Steve's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 07 Apr 2025 06:22:19 -0700 60 Steve's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Jackal's Mistress 214537772 In this Civil War love story, inspired by a real-life friendship across enemy lines, the wife of a missing Confederate soldier discovers a wounded Yankee officer and must decide what she’s willing to risk for the life of a stranger, from the New York Times bestselling author of such acclaimed historical fiction as Hour of the Witch and The Sandcastle Girls.

ĚýĚýĚýĚýVirginia, 1864—Libby Steadman’s husband has been away for so long that she can barely conjure his voice in her dreams. While she longs for him in the night, fearing him dead in a Union prison camp, her days are spent running a gristmill with her teenage niece, a hired hand, and his wife, all the grain they can produce requisitioned by the Confederate Army. It’s an uneasy life in the Shenandoah Valley, the territory frequently changing hands, control swinging back and forth like a pendulum between North and South, and Libby awakens every morning expecting to see her land a battlefield.Ěý
ĚýĚýĚýĚýAnd then she finds a gravely injured Union officer left for dead in a neighbor’s house, the bones of his hand and leg shattered. Captain Jonathan Weybridge of the Vermont Brigade is her enemy â€� but he’s also a human being, and Libby must make a terrible Does she leave him to die alone? Or does she risk treason and try to nurse him back to health? And if she succeeds, does she try to secretly bring him across Union lines, where she might negotiate a trade for news of her own husband?Ěý
ĚýĚýĚýĚýA vivid and sweeping story of two people navigating the boundaries of love and humanity in a landscape of brutal violence, The Jackal’s Mistress is a heart-stopping new novel, based on a largely unknown piece of American history, from one of our greatest storytellers.]]> 336 Chris Bohjalian 0385547641 Steve 0 to-read 4.15 2025 The Jackal's Mistress
author: Chris Bohjalian
name: Steve
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Eleutheria 58502668 A story of idealism, activism, and systemic corruption, centered on a naïve young woman’s quest for agency in a world ravaged by climate change.

Willa Marks has spent her whole life choosing hope. She chooses hope over her parents� paranoid conspiracy theories, over her dead-end job, over the rising ocean levels. And when she meets Sylvia Gill, renowned Harvard professor, she feels she’s found the justification of that hope. Sylvia is the woman-in-black: the only person smart and sharp enough to compel the world to action. But when Sylvia betrays her, Willa fears she has lost hope forever.

And then she finds a book in Sylvia’s library: a guide to fighting climate change called Living the Solution. Inspired by its message and with nothing to lose, Willa flies to the island of Eleutheria in the Bahamas to join the author and his group of ecowarriors at Camp Hope. Upon arrival, things are not what she expected. The group’s leader, author Roy Adams, is missing, and the compound’s public launch is delayed. With time running out, Willa will stop at nothing to realize Camp Hope’s mission—but at what cost?


A VINTAGE ORIGINAL]]> 336 Allegra Hyde 0593315243 Steve 5 Right book, right time, at least for me.

There a lot going on here, and I can see how (or why) this might polarize readers, but ... as cli-fi (or climate fiction or speculative climate change fiction or not quite dystopia yet) goes, it's great stuff.

Obviously, there's more and more content along these lines being created and becoming available, and, as much as I'm fascinated by the differing takes and styles compared to, I dunno, Cold War era nuclear apocalyptic fears, etc., I'm intrigued - in much the same way I am with the non-fiction literature - as to how authors approach (or align or position themselves) along the doom versus hope spectrum. In other words, are happy endings a credible option?

In the spirit of full disclosure, I least enjoyed the romance-tinged aspects of the book, but I fully concede they were necessary to the whole (and compellingly reinforced the almost visceral longing theme), a critically important (if not relatively predictable) aspect of the plot, and sufficiently persuasive or believable. It just wasn't my favorite part.

No spoilers here, but, as someone who read more than one's fair share - both non-fiction and fiction - related to climate change ... and has done some writing, teaching, and speaking in the field ... for me it was all worth it for (and no spoilers here, but) Chapter 10 (pages 291-293 in the paperback edition I have). Thank you, Allegra Hyde. Very well done!

Of to-read piles and such: A friend recommended this to me - and I bought it - years ago, and, over the years, I've watched it move up and down (and side to side) through my to-read shelves and piles (and convoluted organizational schemes). Then I saw it appear - back to back - in a couple of recommended cli-fi reading lists after I consumed (and really enjoyed) Charlotte McConaghy's latest (Wild Dark Shore) and was debating (with my self) the relative merits of continuing to shelve cli-fi, and, more broadly, dystopia, under the (admittedly lazy and) hopelessly broad category: sci-fi and fantasy. Fortunately, other than on Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ, there is no place where such an issue actually matters. But, as they say, I digress... LoL

I'm pleased I bought it when I did, but I'm even happier that I finally read it.]]> 3.65 2022 Eleutheria
author: Allegra Hyde
name: Steve
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: climate-nature-anthropocene, sci-fi-and-fantasy
review:
Right book, right time, at least for me.

There a lot going on here, and I can see how (or why) this might polarize readers, but ... as cli-fi (or climate fiction or speculative climate change fiction or not quite dystopia yet) goes, it's great stuff.

Obviously, there's more and more content along these lines being created and becoming available, and, as much as I'm fascinated by the differing takes and styles compared to, I dunno, Cold War era nuclear apocalyptic fears, etc., I'm intrigued - in much the same way I am with the non-fiction literature - as to how authors approach (or align or position themselves) along the doom versus hope spectrum. In other words, are happy endings a credible option?

In the spirit of full disclosure, I least enjoyed the romance-tinged aspects of the book, but I fully concede they were necessary to the whole (and compellingly reinforced the almost visceral longing theme), a critically important (if not relatively predictable) aspect of the plot, and sufficiently persuasive or believable. It just wasn't my favorite part.

No spoilers here, but, as someone who read more than one's fair share - both non-fiction and fiction - related to climate change ... and has done some writing, teaching, and speaking in the field ... for me it was all worth it for (and no spoilers here, but) Chapter 10 (pages 291-293 in the paperback edition I have). Thank you, Allegra Hyde. Very well done!

Of to-read piles and such: A friend recommended this to me - and I bought it - years ago, and, over the years, I've watched it move up and down (and side to side) through my to-read shelves and piles (and convoluted organizational schemes). Then I saw it appear - back to back - in a couple of recommended cli-fi reading lists after I consumed (and really enjoyed) Charlotte McConaghy's latest (Wild Dark Shore) and was debating (with my self) the relative merits of continuing to shelve cli-fi, and, more broadly, dystopia, under the (admittedly lazy and) hopelessly broad category: sci-fi and fantasy. Fortunately, other than on Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ, there is no place where such an issue actually matters. But, as they say, I digress... LoL

I'm pleased I bought it when I did, but I'm even happier that I finally read it.
]]> <![CDATA[The Language of Climate Politics: Fossil-Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It]]> 197812315
With incisive linguistic analysis, Dr. Genevieve Guenther shows that the climate debate is not, in fact, neatly polarized―with Republicans obstructing climate action and Democrats merely advancing climate solutions. Both sides often talk about the climate crisis in surprisingly similar terms. This bipartisan echo reflects a centrist consensus that helps to keep the fossil-energy system in place even as global heating accelerates.

Weaving this analysis through fascinating critical histories of the terms that dominate the language of climate politics―we, alarmist, cost, growth, "India and China," innovation, and resilience―Dr. Guenther shows how this consensus is established. Fossil-fuel interests weaponize the discourses of science, economics, and even activism, co-opting and twisting words to help greenwash their plans for ongoing extraction. But all too often climate scientists, economists, and even advocates will unwittingly echo the false and dangerous assumptions of their supposed political opponents. This apparent agreement between foes, filtered through the news media, not only influences our common-sense yet mistaken views about the climate crisis but also enables powerful decisionmakers blocking decarbonization to justify their corporate and policy actions that threaten us all.

Ultimately, The Language of Climate Politics is an inspiring call to arms―a book that equips readers with powerful new terms that will enable them to fight more effectively for a livable future.]]> 280 Genevieve Guenther 0197642233 Steve 5 Well worth reading! Indeed, I should have read it sooner (particularly because I bought a while back).

Clear and accessible, compelling, chock full of good points and anecdotes and thoughts and suggestions, and backed up by plentiful (and helpful) endnotes, I'm pleased I finally read it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. But more than anything, it made me think (constructively) about how I'll be talking and writing about climate change going forward.

If you spend a lot of time working or reading or thinking about climate change, I'd encourage you to buy this, read it (or at least move it to the top of the stack), and recommend it others. Having said that, while it's gratifying to read a book that frequently references other works you've read (you know that pleasant head-nodding pleasure of bias confirmation ... mumbling to yourself as you read ... uh huh, ... yup... that's right ... good point ... nicely said ... oooh, that's a good turn of phrase, ... ah, that's a really good anecdote, ... indeed, ... yes, exactly... ... anyway, you get the idea), one does wonder if the book simply made me feel better (as opposed to, I dunno, Andrew Boyd's I Want a Better Catastrophe: Navigating the Climate Crisis with Grief, Hope, and Gallows Humor) or if I actually learned something. For me, it was pretty easy: This was well worth my time. I really appreciated the author's repackaging of (important and) familiar issues, and I'm confident I'm going to use many of her suggestions, anecdotes, and ideas going forward.

For everyone else, it's a more complicated calculus. One of the challenging thing about climate change - and getting folks to think about it or reexamine their assumptions or progress up the learning curve or, OK ... care ... or engage or change their opinions (OK, let's not get carried away) is that there's no single solution, and, as is often the case, folks come to the issue from very different places. Which begs the question: is this a good place to start?

Other than conceding that I don't know, I plan to put this on the shelf near - and recommend it in the same vein as, hmmm - Michael Mann's The New Climate War and, and maybe this is a stretch, but also John Cook's (frankly, sublime) Cranky Uncle vs. Climate Change: How to Understand and Respond to Climate Science Deniers. And, as frequently as I recommend Hayhoe's Saving Us, there are many things that made me appreciate this even more (although I guessing that it probably does make sense for most readers to internalize Hayhoe's talk about it message before diving into this).

Reader's lament: the timing of book projects and the publishing industry are what they are, but it was frustrating, maddening, and, at times, jarring to read this after the 2024 election, the 2025 inauguration, and the recent horror show of the EPA administrator gleefully aspiring to “lower the cost of buying a car, heating a home and running a business� rather than, I dunno, protecting the environment, acknowledging the existential risk of climate change and (geez, I feel foolish for suggesting it, but) being part of the solution rather than the problem. But that's not the author's fault. Indeed, I'm assuming the timing was originally calculated to help ensure a different outcome in the election, but, alas, that's now water over the dam.

I really enjoyed the book. I have pages of notes that I expect to return to. I plan to recommend the book (and discuss it with my students).

My hat's off the author!]]> 4.50 2024 The Language of Climate Politics: Fossil-Fuel Propaganda and How to Fight It
author: Genevieve Guenther
name: Steve
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: climate-nature-anthropocene, non-fiction
review:
Well worth reading! Indeed, I should have read it sooner (particularly because I bought a while back).

Clear and accessible, compelling, chock full of good points and anecdotes and thoughts and suggestions, and backed up by plentiful (and helpful) endnotes, I'm pleased I finally read it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. But more than anything, it made me think (constructively) about how I'll be talking and writing about climate change going forward.

If you spend a lot of time working or reading or thinking about climate change, I'd encourage you to buy this, read it (or at least move it to the top of the stack), and recommend it others. Having said that, while it's gratifying to read a book that frequently references other works you've read (you know that pleasant head-nodding pleasure of bias confirmation ... mumbling to yourself as you read ... uh huh, ... yup... that's right ... good point ... nicely said ... oooh, that's a good turn of phrase, ... ah, that's a really good anecdote, ... indeed, ... yes, exactly... ... anyway, you get the idea), one does wonder if the book simply made me feel better (as opposed to, I dunno, Andrew Boyd's I Want a Better Catastrophe: Navigating the Climate Crisis with Grief, Hope, and Gallows Humor) or if I actually learned something. For me, it was pretty easy: This was well worth my time. I really appreciated the author's repackaging of (important and) familiar issues, and I'm confident I'm going to use many of her suggestions, anecdotes, and ideas going forward.

For everyone else, it's a more complicated calculus. One of the challenging thing about climate change - and getting folks to think about it or reexamine their assumptions or progress up the learning curve or, OK ... care ... or engage or change their opinions (OK, let's not get carried away) is that there's no single solution, and, as is often the case, folks come to the issue from very different places. Which begs the question: is this a good place to start?

Other than conceding that I don't know, I plan to put this on the shelf near - and recommend it in the same vein as, hmmm - Michael Mann's The New Climate War and, and maybe this is a stretch, but also John Cook's (frankly, sublime) Cranky Uncle vs. Climate Change: How to Understand and Respond to Climate Science Deniers. And, as frequently as I recommend Hayhoe's Saving Us, there are many things that made me appreciate this even more (although I guessing that it probably does make sense for most readers to internalize Hayhoe's talk about it message before diving into this).

Reader's lament: the timing of book projects and the publishing industry are what they are, but it was frustrating, maddening, and, at times, jarring to read this after the 2024 election, the 2025 inauguration, and the recent horror show of the EPA administrator gleefully aspiring to “lower the cost of buying a car, heating a home and running a business� rather than, I dunno, protecting the environment, acknowledging the existential risk of climate change and (geez, I feel foolish for suggesting it, but) being part of the solution rather than the problem. But that's not the author's fault. Indeed, I'm assuming the timing was originally calculated to help ensure a different outcome in the election, but, alas, that's now water over the dam.

I really enjoyed the book. I have pages of notes that I expect to return to. I plan to recommend the book (and discuss it with my students).

My hat's off the author!
]]> <![CDATA[The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastard, #1)]]> 29588376 ASIN B000JMKNJ2 moved to the more recent edition

An orphan’s life is harsh—and often short—in the mysterious island city of Camorr. But young Locke Lamora dodges death and slavery, becoming a thief under the tutelage of a gifted con artist. As leader of the band of light-fingered brothers known as the Gentleman Bastards, Locke is soon infamous, fooling even the underworld’s most feared ruler. But in the shadows lurks someone still more ambitious and deadly. Faced with a bloody coup that threatens to destroy everyone and everything that holds meaning in his mercenary life, Locke vows to beat the enemy at his own brutal game—or die trying.]]> 752 Scott Lynch Steve 0 to-read 4.32 2006 The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastard, #1)
author: Scott Lynch
name: Steve
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Hark! A Vagrant 10767466 Hark! A Vagrant is an uproarious romp through history and literature seen through the sharp, contemporary lens of New Yorker cartoonist and comics-sensation Kate Beaton. No era or tome emerges unscathbed as Beaton rightly skewers the Western world's revolutionaries, leaders, sycophants, and suffragists while equally honing her wit on the hapless heroes, heroines, and villains of the best-loved fiction. She deftly points out what really happened when Brahms fell asleep listening to Liszt, that the world's first hipsters were obviously the Incroyables and the Merveilleuses from eighteenth-century France, that Susan B. Anthony is, of course, a "Samantha," and that the polite banality of Canadian culture never gets old. Hark! A Vagrant features sexy Batman, the true stories behind classic Nancy Drew covers, and Queen Elizabeth doing the albatross. As the 5600.000 unique monthly visitors to already know, no one turns the ironic absurdities of history and literature into comedic fodder as hilarious as Beaton.]]> 168 Kate Beaton 1770460608 Steve 2 graphic-novels-manga
Full disclosure: I was unfamiliar with Beaton when I came upon Ducks, which was a completely different animal, but something that I very much enjoyed (and I've recommended in various contexts).

I was aware that this was published long before. And, of course, it's a horse of an entirely different color, but I figured it was worth a try. Having not read any of the original strips (or been familiar with them) in serial, my assumption is that my perspective was skewed because, with this packaging, consuming them (a large number of very small increments) at one time in one place is a very different experience....]]> 4.21 2011 Hark! A Vagrant
author: Kate Beaton
name: Steve
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2011
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: graphic-novels-manga
review:
Not necessarily my cup of tea, but ... something interesting and different and creative....

Full disclosure: I was unfamiliar with Beaton when I came upon Ducks, which was a completely different animal, but something that I very much enjoyed (and I've recommended in various contexts).

I was aware that this was published long before. And, of course, it's a horse of an entirely different color, but I figured it was worth a try. Having not read any of the original strips (or been familiar with them) in serial, my assumption is that my perspective was skewed because, with this packaging, consuming them (a large number of very small increments) at one time in one place is a very different experience....
]]> <![CDATA[When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution's Greatest Romance]]> 211003956
A gorgeously composed narrative nonfiction book about the longstanding relationship between prehistoric plants and life on Earth.

Immaculately framed by ancient stone, the leaves look as if they were pressed between the gray pages of a great geological diary. If we were to see the plant alive, we would simply pass it by, but the fossil is a whisper from a time more than 55 million years ago, when alligators dwelled within the Arctic Circle and gigantic dragonflies buzzed through the air. This little plant is an entry-point into this lost world. Past, present, and future, this ancient specimen has roots in all of them.

We often retell the history of life on Earth as a series of great moments in which fascinating animal life springs forth, all the while forgetting the plants that made these moments possible. But we can’t understand our own history without them. Or, our future. Dinosaurs, saber-toothed cats, and all mammals would be nothing without the efforts of their leafy counterparts. Even humans would likely not exist had plants not taken root to sow the land for our amphibious ancestors.

Using the same scientifically-informed narrative technique that readers loved in the award-winning The Last Days of the Dinosaurs, in When the Earth Was Green, Riley Black brings readers back in time to prehistoric seas, swamps, forests, and savannas where critical moments in plant evolution unfolded. Each chapter stars plants and animals alike, underscoring how the interactions between species have helped shape the world we call home. As the chapters move upwards in time, Black guides readers along the burgeoning trunk of the Tree of Life, stopping to appreciate branches of an evolutionary story that links the world we know with one we can only just perceive now through the silent stone, from ancient roots to the present.]]> 292 Riley Black 1250288991 Steve 0 to-read 4.14 2025 When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution's Greatest Romance
author: Riley Black
name: Steve
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Stag Dance 215362032 In this collection of one novel and three stories, bestselling author Torrey Peters’s keen eye for the rough edges of community and desire push the limits of trans writing.

In Stag Dance, the titular novel, a group of restless lumberjacks working in an illegal winter logging outfit plan a dance that some of them will volunteer to attend as women. When the broadest, strongest, plainest of the axmen announces his intention to dance as a woman, he finds himself caught in a strange rivalry with a pretty young jack, provoking a cascade of obsession, jealousy, and betrayal that will culminate on the big night in an astonishing vision of gender and transition.

Three startling stories surround Stag Dance: “Infect Your Friends and Loved Ones� imagines a gender apocalypse brought about by an unstable ex-girlfriend. In “The Chaser,� a secret romance between roommates at a Quaker boarding school brings out intrigue and cruelty. In the last story, “The Masker,� a party weekend on the Las Vegas strip turns dark when a young crossdresser must choose between two guides: a handsome mystery man who objectifies her in thrilling ways, or a cynical veteran trans woman offering unglamorous sisterhood.

Acidly funny and breathtaking in its scope, with the inventive audacity of George Saunders or Jennifer Egan, Stag Dance provokes, unsettles, and delights.]]> 304 Torrey Peters 0593595645 Steve 0 to-read 4.09 2025 Stag Dance
author: Torrey Peters
name: Steve
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Wild Dark Shore 211051083 From the beloved, New York Times bestselling author of Migrations and Once There Were Wolves, a novel about a family living alone on a remote island, when a mysterious woman washes up on shore

A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back toward the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.

Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, can they trust each other enough to protect one another—and the precious seeds in their care? And can they finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together?

A novel of heart-stopping twists, dizzying beauty, and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us is ending.]]> 307 Charlotte McConaghy 125082799X Steve 5 climate-nature-anthropocene Migrations or Once There Were Wolves, this one should probably be on the top of your reading stack.

In the spirit of full disclosure (or complete lack of objectivity), I both expected and hoped to enjoy this, which was why I preordered it. But I completely underestimated how compelling I'd find it and how difficult it would be to put it down (and, in the end, I just didn't bother ... I just kept reading. The whole sleep thing is underrated anyway.)

No, it's not perfect, but you'll have to find the critiques articulated by someone else. For me, it pushed all the right buttons, and I really enjoyed it. I found it surprisingly evocative. I couldn't just see the island, I could feel it.

I concede I'm pleased to see McConaghy's popularity expand, seemingly from fringe to juggernaut. My initial expectations were muted when I first found Migrations on my Indie bookstore's recommendation list.... I haven't read any of the Chronicles of Kaya, but my curiosity may get me there yet... At the same time, I've heard from enough readers that McConaghy doesn't resonate with everyone the way her stuff does with me. Still, I look forward to whatever comes next...

Musings: I'm (only somewhat haphazardly) shelving this on my climate-related reading shelf, and excluding it from my Sci-Fi and fantasy shelf. I expect plenty will include in on the CLI-FI lists (assuming that climate fiction continues to grow and expand and diversify), but unlike much of that ilk, I'm hesitant to lump this one in with what I think of as dystopia (which, historically, I've grouped under Sci-Fi and Fantasy, fully recognizing that that's an imperfect organizational convenience). It seems, at least to me, still premature to construct a separate shelf for environmental dystopia (or environmental dystopian fiction), but I will concede that - if I did start such a shelf - it wouldn't look bare.]]> 4.43 2025 Wild Dark Shore
author: Charlotte McConaghy
name: Steve
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: climate-nature-anthropocene
review:
I really enjoyed this, and, if nothing else, I'm guessing that, if you (like me) also enjoyed Migrations or Once There Were Wolves, this one should probably be on the top of your reading stack.

In the spirit of full disclosure (or complete lack of objectivity), I both expected and hoped to enjoy this, which was why I preordered it. But I completely underestimated how compelling I'd find it and how difficult it would be to put it down (and, in the end, I just didn't bother ... I just kept reading. The whole sleep thing is underrated anyway.)

No, it's not perfect, but you'll have to find the critiques articulated by someone else. For me, it pushed all the right buttons, and I really enjoyed it. I found it surprisingly evocative. I couldn't just see the island, I could feel it.

I concede I'm pleased to see McConaghy's popularity expand, seemingly from fringe to juggernaut. My initial expectations were muted when I first found Migrations on my Indie bookstore's recommendation list.... I haven't read any of the Chronicles of Kaya, but my curiosity may get me there yet... At the same time, I've heard from enough readers that McConaghy doesn't resonate with everyone the way her stuff does with me. Still, I look forward to whatever comes next...

Musings: I'm (only somewhat haphazardly) shelving this on my climate-related reading shelf, and excluding it from my Sci-Fi and fantasy shelf. I expect plenty will include in on the CLI-FI lists (assuming that climate fiction continues to grow and expand and diversify), but unlike much of that ilk, I'm hesitant to lump this one in with what I think of as dystopia (which, historically, I've grouped under Sci-Fi and Fantasy, fully recognizing that that's an imperfect organizational convenience). It seems, at least to me, still premature to construct a separate shelf for environmental dystopia (or environmental dystopian fiction), but I will concede that - if I did start such a shelf - it wouldn't look bare.
]]> The River Has Roots 211004176 Follow the river Liss to the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, and meet two sisters who cannot be separated, even in death.

“Oh what is stronger than a death? Two sisters singing with one breath.�

In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family.

There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees.

But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters� bond but also their lives will be at risk…]]> 133 Amal El-Mohtar 1250341086 Steve 5 Yes! ... and yes!, again.

Right book, right time for me. And I needed it.

OK, OK, I was inclined to like (nay, love) it, since I'd been smitten with the Hugo Award winner, This is How You Lose the Time War (which is very much not for everyone, but absolutely was for me), so I'd pre-ordered this.

The physical book (including the dust jacket) is gorgeous[*], and ... at novella length, it was a short, gratifying read. Musical and magical stuff, in the truest sense of the words. Page after page, I could see it and hear it and feel it.... Evocative stuff, exquisitely done.

Unexpected bonus: After the (again, novella length only) book itself, the hardback version I purchased also included the short story, John Hollowback and the Witch, which, apparently, is a preview of the author's forthcoming short story collection. While it wasn't quite as lyrical or musical or transcendent as the book, I thought it was excellent and, I expect I'll read the entire collection when it comes out.

Curious to see the reception.... after the (bonus) short story, the author's Acknowledgements is much more than that, and, to my mind, well worth reading. I found it very nicely done (and compelling), but I expect it will polarize (and that was the intent). As a reader, ... and, let's be clear, in this context, a reader of literary fantasy, I appreciated the window into the reader's (mind and) perspective and values, and I hope that those who are less open to the closing riff at least give the author grace for her transparency and, on the other hand, avoid the tendency to disregard, criticize, or even blacklist the author (or authors generally) at the first opportunity.

*Packaging, or a Market Observation: I concede I was pleased (and relieved) to see the NYT recently riff on the evolving market for short books or what many of us tend to think of as standalone novellas (as opposed to the classic novella at the end of a short-story collection). ... There's part of me that hesitated to spend $20+ for a Claire Keegan book that slipped into my pocket, but now that I've bought/read three of Keegan's, with a particular fondness for Small Things Like These, I didn't hesitate to buy a few translated works of similar size by Dominico Starnone or this (or, immediately after having read it, buy another copy for my eldest, rather than mail my copy). Nor do I expect this (or these) will be the last one(s) that I buy....

Time will tell if this leads to El-Mohtar collecting another Hugo, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least.

If you're open to literary fantasy, it's sublime, and I can't recommend it enough. ]]> 4.21 2025 The River Has Roots
author: Amal El-Mohtar
name: Steve
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: sci-fi-and-fantasy, favorites, music
review:
Yes! ... and yes!, again.

Right book, right time for me. And I needed it.

OK, OK, I was inclined to like (nay, love) it, since I'd been smitten with the Hugo Award winner, This is How You Lose the Time War (which is very much not for everyone, but absolutely was for me), so I'd pre-ordered this.

The physical book (including the dust jacket) is gorgeous[*], and ... at novella length, it was a short, gratifying read. Musical and magical stuff, in the truest sense of the words. Page after page, I could see it and hear it and feel it.... Evocative stuff, exquisitely done.

Unexpected bonus: After the (again, novella length only) book itself, the hardback version I purchased also included the short story, John Hollowback and the Witch, which, apparently, is a preview of the author's forthcoming short story collection. While it wasn't quite as lyrical or musical or transcendent as the book, I thought it was excellent and, I expect I'll read the entire collection when it comes out.

Curious to see the reception.... after the (bonus) short story, the author's Acknowledgements is much more than that, and, to my mind, well worth reading. I found it very nicely done (and compelling), but I expect it will polarize (and that was the intent). As a reader, ... and, let's be clear, in this context, a reader of literary fantasy, I appreciated the window into the reader's (mind and) perspective and values, and I hope that those who are less open to the closing riff at least give the author grace for her transparency and, on the other hand, avoid the tendency to disregard, criticize, or even blacklist the author (or authors generally) at the first opportunity.

*Packaging, or a Market Observation: I concede I was pleased (and relieved) to see the NYT recently riff on the evolving market for short books or what many of us tend to think of as standalone novellas (as opposed to the classic novella at the end of a short-story collection). ... There's part of me that hesitated to spend $20+ for a Claire Keegan book that slipped into my pocket, but now that I've bought/read three of Keegan's, with a particular fondness for Small Things Like These, I didn't hesitate to buy a few translated works of similar size by Dominico Starnone or this (or, immediately after having read it, buy another copy for my eldest, rather than mail my copy). Nor do I expect this (or these) will be the last one(s) that I buy....

Time will tell if this leads to El-Mohtar collecting another Hugo, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least.

If you're open to literary fantasy, it's sublime, and I can't recommend it enough.
]]> The Unmaking of June Farrow 100183621
In the small mountain town of Jasper, North Carolina, June Farrow is waiting for fate to find her. The Farrow women are known for their thriving flower farm - and the mysterious curse that has plagued their family line. The whole town remembers the madness that led to Susanna Farrow's disappearance, leaving June to be raised by her grandmother and haunted by rumors.

It's been a year since June started seeing and hearing things that weren't there. Faint wind chimes, a voice calling her name, and a mysterious door appearing out of nowhere - the signs of what June always knew was coming. But June is determined to end the curse once and for all, even if she must sacrifice finding love and having a family of her own.

After her grandmother's death, June discovers a series of cryptic clues regarding her mother's decades-old disappearance, except they only lead to more questions. But could the door she once assumed was a hallucination be the answer she's been searching for? The next time it appears, June realizes she can touch it and walk past the threshold. And when she does, she embarks on a journey that will not only change both the past and the future, but also uncover the lingering mysteries of her small town and entangle her heart in an epic star-crossed love.

With The Unmaking of June Farrow, Adrienne Young delivers a brilliant novel of romance, mystery, and a touch of the impossible--a story you will never forget.]]> 321 Adrienne Young 0593598687 Steve 0 to-read 4.24 2023 The Unmaking of June Farrow
author: Adrienne Young
name: Steve
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Autocracy, Inc. 183932735 224 Anne Applebaum 0241627893 Steve 5 non-fiction
If you're looking for books to buy (and distribute) copies of, or something to carry around and leave in lounges or in airplane/train/ferry/bus seats for others to pick up and read ... rather than walking around screaming WAKE UP! at the top of your lungs... this is a pretty good choice.

No, I'm not recommending this one for its entertainment value or as soul-calming before-bed reading. It's raw and scary and depressing and anxiety inducing ... yet, at the same time, validating and centering ... and, alas ... timely (even if it came out a while back) and relevant and eye opening and ... well ... helpful in providing context for, or trying to make sense of, the (far more intentional than it appears) chaos unfolding around us.

I'll probably still recommend Snyder's On Tyranny before this one, largely based on packaging and delivery. So I guess I'm not surprised that my local indie bookstore is having trouble keeping that one in stock right now. So I'll recommend this one if you're looking for a companion or a sequel or if the other isn't on the shelf (in your library or bookstore). And, yeah, on that note, don't hesitate to consider, as an alternative or in addition, Sarah Kendzior's (deadly serious) graphic novel Dictatorship: It's Easier Than You Think! - it's similarly worthwhile.

Groan, I'd much rather be reading sci-fi and fantasy....]]> 4.21 2024 Autocracy, Inc.
author: Anne Applebaum
name: Steve
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/06
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: non-fiction
review:
Five stars for largely accessible topical importance, despite the fact that I can't say, with a straight face, that I enjoyed reading it.

If you're looking for books to buy (and distribute) copies of, or something to carry around and leave in lounges or in airplane/train/ferry/bus seats for others to pick up and read ... rather than walking around screaming WAKE UP! at the top of your lungs... this is a pretty good choice.

No, I'm not recommending this one for its entertainment value or as soul-calming before-bed reading. It's raw and scary and depressing and anxiety inducing ... yet, at the same time, validating and centering ... and, alas ... timely (even if it came out a while back) and relevant and eye opening and ... well ... helpful in providing context for, or trying to make sense of, the (far more intentional than it appears) chaos unfolding around us.

I'll probably still recommend Snyder's On Tyranny before this one, largely based on packaging and delivery. So I guess I'm not surprised that my local indie bookstore is having trouble keeping that one in stock right now. So I'll recommend this one if you're looking for a companion or a sequel or if the other isn't on the shelf (in your library or bookstore). And, yeah, on that note, don't hesitate to consider, as an alternative or in addition, Sarah Kendzior's (deadly serious) graphic novel Dictatorship: It's Easier Than You Think! - it's similarly worthwhile.

Groan, I'd much rather be reading sci-fi and fantasy....
]]> <![CDATA[Beginning to End the Climate Crisis: A History of Our Future]]> 62621938 Ěý
“Act as though your house is on fire. Because it is.� Following Greta Thunberg, millions of young climate activists have been taking to the streets around the globe as part of the Fridays For Future movement. They demand that we “unite behind the science,� as, for too long, climate scientists have been ringing the alarm bells about rising temperatures, tipping points, and the devastating consequences of extreme weather—but politicians do nothing.
Ěý
So how do you begin to end the climate crisis? Luisa Neubauer and Alexander Repenning begin by telling stories. Neubauer cofounded the youth climate activist group in Germany and has become its most prominent voice. In this book she and Repenning weave in personal accounts of their evolution as climate activists with a thorough analysis of how climate change impacts their generation, and what every one of us can and must do about it. The young and old in the United States and around the world can learn valuable lessons from their European counterparts.
Ěý]]> 208 Luisa Neubauer 1684581478 Steve 5 Utopian thinking frees us from the disastrous habit of doing things "because they have ... always been done that way" or "because there is no other way...." If the future is to be different, we need utopias.... If we want to bring about the end of the climate crisis, we must learn to close the gap between production and imagining.

We (buy and) read books for all kinds of reasons. In this case, I recently heard the author speak and briefly had the opportunity to meet her. Much as I was impressed by her, I think it's more relevant how inspired I was by her. I ordered the book (on the METRO on the way home), and I'm glad I read it.

One of the great privileges associated with being part of a University community and was the opportunity to attend a program sponsored by our Alliance for a Sustainable Future discussing How to Build (and Sustain) a Movement. The sold-out, standing room only event was centered around the author (well known for, among other things, Fridays for Future both in Germany and internationally ... and, of course, her TED talks ), and followed with a lively and interesting (and substantive diverse) panel.

With all of the (doom and) saddening news associated with climate change, and at this point, being on the wrong (or more, um, senior) end of the cycle of life, it's inspirational to see students packing the room and hear voices from the next generation talking, and caring, and being willing to do what needs to be done (in ways that, alas, my generation and our governments have failed ... and continue to fail ... to do) about climate change.

Among other things, I appreciated that Neubauer emphasized that (not just on the darkest days, but generally) there must be “joy and hope� alongside protest and determination. It's an important and an insightful reminder.

As for the book, (again, keeping in mind it was almost surely targeted to a younger demographic), it's a remarkable product reflecting a remarkable (and laudable) life. And, while the crux of the matter is promoting activism, I was intrigued by the breath of expertise captured in the book. Without displaying inordinate jealously, the author appears to have met and spoken and collaborated with a stunning number of leaders, academics, scientists, and authors who I'm not only familiar with, but respect (and, for a handful, disdain).

Despite having read quite a bit on climate change, I found myself dog-earing pages and passages that resonated, from the obvious, though nonetheless eloquent observation that there can be no infinite growth in a world with finite resources to the eminently reasonable query as to how long we should continue to hope that the invisible hand of the market will get a grip on the climate crisis and conjure up a CO2 price out of the hat that is high enough so that the actual costs of of each ton of CO2 are met ... [or t]hat the market will spit out the one ingenious invention that will save us from climate chaos. OK, I found it reaffirming that the author also recommends Raworth's (powerful) Doughnut Economics and hits the nail on the head by exposing the elephant in the room (sorry for mixing/jumbling metaphors) by reminding readers that: As long as GDP growth is defended with more passion than human happiness or the preservation of livelihoods, ... [the climate crisis] will not come to an end.... [T]he capitalist paradigm of prosperity... has no future on a finite planet."

My hat's off to the author (and her co-author and collaborators), not only for the book, but for her life's work and inspiration.]]> 4.67 Beginning to End the Climate Crisis: A History of Our Future
author: Luisa Neubauer
name: Steve
average rating: 4.67
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/14
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: climate-nature-anthropocene, non-fiction
review:
Utopian thinking frees us from the disastrous habit of doing things "because they have ... always been done that way" or "because there is no other way...." If the future is to be different, we need utopias.... If we want to bring about the end of the climate crisis, we must learn to close the gap between production and imagining.

We (buy and) read books for all kinds of reasons. In this case, I recently heard the author speak and briefly had the opportunity to meet her. Much as I was impressed by her, I think it's more relevant how inspired I was by her. I ordered the book (on the METRO on the way home), and I'm glad I read it.

One of the great privileges associated with being part of a University community and was the opportunity to attend a program sponsored by our Alliance for a Sustainable Future discussing How to Build (and Sustain) a Movement. The sold-out, standing room only event was centered around the author (well known for, among other things, Fridays for Future both in Germany and internationally ... and, of course, her TED talks ), and followed with a lively and interesting (and substantive diverse) panel.

With all of the (doom and) saddening news associated with climate change, and at this point, being on the wrong (or more, um, senior) end of the cycle of life, it's inspirational to see students packing the room and hear voices from the next generation talking, and caring, and being willing to do what needs to be done (in ways that, alas, my generation and our governments have failed ... and continue to fail ... to do) about climate change.

Among other things, I appreciated that Neubauer emphasized that (not just on the darkest days, but generally) there must be “joy and hope� alongside protest and determination. It's an important and an insightful reminder.

As for the book, (again, keeping in mind it was almost surely targeted to a younger demographic), it's a remarkable product reflecting a remarkable (and laudable) life. And, while the crux of the matter is promoting activism, I was intrigued by the breath of expertise captured in the book. Without displaying inordinate jealously, the author appears to have met and spoken and collaborated with a stunning number of leaders, academics, scientists, and authors who I'm not only familiar with, but respect (and, for a handful, disdain).

Despite having read quite a bit on climate change, I found myself dog-earing pages and passages that resonated, from the obvious, though nonetheless eloquent observation that there can be no infinite growth in a world with finite resources to the eminently reasonable query as to how long we should continue to hope that the invisible hand of the market will get a grip on the climate crisis and conjure up a CO2 price out of the hat that is high enough so that the actual costs of of each ton of CO2 are met ... [or t]hat the market will spit out the one ingenious invention that will save us from climate chaos. OK, I found it reaffirming that the author also recommends Raworth's (powerful) Doughnut Economics and hits the nail on the head by exposing the elephant in the room (sorry for mixing/jumbling metaphors) by reminding readers that: As long as GDP growth is defended with more passion than human happiness or the preservation of livelihoods, ... [the climate crisis] will not come to an end.... [T]he capitalist paradigm of prosperity... has no future on a finite planet."

My hat's off to the author (and her co-author and collaborators), not only for the book, but for her life's work and inspiration.
]]> <![CDATA[Death Note, Vol. 7: Zero (Death Note, #7)]]> 13621 211 Tsugumi Ohba 1421506289 Steve 3 I didn't see that coming!

After volume 6, I was losing interest, but I thought this major plot twist got things back on track.

If I've got the numbering right, I'm not (just) past halfway, so it's all downhill from here (assuming I stick with it).]]> 4.45 2005 Death Note, Vol. 7: Zero (Death Note, #7)
author: Tsugumi Ohba
name: Steve
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: graphic-novels-manga, sci-fi-and-fantasy
review:
OK, I didn't see that coming!

After volume 6, I was losing interest, but I thought this major plot twist got things back on track.

If I've got the numbering right, I'm not (just) past halfway, so it's all downhill from here (assuming I stick with it).
]]> <![CDATA[Dictatorship: It's Easier Than You Think!]]> 60316972
Do you crave the power to shape the world in your image?

Can you tell lies without blinking an eye?

Do you see enemies all around you?

If you answered yes to all of the above, then this is the job for you! And if becoming a dictator sounds intriguing, well, you’ve just stumbled upon the playbook that will guide you step by step towards making your big lie a reality.

Join Gaslit Nation co-hosts Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa, with artist Kasia Babis, on a journey from riches to even more riches. They’ll show you how to consolidate your authority, silence your critics, weaponize your citizens, and even prolong your inevitable downfall!

Dictatorship! It’s easier than you think.]]> 304 Sarah Kendzior 1250781000 Steve 5 Buy it, read it, talk about it, share it.

Even though it's not new, it's incredibly timely (but more on that below).

Despite the difference in size, format, color, and approach, I'd encourage you to shelve or display or recommend this along with Tim Snyder's On Tyranny.

Sure, there's innumerable reasons to not buy, not read, or not like the book. So what? Go ahead and read it.

Yup, it's a graphic novel (OK, a nicely bound, relatively expensive, adult comic book ) ... but, hey, the rebirth of comics and graphic novels began decades ago (in a prior century), the market for compelling (and best selling) non-fiction (and, yes fiction) graphic novels is now well established, and ... frankly, given the density (and, ok, gravity) of the content and the wealth of examples and anecdotes, the format makes it more accessible.

How serious can a comic book be? Deadly serious.

How persuasive can a comic book be? Plenty.

How important can a comic book be? Ask the folks who want to ban books. You'll consistently find graphic novels on (and often at the top of) the most banned book lists....

But I digress.

And, yes, it jumps around ... and, at times, it's superficial, bordering on flip, but ... but ... but ... it's serious research painstakingly organized and packaged for folks who might not read, I dunno, Anne Applebaum's Autocracy, Inc.. Oh, and, if you feel compelled to nerd out, the back-of-the-book bibliography spans something in the neighborhood of 25 pages.

Good and bad news: OK, so the good news is that the book was published in 2023, in that (in retrospect, all so brief and overly optimistic) period between the two Trump administrations, which means it's available now, or, in other words, no one has to wait for it to come out. The bad news is that it was written, apparently, with the expectation that there wouldn't be a second Trump administration. [Quaint note, buried on page 75: "... not all aspiring dictators can hold on to power[,] no matter how hard the try!" It wouldn't surprise me to see Kendzior and her colleagues roll out an updated and supplemented edition.

Disclosing my priors: Kendzior won me over a number of years ago, and this is the fourth book of hers I've read (and I've already pre-ordered her new, forthcoming book). But I'm going to put that in the plus column.

In the meantime, I hope that book stores and librarians are displaying and highlighting the book on the (proverbial, figurative, or actual) table by the door.]]> 4.30 2023 Dictatorship: It's Easier Than You Think!
author: Sarah Kendzior
name: Steve
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: graphic-novels-manga, non-fiction
review:
Buy it, read it, talk about it, share it.

Even though it's not new, it's incredibly timely (but more on that below).

Despite the difference in size, format, color, and approach, I'd encourage you to shelve or display or recommend this along with Tim Snyder's On Tyranny.

Sure, there's innumerable reasons to not buy, not read, or not like the book. So what? Go ahead and read it.

Yup, it's a graphic novel (OK, a nicely bound, relatively expensive, adult comic book ) ... but, hey, the rebirth of comics and graphic novels began decades ago (in a prior century), the market for compelling (and best selling) non-fiction (and, yes fiction) graphic novels is now well established, and ... frankly, given the density (and, ok, gravity) of the content and the wealth of examples and anecdotes, the format makes it more accessible.

How serious can a comic book be? Deadly serious.

How persuasive can a comic book be? Plenty.

How important can a comic book be? Ask the folks who want to ban books. You'll consistently find graphic novels on (and often at the top of) the most banned book lists....

But I digress.

And, yes, it jumps around ... and, at times, it's superficial, bordering on flip, but ... but ... but ... it's serious research painstakingly organized and packaged for folks who might not read, I dunno, Anne Applebaum's Autocracy, Inc.. Oh, and, if you feel compelled to nerd out, the back-of-the-book bibliography spans something in the neighborhood of 25 pages.

Good and bad news: OK, so the good news is that the book was published in 2023, in that (in retrospect, all so brief and overly optimistic) period between the two Trump administrations, which means it's available now, or, in other words, no one has to wait for it to come out. The bad news is that it was written, apparently, with the expectation that there wouldn't be a second Trump administration. [Quaint note, buried on page 75: "... not all aspiring dictators can hold on to power[,] no matter how hard the try!" It wouldn't surprise me to see Kendzior and her colleagues roll out an updated and supplemented edition.

Disclosing my priors: Kendzior won me over a number of years ago, and this is the fourth book of hers I've read (and I've already pre-ordered her new, forthcoming book). But I'm going to put that in the plus column.

In the meantime, I hope that book stores and librarians are displaying and highlighting the book on the (proverbial, figurative, or actual) table by the door.
]]> The Bones Beneath My Skin 211004023 A spine-tingling thriller by New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune, about a 10-year-old girl with an impossible power, her father, and an unlikely stranger, who come together to confront the dangerous forces that want her at all costs. A strange story of family, love, comets, and bacon. Perfect for fans of Stranger Things.

In the spring of 1995, Nate Cartwright has lost everything: his parents are dead, his older brother wants nothing to do with him, and he's been fired from his job as a journalist in Washington DC. With nothing left to lose, he returns to his family's summer cabin outside the small mountain town of Roseland, Oregon to try and find some sense of direction. The cabin should be empty. It's not. Inside is a man named Alex. And with him is an extraordinary little girl who calls herself Artemis Darth Vader. Artemis, who isn't exactly as she appears.

Soon it becomes clear that Nate must make a choice: let himself drown in the memories of his past, or fight for a future he never thought possible. Because the girl is special. And forces are descending upon them who want nothing more than to control her.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 416 T.J. Klune 1250890438 Steve 0 to-read 4.13 2018 The Bones Beneath My Skin
author: T.J. Klune
name: Steve
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Small Things Like These 58662236
Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.]]> 128 Claire Keegan 0802158749 Steve 5 favorites Oh my, that slender little volume packed a powerful punch.

I'm incredibly pleased that I recently picked up So Late in the Day, which was a staff pick in a Manhattan indie bookstore that I've enjoyed visiting. That experience prompted me to pick up a couple more of Keegan's pieces, and I reached for this one first. Having been particularly taken by this effort, I expect it won't be long until I pick up Foster.

It's an exquisite novella. I'm not in the least surprised that it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Context matters: I concede that the historical aspect of this piece of historical fiction, introducing me to the Ireland's Magdalen laundries was jarring. But, alas, having lived this long, traveled extensively, and read broadly, it's difficult to be surprised (despite being saddened) by the breadth, depth, diversity, and pervasiveness of depressing human behavior. But I'm glad I read it, and I applaud Keegan for using her eloquent prose and compelling storytelling to introduce me to that chapter in Ireland's past.

If any longtime Keegan readers, fans, or experts have recommendations of what should come after Foster, don't hesitate to let me know.]]> 4.14 2021 Small Things Like These
author: Claire Keegan
name: Steve
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/16
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: favorites
review:
Oh my, that slender little volume packed a powerful punch.

I'm incredibly pleased that I recently picked up So Late in the Day, which was a staff pick in a Manhattan indie bookstore that I've enjoyed visiting. That experience prompted me to pick up a couple more of Keegan's pieces, and I reached for this one first. Having been particularly taken by this effort, I expect it won't be long until I pick up Foster.

It's an exquisite novella. I'm not in the least surprised that it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Context matters: I concede that the historical aspect of this piece of historical fiction, introducing me to the Ireland's Magdalen laundries was jarring. But, alas, having lived this long, traveled extensively, and read broadly, it's difficult to be surprised (despite being saddened) by the breadth, depth, diversity, and pervasiveness of depressing human behavior. But I'm glad I read it, and I applaud Keegan for using her eloquent prose and compelling storytelling to introduce me to that chapter in Ireland's past.

If any longtime Keegan readers, fans, or experts have recommendations of what should come after Foster, don't hesitate to let me know.
]]> Kingdom Come 41091633 Set in the not so distant future, Batman is retired, Superman is in a self-imposed exile and the rest of the Justice League nowhere to be found, it seems that all hope is lost. The DC Universe is spinning inexorably out of control. The new generation of heroes has lost their moral compass, becoming just as reckless and violent as the villains they fight. But not for long.

Mark Waid and Alex Ross's generational masterwork is now released as a part of DC's prestigious new imprint of standalone graphic novels, DC Black Label.

After a cataclysmic event costs the lives of millions, the Justice League--led by a rejuvenated Superman--returns to bring balance back to the world. However, the new guard will not go down quietly. A battle is coming between the uncompromising protectors and a untamed group of young powerhouses--one that will define what heroism truly is.

Winner of five Eisner and Harvey Awards, Kingdom Come is the best-selling graphic novel form acclaimed writer Mark Waid and superstar painter Alex Ross.

DC Black Label, a new publishing imprint from DC Entertainment, gives premier talent the opportunity to expand upon the canon of DC's iconic Super Hero comic book characters with unique, standalone stories that are outside of the current DC Universe continuity. An all-star lineup of creative teams will craft their own personal definitive DC stories in the tradition of compelling literary works like Batman: The Killing Joke, All-Star Superman and DC: The New Frontier.]]> 392 Mark Waid 1401290965 Steve 5
The first time I read it, it felt like a somewhat jarring counter-culture transition - from Marvel to DC - having read (and really enjoyed) Marvels just a few years before. Between the two Ross efforts, it felt like Ross had dramatically changed the game, almost reinvented (and upgraded) the genre. To this day, I consider the two (short) runs a couple of the most significant parts of the pre-Millennial rebirth of the (adult) comic book industry and, of course, the graphic novel format.

But while Marvels was a fun (and, at the time, refreshing) twist on origin stories, this felt like something very different. Yes, it was every bit as visually stunning, but it was not just a good, but very much a memorable, story. At some level ... at around the same time ... I was more enamored with Ross's (spectacular, large format) Superman: Peace on Earth, but this was, bigger, or larger in scope, or grand, in the truest sense of the word.

In any event, one of the reasons I've returned to the book/run so many times is how seared in my mind a few of the moments, frames, images remain: when Diana first shuts downs the "farm" hologram in the Fortress of Solitude (with a "Thwap"), when Superman "reappears" dangling N-I-L-8(?) & Joker's Daughter, and, of course, Magog's unexpected "Just make the ghosts go away." Great, epic, iconic stuff.

Part of me is curious what current, first-time readers make of it. In any event, I'm glad I returned to it.

Side note: I don't know when, in the long-running reprinting and repackaging of the run, the Epilogue first appeared, and, like many, I have mixed feelings about it.]]> 4.26 1996 Kingdom Come
author: Mark Waid
name: Steve
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: graphic-novels-manga, sci-fi-and-fantasy
review:
I read this, the first time, in a prior century (LoL), and the first version I purchased was the four individual issues (which I kept boarded and bagged and sold a number of years ago). I read it a few more times over the years (for example, when my eldest was reading through the canon), but I hadn't sat down to read the whole thing for years.

The first time I read it, it felt like a somewhat jarring counter-culture transition - from Marvel to DC - having read (and really enjoyed) Marvels just a few years before. Between the two Ross efforts, it felt like Ross had dramatically changed the game, almost reinvented (and upgraded) the genre. To this day, I consider the two (short) runs a couple of the most significant parts of the pre-Millennial rebirth of the (adult) comic book industry and, of course, the graphic novel format.

But while Marvels was a fun (and, at the time, refreshing) twist on origin stories, this felt like something very different. Yes, it was every bit as visually stunning, but it was not just a good, but very much a memorable, story. At some level ... at around the same time ... I was more enamored with Ross's (spectacular, large format) Superman: Peace on Earth, but this was, bigger, or larger in scope, or grand, in the truest sense of the word.

In any event, one of the reasons I've returned to the book/run so many times is how seared in my mind a few of the moments, frames, images remain: when Diana first shuts downs the "farm" hologram in the Fortress of Solitude (with a "Thwap"), when Superman "reappears" dangling N-I-L-8(?) & Joker's Daughter, and, of course, Magog's unexpected "Just make the ghosts go away." Great, epic, iconic stuff.

Part of me is curious what current, first-time readers make of it. In any event, I'm glad I returned to it.

Side note: I don't know when, in the long-running reprinting and repackaging of the run, the Epilogue first appeared, and, like many, I have mixed feelings about it.
]]> If We Were Villains 30319086
As one of seven young actors studying Shakespeare at an elite arts college, Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingenue, extra. But when the casting changes, and the secondary characters usurp the stars, the plays spill dangerously over into life, and one of them is found dead. The rest face their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, and themselves, that they are blameless.]]> 354 M.L. Rio 125009528X Steve 5 What rock was I under when this came out?

How can it be that this never popped up on my to-read list? OK, OK, maybe it did ... but, if so, why did I (or why would I have) ignore(d) it? And, for that matter, how did it recently end up on my to-read list?

Regardless, I'm ecstatic I finally got around to it. The hook sunk in early for me, and, while I probably enjoyed the first half more than the second, I thought the momentum (and tension) held throughout. I was (quite) disinclined to put it down. And, in the end, much as I feared I'd be disappointed with the final act(s), I thought the author wrapped it up about as nicely as was possible.

OK, sure, not for the feint of heart (but, then again, that's true for plenty of Shakespeare, right?). But, nonetheless, immensely gratifying.

Perspective is everything, but: sure, I was susceptible to this at so many levels. Yes, we have season tickets to the Shakespeare Theater here in town (and I've seen plenty of works in NYC, London (and, ah, Stratford-upon-Avon ... and, yes, it's worth a visit), DC, Houston, and beyond); and, yes, both my (now adult) kids attended the Shakespeare Theater's Summer Camp (and one returned for years), and, OK, one of my kids ultimately attended (and became fully immersed in) a not-that-terribly dissimilar arts-focused school, and, maybe I've read more than a fair share of crime-oriented fiction, but ... other than that [LoL] the book struck all the right chords for me.]]> 4.11 2017 If We Were Villains
author: M.L. Rio
name: Steve
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves:
review:
What rock was I under when this came out?

How can it be that this never popped up on my to-read list? OK, OK, maybe it did ... but, if so, why did I (or why would I have) ignore(d) it? And, for that matter, how did it recently end up on my to-read list?

Regardless, I'm ecstatic I finally got around to it. The hook sunk in early for me, and, while I probably enjoyed the first half more than the second, I thought the momentum (and tension) held throughout. I was (quite) disinclined to put it down. And, in the end, much as I feared I'd be disappointed with the final act(s), I thought the author wrapped it up about as nicely as was possible.

OK, sure, not for the feint of heart (but, then again, that's true for plenty of Shakespeare, right?). But, nonetheless, immensely gratifying.

Perspective is everything, but: sure, I was susceptible to this at so many levels. Yes, we have season tickets to the Shakespeare Theater here in town (and I've seen plenty of works in NYC, London (and, ah, Stratford-upon-Avon ... and, yes, it's worth a visit), DC, Houston, and beyond); and, yes, both my (now adult) kids attended the Shakespeare Theater's Summer Camp (and one returned for years), and, OK, one of my kids ultimately attended (and became fully immersed in) a not-that-terribly dissimilar arts-focused school, and, maybe I've read more than a fair share of crime-oriented fiction, but ... other than that [LoL] the book struck all the right chords for me.
]]> <![CDATA[What You Are Looking For Is in the Library]]> 91274427 For fans of The Midnight Library and Before the Coffee Gets Cold, this charming Japanese novel shows how the perfect book recommendation can change a reader's life.

What are you looking for?

This is the famous question routinely asked by Tokyo’s most enigmatic librarian, Sayuri Komachi. Like most librarians, Komachi has read every book lining her shelves—but she also has the unique ability to read the souls of her library guests. For anyone who walks through her door, Komachi can sense exactly what they’re looking for in life and provide just the book recommendation they never knew they needed to help them find it.

Each visitor comes to her library from a different juncture in their careers and dreams, from the restless sales attendant who feels stuck at her job to the struggling working mother who longs to be a magazineĚýeditor. The conversation that they have with Sayuri Komachi—and the surprise book she lends each of them—will have life-altering consequences.

With heartwarming charm and wisdom, What You Are Looking For Is in the Library is a paean to the magic of libraries, friendship and community, perfect for anyone who has ever found themselves at an impasse in their life and in need of a little inspiration.]]> 304 Michiko Aoyama 1335005625 Steve 0 to-read 4.07 2020 What You Are Looking For Is in the Library
author: Michiko Aoyama
name: Steve
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> I Who Have Never Known Men 60811826 Deep underground, forty women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only a vague recollection of their lives before.


As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl—the fortieth prisoner—sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground.


Jacqueline Harpman was born in Etterbeek, Belgium, in 1929, and fled to Casablanca with her family during WWII. Informed by her background as a psychoanalyst and her youth in exile, I Who Have Never Known Men is a haunting, heartbreaking post-apocalyptic novel of female friendship and intimacy, and the lengths people will go to maintain their humanity in the face of devastation. Back in print for the first time since 1997, Harpman’s modern classic is an important addition to the growing canon of feminist speculative literature.]]> 184 Jacqueline Harpman 1945492600 Steve 0 to-read 4.12 1995 I Who Have Never Known Men
author: Jacqueline Harpman
name: Steve
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Age of Innocence 16283011
Newland Archer, an eligible young man of the establishment is about to announce his engagement to May Welland, a pretty ingénue, when May's cousin, Countess Olenska, is introduced into their circle. The Countess brings with her an aura of European sophistication and a hint of scandal, having left her husband and claimed her independence.

Her sorrowful eyes, her tragic worldliness and her air of unapproachability attract the sensitive Newland and, almost against their will, a passionate bond develops between them. But Archer's life has no place for passion and, with society on the side of May and all she stands for, he finds himself drawn into a bitter conflict between love and duty.]]> 332 Edith Wharton Steve 4 pulitzer-prize
It was a pleasant surprise. Very much a period piece, but strangely compelling and well executed. It's not hard to see why it was awarded/recognized at the time or why it's stood the test of time.

I can't say it's what I expected (but that's neither here nor there), and - if it were an option - I'd rate the opening scene/gambit and the (much longer) dénouement/conclusion both 10/10. From time to time, I thought things slowed in between, but, in the end, the whole was very much worth it.]]> 4.10 1920 The Age of Innocence
author: Edith Wharton
name: Steve
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1920
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: pulitzer-prize
review:
Hadn't read this before, not sure why, but now we've got tickets to see the show (on stage) in a few weeks, so I figured now was as good a time as any.

It was a pleasant surprise. Very much a period piece, but strangely compelling and well executed. It's not hard to see why it was awarded/recognized at the time or why it's stood the test of time.

I can't say it's what I expected (but that's neither here nor there), and - if it were an option - I'd rate the opening scene/gambit and the (much longer) dénouement/conclusion both 10/10. From time to time, I thought things slowed in between, but, in the end, the whole was very much worth it.
]]> A Horse at Night: On Writing 60065627 A Room of One’s Own and William H. Gass’s On Being Blue.

“Without planning it, I wrote a diary of sorts. Lightly. A diary of fiction. Or is that not what this is?�

A series of essayistic inquiries come together to form a sustained meditation on writers and their works, on the spaces of reading and writing fiction, and how these spaces take shape inside a life. Driven by primary questions of authenticity and freedom in the shadow of ecological and social collapse, A Horse at Night: On Writing moves associatively through a personal canon of authors—including Marguerite Duras, Elena Ferrante, Renee Gladman, and Virginia Woolf—and topics as timely and various as female friendships, zazen meditation, neighborhood coyotes, landscape painting, book titles, and the politics of excess. Amina Cain’s first nonfiction book is an individual reckoning with the contemporary moment and a quietly brilliant contribution to the lineage of Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own or William H. Gass’s On Being Blue, books that are virtuosic arguments for—and beautiful demonstrations of—the essential unity of writing and life.]]> 136 Amina Cain 1948980134 Steve 0 to-read 4.04 2022 A Horse at Night: On Writing
author: Amina Cain
name: Steve
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Mountain in the Sea 59808603 Humankind discovers intelligent life in an octopus species with its own language and culture, and sets off a high-stakes global competition to dominate the future.

Rumors begin to spread of a species of hyperintelligent, dangerous octopus that may have developed its own language and culture. Marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen, who has spent her life researching cephalopod intelligence, will do anything for the chance to study them.

The transnational tech corporation DIANIMA has sealed the remote Con Dao Archipelago, where the octopuses were discovered, off from the world. Dr. Nguyen joins DIANIMA’s team on the islands: a battle-scarred security agent and the world’s first android.

The octopuses hold the key to unprecedented breakthroughs in extrahuman intelligence. The stakes are high: there are vast fortunes to be made by whoever can take advantage of the octopuses� advancements, and as Dr. Nguyen struggles to communicate with the newly discovered species, forces larger than DIANIMA close in to seize the octopuses for themselves.

But no one has yet asked the octopuses what they think. And what they might do about it.

A near-future thriller about the nature of consciousness, Ray Nayler’s The Mountain in the Sea is a dazzling literary debut and a mind-blowing dive into the treasure and wreckage of humankind’s legacy.]]> 456 Ray Nayler 0374605955 Steve 0 to-read 3.87 2022 The Mountain in the Sea
author: Ray Nayler
name: Steve
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984]]> 23168840 The Arab of the Future, the #1 French best-seller, tells the unforgettable story of Riad Sattouf's childhood, spent in the shadows of 3 dictators—Muammar Gaddafi, Hafez al-Assad, and his father

In striking, virtuoso graphic style that captures both the immediacy of childhood and the fervor of political idealism, Riad Sattouf recounts his nomadic childhood growing up in rural France, Gaddafi's Libya, and Assad's Syria--but always under the roof of his father, a Syrian Pan-Arabist who drags his family along in his pursuit of grandiose dreams for the Arab nation.

Riad, delicate and wide-eyed, follows in the trail of his mismatched parents; his mother, a bookish French student, is as modest as his father is flamboyant. Venturing first to the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab State and then joining the family tribe in Homs, Syria, they hold fast to the vision of the paradise that always lies just around the corner. And hold they do, though food is scarce, children kill dogs for sport, and with locks banned, the Sattoufs come home one day to discover another family occupying their apartment. The ultimate outsider, Riad, with his flowing blond hair, is called the ultimate insult� Jewish. And in no time at all, his father has come up with yet another grand plan, moving from building a new people to building his own great palace.

Brimming with life and dark humor, The Arab of the Future reveals the truth and texture of one eccentric family in an absurd Middle East, and also introduces a master cartoonist in a work destined to stand alongside Maus and Persepolis.]]> 156 Riad Sattouf 1627793445 Steve 4 something!

Talk about vacillating between horrifying and hysterical, I don't even know where to start. But there were multiple sections where I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe, let alone keep reading....

I'll definitely be moving on to the next installment.]]> 4.09 2014 The Arab of the Future: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984
author: Riad Sattouf
name: Steve
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: graphic-novels-manga, non-fiction
review:
Oh, my! That was, um, something!

Talk about vacillating between horrifying and hysterical, I don't even know where to start. But there were multiple sections where I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe, let alone keep reading....

I'll definitely be moving on to the next installment.
]]> The Best We Could Do 29936927 The Best We Could Do, the debut graphic novel memoir by Thi Bui, is an intimate look at one family's journey from their war-torn home in Vietnam to their new lives in America. Exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and her family, Bui documents the story of her family's daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves. At the heart of Bui's story is a universal struggle: While adjusting to life as a first-time mother, she ultimately discovers what it means to be a parent � the endless sacrifices, the unnoticed gestures, and the depths of unspoken love. Despite how impossible it seems to take on the simultaneous roles of both parent and child, Bui pushes through.

With haunting, poetic writing and breathtaking art, she examines the strength of family, the importance of identity, and the meaning of home. The Best We Could Do brings to life her journey of understanding and provides inspiration to all who search for a better future while longing for a simpler past.]]> 329 Thi Bui 1419718770 Steve 5 Outstanding! Extremely well done, worthwhile, thought-provoking, evocative, and satisfying.... and, in its own way, as beautiful as it was saddening (and terrifying).

For me, it was just another example (or should I say reminder) of the power of graphic novels or serial art as an alternative format for serious storytelling.

The parallels with George Takei's They Called Us Enemy, which I also found terrific, make sense to me, particularly given that both are excellent graphic novels. But this is quite different, and both are exceptional in their own way. Over the years, in addition to the more common (or should I say conventional) genres - super heroes, sci-fi and fantasy, and comedy - I've enjoyed an ever-increasing number of non-fiction, serious (and, typically, deadly serious) graphic novels. And, yes, if you've avoided the format, for whatever reason, this is a great offering to test drive or gauge your willingness to broaden your horizons.

While I've enjoyed my travels (and brief opportunity to work) in Vietnam, and I've been aware of (and reading about) Vietnam for most of my life, ... and, yes, I'm a sucker for spicy bowl of Pho ... my gut says this book would resonate well with readers for whom the history and context are new. That seems consistent with my perception that this has been rather widely read (OK, I'm not sure how I missed it when it came out), and broadly reprinted, which makes sense to me.

Unexpected nuggets: OK, I could have lived without the gratuitous lawyer joke buried in the author's biography on the books dustcover (alas), but I was fascinated to read, in the Preface, how long (just under 15 years) the author thought about, collected information for, embraced and learned new skills for, and worked on this project. I'm glad she stuck with it!
]]> 4.35 2017 The Best We Could Do
author: Thi Bui
name: Steve
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: graphic-novels-manga, non-fiction
review:
Outstanding! Extremely well done, worthwhile, thought-provoking, evocative, and satisfying.... and, in its own way, as beautiful as it was saddening (and terrifying).

For me, it was just another example (or should I say reminder) of the power of graphic novels or serial art as an alternative format for serious storytelling.

The parallels with George Takei's They Called Us Enemy, which I also found terrific, make sense to me, particularly given that both are excellent graphic novels. But this is quite different, and both are exceptional in their own way. Over the years, in addition to the more common (or should I say conventional) genres - super heroes, sci-fi and fantasy, and comedy - I've enjoyed an ever-increasing number of non-fiction, serious (and, typically, deadly serious) graphic novels. And, yes, if you've avoided the format, for whatever reason, this is a great offering to test drive or gauge your willingness to broaden your horizons.

While I've enjoyed my travels (and brief opportunity to work) in Vietnam, and I've been aware of (and reading about) Vietnam for most of my life, ... and, yes, I'm a sucker for spicy bowl of Pho ... my gut says this book would resonate well with readers for whom the history and context are new. That seems consistent with my perception that this has been rather widely read (OK, I'm not sure how I missed it when it came out), and broadly reprinted, which makes sense to me.

Unexpected nuggets: OK, I could have lived without the gratuitous lawyer joke buried in the author's biography on the books dustcover (alas), but I was fascinated to read, in the Preface, how long (just under 15 years) the author thought about, collected information for, embraced and learned new skills for, and worked on this project. I'm glad she stuck with it!

]]> <![CDATA[The Autobiography of General Ulysses S. Grant: Memoirs of the Civil War]]> 6051766 433 Ulysses S. Grant 193494114X Steve 3 non-fiction, military 4.28 1885 The Autobiography of General Ulysses S. Grant: Memoirs of the Civil War
author: Ulysses S. Grant
name: Steve
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1885
rating: 3
read at: 2009/09/04
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: non-fiction, military
review:
Solid autobiography, all the more interesting because of how (and when and why) he came to write it - a nifty Mark Twain anecdote. A unique perspective on the Civil War, leadership in the Army at a VERY different time, and life in a very different country.
]]> Clete (Dave Robicheaux, #24) 197525334
Clete Purcel—private investigator, former New Orleans cop, and war veteran with a hard shell covering a few soft spots—is Dave Robicheaux’s longtime friend and detective partner. But he has a troubled past. When Clete picks up his Caddy from a local car wash, only to find it ransacked by a group of thugs tied to the drug trade, it feels personal—his grandniece died of a fentanyl overdose—and his fists curl when he thinks of the dealers who sold it.

As Clete traces the connections in this far-reaching criminal enterprise, Clara Bow, a woman with a dark past, hires Clete to investigate her scheming, slippery ex-husband, and a string of brutal deaths link back to a heavily tattooed man who lurks around every corner. Clete experiences shockingly lifelike hallucinations and questions Clara’s ulterior motives when he and Dave hear rumors of a dangerous substance with potentially catastrophic effects. The thugs who destroyed his car might have been pawns in a scheme far darker than they could’ve imagined.

Gripping and violent yet interlaced with Clete’s humor and fierce drive to protect those he loves, Clete brings a fresh perspective to an iconic series. James Lee Burke proves yet again that he is the “heavyweight champ� and “great American novelist whose work, taken individually or as a whole, is unsurpassed� (Michael Connelly).]]> 336 James Lee Burke 0802163076 Steve 2 sci-fi-and-fantasy
Following on a theme that, that for me, started long ago in In the Electric Mist with the Confederate Dean, this one very much leaned in the direction of the spirits or apparitions playing a (for me, too) prominent, nay, dominant, critical, and defining role.

Sure, I get it, the two alternating/intertwined protagonists, Dave and Clete, bear scars (and not just physical markings) from their experiences in Vietnam, and both suffer from and struggle with vivid nightmares and alcoholism, and, in the truest sense of the word, both are haunted by their demons, but ... but ...

And I find myself asking why I don't enjoy those aspects of these books, given my longstanding and voluminous consumption of science fiction, fantasy, dystopia, speculative fiction, magical realism, and other related or overlapping genres. But it is what it is.

I can't/won't begrudge Burke any of this. Among other things, he's approaching 90, so I'm guessing there are only so many more books left in him, and over a lifetime of reading, there are (very) few authors (and, I'd have to check, but maybe only a couple) whose have written more books that I've read. I'm just glad the last two came out late enough in the cycle that they didn't deter me from getting to his books that, over the years, I've really enjoyed.]]> 3.77 2024 Clete (Dave Robicheaux, #24)
author: James Lee Burke
name: Steve
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: sci-fi-and-fantasy
review:
Well, I guess that any time one reads two dozen books in a single series (and a handful more by the same author), there will be some that resonate more (and less) and some that encourage you to read more and some that beg the question of whether to stick with it. Alas, I fear this one (and, OK, the last couple) have me thinking I've reached the end of the line.

Following on a theme that, that for me, started long ago in In the Electric Mist with the Confederate Dean, this one very much leaned in the direction of the spirits or apparitions playing a (for me, too) prominent, nay, dominant, critical, and defining role.

Sure, I get it, the two alternating/intertwined protagonists, Dave and Clete, bear scars (and not just physical markings) from their experiences in Vietnam, and both suffer from and struggle with vivid nightmares and alcoholism, and, in the truest sense of the word, both are haunted by their demons, but ... but ...

And I find myself asking why I don't enjoy those aspects of these books, given my longstanding and voluminous consumption of science fiction, fantasy, dystopia, speculative fiction, magical realism, and other related or overlapping genres. But it is what it is.

I can't/won't begrudge Burke any of this. Among other things, he's approaching 90, so I'm guessing there are only so many more books left in him, and over a lifetime of reading, there are (very) few authors (and, I'd have to check, but maybe only a couple) whose have written more books that I've read. I'm just glad the last two came out late enough in the cycle that they didn't deter me from getting to his books that, over the years, I've really enjoyed.
]]> <![CDATA[The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby]]> 200740797 Some women won't be painted out of history . . .

Everybody knows that in 1938, runaway heiress artist Juliette Willoughby perished in an accidental studio fire in Paris, alongside her masterpiece Self Portrait As Sphinx.

Fifty years later, two Cambridge art history students are confounded when they stumble across proof that the fire was no accident but something more sinister. What they uncover threatens the very foundation of Juliette’s aristocratic family and revives rumors of the infamous curse that has haunted the Willoughbys for generations.

But what does their discovery mean? And how is it connected to a brutal murder in present-day Dubai?

A tale of love and madness, obsession and revenge, The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby unravels the riddle posed by a Sphinx who refuses to reveal her secrets . . .]]> 336 Ellery Lloyd 0063323001 Steve 0 to-read 4.08 2024 The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby
author: Ellery Lloyd
name: Steve
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Remarkably Bright Creatures 58733693 Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.]]> 368 Shelby Van Pelt 0063204150 Steve 5 sci-fi-and-fantasy
Yeah, yeah, I'm late to the party on this. And, in the spirit of full disclosure, despite how frequently it's been recommended to me, I was genuinely persuaded (no, I persuaded myself) that I wouldn't enjoy or appreciate it ... and I was wrong.

And, OK, I might've stayed up late last night (nah, who am I fooling, I stayed up well into the morning) to finish this ... and I would have finished it much sooner, except that I frequently found myself going back to re-read passages, ... and, from start to finish, I really enjoyed it. And, yes, I might've gotten a bit misty at the end, even though it was pretty clear where it was all going, but I OK with that too.

I'm shelving this with sci-fi and fantasy if only because, duh, the most interesting voice in the book is that of Marcellus, a Giant Pacific Octopus. And, look, I'm not suggesting an octopus can't be smart, but it's not like the book even suggests the medium through which Marcellus reduces his observations and musing into, well, prose and print. But no matter, and don't waste too much time thinking about. Just sit back, turn the pages, and enjoy the ride.

Quibbles and nits: At another time, in another mood, I could easily dissect this book, convince myself I wasn't the target audience, chronicle all of things that it wasn't or, rather clearly, wasn't intended to be, or, among other things, rail at all the things I didn't like about one of the primary characters (and why his redemption felt, um, almost undeserved or unwarranted).... But not all books need (or, more importantly, try) to be all things, and I'm glad I read this. And, as a relatively high-volume consumer of, among other things, sci-fi and fantasy, graphic novels, and serial crime fiction, I long ago learned that the are many more genres in the library than merely literary fiction and nonfiction and, frankly, diversity is the spice of life. This one was something different, and, more importantly, something that I quite enjoyed, and I recommend it without hesitation.]]> 4.35 2022 Remarkably Bright Creatures
author: Shelby Van Pelt
name: Steve
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves: sci-fi-and-fantasy
review:
Right book, right time.

Yeah, yeah, I'm late to the party on this. And, in the spirit of full disclosure, despite how frequently it's been recommended to me, I was genuinely persuaded (no, I persuaded myself) that I wouldn't enjoy or appreciate it ... and I was wrong.

And, OK, I might've stayed up late last night (nah, who am I fooling, I stayed up well into the morning) to finish this ... and I would have finished it much sooner, except that I frequently found myself going back to re-read passages, ... and, from start to finish, I really enjoyed it. And, yes, I might've gotten a bit misty at the end, even though it was pretty clear where it was all going, but I OK with that too.

I'm shelving this with sci-fi and fantasy if only because, duh, the most interesting voice in the book is that of Marcellus, a Giant Pacific Octopus. And, look, I'm not suggesting an octopus can't be smart, but it's not like the book even suggests the medium through which Marcellus reduces his observations and musing into, well, prose and print. But no matter, and don't waste too much time thinking about. Just sit back, turn the pages, and enjoy the ride.

Quibbles and nits: At another time, in another mood, I could easily dissect this book, convince myself I wasn't the target audience, chronicle all of things that it wasn't or, rather clearly, wasn't intended to be, or, among other things, rail at all the things I didn't like about one of the primary characters (and why his redemption felt, um, almost undeserved or unwarranted).... But not all books need (or, more importantly, try) to be all things, and I'm glad I read this. And, as a relatively high-volume consumer of, among other things, sci-fi and fantasy, graphic novels, and serial crime fiction, I long ago learned that the are many more genres in the library than merely literary fiction and nonfiction and, frankly, diversity is the spice of life. This one was something different, and, more importantly, something that I quite enjoyed, and I recommend it without hesitation.
]]> Bad Monkey (Andrew Yancy, #1) 16071701 Carl Hiaasen is back doing what he does best: spinning a wickedly funny, fiercely pointed tale in which the greedy, the corrupt, and the degraders of pristine land in Florida--now, in the Bahamas too--get their comeuppance in mordantly ingenious, diabolically entertaining fashion.

Andrew Yancy--late of the Miami Police, soon-to-be-late of the Key West Police--has a human arm in his freezer. There's a logical (Hiaasenian) explanation for that, but not for how and why it parted from its owner. Yancy thinks the boating-accident/shark-luncheon explanation is full of holes, and if he can prove murder, his commander might relieve him of Health Inspector duties, aka Roach Patrol. But first Yancy will negotiate an ever-surprising course of events--from the Keys to Miami to a Bahamian out island--with a crew of equally ever-surprising characters, including: the twitchy widow of the frozen arm; an avariciously idiotic real estate developer; a voodoo witch whose lovers are blinded-unto-death by her particularly peculiar charms; Yancy's new love, a kinky medical examiner; and the eponymous Bad Monkey, who earns his place among Hiaasen's greatest characters with hilariously wicked aplomb.Ěý]]> 337 Carl Hiaasen 0307272591 Steve 0 to-read 3.68 2013 Bad Monkey (Andrew Yancy, #1)
author: Carl Hiaasen
name: Steve
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Message 210943364
The first of the book’s three intertwining essays is set in Dakar, Senegal. Despite being raised as a strict Afrocentrist, Coates had never set foot on the African continent until now. He roams the “steampunk� city of “old traditions and new machinery,� but everywhere he goes he feels as if he’s in two places at once: a modern city in Senegal and a mythic kingdom in his mind. Finally he travels to the slave castles off the coast and has his own reckoning with the legacy of the Afrocentric dream.

He takes readers along with him to Columbia, South Carolina, where he meets an educator whose job is threatened for teaching one of Coates’s own books. There he discovers a community of mostly white supporters who were transformed by the “racial reckoning� of 2020. But he also explores the backlash to this reckoning and the deeper myths of the community—a capital of the confederacy with statues of segregationists looming over its public squares.

And in Palestine, Coates discovers the devastating gap between the narratives we’ve accepted and the clashing reality of life on the ground. He meets with activists and dissidents, Israelis and Palestinians—the old, who remember their dispossessions on two continents, and the young, who have only known struggle and disillusionment. He travels into Jerusalem, the heart of Zionist mythology, and to the occupied territories, where he sees the reality the myth is meant to hide. It is this hidden story that draws him in and profoundly changes him—and makes the war that would soon come all the more devastating.

Written at a dramatic moment in American and global life, this work from one of the country’s most important writers is about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive nationalist myths that shape our world—and our own souls—and embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.]]> 232 Ta-Nehisi Coates 0593230388 Steve 4 non-fiction
If I were ranking individually, I found the first two parts, Journalism is Not a Luxury and On Pharohs easily 5-star worthy, and the third, Bearing the Flaming Cross either the same or maybe a 4-star. While I very much appreciated the last, and, by far the longest, The Gigantic Dream, I found it as frustrating to read and synthesize and unpack as it sounds like the author found it to write. Still, overall, it was very much a book well worth reading.

Eye of the beholder: one always wonders what others are looking for in or get out of a book, but, at least for me, I thought that the first riff, Journalism is Not a Luxury, would be of particular interest to serious readers and writers, whether they're professionals, aspiring authors, teachers, or merely students of the craft. For me, reading the book was worth it for that part (even before the rest of it proved worthwhile, thought-provoking, interesting, etc.).]]> 4.52 2024 The Message
author: Ta-Nehisi Coates
name: Steve
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves: non-fiction
review:
True to form, I found the book elegantly crafted and thought-provoking even if it was somewhat uneven, which, I guess, is to be expected given what it is.

If I were ranking individually, I found the first two parts, Journalism is Not a Luxury and On Pharohs easily 5-star worthy, and the third, Bearing the Flaming Cross either the same or maybe a 4-star. While I very much appreciated the last, and, by far the longest, The Gigantic Dream, I found it as frustrating to read and synthesize and unpack as it sounds like the author found it to write. Still, overall, it was very much a book well worth reading.

Eye of the beholder: one always wonders what others are looking for in or get out of a book, but, at least for me, I thought that the first riff, Journalism is Not a Luxury, would be of particular interest to serious readers and writers, whether they're professionals, aspiring authors, teachers, or merely students of the craft. For me, reading the book was worth it for that part (even before the rest of it proved worthwhile, thought-provoking, interesting, etc.).
]]> Grace 32498842 A sweeping, Dickensian story of a young girl and her brother on a great journey across nineteenth-century Ireland on the eve of the Great Famine.

Early one October morning, Grace's mother snatches her from sleep and brutally cuts off her hair, declaring, "You are the strong one now." With winter close at hand and Ireland already suffering, Grace is no longer safe at home. And so her mother outfits Grace in men's clothing and casts her out. When her younger brother Colly follows after her, the two set off on a life-changing odyssey in the looming shadow of the Great Famine.

To survive, Grace will become a boy, a bandit, a penitent and finally, a woman. A meditation on love, life and destiny, Grace is an epic coming-of-age novel, and a poetic evocation of the Irish famine as it has never been written.]]> Paul Lynch 1478966343 Steve 0 to-read 3.62 2017 Grace
author: Paul Lynch
name: Steve
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Boys in the Light: An Extraordinary World War II Story of Survival, Faith, and Brotherhood]]> 220687941 An epic story of the triumph of good over evil.

The soldiers of D Company could not believe their eyes as they came face-to-face with the human cost of Hitler’s evil: two teenage boys—survivors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald—who had escaped.

The Boys in the Light follows the parallel journeys of Company D and Eddie Willner, the author’s father, as they are caught up on two sides of World War II.

At sixteen, Eddie Willner was among the millions of European Jews rounded up by Hitler’s Nazis. He was forced into slave labor alongside his father and his best friend, Mike, and spent the next three years of his life surviving the death camps, including Auschwitz. Meanwhile, in the United States, boys only a few years older than Eddie were joining the army and heading toward their own precarious futures. Once farmers, factory workers, and coal miners, they were suddenly untested soldiers, thrust into the brutal conflicts of WWII.

A company of 3rd Armored Division tankers, led by 23-year-old Elmer Hovland, quickly became battle-hardened and weary, constantly questioning whether the war was worth it. They got their answer when two emaciated boys stepped out of the woods with their tattooed arms raised.

The Boys in the Light is a testament to survival against all odds, the strength of the bonds forged during war and the resilience of the human spirit. This extraordinary true story is a must-read for fans of Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown, and Erik Larson’s The Splendid and the Vile.]]> 384 Nina Willner 059347127X Steve 0 to-read 5.00 The Boys in the Light: An Extraordinary World War II Story of Survival, Faith, and Brotherhood
author: Nina Willner
name: Steve
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Manhood for Amateurs 6356399

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author--"an immensely gifted writer and a magical prose stylist" (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times)--offers his first major work of nonfiction, an autobiographical narrative as inventive, beautiful, and powerful as his acclaimed, award-winning fiction.

A shy manifesto, an impractical handbook, the true story of a fabulist, an entire life in parts and pieces, Manhood for Amateurs is the first sustained work of personal writing from Michael Chabon. In these insightful, provocative, slyly interlinked essays, one of our most brilliant and humane writers presents his autobiography and his vision of life in the way so many of us experience our own lives: as a series of reflections, regrets, and reexaminations, each sparked by an encounter, in the present, that holds some legacy of the past.

What does it mean to be a man today? Chabon invokes and interprets and struggles to reinvent for us, with characteristic warmth and lyric wit, the personal and family history that haunts him even as--simply because--it goes on being written every day. As a devoted son, as a passionate husband, and above all as the father of four young Americans, Chabon presents his memories of childhood, of his parents' marriage and divorce, of moments of painful adolescent comedy and giddy encounters with the popular art and literature of his own youth, as a theme played--on different instruments, with a fresh tempo and in a new key--by the mad quartet of which he now finds himself co-conductor.

At once dazzling, hilarious, and moving, Manhood for Amateurs is destined to become a classic.

]]> 306 Michael Chabon 0061490180 Steve 0 to-read 3.72 2009 Manhood for Amateurs
author: Michael Chabon
name: Steve
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Flyboys: A True Story of Courage]]> 202146 The Conquerors, The classic New York Times bestselling story of heroism and sacrifice by the author of Flags of Our Fathers, The Imperial Cruise and The China Mirage This acclaimed bestseller brilliantly illuminates a hidden piece of World War II history as it tells the harrowing true story of nine American airmen shot down in the Pacific. One of them George H.W. Bush was miraculously rescued. What happened to the other eight remained a secret for almost 60 years. After the war the American and Japanese governments conspired to cover up the shocking truth and not even the families of the airmen were informed of what happened to their sons. Their fate remained a mystery until now. FLYBOYS is a tale of courage and daring of war and death of men and hope It will make you proud and it will break your heart]]> 464 James D. Bradley 0316159433 Steve 0 to-read 4.18 2003 Flyboys: A True Story of Courage
author: James D. Bradley
name: Steve
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Lost City of the Incas 54143 First published in the 1950s, this is a classic account of the discovery in 1911 of the lost city of Machu Picchu.

In 1911 Hiram Bingham, a pre-historian with a love of exotic destinations, set out to Peru in search of the legendary city of Vilcabamba, capital city of the last Inca ruler, Manco Inca. With a combination of doggedness and good fortune he stumbled on the perfectly preserved ruins of Machu Picchu perched on a cloud-capped ledge 2000 feet above the torrent of the Urubamba River. The buildings were of white granite, exquisitely carved blocks each higher than a man. Bingham had not, as it turned out, found Vilcabamba, but he had nevertheless made an astonishing and memorable discovery, which he describes in his bestselling book LOST CITY OF THE INCAS.]]> 224 Hiram Bingham Steve 0 non-fiction, to-read 3.50 1948 Lost City of the Incas
author: Hiram Bingham
name: Steve
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1948
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: non-fiction, to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets]]> 30200112
Bringing together dozens of voices in her distinctive documentary style, Secondhand Time is a monument to the collapse of the USSR, charting the decline of Soviet culture and speculating on what will rise from the ashes of Communism.

As in all her books, Alexievich gives voice to women and men whose stories are lost in the official narratives of nation-states, creating a powerful alternative history from the personal and private stories of individuals.]]> 496 Svetlana Alexievich 1922253995 Steve 0 to-read 4.44 2013 Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets
author: Svetlana Alexievich
name: Steve
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Death Note, Vol. 6: Give-and-Take (Death Note, #6)]]> 13620 215 Tsugumi Ohba 1421506270 Steve 3
I found this one more entertaining that the prior installment, and, even if I didn't expect the change of pace, including car chase scenes, it was, for the most part, refreshing.

I'm relatively confident that I'm missing something, some critical nuance, some subtle emotional cue, but I don't know what it is. I know, I know, it's only manga, or, by analogy, it's just a comic book (or graphic novel), but ... but ... in some of the earlier installments, I assumed that it's not about the characters, neither the protagonists nor the antagonists, it's all about the moral dilemma, the the philosophical or ethical or, whatever, .... but I find that comes and goes, and, more often than not, is underdeveloped (or, in a more charitable sense, is left to the reader's imagination).

As I indicated in prior reviews, I'm in for the long haul: after the first couple, I bought the run as a boxed set, so I plan to keep reading. At the same time, I don't see myself sitting down and reading multiple installments back-to-back, but, of course, that could change at any time.]]> 4.40 2005 Death Note, Vol. 6: Give-and-Take (Death Note, #6)
author: Tsugumi Ohba
name: Steve
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/11
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: graphic-novels-manga, sci-fi-and-fantasy
review:
Nah, even though I'm about halfway through at this point, I really have no idea where this is going.

I found this one more entertaining that the prior installment, and, even if I didn't expect the change of pace, including car chase scenes, it was, for the most part, refreshing.

I'm relatively confident that I'm missing something, some critical nuance, some subtle emotional cue, but I don't know what it is. I know, I know, it's only manga, or, by analogy, it's just a comic book (or graphic novel), but ... but ... in some of the earlier installments, I assumed that it's not about the characters, neither the protagonists nor the antagonists, it's all about the moral dilemma, the the philosophical or ethical or, whatever, .... but I find that comes and goes, and, more often than not, is underdeveloped (or, in a more charitable sense, is left to the reader's imagination).

As I indicated in prior reviews, I'm in for the long haul: after the first couple, I bought the run as a boxed set, so I plan to keep reading. At the same time, I don't see myself sitting down and reading multiple installments back-to-back, but, of course, that could change at any time.
]]> The Dispossessed 35216583 An Alternative Cover Edition for this isbn can be found here

Centuries ago, the moon Anarres was settled by utopian anarchists who left the Earthlike planet Urras in search of a better world, a new beginning. Now a brilliant physicist, Shevek, determines to reunite the two civilizations that have been separated by hatred since long before he was born.

The Dispossessed is a penetrating examination of society and humanity -- and one man's brave undertaking to question the unquestionable and ignite the fires of change.]]> 400 Ursula K. Le Guin 006051275X Steve 4
I've read Le Guin's work, particularly the offerings in the so-called Hainish Cycle (a term of art that Le Guin was not a fan of), described as "elegant political allegories," and that works for me.]]> 4.30 1974 The Dispossessed
author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Steve
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1974
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/09
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: sci-fi-and-fantasy, hugo-award
review:
Well, I'm glad I finally got around to reading this. I can see why it was (and has remained) popular, and, for me, it very much stood the test of time.

I've read Le Guin's work, particularly the offerings in the so-called Hainish Cycle (a term of art that Le Guin was not a fan of), described as "elegant political allegories," and that works for me.
]]> <![CDATA[Kicking & Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul, and Rock and Roll]]> 13623901 Kicking and Dreaming, the Wilsons recount their story as two sisters who have a shared over three decades on the stage, as songwriters, as musicians, and as the leaders of one of our most beloved rock bands. An intimate, honest, and a uniquely female take on the rock and roll life, readers of bestselling music memoirs like Life by Keith Richards and Steven Tyler’s Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? will love this quintessential music story finally told from a female perspective.
]]> 288 Ann Wilson 0062101676 Steve 0 to-read 4.02 2012 Kicking & Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul, and Rock and Roll
author: Ann Wilson
name: Steve
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Chenneville 126826018 Consumed with grief, driven by vengeance, a man undertakes an unrelenting odyssey across the lawless post–Civil War frontier seeking redemption in this fearless novel from the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of News of the World.

Union soldier John Chenneville suffered a traumatic head wound in battle. His recovery took the better part of a year as he struggled to regain his senses and mobility. By the time he returned home, the Civil War was over, but tragedy awaited. John’s beloved sister and her family had been brutally murdered.

Their killer goes by many names. He fought for the North in the late unpleasantness, and wore a badge in the name of the law. But the man John knows as A. J. Dodd is little more than a rabid animal, slaughtering without reason or remorse, needing to be put down.

Traveling through the unforgiving landscape of a shattered nation in the midst of Reconstruction, John braves winter storms and confronts desperate people in pursuit of his quarry. Untethered, single-minded in purpose, he will not be deterred. Not by the U.S. Marshal who threatens to arrest him for murder should he succeed. And not by Victoria Reavis, the telegraphist aiding him in his death-driven quest, yet hoping he’ll choose to embrace a life with her instead.

And as he trails Dodd deep into Texas, John accepts that this final reckoning between them may cost him more than all he’s already lost…]]> 309 Paulette Jiles Steve 5 News of the World, which was very much a bit of a pleasant surprise to me (after having rather fortuitously seen the movie), I may have enjoyed this even more.

It's an elegantly crafted and powerfully evocative book. Once I picked it up, I found it very difficult to put down.

Overall, the languid pacing and vivid descriptions, interspersed with sporadic tension and action, more than made up for the mind-numbing lost and waste and chaos and despair surrounding the end of the Civil War and its aftermath. I expect some will be disappointed with the final plot twists and denouement, but that's their problem, not mine. At the same time, I'm somewhere between drained and exhausted from the relentless travel and ... the quest. Oh, and a long, hot, soapy shower sounds great right about now, but I digress.

Not-so-free association: I was more amused than surprised to see Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ tell me that, since I appear to enjoy Jiles' literary historical fictional offerings, I might also like Elizabeth Crook, if only because I found (and read) Crook's stuff first ... but I concede, with a gentle head nod to Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ' algorithm, that I very much agree with what I already knew.]]> 4.40 2023 Chenneville
author: Paulette Jiles
name: Steve
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves:
review:
Only my second Jiles, but I'm relatively confident it won't be my last. As much as I enjoyed News of the World, which was very much a bit of a pleasant surprise to me (after having rather fortuitously seen the movie), I may have enjoyed this even more.

It's an elegantly crafted and powerfully evocative book. Once I picked it up, I found it very difficult to put down.

Overall, the languid pacing and vivid descriptions, interspersed with sporadic tension and action, more than made up for the mind-numbing lost and waste and chaos and despair surrounding the end of the Civil War and its aftermath. I expect some will be disappointed with the final plot twists and denouement, but that's their problem, not mine. At the same time, I'm somewhere between drained and exhausted from the relentless travel and ... the quest. Oh, and a long, hot, soapy shower sounds great right about now, but I digress.

Not-so-free association: I was more amused than surprised to see Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ tell me that, since I appear to enjoy Jiles' literary historical fictional offerings, I might also like Elizabeth Crook, if only because I found (and read) Crook's stuff first ... but I concede, with a gentle head nod to Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ' algorithm, that I very much agree with what I already knew.
]]> The Ministry of Time 199798179 A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all:

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats� from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

She is tasked with working as a “bridge�: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as �1847� or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,� “Spotify,� and “the collapse of the British Empire.� But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future.]]> 339 Kaliane Bradley 1668045141 Steve 0 to-read 3.54 2024 The Ministry of Time
author: Kaliane Bradley
name: Steve
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Public Burning 156198 544 Robert Coover 0802135277 Steve 0 to-read 4.02 1977 The Public Burning
author: Robert Coover
name: Steve
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1977
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (Neapolitan Novels, #3)]]> 23156040 418 Elena Ferrante Steve 0 to-read 4.38 2013 Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (Neapolitan Novels, #3)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: Steve
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Emperor of Gladness 219848315 Ocean Vuong returns with a big-hearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive

One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to alter Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community at the brink.

Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Vuong’s writing � formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness � are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.]]> 416 Ocean Vuong 059383187X Steve 0 to-read 4.35 2025 The Emperor of Gladness
author: Ocean Vuong
name: Steve
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Atmosphere 220817728 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s Space Shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s Space Shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easy-going even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warm-hearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.

Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, with complex protagonists, telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love, this time among the stars.]]> 352 Taylor Jenkins Reid 0593158717 Steve 0 to-read 4.44 2025 Atmosphere
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Steve
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Book Censor's Library 175678711
The new book censor hasn’t slept soundly in weeks. By day he combs through manuscripts at a government office, looking for anything that would make a book unfit to publish―allusions to queerness, unapproved religions, any mention of life before the Revolution. By night the characters of literary classics crowd his dreams, and pilfered novels pile up in the house he shares with his wife and daughter. As the siren song of forbidden reading continues to beckon, he descends into a netherworld of resistance fighters, undercover booksellers, and outlaw librarians trying to save their history and culture.

Reckoning with the global threat to free speech and the bleak future it all but guarantees, Bothayna Al-Essa marries the steely dystopia of Orwell’s 1984 with the madcap absurdity of Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, resulting in a dreadful twist worthy of Kafka. The Book Censor’s Library is a warning call and a love letter to stories and the delicious act of losing oneself in them.]]> 272 Bothayna Al-Essa 1632063344 Steve 5 sci-fi-and-fantasy rabbit hole I just fell into, don't you think?

Oh my, I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I'm glad I found this (although I don't recall how I found it ... I'm guessing because it made the National Book Award short list for translated fiction, although, at this point, we know it didn't win), and even more glad that it caught my eye, that I bought it, and that it found itself at the top of my reading stack. Once I started, I found it quite difficult to put down.

These are strange times (and maybe that's always the case, so perspective is everything), but, even though this was written and published (in 2019?) in Arabic, for an audience half a world away, I found the book incredibly ... and in the same vein, depressingly ... timely. Alas.

And, for that reason, in the spirit of full disclosure, while, as a reader, I could (but I won't, LoL) write paragraphs about why I'm almost certainly over-rating the book, my rating very much reflects the book coming to me at (almost exactly) the right time with the right message and, for that, matter, the right ending.

As more Western (and, particularly, English-speaking) readers consume this, I'll be curious to hear how folks think it aligns or stacks up against Orwell's 1984 or Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Or if it resonates with readers who aren't heavily influenced by (or even familiar with) them....

Random association or, I dunno, in the if you liked this, you also should try category, I'm glad I read this in the same year that I discovered and read (enjoyed, and relentlessly recommended) Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books ... and, for that matter, since The Book Censor's Library involves not only translated fiction about books but also magical creatures (specifically animals), ... but with a less healthy dose of of dystopia, then ... hmm... maybe also there's The Cat Who Saved Books. But, as they say, I digress.]]> 3.94 2024 The Book Censor's Library
author: Bothayna Al-Essa
name: Steve
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: sci-fi-and-fantasy
review:
Well, Alice, that was quite the rabbit hole I just fell into, don't you think?

Oh my, I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I'm glad I found this (although I don't recall how I found it ... I'm guessing because it made the National Book Award short list for translated fiction, although, at this point, we know it didn't win), and even more glad that it caught my eye, that I bought it, and that it found itself at the top of my reading stack. Once I started, I found it quite difficult to put down.

These are strange times (and maybe that's always the case, so perspective is everything), but, even though this was written and published (in 2019?) in Arabic, for an audience half a world away, I found the book incredibly ... and in the same vein, depressingly ... timely. Alas.

And, for that reason, in the spirit of full disclosure, while, as a reader, I could (but I won't, LoL) write paragraphs about why I'm almost certainly over-rating the book, my rating very much reflects the book coming to me at (almost exactly) the right time with the right message and, for that, matter, the right ending.

As more Western (and, particularly, English-speaking) readers consume this, I'll be curious to hear how folks think it aligns or stacks up against Orwell's 1984 or Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Or if it resonates with readers who aren't heavily influenced by (or even familiar with) them....

Random association or, I dunno, in the if you liked this, you also should try category, I'm glad I read this in the same year that I discovered and read (enjoyed, and relentlessly recommended) Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books ... and, for that matter, since The Book Censor's Library involves not only translated fiction about books but also magical creatures (specifically animals), ... but with a less healthy dose of of dystopia, then ... hmm... maybe also there's The Cat Who Saved Books. But, as they say, I digress.
]]> A Nearby Country Called Love 217245644
Amid the alleyways of the Zamzam neighborhood of Tehran, a woman lights herself on fire in a desperate act of defiance, setting off a chain reaction of violence and protest. Haunted by the woman’s death, Issa is forced to confront the contradictions within his own family as his brotherĚýHashem, a prominent queer artist in Tehran’s underground, defies theirĚýfather, a skilled martial artist bound to traditional notions of honor and masculinity.Ěý

Issa soon finds himself thrown into a circle of people living on the margins of a society at the brink of combusting, negotiating a razor-like code of conduct that rewards loyalty and encourages aggression and intolerance in equal measure. As the city explodes around him, Issa realizes that it is the little acts of kindness that matter most, the everyday humanity of individuals finding love and doing right by one another.Ěý

Vibrant and evocative, intimate and intelligent, A Nearby Country Called Love is both a captivating window into contemporary Iran and aĚýportrait of the parallel fates of a man and his country—a man who acknowledges the sullen and rumbling baggage of history but then chooses to step past its violent inheritance.]]> 256 Salar Abdoh 0593653920 Steve 4 Out of Mesopotamia, which I enjoyed (despite the relentless disorientation), I'm glad that, before delving into the Noir offerings, I bought and read this.

If we read fiction to be exposed to worlds beyond our imagination, then, well, everything about this book fit that mold. And yet, it was as entertaining as it was thought provoking as it was, from start to finish, compelling.

I won't even begin to summarize or riff on content because, for me, picking it up cold enhanced the experience.

Frankly, I have no idea who the target audience is for this, nor am I familiar with the author's readership's typical demographics (but, again, I'm guessing I'm not at the center of the Venn diagram). But ... and maybe it's not but or despite ... but maybe it's because everything about the novel was so foreign to me, I was all the more impressed by how well it worked for me.

Ultimately, I recommend it, and I'm confident I'll be looking for more of Abdoh's work in the future.]]> 4.00 2023 A Nearby Country Called Love
author: Salar Abdoh
name: Steve
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/26
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves:
review:
I only recently became aware of the the author, and although I started with Out of Mesopotamia, which I enjoyed (despite the relentless disorientation), I'm glad that, before delving into the Noir offerings, I bought and read this.

If we read fiction to be exposed to worlds beyond our imagination, then, well, everything about this book fit that mold. And yet, it was as entertaining as it was thought provoking as it was, from start to finish, compelling.

I won't even begin to summarize or riff on content because, for me, picking it up cold enhanced the experience.

Frankly, I have no idea who the target audience is for this, nor am I familiar with the author's readership's typical demographics (but, again, I'm guessing I'm not at the center of the Venn diagram). But ... and maybe it's not but or despite ... but maybe it's because everything about the novel was so foreign to me, I was all the more impressed by how well it worked for me.

Ultimately, I recommend it, and I'm confident I'll be looking for more of Abdoh's work in the future.
]]> Trust 57609358 Following the international success of Ties and the National Book Award-shortlisted Trick, Domenico Starnone gives readers another searing portrait of human relationships and human folly.

Pietro and Teresa’s love affair is tempestuous and passionate. After yet another terrible argument, she gets an idea: they should tell each other something they’ve never told another person, something they’re too ashamed to tell anyone. They will hear the other’s confessions without judgment and with love in their hearts. In this way, Teresa thinks, they will remain united forever, more intimately connected than ever.

A few days after sharing their shameful secrets, they break up. Not long after, Pietro meets Nadia, falls in love, and proposes. But the shadow of the secret he confessed to Teresa haunts him, and Teresa herself periodically reappears, standing at the crossroads, it seems, of every major moment in his life. Or is it he who seeks her out?

A master storyteller and a novelist of the highest order, Starnone’s gaze is trained unwaveringly on the fault lines in our publica personas and the complexities of our private selves. Trust asks how much we are willing to bend to show the world our best side, knowing full well that when we are at our most vulnerable we are also at our most dangerous.]]> 171 Domenico Starnone 160945703X Steve 4 ... the Girl from Milan.

It's a strange piece of work, ... at times disorienting, but it very much qualifies as literary fiction well worth reading. And, arguably, particularly because it wasn't a lengthy read, it was worth reading simply for the first (lengthy) paragraph.

I'm not sure what I wanted from the story arc or the primary characters, but ... even if it wasn't what I was looking for, it kept my attention, and very much kept me guessing, and ... there's no other way for me to say it, but it was an impressive piece of work, and I found it nicely, elegantly crafted.

Not unlike ... the Girl from Milan, there's more than a dollop of academia here, and I haven't really figured it all out, but there's not much question that Starnone sees school and study and learning (and, I'm assuming, knowledge) as the way up (and out), particularly for folks not born to money, rank, or privilege.

This won't be my last Starnone. Indeed, I've already bought another, and it's relatively high up in my reading stack. I doubt he'll ever be one of my favorite authors, but, at the same time, if I saw one of his pieces that I hadn't read, my assumption is that, if I picked it up, I wouldn't be disappointed.]]> 3.40 2019 Trust
author: Domenico Starnone
name: Steve
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/24
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves:
review:
Only my second Starnone, but my first translated by Jhumpa Lahiri (whose after-the-book riff on her translation was well worth reading), and I continue to be impressed by the work, even if, as a story, I much preferred ... the Girl from Milan.

It's a strange piece of work, ... at times disorienting, but it very much qualifies as literary fiction well worth reading. And, arguably, particularly because it wasn't a lengthy read, it was worth reading simply for the first (lengthy) paragraph.

I'm not sure what I wanted from the story arc or the primary characters, but ... even if it wasn't what I was looking for, it kept my attention, and very much kept me guessing, and ... there's no other way for me to say it, but it was an impressive piece of work, and I found it nicely, elegantly crafted.

Not unlike ... the Girl from Milan, there's more than a dollop of academia here, and I haven't really figured it all out, but there's not much question that Starnone sees school and study and learning (and, I'm assuming, knowledge) as the way up (and out), particularly for folks not born to money, rank, or privilege.

This won't be my last Starnone. Indeed, I've already bought another, and it's relatively high up in my reading stack. I doubt he'll ever be one of my favorite authors, but, at the same time, if I saw one of his pieces that I hadn't read, my assumption is that, if I picked it up, I wouldn't be disappointed.
]]> <![CDATA[Death Note, Vol. 5: Whiteout (Death Note, #5)]]> 13617 201 Tsugumi Ohba 1421506262 Steve 2
I can't say I loved this installment, nor am I particularly enamored with the last couple of twists, but, at this point, I'm more than a third of the way through and I'm (conceptually) committed to continuing and completing the initial run (and it would be a shame not to, since I already purchased the set), but I'm hoping what comes next reignites or reanimates my interest in the story arc.

For now, a little break is probably in order (and, based on past experience, it's probably my own fault for reading too many of them too quickly).]]> 4.33 2005 Death Note, Vol. 5: Whiteout (Death Note, #5)
author: Tsugumi Ohba
name: Steve
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2005
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: graphic-novels-manga, sci-fi-and-fantasy
review:
Hmmm, not sure what to make of all this....

I can't say I loved this installment, nor am I particularly enamored with the last couple of twists, but, at this point, I'm more than a third of the way through and I'm (conceptually) committed to continuing and completing the initial run (and it would be a shame not to, since I already purchased the set), but I'm hoping what comes next reignites or reanimates my interest in the story arc.

For now, a little break is probably in order (and, based on past experience, it's probably my own fault for reading too many of them too quickly).
]]> Foster 61022861 Foster is a heartbreaking story of childhood, loss, and love; now released as a standalone book for the first time ever in the US

It is a hot summer in rural Ireland. A child is taken by her father to live with relatives on a farm, not knowing when or if she will be brought home again. In the Kinsellas' house, she finds an affection and warmth she has not known and slowly, in their care, begins to blossom. But there is something unspoken in this new household--where everything is so well tended to--and this summer must soon come to an end.

A story of astonishing emotional depth now expanded and newly revised in a standalone edition, Foster showcases Claire Keegan's great talent and cements her reputation as one of our most important and prodigious storytellers.]]> 128 Claire Keegan 080216014X Steve 4
It is what it is, but I was much more taken with Small Things Like These, even if it's an unfair comparison.

But, more broadly, now that I've read a few of Keegan's pieces, I'm confident that I'll continue to look for her work. She's a splendid craftsman, her writing is sparsely exquisite, and (even if she doesn't think much of my gender as a class) her stories seem to always touch a nerve.]]> 4.38 2010 Foster
author: Claire Keegan
name: Steve
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves:
review:
A very nice, evocative novella.

It is what it is, but I was much more taken with Small Things Like These, even if it's an unfair comparison.

But, more broadly, now that I've read a few of Keegan's pieces, I'm confident that I'll continue to look for her work. She's a splendid craftsman, her writing is sparsely exquisite, and (even if she doesn't think much of my gender as a class) her stories seem to always touch a nerve.
]]> <![CDATA[Death Note, Vol. 4: Love (Death Note, #4)]]> 13616 204 Tsugumi Ohba 142150331X Steve 4 that coming...

I'm not fooling myself any longer; I'm along for the ride at this point....

As for volume four, it's more of the same, but, once again, with (for me, unexpected yet) significant plot twists that dramatically altered the storyline's trajectory. It's quite clear to me, at this point, that I have absolutely no idea where this is going ....

At the moment, I'm not regretting my decision to purchase the entire run (or at least the initial 12+1/13 book boxed set) so I can make my way through at my leisure.

Once again, given the title, it's hard to suggest that this is morbid stuff (or that it's too morbid), but ... even at its most creative, it's pretty darn dark (or jaded or cynical or callous or....).

I'm still curious to learn what comes next.]]> 4.42 2004 Death Note, Vol. 4: Love (Death Note, #4)
author: Tsugumi Ohba
name: Steve
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/18
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: graphic-novels-manga, sci-fi-and-fantasy
review:
LoL ... I didn't see that coming...

I'm not fooling myself any longer; I'm along for the ride at this point....

As for volume four, it's more of the same, but, once again, with (for me, unexpected yet) significant plot twists that dramatically altered the storyline's trajectory. It's quite clear to me, at this point, that I have absolutely no idea where this is going ....

At the moment, I'm not regretting my decision to purchase the entire run (or at least the initial 12+1/13 book boxed set) so I can make my way through at my leisure.

Once again, given the title, it's hard to suggest that this is morbid stuff (or that it's too morbid), but ... even at its most creative, it's pretty darn dark (or jaded or cynical or callous or....).

I'm still curious to learn what comes next.
]]> <![CDATA[Death Note, Vol. 3: Hard Run (Death Note, #3)]]> 13618 193 Tsugumi Ohba 1421501708 Steve 3
As for volume three, it's more of the same, but there were not one, not two, but (at a minimum of) three (and, arguably, more) significant plot twists in this volume that dramatically altered the storyline's trajectory, went in (extremely) different directions than I expected, and (at this point) made clear to me that I have absolutely no idea where this is going ... yet.

Having consulted with my elder (now adult) offspring on this, I was persuaded that - having started it - the rest wouldn't disappoint, so I've now purchased/have the entire run (or at least the initial 12+1/13 book boxed set) to make my way through at my leisure. Having rarely (OK, very rarely) made it through an entire manga run without losing steam/interest (with the primary exception being the sublime Fullmetal Alchemist) ... indeed, I've (at least temporarily ... never say never) abandoned three popular series (that I was pretty deep into) in the last year, I'm guardedly optimistic.

Given the title, it's hard to suggest that this is morbid stuff (or that it's too morbid), but ... even at its most creative, it's pretty darn dark (or jaded or cynical or callous or....).

I'm curious to learn what comes next.]]> 4.46 2004 Death Note, Vol. 3: Hard Run (Death Note, #3)
author: Tsugumi Ohba
name: Steve
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2024/12/14
shelves: sci-fi-and-fantasy, graphic-novels-manga
review:
OK, OK, I think I'm along for the ride at this point....

As for volume three, it's more of the same, but there were not one, not two, but (at a minimum of) three (and, arguably, more) significant plot twists in this volume that dramatically altered the storyline's trajectory, went in (extremely) different directions than I expected, and (at this point) made clear to me that I have absolutely no idea where this is going ... yet.

Having consulted with my elder (now adult) offspring on this, I was persuaded that - having started it - the rest wouldn't disappoint, so I've now purchased/have the entire run (or at least the initial 12+1/13 book boxed set) to make my way through at my leisure. Having rarely (OK, very rarely) made it through an entire manga run without losing steam/interest (with the primary exception being the sublime Fullmetal Alchemist) ... indeed, I've (at least temporarily ... never say never) abandoned three popular series (that I was pretty deep into) in the last year, I'm guardedly optimistic.

Given the title, it's hard to suggest that this is morbid stuff (or that it's too morbid), but ... even at its most creative, it's pretty darn dark (or jaded or cynical or callous or....).

I'm curious to learn what comes next.
]]> <![CDATA[For We Are Many (Bobiverse, #2)]]> 34878094
Bob and his copies have been spreading out from Earth for 40 years now, looking for habitable planets. But that's the only part of the plan that's still in one piece. A system-wide war has killed off 99.9 percent of the human race; nuclear winter is slowly making the Earth uninhabitable; a radical group wants to finish the job on the remnants of humanity; the Brazilian space probes are still out there, still trying to blow up the competition; and the Bobs have discovered a spacefaring species that sees all other life as food.

Bob left Earth anticipating a life of exploration and blissful solitude. Instead he's become a sky god to a primitive native species, the only hope for getting humanity to a new home, and possibly the only thing that can prevent every living thing in the local sphere from ending up as dinner.]]> 311 Dennis E. Taylor 1680680595 Steve 0 to-read 4.31 2017 For We Are Many (Bobiverse, #2)
author: Dennis E. Taylor
name: Steve
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Demon Copperhead 60194162 "Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]> 560 Barbara Kingsolver 0063251922 Steve 4 pulitzer-prize
Among other things, I appreciated the fictional take on the Perdue/Oxy nightmare/tragedy that played out (and continues to play out) in Appalachia. Particularly given Kingsolver’s popularity, it’s nice to see the issue find itself prominently placed on the literature shelf. I read Macy’s non-fictional (and, to my mind, important and powerful) Dopesick some time ago, and I strongly recommend it (although I’m hesitant to suggest it’s the definitive work of its genre). And, like watching a dumpster fire or a slow-motion train wreck, I continue to follow the Perdue and Sackler family saga/litigation, and, of course, remain saddened by the carnage left in its wake. (OK, OK, the general outline tracks so many narratives: a parable for climate change, with fossil fuel (and automotive) companies determined to extract every last dollar of profit until the music stops, consequences to everyone (particularly our children and their children) be damned? Student loans? The health care system? The cigarette industry? But I digress. Although, in all fairness, public schooling and the allocation of resources do enjoy plenty of attention in the book.)

On the one hand, I was least interested in the Dickens and David Copperfield angle, but, in the end, I’m not sure how important or relevant it was, other than as an inspiration to the author. Throughout the book, Demon’s voice felt/sounded/came across as authentic, and I appreciated that most of the major players stayed in character.

As I write this, I'm intrigued that I read pretty much all of Kingsolver's early stuff, but have been increasingly slower to reach for her books, even if she's never truly disappointed me. Hmmm...

I fully concede that I’d held off reading the book because I dreaded the combination of the (guaranteed to depress) topics with the book’s heft/length. Particularly with heavy topics, I typically find myself reaching for smaller packages. And, ultimately, yes, overall, it was a rather draining experience. (OK, OK, I thought the ending was about as good as it was going to get, but � the book, the story, the settings, the characters� Well, it’s heavy, and it’s a lot.)]]> 4.46 2022 Demon Copperhead
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Steve
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/23
date added: 2024/12/11
shelves: pulitzer-prize
review:
I put this off for a while, thinking (and maybe even, at some level, knowing) I should read it, and then, for any number of reasons, putting it off again, until finally my (all-knowing) spouse told me I should just read the book. So I did. Definitely worth reading. I’ll be curious to see, over time, how widely it’s consumed.

Among other things, I appreciated the fictional take on the Perdue/Oxy nightmare/tragedy that played out (and continues to play out) in Appalachia. Particularly given Kingsolver’s popularity, it’s nice to see the issue find itself prominently placed on the literature shelf. I read Macy’s non-fictional (and, to my mind, important and powerful) Dopesick some time ago, and I strongly recommend it (although I’m hesitant to suggest it’s the definitive work of its genre). And, like watching a dumpster fire or a slow-motion train wreck, I continue to follow the Perdue and Sackler family saga/litigation, and, of course, remain saddened by the carnage left in its wake. (OK, OK, the general outline tracks so many narratives: a parable for climate change, with fossil fuel (and automotive) companies determined to extract every last dollar of profit until the music stops, consequences to everyone (particularly our children and their children) be damned? Student loans? The health care system? The cigarette industry? But I digress. Although, in all fairness, public schooling and the allocation of resources do enjoy plenty of attention in the book.)

On the one hand, I was least interested in the Dickens and David Copperfield angle, but, in the end, I’m not sure how important or relevant it was, other than as an inspiration to the author. Throughout the book, Demon’s voice felt/sounded/came across as authentic, and I appreciated that most of the major players stayed in character.

As I write this, I'm intrigued that I read pretty much all of Kingsolver's early stuff, but have been increasingly slower to reach for her books, even if she's never truly disappointed me. Hmmm...

I fully concede that I’d held off reading the book because I dreaded the combination of the (guaranteed to depress) topics with the book’s heft/length. Particularly with heavy topics, I typically find myself reaching for smaller packages. And, ultimately, yes, overall, it was a rather draining experience. (OK, OK, I thought the ending was about as good as it was going to get, but � the book, the story, the settings, the characters� Well, it’s heavy, and it’s a lot.)
]]> Out of Mesopotamia 53405264 Informed by firsthand experience on the battlefronts of Iraq and Syria, Abdoh captures the horror, confusion, and absurdity of combat from a seldom-glimpsed perspective that expands our understanding of the war novel.

Saleh, the narrator of Out of Mesopotamia, is a middle-aged Iranian journalist who moonlights as a writer for one of Iran’s most popular TV shows but cannot keep himself away from the front lines in neighboring Iraq and Syria. There, the fight against the Islamic State is a proxy war, an existential battle, a declaration of faith, and, for some, a passing weekend affair.

After weeks spent dodging RPGs, witnessing acts of savagery and stupidity, Saleh returns to civilian life in Tehran but finds it to be an unbearably dislocating experience. Pursued by his official handler from state security, opportunistic colleagues, and the woman who broke his heart, Saleh has reason to again flee from everyday life. Surrounded by men whose willingness to achieve martyrdom both fascinates and appalls him, Saleh struggles to make sense of himself and the turmoil in his midst.

An unprecedented glimpse into “endless war� from a Middle Eastern perspective, Out of Mesopotamia follows in the tradition of the Western canon of martial writers--from Hemingway and Orwell to Tim O’Brien and Philip Caputo--but then subverts and expands upon the genre before completely blowing it apart. Drawing from his firsthand experience of being embedded with Shia militias on the ground in Iraq and Syria, Abdoh gives agency to the voiceless while offering a meditation on war that is moving, humane, darkly funny, and resonantly true.]]> 240 Salar Abdoh 1617758604 Steve 4 military
I came to this by an indirect route, but I'm glad it came to my attention, and my guess is that, next, I'll try Abdoh's most recent book or one of earlier his Noir offerings.

This wasn't a particularly easy or pleasant read, and I concede that my (not just Western, but ... fill in the blanks) perspective ill prepared me for the characters or the narrative, ... and that's OK.

Given how much I've read about (and how many people I know who served in or covered) the various military actions in the region, I wasn't sure what to expect ... so, to the extent that the book felt chaotic and confusing and disorienting ... well that all seemed to make sense.

It's a well crafted piece of literature offering a perspective from a (massive and diverse) population that far too often is simply dismissed as "other."

Shelving conventions: this isn't military history or military historical fiction or ... frankly ... much of anything military in the common use of the word, but I feel like I've placed in on the correct shelf, alongside everything from Redeployment and Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk and Thank You for Your Service and The Good Soldiers or War Dogs to, I dunno, Sunrise Over Fallujah or even Battle Born: Lapis Lazuli or The White Donkey: Terminal Lance.]]> 4.42 2020 Out of Mesopotamia
author: Salar Abdoh
name: Steve
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/10
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves: military
review:
10/10 for creativity and for being unique and different and thought-provoking...

I came to this by an indirect route, but I'm glad it came to my attention, and my guess is that, next, I'll try Abdoh's most recent book or one of earlier his Noir offerings.

This wasn't a particularly easy or pleasant read, and I concede that my (not just Western, but ... fill in the blanks) perspective ill prepared me for the characters or the narrative, ... and that's OK.

Given how much I've read about (and how many people I know who served in or covered) the various military actions in the region, I wasn't sure what to expect ... so, to the extent that the book felt chaotic and confusing and disorienting ... well that all seemed to make sense.

It's a well crafted piece of literature offering a perspective from a (massive and diverse) population that far too often is simply dismissed as "other."

Shelving conventions: this isn't military history or military historical fiction or ... frankly ... much of anything military in the common use of the word, but I feel like I've placed in on the correct shelf, alongside everything from Redeployment and Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk and Thank You for Your Service and The Good Soldiers or War Dogs to, I dunno, Sunrise Over Fallujah or even Battle Born: Lapis Lazuli or The White Donkey: Terminal Lance.
]]> <![CDATA[The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor]]> 31742 El Espectador, a newspaper in Bogota, when in February of that year eight crew members of the Caldas, a Colombian destroyer, were washed overboard and disappeared. Ten days later one of them turned up, barely alive, on a deserted beach in northern Colombia. This book, which originally appeared as a series of newspaper articles, is Garcia Marquez's account of that sailor's ordeal.]]> 117 Gabriel García Márquez 067972205X Steve 2 3.78 1955 The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor
author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: Steve
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1955
rating: 2
read at: 1990/01/01
date added: 2024/12/07
shelves:
review:

]]> Stop-Time 103638 288 Frank Conroy 0140044469 Steve 0 to-read 3.94 1967 Stop-Time
author: Frank Conroy
name: Steve
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1967
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Peach Blossom Spring 58231775 A "beautifully rendered" novel aboutĚýwar, migration, and the power of telling our stories,ĚýPeach Blossom Spring follows three generations of a Chinese familyĚýon their search for a place to call home (Georgia Hunter, New York Times bestselling author).

"Within every misfortune there is a blessing and within every blessing, the seeds of misfortune, and so it goes, until the end of time."

It is 1938 in China and, as a young wife, Meilin’s future is bright. But with the Japanese army approaching, Meilin and her four year old son, Renshu, are forced to flee their home. Relying on little but their wits and a beautifully illustrated hand scroll, filled with ancient fables that offer solace and wisdom, they must travel through a ravaged country, seeking refuge.

Years later, Renshu has settled in America as Henry Dao. Though his daughter is desperate to understand her heritage, he refuses to talk about his childhood. How can he keep his family safe in this new land when the weight of his history threatens to drag them down? Yet how can Lily learn who she is if she can never know her family’s story?

Spanning continents and generations, Peach Blossom Spring is a bold and moving look at the history of modern China, told through the story of one family. It’s about the power of our past, the hope for a better future, and the haunting question: What would it mean to finally be home?]]> 400 Melissa Fu 0316286737 Steve 5
I bought and began reading the book without much in the way of expectations, and I can't say I was fully prepared for the seemingly relentless (and often brutal and unsparing) displacement and loss, but it is what it is. At times, it felt like a sparse yet painstakingly researched and rendered Series of Unfortunate Events, without the comedic-tragedy kids' levity. Ultimately, it was a lot ... of ground covered and lives lived (and lost) ... yet well worth reading.

For all its beauty and pathos and (terrible) splendor, the book won me over with its grand story arc and details more so than with its prose. If anything, as vibrant the colors and the sounds and the smells, it was the characters and their actions (and, of course, inactions) rather than the choice or assembly of the words or sentences, that brought the story to life.

Quirky path to my bookshelf: I completely missed this when it came out, and it only came to my attention during a Rice University alumni author event, featuring another Rice alum, Elizabeth Crook (whose work I strongly recommend). So, a bit fortuitous, at least in my case.]]> 4.16 2022 Peach Blossom Spring
author: Melissa Fu
name: Steve
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/02
date added: 2024/12/02
shelves:
review:
A powerful and well-crafted and deeply evocative piece of historical fiction. I'm glad I found, bought, and read it.

I bought and began reading the book without much in the way of expectations, and I can't say I was fully prepared for the seemingly relentless (and often brutal and unsparing) displacement and loss, but it is what it is. At times, it felt like a sparse yet painstakingly researched and rendered Series of Unfortunate Events, without the comedic-tragedy kids' levity. Ultimately, it was a lot ... of ground covered and lives lived (and lost) ... yet well worth reading.

For all its beauty and pathos and (terrible) splendor, the book won me over with its grand story arc and details more so than with its prose. If anything, as vibrant the colors and the sounds and the smells, it was the characters and their actions (and, of course, inactions) rather than the choice or assembly of the words or sentences, that brought the story to life.

Quirky path to my bookshelf: I completely missed this when it came out, and it only came to my attention during a Rice University alumni author event, featuring another Rice alum, Elizabeth Crook (whose work I strongly recommend). So, a bit fortuitous, at least in my case.
]]> BRZRKR, Volume 3 70056237 The final chapter of the epic immortal saga by Keanu Reeves that’s sold over a million copies!

In the final volume of the record-shattering series, uncover the ancient mysteries of our anti-hero’s origins and his final fate! As B.’s full fury is unleashed, a new discovery promises to bring the answers he’s been seeking for centuries. But as the team travels to finally uncover the mysteries of B.’s birth, is he finally near the end of his fatal goal, or will his violent efforts be in vain? Written by the iconic Keanu Reeves and New York Times bestselling writer Matt Kindt (Folklords, Grass Kings), and illustrated by acclaimed artist Ron Garney (Wolverine, Captain America), the final epically brutal chapter unfolds, soon to be adapted for Netflix!

Collects BRZRKR #9-12.]]> 144 Keanu Reeves 1684157129 Steve 2
Given the premise, and the aspiration to close the loop rather than running an indefinite series, this seemed as good a way to end as any (even if road there, particularly most of the third book, didn't necessarily work for me).

Of the three installments, I enjoyed the first the most.]]> 3.34 2023 BRZRKR, Volume 3
author: Keanu Reeves
name: Steve
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/23
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: graphic-novels-manga, sci-fi-and-fantasy
review:
And ... that's a wrap. To the extent I started it, I'm glad I satisfied my curiosity and finished it. Having said that, three installments was plenty for me; I'm not sure I would've kept going if it was much longer.

Given the premise, and the aspiration to close the loop rather than running an indefinite series, this seemed as good a way to end as any (even if road there, particularly most of the third book, didn't necessarily work for me).

Of the three installments, I enjoyed the first the most.
]]> <![CDATA[The Mortal and Immortal Life of the Girl from Milan]]> 209804853
His grandmother is not articulate, but does not lack imagination, and her love for the boy is immeasurable. She tells him about the entrance to the underworld, engraving indelible images in her nephew’s mind.

An irresistible book, as sharp as the swords of fantasy hidden under the bed, as precious as a family jewel, in which the discovery of love and the discovery of death follow each other, marking the end of childhood.]]> 144 Domenico Starnone 1787705331 Steve 5 New York Times article discussing speculation that he might be Ferrante, author of the Neapolitan Novels because, apparently, she's protected her identity (like, I dunno, Pynchon or Sallinger), and Starnone also peppers his (at least this) work with attention to the differences and tension between Italian and Neapolitan dialect.

Anyway, still hot off the press (in this country), the translated edition was featured at a (nice) indie bookstore in NYC. I'm ecstatic I saw, bought, and read it. It's a splendid piece of work. I expect I'll be looking for more of Starnone's work in the future.

Don't be deceived by the convenient and nicely produced pocket-sized packaging. The content is packed tightly on the pages (which, to my eye, felt unnecessarily dense), and you'd do yourself a disservice or you didn't take the time to savor the language. This is very much the kind of thing where reading at a languid pace pays significant dividends.

Life is unfair, but, just to be clear, I've never read Starnone in Italian, nor would I get anything out of it, but ... at least in translation, the prose was glorious, so my hat is off to Oonagh Stransky, who also published a nice translator's reading guide on Europa's (the publisher's) web page at .

Coming full circle, yes, I'm guessing that many readers of the Neapolitan Novels would enjoy this, but, first, it's a very different animal and, more broadly, I'm so far behind the curve on Ferrante (and, no, I haven't watched any of the screen version) that I'm guessing that train long ago left the station....]]> 3.96 2021 The Mortal and Immortal Life of the Girl from Milan
author: Domenico Starnone
name: Steve
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/23
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves:
review:
Should I be embarrassed that, at this point in my life, I'd never previously read Starnone? Well, if so, (even though I've spent more than my fair share of time in Italy,) I'd never even heard of him until I was reading a recent New York Times article discussing speculation that he might be Ferrante, author of the Neapolitan Novels because, apparently, she's protected her identity (like, I dunno, Pynchon or Sallinger), and Starnone also peppers his (at least this) work with attention to the differences and tension between Italian and Neapolitan dialect.

Anyway, still hot off the press (in this country), the translated edition was featured at a (nice) indie bookstore in NYC. I'm ecstatic I saw, bought, and read it. It's a splendid piece of work. I expect I'll be looking for more of Starnone's work in the future.

Don't be deceived by the convenient and nicely produced pocket-sized packaging. The content is packed tightly on the pages (which, to my eye, felt unnecessarily dense), and you'd do yourself a disservice or you didn't take the time to savor the language. This is very much the kind of thing where reading at a languid pace pays significant dividends.

Life is unfair, but, just to be clear, I've never read Starnone in Italian, nor would I get anything out of it, but ... at least in translation, the prose was glorious, so my hat is off to Oonagh Stransky, who also published a nice translator's reading guide on Europa's (the publisher's) web page at .

Coming full circle, yes, I'm guessing that many readers of the Neapolitan Novels would enjoy this, but, first, it's a very different animal and, more broadly, I'm so far behind the curve on Ferrante (and, no, I haven't watched any of the screen version) that I'm guessing that train long ago left the station....
]]> All My Bicycles 200352506 In this nonlinear graphic memoir, Powerpaola uses bicycles she’s owned as a vehicle to explore the world, her relationships, her memories � and herself.

“A bicycle is a machine that you power yourself. You decide where you want to go,� writes cartoonist Powerpaola, as the guiding principle of this graphic memoir. All My Bicycles is a story that never really begins, existing all at once in Paola’s memory. The book illustrates Powerpaola’s relationships through her many in fragments, it takes her back to her great loves and losses, friendships, and disappointments.

In remembering a bicycle, a manhole, an alligator, or a necklace, Powerpaola reflects upon these items in her consciousness without finding a concrete solution. Paola’s memories arrive abruptly and leave just as fast, creating a pathway through herself she can only find in moving forward. All My Bicycles is a glimpse into how exploring these fleeting tangible moments―of physical objects, of traveling and seeing a new city, of even the end of a relationship―is an exploration of self.]]> 108 Powerpaola 1683969502 Steve 3 spur of the moment inclination to buy this when I saw it on the shelf in the bookstore.

Still, it was very much something different, ... different voice, different perspective, different art, different approach to storytelling and recollection, etc., ... and there's pretty much always at least some value in that.

And, as I was reading the book, it sparked innumerable memories of bikes (and types of bikes ... and brands) I've owned (ten bikes come to mind pretty quickly, but I expect the number is higher, ... and, like the author, the types vary dramatically) and countries (and cities) I've ridden in ... and I could easily see myself following suit and crafting a memoir using bikes to frame time and place and periods in life and ... but, as they say, I digress.

Consumer riff: I really enjoyed/appreciated the cover formatting, not just in terms of the colors and shelf appeal, but, from a production quality standpoint, the volume felt very (OK, surprisingly) nice in my hands.]]> 3.53 2022 All My Bicycles
author: Powerpaola
name: Steve
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/17
date added: 2024/11/17
shelves: graphic-novels-manga, non-fiction
review:
Well, I'm pretty sure I wasn't the intended demographic for this, even though I tend to be interested in pretty much all things related to bicycles.... Hence my spur of the moment inclination to buy this when I saw it on the shelf in the bookstore.

Still, it was very much something different, ... different voice, different perspective, different art, different approach to storytelling and recollection, etc., ... and there's pretty much always at least some value in that.

And, as I was reading the book, it sparked innumerable memories of bikes (and types of bikes ... and brands) I've owned (ten bikes come to mind pretty quickly, but I expect the number is higher, ... and, like the author, the types vary dramatically) and countries (and cities) I've ridden in ... and I could easily see myself following suit and crafting a memoir using bikes to frame time and place and periods in life and ... but, as they say, I digress.

Consumer riff: I really enjoyed/appreciated the cover formatting, not just in terms of the colors and shelf appeal, but, from a production quality standpoint, the volume felt very (OK, surprisingly) nice in my hands.
]]> BRZRKR, Volume 2 58673891 The highest selling comic book launch in 30 years by Keanu Reeves in his comic book writing debut alongside New York Times bestselling co-writer Matt Kindt and acclaimed artist Ron Garney continues!

WHAT PRICE WOULD YOU PAY FOR TRUE FREEDOM?

Half-mortal and half-god, cursed and compelled to violence, the man known only as B. begins wandering the world anew. After enduring a series of experiments and missions, B.’s memories of his origins will be finally restored. But what does this revelation mean for his future? Has B. finally found true freedom? Perhaps, but when has the U.S. government ever let their best asset go?

Keanu Reeves continues his comic book writing debut alongside New York Times bestselling co-writer Matt Kindt (Folklords, Grass Kings) and legendary artist Ron Garney (Wolverine, Captain America) in a brutally violent new series about one immortal warrior’s fight through the ages.

Collects: BRZRKR #5-8.]]> 128 Keanu Reeves 168415815X Steve 3 more of the same, albeit with a relatively dramatic plot twist or change in direction (or not, depending upon what one's expectations were).

Two down, one to go, and, yeah, I bought the third one when I bought the second, so I'll be completing the trilogy soon enough.

And, yes, I'm curious to see how it all plays out.]]> 3.72 2021 BRZRKR, Volume 2
author: Keanu Reeves
name: Steve
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/16
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: graphic-novels-manga, sci-fi-and-fantasy
review:
Very much more of the same, albeit with a relatively dramatic plot twist or change in direction (or not, depending upon what one's expectations were).

Two down, one to go, and, yeah, I bought the third one when I bought the second, so I'll be completing the trilogy soon enough.

And, yes, I'm curious to see how it all plays out.
]]> BRZRKR, Volume 1 55169755 Keanu Reeves makes his comic book writing debut alongside New York Times bestselling co-writer Matt Kindt and acclaimed artist Ron Garney in a brutally violent new series about one immortal warrior’s fight through the ages.

A WAR WITH NO END. The man known only as B. is half-mortal and half-God, cursed and compelled to violence…even at the sacrifice of his sanity. But after wandering the world for centuries, the Berzerker may have finally found a refuge � working for the U.S. government to fight the battles too violent and too dangerous for anyone else. In exchange, B. will be granted the one thing he desires � the truth about his endless blood-soaked existence…and how to end it.

Keanu Reeves makes his comic book writing debut alongside New York Times bestselling co-writer Matt Kindt (Folklords, Grass Kings) and legendary artist Ron Garney (Captain America, The Amazing Spider-Man) in a brutally violent new series about one immortal warrior's fight through the ages.

Collects: BRZRKR #1-4.]]> 144 Keanu Reeves 1684156858 Steve 3 3.71 2021 BRZRKR, Volume 1
author: Keanu Reeves
name: Steve
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/05
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: sci-fi-and-fantasy, graphic-novels-manga
review:
Curiosity killed the cat ... and, even though there's a lot more "art" (and gore) than story, this installment left me curious enough to keep going, and ... since (it wasn't terribly time consuming and) the whole shebang is only three volumes, I assume I'll stick with it to see where it goes.
]]> Orbital 123136728 207 Samantha Harvey 0802161545 Steve 4 Booker Prize list, it looked like the kind of thing that was right up my alley ... and, indeed, it was.

Update: now that it's been awarded the Booker Prize, I'll concede I'm somewhat surprised by that outcome, but, at this point, I haven't read the other finalists....

In any event, I really enjoyed this, but I always wonder - when a work is so ... modest, understated, and gentle - how it will appeal to others. I liked so much about it, including the fact that (on the one hand) it didn't try to do too much (or, on the other, ... well, it didn't do much).

More space opera than space epic, possibly a meditation, a tasty morsel, in musical terms possibly a bagatelle, ... but a tender (? is that fair?), subtle, yet intense and emotive and evocative snippet or snapshot, ... maybe a voyeur's elegiac ode to a life that, ultimately, is foreign to what we land-based mortals cannot experience.

Shelving convention: I've put it on my science-fiction shelf, but, frankly, it could just as easily be shelved with (general) literary fiction.. Ultimately, to me, it was (first and foremost) a relationship-driven, garden-variety novel or, in this case, novella. Look, I'm not suggesting that Samantha Harvey is a modern-day Jane Austen repurposing an orbiting space station as a "sitting room" or "parlor" or "drawing room." But, is a contemporary day-in-the-life of a group of people in a non-futuristic technological setting (e.g., an existing space station) any different from a day-in-the-life on a yacht or at a camp or an office or a hotel/resort? I don't think so. When I think about the sci-fi and fantasy themed books that have reached the more mainstream literary fiction readership, the stuff that comes to mind include a couple of favorites, The Night Circus or The Time Traveler's Wife and at least one I consider overrated (The Road) - but those are more "out there" in that they can't be confused with historical fiction. But I've already wasted more time, energy, brain cells, and review characters on this topic than it merits. LoL

I enjoyed the book, but ... at this early date, and not having read the others ... I'd be surprised if it ends up winning the Booker. So much for my predictive powers... see update, above.]]> 3.57 2023 Orbital
author: Samantha Harvey
name: Steve
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/25
date added: 2024/11/15
shelves: sci-fi-and-fantasy, booker-prize
review:
When I saw this on the Booker Prize list, it looked like the kind of thing that was right up my alley ... and, indeed, it was.

Update: now that it's been awarded the Booker Prize, I'll concede I'm somewhat surprised by that outcome, but, at this point, I haven't read the other finalists....

In any event, I really enjoyed this, but I always wonder - when a work is so ... modest, understated, and gentle - how it will appeal to others. I liked so much about it, including the fact that (on the one hand) it didn't try to do too much (or, on the other, ... well, it didn't do much).

More space opera than space epic, possibly a meditation, a tasty morsel, in musical terms possibly a bagatelle, ... but a tender (? is that fair?), subtle, yet intense and emotive and evocative snippet or snapshot, ... maybe a voyeur's elegiac ode to a life that, ultimately, is foreign to what we land-based mortals cannot experience.

Shelving convention: I've put it on my science-fiction shelf, but, frankly, it could just as easily be shelved with (general) literary fiction.. Ultimately, to me, it was (first and foremost) a relationship-driven, garden-variety novel or, in this case, novella. Look, I'm not suggesting that Samantha Harvey is a modern-day Jane Austen repurposing an orbiting space station as a "sitting room" or "parlor" or "drawing room." But, is a contemporary day-in-the-life of a group of people in a non-futuristic technological setting (e.g., an existing space station) any different from a day-in-the-life on a yacht or at a camp or an office or a hotel/resort? I don't think so. When I think about the sci-fi and fantasy themed books that have reached the more mainstream literary fiction readership, the stuff that comes to mind include a couple of favorites, The Night Circus or The Time Traveler's Wife and at least one I consider overrated (The Road) - but those are more "out there" in that they can't be confused with historical fiction. But I've already wasted more time, energy, brain cells, and review characters on this topic than it merits. LoL

I enjoyed the book, but ... at this early date, and not having read the others ... I'd be surprised if it ends up winning the Booker. So much for my predictive powers... see update, above.
]]> Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic 26135825
Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the Fun Home. It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay. A few weeks after this revelation, he was dead, leaving a legacy of mystery for his daughter to resolve.]]> 232 Alison Bechdel 0618871713 Steve 4
It wasn't until I started it that I realized I really had no idea what I had in my hands or had gotten myself into. No, I didn't know what to expect, but even after I started, I think I underestimated the enterprise. And I was glad I'd been encouraged to consume it in small doses - I ultimately read only one or two chapters each day.

My hat's off to the author for (not just seemingly, cathartically, ripping off the band-aid) telling the tale (and, as noted in the acknowledgments, to the rest of the family for not derailing or attempting to interfere) and struggling with the ambiguities rather than oversimplifying or demonizing.

The art worked well for me, and I appreciated the integration of other media, including letters and book passages, which added color and texture and, for me, depth. It was probably a bit more elliptical than I would have liked ... I guess one reader's mosaic is another's jumble. But the overall undertaking (sorry, no pun intended) worked for me.

I expect I'll be looking for (and reading) more of Bechdel's stuff. Unless the GR community consistently steers me in another direction, I'm guessing I'll relatively soon be starting on Dykes to Watch Out For.]]> 4.07 2006 Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
author: Alison Bechdel
name: Steve
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/14
date added: 2024/11/14
shelves: graphic-novels-manga, non-fiction
review:
Didn't realize how late I was to the party on this until my elder recommended it (and cautioned me that, if I read it, I shouldn't rush through it). I picked it a nice indie bookstore in NYC and started it almost immediately.

It wasn't until I started it that I realized I really had no idea what I had in my hands or had gotten myself into. No, I didn't know what to expect, but even after I started, I think I underestimated the enterprise. And I was glad I'd been encouraged to consume it in small doses - I ultimately read only one or two chapters each day.

My hat's off to the author for (not just seemingly, cathartically, ripping off the band-aid) telling the tale (and, as noted in the acknowledgments, to the rest of the family for not derailing or attempting to interfere) and struggling with the ambiguities rather than oversimplifying or demonizing.

The art worked well for me, and I appreciated the integration of other media, including letters and book passages, which added color and texture and, for me, depth. It was probably a bit more elliptical than I would have liked ... I guess one reader's mosaic is another's jumble. But the overall undertaking (sorry, no pun intended) worked for me.

I expect I'll be looking for (and reading) more of Bechdel's stuff. Unless the GR community consistently steers me in another direction, I'm guessing I'll relatively soon be starting on Dykes to Watch Out For.
]]> <![CDATA[So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men]]> 126262032 Librarian's Note: This is the entry for the short story collection. Please don't combine it with the short story of the same name.


A triptych of stories about love, lust, betrayal, misogyny, and the ever-intriguing interchanges between women and men. Celebrated for her powerful short fiction, Claire Keegan now gifts us three exquisite stories, newly revised and expanded, together forming a brilliant examination of gender dynamics and an arc from Keegan’s earliest to her most recent work.

In “So Late in the Day,� Cathal faces a long weekend as his mind agitates over a woman with whom he could have spent his life, had he behaved differently.

In “The Long and Painful Death,� a writer’s arrival at the seaside home of Heinrich Böll for a residency is disrupted by an academic who imposes his presence and opinions.

And in “Antarctica,â€� a married woman travels out of town to see what it’s like to sleep with another man and ends up in the grip of a possessive stranger.Ěý

Each story probes the dynamics that corrupt what could be between women and a lack of generosity, the weight of expectation, the looming threat of violence. Potent, charged, and breathtakingly insightful, these three essential tales will linger with readers long after the book is closed.]]> 128 Claire Keegan 0802160859 Steve 4 Oh, my... that wasn't quite what I expected.

While briefly in NYC, I stopped into an independent bookstore that I'd previously enjoyed visiting, and picked up a few volumes near the entrance that had been recommended by the staff.

I'd not heard of the author before, but the description seemed compelling enough.

In the spirit of full disclosure, this (very) slender volume (with generous margins) collects only three previously published short stories, but each is as deeply disturbing as they are elegantly crafted. Each also fully propelled me in one (naively optimistic) direction before unexpectedly pivoting and hurtling me in another unnervingly dark direction.

I'm glad I (bought and) tried it.]]> 3.98 2022 So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men
author: Claire Keegan
name: Steve
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/10
date added: 2024/11/10
shelves:
review:
Oh, my... that wasn't quite what I expected.

While briefly in NYC, I stopped into an independent bookstore that I'd previously enjoyed visiting, and picked up a few volumes near the entrance that had been recommended by the staff.

I'd not heard of the author before, but the description seemed compelling enough.

In the spirit of full disclosure, this (very) slender volume (with generous margins) collects only three previously published short stories, but each is as deeply disturbing as they are elegantly crafted. Each also fully propelled me in one (naively optimistic) direction before unexpectedly pivoting and hurtling me in another unnervingly dark direction.

I'm glad I (bought and) tried it.
]]> <![CDATA[We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse, #1)]]> 35014337
Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he'll be switched off, and they'll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty.

The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. Or so he thinks. Because the universe is full of nasties, and trespassers make them mad - very mad.]]> 299 Dennis E. Taylor 1680680587 Steve 4 sci-fi-and-fantasy
I probably most enjoyed the early portion of the book or the introduction to - and the creation, training, and evolution of - the, for lack of a better term, artificial intelligence or AI.

But the rest was more than sufficiently entertaining and compelling. Once I got going, even when I put it down, I looked forward to picking it back up again.

I don't expect I'll rush out to add installments two and three in the trilogy to my reading stack/queue (which, at the moment, is both voluminous and steep), but I'm relatively confident I'll continue with the story arc soon enough.]]> 4.13 2016 We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse, #1)
author: Dennis E. Taylor
name: Steve
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/10
date added: 2024/11/10
shelves: sci-fi-and-fantasy
review:
Late to the party on this, but I now see the attraction.

I probably most enjoyed the early portion of the book or the introduction to - and the creation, training, and evolution of - the, for lack of a better term, artificial intelligence or AI.

But the rest was more than sufficiently entertaining and compelling. Once I got going, even when I put it down, I looked forward to picking it back up again.

I don't expect I'll rush out to add installments two and three in the trilogy to my reading stack/queue (which, at the moment, is both voluminous and steep), but I'm relatively confident I'll continue with the story arc soon enough.
]]> <![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 Steve 3
I think I prefer the more common installments in the story arc, but, sure, even though the "short story" format is different, it feels relatively consistent.

I'm guessing I'm not done with the series yet.]]> 4.14 2024 Something is Killing the Children, Vol. 8
author: James Tynion IV
name: Steve
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/06
date added: 2024/11/06
shelves: graphic-novels-manga, sci-fi-and-fantasy
review:
More of the same, a little more contemplative than most, but, still, not one of my favorite issues, and that's OK.

I think I prefer the more common installments in the story arc, but, sure, even though the "short story" format is different, it feels relatively consistent.

I'm guessing I'm not done with the series yet.
]]> 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 Steve 5
Sure, I preordered it. And, yes, much as I enjoyed The Overstory (and agree that it was a deserved Pulitzer Prize awardee), I actually preferred Bewilderment, which, as I was reading (and savoring it), felt as if it were written specifically for me. (Ah, hubris!) And, OK, laying my cards on the table, it didn't hurt that, thrilled as I was that Powers spoke at one of my kid's college graduations, it was icing on the cake that his speech was one of the best I've witnessed (and, alas, I've been to more than my share of graduations).

Fortunately, the book didn't disappoint. Rather, it not only frequently defied description, but it exceeded expectations.

I concede that, at numerous points, I thought of this work as a nice, almost elegant, companion to Zevin's well-crafted Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, ... and, frankly, I'm glad I read Zevin's offering first. In terms of Powers' prior work, I wasn't surprised to see, in the acknowledgements, a reference that brought me back to the thread from the non-fiction Finding the Mother Tree (which I can't recommend enough) to The Overstory. But none of that diminishes the creativity in play here (sorry about the pun), or quality of the construction and effectiveness of the delivery.

At some level, I wonder whether the number of themes in play here - from programming, gaming, and artificial intelligence (or machine learning), to scuba diving and oceanic exploration and climate change, with more than a dollop of broken families and the refuge (or sanctuary) of libraries and the transformative, life-altering privilege of higher education, to friendship and parenting and language and, oh my, aging, memory loss, and the quandaries posed by navigating one's end-of-life - might turn off some readers. But, at least from my perspective, I found all of the threads compelling, and Powers wove them together into a cohesive, integral, poignant, and ultimately satisfying, whole.

Part of me is curious to hear what a true newcomer - to Powers or the book itself (picking it up and reading it with no preconceived notions or biases) - would make of it. But I can't walk in those shoes. It worked incredibly well for me, and I strongly recommend it.]]> 4.17 2024 Playground
author: Richard Powers
name: Steve
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/04
date added: 2024/11/05
shelves: sci-fi-and-fantasy, climate-nature-anthropocene
review:
This was pretty much everything I expected and wanted ... and more.

Sure, I preordered it. And, yes, much as I enjoyed The Overstory (and agree that it was a deserved Pulitzer Prize awardee), I actually preferred Bewilderment, which, as I was reading (and savoring it), felt as if it were written specifically for me. (Ah, hubris!) And, OK, laying my cards on the table, it didn't hurt that, thrilled as I was that Powers spoke at one of my kid's college graduations, it was icing on the cake that his speech was one of the best I've witnessed (and, alas, I've been to more than my share of graduations).

Fortunately, the book didn't disappoint. Rather, it not only frequently defied description, but it exceeded expectations.

I concede that, at numerous points, I thought of this work as a nice, almost elegant, companion to Zevin's well-crafted Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, ... and, frankly, I'm glad I read Zevin's offering first. In terms of Powers' prior work, I wasn't surprised to see, in the acknowledgements, a reference that brought me back to the thread from the non-fiction Finding the Mother Tree (which I can't recommend enough) to The Overstory. But none of that diminishes the creativity in play here (sorry about the pun), or quality of the construction and effectiveness of the delivery.

At some level, I wonder whether the number of themes in play here - from programming, gaming, and artificial intelligence (or machine learning), to scuba diving and oceanic exploration and climate change, with more than a dollop of broken families and the refuge (or sanctuary) of libraries and the transformative, life-altering privilege of higher education, to friendship and parenting and language and, oh my, aging, memory loss, and the quandaries posed by navigating one's end-of-life - might turn off some readers. But, at least from my perspective, I found all of the threads compelling, and Powers wove them together into a cohesive, integral, poignant, and ultimately satisfying, whole.

Part of me is curious to hear what a true newcomer - to Powers or the book itself (picking it up and reading it with no preconceived notions or biases) - would make of it. But I can't walk in those shoes. It worked incredibly well for me, and I strongly recommend it.
]]> <![CDATA[The Hidden Girl and Other Stories]]> 52163147 original cover of ISBN 9781982134037

From award-winning author Ken Liu comes his much anticipated second volume of short stories.

Ken Liu is one of the most lauded short story writers of our time. This collection includes a selection of his science fiction and fantasy stories from the last five years � sixteen of his best � plus a new novelette.

In addition to these seventeen selections, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories also features an excerpt from the forthcoming book three in the Dandelion Dynasty series, "The Veiled Throne".

Contents:
- Ghost Days (2013)
- Maxwell's Demon (2012)
- The Reborn (2014)
- Thoughts and Prayers (2019)
- Byzantine Empathy (2018)
- The Gods Will Not Be Chained (2014)
- Staying Behind (2011)
- Real Artists (2011)
- The Gods Will Not Be Slain (2014)
- Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer (2011)
- The Gods Have Not Died in Vain (2015)
- Memories of My Mother (2012)
- Dispatches from the Cradle: The Hermit - Forty-Eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts (2016)
- Grey Rabbit, Crimson Mare, Coal Leopard (2020)
- A Chase Beyond the Storms: An excerpt from "The Veiled Throne", Book 3 of the Dandelion Dynasty
- The Hidden Girl (2017)
- Seven Birthdays (2016)
- The Message (2012)
- Cutting (2012)

]]> 411 Ken Liu Steve 0 to-read 3.92 2020 The Hidden Girl and Other Stories
author: Ken Liu
name: Steve
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Drowned World 16234584 Heart of Darkness—complete with a mad white hunter and his hordes of native soldiers—this "powerful and beautifully clear" (Brian Aldiss) work becomes a thrilling adventure and a haunting examination of the effects of environmental collapse on the human mind.]]> 198 J.G. Ballard 0871403625 Steve 2 High Rise, had also come to me ('lo, many years ago) highly recommended, and, while I was somewhat intrigued by the concept, this one ultimately didn't resonate with me.

Once again, this left me ... cold, unmoved, ... unengaged, and, in the end, uninspired.

Look, I'm impressed by Ballard's vocabulary and his range and the scope of his imagination and his productivity, but, as for the books themselves, with me, he's currently 0-for-2. Much as I find the writing, the craftsmanship, effective the characters and the plot and ... well ... whatever it is that animates a story ... doesn't reach me.

I'm not saying I wouldn't try another (someday) if it came highly recommended but ... there's enough stuff out there that I find more appealing that I'm guessing I won't be rushing back to Ballard.]]> 3.51 1962 The Drowned World
author: J.G. Ballard
name: Steve
average rating: 3.51
book published: 1962
rating: 2
read at: 2024/10/27
date added: 2024/10/27
shelves: sci-fi-and-fantasy, climate-nature-anthropocene
review:
This came to me highly recommended (in a conversation about the ever-expanding offerings in climate-related dystopia and, in particular, rising-water-based speculative fiction), and I was hoping for the best, despite the fact that another unrelated dystopian classic, High Rise, had also come to me ('lo, many years ago) highly recommended, and, while I was somewhat intrigued by the concept, this one ultimately didn't resonate with me.

Once again, this left me ... cold, unmoved, ... unengaged, and, in the end, uninspired.

Look, I'm impressed by Ballard's vocabulary and his range and the scope of his imagination and his productivity, but, as for the books themselves, with me, he's currently 0-for-2. Much as I find the writing, the craftsmanship, effective the characters and the plot and ... well ... whatever it is that animates a story ... doesn't reach me.

I'm not saying I wouldn't try another (someday) if it came highly recommended but ... there's enough stuff out there that I find more appealing that I'm guessing I won't be rushing back to Ballard.
]]> <![CDATA[Death Note, Vol. 2: Confluence (Death Note, #2)]]> 13619 197 Tsugumi Ohba 1421501694 Steve 3
When I bought the first, I bought this one too, and my confidence wasn't misplaced. Unlike the first one, I took my time with this one, working through (in effect, an issue at a time).

Given the title, it's hard to suggest that this is morbid stuff (or that it's too morbid), but ... even at its most creative, it's pretty darn dark.

It's way too early to know if I'll stay interested through all 12 issues, but I'm relatively confident I'll keep going at this point.]]> 4.48 2004 Death Note, Vol. 2: Confluence (Death Note, #2)
author: Tsugumi Ohba
name: Steve
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/27
date added: 2024/10/27
shelves: graphic-novels-manga, sci-fi-and-fantasy
review:
More of the same, and that's no surprise.

When I bought the first, I bought this one too, and my confidence wasn't misplaced. Unlike the first one, I took my time with this one, working through (in effect, an issue at a time).

Given the title, it's hard to suggest that this is morbid stuff (or that it's too morbid), but ... even at its most creative, it's pretty darn dark.

It's way too early to know if I'll stay interested through all 12 issues, but I'm relatively confident I'll keep going at this point.
]]> A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 14891 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness -- in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.]]> 496 Betty Smith 0061120073 Steve 0 to-read 4.29 1943 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
author: Betty Smith
name: Steve
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1943
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Death Note, Vol. 1: Boredom (Death Note, #1)]]> 13615
Boredom
Light tests the boundaries of the Death Note's powers as L and the police begin to close in. Luckily, Light's father is the head of the Japanese National Police Agency and leaves vital information about the case lying around the house. With access to his father's files, Light can keep one step ahead of the authorities. But who is the strange man following him, and how can Light guard against enemies whose names he doesn't know?]]> 195 Tsugumi Ohba 1421501686 Steve 4 Right book/manga, right time.

I like the hook or the premise ... it's at least superficially of more-than-passing moral complexity, and, at least so far, the pacing and the prose is working well, and, the relatively spare artwork doesn't distract but suggests gravity/seriousness ... and, having not read anything about the series in advance, I was completely caught off guard by the first big reveal/surprise/plot twist (which was kind of fun).

When I bought this one, I also bought round two (2), and I'm guessing I'll return to it sooner rather than later. It's way to early to know if I'll take a run at the entire run (yuck, yuck). Twelve issues (if that's all it is) doesn't seem like that much of an investment.]]> 4.47 2004 Death Note, Vol. 1: Boredom (Death Note, #1)
author: Tsugumi Ohba
name: Steve
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/14
date added: 2024/10/14
shelves: graphic-novels-manga, sci-fi-and-fantasy
review:
Sure, I'm late to the party on this, but it was only recently recommended to me (by someone who, a few books later, has since earned my confidence) ... and I ordered it in advance knowing that I'd have a (routine, age-related, medically-induced) window where light reading (and short attention span) would be appropriate ... and things worked out as planned, and I enjoyed the book/first installment. Right book/manga, right time.

I like the hook or the premise ... it's at least superficially of more-than-passing moral complexity, and, at least so far, the pacing and the prose is working well, and, the relatively spare artwork doesn't distract but suggests gravity/seriousness ... and, having not read anything about the series in advance, I was completely caught off guard by the first big reveal/surprise/plot twist (which was kind of fun).

When I bought this one, I also bought round two (2), and I'm guessing I'll return to it sooner rather than later. It's way to early to know if I'll take a run at the entire run (yuck, yuck). Twelve issues (if that's all it is) doesn't seem like that much of an investment.
]]> <![CDATA[War Against the Mafia (The Executioner, #1)]]> 23551128
In the jungles of Southeast Asia, no sniper was more ruthless than Mack Bolan. After twelve years in-country, with ninety-five confirmed kills, he comes home to the United States only to find that his father has gone berserk, slaughtering his family before taking his own life. But Mack knows his father was no killer. He was under pressure from a gang of Mafia thugs who were after his money and were willing to destroy his life to get it. For the sake of his old man, Bolan declares war on the men who drove him mad.

Five loan sharks are getting into their car when a bullet slams one of them to the ground. Before the others can draw their guns, four more shots ring out, leaving them as the first casualties in the Executioner’s war. From his hometown to every city in America, Mack Bolan will deliver justice from the barrel of a gun.]]> 230 Don Pendleton Steve 2 A trip down memory lane? ... maybe... But maybe the more apt sentiment is that you can never go back...

OK, I read a lot of these in the 1970's, ... it's possible that I read dozens of them, and, if memory serves and, yes, I realize that memory is a terribly unreliable thing, ... but around the same time I was reading Alistair MacLean (and, yes, those books were older, while these (at the time) were very new), I fear I may have read pretty much all of the original run until it got farmed out to ghost-writers.

Serial revenge fantasy, elite-soldier-turned-vigilante, a half-step above mindless and escapist pulp, easily consumable violence and sex (OK, I concede I don't remember there being that much sex, but the violence is exactly what I recalled) ... but what I can't get my mind wrapped around is that I have these in my head as then-YA fare. I guess Harry Potter is plenty violent, and there's a relatively high body count, but I can't fathom how/why parents (and librarians) weren't steering us away from this stuff. Sure, I grew up in the military - and, a la Alistair MacLean, as I noted above, I have no doubt that, if I were a teenager today, I'd be reading Jack Reacher, but it does seem that maybe someone could or should have tried to interest us in something a little more age appropriate (and, in all fairness, maybe they did). Ah, long ago and far away.

I can't say exactly what persuaded me to look for (and buy) this, but it was a fascinating experience in time travel. Technologically and tactically, it's very much a period piece. (Ah, my kingdom for a mobile phone, let alone a drone.) OK, I'm slightly horrified that I could have read so many of these, let alone so aggressively sought them out ... and enjoyed them.

Curious ... from the photos I've found, the format that seems most familiar to me (or in my mind's eye) - are the paperbacks with cover prices of 95 cents or $1.25 - they're obviously not the original edition, and that makes sense. But, as they say, I digress.]]> 3.81 1969 War Against the Mafia (The Executioner, #1)
author: Don Pendleton
name: Steve
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1969
rating: 2
read at: 2024/10/13
date added: 2024/10/13
shelves:
review:
A trip down memory lane? ... maybe... But maybe the more apt sentiment is that you can never go back...

OK, I read a lot of these in the 1970's, ... it's possible that I read dozens of them, and, if memory serves and, yes, I realize that memory is a terribly unreliable thing, ... but around the same time I was reading Alistair MacLean (and, yes, those books were older, while these (at the time) were very new), I fear I may have read pretty much all of the original run until it got farmed out to ghost-writers.

Serial revenge fantasy, elite-soldier-turned-vigilante, a half-step above mindless and escapist pulp, easily consumable violence and sex (OK, I concede I don't remember there being that much sex, but the violence is exactly what I recalled) ... but what I can't get my mind wrapped around is that I have these in my head as then-YA fare. I guess Harry Potter is plenty violent, and there's a relatively high body count, but I can't fathom how/why parents (and librarians) weren't steering us away from this stuff. Sure, I grew up in the military - and, a la Alistair MacLean, as I noted above, I have no doubt that, if I were a teenager today, I'd be reading Jack Reacher, but it does seem that maybe someone could or should have tried to interest us in something a little more age appropriate (and, in all fairness, maybe they did). Ah, long ago and far away.

I can't say exactly what persuaded me to look for (and buy) this, but it was a fascinating experience in time travel. Technologically and tactically, it's very much a period piece. (Ah, my kingdom for a mobile phone, let alone a drone.) OK, I'm slightly horrified that I could have read so many of these, let alone so aggressively sought them out ... and enjoyed them.

Curious ... from the photos I've found, the format that seems most familiar to me (or in my mind's eye) - are the paperbacks with cover prices of 95 cents or $1.25 - they're obviously not the original edition, and that makes sense. But, as they say, I digress.
]]> Bangkok Wakes to Rain 40308310 A house in Bangkok is the confluence of lives shaped by upheaval, memory, and the lure of home.

A missionary doctor pines for his native New England even as he succumbs to the vibrant chaos of nineteenth-century Siam. A post-WWII society woman marries, mothers, and holds court, little suspecting her solitary future. A jazz pianist in the age of rock, haunted by his own ghosts, is summoned to appease the resident spirits. A young woman tries to outpace the long shadow of her political past. And in New Krungthep, savvy teenagers row tourists past landmarks of the drowned old city they themselves do not remember. Time collapses as these stories collide and converge, linked by the forces voraciously making and remaking the amphibious, ever-morphing capital itself.]]> 368 Pitchaya Sudbanthad 0525534768 Steve 0 to-read 3.58 2019 Bangkok Wakes to Rain
author: Pitchaya Sudbanthad
name: Steve
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Gold Fame Citrus 24612148
For the moment, the couple’s fragile love, which somehow blooms in this arid place, seems enough. But when they cross paths with a mysterious child, the thirst for a better future begins.

Immensely moving, profoundly disquieting, and mind-blowingly original, Watkins’s novel explores the myths we believe about others and tell about ourselves, the double-edged power of our most cherished relationships, and the shape of hope in a precarious future that may be our own.]]> 339 Claire Vaye Watkins 1594634238 Steve 0 to-read 3.29 2015 Gold Fame Citrus
author: Claire Vaye Watkins
name: Steve
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> How Beautiful We Were 51794532 From the celebrated author of the New York Times bestseller Behold the Dreamers, comes a sweeping, wrenching story about the collision of a small African village and an America oil company.

"We should have known the end was near."

So begins Imbolo Mbue’s powerful second novel, How Beautiful We Were. Set in the fictional African village of Kosawa, it tells the story of a people living in fear amidst environmental degradation wrought by an American oil company.

Pipeline spills have rendered farmlands infertile. Children are dying from drinking toxic water. Promises of clean-up and financial reparations to the villagers are made—and ignored. The country’s government, led by a brazen dictator, exists to serve its own interest. Left with few choices, the people of Kosawa decide to fight back. Their struggle would last for decades and come at a steep price.

Told through the perspective of a generation of children and the family of a girl named Thula who grows up to become a revolutionary, How Beautiful We Were is a masterful exploration of what happens when the reckless drive for profit, coupled with the ghost of colonialism, comes up against one community’s determination to hold onto its ancestral land and a young woman’s willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of her people’s freedom.

"The unforgettable story of a community on the wrong end of Western greed, How Beautiful We Were will enthrall you, appall you, and show you what is possible when a few people stand up and say this is not right. A masterful novel by a spellbinding writer engaged with the most urgent questions of our day.”—David Ebershoff, bestselling author of The Danish Girl]]> 364 Imbolo Mbue 0593132424 Steve 0 to-read 3.92 2021 How Beautiful We Were
author: Imbolo Mbue
name: Steve
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Birnam Wood 60784757 Birnam Wood is on the move . . .

Five years ago, Mira Bunting founded a guerrilla gardening group: Birnam Wood. An undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic gathering of friends, this activist collective plants crops wherever no one will notice: on the sides of roads, in forgotten parks, and neglected backyards. For years, the group has struggled to break even. Then Mira stumbles on an answer, a way to finally set the group up for the long term: a landslide has closed the Korowai Pass, cutting off the town of Thorndike. Natural disaster has created an opportunity, a sizable farm seemingly abandoned.

But Mira is not the only one interested in Thorndike. Robert Lemoine, the enigmatic American billionaire, has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker--or so he tells Mira when he catches her on the property. Intrigued by Mira, Birnam Wood, and their entrepreneurial spirit, he suggests they work this land. But can they trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust each other?

A gripping psychological thriller from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries, Birnam Wood is Shakespearean in its wit, drama, and immersion in character. A brilliantly constructed consideration of intentions, actions, and consequences, it is an unflinching examination of the human impulse to ensure our own survival.]]> 432 Eleanor Catton 0374110336 Steve 0 to-read 3.79 2023 Birnam Wood
author: Eleanor Catton
name: Steve
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East]]> 151740 Fresh Air in 1998, Sandy Tolan brings the Israeli-Palestinian conflict down to its most human level, suggesting that even amid the bleakest political realities there exist stories of hope and reconciliation.]]> 400 Sandy Tolan Steve 0 to-read 4.11 2006 The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East
author: Sandy Tolan
name: Steve
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hellspawn: Complete Collection]]> 8092499
This next step in the evolution of Todd McFarlane's hell-born creation featured the creative minds of Brian Michael Bendis, Steve Niles, Ashley Wood, and Ben Templesmith, which redefined the mythos of the Hellspawn.

Hellspawn: The Complete Collection includes the entire Hellspawn series along with additional art and behind-the-scenes content, as well as a never-before-published back-up story written and illustrated by artist, Ashley Wood.

Collects Hellspawn #1-16.]]> 500 Brian Michael Bendis 1607061554 Steve 3
The problem, of course, was that once I sat down, opened it, and got started, even if didn't really get it and couldn't completely follow the story line (sure, I understand the protagonist's situation ... I've read some Spawn over the years, and I recall seeing both an animated and live action movie, so I've got the basic landscape), ... it's sufficiently compelling that I keep turning the pages, and the storyline keeps morphing before I get bored, and the next thing I know, ... it's over, I'm at the end, and I thought the author did a pretty good job wrapping it up, so I'm feeling a little bit better about the overall experience/enterprise.

It's not one of the best or most enjoyable graphic novels I've ever read, but it's (very) far from the worst. Do I see myself rushing off to see where the more recent Spawn story lines and authors and artists are going? No, probably not.

But that's almost certainly a reflection on me rather than the book. And, remember, my generation didn't grow up with Spawn - he didn't make his first appearance until my (adult) attention was elsewhere ... and a fair number of years after the (for me, glorious) 1980's rebirth of the comic book market and the explosion in (quality) adult graphic novels, riding a wave including Watchmen, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Marvels, Kingdom Come, V for Vendetta, Maus, and, of course, Gaiman's original Sandman run. But, as they say, I digresss.]]> 3.80 2010 Hellspawn: Complete Collection
author: Brian Michael Bendis
name: Steve
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/05
date added: 2024/10/05
shelves: graphic-novels-manga, sci-fi-and-fantasy
review:
Saw this sitting (prominently) on my (non-resident, adult) kid's bookshelf, was curious, and, when I picked it up, it had the look and feel of something that could be epic (or at least worthwhile) based, at least in part, on the hefty price point (from more than a decade ago).

The problem, of course, was that once I sat down, opened it, and got started, even if didn't really get it and couldn't completely follow the story line (sure, I understand the protagonist's situation ... I've read some Spawn over the years, and I recall seeing both an animated and live action movie, so I've got the basic landscape), ... it's sufficiently compelling that I keep turning the pages, and the storyline keeps morphing before I get bored, and the next thing I know, ... it's over, I'm at the end, and I thought the author did a pretty good job wrapping it up, so I'm feeling a little bit better about the overall experience/enterprise.

It's not one of the best or most enjoyable graphic novels I've ever read, but it's (very) far from the worst. Do I see myself rushing off to see where the more recent Spawn story lines and authors and artists are going? No, probably not.

But that's almost certainly a reflection on me rather than the book. And, remember, my generation didn't grow up with Spawn - he didn't make his first appearance until my (adult) attention was elsewhere ... and a fair number of years after the (for me, glorious) 1980's rebirth of the comic book market and the explosion in (quality) adult graphic novels, riding a wave including Watchmen, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Marvels, Kingdom Come, V for Vendetta, Maus, and, of course, Gaiman's original Sandman run. But, as they say, I digresss.
]]> Dear Committee Members 43598295 193 Julie Schumacher Steve 3 sci-fi and fantasy.

Would I have found the book even funnier if the emotions were less raw? No doubt. So don't hesitate to inflate my rating in light of my (fully disclosed) biases. [If you're one of those readers who claims, let alone believes, that when you read a book doesn't play a significant role in how your receive and assess it, well, we can agree to disagree.]

For the second time in my ___ academic career [if we're more than Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ friends, fill in the blank, if we've never met, so much the better], I find myself in an administrator's role, and I'm reminded that, the first time around, my spouse (indeed, also an academic) recommended Russo's Straight Man, which, at times, was very much on the nose. This time around, she recommended Shumacher's trilogy, and I understand why (... and, as an aside, now that I've told her I've read it, my sense is she'll probably start re-reading it).

Not surprisingly, the protagonist wields a more feisty pen, greater eloquence, and a better vocabulary, but you'd have to ask my colleagues (under the cone of silence) which of us is the grumpier curmudgeon, let alone who has more (if any) redeeming qualities. I'm calling it a toss-up and moving on to the next email.

I'm confident I'll return for (at a minimum) part two of the trilogy, and it's far more likely than not that I'll eventually read the third as well. Only time will tell how long the interim cooling off period runs.]]> 3.33 2014 Dear Committee Members
author: Julie Schumacher
name: Steve
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/30
date added: 2024/09/30
shelves:
review:
After (too) many years and a number of recommendations, I finally succumbed and started (and quickly finished) this (more often than not) hysterically funny little novel that, alas, strikes too close to home (or, I dunno, too close for comfort), but remains far enough away that it could just as easily be sci-fi and fantasy.

Would I have found the book even funnier if the emotions were less raw? No doubt. So don't hesitate to inflate my rating in light of my (fully disclosed) biases. [If you're one of those readers who claims, let alone believes, that when you read a book doesn't play a significant role in how your receive and assess it, well, we can agree to disagree.]

For the second time in my ___ academic career [if we're more than Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ friends, fill in the blank, if we've never met, so much the better], I find myself in an administrator's role, and I'm reminded that, the first time around, my spouse (indeed, also an academic) recommended Russo's Straight Man, which, at times, was very much on the nose. This time around, she recommended Shumacher's trilogy, and I understand why (... and, as an aside, now that I've told her I've read it, my sense is she'll probably start re-reading it).

Not surprisingly, the protagonist wields a more feisty pen, greater eloquence, and a better vocabulary, but you'd have to ask my colleagues (under the cone of silence) which of us is the grumpier curmudgeon, let alone who has more (if any) redeeming qualities. I'm calling it a toss-up and moving on to the next email.

I'm confident I'll return for (at a minimum) part two of the trilogy, and it's far more likely than not that I'll eventually read the third as well. Only time will tell how long the interim cooling off period runs.
]]> Hello, Horse (John Metcalf) 184572970 224 Richard Kelly Kemick 1771966076 Steve 4
Full disclosure: this isn't happiness and light fare. Rather, to my mind, it listed heavily towards dystopia, poverty, chaos, despair, and loss.

With a never-ending reading (or to-read) list, I rarely just pick something up on a whim, but ... there I was, at my (most excellent, incredibly well run) public library, where the (mind-blowingly efficient) reserve shelving is located just past the New Fiction shelves, and someone had displayed this ... and there was a bicycle on the cover (and, no, it's not really a book about cycling) ... and the small number of folks on GR (granted, potentially, a small enough number that, not only would it not be representative, but it could be skewed by friends, family, and publishers) who'd read it seemed to like it ... so I picked it up.

I can't say I'll be rushing off to read the author's other stuff, but I don't regret reading this, and, again, for me, the best stories (yeah, a few were five stars for me) fully justified the time invested.]]> 3.00 Hello, Horse (John Metcalf)
author: Richard Kelly Kemick
name: Steve
average rating: 3.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/29
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves:
review:
A handful of excellent stories in a diverse (in terms of topics, length, and ... well, pretty much everything) collection of (very) nicely crafted pieces.

Full disclosure: this isn't happiness and light fare. Rather, to my mind, it listed heavily towards dystopia, poverty, chaos, despair, and loss.

With a never-ending reading (or to-read) list, I rarely just pick something up on a whim, but ... there I was, at my (most excellent, incredibly well run) public library, where the (mind-blowingly efficient) reserve shelving is located just past the New Fiction shelves, and someone had displayed this ... and there was a bicycle on the cover (and, no, it's not really a book about cycling) ... and the small number of folks on GR (granted, potentially, a small enough number that, not only would it not be representative, but it could be skewed by friends, family, and publishers) who'd read it seemed to like it ... so I picked it up.

I can't say I'll be rushing off to read the author's other stuff, but I don't regret reading this, and, again, for me, the best stories (yeah, a few were five stars for me) fully justified the time invested.
]]> Economics for the Common Good 36761782 From Nobel Prize-winning economist Jean Tirole, a bold new agenda for the role of economics in society

When Jean Tirole won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Economics, he suddenly found himself being stopped in the street by complete strangers and asked to comment on issues of the day, no matter how distant from his own areas of research. His transformation from academic economist to public intellectual prompted him to reflect further on the role economists and their discipline play in society. The result is Economics for the Common Good, a passionate manifesto for a world in which economics, far from being a "dismal science," is a positive force for the common good.

Economists are rewarded for writing technical papers in scholarly journals, not joining in public debates. But Tirole says we urgently need economists to engage with the many challenges facing society, helping to identify our key objectives and the tools needed to meet them.

To show how economics can help us realize the common good, Tirole shares his insights on a broad array of questions affecting our everyday lives and the future of our society, including global warming, unemployment, the post-2008 global financial order, the euro crisis, the digital revolution, innovation, and the proper balance between the free market and regulation.

Providing a rich account of how economics can benefit everyone, Economics for the Common Good sets a new agenda for the role of economics in society.]]> 564 Jean Tirole 1400889146 Steve 4 Well worth reading, particularly today.

This is the exact opposite of the uninformed, homogeneous, incendiary, hyper-partisan, superficial, sound-bite centered, eye-candy-like blather we're daily subjected to through our social media feeds and preferred media outlets (whether newspapers or cable news services). This is serious, critical, analytical, research-based examination of some of the most important issues facing our society today. How refreshing (and, at the same time, how depressing it is to realize how little of this we hear, discuss, and think about on a daily basis).

Some really good thought-provoking, insightful stuff crammed in here. For folks who enjoyed Robert Reich's recent essay-length, far-more-accessible, much-quicker-to-read book, The Common Good, this is a logical follow-on, just wider (far more global than American), deeper, more nuanced, and far more technical (and, at times, theoretical, but definitely academic, even though it was intended, if I'm correct, for airport bookstore - and other popular - consumption).

Frankly, I don't know how easy to digest this would be for readers who have never taken an economics course or who don't read widely in the field. Conversely, if you like rubrics or thinking about tools for isolating, analyzing, and solving problems, this is catnip with a chaser of Red Bull (or Carabao, or your favorite energy drink). Tirole attempts to introduce all of his concepts for lay readers, and tries to build from the ground up, but there's still a lot of firehose-volume information, theory, vocabulary, and data being spit out here. In other words, it's a lot, and it comes at you fast, despite Tirole's effort to serve it in bite sized chunks.

The best selling point for the book is that Tirole's various recommendations for different problems or segments are written as standalone chapters - and I (really) enjoyed Chapters 8 through 17, covering the climate challenge (8), the labor market (9), Europe/EU/Brexit (10), the role of finance (11), the 2008 financial crisis (12), competition and industrial policy (13), digitalization and the digital economy (14 & 15), innovation and intellectual property (IP) (16), and sector regulation (17). To my mind, of these, Chapters 8-10 alone justified the investment in the whole.

Pleasant surprise: American readers may be amused by, but will surely benefit - in terms of perspective - from, reading sophisticated policy analysis that, while unabashedly global, is often based on (and highly critical of) France and, to a lesser extent, the EU.

Reader's nit: Ultimately, I think Tirole tried to do too much in a single book, and I found the second half of the book far more useful than the first. In particular, Part II, which attempts to describe the economist's role in society, profession and everyday life, etc., felt like more digression and distraction than value added. But, hey, nobody's perfect, and, regardless of any criticism, I applaud him for taking on this Herculean task and producing a darn good book.

In the end, the book provides a valuable public service. In my dreams, it would be widely read. Sadly, that's not going to happen. But hope springs eternal.

Merged review:

Well worth reading, particularly today.

This is the exact opposite of the uninformed, homogeneous, incendiary, hyper-partisan, superficial, sound-bite centered, eye-candy-like blather we're daily subjected to through our social media feeds and preferred media outlets (whether newspapers or cable news services). This is serious, critical, analytical, research-based examination of some of the most important issues facing our society today. How refreshing (and, at the same time, how depressing it is to realize how little of this we hear, discuss, and think about on a daily basis).

Some really good thought-provoking, insightful stuff crammed in here. For folks who enjoyed Robert Reich's recent essay-length, far-more-accessible, much-quicker-to-read book, The Common Good, this is a logical follow-on, just wider (far more global than American), deeper, more nuanced, and far more technical (and, at times, theoretical, but definitely academic, even though it was intended, if I'm correct, for airport bookstore - and other popular - consumption).

Frankly, I don't know how easy to digest this would be for readers who have never taken an economics course or who don't read widely in the field. Conversely, if you like rubrics or thinking about tools for isolating, analyzing, and solving problems, this is catnip with a chaser of Red Bull (or Carabao, or your favorite energy drink). Tirole attempts to introduce all of his concepts for lay readers, and tries to build from the ground up, but there's still a lot of firehose-volume information, theory, vocabulary, and data being spit out here. In other words, it's a lot, and it comes at you fast, despite Tirole's effort to serve it in bite sized chunks.

The best selling point for the book is that Tirole's various recommendations for different problems or segments are written as standalone chapters - and I (really) enjoyed Chapters 8 through 17, covering the climate challenge (8), the labor market (9), Europe/EU/Brexit (10), the role of finance (11), the 2008 financial crisis (12), competition and industrial policy (13), digitalization and the digital economy (14 & 15), innovation and intellectual property (IP) (16), and sector regulation (17). To my mind, of these, Chapters 8-10 alone justified the investment in the whole.

Pleasant surprise: American readers may be amused by, but will surely benefit - in terms of perspective - from, reading sophisticated policy analysis that, while unabashedly global, is often based on (and highly critical of) France and, to a lesser extent, the EU.

Reader's nit: Ultimately, I think Tirole tried to do too much in a single book, and I found the second half of the book far more useful than the first. In particular, Part II, which attempts to describe the economist's role in society, profession and everyday life, etc., felt like more digression and distraction than value added. But, hey, nobody's perfect, and, regardless of any criticism, I applaud him for taking on this Herculean task and producing a darn good book.

In the end, the book provides a valuable public service. In my dreams, it would be widely read. Sadly, that's not going to happen. But hope springs eternal.]]> 3.89 2016 Economics for the Common Good
author: Jean Tirole
name: Steve
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2018/10/30
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: non-fiction, climate-nature-anthropocene
review:
Well worth reading, particularly today.

This is the exact opposite of the uninformed, homogeneous, incendiary, hyper-partisan, superficial, sound-bite centered, eye-candy-like blather we're daily subjected to through our social media feeds and preferred media outlets (whether newspapers or cable news services). This is serious, critical, analytical, research-based examination of some of the most important issues facing our society today. How refreshing (and, at the same time, how depressing it is to realize how little of this we hear, discuss, and think about on a daily basis).

Some really good thought-provoking, insightful stuff crammed in here. For folks who enjoyed Robert Reich's recent essay-length, far-more-accessible, much-quicker-to-read book, The Common Good, this is a logical follow-on, just wider (far more global than American), deeper, more nuanced, and far more technical (and, at times, theoretical, but definitely academic, even though it was intended, if I'm correct, for airport bookstore - and other popular - consumption).

Frankly, I don't know how easy to digest this would be for readers who have never taken an economics course or who don't read widely in the field. Conversely, if you like rubrics or thinking about tools for isolating, analyzing, and solving problems, this is catnip with a chaser of Red Bull (or Carabao, or your favorite energy drink). Tirole attempts to introduce all of his concepts for lay readers, and tries to build from the ground up, but there's still a lot of firehose-volume information, theory, vocabulary, and data being spit out here. In other words, it's a lot, and it comes at you fast, despite Tirole's effort to serve it in bite sized chunks.

The best selling point for the book is that Tirole's various recommendations for different problems or segments are written as standalone chapters - and I (really) enjoyed Chapters 8 through 17, covering the climate challenge (8), the labor market (9), Europe/EU/Brexit (10), the role of finance (11), the 2008 financial crisis (12), competition and industrial policy (13), digitalization and the digital economy (14 & 15), innovation and intellectual property (IP) (16), and sector regulation (17). To my mind, of these, Chapters 8-10 alone justified the investment in the whole.

Pleasant surprise: American readers may be amused by, but will surely benefit - in terms of perspective - from, reading sophisticated policy analysis that, while unabashedly global, is often based on (and highly critical of) France and, to a lesser extent, the EU.

Reader's nit: Ultimately, I think Tirole tried to do too much in a single book, and I found the second half of the book far more useful than the first. In particular, Part II, which attempts to describe the economist's role in society, profession and everyday life, etc., felt like more digression and distraction than value added. But, hey, nobody's perfect, and, regardless of any criticism, I applaud him for taking on this Herculean task and producing a darn good book.

In the end, the book provides a valuable public service. In my dreams, it would be widely read. Sadly, that's not going to happen. But hope springs eternal.

Merged review:

Well worth reading, particularly today.

This is the exact opposite of the uninformed, homogeneous, incendiary, hyper-partisan, superficial, sound-bite centered, eye-candy-like blather we're daily subjected to through our social media feeds and preferred media outlets (whether newspapers or cable news services). This is serious, critical, analytical, research-based examination of some of the most important issues facing our society today. How refreshing (and, at the same time, how depressing it is to realize how little of this we hear, discuss, and think about on a daily basis).

Some really good thought-provoking, insightful stuff crammed in here. For folks who enjoyed Robert Reich's recent essay-length, far-more-accessible, much-quicker-to-read book, The Common Good, this is a logical follow-on, just wider (far more global than American), deeper, more nuanced, and far more technical (and, at times, theoretical, but definitely academic, even though it was intended, if I'm correct, for airport bookstore - and other popular - consumption).

Frankly, I don't know how easy to digest this would be for readers who have never taken an economics course or who don't read widely in the field. Conversely, if you like rubrics or thinking about tools for isolating, analyzing, and solving problems, this is catnip with a chaser of Red Bull (or Carabao, or your favorite energy drink). Tirole attempts to introduce all of his concepts for lay readers, and tries to build from the ground up, but there's still a lot of firehose-volume information, theory, vocabulary, and data being spit out here. In other words, it's a lot, and it comes at you fast, despite Tirole's effort to serve it in bite sized chunks.

The best selling point for the book is that Tirole's various recommendations for different problems or segments are written as standalone chapters - and I (really) enjoyed Chapters 8 through 17, covering the climate challenge (8), the labor market (9), Europe/EU/Brexit (10), the role of finance (11), the 2008 financial crisis (12), competition and industrial policy (13), digitalization and the digital economy (14 & 15), innovation and intellectual property (IP) (16), and sector regulation (17). To my mind, of these, Chapters 8-10 alone justified the investment in the whole.

Pleasant surprise: American readers may be amused by, but will surely benefit - in terms of perspective - from, reading sophisticated policy analysis that, while unabashedly global, is often based on (and highly critical of) France and, to a lesser extent, the EU.

Reader's nit: Ultimately, I think Tirole tried to do too much in a single book, and I found the second half of the book far more useful than the first. In particular, Part II, which attempts to describe the economist's role in society, profession and everyday life, etc., felt like more digression and distraction than value added. But, hey, nobody's perfect, and, regardless of any criticism, I applaud him for taking on this Herculean task and producing a darn good book.

In the end, the book provides a valuable public service. In my dreams, it would be widely read. Sadly, that's not going to happen. But hope springs eternal.
]]> <![CDATA[Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor]]> 36137570 Like DreamersĚýdirectly addresses his Palestinian neighbors in this taut and provocative book, empathizing with Palestinian suffering and longing for reconciliation as he explores how the conflict looks through Israeli eyes.

I call you "neighbor" because I don’t know your name, or anything personal about you. Given our circumstances, "neighbor" might be too casual a word to describe our relationship. We are intruders into each other’s dream, violators of each other’s sense of home. We are incarnations of each other’s worst historical nightmares. Neighbors?

Letters to My Palestinian NeighborĚýis one Israeli’s powerful attempt to reach beyond the wall that separates Israelis and Palestinians and into the hearts of "the enemy." In a series of letters, Yossi Klein Halevi explains what motivated him to leave his native New York in his twenties and move to Israel to participate in the drama of the renewal of a Jewish homeland, which he is committed to see succeed as a morally responsible, democratic state in the Middle East.

This is the first attempt by an Israeli author to directly address his Palestinian neighbors and describe how the conflict appears through Israeli eyes. Halevi untangles the ideological and emotional knot that has defined the conflict for nearly a century. In lyrical, evocative language, he unravels the complex strands of faith, pride, anger and anguish he feels as a Jew living in Israel, using history and personal experience as his guide.

Halevi’s letters speak not only to his Palestinian neighbor, but to all concerned global citizens, helping us understand the painful choices confronting Israelis and Palestinians that will ultimately help determine the fate of the region.]]> 229 Yossi Klein Halevi 0062844938 Steve 0 to-read 4.09 2019 Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor
author: Yossi Klein Halevi
name: Steve
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Visual Intelligence: Sharpen Your Perception, Change Your Life]]> 40963341 An engrossing guide to seeing � and communicating � more clearly from the groundbreaking course that helps FBI agents, cops, CEOs, ER docs, and others save money, reputations, and lives.

How could looking at Monet’s water lily paintings help save your company millions? How can checking out people’s footwear foil a terrorist attack? How can your choice of adjective win an argument, calm your kid, or catch a thief?ĚýĚýĚýIn her celebrated seminar, the Art of Perception, art historian Amy Herman has trained experts from many fields how to perceive and communicate better. By showing people how to look closely at images, she helps them hone their “visual intelligence,â€� a set of skills we all possess but few of us know how to use properly. She has spent more than a decade teaching doctors to observe patients instead of their charts, helping police officers separate facts from opinions when investigating a crime, and training professionals from the FBI, the State Department, Fortune 500 companies, and the military to recognize the most pertinent and useful information. Her lessons highlight far more than the physical objects you may be missing; they teach you how to recognize the talents, opportunities, and dangers that surround you every day.ĚýĚýĚýWhether you want to be more effective on the job, more empathetic toward your loved ones, or more alert to the trove of possibilities and threats all around us, this book will show you how to see what matters most to you more clearly than ever before.
]]> 341 Amy E. Herman 0544381068 Steve 0 to-read 4.12 2015 Visual Intelligence: Sharpen Your Perception, Change Your Life
author: Amy E. Herman
name: Steve
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Lost Ark Dreaming 195790767
Off the coast of West Africa, decades after the dangerous rise of the Atlantic Ocean, the region’s survivors live inside five partially submerged, kilometers-high towers originally created as a playground for the wealthy. Now the towers� most affluent rule from their lofty perch at the top while the rest are crammed into the dark, fetid floors below sea level.

There are also those who were left for dead in the Atlantic, only to be reawakened by an ancient power, and who seek vengeance on those who offered them up to the waves.

Three lives within the towers are pulled to the fore of this Yekini, an earnest, mid-level rookie analyst; Tuoyo, an undersea mechanic mourning a tremendous loss; and Ngozi, an egotistical bureaucrat from the highest levels of governance. They will need to work together if there is to be any hope of a future that is worth living―for everyone.]]> 179 Suyi Davies Okungbowa 1250890756 Steve 4
A slender volume, something that could easily be read quickly, but chock full of passages worth savoring, re-reading, and pausing to consider. An unfamiliar voice narrating in a post-climate crisis setting at the other end of the environmental justice spectrum (which, in and of itself, makes me want to recommend it). Sparse but elegant, poignant and propulsive (it started fast and never really slowed down for me), brutal and evocative without being ponderous.... And, ultimately, quite novel.

The author acknowledges influences from, among others, two (seemingly popular) books (or, more accurately, like this work, novellas), neither of which I loved, but that -in my mind - animate and bound the world building: Ballard's High-Rise and Rivers Solomon/Daveed Diggs' The Deep, and ... to my surprise ... I found this more gratifying than either of (or the combination of) those two. And, sure, there's plenty of Snowpiercer here too, but this is Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ not Rotten Tomatoes, and I only saw the movie.

In terms of other dystopias and stuff in my head, I kept thinking back to Paolo Bacigalupi, but I'm not sure the analogy would, excuse the pun, hold water.

Overall, it worked for me, and I strongly recommend it.]]> 3.64 2024 Lost Ark Dreaming
author: Suyi Davies Okungbowa
name: Steve
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/17
date added: 2024/09/18
shelves: climate-nature-anthropocene, sci-fi-and-fantasy
review:
Very nicely done.

A slender volume, something that could easily be read quickly, but chock full of passages worth savoring, re-reading, and pausing to consider. An unfamiliar voice narrating in a post-climate crisis setting at the other end of the environmental justice spectrum (which, in and of itself, makes me want to recommend it). Sparse but elegant, poignant and propulsive (it started fast and never really slowed down for me), brutal and evocative without being ponderous.... And, ultimately, quite novel.

The author acknowledges influences from, among others, two (seemingly popular) books (or, more accurately, like this work, novellas), neither of which I loved, but that -in my mind - animate and bound the world building: Ballard's High-Rise and Rivers Solomon/Daveed Diggs' The Deep, and ... to my surprise ... I found this more gratifying than either of (or the combination of) those two. And, sure, there's plenty of Snowpiercer here too, but this is Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ not Rotten Tomatoes, and I only saw the movie.

In terms of other dystopias and stuff in my head, I kept thinking back to Paolo Bacigalupi, but I'm not sure the analogy would, excuse the pun, hold water.

Overall, it worked for me, and I strongly recommend it.
]]> <![CDATA[100 Bike Rides of a Lifetime: The World's Ultimate Cycling Experiences]]> 113401559
Get your pedals turning with this ultimate guide to the 100 greatest bike routes around the world. Beautifully illustrated with National Geographic photography and divided by region, 100 Bike Rides of a Lifetime takes you across six continents to the most epic bike rides on the planet.

Geared to everyone from expert riders to casual enthusiasts, this vibrant book offers a route for every type of biker, from quick jaunts in your own neighborhood to multi-week challenge. You’ll also find essential information—the best time to ride, the best spots to refuel, cultural highlights along each route, where to stay, and how to relax post-ride.

Bucket list recommendations


Inspiring and authoritative, this information-packed book will be the ultimate resource for every kind of cyclist.]]> 400 Roff Smith 1426222653 Steve 4 Travels from Home work. The photography was exquisite, and my hat's off to the effort that led to (far greater) exposure with profiles in mainstream media, including The New York Times - . As an aside, his Instagram feed (@roffsmith) is an eye-candy-filled joy to behold.

So ... I was already intrigued when I heard about this book and, while it wasn't really what I expected - for example, it's not a Roff Smith photography collection (nor is it marketed as such) - it was worth every penny, and I'm glad I purchased (and now own) it.

Briefly, there's no secret what's going on in this book - it is what it is. The landscape is diverse, the photography is gorgeous, the prose is evocative, and, at least from my standpoint, the organization and presentation made the enterprise work (and will, I expect, lead to the book remaining in a handy place on my bookshelf).

Sure, for those (increasingly common) days when I contemplate retirement and try to hone/prioritize my bucket list of bike trips, I thought I might find inspiration here - and, to some extent, I may have. But, in retrospect, despite my (rather heavy) interest in (and experience with) bicycling, travel, and photography - the three main ingredients in the recipe - I can't say I found what I was looking for in the book. But that didn't necessarily diminish my enjoyment in consuming it.

To be clear, even though I've been lucky enough to live abroad and travel widely, and I've biked in a fair number of countries (and continents and yes, closer to home, States), most of the rides in the book are (particularly at this point in my life) beyond my abilities and, more precisely, of little interest to me (other than fascination). And while plenty of accessible day trips are included, some might quibble with the notion that "cycling experiences" are predominantly self-supported bike-packing and/or expeditions/quests. Then again, maybe that's just the nature of trying to shoehorn a planet's worth of cycling into a mere 100 of the "world's greatest trails." Ultimately, the concept of "great" offers the author (and the reader) more than a dollop of discretion, with plenty of room at the margins for personal taste.

Still, kudos to Smith for assembling something of the quality you'd expect from National Geographic. It's a very nice collection.]]> 4.36 100 Bike Rides of a Lifetime: The World's Ultimate Cycling Experiences
author: Roff Smith
name: Steve
average rating: 4.36
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/15
date added: 2024/09/15
shelves: cycling-and-running, non-fiction, sports, photography
review:
Despite his extraordinary life and travels and prior publications, I'm guessing I'm not alone in having first started paying attention to Roff Smith during his pandemic-inspired Travels from Home work. The photography was exquisite, and my hat's off to the effort that led to (far greater) exposure with profiles in mainstream media, including The New York Times - . As an aside, his Instagram feed (@roffsmith) is an eye-candy-filled joy to behold.

So ... I was already intrigued when I heard about this book and, while it wasn't really what I expected - for example, it's not a Roff Smith photography collection (nor is it marketed as such) - it was worth every penny, and I'm glad I purchased (and now own) it.

Briefly, there's no secret what's going on in this book - it is what it is. The landscape is diverse, the photography is gorgeous, the prose is evocative, and, at least from my standpoint, the organization and presentation made the enterprise work (and will, I expect, lead to the book remaining in a handy place on my bookshelf).

Sure, for those (increasingly common) days when I contemplate retirement and try to hone/prioritize my bucket list of bike trips, I thought I might find inspiration here - and, to some extent, I may have. But, in retrospect, despite my (rather heavy) interest in (and experience with) bicycling, travel, and photography - the three main ingredients in the recipe - I can't say I found what I was looking for in the book. But that didn't necessarily diminish my enjoyment in consuming it.

To be clear, even though I've been lucky enough to live abroad and travel widely, and I've biked in a fair number of countries (and continents and yes, closer to home, States), most of the rides in the book are (particularly at this point in my life) beyond my abilities and, more precisely, of little interest to me (other than fascination). And while plenty of accessible day trips are included, some might quibble with the notion that "cycling experiences" are predominantly self-supported bike-packing and/or expeditions/quests. Then again, maybe that's just the nature of trying to shoehorn a planet's worth of cycling into a mere 100 of the "world's greatest trails." Ultimately, the concept of "great" offers the author (and the reader) more than a dollop of discretion, with plenty of room at the margins for personal taste.

Still, kudos to Smith for assembling something of the quality you'd expect from National Geographic. It's a very nice collection.
]]> <![CDATA[My Favorite Thing Is Monsters: Book Two (My Favorite Thing is Monsters, #2)]]> 193385485 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]]> 412 Emil Ferris 1683969278 Steve 5 graphic-novels-manga brilliant, nay, 'twas sublime ... even if I'm still not sure exactly what it is or was, ... it was extraordinarily well done and different and creative and thought-provoking and evocative and ... oh so nicely executed.

Volume I was a tough act to follow, but Volume II was even better, and I'm pretty solidly at five stars for the combo. With the caveat that this is very much not for everyone, I can't recommend it enough to (adult) graphic novel or true crime or ... I dunno ... Kavlier and Clay aficionados ... and, for that special someone out there looking for a fine art/art history - holocaust-inspired horror, LGBTQ-coming-of-age and oh, my, it's the Sixties and mean streets of Chicago mashup, well, look no further....

Don't even think about diving into Volume II without consuming Volume I first.

For me, one of the most pleasant surprises from the never-ending lists of best of or most anticipated stuff to read this year. And, as I noted in my review of Volume I, I'm glad that the lists highlighted Volume II, because (sadly) I totally missed Volume I when it came out a number of years ago.]]> 4.20 2024 My Favorite Thing Is Monsters: Book Two (My Favorite Thing is Monsters, #2)
author: Emil Ferris
name: Steve
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: graphic-novels-manga
review:
Wow... that was brilliant, nay, 'twas sublime ... even if I'm still not sure exactly what it is or was, ... it was extraordinarily well done and different and creative and thought-provoking and evocative and ... oh so nicely executed.

Volume I was a tough act to follow, but Volume II was even better, and I'm pretty solidly at five stars for the combo. With the caveat that this is very much not for everyone, I can't recommend it enough to (adult) graphic novel or true crime or ... I dunno ... Kavlier and Clay aficionados ... and, for that special someone out there looking for a fine art/art history - holocaust-inspired horror, LGBTQ-coming-of-age and oh, my, it's the Sixties and mean streets of Chicago mashup, well, look no further....

Don't even think about diving into Volume II without consuming Volume I first.

For me, one of the most pleasant surprises from the never-ending lists of best of or most anticipated stuff to read this year. And, as I noted in my review of Volume I, I'm glad that the lists highlighted Volume II, because (sadly) I totally missed Volume I when it came out a number of years ago.
]]> <![CDATA[The Story of a New Name (Neapolitan Novels #2)]]> 38465292 My Brilliant Friend in theĚýNew York TimesĚýbestselling Neapolitan quartet about two friends growing up in post-war Italy is a rich, intense, and generous-hearted family epic by Italy’s most beloved and acclaimed writer, Elena Ferrante, “one of the great novelists of our time.â€� (Roxana Robinson,ĚýThe New York Times)

InĚýThe Story of a New Name, Lila has recently married and made her enterĂ©e into the family business; Elena, meanwhile, continues her studies and her exploration of the world beyond the neighborhood that she so often finds stifling. Love, jealousy, family, freedom, commitment, and above all friendship: these are signs under which both women live out this phase in their stories. Marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila, and the pressure to excel is at times too much for Elena. Yet the two young women share a complex and evolving bond that is central to their emotional lives and is a source of strength in the face of life's challenges. In these Neapolitan Novels, Elena Ferrante, the acclaimed author ofĚýThe Days of Abandonment, gives readers a poignant and universal story about friendship and belonging.

Ferrante is one of the world’s great storytellers. With the Neapolitan quartetĚýshe has given her readers an abundant, generous, and masterfully plotted page-turner that is also a stylish work of literary fiction destined to delight readers for many generations to come.]]> 471 Elena Ferrante Steve 3 thing), I'm very late to the party on the books (having resisted for many years for innumerable, largely undefined, but almost certainly instinctual (if not visceral) reasons), and I found myself vacillating between being compelled and horrified by the first installment.

Alas, the second volume - not surprisingly - felt like more of the same, but the balance between being compelled and horrified very much saw the balance being tipped in the direction of the latter. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the emotion (for me) that permeated most of this book was discomfort.

Having said that, as the end of the book neared, there were enough pleasant and interesting twists to set up round three that I'm relatively certain I'll continue with the enterprise.

]]> 4.45 2012 The Story of a New Name (Neapolitan Novels #2)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: Steve
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/06
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves:
review:
I have no doubt it's unhelpful and bordering on pointless to review a popular book in what is by now considered an iconic series, where most readers have already formed opinions on the book and the series (and, at this point the screen version). I haven't seen any of this on the screen (nor do I expect to ... it does seem like it's my thing), I'm very late to the party on the books (having resisted for many years for innumerable, largely undefined, but almost certainly instinctual (if not visceral) reasons), and I found myself vacillating between being compelled and horrified by the first installment.

Alas, the second volume - not surprisingly - felt like more of the same, but the balance between being compelled and horrified very much saw the balance being tipped in the direction of the latter. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the emotion (for me) that permeated most of this book was discomfort.

Having said that, as the end of the book neared, there were enough pleasant and interesting twists to set up round three that I'm relatively certain I'll continue with the enterprise.


]]> <![CDATA[The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook]]> 191746386
On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution . Two-and-a-half years later, on a beach on the island of Hawaii, Cook was killed in a conflict with native Hawaiians. How did Cook, who was unique among captains for his respect for Indigenous peoples and cultures, come to that fatal moment?

Hampton Sides� bravura account of Cook’s last journey both wrestles with Cook’s legacy and provides a thrilling narrative of the titanic efforts and continual danger that characterized exploration in the 1700s. Cook was renowned for his peerless seamanship, his humane leadership, and his dedication to science-–the famed naturalist Joseph Banks accompanied him on his first voyage, and Cook has been called one of the most important figures of the Age of Enlightenment. He was also deeply interested in the native people he encountered. In fact, his stated mission was to return a Tahitian man, Mai, who had become the toast of London, to his home islands. On previous expeditions, Cook mapped huge swaths of the Pacific, including the east coast of Australia, and initiated first European contact with numerous peoples. He treated his crew well, and endeavored to learn about the societies he encountered with curiosity and without judgment.

Yet something was different on this last voyage. Cook became mercurial, resorting to the lash to enforce discipline, and led his two vessels into danger time and again. Uncharacteristically, he ordered violent retaliation for perceived theft on the part of native peoples. This may have had something to do with his secret orders, which were to chart and claim lands before Britain’s imperial rivals could, and to discover the fabled Northwest Passage. Whatever Cook’s intentions, his scientific efforts were the sharp edge of the colonial sword, and the ultimate effects of first contact were catastrophic for Indigenous people around the world. The tensions between Cook’s overt and covert missions came to a head on the shores of Hawaii. His first landing there was harmonious, but when Cook returned after mapping the coast of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, his exploitative treatment of the Hawaiians led to the fatal encounter.

At once a ferociously-paced story of adventure on the high seas and a searching examination of the complexities and consequences of the Age of Exploration, THE WIDE WIDE SEA is a major work from one of our finest narrative nonfiction writers.]]> 408 Hampton Sides 0385544766 Steve 0 to-read 4.47 2024 The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
author: Hampton Sides
name: Steve
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Back in the Frame: How to get back on your bike, whatever life throws at you]]> 42779723
Shortly after getting back on two wheels, Jools was diagnosed with depression and then, in her early thirties, hit by a mini-stroke. Yet, through all of these punctures, one constant remained: Jools' love of cycling.

In Back in the Frame Jools talks to the other female trailblazers who are disrupting the cycling narrative as well as telling the story of how she overcame her health problems, learned how to cycle her own path and even found a love of Lycra shorts along the way.]]> 368 Jools Walker 0751570788 Steve 0 to-read 4.02 2019 Back in the Frame: How to get back on your bike, whatever life throws at you
author: Jools Walker
name: Steve
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books]]> 199119054
Beverly Underwood and her arch enemy, Lula Dean, live in the tiny town of Troy, Georgia, where they were born and raised. Now Beverly is on the school board, and Lula has become a local celebrity by embarking on mission to rid the public libraries of all inappropriate books—none of which she’s actually read. To replace the “pornographic� books she’s challenged at the local public library, Lula starts her own lending library in front of her home: a cute wooden hutch with glass doors and neat rows of the worthy literature that she’s sure the town’s readers need.

But Beverly’s daughter Lindsay sneaks in by night and secretly fills Lula Dean’s little free library with banned books wrapped in “wholesome� dust jackets. The Girl’s Guide to the Revolution is wrapped in the cover of The Southern Belle’s Guide to Etiquette. A jacket that belongs to Our Confederate Heroes ends up on Beloved. One by one, neighbors who borrow books from Lula Dean’s library find their lives changed in unexpected ways. Finally, one of Lula Dean’s enemies discovers the library and decides to turn the tables on her, just as Lula and Beverly are running against each other to replace the town’s disgraced mayor.

That’s when all the townspeople who’ve been borrowing from Lula’s library begin to reveal themselves. It’s a diverse and surprising bunch—including the local postman, the prom queen, housewives, a farmer, and the former DA—all of whom have been changed by what they’ve read. When Lindsay is forced to own up to what she’s done, the showdown that’s been brewing between Beverly and Lula will roil the whole town...and change it forever.]]> 301 Kirsten Miller 0063348713 Steve 5 yes!

Right book, right time, right audience (OK, OK, more than a dollop of preach to the choir, but that's just fine), ... but, but ... just plain right!

I hate to admit how frequently I found myself smiling (and, yes, chuckling) throughout the book, which was slightly disconcerting given the stakes involved and the subject-matter.

Is the book polarizing? Duh! So, sure, it's not for everyone. But it was perfect for me (and I'm guessing a lot of folks who enjoy the books I enjoy will agree). And I'm guessing it'll be more (nay, immensely) popular with the kind of folks who buy and read (and share and talk about) books than those who don't (duh! redux), so I'm hoping the author makes a fortune off of it!

Could I quibble with innumerable aspects of the book, particularly at the margins? You betcha! But why bother? Buy it, read it, enjoy it, share it!

Degrees of separation? Am I the only one who kept thinking back to Percival Everett's The Trees while I was reading this?]]> 4.19 2024 Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books
author: Kirsten Miller
name: Steve
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/21
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves:
review:
Yes! ... and, again, yes!

Right book, right time, right audience (OK, OK, more than a dollop of preach to the choir, but that's just fine), ... but, but ... just plain right!

I hate to admit how frequently I found myself smiling (and, yes, chuckling) throughout the book, which was slightly disconcerting given the stakes involved and the subject-matter.

Is the book polarizing? Duh! So, sure, it's not for everyone. But it was perfect for me (and I'm guessing a lot of folks who enjoy the books I enjoy will agree). And I'm guessing it'll be more (nay, immensely) popular with the kind of folks who buy and read (and share and talk about) books than those who don't (duh! redux), so I'm hoping the author makes a fortune off of it!

Could I quibble with innumerable aspects of the book, particularly at the margins? You betcha! But why bother? Buy it, read it, enjoy it, share it!

Degrees of separation? Am I the only one who kept thinking back to Percival Everett's The Trees while I was reading this?
]]> <![CDATA[The Cat Who Saved Books (The Cat Who..., #1)]]> 58726366 From the #1 bestselling author in Japan comes a celebration of books, cats, and the people who love them, infused with the heartwarming spirit of The Guest Cat and The Travelling Cat Chronicles.

Bookish high school student Rintaro Natsuki is about to close the secondhand bookstore he inherited from his beloved bookworm grandfather. Then, a talking cat appears with an unusual request. The feline asks for—or rather, demands—the teenager’s help in saving books with him. The world is full of lonely books left unread and unloved, and the cat and Rintaro must liberate them from their neglectful owners.

Their mission sends this odd couple on an amazing journey, where they enter different mazes to set books free. Through their travels, the cat and Rintaro meet a man who leaves his books to perish on a bookshelf, an unwitting book torturer who cuts the pages of books into snippets to help people speed read, and a publishing drone who only wants to create bestsellers. Their adventures culminate in one final, unforgettable challenge—the last maze that awaits leads Rintaro down a realm only the bravest dare enter . . .

An enthralling tale of books, first love, fantasy, and an unusual friendship with a talking cat, The Cat Who Saved Books is a story for those for whom books are so much more than words on paper.]]> 207 SĹŤsuke Natsukawa Steve 3 sci-fi-and-fantasy cute and cozy shelf (a relatively recent category for me, following up on Legends and Lattes), but with a nod in the direction of, I dunno, AJ Fikry or even, and probably more so 84 Charing Cross Road....

'Twas a slender volume, so one might easily treat it as a novella, which, of course, reduces both the level of (time/energy) investment and potential for disappointment. As a light snack, easily consumed, ... I found it sufficiently tasty.]]> 3.93 2017 The Cat Who Saved Books (The Cat Who..., #1)
author: SĹŤsuke Natsukawa
name: Steve
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/15
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: sci-fi-and-fantasy
review:
I'm going to place this one on the cute and cozy shelf (a relatively recent category for me, following up on Legends and Lattes), but with a nod in the direction of, I dunno, AJ Fikry or even, and probably more so 84 Charing Cross Road....

'Twas a slender volume, so one might easily treat it as a novella, which, of course, reduces both the level of (time/energy) investment and potential for disappointment. As a light snack, easily consumed, ... I found it sufficiently tasty.
]]> <![CDATA[What Universities Owe Democracy]]> 57873211 336 Ronald J. Daniels 1421442698 Steve 0 to-read 3.89 What Universities Owe Democracy
author: Ronald J. Daniels
name: Steve
average rating: 3.89
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Running Past Fifty: Advice and Inspiration for Senior Runners]]> 44064016
Presenting time-tested recommendations, Kislevitz interviews some of the nation’s greatest senior runners. Included here are exclusive interviews with greats such as Ed Whitlock, who, at the age of eighty-five, set an age-division world record of 3:56 in the marathon; Bill Rodgers, winner of four Boston Marathons and four New York City Marathons; George Hirsch, chairman of New York Road Runners; Olympian and author Jeff Galloway; world record holder Sid Howard; and runner and women’s pioneer runner and advocate Kathrine Switzer

And legendary runners aren’t the only ones running well into seniority. Kislevitz also offers motivational stories from average runners who hit the pavement frequently and refuse to let their age stop them from competing regularly.

Baby boomer runners may be slower than they once were, but they show no signs of slowing down. Inspiring and insightful, Running Past Fifty is the perfect read for every one of them.]]> 344 Gail Waesche Kislevitz Steve 2
I can see why some folks really enjoyed this; it just wasn't what I was looking for or expecting.

The photos were big plus. Conversely, the easily avoidable repetition was maddening.]]> 3.50 Running Past Fifty: Advice and Inspiration for Senior Runners
author: Gail Waesche Kislevitz
name: Steve
average rating: 3.50
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2024/08/14
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves: cycling-and-running, non-fiction, sports
review:
I (really) thought I was the target audience, but I misunderstood the nature of the enterprise. It's a (very) nice project and, apparently, a labor of love, but alas, not, to my mind, a great book.

I can see why some folks really enjoyed this; it just wasn't what I was looking for or expecting.

The photos were big plus. Conversely, the easily avoidable repetition was maddening.
]]> Blue Mars (Mars Trilogy, #3) 6526698 Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel � One of the most enthralling science fiction sagas ever written, Kim Stanley Robinson’s epic trilogy concludes with Blue Mars—a triumph of prodigious research and visionary storytelling. “A breakthrough even from [Kim Stanley Robinson’s] own consistently high levels of achievement.�—The New York Times Book Review The red planet is no more. Now green and verdant, Mars has been dramatically altered from a desolate world into one where humans can flourish. The First Hundred settlers are being pulled into a fierce new struggle between the Reds, a group devoted to preserving Mars in its desert state, and the Green “terraformers.� Meanwhile, Earth is in peril. A great flood threatens an already overcrowded and polluted planet. With Mars the last hope for the human race, the inhabitants of the red planet are heading toward a population explosion—or interplanetary war.]]> 786 Kim Stanley Robinson Steve 0 to-read 4.13 1996 Blue Mars (Mars Trilogy, #3)
author: Kim Stanley Robinson
name: Steve
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[My Brilliant Friend (My Brilliant Friend, #1)]]> 13586707 331 Elena Ferrante Steve 4 finally got around to reading this. It's been recommended to me many ... many ... times, we had multiple copies in the house (given to us as gifts), we've spent a lot of time in Italy (I visited the first time in the 1970's, we honeymooned there 30+ years ago, we took the kids there, and I'm there on work somewhat regularly) ... and, and, and ... then the New York Times Book Review, this summer, generated a (to my eye, quirky) list of the so-called 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, chosen by 500+ "literary luminaries," and this percolated to the top. After that, it was hard, nay impossible, to defend (to myself) my stubborn refusal to take the plunge.

I should have read it earlier. I can't say I was smitten by it, but I did find it compelling, and it's very easy to see why so many enjoyed (and loved and recommended) it. I think the NYT nailed it: "Reading this uncompromising, unforgettable novel is like riding a bike on gravel: It’s gritty and slippery and nerve-racking, all at the same time...."

And, yes, I'm confident I'll read at least one more (and, yeah, the odds are I'll eventually read all four ... the only real question is how quickly I'll return to the story arc).]]> 3.91 2011 My Brilliant Friend (My Brilliant Friend, #1)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: Steve
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/11
date added: 2024/08/12
shelves:
review:
OK, I finally got around to reading this. It's been recommended to me many ... many ... times, we had multiple copies in the house (given to us as gifts), we've spent a lot of time in Italy (I visited the first time in the 1970's, we honeymooned there 30+ years ago, we took the kids there, and I'm there on work somewhat regularly) ... and, and, and ... then the New York Times Book Review, this summer, generated a (to my eye, quirky) list of the so-called 100 Best Books of the 21st Century, chosen by 500+ "literary luminaries," and this percolated to the top. After that, it was hard, nay impossible, to defend (to myself) my stubborn refusal to take the plunge.

I should have read it earlier. I can't say I was smitten by it, but I did find it compelling, and it's very easy to see why so many enjoyed (and loved and recommended) it. I think the NYT nailed it: "Reading this uncompromising, unforgettable novel is like riding a bike on gravel: It’s gritty and slippery and nerve-racking, all at the same time...."

And, yes, I'm confident I'll read at least one more (and, yeah, the odds are I'll eventually read all four ... the only real question is how quickly I'll return to the story arc).
]]> <![CDATA[Wasteland: The Secret World of Waste and the Urgent Search for a Cleaner Future]]> 63251764 An award-winning investigative journalist takes a deep dive into the global waste crisis, exposing the hidden world that enables our modern economy � and finds out the dirty truth behind a simple question: what really happens to what we throw away?

In Wasteland, journalist Oliver Franklin-Wallis takes us on a shocking journey inside the waste industry—the secretive multi-billion dollar world that underpins the modern economy, quietly profiting from what we leave behind. In India, he meets the waste-pickers on the front line of the plastic crisis. In the UK, he journeys down sewers to confront our oldest—and newest—waste crisis, and comes face-to-face with nuclear waste. In Ghana, he follows the after-life of our technology and explores the global export network that results in goodwill donations clogging African landfills. From an incinerator to an Oklahoma ghost-town, Franklin-Wallis travels in search of the people and companies that really handle waste—and on the way, meets the innovators and campaigners pushing for a cleaner and less wasteful future. Ěý
Ěý
With this mesmerizing, thought-provoking, and occasionally terrifying investigation, Oliver Franklin-Wallis tells a new story of humanity based on what we leave behind, and along the way, he shares a blueprint for building a healthier, more sustainable world—before we’re all buried in trash.]]> 400 Oliver Franklin-Wallis 0306827115 Steve 0 to-read 4.46 2023 Wasteland: The Secret World of Waste and the Urgent Search for a Cleaner Future
author: Oliver Franklin-Wallis
name: Steve
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>