The Peculiarities by David Liss. 2/5
David Liss is known for his somewhat baroque novels usually dealing with finance or speculation or similar matters revolving around money, and this novel is no different. In an England where people are turning into animals and women truly are giving birth to rabbits, a young man of a banking family finds strange goings-on in the bank and investigates, learning about the real-life Hermetic Order of the Ancient Dawn and coming into contact with figures like William Butler Yeats, Aleister Crowley, and others. With the help of a motley group of friends and allies, he must use maths as magic to stop extra-dimensional killers and the bank’s board from bringing about worldwide devastation. Liss’s writing style is meant to emulate the writers of the period, but I’ve never thought this to be very good–instead, in instills a sense of dullness to the writing and to the plot and feelings of the characters, and I find it incredibly distasteful to emulate, unchecked, the antisemitism and other prejudices of the time period. But if you don’t mind that the narrator is an antisemite and mostly a jerk, feel free to read. It’s too bad that Liss’s desire to recreate the nastier aspects of Victorian writing overshadow theclever ideas that make up the plot and the interesting characters.
The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova. 5/5
A million stars for this book, which is a beautiful and original story of family and women’s resilience in a classic Latinx magical realist tradition. Matriarch Orquidea summons her relatives as she begins to make a very different kind of end-of-life transition from that of most people, and leaves granddaughter Marimar with a quest that involves staying home and creating a home far more than adventuring to strange places. This is a delicious book perfect for reading while listening to the sea or relaxing in a hammock or eating cupcakes with sprinkles and rejoicing in the wonder of a good imagination and the written word.
The Women of Troy by Pat Barker. 2/5
I had the same reaction to this as I did to Barker’s previous book in this set, The Silence of the Girls: it’s not very interesting. In the aftermath of the Trojan war, the Greeks wait for a wind to take them home. In the meantime, they set up camp and hold athletic games and plot. The women, stolen from Troy and raped and abused, create small communities of their own, trying to find stability amid the chaos. There have been a lot of retellings recently of the Odyssey and other Greek myth, and some of those have been imaginative and intriguing. This isn’t one of those, and despite Barker’s skill, she doesn’t bring anything new to these stories.
The Lights of Prague by Nicole Jarvis. 4/5
As far as vampire-vampire slayer romances go, this one isn’t bad. Set in Prague and full of atmosphere, the novel finds a vampire woman seducing a human man, neither of them knowing what the other is. It’s all hot and heavy until he sees her vampiric face and she sees his skill with a stake, no pun intended. But of course it turns out that they are on the same side, although it takes the slayer a while to realize that. Together they work to stop a threat that would see the rise of vicious vampires across the world. This was a fun read, with lots of good eastern European vampire and other supernatural lore, some very intense encounters with ghosts and a will-o-the-wisp, and a plot that moves quickly even when it’s full of excellent descriptive passages of the city and fashion. A good book for a stormy summer night.
Road of Bones by James R. Benn. 3/5
One of many in a series of mysteries involving the protagonist, a special investigator for the US military, this is an interesting read. There are US traitors, a “honeypot” trap, victims of Stalin’s regime, drug dealers, and other characters and tropes from the WWII era and foreshadowing the Cold War. The most interesting thing to me was the apparent but unacknowledged/unrequited love the protagonist, Billy Boyle, has for one of his teammates, Big Mike. Boyle has a female love interest, but she’s mostly forgotten in this story, and for the first half of the book Boyle is focused on rescuing Big Mike, but then seems uncomfortable in his presence. A set-up for a queer romance? I’m not sold on the protagonist–he’s kind of a jerk–but maybe I’ll read some of the others in the series.
When Evil Lived in Laurel by Curtis Wilkie. 3/5
With this book, author Wilkie tries to tell the story of Tom Landrum, an undercover agent for the FBI in one of Mississippi’s Klans in the 1950s and 60s. I really wanted to read more of Landrum’s own words and descriptions, rather than Wilkie’s somewhat plodding and long paraphrases. Wilkie is also too often fatphobic and otherwise prejudiced in describing people, as if there is a certain look or body type found more often in bigots. Another round of edits could tighten this up, work in more primary sources, and make it a much better book.
African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song (LOA #333) by Kevin Young. 4/5
This is an excellent introduction to African American poetry, full of standards and new voices, and some lovely surprises. I’m a bit unhappy with the inclusion of Alice Walker, known for her antisemitism, but I understand why her work is included. However, the formatting of the book (at least for Kindle) is a problem. Lines are pushed together or broken unevenly (and not in the ways they’re broken in printed versions of the same poems) and the notes are all endnotes, not footnotes or introductory notes, meaning that readers have to flip back and forth hundreds of pages to see the notes for each poem.
The Forgotten World by Nick Courtright. 4/5
This is a searing, self-reflective manifesto on the damage done by men, and white men in particular, to the world and to others. It’s never self-pitying or defensive, but instead grapples with big ideas and difficult topics with aplomb and sensitivity.
Take What You Can Carry by Gian Sardar. 5/5
This is a fantastic book, and I’m recommending it to everyone. The author is brilliant in portraying both insider and outsider perspectives throughout the novel, and the characters are human and original. I enjoyed the tension of the structure, with the small internal flash-forwards and flashbacks that made the ending tantalizing until the last minute. The writing itself is beautiful and I learned a lot as I read.
For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten. 2/5
This was just ok. The premise and initial reveal were predictable, and the Tortured Chosen One trope plays out well. But the characters didn’t really grab me, and I found myself getting bored reading it. Maybe it’s because there have been so very many riffs on Red Riding Hood, but even among these, this book didn’t stand out.
