The Kingdom of Sand by Andrew Holleran

Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2022--San Antonio

The Kingdom of Sand by Andrew Holleran was named as one of the Top 20 Books of 2022 by the London Times and one of the Top 5 Books of 2022 by the Los Angeles Times.  It is different from most novels.  It is really just a description of a slice of life of an aging gay man in a small town in Florida.  He has a local friend who isn't close enough to rely on each other, but who occasionally calls to invite him to his home to watch a classic film or hear a recording of an opera.  He has returned to this town because of his parents were becoming incapacitated.  His father dies and his mother, after having to be in a wheel chair for several months, everntually goes to a nursing home in Gainesville.  He has a very limited sex life.   He stops sometimes at a gay cinema at a crossroads he passes returning from Gainesville.  He has a regular sex buddy who is the partner of a female physical therapist in the town.   Even though his parents have both died, he has remained in their home in the small town except for occasional trips to D.C. for 2-3 weeks due to a part-time job.  He uses those opportunities to interact with old friends there and returns to his rather lonely existence in the small town.  On evenings when not invited to his friend's home, he walks the town observing the changes that have taken place (such as the slow deterioration of certain homes and the residents that are new vs. the ones who lived there in the past, etc.), the sunsets, the life in the flat areas that were once part of a large lake, etc.  His friend eventually dies, and his life becomes even more restrictive and alone.  He focuses on who he finds attractive (from a distance), but he continues to be a loner and to accept and even prefer being alone.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Foster by Claire Keegan

Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022--San Antonio

Foster by Claire Keegan is a very short book (under 100 pages), but one that was short listed as a finalist for the Booker Prize in 2022 and noted by The Times as one of the 50 best novels of this century so far.  It is the story of a young girl in Ireland whose age is not given but is young enough to be placed on the lap or shoulders of a man and old enough to have developed some basic reading skills.  She comes from a poor family with a father who drinks and gambles, with far too much too many children, and a mother who is expecting another baby during the summer the story takes place.  An aunt and an uncle have offered to take the girl to live with them during the summer as her mother deals with your pregnancy while also trying to keep the farm running, since the latter burden has fallen on her for years due to her husband's behavior.  The summer proves to be an awakening for the girl.  She is taught manners, she improves her reading to the point that she can read books on her own, she observes how others' lives are lived, she learns of a secret related to the family who is fostering her, and she matures--all while falling in love with the new family.  She returns to her own family so changed by the end of the summer that it is obvious that life will be a disappointment to her and a hardship for her--that she has lived through maybe the best time of her entire life already at such a young age.  I gave the book 5 stars out of 5.

The Town of Babylon by Alejandro Varela

Friday, Dec. 16, 2022--San Antonio

The Town of Babylon by Alejandro Varela was shortlisted for the National Book Award and named on a number of lists of top books of 2022.  It's the story of a 37-year-old gay man, Andres, who is a university professor and has returned to from the West Coast to his suburban hometown on Long Island to assist his mother in taking care of his father during a time of illness.  The trip just happens to coincide with the 20th reunion of his Catholic school graduating class.  This gives him a chance to remember what it was like living in this suburban town as in one of the few minority migrant families and the relationships he built with their children.  He also reconnects with his best female friend whose parents are also professors and who happens to miss the reunion because she has been committed to a mental hospital after having gone off her medications for schizophrenia and also with his first love who is now married with children.  Although Andres has been married for some time to a medical doctor of Dominican descent, this trip coincides with his husband having traveled to Africa on a professional trip, so he is able to remain in Babylon for a few weeks.  The book covers many topics:  the need for minorities to be careful at all times and to always perform better than others, the problems minorities have with the police, maintaining fidelity in a marriage, the effects of jealousy between siblings, the question of whether and when to have children, the experience of "coming out," the difficulties of being a liberal within a mostly conservative community, etc.  The book includes the back stories of Andre's parents, his brother and his life, a classmate who was his nemesis and bragged about bashing a queer man in high school and is now an evangelical minister, his best friend Simone (in the mental hospital) and her family, and his first love and his family, so it is not just the life story of this one young man.  But when Andre is telling his own story in the first person, it is quite enjoyably humorous at times making the book come more alive.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Men in My Situation by Per Petterson

Friday, Dec. 9, 2022--San Antonio

Men in My Situation by Per Petterson is a novel by a Norwegian author which has been translated into English.  It was listed as a top book of 2022 by the New York Public Library.  I knew going into it that it would be "different" from what I had read about it.  It is a story of the thoughts and interactions with others of a depressed man over a period of about 6 months that follows a year that has been terrible for him--a year in which his parents and two of his remaining 3 siblings have perished in a ferry fire and then his wife, who was already unhappy in the marriage but has stayed with him for a year because of the first tragedy, finally leaves him taking their 3 daughters with her.  He thinks back through all that has happened as well as describing what is now happening in his life.  He is a successful and well-known author of 3 books who is writing his fourth, but he comes from a working class background and has little in common with the "beautiful people" who his wife has associated with more and more as time has passed.  They have never really become friends of his.  It becomes obvious to both him and the reader that his life has been going off the rails for some time and is continuing to do so during the current time of the story.  He has cut himself off from his lifelong best friend.  His wife, after only about 3 months since leaving him, cuts him off from seeing his children on a regular basis.  He drinks at bars and picks up anonymous women for a night of sex which is usually non-satisfactory.  Only one person, a married women who lives with her husband across the hall from his apartment, seems to show any concern for how he is doing as his life spirals downward.  Because he is an author, he has no work colleagues, so he spends hours traveling around places (both in Oslo and in the surrounding countryside as far as a town across the border in Sweden) he remembers from his past.  Beginning as a very slow read which almost made me quit the novel, patterns slowly develop as the random memories described begin to fit together.  The result is that I read more and more pages each day as I became emotionally invested in his life.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5. 

First Time for Everything by Henry Fry

Sunday, Nov. 20, 2020--San Antonio

First Time for Everything by Henry Fry is often hilarious.  It takes place in London with the main character being a gay man in his late 20s who has always been rather meek and unsure of himself.  His best friend is a flamboyant friend from early childhood who dresses in drag and uses the pronouns they/them.  He is trying to work out who he is, how he should be, what would make him happy, why things in life are not working out as he had planned.  At the beginning of the novel, he is facing relationship problems and being kicked out of the home of a straight female friend from childhood where he has been renting a room from her and her boyfriend for 7 years.  He faces panic attacks and begins seeing a therapist while experimenting in trying to change himself to be more open and authentic yet really just becoming quite mean and inconsiderate.  Accidentally, he becomes quite famous (even becoming a meme) and gets recognition for having created a gay story (through video) that was meant to be just him being himself but is understood by others to be one of the most creative and authentic gay series in broadcasting of the year.  I enjoyed the misadventures of this young man and his road of discovery.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Perpetual West by Mesha Maren

Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022--San Antonio

Perpetual West by Mesha Maren takes place in El Paso and northern Mexico.  Two of the main characters are young man who was born in Juarez and immediately adopted by a white ultra religious couple from West Virginia and his wife who is estranged from her father and whose mother chose to keep the child and have her even though it would likely cost the mother her life due to having been diagnosed with cancer.  The young man wants to try to connect with his birth heritage and both he and his wife are enrolled in graduate school at UTEP.  The young man is working on a thesis research topic in sociology related to lucha libre, Mexican professional wrestling.  And the wife is trying to write a book or article around the theme of bold choices that women make in their lives.  Both are a bit disenchanted with their lives and there is little passion in their marriage. In his research, the husband meets a professional wrestler.  As time passes, a sexual relationship develops between the two of them.  Everything goes wrong for everyone one week when the wife has gone back east for a week and the two men are caught by a cartel warlord who has searched them down in the mountains of Chihuahua where they were visiting the wrestler's family.  The warlord is determined to have the wrestler work for him.  There are problems for the wife trying to get the police to search for her missing husband and for the two men who are separated with the husband being locked up and the wrestler being sent all over Mexico to fight--with minders watching over each of them.  All three characters are frustrated with the situation they find themselves in.  I felt that the build-up at the beginning of the book took too long causing me to put the book down more frequently than I would with a novel.  It's an interesting story and I ended up liking it, but it could be better edited, I think.  For a book with a gay theme, I gave it 4 stars out of 5 (although as general literature I would drop that to 3 1/2 stars out of 5).

Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro

Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022--San Antonio

Signal Fires, by Dani Shapiro is a book I didn't want to put down.  I cared for every character wanting things to go well for them--even including the abusive father who just didn't know how to deal with a son who was not what he expected a son to be and didn't realize the problem was within him instead of within his son.  The book jumps back and forth over several decades following the lives of the members of two different families who live across the street from each other but do not have social interactions with each other.  It addresses connections that occur between people by accident that can have long term affects (both good and bad) on the lives of family members who become involved both directly and directly.  It deals with the affects of hiding secrets and never discussing them even among family members who know the secret.  It deals with lives that are not as fulfilling as one had hoped.  It's main theme, however, is connectedness to each other in various ways.  I felt intimately involved in all the lives and just kept reading and reading until I finished the book within hours.  I rated the book at 4 1/2 stars out of 5, but I would have given it 5 out of 5 if the author had just ended the story without trying to analyze and justify her theme of everyone being connected to everyone else in the last 2-3 pages.

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022--San Antonio

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng was just published within the past month and got great reviews.  The author has speculated about the near future of the USA as its economy falls behind that of China resulting in many people becoming underemployed or unemployed and homeless, as its citizens become more violent (against Asian Americans in general and the government), and as the government becomes more paranoid about the situation.  This creates a crisis that lasts for several years without signs of letting up.  In response, the government has passed PACT, a patriots act which puts great limitations on what people can and cannot do and gives government agencies great power over its citizens.  One of the most significant is the right to remove children from families where the adults have acted in ways in which the government doesn't approve.  All of this ties in with how the government has acted in its past history, the current movement toward right-wing authoritarianism, and the peoples' tendency to ignore what is happening and just try to get by without being noticed.  In other words, it is a horror story about what our future could be based on current events and our history.  The central characters are a family unit consisting of a white male, a Chinese-American female, and a child they want to protect from the dangers; a child who has been removed from her family and wants to try to find them; and a white friend of the Chinese-American female.  Innocent people get trapped by PACT, and lives that should be safe are affected.  And an underground system grows to try to provide assistance to families with children who have been removed and to provide resistance to the government.  It is not a fairy tale, so there is no true happy ending.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Magpie by Elizabeth Day

Friday, Oct. 28, 2022--San Antonio

Magpie by Elizabeth Day is a story that is told and then retold from the perspectives of two of the main characters.  As the book continues, it is possible to realize why the story is believable in both versions and the reader comes to know which version is closer to the truth and why.  There is suspense, concern, frustration, etc., as aspects of the story are revealed--a controlling mother of an adult child, a bipolar character who functions well as long as medications are taken, a couple wanting a baby so bad that they go through IVF and consider the doctor's recommendation of either getting a surrogate or consider adoption.  I enjoyed the twists and turns and the tension that built up.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Less Is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer

Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022--San Antonio

Less Is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer is the second of two books in a series.  I read the first book (entitled Less) two years ago because it won the Pulitzer Prize, but I wasn't impressed for reasons that can be read here.   This second book got great reviews and since it was available for the Kindle through the library, I decided to read it, too.  I am happy to report that for me this second book is much better than the first.  It picks up 15 years after the breakup with his older poet lover when his former lover has died, when Less is having money problems but seems to have some new opportunities, but also when his relationship with Freddy (his new lover) through all these years may be running into trouble.  Less and Freddy have continued to live for free in his old lover's cottage in San Francisco, but upon his death, back rent is due.  Plus Freddy has taken a job a a college in Maine for a year, so they are living apart.  This new book covers the adventures and learning experiences that are a part of each of their lives.  Freddy, also a writer, leaves his job to go to a small island to write and to think through what he wants out of his life.  Less is traveling across the country in an old van to provide introductions for another better-known author who is apparently nearing the end of his life and insists on some detours.  Then Less continues after that tour with a theater company that is presenting one of his minor works on a theater tour based on an entire reading of the chosen story on stage with minimal props.  This tour involves Less having to return to the South where he grew up with great fear and anxiety due to being gay, provides him some insight on how audiences seem to appreciate his story, and gives him an opportunity to try to reconcile with his father who abandoned the family when Less was young.  It's not necessary to read the first book before reading this one and, as I said above, this is a better book in my opinion.  I gave it 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Intimacies by Katie Kitamura

Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022--San Antonio

Intimacies by Katie Kitamura is a short novel that was on the long list for the National Book Award in 2021.  It takes place at the United Nations' International Criminal Court (which I have visited with a friend who worked there) in The Hague.  It's the story of a woman who has taken a one-year appointment as an interpreter at the court to see if she will like the job and the city--if it can become her permanent home.  Her father is deceased and her mother has moved to Singapore.  She has never had a "home" city and New York where she has been living is too expensive and her work there is not satisfying nor lucrative enough for her to remain.  The novel covers her whole year in which she makes a few friends, proves herself capable of performing the job, becomes very involved in both the trail of and as a personal translator to an African President accused of crimes against humanity, and falls in love with a married man who is separated from his wife who has taken their two children and moved to Lisbon.  The book deals with the intimacies involved in all these relationships--with friends, with colleagues, with work clients, with her relationship partner--and the strains that are a natural part of being intimate with such persons within one's life.  It's a good book.  I rated it 4 stars out of 5.

Hell of a Book by Jason Mott

Sunday, Oct. 9, 2022--San Antonio

Hell of a Book by Jason Mott was the winner of the National Book Award in 2021.  As a novel, it addressed two aspects of the lives of Black people in American--the recurring tragedy of Black men being murdered by cops or, if not, being arrested and going to prison at an unjustifiable rate for unjustifiably long sentences, and that laws may have been passed to try to make lives for Black people equal to those of whites today, but that lives of Blacks are not equal to those of whites--that Blacks living today suffer from injustices that have been ingrained in society since the time of slavery and that it is unfair for whites to say otherwise.  As a white person, this book clearly made sense of the dilemma faced by Blacks living today and the need for Black parents to have "The Talk" with their children, especially their male children.  It was uncomfortable at times to read this book, and I found myself setting it down more often than I do with other novels.  But I always came back to it because I realized how well it is written and how important it was that I read all of it.  As with other readers, I found myself confused and wondering at times who was who and what was what.  The last chapters, however, bring it into focus.  I rated the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.  

Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson

Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022--San Antonio

Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson is about two former college acquaintances (not close enough to be called friends) who meet years later at the airport when their flight to Europe is delayed.  One has become a known writer.  The other, who was a long-haired man from a poor background, has become successful enough to be flying first class and invites the other to accompany him to the first class lounge to wait for the flight using an extra pass he has.  From that point to the end of the book, the successful man takes the opportunity to get a story "off his chest"--one which he has told no one else and which accounts for his success in life but includes details that he has kept secret due to their making him feel guilty and ashamed.  It's an interesting story of a person who has thought of himself as good and nice, tells of the an instance when his actions seemed to have confirmed this, but includes later details in which he is afraid that maybe some of his actions contradict what he has believed about himself.  He then leaves it up to the author to decide what to do with the story.  It's a short novel (about 200 pages) and a fast read.  I didn't want to put the book down.  I gave it 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Cleanness by Garth Greenwell

Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022--San Antonio

Cleanness by Garth Greenwell is a novel that consists of parts that are like short stories regarding different points in the life of an American man teaching literature at the American College in Sofia, Bulgaria.  (In Europe a "college" is the equivalent of high school in the USA--the top grades before going off to study in university with the students being in their late teens.)  The main character has gone there because it is difficult to get a job teaching literature in the USA, and he has been given this chance in Sofia because it is mainly students who want to study in English so they can get admitted to top universities in Europe or the USA when they graduate.  He is loved by his students and he is attracted to some of them, but he is careful not to have any kind of personal relationship with them until after they have gone to university.  He is attracted to rough sex (BDSM) which is the topic of two parts of the book, but he learns at one point that a relationship based on love and tenderness is better and more desirable.  However, he cannot easily have a relationship in Sofia because he is gay and cannot openly show or declare his feelings without being in danger.  His one love develops when there is an intern who has come to the school for a semester as a part of his graduate studies at a Portuguese university.  But it is hard to maintain the relationship after the semester is over and he cannot find a job in Portugal or elsewhere so that they can be together and his partner cannot find a job in Sofia.  The stories are very well written; I found myself amazed at the way the words made me feel and how reading them gave me pleasure.  Except, I found the two stories of BDSM encounters were too detailed and too long; I almost quit the book after the first one, and I lost interest and scanned through a large part of the second one.  I wish I had just known that I could just skip both of them and still enjoy the book-- much more than I did by reading them.  I gave the book a rating of 4 stars out of 5.  

Here's to Us by Becky Alberttali and Adam Silvera

Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022--San Antonio

Here's to Us is the second of a set of two novels by Becky Alberttali and Adam Silvera.  I read the first book, What If It's Us, a couple of weeks ago.  I liked it with reservations.  This second is by far the better book in my opinion.  Continuing the story of Ben and Arthur who fell in love as 16-year-olds during a matter of weeks during the summer break between their junior and senior years of high school two years earlier, it has all the things that made the first book so good (the wonderful humorous dialog, the attraction story, etc.) while moving along and maintaining a higher level of interest throughout than the first book did.  I finished this one within a day and a half of starting it.  I can easily see the stories being used for a limited series on Netflix or one of the other streaming platforms.  I gave this book a whole extra star more than I did the first one--4 1/2 stars out of 5. 

The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle by Matt Cain

Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022--San Antonio

The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle by Matt Cain is an adult gay fairy tale.  It has been reviewed in major magazines and listed among the best gay books of the year.  It is about a man who has worked for the postal service in England for 50 years.  As a youth, he and a school mate fell in love, but that was a dangerous thing at that time--illegal with prison sentences and families unwilling to accept a child being that way.  The experience was so good for Albert and at the same so bad, that he has lived his life since then mostly as a hermit--taking care of his abusive mother until she died and avoiding contact with others (co-workers, people on his delivery route, etc.) as much as possible.  But he has been told he must retire in 3 months as he ages out of the system at 65.  It makes him think about how lonely his life has been and to worry about what retirement will mean.  He starts making moves for the first time in his life since he was 15 years old to develop friends and to make amends of past mistakes.  It's a good book--well written with very sentimental underpinnings.  I gave it 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

What If It's Us by Adam Silvera and Becky Alberttali

Friday, September 16, 2022--San Antonio

What if It's Us by Becky Alberttali and Adam Silvera was interesting to read, but it wasn't exciting to read.  I much prefer previous books I have read by Adam Silvera.  This one is about a summer in New York where two young men who are longing for connection in their life meet in a post office line but fail to exchange contact information before they are interrupted by a flash mob band causing a disruption as a part of a marriage proposal.  All they know about each other are random details.  Both have had close friendships that have been disrupted--one because he has moved to New York with his mother to work as an intern at her law firm for the summer and the other because of sexual relationships that developed between members of their group and then failed.  Both young men want to find the other.  The intern knows that the NYC resident was there to mail a package to his ex-boyfriend and, due to a part of a label dropped on the floor during the flash mob entrance, that there is a 50% chance that his name is Hudson, but not necessarily since Hudson could have been the name of the addressee--the ex-boyfriend.  He also knows the name of a coffee shop that was on a t-shirt the NYC resident was wearing.   The other knows that the one he met is from Georgia, is an intern at his mother's law firm, and is doing the internship in an effort to get admitted to Yale after he goes home to complete his senior year of high school.  Both realize they want to re-connect with each other and use teenage techniques to do so such as searching with clues on social media and getting ideas from friends and family for other possible techniques.  It was an interesting story and the central characters and their friends were charming.  But there just wasn't enough there to make me feel that the story was worth more then 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022--San Antonio

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro has received highly positive reviews.  The story is set in the near future in a society that has greatly changed from the present one.  Many adults are no longer needed as workers due to the advances in artificial intelligence.  Plus, a privileged segment of society has developed based on the use of genetic engineering to "lift" children who are essentially the only ones allowed to go to university because only the ones with the most capability will be needed in the changed job market.  But there are outlier--parents who choose not to have their children lifted, unemployed adults who have founded communes based on keeping their chosen society as white and male dominated, children who have not been lifted but have used their intelligence to learn and create on their own, etc.  The story is told by Klara, an "AF" (artificial friend)--a technical advancement by adding artificial intelligence to human lookalike robots designed to be bought to serve as companions to the lifted children who are home schooled by faculty over tablets.  She has been purchased by a mother who still is employed and is concerned because she has already lost one child to disease and whose remaining child is in poor health.  Klara can monitor her for health problems, provide companionship, and possibly be of eventual assistance to the mother via a plan which shows how drastic the mother is to save her daughter.  The other main characters are the immigrant woman who is the cook and has been overseeing the daughter during daytime, and a young boy the daughter's age who is not lifted and lives next door with his mother.  Both houses are far away from the polluted city with no other nearby neighbors.  One of the more interesting aspects of the story is that Klara, as an especially talented AF, is very observant and has advanced reasoning to the point that she develops a religion based on her reasoning and on her concern for her ill human child--a religion based upon the sun as the source of life and the savior of life through the strength its warmed provides. (She is solar powered herself.)  The story is well thought out and written, but it is revealed in a drip, drip, drip fashion.  I felt that the 400+ pages required more time than I wanted to give it.  I rated the book 3 1/2 stars out of 5. 

History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera

Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022--San Antonio

History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera is the second book I have read by this author.  Both have been on Top 10 and best seller lists, are classified as young adult novels (but should appeal to any adult who likes a well-written book), involve love and loss of life, and are probably on every Republican list of books to be banned from libraries due to having gay protagonists.  This particular book deals with first love, a person with OCD compulsions, the difficulties of maintaining a relationship when one partner moves far away, lies we tell and secrets we keep, the time and struggle required to deal with loss and move onward in life, etc.  It is a very good story with surprising new information toward the end that provides a twist and requires new interpretations of what has been read before and ties everything together to make the ending reasonable.  (However, the typesetting for the Kindle edition has an award and frustrating repetition of a space being added after the letter "f" inside every word!!)  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022--San Antonio

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel surprised me by being so short and so good.  I knew it had good reviews, but for some reason I avoided reading it until now.  I was so pulled into the story that I read it within 36 hours (not using all those hours, just reading off and on).  I had read and thoroughly enjoyed her Station Eleven, so I shouldn't have been surprised by this one.  Like "Eleven," this one is science fiction.  Chapters take place over centuries, but all tie together.  What seems strange when you first read it makes sense as you go further along.  The big question addressed in the book is whether life is REAL or if it is just a giant simulation.  The question arises because of a blip in time that makes no sense.  But the book also deals with global warming, the establishment of settlements on the moon and then further out, time travel, ethics, etc.  I do think there was one scientific error in the book.  She states that the moon settlements have two weeks of sun and then two weeks of darkness.  If I remember my science correctly, the moon does not rotate; it has one sunny face and one dark face, so at any given point on the moon there will be either total sunshine all the time or total darkness all the time.  I think the author was thinking of how the moon, seen from the earth, has phases that transition from a total moon face to total darkness in two weeks and then back to a total moon face two weeks later, but that is not an indicator that the moon is rotating so that points on it are transitioning every two weeks in terms of light and darkness.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2022--San Antonio

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu is a science fiction book.  It is more a collection of short stories than a novel, although each story has connections (a name reference, the mention of a particular piece of jewelry, etc.) that tie it to another.  Eventually, the final story ties them all together in an unexpected way.  Some of the stories are more compelling than others.  But the writer has a creative mind which makes each story interesting on its own.  The science fiction aspect builds on a recent earth experience by starting in the late 2020s/early 2030s when a new and highly contagious virus is released in the world--through explorations being carried out in Siberia because of global warming.  A neat concept to tie these together and to get the reader thinking more seriously is that the virus is only killing children, but it is almost all children dying which leaves the adults to face global warming as THEIR problem since there will be few, if any, children to be left.  Therefore, the adults will have no children on which to hoist the responsibility for caring for them until they die--during times when life will become more and more miserable due to global warming.  I enjoyed the entire book, but I only got excited about 2-3 of the stories.  I did find the concept of how it all ties together to be especially interesting.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Release by Patrick Ness

Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022--San Antonio

Release by Patrick Ness is a novel with two stories going along simultaneously--a science fiction story about a water queen (who is a spirit responsible for all life on earth and whose spirit can sometimes join temporarily, but only until sunset without all creation ending, with those of humans who have died plus her companion who accompanies her when she leaves the water world) and a story of a group of high school students living in a small Seattle suburb.  The Queen and the spirit of one of the high school girls whose meth-head boyfriend a week earlier strangled her then threw her body into the lake where the Queen lives have become conjoined inside the physical body of the girl and have left the lake for the day because of unfinished business the girl's spirit wants to handle.  The main story among the students revolves around a boy whose father is an evangelical minister and his friends and others who are a part of his life.  In effect, both stories deal with muddling through life that is difficult and confusing, yet hoping that life will still be good in the long run.  I read the book quickly and enjoyed both stories.  The author did a good job of tying them together at the end.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Vladimir by Julia May Jonas

Monday, Aug. 8, 2022--San Antonio

Vladimir by Julia May Jonas is centered around a 48-year-old professor of women's literature at a small, expensive private university near Albany.  She hired, along with her husband, within the same department, and the two of them have been in an "open" marriage for many years.  The husband has gradually progressed to the position of head of the English department and is on suspension from teaching while awaiting a hearing for having had numerous affairs with graduate students in previous, fairly distant years.  The professor herself is worrying about the effects of passing time:  developing teaching burnout as her students more and more want to try to interpret classic women's literature in terms of today's moral standards rather than literary standards, her inability in recent years to begin writing a third novel to be published, having become distant from her adult daughter who has always been rather self-centered and needy, and concern about the affects of aging on her body and general appearance.  When a young, attractive new professor joins the faculty, she begins to fantasize about a relationship between the two of them to the point that the line between fantasy and reality begin to blur in her mind.  Shocking events occur in the latter third of the book that affect the lives of everyone.  I gave the book, which is receiving recommendations from various quality sources,  4 1/2 stars out of 5.  

My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

Friday, Aug. 5, 2022--San Antonio

My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson is a short story collection that TIME listed among the best in fiction in 2021.  It has 4 stories.  The first 3 are true short stories, and the last, the title story, is more of a novella since it takes up more than half of the 224 pages.  I was not very inspired by the first 3 stories and even quit reading the 3rd one out of lack of interest.  But the title story made up for all of that by being so good.  It takes place in the USA at a time in the future when far right militias have rebelled, when basic services are no longer functional, when right-wing gangs rule the streets with a determination to preserve the country for those who they believe truly should be here--the whites.  The story is about a group of neighbors in a mixed race neighborhood escaping the gang that has come to burn their houses and to hopefully kill the residents.  Among the leaders managing the escape is a young college student, her white boyfriend, and her grandmother (who has in the past been identified as one of the descendants of the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings).  In their wild rush to escape the mob attacking the neighborhood, they manage to commandeer a public shuttle bus.  In rushing out of town, they eventually find their way to the abandoned Jefferson home Monticello where the granddaughter driving the van had worked as a student intern the previous summer.  They try to create their own society there with written rules and regulations and taking advantage of the vegetable gardens; the snacks, drinks, and clothing in the gift shop; etc.  Of course, their safety is only temporary and problems with general life as well as with the far right gangs eventually catch up with them.  Because the last story was so good, I would recommend that people read the book if only just for that last story (but with the recommendation that they feel free to skip any of the first 3 stories if unappealing to the reader).  I would rate the first 3 stories at 2-3 stars out of 5, but because the last story is so good, I gave the overall book a rating of 4 out of 5 stars. 

Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout

 Sunday, July 30, 2022--San Antonio

Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout was nominated for the Booker Prize this week.  It is the third book I have read by this author who has often won prizes or been short listed for them for her works, but I didn't realize I had read other books by her (Olive Kitteridge and Olive, Again) until I finished this book and saw a list of others she had authored.  I don't normally enjoy reading multiple books by the same author, because too often the stories are too similar and, most disappointing to me, the style of writing is often too similar from book to book.  Oh William! was an easy read and an interesting story with many characters that are connected, often as relatives, from multiple marriages.  The story is told by Lucy and is mostly about her first husband (William) and the connections that have developed over time as their lives have continued after divorcing and marrying others.  But it is also the story of overcoming severe poverty within a lifetime ("living the American dream"), childhood bullying, childhood abuse, family rejection, friendship that remains after a divorce, inspiration and support by a special person in one's life, etc.  I rated this book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Thursday, July 28, 2022--San Antonio

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan was nominated for the Booker Prize this week.  It's a short book (the shortest to ever be nominated for the prize) at 128 pages long, but it is a wonderful book--a well written and an inspiring story set in Ireland during the Christmas season.  Although fiction, it is based on the true story of how the Irish Government, in cooperation with the Catholic Church, ran laundries that took advantage of young girls who had been abandoned or entrusted to the church, especially ones who became pregnant out of marriage.  Emphasis is placed on how this was inconsistent with the statement of human rights adopted by the government, yet the government went many years without apologizing as research turned up large numbers of persons who disappeared (died?) while at these facilities.  (It was an Irish embarrassment much like that faced by the U.S., Canadian, and Australian governments for how they forced indigenous children into schools where rights were abused and atrocities occurred.)  But as I wrote before, the novel is delightful and enlightening while not turning away from the truth of what happened at the laundries.  I gave the book 5 stars out of 5.  

Trust by Hernan Diaz

Wednesday, July 27, 2022--San Antonio

Trust by Hernan Diaz was long-listed yesterday for the Booker Prize this year.  I can see why now.  I started reading what seemed to be a novel pretending to be a "biography" of the life of a great financier (in a string of generations of great financiers) about 2 1/2 weeks ago.  I kept wondering why it had been so highly recommended, and I considered quitting it.  I would pick it up every two days and read just a few pages.  Yesterday, I was only at the 50% point in the novel, but I was still chugging along and thinking I would have to extend my checkout on Libby for another 3 weeks.  (I usually finish a novel in 3-5 days.)  One reason I kept going is that I remembered reading that there was a big change around the half-way point that made it start making sense and made it become very interesting.  Well, in the last 24 hours, I have read the other 50% of the novel.  The first half was rather tedious, but it sets the stage for two more sections with the last being a great surprise twist.  If you are a fan of biographies or autobiographies, it will make you question the authenticity of any of them!  My rating went up from 3 stars to 4 1/2 stars out of 5 in just 24 hours of reading.

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

 Thursday, July 14, 2022--San Antonio

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston is in a unique situation as a novel.  It has had very good reviews as a top novel of the year (which is how I learned about it), has been a New York Times best seller, and has already had its film rights acquired with the actors announced who will play the two main leads.  Yet it is currently only available on the Kindle at  Amazon (and I had to put it on hold at my local library for about 10 weeks before it was delivered that way to me)!  It will be published in hardcover in October with Amazon already selling reserved copies.  It is a light romance story about two young men--one the son of the President of the USA and the other the "spare" heir to the crown of England (3rd in line behind his mother and his older brother)--whose antagonism against each other has created negative publicity.  They forced by their families to be together on a publicity tour to try to quiet rumors by acting as if the stories are made up and that they truly are friends.  Things don't go the way they are planned, and the two begin to become aware of why they have resented and disliked each other which eventually leads to more negative stories and a bigger disruption of their families that could affect politics in both countries.  It was fun to read the book, and I often stayed awake longer than I would prefer to read a bit more before turning out the lights and going to bed.  In general as a novel, I would give it 4 stars out of 5, but as a romance it is a bit better than average, so I would give it 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez

Monday, July 4, 2022--San Antonio

Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez was an interesting story incorporating generations of the same family (that originated from slaves in Jamaica and immigrated to England) with the central characters being Jehovah's Witnesses.  It dealt with topics such as the love that some of the church members have for their religion and the door-to-door witnessing that is so important to it, for being appreciated by the church elders, and with banning and shunning that are used within the religion (not just from/by the church but also from continued association with their family members) who they find has not lived up to their standards.  Much of the novel is built around the life of one of those members who runs away to London at age 17 after being exposed for his sexual orientation and expelled from his fast track of being a leader within the church.  In London, he finds it difficult to make a living, and becomes a male prostitute. Included are topics such as the young man's interest in clients who remind him in age and physical features of his step-father, his establishment of a "chosen" family, his search for the truth about his biological father, etc.  What spoiled the book for me was constant use of references to music.  It's obvious that the author has always loved music, has been the type of person who is always listening to music as he is out and about (like people have done over the years with the Walkman, the iPod, and smart phones today), who has an encyclopedic knowledge of songs and their singers over the decades, and feels it improves his story to have everything happening referenced in detail to the music of that time period and playing in the background.  Yuck!!  I felt I was reading a book written by an autistic nerd.  Without all the unnecessary (many, many often taking up more than a page at a time) music references, I would have rated the book 4 or 4 1/2, but with them, it dropped in my opinion to 3 stars out of 5. 

They Both Die in the End by Adam Silvera

Saturday, June 25, 2022--San Antonio

They Both Die in the End by Adam Silvera is an young adult novel that seems to be written for the 16+ age group.  It is science fiction based on the idea that somehow people who sign up for it can get a phone call letting them know they are going to die within 24 hours.  In addition, an app has been created that can be used to have a Last Friend for the day for those who don't want to be alone or spend the last day with those they already know.  The two main characters (17 & 18 years old) have both received their notice and have never met.  One is somewhat of a recluse, and the other has friends who are fulfilling his wish for a funeral early in the morning on his last day, but has to quickly leave the funeral when the cops show up because he beat up his former girlfriend's new boy friend the night before.  Therefore, he is alone on his dying day, too.  The book follows the characters as they hesitantly meet (not knowing whether to trust the other) and gradually get to know each other as the day continues filled with shared experiences.  I found the book a bit boring at first and considered quitting it.  But as more characters were introduced, it became more interesting.  By the end, I was enjoying the book and curious to see how it would end (beyond the fact that I knew the big news about the ending from the title of the book itself.  Reviews for the book range from 1 star to 5 with the former apparently being from trolls worrying about the book including topics that they think children should be protected from reading (death, cursing, homosexuality [not even hinted at until about 50% of the way through the book and then not acted on until about 85-90% of the way with that being limited to kissing and expressing love verbally], skipping school, etc.) and the latter being raves probably from young readers because it seemed so realistic in terms of matters of importance in their own lives.  I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 5 (due to being about 2 stars at the beginning and moving into 4-star range by the end).

Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall

Monday, June 19, 2022--San Antonio

Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall was so much more than I expected it to be.  I was laughing aloud sometimes as much as 3 times a page.  And the book is well written.  I kept reading and reading.  Then when I got near the end, I kept putting it down because I didn't want it to end.  The protagonist is a young man who is is emotionally messed up because his famous rock star father abandoned him and his mother  when he was 3 years old and because he has had bad relationship experiences.  He is hounded by paparazzi because of his peripheral association with his famous father and cannot trust potential boyfriends because 1) They may be interested in him only because of that association, and 2) The one good relationship he had experienced ended with the former boyfriend deciding to sell their story to a tabloid for tens of thousands of pounds.  The paparazzi keep finding him in embarrassing moments and publishing pictures that have a negative affect on his reputation and his job.  A friend develops a plan for him and another friend of hers to have a fake relationship for a couple of months which would benefit them the both in terms of getting past life problems.  But things don't always turn out as expected.  It's a fun book even though life is not always easy.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5; it's really that good of a read.

Edinburgh by Alexander Chee

Thursday, June 16, 2022--San Antonio

Edinburgh by Alexander Chee deals with topics that are not easy to read-child molestation, child depression, child suicide, consensual sex between an adult and a 17-year-old, etc.  It is difficult to read at times and heartwarming at others.  The author has woven into the story aspects of Korean folk beliefs, since a set of the characters or Korean immigrants.  He also seems to have collected lots of facts that he wanted to use in the story whether meaningful or not. (It's my impression that a number of authors fall into the trap of including extraneous information that isn't needed for the story, but let's the author show how intelligent he is.)  I enjoyed reading the parts of the book that carried the story of its main characters forward.  I gave the book a rating of 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara

Saturday, June 11, 2022--San Antonio

To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara is the best book I have read so far this year.  It's also the scariest--not due to being a horror tale but because of its prediction of the future of the U.S. based on events already happening; it all seems so realistic and possible (and even probable)!  The book begins in the late 1800s with an alternative history of how what we know as the United States actually consists then as the "Free States," the "Southern Colonies," and the "Western Colonies."  At another point in the novel, it is indicated that Texas has remained as a separate country.  That opening section introduces two families who are among the wealthiest in the Free States--the Bingham's and the Griffiths.  The book continues through separate time periods up to the 2090's.  At each stage, the same last names crop up.  It is implied that the characters are from continuing generations of those two original families, although jumps in the time periods leave out generations and therefore, do not tie them together; the reader never knows what has happened in the generations in-between which means we never know how the newest generations are actually tied to the previous characters we have met.  The intention of the author isn't to tell the stories of these families, but to tell the story of how a country changes as time passes and the factors that influence those changes--creation of wealth and the effects of it being redistributed and becoming diminished through generations, attempts to create a better life for the future, the effects of rebellious family members who are insistent on going their own way in terms of living life, the disconnect between branches of a family that develops in various locations as members have immigrated elsewhere, the way that varying laws affect different family members' lives  according to where they live, the affect that global warning has on the lives of the people and the government, the effects of new viruses developing every few years creating crises, the effect global traveling has on increasing the spread of such viruses, the effect that various crises can have on governments, the tendency for governments to become more autocratic when dealing with a population that is becoming more and more resistant to rules related to continuing crises, the ways that life changes for everyone due to the cumulative affects of all of these events, etc.  The Bingham and Griffith characters, rather than being what the story is about, are just a way to allow the reader to reflect on how the passage of time and circumstances has resulted life being so different for everyone as represented by the Binghams and Griffiths of different generations.  The book has caused me to reflect on how likely it is that the future of our country may NOT be very bright.  I gave the book a rating of 5 stars out of 5 although there are readers who have disliked it because they wanted it to be the story of the families rather than of a changing country or because they did not like the implication that our country is possibly facing a downhill slide in terms of quality of life.

All of You Every Single One by Beatrice Hitchman

 Monday, May 30, 2022--San Antonio

All of You Every Single One by Batrice Hitchman covers the period from 1911-1946. It starts in Sweden where a woman married to a playwright realizes she is unhappy and discontented after meeting a female tailor whose present provides a spark of excitement and interest.  The two women leave for Vienna where they plan to build a life of their own together.  They settle in a Bohemian area of the city and slowly find friends among other fringe members of society--a Jewish landlady, a gay neighbor, a child they raise as guardians, etc.; the result is that they become what is known today as "a chosen family" by those who find their lives do not fit within the conventional expectations of most members of society and sometimes find themselves rejected by their blood families.  The novel, however, is really about how their lives are much like everyone else's with the added factors of 1) always being alert for dangerous reactions from others who can be threatened by people who are different and do not follow the "rules" of society and 2) not being able to accomplish among themselves what cisgender people do--not able to marry, not able to have children when they wish they could, etc.  However, life continues through these various challenges with some quite shocking results and even without as much interference as might be expected.  Side relationships develop with members of high society, escapes are required to avoid the law and later the Nazis, hopes are raised and dashed, and secrets are exposed.  But life goes on.  The story has such scope and such interesting characters that I kept imagining that it could become a Masterpiece Theater production for BBC/PBS.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Civilwarland in Bad Decline by George Saunders

Thursday, May 26, 2022--San Antonio

Civilwarland in Bad Decline by George Saunders is on many lists of the best collections of short stories.  Saunders is best known for short stories and is considered to be among the best of American short story writers.  I found most of these stories to be delightfully entertaining and funny enough to have me laughing aloud.  Saunders has a knack for writing the things that go through a person's mind that are thought to be inappropriate to state aloud.  In writing these things, the reader gets a better understanding of the characters than one would ever have with a live acquaintance or even friend.  Since some parts of the book were not as good as others, I will rate the book as 4 stars out of 5.  

Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia

Wednesday, May 11, 2022--San Antonio

Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia received very positive reviews, was listed as a novel of note by the Washington Post, and received the Isabel Allende Most Inspirational Fiction Award last year.  It is an interesting book, but it was not quite as good as I expected it to be.  Several times throughout the book, the wording caused confusion for me and I had to reread either to determine for sure who was saying what or what was actually being said.  Plus the ending came too fast for me--a very quick passage tying up details regarding 4 different characters rather than a tidy close.  The stories were interesting though--all eight main characters being women who faced very trying times in their lives.  Among the difficulties were workplace discrimination, dangers and other difficulties related to the civil war in Cuba, racial discrimination among Cubans both at the time of the revolution and today, spousal abuse, child molestation, drug abuse, trauma from seeing a parent killed, trying to get by in Castro's Cuba, dangers of gangs in Central America, child migration without a parent, immigration raids, border retention centers for families, deportation, etc.  I can't highly recommend the book, but it was interesting and is worth 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

Young Mungo by Douglass Stuart

Monday, May 2, 2022--San Antonio

Young Mungo by Douglass Stuart has gotten rave reviews this spring.  The same author wrote Shuggy Bain which also got rave reviews and won the Booker Prize a couple of years ago.  Both books deal with poor families in Glassgow.  And both books are told in the words of a young gay boy--the previous book by a boy who is a child and the latter by a boy who is an adolescent (14 going on 15, required to stay in school until he is 16, and faces the constant danger of being taken away from his siblings if the government learns their mother is not living in the home with them).  But there are differences.  The earlier book was about the hardships of being poor which are mostly caused by having a mother who makes bad choices in her attempts to try to improve their lives; the sexuality of the storyteller is background information.  There is still a mother making bad choices in Young Mungo, but she is mostly an absent mother who leaves her 3 children to fend for themselves, and the storyteller's gay sexuality is a major factor in this story as he "discovers" he is gay (in addition to being sweet and sensitive), as he maneuvers around the expectations of his older brother who runs a protestant gang and expects his brother to participate in their violent and illegal activities, and as he deals with his need to be mothered which is provided mostly by his slightly older sister (about to turn 16) who feels she must deal with all the problems caused by the absent alcoholic mother who feels she should not be stuck with children since she is still young and desires male companionship and freedom to live her own life.  Set in the 1980s following the closing of the shipbuilding yard and the mines during the Margaret Thatcher period, life is hard for everyone in the slums in the east end of town.  Plus, there are religious rivalries between the protestants and the Catholics like in Northern Ireland.  Added to that, being a "poofter" is socially unacceptable and is like having a target on one's back for anyone to abuse you at any time, so a young gay boy must hide his sexuality and try to live a straight life or face a miserable life of hiding from society and face being bullied and beaten regularly.  Mungo finds love and does not want to live a false life, and the decisions made by members of his family because of it put him in grave danger alone among strangers and later when discovered with his boyfriend.  The book is quite depressing, but not in a way that it is a turnoff for the reader, since there are joys, too, and hope. I gave the book 5 stars out of 5.

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo

 Saturday, Apr. 23, 2020--San Antonio

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo confused me at first.  There is no capitalization except for formal terms/names and no punctuation except for commas.  So a line would start with a lower-case letter, then after the last word of the sentence, there would be a big blank space before there would be more words with the first one starting with a lower-case letter.  My first thought was whether the Kindle version I was reading was corrupted with missing portions not downloaded.  But soon, I figured out the pattern--short indentations for starting a new paragraph or what would be quoted text (no quotation marks) by a different character.  Then reading it flowed easily.  The book, which won the Booker Prize in 2019, became a fascinating story which concentrates on telling the lives of many connected characters both in the present and over multiple generations.  Most of the characters are immigrants or children of immigrants of African descent from either Africa or the Caribbean who are now living or have lived in England, some in London and some in the Newcastle area.  Most of the main characters are women, and most of those are involved some how in the women's liberation movement.  Several of the women have married white men or are the children or light-skinned descendants of one or more interracial marriages.  The book is much like reading short stories of the lives of these various women, but the book as a whole eventually ties them all together in various ways.  As the reader, once I understood this aspect of the book, I started trying to figure out the relationship before it was revealed and if I couldn't, I became eager to get far enough for the relationship to be revealed so that the puzzle (of the connection[s] to others already introduced) would become clearer.  Even toward the end when I though I was reading the last chapter of the book where many of the presently living characters come together, there follows a short epilogue that ties several more of them together.  It's a good book, I gave it 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

The Berlin Girl by Mandy Robotham

Tuesday, Apr. 12, 2022--San Antonio

The Berlin Girl by Mandy Robotham is a novel about news reporting from Berlin during the lead-up to WWII.  It's a gripping tale with suspense as well as a love story from various angles--love for friends, love for colleagues, and romantic love.  It's not the type of novel that I would normally read--more of a mass entertainment novel (as indicated by its glossy cover) than one of higher quality and expected to win awards.  However, it's an easy book to read and is completely entertaining.   I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

Razorblade Tears by S. A. Crosby

Friday, Apr. 8, 2022--San Antonio

Razorblade Tears by S. A. Crosby is a murder mystery/thriller novel--not the kind of book that I normally read.  But it was one of the top 100 books of 2021 according to both TIME and NPR.  And it was available from the library for my Kindle.  It's the story of two ex-cons who have not met but whose gay sons (married to each other and who had been rejected by both fathers) have been murdered.  The cops either have little interest in solving the crime or have been encouraged to drop trying to solve it.  So the two men, both southerners, one white and the other Black with little tolerance for each other's prejudices, decide to take matters into their own hands so that the killers will be held accountable.  But there are "layers" of people who are responsible--the ones who actually performed the act and those above them who pass as genteel members of society.  It's a complex story with lots of humor, lots of violence, and many tense moments as these men face almost impossible odds.  I found myself reading more and more pages as each day passed.  I could see the movie becoming a series on Netflix or a feature film.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

Sunday, April 3, 2022--San Antonio

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr provides a reading experience that is like putting the pieces of a puzzle together.  The further the reader gets into the book, the clearer it becomes that there are multiple stories that are all tied together.  So the reader should not give up if confused at first.  By a quarter of the way, the construction format becomes clear and the different characters obvious.  By half way through, the genius in the connections between the stories becomes exciting and it is difficult to put the book down.  By 3/4 of the way through, it is obviously such a good read that there is no desire for it to ever end.  And by 90% of the way through, there is sadness that it was all going to end soon.  The reader should take notes about the characters and their time periods as they are introduced in the beginning, since it takes time to really get them all separated and straight in one's mind.  The book really soars once it is clear what is happening.  And discovering and seeing the connections between the stories developing is a joy. It's one of the most complex novels I have read and one of the best.  I gave it 5 stars out of 5.

The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen

Wednesday, Mar. 23, 2022--San Antonio

The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen is a compiled suite released last year of three memoirs written and published separately in the late 60s and early 70s.  She was a woman who grew up in a lower class section of Copenhagen and never quite fit in under any circumstances--as a member of her family, as a student in school, as a friend with others her age, as a sexual partner with the men in her life, or as a mother.  She often settled for less in life than most would, and she eventually dealt with severe drug addiction.  But she was a successful author when her life did not interfere with her writing.  And the writing is so simple and clear and honest in expressing the various situations within periods of her life.  I found myself fascinated while being disappointed due to so many poor decisions she kept making.  The fact that I know the neighborhoods where she lived, shopped, and partied made it more personal for me to read.  I did find one very bad mistake made by the translator.  Danes have a potato and grain vodka with flavorings (often caraway and other herbs) that is drunk as a part of dining and partying; it's actual name is aquavit, but its slang name is "snaps."  Unfortunately, the translator changed it schnapps, the word used in English for sweet alcoholic drinks which are popular.  However, Danish snaps is far from sweet and is very strong.  The book is very well written, and I gave it a rating of 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

A Marvelous Light by Freya Marske

Monday, Feb. 28, 2022--San Antonio

A Marvelous Light by Freya Marske was listed as a best book for fall in EW reviews last year, so I put it on my list of books to consider reading.  When it showed up on Libby with a wait period of 10 weeks, I put a hold on it, and it only recently became available.  It is so different from most books I read.  It's a novel with the basis that members of some families have the inherited ability to create magic spells, and it has been kept entirely secret from society in general.  There is even a secret government agency that accepts any reports of possible use of magic and a secret archive of the names of everyone who has inherited this trait.  The story involves some mysterious reports of magic being reported to have been used in some attacks against others who possess the magic ability and the disappearance of some of them.  One of the two main characters is a man who gets posted to head the secret government records office who doesn't possess any magic abilities and doesn't even know that such people exist.  He is posted there by the Prime Minister who doesn't even know what this office does (due to not being magical himself) and just needs what he thinks sounds as a low-level position where he can help a young man who is a Lord but has not inherited a fortune due to his parents having given most of their money away to charities.  The other main character is the liaison officer who meets once a week to get the most important examples of reports of magic and reports them to an office higher up in government.  (Think of it like a story involving the man who is head of a government office to collect all reports of UFOs and the liaison officer who meets weekly to see if anything is worth reporting upward for further investigation.)  At first, I was surprised about premise of certain people being able to use magic and by the fact that I felt somewhat like I was reading a book written for adolescents.  But it turned out to be an adult novel that was interesting and thought-provoking.  It is the first novel in a set of two as the story continues.  Book II is entitled A Restless Truth (The Last Binding).  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Bewilderment by Richard Powers

 Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022--San Antonio

Bewilderment by Richard Powers is a science fiction book that was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.  It is the story of a father who is an astrobiologist professor and researcher and his son who struggles with handling daily social life.  A fellow researcher has developed a way to train the mind to "feel" emotions of others, and uses the son as a subject, since his deceased mother had been a subject at the beginning of the study to set up a recorded base of memories of specific emotions.  At the same time, the world is in trouble politically by lack of concern for the environment and people's affects on it.  The father's research involves searching for planets with the potential for intelligent life and creating credible possibilities of the form life on each planet might be.   The book alternates between chapters of what is happening in the life of the father and son and chapters of different planets with descriptions of what life might be like on them.  The story of the father and son and what is happening on earth is interesting.  I found the stories of life on the different planets to be less interesting, especially after reading a few of them.  I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

Sunday, Feb. 13, 2022--San Antonio

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead is the third book I have read by this author.  It is a good book, but I would rank it 3rd in sequence in terms of reading pleasure with The Nickel Boys first and The Underground Railroad second.  "Shuffle" tells the story of a black man whose father was a criminal.  The son was determined to be respected and made his way through business college and had a successful career running a furniture store--at first, selling used furniture, then a mixture of new and used, and finally selling only the finest lines of new furniture.  He married a woman from a wealthy Harlem family to the disgruntlement of her father.  He also finds himself occasionally mixed up in criminal activities due to his cousin who is like a brother, since he lived with the cousin's family for a few years when his father went to jail for his criminal activities.  The story covers a period of time during sit-ins, race riots, etc.  Throughout it all, the main character keeps his head down and his eyes on a steady progression to a better life for him and his family.  I gave the book a rating of 4 stars out of 5.

A Burning by Megha Majumdar

Friday, Feb. 4, 2022--San Antonio

A Burning by Megha Majumdar is set in India is shares some characteristics of other Indian novels and short stories by a number writers such a Jhumpa Lahiri, Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushdie, and Kiran Desai in that it tells the story of the suffering of the poor of India and the corruption within the government there.  This particular story ties the two together by telling the story of 4 main characters--a young student from a very poor family who is intelligent and has great prospects in life, a female politician whose party is trying to win the next election no matter what the costs or consequences, a PE teacher from the young student's school who sees her potential but becomes involved in the corrupt party of the politician, and a hijra (a transgender male-to-female) who has joined with other hijras, as is typical in India, to live as a group and make a living by blessing weddings, births, etc., who is being tutored in English by the young students, and who is taking acting classes with the dream of becoming a movie star.  People get caught up in lies and corruption due to their desires to have a better life.  The book is an easy read.  And I could appreciate the style of the wording used because it matches the patterns that are common by Indians who speak English as a second language (meaning that the organization of the words often fits the pattern that the words are organized in the Indian languages rather than what is the normal organization within formal English).  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

 Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022--San Antonio

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead is a wonderful novel.  Two stories parallel each other through the book--one that starts in the 1920s about a young girl living in Montana at that time who wants to become a pilot after a barnstorming plane flies near her on its way to an air show in nearby Missoula.  The other takes place in the 2010s about an actress who has made 3 films in a series of a planned 7 films to complete the story and has made some mistakes that have resulted in bad publicity.  But as soon as she gets fired from the series of films, she is offered a role in a film about to be made about the life of the female pilot who is the protagonist in the other part of the novel.  Most of the book is about the pilot rather than the actress and thoroughly held my interest.  The part about the actress became better as the book progressed and was critical to completing both the stories.  Originally, I considered 4 1/2 stars for the book, but I decided to round it to 5 stars out of 5 since it is one of the best stories I have read in quite a while.

Infinite Country by Patricia Engel

January 27, 2022--San Antonio

Infinite Country by Patricia Engel was named as the best novel of the year by both TIME and EW magazine.  It is a short novel about the experience of immigrants who come to the US without residency papers.  It is different from most such stories, because the original couple come from Colombia legally on a tourist visa good for six months with the intent of using the time to work illegally and make money they can take back home with them to resolve some financial difficulties.  (I know Brazilians have come to the US like this and returned to their country.)  However, by the end of their visa, live has not been easy and they have not make the money they thought they would.  Faced with the idea of returning to Colombia and the hard life they left or staying in the US with hopes that the hard life they are living will eventually improve, they decide to overstay the visa.  The story continues with vivid descriptions of life both in Colombia and the US and experiences that mirror those of many immigrants--children who are born in the US and are, therefore, citizens; a first child who was born in Colombia and isn't a citizen; capture and deportation that separates the family, etc.  During the first 60% of the book, I thought I would rate it 3 1/2 stars; it was interesting and well written, but seemed to be lacking whatever others had based their ratings on.  But the final third of the book took a bit of a turn and became more interesting to me.  I would rate the book 4 stars out of 5.