separate fields of science—Physics in 1903 with her husband Pierre and Chemistry by herself in 1911. And yet, Sobel makes clear, as brilliant and creative as she was in the laboratory, Marie Curie was equally passionate outside it. Grieving Pierre’s untimely death in 1906, she took his place as professor of physics at the Sorbonne; devotedly raised two brilliant daughters; drove a van she outfitted with x-ray equipment to the front lines of World War I; befriended Albert Einstein and other luminaries of twentieth-century physics; won support from two U.S. presidents; and inspired generations of young women the world over to pursue science as a way of life.

As Sobel did so memorably in her portrait of Galileo through the prism of his daughter, she approaches Marie Curie from a unique angle, narrating her remarkable life of discovery and fame alongside the women who became her legacy—from France’s Marguerite Perey, who discovered the element francium, and Norway’s Ellen Gleditsch, to Mme. Curie’s elder daughter, Irène, winner of the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. For decades the only woman in the room at international scientific gatherings that probed new theories about the interior of the atom, Marie Curie traveled far and wide, despite constant illness, to share the secrets of radioactivity, a term she coined. Her two triumphant tours of the United States won her admirers for her modesty even as she was mobbed at every stop; her daughters, in Ève’s later recollection, “discovered all at once what the retiring woman with whom they had always lived meant to the world.�

With the consummate skill that made bestsellers of Longitude and Galileo’s Daughter, and the appreciation for women in science at the heart of her most recent The Glass Universe, Dava Sobel has crafted a radiant biography and a masterpiece of storytelling, illuminating the life and enduring influence of one of the most consequential figures of our time.]]> 318 Dava Sobel 0802163823 Mike 0 to-read, 3, nonfiction 3.93 2024 The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science
author: Dava Sobel
name: Mike
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: to-read, 3, nonfiction
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]]> <![CDATA[The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern]]> 203579107 It's never too late for new beginnings.

On the cusp of turning eighty, newly retired pharmacist Augusta Stern is adrift. When she relocates to Rallentando Springs—an active senior community in southern Florida—she unexpectedly crosses paths with Irving Rivkin, the delivery boy from her father’s old pharmacy—and the man who broke her heart sixty years earlier.

As a teenager growing up in 1920’s Brooklyn, Augusta’s role model was her father, Solomon Stern, the trusted owner of the local pharmacy and the neighborhood expert on every ailment. But when Augusta’s mother dies and Great Aunt Esther moves in, Augusta can’t help but be drawn to Esther’s curious methods. As a healer herself, Esther offers Solomon’s customers her own advice—unconventional remedies ranging from homemade chicken soup to a mysterious array of powders and potions.

As Augusta prepares for pharmacy college, she is torn between loyalty to her father and fascination with her great aunt, all while navigating a budding but complicated relationship with Irving. Desperate for clarity, she impulsively uses Esther’s most potent elixir with disastrous consequences. Disillusioned and alone, Augusta vows to reject Esther’s enchantments forever.

Sixty years later, confronted with Irving, Augusta is still haunted by the mistakes of her past. What happened all those years ago and how did her plan go so spectacularly wrong? Did Irving ever truly love her or was he simply playing a part? And can Augusta reclaim the magic of her youth before it’s too late?]]> 320 Lynda Cohen Loigman 1250278104 Mike 0 to-read, 3, fiction 4.07 2024 The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
author: Lynda Cohen Loigman
name: Mike
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/01
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]]> There Are Rivers in the Sky 202468422 From the Booker Prize finalist author of The Island of Missing Trees, an enchanting new tale about three characters living along two rivers, all under the shadow of one of the greatest epic poems of all time.

In the ancient city of Nineveh, on the bank of the River Tigris, King Ashurbanipal of Mesopotamia, erudite but ruthless, built a great library that would crumble with the end of his reign. From its ruins, however, emerged a poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, that would infuse the existence of two rivers and bind together three lives.

In 1840 London, Arthur is born beside the stinking, sewage-filled River Thames. With an abusive, alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother, Arthur’s only chance of escaping destitution is his brilliant memory. When his gift earns him a spot as an apprentice at a leading publisher, Arthur’s world opens up far beyond the slums, and one book in particular catches his interest: Nineveh and Its Remains.

In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a ten-year-old Yazidi girl, is diagnosed with a rare disorder that will soon cause her to go deaf. Before that happens, her grandmother is determined to baptize her in a sacred Iraqi temple. But with the rising presence of ISIS and the destruction of the family’s ancestral lands along the Tigris, Narin is running out of time.

In 2018 London, the newly divorced Zaleekah, a hydrologist, moves into a houseboat on the Thames to escape her husband. Orphaned and raised by her wealthy uncle, Zaleekah had made the decision to take her own life in one month, until a curious book about her homeland changes everything.

A dazzling feat of storytelling, There Are Rivers in the Sky entwines these outsiders with a single drop of water, a drop which remanifests across the centuries. Both a source of life and harbinger of death, rivers—the Tigris and the Thames—transcend history, transcend fate: “Water remembers. It is humans who forget.�]]> 464 Elif Shafak 0593801717 Mike 0 to-read, 4, fiction 4.38 2024 There Are Rivers in the Sky
author: Elif Shafak
name: Mike
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> The Lion Women of Tehran 199798217 A heartfelt novel of friendship, betrayal, and redemption set against three transformative decades in Tehran, Iran.

In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation.

Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming “lion women.�

But their happiness is disrupted when Ellie and her mother are afforded the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life. Now a popular student at the best girls� high school in Iran, Ellie’s memories of Homa begin to fade. Years later, however, her sudden reappearance in Ellie’s privileged world alters the course of both of their lives.

Together, the two young women come of age and pursue their own goals for meaningful futures. But as the political turmoil in Iran builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequences.]]> 327 Marjan Kamali 1668036584 Mike 0 to-read, 4, fiction 4.47 2024 The Lion Women of Tehran
author: Marjan Kamali
name: Mike
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> The Women 127305853 From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah's The Women—at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided.

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie� McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.]]> 471 Kristin Hannah 1250178630 Mike 0 to-read, 3, fiction 4.58 2024 The Women
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Mike
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> Playground 205478762 The Overstory at the height of his skills. Twelve-year-old Evie Beaulieu sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool in Montreal strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs. Ina Aroita grows up on naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home. Two polar opposites at an elite Chicago high school bond over a three-thousand-year-old board game; Rafi Young will get lost in literature, while Todd Keane’s work will lead to a startling AI breakthrough.

They meet on the history-scarred island of Makatea in French Polynesia, whose deposits of phosphorus once helped to feed the world. Now the tiny atoll has been chosen for humanity’s next adventure: a plan to send floating, autonomous cities out onto the open sea. But first, the island’s residents must vote to greenlight the project or turn the seasteaders away.

Set in the world’s largest ocean, this awe-filled book explores that last wild place we have yet to colonize in a still-unfolding oceanic game, and interweaves beautiful writing, rich characterization, profound themes of technology and the environment, and a deep exploration of our shared humanity in a way only Richard Powers can.]]> 381 Richard Powers 1324086033 Mike 0 to-read, 1, fiction 4.16 2024 Playground
author: Richard Powers
name: Mike
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> All Fours 197798168
A semifamous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to New York. Twenty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey.

Miranda July’s second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July’s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy, and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, All Fours tells the story of one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic, and domestic life of a forty-five-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectation while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive.]]> 336 Miranda July 0593190262 Mike 0 to-read, 3, fiction 3.52 2024 All Fours
author: Miranda July
name: Mike
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/01
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review:

]]> Real Americans 62929342 Real Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn't be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love.

In 2021, fifteen-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother, Lily. He can't shake the sense she's hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than answers.

In immersive, moving prose, Rachel Khong weaves a profound tale of class and striving, race and visibility, and family and inheritance—a story of trust, forgiveness, and finally coming home.

Exuberant and explosive, Real Americans is a social novel par excellence that asks: Are we destined, or made, and if so, who gets to do the making? Can our genetic past be overcome?

From the award-winning author of Goodbye, Vitamin: How far would you go to shape your own destiny? An exhilarating novel of American identity that spans three generations in one family, and asks: What makes us who we are? And how inevitable are our futures? ]]> 399 Rachel Khong 0593537254 Mike 0 to-read, 4, fiction 3.94 2024 Real Americans
author: Rachel Khong
name: Mike
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: to-read, 4, fiction
review:

]]> Wandering Stars 174147294
Colorado, 1864. Star, a young survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre, is brought to the Fort Marion Prison Castle, where he is forced to learn English and practice Christianity by Richard Henry Pratt, an evangelical prison guard who will go on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, an institution dedicated to the eradication of Native history, culture, and identity. A generation later, Star’s son, Charles, is sent to the school, where he is brutalized by the man who was once his father’s jailer. Under Pratt’s harsh treatment, Charles clings to moments he shares with a young fellow student, Opal Viola, as the two envision a future away from the institutional violence that follows their bloodlines.

Oakland, 2018. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield is barely holding her family together after the shooting that nearly took the life of her nephew Orvil. From the moment he awakens in his hospital bed, Orvil begins compulsively googling school shootings on YouTube. He also becomes emotionally reliant on the prescription medications meant to ease his physical trauma. His younger brother, Lony, suffering from PTSD, is struggling to make sense of the carnage he witnessed at the shooting by secretly cutting himself and enacting blood rituals that he hopes will connect him to his Cheyenne heritage. Opal is equally adrift, experimenting with Ceremony and peyote, searching for a way to heal her wounded family.

Extending his constellation of narratives into the past and future, Tommy Orange once again delivers a story that is by turns shattering and wondrous, a book piercing in its poetry, sorrow, and rage—a masterful follow-up to his already-classic first novel, and a devastating indictment of America’s war on its own people.]]> 315 Tommy Orange 0593318250 Mike 0 to-read, 2, fiction 3.83 2024 Wandering Stars
author: Tommy Orange
name: Mike
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: to-read, 2, fiction
review:

]]> Martyr! 139400713 ęԲԾ! Kavego Akbara to opowieść o tym, jak niestrudzenie przez całe życie próbujemy odnaleźć sens � w wierze, sztuce, w nas samych i w innych ludziach. W tej historii osierocony syn irańskich imigrantów, od niedawna niepijący, wiedziony głosami artystów, poetów i władców, podejmuje poszukiwania, które prowadzą go do śmiertelnie chorej malarki, dożywającej swych dni w Muzeum Brooklyńskim.

Cyrus Shams jest młodym mężczyzną, zmagającym się z bagażem przemocy i straty: wskutek bezsensownego wypadku zestrzelono nad Teheranem samolot z jego matką na pokładzie; z kolei życie ojca w Ameryce określała praca na farmie drobiu na Środkowym Zachodzie. Cyrus jest alkoholikiem, narkomanem i poetą, którego obsesja na punkcie męczenników popycha go do zgłębienia tajemnic własnej przeszłości � kluczem do rodzinnego sekretu jest wujek, który przed laty galopował po irańskich polach bitwy, przebrany za Anioła Śmierci, by dodawać otuchy i nieść pocieszenie umierającym, oraz pewien obraz z brooklyńskiej galerii sztuki.

Ta elektryzująca, zabawna, całkowicie oryginalna i głęboka powieść zapowiada pojawienie się nowego głosu na literackiej scenie.]]> 331 Kaveh Akbar 0593537610 Mike 0 to-read, 2, fiction 4.22 2024 Martyr!
author: Kaveh Akbar
name: Mike
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: to-read, 2, fiction
review:

]]> Margo's Got Money Troubles 199534613
“[An] enormously entertaining and lovable book.� —Nick Hornby, New York Times Book Review

A bold, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartwarming story about one young woman’s attempt to navigate adulthood, new motherhood, and her meager bank account in our increasingly online world—from the PEN/Faulkner finalist and critically acclaimed author of The Knockout Queen.

As the child of a Hooters waitress and an ex-pro wrestler, Margo Millet's always known she’d have to make it on her own. So she enrolls at her local junior college, even though she can’t imagine how she’ll ever make a living. She’s still figuring things out and never planned to have an affair with her English professor—and while the affair is brief, it isn’t brief enough to keep her from getting pregnant. Despite everyone’s advice, she decides to keep the baby, mostly out of naiveté and a yearning for something bigger.

Now, at twenty, Margo is alone with an infant, unemployed, and on the verge of eviction. She needs a cash infusion—fast. When her estranged father, Jinx, shows up on her doorstep and asks to move in with her, she agrees in exchange for help with childcare. Then Margo begins to form a plan: she’ll start an OnlyFans as an experiment, and soon finds herself adapting some of Jinx’s advice from the world of wrestling. Like how to craft a compelling character and make your audience fall in love with you. Before she knows it, she’s turned it into a runaway success. Could this be the answer to all of Margo’s problems, or does internet fame come with too high a price?

Blisteringly funny and filled with sharp insight, Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a tender tale starring an endearing young heroine who’s struggling to wrest money and power from a world that has little interest in giving it to her. It’s a playful and honest examination of the art of storytelling and controlling your own narrative, and an empowering portrait of coming into your own, both online and off.

“A wholly original novel. . . . Thorpe is both poetic and profound in the way she brings her remarkable story to an end.� —The Associated Press]]> 304 Rufi Thorpe 0063356589 Mike 0 to-read, 3, fiction 3.87 2024 Margo's Got Money Troubles
author: Rufi Thorpe
name: Mike
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/01
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]]> <![CDATA[Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop]]> 133938826 should feel successful—but all she feels is drained. Haunted by an abandoned dream, she takes a leap of faith and leaves her old life behind. Quitting her job and divorcing her husband, Yeongju moves to a quiet residential neighborhood outside the city and opens the Hyunam-dong Bookshop.

The transition isn’t easy. For months, all Yeongju can do is cry. But as the long hours in the shop stretch on, she begins to reflect on what makes a good bookseller and a meaningful store. She throws herself into reading voraciously, hosting author events, and crafting her own philosophy on bookselling. Gradually, Yeongju finds her footing in her new surroundings.

Surrounded by friends, writers, and the books that bind them, Yeongju begins to write a new chapter in her life. The Hyunam-dong Bookshop evolves into a warm, welcoming haven for lost souls—a place to rest, heal, and remember that it’s never too late to scrap the plot and start over.]]> 307 Hwang Bo-Reum Mike 0 to-read, 4, fiction 3.94 2022 Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop
author: Hwang Bo-Reum
name: Mike
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: to-read, 4, fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Something is Killing the Children, Vol. 8]]> 207298687 A special standalone of brand new stories set in the award-winning Slaughterverse–a perfect starting place for new readers ahead of the Netflix series!

Journey into Erica Slaughter’s past during her formative years set before the events of the foundational Archer’s Peak saga. This unofficial “Year Zero� style anthology of the hit sensation that has sold over 2 million copies worldwide follows Erica during her journey to various small and remote towns in the American countryside, hunting monsters down before they do the unthinkable to unsuspecting children. A perfect starting point for new readers and die hard Slaughterverse fans alike, each standalone issue from series creators James Tynion IV (Department of Truth, The Nice House On The Lake) and Werther Dell’Edera (House of Slaughter) highlights 5 different hunts that showcase the experiences that started Erica on her journey toward being the nearly unstoppable monster hunter she is today. Collects Something is Killing the Children #36-40.]]> 144 James Tynion IV 1684156289 Mike 4 comic 4.13 2024 Something is Killing the Children, Vol. 8
author: James Tynion IV
name: Mike
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: comic
review:
I really like these interstitial volumes. I especially liked the way this one cohered in a way I don't think I would have appreciated if I had read the monthlies.
]]> <![CDATA[The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)]]> 52767659
We know the universe had a beginning. With the Big Bang, it went from a state of unimaginable density to an all-encompassing cosmic fireball to a simmering fluid of matter and energy, laying down the seeds for everything from dark matter to black holes to one rocky planet orbiting a star near the edge of a spiral galaxy that happened to develop life. But what happens at the end of the story? In billions of years, humanity could still exist in some unrecognizable form, venturing out to distant space, finding new homes and building new civilizations. But the death of the universe is final. What might such a cataclysm look like? And what does it mean for us?

Dr. Katie Mack has been contemplating these questions since she was eighteen, when her astronomy professor first informed her the universe could end at any moment, setting her on the path toward theoretical astrophysics. Now, with lively wit and humor, she unpacks them in The End of Everything, taking us on a mind-bending tour through each of the cosmos� possible finales: the Big Crunch; the Heat Death; Vacuum Decay; the Big Rip; and the Bounce. In the tradition of Neil DeGrasse’s bestseller Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, Mack guides us through major concepts in quantum mechanics, cosmology, string theory, and much more, in a wildly fun, surprisingly upbeat ride to the farthest reaches of everything we know.]]> 226 Katie Mack 198210354X Mike 5 nonfiction 4.24 2020 The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)
author: Katie Mack
name: Mike
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: nonfiction
review:
I wouldn't shut up about what I was learning from this book. Which, unfortunately for those around me, is a sign that I really loved this book.
]]> <![CDATA[Monstress, Volume 2: The Blood]]> 33540347 152 Marjorie M. Liu 1534300414 Mike 4 comic 4.29 2017 Monstress, Volume 2: The Blood
author: Marjorie M. Liu
name: Mike
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: comic
review:
This story is really starting to take shape but at the same time there are so many possibilities remaining. Liu's world building is Tolkienian in its scope and ambition.
]]> Chain-Gang All-Stars 61190770
Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. It's the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE's corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar's path have devastating consequences.

Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system's unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means.]]> 367 Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah 0593317335 Mike 5 fiction 4.13 2023 Chain-Gang All-Stars
author: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
name: Mike
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: fiction
review:
What an amazing book! Like 1984 and A Handmaid's Tale, this book manages to be both allegory and a simply fantastic story. So often when an author sets out to do two things, they end up doing one of them poorly. But not here. And I don't want to give anything away, but Adjei-Brenyah really nailed the landing.
]]> <![CDATA[Hum If You Don't Know the Words]]> 34069053 Perfect for readers of The Secret Life of Bees and The Help, a perceptive and searing look at Apartheid-era South Africa, told through one unique family brought together by tragedy.

Life under Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin Conrad, a ten-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg. In the same nation but worlds apart, Beauty Mbali, a Xhosa woman in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei, struggles to raise her children alone after her husband's death. Both lives have been built upon the division of race, and their meeting should never have occurred . . . until the Soweto Uprising, in which a protest by black students ignites racial conflict, alters the fault lines on which their society is built, and shatters their worlds when Robin's parents are left dead and Beauty's daughter goes missing.
After Robin is sent to live with her loving but irresponsible aunt, Beauty is hired to care for Robin while continuing the search for her daughter. In Beauty, Robin finds the security and family that she craves, and the two forge an inextricable bond through their deep personal losses. But Robin knows that if Beauty finds her daughter, Robin could lose her new caretaker forever, so she makes a desperate decision with devastating consequences. Her quest to make amends and find redemption is a journey of self-discovery in which she learns the harsh truths of the society that once promised her protection.
Told through Beauty and Robin's alternating perspectives, the interwoven narratives create a rich and complex tapestry of the emotions and tensions at the heart of Apartheid-era South Africa. Hum if You Don't Know the Words is a beautifully rendered look at loss, racism, and the creation of family.]]> 420 Bianca Marais 0735218269 Mike 4 fiction
On the one hand, this book is clearly part of the white-women-explain-racism genre along with The Help or The Secret Life of Bees. On the other hand it was undeniably compelling—to the point where I was hunting for any time where I could sneak in a few more pages.]]> 4.16 2017 Hum If You Don't Know the Words
author: Bianca Marais
name: Mike
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/28
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: fiction
review:
Another book about people and places I know only a little about. This book was a real page turner. Of the two main characters, Robin, a 10-year-old white girl, was perfectly rendered. Beauty, a middle-aged Xhosa woman, was mostly believable except for being far more patient with white people than could be reasonably expected of anyone.

On the one hand, this book is clearly part of the white-women-explain-racism genre along with The Help or The Secret Life of Bees. On the other hand it was undeniably compelling—to the point where I was hunting for any time where I could sneak in a few more pages.
]]> <![CDATA[Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening]]> 55883882
Collects MONSTRESS #1-6

About the Creators:

New York Times bestselling and award-winning writer Marjorie Liu is best known for her fiction and comic books. She teaches comic book writing at MIT, and leads a class on Popular Fiction at the Voices of Our Nation (VONA) workshop. Ms. Liu's extensive work includes the bestselling "Astonishing X-Men" for Marvel Comics, which featured the gay wedding of X-Man Northstar and was subsequently nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for outstanding media images of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Prior to writing full-time, Liu was a lawyer. She currently resides in Boston.

Sana Takeda is an illustrator and comic book artist who was born in Niigata, and now resides in Tokyo, Japan. At age 20 she started out as a 3D CGI designer for SEGA, a Japanese video game company, and became a freelance artist when she was 25. She is still an artist, and has worked on titles such as "X-23" and "Ms. Marvel" for Marvel Comics, and is an illustrator for trading card games in Japan.]]> 192 Marjorie M. Liu 1632157098 Mike 3 comic 3.96 2016 Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening
author: Marjorie M. Liu
name: Mike
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/03
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves: comic
review:
I'm intrigued. The world building here is interesting and the art is top notch. It's clearly a big world that Liu is building and there's a lot of table-setting in this volume. I found myself checking and double checking who characters were. But I trust Liu enough from the Nigh Eaters to know I should stick with this one.
]]> <![CDATA[Shaker Inspiration: Five Decades of Fine Craftsmanship]]> 43062417
Not too many woodworkers can claim five decades of business success, but Christian Becksvoort is among them. In "Shaker Inspiration," he shares not only his woodworking knowledge and some of his best professional techniques for producing top-quality work, but also the business advice that helped him establish and sustain his long career in a one-man shop.

Plus, he shares measured drawings for 13 of his own well-known furniture designs and seven Shaker pieces that he's reproduced. Whether or not you, like Christian, are inspired by the Shaker tradition, you're sure to be inspired by one of the best-known names in woodworking.]]> 157 Christian Becksvoort 1732210039 Mike 5 woodworking, nonfiction 4.47 Shaker Inspiration: Five Decades of Fine Craftsmanship
author: Christian Becksvoort
name: Mike
average rating: 4.47
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/30
date added: 2024/12/01
shelves: woodworking, nonfiction
review:
This book was so much more than it promised. The Shaker inspiration inspired by the title doesn't really get going until the last third of the book. It's sprinkled through the first 90 pages, for sure. But that part of the book is really about being smart and clear-eyed about what it means to be a furniture maker. Especially one who wants to specialize in high-quailty, bespoke pieces. As a professional woodworker, I want to have several copies on hand to give out to anyone who says they want to do it, too. It will dissuade the unrealistic and provide a clear plan to the committed.
]]> <![CDATA[Something is Killing the Children, Vol. 7]]> 176442914 The final chapter of the Tribulation saga and the decisive showdown between Erica Slaughter and Cutter!

After narrowly surviving the Duplicitype, Erica Slaughter must still reckon with the murderous Cutter in order to save the people of Tribulation. Separated from Dolly and driven by desperate rage, Cutter won't stop until she exacts her revenge on Erica. But the horror is far from over as the terrifying Duplicitype, the infamous monster wearing Erica’s likeness that changed Something is Killing the Children forever, also remains at large and in relentless, sinister pursuit! And with Cecilia showing up onsite, will Erica finally find the ally she needs, or is betrayal in the cards? Whose side are they on? Most importantly, what chance does Erica stand? Collects Something is Killing the Children #31-35.]]> 144 James Tynion IV 1608861481 Mike 4 comic 4.31 2024 Something is Killing the Children, Vol. 7
author: James Tynion IV
name: Mike
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/21
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: comic
review:
I don't know how this series continues to be so good, but it really does. Not a single one of the contributors is phoning it in. Especially Miquel Muerto—his palettes are perfect for the tone of the story and I love the way he goes between muted and saturated tones to reflect the mood of a page or panel.
]]> Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance 58772760 A hilariously filthy tale of sex, crime, and family dysfunction from the brilliantly twisted mind of John Waters, the legendary filmmaker and bestselling author of Mr. Know-It-All.

Marsha Sprinkle: Suitcase thief. Scammer. Master of disguise. Dogs and children hate her. Her own family wants her dead. She's smart, she's desperate, she's disturbed, and she's on the run with a big chip on her shoulder. They call her Liarmouth--until one insane man makes her tell the truth.

John Waters's first novel, Liarmouth, is a perfectly perverted "feel-bad romance," and the reader will thrill to hop aboard this delirious road trip of riotous revenge.]]> 240 John Waters 0374185727 Mike 3 fiction 3.31 2022 Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance
author: John Waters
name: Mike
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/19
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: fiction
review:
I enjoyed this book. I really did. But I wasn't sure about it right up until the very end. I think overall, there isn't a lot new here for John Waters' fan. Especially if you've seen A Dirty Shame. But he really committed to the "a feel-bad romance" tag line, which is really what did it for me in the end.
]]> <![CDATA[Bitter Root, Vol. 2: Rage & Redemption]]> 52637763
Monster-hunting has been the Sangerye family business for generations as they battle the jinoo - hideous creatures born out of hate and racism. But now the Sangeryes face a different threat -- the deadly inzondo, a new kind of monster born out of grief and trauma. With one of their own turning into an inzondo and an army of tortured souls on the attack in 1920s Harlem, the Sangerye family must once again fight to save the world, unless their own pain and suffering transforms them into monsters as well!

Collects BITTER ROOT #6-10 and Red Summer Special]]> 200 David F. Walker 1534316604 Mike 3 comic 3.97 2020 Bitter Root, Vol. 2: Rage & Redemption
author: David F. Walker
name: Mike
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/12
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: comic
review:
This is a fascinating series and the art is top notch. I found this particular volume to be a little too disjointed. Too many story lines going on at once. I kept having to remind myself who characters were, how they related to the story as a whole, and where they had just been before they popped up again. I'm sure this is all going somewhere. But it was work.
]]> <![CDATA[Baltimore Beer: A Satisfying History of Charm City Brewing (American Palate)]]> 14507946 176 Jim Burger 1609494571 Mike 4 nonfiction 3.59 2012 Baltimore Beer: A Satisfying History of Charm City Brewing (American Palate)
author: Jim Burger
name: Mike
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/07
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: nonfiction
review:
This book was a fun read and it had some enlightening history about my fair city. If it were up to me, I think it could have been expanded to distilling in Baltimore. And maybe a longer section on prohibition. Also, the chapters on the modern beer industry feel dated now. Half of those breweries are out of business. But you know what? It was still a damn good read—especially the parts about the Orioles. A'int the beer cold.
]]> <![CDATA[Black Hammer, Vol. 6: Reborn, Part II]]> 59092478 The Eisner Award-winning superhero saga returns in this ongoing series picking up twenty years later with artists Malachi Ward and Matthew Sheean.


A multidimensional nightmare unfolds and wreaks havoc on Spiral City as the powerful superhero known as the Black Hammer joins forces with the brutal vigilante known as the Skulldigger to put an end to this madness.

Black Hammer: Reborn is the next era of the Black Hammer Universe; a twelve-issue series by Jeff Lemire, Caitlin Yarsky, Malachi Ward and Matthew Sheean that juxtaposes an achingly human story of domestic life, marriage, parenthood, and destiny with a pulse-pounding superhero thriller that peels back new layers of mystery, and pulls the Black Hammer history into the present.

Collects Black Hammer: Reborn #5-#8.
]]> 112 Jeff Lemire 150671515X Mike 4 comic 3.52 2022 Black Hammer, Vol. 6: Reborn, Part II
author: Jeff Lemire
name: Mike
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/31
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: comic
review:
I think this series is really gaining some momentum after it came to what was clearly planned as its end in the last arc. I've enjoyed all the side series and one-offs. And I wasn't so sure about this Reborn arc at first, but I think there's really something here that retains the spirit of the original series while breaking some new ground.
]]> <![CDATA[The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #1)]]> 20518872 472 Liu Cixin Mike 4 fiction 4.08 2006 The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #1)
author: Liu Cixin
name: Mike
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/29
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: fiction
review:
It took me about 100 pages to get into this book, but once I was in, I was hooked. I was going to give it five stars because I especially appreciated the bleak ending. But I see now that there are three more books in the series. So it's not as unresolved and I thought. I thought it was such a bold move to end on the note of humanity failing. But it's still a compelling read. 100% recommended for fans of The Martian.
]]> <![CDATA[The Dark Forest (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #2)]]> 23168817 512 Liu Cixin Mike 0 to-read 4.39 2008 The Dark Forest (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #2)
author: Liu Cixin
name: Mike
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Chronicles of DOOM: Unraveling Rap's Masked Iconoclast]]> 206120227 For readers of Dilla Time and Music Is History; the definitive biography of MF DOOM, charting his life, career, and eventual immortality.On December 31st, 2020, the world was shocked to learn about the death of hip-hop legend MF DOOM. Born in London and raised in the suburban enclave of Long Beach, New York, Daniel Dumile Jr.'s love of cartoons and comic books would soon turn him into one of hip-hop's most enigmatic, prolific, and influential figures.Sweeping and definitive, The Chronicles of Unraveling Rap’s Masked Iconoclast recounts the rise, fall, redemption, and untimely demise of MF DOOM. Broken down into five The Man, The Myth, The Mask, The Music, and The Legend, journalist SH Fernando, or SKIZ, chronicles the life of Daniel Dumile Jr., beginning in the house he grew up in in Long Beach, into the hip-hop group KMD, onto the stage of his first masked show, through the countless collabs, and across the many different cities Daniel called home. Centering the music, SKIZ deftly lays out the history of east-coast rap against DOOM's life story and dissects the personas, projects, tracks, and lyrics that led to his immortality.Including exclusive interviews with those who worked closely with DOOM and providing an unknown, intimate, behind the scenes look into DOOM’s life, The Chronicles of DOOM is the definitive biography of MF DOOM, a supervillain on stage and hero to those who paid attention.]]> 352 S.H. Fernando Jr. 1662602170 Mike 0 to-read, nonfiction, 2 4.03 2024 The Chronicles of DOOM: Unraveling Rap's Masked Iconoclast
author: S.H. Fernando Jr.
name: Mike
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves: to-read, nonfiction, 2
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Drifting Classroom, Vol. 1]]> 25849 190 Kazuo Umezu 1421507226 Mike 3 comic 3.80 2006 The Drifting Classroom, Vol. 1
author: Kazuo Umezu
name: Mike
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2011/09/23
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves: comic
review:
A lot of table setting. Neither good nor bad. I'd say I hope it gets better, but that doesn't seem right. More like, I hope it gets going.
]]> <![CDATA[By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land]]> 199393033 A powerful work of reportage and American history that braids the story of the forced removal of Native Americans onto treaty lands in the nation’s earliest days, and a small-town murder in the 1990s that led to a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming Native rights to that land more than a century later

Before 2020, American Indian reservations made up roughly 55 million acres of land in the United States. Nearly 200 million acres are reserved for National Forests—in the emergence of this great nation, our government set aside more land for trees than for Indigenous peoples.

In the 1830s, Muscogee people were rounded up by the US military at gunpoint and forced into exile halfway across the continent. At the time, they were promised this new land would be theirs for as long as the grass grew and the waters ran. But that promise was not kept. When Oklahoma was created on top of Muscogee land, the new state claimed their reservation no longer existed. Over a century later, a Muscogee citizen was sentenced to death for murdering another Muscogee citizen on tribal land. His defense attorneys argued the murder occurred on the reservation of his tribe, and therefore Oklahoma didn’t have the jurisdiction to execute him. Oklahoma asserted that the reservation no longer existed. In the summer of 2020, the Supreme Court settled the dispute. Its ruling that would ultimately underpin multiple reservations covering almost half the land in Oklahoma, including Nagle’s own Cherokee Nation.

Here Rebecca Nagle recounts the generations-long fight for tribal land and sovereignty in eastern Oklahoma. By chronicling both the contemporary legal battle and historic acts of Indigenous resistance, By the Fire We Carry stands as a landmark work of American history. The story it tells exposes both the wrongs that our nation has committed and the Native-led battle for justice that has shaped our country.]]> 352 Rebecca Nagle 0063112043 Mike 0 to-read, 3, nonfiction 4.43 2024 By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land
author: Rebecca Nagle
name: Mike
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/23
shelves: to-read, 3, nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Jasmine Throne (The Burning Kingdoms, #1)]]> 54816556 Empire of Sand and Realm of Ash Tasha Suri's The Jasmine Throne, beginning a new trilogy set in a world inspired by the history and epics of India, in which a captive princess and a maidservant in possession of forbidden magic become unlikely allies on a dark journey to save their empire from the princess's traitor brother.

Imprisoned by her dictator brother, Malini spends her days in isolation in the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once the source of the powerful, magical deathless waters � but is now little more than a decaying ruin.

Priya is a maidservant, one among several who make the treacherous journey to the top of the Hirana every night to clean Malini’s chambers. She is happy to be an anonymous drudge, so long as it keeps anyone from guessing the dangerous secret she hides.

But when Malini accidentally bears witness to Priya’s true nature, their destinies become irrevocably tangled. One is a vengeful princess seeking to depose her brother from his throne. The other is a priestess seeking to find her family. Together, they will change the fate of an empire.]]> 540 Tasha Suri 0316538515 Mike 0 to-read 4.14 2021 The Jasmine Throne (The Burning Kingdoms, #1)
author: Tasha Suri
name: Mike
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lucifer, Vol. 1: The Infernal Comedy]]> 43097796 The Prince of Darkness is missing, and from the look of things he's not coming back. Blind, crippled, and without a penny to his name, the onetime ruler of Hell is now a wizened, unkempt old man trapped in a small town where sinister forces torment him at every turn and nothing is as it seems. He has no memory of how he got here, no hope of escape, and no way to track down his child--the only entity capable of preventing the end of the world.

At the same time, a police officer in Lucifer's adopted hometown of Los Angeles is about to lose everything he holds dear. Desperate to find a reason for his suffering, Detective John Decker is drawn into a shadowy conspiracy whose widely varied members share a single common purpose: to kill Lucifer Morningstar.

With monsters and magicians from every plane of reality set against him, can the Lightbringer heal his broken mind and body and regain his wrongful place in the cosmos?

Acclaimed author Dan Watters (The Shadow, Deep Roots) and the incredible art team of Max and Sebastian Fiumara (All-Star Batman, The Amazing Spider-Man, Abe Sapien) begin an all-new chapter in the saga of one of the Sandman Universe's most mesmerizing characters in Lucifer Vol. 1: The Infernal Comedy--from the mind of New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman!]]> 189 Dan Watters 1401291333 Mike 3 comic 3.69 2019 Lucifer, Vol. 1: The Infernal Comedy
author: Dan Watters
name: Mike
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/11
date added: 2024/10/11
shelves: comic
review:
Like a lot of Sandman/Sandman Universe comics. This one seems like it's all over the place and then it comes together in the end. Characters aren't introduced so much as they just show up. And you have to trust yourself that if you don't remember them, it's because you haven't seen them before. Maybe they'll come back later. Maybe not. But it'll probably make sense in the end. This one was a little more chaotic than usual. I did like the dual (sibling?) illustrators of Max and Sebastian Fiumara. I think two hands helped with the necessary range of styles.
]]> In the Aeroplane Over the Sea 191499 evolution, its role within the Elephant 6 creative community and
previously unpublished information on recordings, songwriting and
touring, and explains some of the reasons why band leader Jeff Mangum
felt compelled to retreat from public life just as his band was taking
off. It includes a dozen rare images, most never before seen.]]> 104 Kim Cooper 082641690X Mike 4 nonfiction 3.89 2005 In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
author: Kim Cooper
name: Mike
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/08
date added: 2024/10/11
shelves: nonfiction
review:
A must read for fans of this album. And if you're not a fan of this album it's you haven't heard it. I only wish that Cooper could have gone deeper. I also would have liked more citing of sources. Not because I don't trust Cooper's reporting. But it's interesting to know how something is known. Old show flyers? Phone call with someone who was there? But there's only so much space in these 33-1/3 books. This one could have been twice as long, at least.
]]> Same Bed Different Dreams 216247493
March, 1919. Far-flung Korean patriots establish the Korean Provisional Government to protest the Japanese occupation of their country. This government-in-exile proves mostly symbolic, though, and after Japan’s defeat in World War II, the KPG dissolves and civil war erupts, resulting in the North-South split that remains today.

But what if the KPG still existed now, today—working toward a unified Korea, secretly harnessing the might of a giant tech company to further its aims? That’s the outrageous premise of Same Bed Different Dreams, which weaves together three distinct narrative voices and an archive of mysterious images and twists reality like a kaleidoscope, spinning Korean history, American pop culture, and our tech-fraught lives into an extraordinary and unforgettable novel.

Early on we meet Soon Sheen, who works at the sprawling international technology company GLOAT, and comes into possession of an unfinished book authored by the KPG. The manuscript is a mysterious, revisionist history, tying famous names and obscure bit players to the KPG’s grand project. This strange manuscript links together figures from architect-poet Yi Sang to Jack London to Marilyn Monroe. M*A*S*H is in here, too, and the Moonies, and a history of violence extending from the assassination of President McKinley to the Soviet downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007.

Just as foreign countries have imposed their desires on Korea, so too has Park tucked different dreamers into this sprawling bed of a novel. Among them: Parker Jotter, Korean War vet and appliance-store owner, who saw something--a UFO?--while flying over North Korea; Nora You, nail salon magnate; and Monk Zingapan, game designer turned writing guru. Their links are revealed over time, even as the dreamers remain in the dark as to their own interconnectedness. A thrilling feat of imagination and a step forward from an award-winning author, Same Bed Different Dreams begins as a comic novel and gradually pulls readers into another dimension—one in which utopia is possible.]]> 544 Ed Park 0812988329 Mike 0 to-read 4.07 2023 Same Bed Different Dreams
author: Ed Park
name: Mike
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Night Eaters, Vol. 2: Her Little Reapers]]> 123413720
It’s been four months since the night of gore, chaos, and the failed demonic summoning that revealed the Ting twins� unusual family background. Since then, Milly and Billy have tried to explore their new powers, but their parents, Ipo and Keon, haven’t been much help. Despite the lack of explanations, one thing is abundantly clear: The Ting family is part of a much larger supernatural world and something in that world is very, very wrong.

As Ipo and Keon are reluctantly drawn back into the treacherous high society of supernatural elites, their children find that dealings with the spirit world comes at a steep price—when the dead have unfinished business with the living, only blood can balance the scales. To save humanity and themselves, the Tings will have to embrace their inner demons.

Eisner Award–winning and bestselling author Marjorie Liu and illustrator Sana Takeda have done it again, spinning an epic tale of gods and monsters in Her Little Reapers that will leave readers hungry for more.]]> 272 Marjorie M. Liu 1419758721 Mike 5 comic 4.32 2023 The Night Eaters, Vol. 2: Her Little Reapers
author: Marjorie M. Liu
name: Mike
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/03
date added: 2024/10/06
shelves: comic
review:
I continue to be in awe of this series. A beautiful marriage of story and art. Both going in places I've never seen before. I have no idea where this story is going because I have no points of reference.
]]> <![CDATA[The Secret Lives of Church Ladies]]> 51582376 The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church’s double standards and their own needs and passions.

There is fourteen-year-old Jael, who has a crush on the preacher’s wife. At forty-two, Lyra realizes that her discomfort with her own body stands between her and a new love. As Y2K looms, Caroletta’s “same time next year� arrangement with her childhood best friend is tenuous. A serial mistress lays down the ground rules for her married lovers. In the dark shadows of a hospice parking lot, grieving strangers find comfort in each other.

With their secret longings, new love, and forbidden affairs, these church ladies are as seductive as they want to be, as vulnerable as they need to be, as unfaithful and unrepentant as they care to be, and as free as they deserve to be.]]> 217 Deesha Philyaw 1949199738 Mike 5 fiction 4.16 2020 The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
author: Deesha Philyaw
name: Mike
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/30
date added: 2024/10/06
shelves: fiction
review:
I forgot how much I like short stories. Especially a collection as good as this one. No filler, all killer.
]]> Epileptic 380040
David B. was born Pierre-François Beauchard in a small town near Orléans, France. He spent an idyllic early childhood playing with the neighborhood kids and, along with his older brother, Jean-Christophe, ganging up on his little sister, Florence. But their lives changed abruptly when Jean-Christophe was struck with epilepsy at age eleven. In search of a cure, their parents dragged the family to acupuncturists and magnetic therapists, to mediums and macrobiotic communes. But every new cure ended in disappointment as Jean-Christophe, after brief periods of remission, would only get worse.

Angry at his brother for abandoning him and at all the quacks who offered them false hope, Pierre-François learned to cope by drawing fantastically elaborate battle scenes, creating images that provide a fascinating window into his interior life. An honest and horrifying portrait of the disease and of the pain and fear it sowed in the family, Epileptic is also a moving depiction of one family’s intricate history. Through flashbacks, we are introduced to the stories of Pierre-François’s grandparents and we relive his grandfathers� experiences in both World Wars. We follow Pierre-François through his childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, all the while charting his complicated relationship with his brother and Jean-Christophe”s losing battle with epilepsy. Illustrated with beautiful and striking black-and-white images, Epileptic is as astonishing, intimate, and heartbreaking as the best literary memoir.]]> 368 David B. 0375423184 Mike 3 comic
It does. The story meanders a bit. The digressions go on for too long in a way that makes the whole book feel like it loses focus. The art could have stood more room to breathe. It's too small. And there's no real conclusion—more like the story just caught up to where his life was at the time. But overall an excellent example of the medium and well deserving of all of the accolades, even by current standards. ]]> 3.85 1996 Epileptic
author: David B.
name: Mike
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/24
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: comic
review:
This was my second read of this book. It was one of the first graphic novels I read when I started to really get into non-superhero, non-newspaper comics. I found a free copy at a book giveaway and I was curious if it stood up.

It does. The story meanders a bit. The digressions go on for too long in a way that makes the whole book feel like it loses focus. The art could have stood more room to breathe. It's too small. And there's no real conclusion—more like the story just caught up to where his life was at the time. But overall an excellent example of the medium and well deserving of all of the accolades, even by current standards.
]]> <![CDATA[How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir (A Bestselling Memoir)]]> 45898935
One of the best books of the year as selected by The New York Times ; The Washington Post ; NPR; Time ; The New Yorker ; O, The Oprah Magazine ; Harper’s Bazaar ; Elle ; BuzzFeed ; ŷ ; and many more.

“People don’t just happen,� writes Saeed Jones. “We sacrifice former versions of ourselves. We sacrifice the people who dared to raise us. The ‘I� it seems doesn’t exist until we are able to say, ‘I am no longer yours.’�

Haunted and haunting, How We Fight for Our Lives is a stunning coming-of-age memoir about a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears. Through a series of vignettes that chart a course across the American landscape, Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence—into tumultuous relationships with his family, into passing flings with lovers, friends, and strangers. Each piece builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and a portrait of what we all do for one another—and to one another—as we fight to become ourselves.

An award-winning poet, Jones has developed a style that’s as beautiful as it is powerful—a voice that’s by turns a river, a blues, and a nightscape set ablaze. How We Fight for Our Lives is a one-of-a-kind memoir and a book that cements Saeed Jones as an essential writer for our time.]]> 224 Saeed Jones 1501132741 Mike 4 nonfiction 4.29 2019 How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir (A Bestselling Memoir)
author: Saeed Jones
name: Mike
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/19
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: nonfiction
review:
I wasn't sure what to make of this book in the beginning. It felt like Jones was somehow being brutally honest and holding back at the same time. But the ending really brought it all together in a beautiful and tragic way.
]]> <![CDATA[Black Hammer, Vol. 5: Reborn, Part I]]> 57997499 The Eisner Award-winning superhero saga returns in this ongoing series picking up twenty years later with new series artist Caitlin Yarsky.

In 1986, Black Hammer and the rest of Spiral City's greatest superheroes seemingly died defeating the cosmic despot known as Anti-God and saving the world. But one woman refused to believe they were truly gone: Lucy Weber, the daughter of Black Hammer. Learning that her dad had sacrificed himself to save the other heroes, Lucy soon took up the mantle of Black Hammer and carried on the legacy of her father as the world's greatest superhero.

Now, it's twenty years later, and Lucy, and the world, have moved on. Living in the suburbs of Spiral City, Lucy is married and has children. But all is not blissful. Her marriage is falling apart, her job has reached a dead end, and for mysterious reasons, she hasn't picked up the hammer in years. But, as her domestic life begins to crumble, the secrets of the last twenty years, and the reasons Lucy really gave up being Black Hammer, begin to resurface, threatening her family, and the peace she has tried hard to find for herself.

Black Hammer: Reborn is the next era of the Black Hammer Universe; a twelve-issue series by Jeff Lemire and Caitlyn Yarsky that juxtaposes an achingly human story of domestic life, marriage, parenthood, and destiny with a pulse-pounding superhero thriller that peels back new layers of mystery, and pulls the Black Hammer history into the present.]]> 112 Jeff Lemire 1506714269 Mike 3 comic 3.81 2022 Black Hammer, Vol. 5: Reborn, Part I
author: Jeff Lemire
name: Mike
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/12
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: comic
review:
An interesting start. Lemire is creating a whole comic book universe that started off feeling like an homage. But now I'm realizing that he's trying to create one that starts from the same place, but with modern mores and without the restrictions/censorships of the past. I'm excited for the coming volumes.
]]> Pride and Prejudice 5996120 435 Jane Austen 0141040343 Mike 5 fiction 4.50 1813 Pride and Prejudice
author: Jane Austen
name: Mike
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1813
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/11
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: fiction
review:
After three Jane Austen novels, I think I finally get it. This is the first one where I was trying to sneak in extra reading throughout the day so I could find out what happened next. Oddly, I think going into the book knowing that Lizzy and Mr. Darcy end up together really enhanced the experience.
]]> Blackouts 203578933 From the bestselling author of We the Animals, Blackouts mines lost histories--personal and collective.

Out in the desert in a place called the Palace, a young man tends to a dying soul, someone he once knew briefly, but who has haunted the edges of his life. Juan Gay--playful raconteur, child lost and found and lost, guardian of the institutionalized--has a project to pass along to this new narrator. It is inspired by a true artifact of a book, Sex Variants: A Study in Homosexual Patterns, which contains stories collected in the early twentieth century from queer subjects by a queer researcher, Jan Gay, whose groundbreaking work was then co-opted by a committee, her name buried. As Juan waits for his end, he and the narrator trade stories--moments of joy and oblivion--and resurrect lost loves, lives, mothers, fathers, minor heroes. The past is with us, beside us, ahead of us; what are we to create from its gaps and erasures?

Inspired by Kiss of the Spider Woman, Pedro Páramo, Voodoo Macbeth, the book at its own center and the woman who created it, oral histories, and many more texts, images, and influences, Justin Torres's Blackouts is a work of fiction that sees through the inventions of history and narrative. An extraordinary work of creative imagination, it insists that we look long and steady at the world we have inherited and the world we have made--a world full of ghostly shadows and flashing moments of truth.]]> 320 Justin Torres 1250338069 Mike 0 to-read 3.57 2023 Blackouts
author: Justin Torres
name: Mike
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> North Woods 214642600
This magisterial and highly inventive novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist Daniel Mason brims with love and madness, humor and hope. Following the cycles of history, nature, and even language, North Woods shows the myriad, magical ways in which we’re connected to our environment, to history, and to one another. It is not just an unforgettable novel about secrets and destinies, but a way of looking at the world that asks the timeless question: How do we live on, even after we’re gone?]]> 374 Daniel Mason 0593597044 Mike 0 to-read 4.13 2023 North Woods
author: Daniel Mason
name: Mike
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Something is Killing the Children, Vol. 6]]> 62919463
Collects Something is Killing the Children #26-30.]]> 144 James Tynion IV 1684159032 Mike 4 comic 4.29 2023 Something is Killing the Children, Vol. 6
author: James Tynion IV
name: Mike
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/27
date added: 2024/08/30
shelves: comic
review:
Second arc is ramping up and it's getting really good! As always the art of Werther Dell'edera is top notch. I love the distinct shifts in style that reflect the feeling of the moment. It's like listing to a movie with perfect scoring. And Miquel Muerto's coloring is carrying more than the normal share of the load. He amplifies the mood on every page.
]]> <![CDATA[Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere]]> 112093865 From “weird, scary, ingenious� (The New York Times) stand-up comedian Maria Bamford, a brutally honest and hilariously frenetic memoir about show business, mental health, and the comfort of rigid belief systems—from Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, to Suzuki violin training, to Richard Simmons, to 12-step programs.

Maria Bamford is a comedian’s comedian (an outsider among outsiders) and has forever fought to find a place to belong. From struggling with an eating disorder as a child of the 1980s, to navigating a career in the arts (and medical debt and psychiatric institutionalization), she has tried just about every method possible to not only be a part of the world, but to want to be a part of it.

In Bamford’s signature voice, Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult, brings us on a quest to participate in something. With sincerity and transparency, she recounts every anonymous fellowship she has joined (including but not limited Debtors Anonymous, Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, and Overeaters Anonymous), every hypomanic episode (from worrying about selling out under capitalism to enforcing union rules on her Netflix TV show set to protect her health), and every easy 1-to-3-step recipe for fudge in between.

Singular and inimitable, Bamford’s memoir explores what it means to keep going, and to be a member of society (or any group she’s invited to) despite not being very good at it. In turn, she hopes to transform isolating experiences into comedy that will make you feel less alone (without turning into a cult following).]]> 276 Maria Bamford 1982168560 Mike 4 nonfiction
*If you're not, maybe start with one of her stand-up specials or her show, Lady Dynamite.]]> 3.71 2023 Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere
author: Maria Bamford
name: Mike
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/30
shelves: nonfiction
review:
Recommended for anyone who is already familiar with Maria Bamford.* Her honesty and candor about her problems—both psychological and financial—is amazing and revelatory. I wish more people were this open with their struggles.

*If you're not, maybe start with one of her stand-up specials or her show, Lady Dynamite.
]]> <![CDATA[A Short History of Trans Misogyny]]> 133206512
Why are trans women the most targeted of LGBT people? Why are they in the crosshairs of a resurgent anti-trans politics around the world? And what is to be done about it by activists, organizers, and allies?

A Short History of Transmisogyny is the first book-length study to answer these urgent but long overdue questions. Combining new historical analysis with political and activist accessibility, the book shows why it matters to understand trans misogyny as a specific form of violence with a documentable history. Ironically, it is through attending to the specificity of trans misogyny that trans women are no longer treated as inevitably tragic figures. They emerge instead as embattled but tenacious, locked in a struggle over the meaning and material stakes of gender, labor, race, and freedom.

The book travels across bustling port cities like New York, New Orleans, London and Paris, the colonial and military districts of the British Raj, the Philippines, and Hawai'i, and the lively travesti communities of Latin America.

The book shows how trans femininity has become legible as a fault line of broader global histories, including colonial government, the sex work industry, the policing of urban public space, and the line between the formal and informal economy. This transnational and intersectional approach reinforces that trans women are not isolated social subjects who appear alone; they are in fact central to the modern social world.]]> 182 Jules Gill-Peterson 1804291560 Mike 4 nonfiction 4.37 2024 A Short History of Trans Misogyny
author: Jules Gill-Peterson
name: Mike
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/26
date added: 2024/08/30
shelves: nonfiction
review:
The author isn't lying. It is short. But packed full of stories, anecdotes, and analysis. Someone new to cultural criticism could start here, but this felt like more of an intermediate text to me. I'd like to take a deeper dive. I hope Gill-Peterson writes more books, but it's never a sure thing with college professors.
]]> <![CDATA[My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Vol. 2 (My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, #2)]]> 32191885 My Favorite Thing Is Monsters: Book Two is the eagerly awaited conclusion to one of the most acclaimed graphic novels of the past decade. Presented as the fictional graphic diary of 10-year-old Karen Reyes as she tries to solve the murder of her beloved and enigmatic upstairs neighbor, Anka Silverberg, a holocaust survivor, while the interconnected stories of those around her unfold. In Book Two, dark mysteries past and present continue to abound in the tumultuous and violent Chicago summer of 1968. Young Karen attends the Yippie-organized Festival of Life in Grant Park and finds herself swept up in a police stomping. Privately, she continues to investigate Anka’s recent death and discovers one last cassette tape that sheds light upon Anka's heroic activities in Nazi Germany. She wrestles with her own sexual identity, the death of her mother, and the secrets she suspects her brother Deez of hiding. Ferris’s exhilarating cast of characters experience revelations and epiphanies that both resolve and deepen the mysteries visited upon them earlier. Visually, the story is told in Ferris's inimitable style that breathtakingly and seamlessly combines panel-to-panel storytelling and cartoon montages filled with B-movie horror and pulp monster mag iconography. Full-color illustrations throughout]]> 304 Emil Ferris 168396019X Mike 5 comic 4.23 2024 My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, Vol. 2 (My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, #2)
author: Emil Ferris
name: Mike
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/14
date added: 2024/08/30
shelves: comic
review:
No sophomore slump here. Ferris know what she's doing and I'm here for it.
]]> Kindred 60931 The visionary author’s masterpiece pulls us—along with her Black female hero—through time to face the horrors of slavery and explore the impacts of racism, sexism, and white supremacy then and now.

Dana, a modern Black woman, is celebrating her 26th birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana’s life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.]]> 288 Octavia E. Butler 0807083690 Mike 5 fiction
However, that does technically make this fantasy rather than sci-fi. ]]> 4.30 1979 Kindred
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Mike
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1979
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/10
date added: 2024/08/30
shelves: fiction
review:
There's an easiness to Butler's prose that almost had me giving this book four stars. Mistaking the straightforward language for a lack of depth would have been a huge mistake. This book was deeply felt and had its characters wrestling with enormous issues in a way that felt whole and sincere. I think Butler deserves extra credit for never attempting to explain the time travel. The mechanism is irrelevant and would have distracted from the story.

However, that does technically make this fantasy rather than sci-fi.
]]> The Golem's Mighty Swing 730938 James Sturm pens this richly evocative graphic novel set in the 1920s. The Stars of David, a barnstorming Jewish baseball team, travel from town to town earning a living by playing local squads. They all sport beards, a gimmick to attract patrons but when financial difficulties threaten to end their season they cast their lot with a Chicago promoter who has just seen the hugely successful German silent film Der Golem... With the golem, a baseball game is transformed into a mythical pageant. Fear and curiosity fills the stadium, but it also stokes the flames of anti-Semitism. Winning the game for the Stars of David becomes less important then surviving it. With a sepia-tinted cinematic style, this compelling book reminds us that making it home is at the heart of baseball.
]]> 100 James Sturm 1896597718 Mike 4 comic 3.69 2001 The Golem's Mighty Swing
author: James Sturm
name: Mike
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/01
date added: 2024/08/30
shelves: comic
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language]]> 13542593 Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

The Etymologicon is a completely unauthorized guide to the strange underpinnings of the English language. It explains how you get from “gruntled� to “disgruntled�; why you are absolutely right to believe that your meager salary barely covers “money for salt�; how the biggest chain of coffee shops in the world connects to whaling in Nantucket; and what, precisely, the Rolling Stones have to do with gardening. This witty book will awake the linguist in you and illuminate the hidden meanings behind common words and phrases, tracing their evolution through all of their surprising paths throughout history.]]> 304 Mark Forsyth 0425260798 Mike 3 nonfiction 4.22 2011 The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language
author: Mark Forsyth
name: Mike
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/31
date added: 2024/08/30
shelves: nonfiction
review:
Some of this is super interesting. But there was a lot of "there's no proof, but the prevailing theory is...." Which I found annoying. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story, I guess.
]]> <![CDATA[Locker Room Talk: A Woman’s Struggle to Get Inside]]> 198344505
Locker Room Talk is Ludtke’s gripping account of being at the core of this globally covered case that churned up ugly prejudices about the place of women in sports. Kuhn claimed that allowing women into locker rooms would violate his players� “sexual privacy.� Late-night television comedy sketches mocked her as newspaper cartoonists portrayed her as a sexy, buxom looker who wanted to ogle the naked athletes� bodies.She weaves these public perspectives throughout her vivid depiction of the court drama overseen by Judge Constance Baker Motley, the first Black woman to serve on the federal bench. She recounts how her lawyer, F.A.O. “Fritz� Schwarz employed an ingenious legal strategy that persuaded Judge Motley to invoke the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause in giving Ludtke access identical to her male counterparts. Locker Room Talk is both an inspiring story of one woman’s determination to do a job dominated by men and an illuminating portrait of a defining moment for women’s rights.]]> 374 Melissa Ludtke 197883778X Mike 0 to-read, 3, nonfiction 3.90 Locker Room Talk: A Woman’s Struggle to Get Inside
author: Melissa Ludtke
name: Mike
average rating: 3.90
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/18
shelves: to-read, 3, nonfiction
review:

]]> A Room of One's Own 62912571 A Room of One's Own is considered Virginia Woolf's most powerful feminist essay, justifying the need for women to possess intellectual freedom and financial independence. Based on a lecture given at Girton College, Cambridge, the essay is one of the great feminist polemics, ranging in its themes from Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte to the silent fate of Shakespeare's gifted (imaginary) sister and the effects of poverty and sexual constraint on female creativity.

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) is regarded as a major twentieth-century author and essayist, a key figure in literary history as a feminist and a modernist, and the centre of 'The Bloomsbury Group'.]]> 114 Virginia Woolf 0156787334 Mike 0 to-read, 3, nonfiction 4.19 1929 A Room of One's Own
author: Virginia Woolf
name: Mike
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1929
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/10
shelves: to-read, 3, nonfiction
review:

]]> Dawn (Xenogenesis, #1) 60929
The Oankali survive by genetically merging with primitive civilizations—whether their new hosts like it or not. For the first time since the nuclear holocaust, Earth will be inhabited. Grass will grow, animals will run, and people will learn to survive the planet’s untamed wilderness. But their children will not be human. Not exactly.]]> 248 Octavia E. Butler 0446603775 Mike 0 to-read, 4, fiction 4.15 1987 Dawn (Xenogenesis, #1)
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Mike
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/10
shelves: to-read, 4, fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence, A True Story in Black and White]]> 7684018 Long before President Barack Obama praised his work as “an all-encompassing, all-hands-on-deck anti-poverty effort that is literally saving a generation of children,� and First Lady Michelle Obama called him “one of my heroes,� Geoffrey Canada was a small and scared boy growing up in the South Bronx. His childhood world was one where “sidewalk boys� learned the codes of the block and were ranked through the rituals of fist, stick, knife, and, finally, gun. In a stunning pairing, acclaimed comics creator Jamar Nicholas presents Canada’s raw and riveting account, one of the most authentic and important true stories of urban violence ever told.

]]> 124 Geoffrey Canada 0807044490 Mike 3 comic 4.01 1995 Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence, A True Story in Black and White
author: Geoffrey Canada
name: Mike
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1995
rating: 3
read at: 2011/09/26
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: comic
review:
The book this comic is based on has been on my to-read list for a few years. It's a nice little evolution of how violence gets engrained and naturally escalates. I'm even more eager to read the in-depth account and analysis from the book.
]]> <![CDATA[This Is How You Lose the Time War]]> 43352954 Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.

Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There's still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war.]]> 209 Amal El-Mohtar Mike 0 to-read, 2, fiction 3.86 2019 This Is How You Lose the Time War
author: Amal El-Mohtar
name: Mike
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves: to-read, 2, fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise and Fall of SST Records]]> 62873987
Greg Ginn started SST Records in the sleepy beach town of Hermosa Beach, CA, to supply ham radio enthusiasts with tuners and transmitters. But when Ginn wanted to launch his band, Black Flag, no one was willing to take them on. Determined to bring his music to the masses, Ginn turned SST into a record label. On the back of Black Flag’s relentless touring, guerilla marketing, and refusal to back down, SST became the sound of the underground.

In Corporate Rock Sucks, music journalist Jim Ruland relays the unvarnished story of SST Records, from its remarkable rise in notoriety to its infamous downfall. With records byBlack Flag,Minutemen, Hüsker Dü , Bad Brains, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Screaming Trees, Soundgarden, and scores of obscure yet influential bands, SST was the most popular indie label by the mid-80s--until a tsunami of legal jeopardy, financial peril, and dysfunctional management brought the empire tumbling down. Throughout this investigative deep-dive, Ruland leads readers through SST’s tumultuous history and epic catalog.

Featuring never-before-seen interviews with the label's former employees, as well as musicians, managers, producers, photographers, video directors, and label heads, Corporate Rock Sucks presents a definitive narrative history of the �80s punk and alternative rock scenes, and shows how the music industry was changed forever.]]> 432 Jim Ruland 0306925494 Mike 0 to-read, 1, nonfiction 3.92 Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise and Fall of SST Records
author: Jim Ruland
name: Mike
average rating: 3.92
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/03
shelves: to-read, 1, nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Land of Hope and Fear: Israel's Battle for Its Inner Soul]]> 121013655
“A wondrous tale told through the agonizing and uplifting stories of Israel’s many tribes� Jewish and Arab, religious and secular, new immigrants and veterans, soldiers and settlers.”—Martin Indyk, author of Master of the Game, and former U.S. ambassador to Israel

Despite Israel's determined staying power in a hostile environment, its military might, and the innovation it fosters in businesses globally, the country is more divided than ever. The old guard—socialist secular elites and idealists—are a dying breed, and the state’s democratic foundations are being challenged. A dynamic and exuberant country of nine million, Israel is now largely comprised of native-born Hebrew speakers, and yet any permanent sense of security and normalcy is elusive.

In The Land of Hope and Fear , we meet Jews and Arabs, religious and secular, Eastern and Western, liberals and zealots—plagued by perennial conflict and existential threats,citizens who remain deeply polarized politically, socially, and ideologically, even as they undergo generational change and redefine what it is to be an Israeli. Who are these people and to what do they aspire?

In moving narratives and with on-the-ground reporting, Isabel Kershner reveals the core of what holds Israel together and the forces that threaten its future through the lens of real a son of Zionist pioneers, cynical about what is to come and his people’s status in it; a woman in her nineties whose life in a kibbutz has disintegrated; a brilliant poet caught up in the political maelstrom; an Arab gallery owner archiving a lost Palestinian landscape; and a descendant of the Russian aliyah; representing millions of culturally and religiously different Jews, laying bare the question Who is an Israeli? The Land of Hope and Fear decodes Israel today at its seventy-fifth anniversary, examining the ways in which the country has both exceeded and failed the ideals and expectations of its founders.]]> 384 Isabel Kershner Mike 0 to-read, 3, nonfiction 4.00 2023 The Land of Hope and Fear: Israel's Battle for Its Inner Soul
author: Isabel Kershner
name: Mike
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/03
shelves: to-read, 3, nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology]]> 39835776
In Medical Bondage , Cooper Owens examines a wide range of scientific literature and less formal communications in which gynecologists created and disseminated medical fictions about their patients, such as their belief that black enslaved women could withstand pain better than white “ladies.� Even as they were advancing medicine, these doctors were legitimizing, for decades to come, groundless theories related to whiteness and blackness, men and women, and the inferiority of other races or nationalities.

Medical Bondage moves between southern plantations and northern urban centers to reveal how nineteenth-century American ideas about race, health, and status influenced doctor-patient relationships in sites of healing like slave cabins, medical colleges, and hospitals. It also retells the story of black enslaved women and of Irish immigrant women from the perspective of these exploited groups and thus restores for us a picture of their lives.]]> 182 Deirdre Cooper Owens 0820354759 Mike 0 to-read, nonfiction, 4 4.08 2017 Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology
author: Deirdre Cooper Owens
name: Mike
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/03
shelves: to-read, nonfiction, 4
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Congratulations, The Best Is Over!: Essays]]> 211081098
After going viral “reading� the chaotic political news, having one-too-many awkward social encounters, and coming to terms with his intersecting identities, R. Eric Thomas finally knew who he was and where he was going. He was living his best life.

But then everything changed.

In this collection of insightful and hilarious essays, Thomas moves back to his perpetually misunderstood hometown of Baltimore (a place he never wanted to return, even to be buried) and behaves completely out of character. They say you can’t go home again, but what if you and home have changed beyond recognition? From attending his twenty-year high school reunion and discovering another person’s face on his name badge, to splattering an urgent care room with blood à la The Shining, to being terrorized by a plague of gay frogs who’ve overtaken his backyard, Thomas provides the nitty, and sometimes the gritty, details of wrestling with the life he thought he’d left behind while trying to establish a new one.

With wit, heart, and hope for the future, Congratulations, The Best Is Over! is the not-so-gentle reminder we all need that even when life doesn’t go according to plan, we can still find our way back home.]]> 256 R. Eric Thomas 0593496280 Mike 0 to-read 3.97 2023 Congratulations, The Best Is Over!: Essays
author: R. Eric Thomas
name: Mike
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[In the Time of the Butterflies]]> 45013993 Librarian's Note: an alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here.

Set during the waning days of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic in 1960, this extraordinary novel tells the story the Mirabal sisters, three young wives and mothers who are assassinated after visiting their jailed husbands.

From the author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents comes this tale of courage and sisterhood set in the Dominican Republic during the rise of the Trujillo dictatorship. A skillful blend of fact and fiction, In the Time of the Butterflies is inspired by the true story of the three Mirabal sisters who, in 1960, were murdered for their part in an underground plot to overthrow the government. Alvarez breathes life into these historical figures--known as "las mariposas," or "the butterflies," in the underground--as she imagines their teenage years, their gradual involvement with the revolution, and their terror as their dissentience is uncovered.

Alvarez's controlled writing perfectly captures the mounting tension as "the butterflies" near their horrific end. The novel begins with the recollections of Dede, the fourth and surviving sister, who fears abandoning her routines and her husband to join the movement. Alvarez also offers the perspectives of the other sisters: brave and outspoken Minerva, the family's political ringleader; pious Patria, who forsakes her faith to join her sisters after witnessing the atrocities of the tyranny; and the baby sister, sensitive Maria Teresa, who, in a series of diaries, chronicles her allegiance to Minerva and the physical and spiritual anguish of prison life.

In the Time of the Butterflies is an American Library Association Notable Book and a 1995 National Book Critics Circle Award nominee.]]> 337 Julia Alvarez 1565129768 Mike 0 to-read, fiction, 4 4.14 1994 In the Time of the Butterflies
author: Julia Alvarez
name: Mike
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/29
shelves: to-read, fiction, 4
review:

]]> The Bee Sting 195790771
From the author of Skippy Dies comes Paul Murray's The Bee Sting , an irresistibly funny, wise, and thought-provoking tour de force about family, fortune, and the struggle to be a good person when the world is falling apart.

The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under―but Dickie is spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife, Imelda, is selling off her jewelry on eBay and half-heartedly dodging the attention of fast-talking cattle farmer Big Mike, while their teenage daughter, Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge drink her way through her final exams. As for twelve-year-old PJ, he’s on the brink of running away.

If you wanted to change this story, how far back would you have to go? To the infamous bee sting that ruined Imelda’s wedding day? To the car crash one year before Cass was born? All the way back to Dickie at ten years old, standing in the summer garden with his father, learning how to be a real man?

The Bee Sting , Paul Murray’s exuberantly entertaining new novel, is a tour de a portrait of postcrash Ireland, a tragicomic family saga, and a dazzling story about the struggle to be good at the end of the world.]]> 656 Paul Murray 1250338255 Mike 0 to-read 3.89 2023 The Bee Sting
author: Paul Murray
name: Mike
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> American Pastoral 11650 Pulitzer Prize Winner (1998)

In American Pastoral, Philip Roth gives us a novel of unqualified greatness that is an elegy for all the twentieth century's promises of prosperity, civic order, and domestic bliss. Roth's protagonist is Seymour 'Swede' Levov—a legendary high school athlete, a devoted family man, a hard worker, the prosperous inheritor of his father's Newark glove factory—comes of age in thriving, triumphant post-war America. And then one day in 1968, Swede's beautiful American luck deserts him.

For Swede's adored daughter, Merry, has grown from a loving, quick-witted girl into a sullen, fanatical teenager—a teenager capable of an outlandishly savage act of political terrorism. And overnight Swede is wrenched out of the longed-for American pastoral and into the indigenous American berserk. Compulsively readable, propelled by sorrow, rage, and a deep compassion for its characters, this is Roth's masterpiece.]]> 432 Philip Roth Mike 0 to-read, 1, fiction 3.93 1997 American Pastoral
author: Philip Roth
name: Mike
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/24
shelves: to-read, 1, fiction
review:

]]> White Teeth 3711 White Teeth revels in the ecstatic hodgepodge of modern life, flirting with disaster, confounding expectations, and embracing the comedy of daily existence.]]> 448 Zadie Smith 0375703861 Mike 0 to-read, 4, fiction 3.80 2000 White Teeth
author: Zadie Smith
name: Mike
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/24
shelves: to-read, 4, fiction
review:

]]> Men We Reaped 20575451 Men We Reaped confirmed her ascendancy as a writer of both fiction and nonfiction, her Southern requiem securing its place on bestseller and best books of the year lists, with honors and awards pouring in from around the country.

Jesmyn's memoir shines a light on the community she comes from, in the small town of DeLisle, Mississippi, a place of quiet beauty and fierce attachment. Here, in the space of four years, she lost five young men dear to her, including her beloved brother-lost to drugs, accidents, murder, and suicide. Their deaths were seemingly unconnected, yet their lives had been connected, by identity and place, and as Jesmyn dealt with these losses, she came to a staggering truth: These young men died because of who they were and the place they were from, because certain disadvantages breed a certain kind of bad luck. Because they lived with a history of racism and economic struggle. The agonizing reality commanded Jesmyn to write, at last, their true stories and her own.

Men We Reaped opens up a parallel universe, yet it points to problems whose roots are woven into the soil under all our feet. This indispensable American memoir is destined to become a classic.]]> 272 Jesmyn Ward 1608197654 Mike 0 to-read, 4, nonfiction 4.39 2013 Men We Reaped
author: Jesmyn Ward
name: Mike
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves: to-read, 4, nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Dreaming Vol. 4: Waking Hours]]> 58489083
One of Dream's heaviest responsibilities is creating nightmares...and he thinks he may have built his next masterpiece in the form of Ruin. But Ruin will live up to his name, in ways that Dream could never expect and creating a spiral of consequences and messes to be cleaned. When Lindy dreams of Ruin—she somehow delivers him unto the waking world!

Has anyone checked on Puck lately? Oh no...it looks like he's found someone to stalk too. Sorceress Heather After will have to find a protector for herself...but is she prepared for the deal she'll have to strike once she finds the champion with the dangerous power she needs?

With a trip into the realm of Faerie too, you don't want to miss the collection of your dreams! The Dreaming: Waking Hours, collects The Dreaming: Waking Hours #1-12.]]> 296 G. Willow Wilson 1779512732 Mike 5 comic 4.23 2021 The Dreaming Vol. 4: Waking Hours
author: G. Willow Wilson
name: Mike
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/21
date added: 2024/07/21
shelves: comic
review:
I think this is the first of the Sandman Universe books that really felt as good as the Gaiman originals. Wilson captured the spirit and the characters while bringing something new and interesting. The art is top notch as well—a thoughtful mix of illustrators/styles to capture specific moods. Even the coloring had me in awe.
]]> <![CDATA[Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments]]> 165942682 A love letter to baseball, and the follow-up to last year’s runaway bestseller The Baseball 100

The Baseball 100 was a must-have look at 100 memorable baseball players. Joe Posnanski's new book, Why We Love Baseball, is equally essential reading, now about the game's top 50 moments.

Willie Mays’s catch. Babe Ruth’s called shot. Kirk Gibson’s limping home run.

Moments like these have been described again and again, and in Why We Love Baseball, they are looked at anew, told from unique perspectives. These are moments from the big and famous to the small and private; experienced by players, teammates, and fans; all of them fundamental to the connection fans have with the game they love.

These are fresh tales of legendary moments so powerful they almost feel like myth—takes that go to the heart of why we love the game we do.]]> 12 Joe Posnanski Mike 5 nonfiction, audio 4.58 2023 Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments
author: Joe Posnanski
name: Mike
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/18
date added: 2024/07/19
shelves: nonfiction, audio
review:
Longform sports writing can tend to go purple. Baseball writing especially. But the premise of this books makes that welcome instead of eyerolling. This book is one emotional gut punch after the next. Every story hits you like Tom Hanks saying "the hard is what makes it great." I don't know how many times I cried while listening to this book, but it was more than a few.
]]> The Golem of Brooklyn 124019742
But Len Bronstein is no rabbi—he’s a Brooklyn art teacher who steals a large quantity of clay from his school, gets extremely stoned, and manages to bring his creation to life despite knowing little about Judaism and even less about golems. Unable to communicate with his nine-foot-six, four hundred–pound, Yiddish-speaking guest, Len enlists a bodega clerk and ex-Hasid named Miri Apfelbaum to translate.

Eventually, the golem learns English by binge-watching Curb Your Enthusiasm after ingesting a massive amount of LSD and reveals that he is a creature with an ancestral memory; he recalls every previous iteration of himself, proving to be a repository of Jewish history and trauma. He demands to know what crisis has prompted his re-creation and whom he must destroy. When Miri shows him a video of white nationalists marching and chanting “Jews will not replace us,� the answer becomes clear.

The Golem of Brooklyn is an epic romp through Jewish history and the American present that wrestles with the deepest questions of our humanity—the conflicts between faith and skepticism, tribalism and interdependence, and vengeance and healing.]]> 272 Adam Mansbach 059372982X Mike 5 fiction 3.97 2023 The Golem of Brooklyn
author: Adam Mansbach
name: Mike
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/18
date added: 2024/07/19
shelves: fiction
review:
Hillarious and potent. And a surprisingly good examination of Jewish survival and what that can mean to different people.
]]> Two Graves, Vol. 1 79501726 Emilia and the man with the veil of smoke have set out for the ocean in a stolen truck. There's a bloody handprint on his neck. She's beginning to worry it's hers.

Death stole Emilia - the first time in his very long life that he hasn’t carried over the soul he was assigned to carry over. It would be romantic, except that they’re being hunted.

Death and the Maiden go on a road trip. Nobody gets out alive.

The first volume of a new series from writer GENEVIEVE VALENTINE (Catwoman), illustrated in competing points of view by ANNIE WU (Hawkeye, Black Canary) and MING DOYLE (The Banks, DC Anatomy of a Metahuman).

Collects TWO GRAVES #1-6

]]> 208 Genevieve Valentine 1534325972 Mike 4 comic 3.16 2023 Two Graves, Vol. 1
author: Genevieve Valentine
name: Mike
average rating: 3.16
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/10
date added: 2024/07/14
shelves: comic
review:
I'm really glad I read this as a trade paperback. If I had gotten the first couple of monthlies I might have given up. But once I shook off my initial confusion, I was all in. I'm not sure where this series is going, but I'm here for it.
]]> No Name in the Street 256105
“It contains truth that cannot be denied.� � The Atlantic Monthly

In this stunningly personal document, James Baldwin remembers in vivid details the Harlem childhood that shaped his early conciousness and the later events that scored his heart with pain—the murders of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, his sojourns in Europe and in Hollywood, and his retum to the American South to confront a violent America face-to-face.]]> 208 James Baldwin 0307275922 Mike 5 nonfiction 4.50 1972 No Name in the Street
author: James Baldwin
name: Mike
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1972
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/05
date added: 2024/07/14
shelves: nonfiction
review:
It's hard to believe, but Baldwain really is as relevant today as he was in 1972.
]]> Exit Wounds 535578
Exit Wounds is the North American graphic-novel debut from one of Israel’s best-known cartoonists. Modan has received several awards in Israel and abroad, including the Best Illustrated Children’s Book Award from the Israel Museum in Jerusalem four times and Young Artist of the Year by the Israel Ministry of Culture. She is a chosen artist of the Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation.]]> 168 Rutu Modan 1897299060 Mike 4 comic 3.60 2006 Exit Wounds
author: Rutu Modan
name: Mike
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/27
date added: 2024/07/12
shelves: comic
review:
How can something be so broad and so specific at the same time. This story happens everywhere every day but it could only happen in Israel.
]]> <![CDATA[The Invisible Bridge (Vintage Contemporaries)]]> 9135306 The Invisible Bridge tells the story of a family shattered and remade in history’s darkest hour.]]> 758 Julie Orringer 140003437X Mike 5 fiction 4.15 2010 The Invisible Bridge (Vintage Contemporaries)
author: Julie Orringer
name: Mike
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/25
date added: 2024/07/12
shelves: fiction
review:
What a beautiful and sad book. Fully realized characters and a moving story. Plus, a moment in history I didn't know anything about. At least, not from this perspective.
]]> Factory Summers 54785566 The legendary cartoonist aims his pen and paper toward his high school summer job

For three summers beginning when he was 16, cartoonist Guy Delisle worked at a pulp and paper factory in Quebec City. Factory Summers chronicles the daily rhythms of life in the mill, and the twelve hour shifts he spent in a hot, noisy building filled with arcane machinery. Delisle takes his noted outsider perspective and applies it domestically, this time as a boy amongst men through the universal rite of passage of the summer job. Even as a teenager, Delisle’s keen eye for hypocrisy highlights the tensions of class and the rampant sexism an all-male workplace permits.

Guy works the floor doing physically strenuous tasks. He is one of the few young people on site, and furthermore gets the job through his father’s connections, a fact which rightfully earns him disdain from the lifers. Guy’s dad spends his whole career in the white collar offices, working 9 to 5 instead of the rigorous 12-hour shifts of the unionized labor. Guy and his dad aren’t close, and Factory Summers leaves Delisle reconciling whether the job led to his dad’s aloofness and unhappiness.

On his days off, Guy finds refuge in art, a world far beyond the factory floor. Delisle shows himself rediscovering comics at the public library, and preparing for animation school–only to be told on the first day, “There are no jobs in animation.� Eager to pursue a job he enjoys, Guy throws caution to the wind.]]> 156 Guy Delisle 177046459X Mike 5 comic 3.78 2021 Factory Summers
author: Guy Delisle
name: Mike
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/29
date added: 2024/07/11
shelves: comic
review:
I was surprised by how much I liked this book. I haven't really loved one of Delisle's books since Pyongyang. The Jerusalem books was pretty good. The parenting books walked a well worn path. But Factory Summers was a real return to form. And it worked without the backdrop of an oppressive regime, which is all the more impressive!
]]> <![CDATA[My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music's Black Past, Present, and Future]]> 199797769
Country music had brought Randall and her activist mother together and even gave Randall a singular distinction in American music she is the first Black woman to cowrite a number one country hit, Trisha Yearwood’s “XXX’s and OOO’s�. Randall found inspiration and comfort in the sounds and history of the first family of Black country DeFord Bailey, Lil Hardin, Ray Charles, Charley Pride, and Herb Jeffries who, together, made up a community of Black Americans rising through hard times to create simple beauty, true joy, and sometimes profound eccentricity.

What emerges in My Black Country is a celebration of the most American of music genres and the radical joy in realizing the power of Black influence on American culture. As country music goes through a fresh renaissance today, with a new wave of Black artists enjoying success, My Black Country is the perfect gift for longtime country fans and a vibrant introduction to a new generation of listeners who previously were not invited to give the genre a chance.]]> 288 Alice Randall 1668018403 Mike 4 to-read, nonfiction 3.99 My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music's Black Past, Present, and Future
author: Alice Randall
name: Mike
average rating: 3.99
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/27
date added: 2024/07/11
shelves: to-read, nonfiction
review:
This books had a lot going for it. It's a compelling story, with a professional writer for an author, and a conceit that allows it to go off on any number of fascinating tangents. Unfortunately, the book was also obviously rushed to coincide with the release of Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter. As a result, I found numerous typos (a minor complaint) and several times the book switches subject abruptly with no explanation as to why or how the new subject relates to the previous one (a major complaint). After getting past the whiplash of the poor editing, I'm glad I read this book. It provides a lot of important history. But given how fast Cowboy Carter fell off the charts, it probably would have been better to wait.
]]> The Baseball Book of Why 45288182
This book provides over 100 questions and detailed answers concerning the traditions, rules, and history of the national pastime. Organized by the sport’s five eras—Dead Ball, Live Ball, Golden Age, Expansion, and Steroid Era—it answers questions about hitting, pitching, fielding, base running, managing, scouting and ownership that vex even the most ardent fans of the game. Moreover, this book is an appreciation of how baseball’s traditions began.]]> 200 John McCollister 1493048872 Mike 3 nonfiction 3.38 The Baseball Book of Why
author: John McCollister
name: Mike
average rating: 3.38
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/26
date added: 2024/07/11
shelves: nonfiction
review:
This book was charming in a throw back kind of way. It even provided a few baseball stories I hadn't heard before. But it lacked a lot of the rigor a professional sports writer would have brought. Some of the older stories have been proven to be myths which made me feel like I had to take the new-to-me stories with a grain of salt. But baseball is all about story telling. So I guess we should just relax and let the stories wash over us like going to a game with grandpa.
]]> Bad Feminist: Essays 199531809 ]]> 352 Roxane Gay 0063384809 Mike 0 to-read 4.03 2014 Bad Feminist: Essays
author: Roxane Gay
name: Mike
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics]]> 289866 80 Norton Juster 1587170663 Mike 5 light-on-text ❤️ 4.32 1963 The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics
author: Norton Juster
name: Mike
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1963
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/01
date added: 2024/06/30
shelves: light-on-text
review:
❤️
]]> Merriment 202647085
Merriment follows Mack on her quest for happiness and/or sanity, through the horrors of life, as she navigates existential dread, real life dread, and all the dread in between.]]> 248 Joe Steinhardt 1737524546 Mike 4 comic 4.12 Merriment
author: Joe Steinhardt
name: Mike
average rating: 4.12
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/11
date added: 2024/06/30
shelves: comic
review:
This is a very promising debut. Even though this isn't the regular gig for either of them, I hope Steinhardt and Paternoster both continue to work in comics.
]]>