THREE WOMEN’S LIVES COLLIDE in unexpected ways in a Southern university town. Hilariously satirical, meticulously observed, and full of compassion, this novel has a lot to say about modern life, love, family, sex, race, class, and money. A MINUS
A HIGH-POWERED BLACK EXECUTIVE quits her Fortune 500 corporate job and takes on the challenge of turning a struggling hair salon back into the neighborhood icon it once was. Entertaining urban fiction with a positive spin. SOLID B
DISTINCTIVE, COMPULSIVELY READABLE novel combines its glossy setting among the Hollywood elite with a story of hidden resistance to anti-Black oppression. Unforgettable, larger than life characters mix with a fast-paced plot. B PLUS
The twenty-fifth chapter of my hard #scifi#SpaceOpera is released! Moderately-sized chapter compared to the previous ones. As the title implies, this is the true last respite of any kind before the gauntlet that will be the last leg of the journey. Regardless, what happens here is an important, and probably unexpected, bit of worldbuilding that'll be relevant later in the franchise. Check it out!
"As my friend, the novelist Isle McElroy, so aptly put it, 'so weird when people read a novel looking for answers. novels are questions. question after question after question.' Reading does not guarantee moral certitude, nor will any individual book be able to undo systemic problems. But being able to sit with nuance and contradiction and complexity can make readers become more discerning consumers of media . . . "
DELICIOUSLY TWISTY 21st CENTURY GOTHIC has a thrill a minute, a house to die for, and a wealth of sharply drawn characters. Shades of Daphne du Maurier (which I mean as a high compliment)! B PLUS
On December 13, 1889, Franklin Benjamin Gowen will die in his room at the Wormley Hotel, in Washington D.C., with a single bullet hole in his head. His eulogists will refer to him as the former president of the Reading Railroad, attorney, philanthropist, and patron of the arts.
The obituaries will say that Mr. Gowen inherited the intellectual and moral characteristics of his father, James, a pious Protestant merchant from Northern Ireland. Sobriety and piety, of course, form the foundation of good society, and Franklin was alike his father in this way. But James was also a staunch Democrat, a character flaw for which I have little patience. Their home in Mount Airy was the only one in the neighborhood without crepe after President Lincoln was assassinated. And James Gowen went to his grave insisting that there was nothing to those nasty rumors about James Buchanan, with whom he was close. Well, I knew Aunt Nancy, too. I can assure you those rumors were entirely true, though such behavior coming from a Democrat is hardly surprising.
Today in Labor History January 31, 1606: Guy Fawkes jumped to his death moments before his execution for treason. Guy Fawkes belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Fawkes, who had converted to Catholicism, also fought in the 80-Years War for Catholic Spain against the Dutch. He later traveled to Spain seeking support for a Catholic rebellion in England. The English tortured him into confessing the names of his co-conspirators. Brits have celebrated Guy Fawkes Day ever since, usually accompanied by fireworks and burning effigies, traditionally the pope, but recently they’ve burned effigies of Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Margaret Thatcher, instead. James Sharpe, professor of history at the University of York, called Fawkes "the last man to enter Parliament with honest intentions." Numerous historical novels and children’s books have been written about Fawkes, including William Harrison Ainsworth's 1841 historical romance “Guy Fawkes; or, The Gunpowder Treason.”
It's rare for me to share negativity, but I was so excited to see a new #DavidJamesDuncan#novel out (his first in 30+ years) and it's..... bad. Like I have fought through some books before, and there's no way I am wasting 700 pages worth of my time on this hamfisted, bloated, unbelievable nonsense. Really disappointing, because I adore everything else he has written. Buyer beware in case you were thinking of getting it. #books#literature#NotGood
AS INTERSTELLAR PLAGUE RAGES, a small spaceship and its tightly knit crew find an infected stowaway—and that’s the least of their problems. Fast paced, elegantly crafted far-future science fiction adventure with great characters, world building. A MINUS
Below the Heavens is a high fantasy web novel featuring a quick witted protagonist and a world and magic system crafted from scratch, incorporating east Asian culture and influences.
The twenty-fourth chapter of my hard #scifi#SpaceOpera is released! Another combat chapter. However, this combat is resolved in a rather unconventional way... in any case, the ways of the traitorous captain Elijs Valters backfire. Jamaad and Kuw get to shine, mostly. In addition, an outline of what the last leg of the journey will entail is described at the end. It ain't pretty.
A DAZZLING, POWERFUL FANTASY of a world where ancient magic and high technology coexist, where prisons are the size of nations and messiahs raise armies against their rivals. Unforgettable, beautiful, horrifying. SOLID A
The Librarian of Burned Books is a captivating WWII-era novel about the intertwined fates of three women who believe in the power of books to triumph over the very darkest moments of war.
Today in Labor History January 26, 1808: Soldiers took over New South Wales, Australia, during the Rum Rebellion. It was Australia’s only military coup. At the time, NSW was a British penal colony. William Bligh was governor of the territory. This was the same William Bligh who was an officer under Captain Cook when he attempted to kidnap the King of Hawai’i. He was also the same William Bligh who was overthrown in the Mutiny on the Bounty, in 1789. It is questionable why the British thought he’d do better in charge of a bunch of prisoners and unruly soldiers, than he did with a bunch of sailors. Perhaps they were just desperate. One of Bligh’s commissions was to reign in the Rum Corps, which held a monopoly on the illegal rum trade in Australia. They also controlled the sale of other commodities. Bligh started to enforce penalties for the illegal sale and importation of liquor. He also tried to provide relief to farmers, suffering from recent flooding and price-gouging by the Rum Corps, by providing provisions from the colony’s stores. The monopolists didn’t like his looting of the stores, from which they were profiting handsomely, nor his enforcement of the liquor laws. So, they arrested him and deported him to Hobart, Van Diemen’s Land. The military remained in control of NSW until 1810.
A HILARIOUS, PROVOCATIVE, INCENDIARY satire of the most commodified things in modern life, from contrarianism to cancel culture to online “micro-content” to luxury ashrams, and ultimately to satire itself. B PLUS