Month: August 2021

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How We Fight For Our Lives

Title: How We Fight For Our Lives

Author: Saeed Jones

Genre: memoir

I’ve been following Jones on Twitter for quite some time. He’s quite entertaining, but I just now starting reading his writing. I read his book of poetry, Prelude to Bruise, and it’s just gorgeous. I’m not a big poetry reader, so I didn’t review it. I’m not sure how to even comment on it. But his words are very powerful. I definitely recommend it. After reading that book, I knew I wanted to delve into his memoir. And I was not disappointed. His style of writing is moving. I was captivated.

From Goodreads: Haunted and haunting, Jones’s memoir tells the story of a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears. Through a series of vignettes that chart a course across the American landscape, Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence—into tumultuous relationships with his mother and grandmother, into passing flings with lovers, friends and strangers. Each piece builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and grief: a portrait of what we all do for one another—and to one another—as we fight to become ourselves.

Blending poetry and prose, Jones has developed a style that is equal parts sensual, beautiful, and powerful—a voice that’s by turns a river, a blues, and a nightscape set ablaze. How We Fight for Our Lives is a one of a kind memoir and a book that cements Saeed Jones as an essential writer for our time.

Being gay in America is challenging. Being Black in America is extraordinarily challenging. Being a Black gay man, well, every single card is stacked against you. Jones grew up just north of Dallas, an area I’m abundantly familiar with, and his recollection of the prejudice isn’t at all shocking. The child of a single mother, he struggled on every front. A lot of this book deals with his struggles with being gay, but not just that. He deals with loss, power, abuse, and struggle. The language is just gorgeous. Jones was a born writer. I read this in one sitting. It’s really a must-read for anyone. I absolutely loved it.

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Some Animals

Title: Some Animals

Author: Joshua Todd James

Genre: science fiction thriller

I had the pleasure of editing this book a few months ago. I’m going to be honest and say that I don’t enjoy every book I edit, and I certainly don’t review them all. However, this one stuck with me because the character of Jacob is so compelling. Jacob isn’t a human. He’s a Companion, a robot who acts more human than humans do. He’s thoughtful and generous. He’s helpful and kind. He can’t hurt human due to his programming. He’s a gentle soul, and I just loved him.

From Amazon:

For fans of THE MURDERBOT DIARIES and I, ROBOT, volume one in a new thrilling series: SOME ANIMALS.

Jacob Kind is your friend. He is your helper. Jacob loves everyone, in fact. He loves his adopted mother, Sylvia, most of all. Jacob is a synthetic Companion, created specifically to be whatever his Primary, his owner, wishes him to be. He isn’t allowed to harm humans and, in fact, is devoted to humanity and art.

Right up until Jacob interrupts a masked man murdering Sylvia in their home and is blamed for the vicious crime. The police believe he’s the culprit, Companion company executives want him returned for reprogramming to prevent a PR nightmare, but Jacob only wishes to bring Sylvia’s killer to justice. Which he is going to have to do on his own.

So now Jacob is on the run. After her killer, and toward justice, with but one guiding light that his mother left him. Serve and protect humanity, at all costs. Without losing his own.

After Sylvia’s murder, however, Jacob’s demeanor shifts. He’s out for justice. Not blood, not to hurt any and all humans. But he wants to know who killed Sylvia and why. To see that person(s) brought to justice. And the journey Jacob takes is great. Through Jacob, we meet other Companions, journey through the lands, and see just how terribly Companions are treated in various parts of the country. James does a great job writing Companions of the future for today’s minorities. They are looked down upon, mistreated, and oftentimes abused. The parallels are noteworthy and important. I’ve been told there will be more from Jacob in future books, and I’m already excited to see where his story will lead.

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Billy Summers

Title: Billy Summers

Author: Stephen King

Genre: thriller

Stephen King seems to have mellowed a bit in his old age. So many of his latest books aren’t horror at all. Later, The Institute, The Outsider were supernatural, but not really horror. Billy Summers doesn’t even tick the supernatural box. It’s just a story about a guy. Granted, the guy is a veteran turned sniper-for-hire, but he’s not a terrible person. He only kills bad guys. And as you progress through the book, you see even more what a good guy he actually is.

From Goodreads: Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he’ll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first there is one last hit. Billy is among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, a Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done. So what could possibly go wrong?

How about everything.

Everything is putting it mildly. Because this synopsis is vague, I’m going to do the same. Billy is hired to kill this guy, and he has to create an alternate identity because he has to wait for this guy to get extradited. So he goes to an office each day, he rents a house, basically, he blends in as best he can. While in the office, he writes his life story. Through this, you learn about Billy’s childhood, his life in the military, and how these shaped him to be the man he is today. I just loved this book. I loved Billy. I loved another character who enters Billy’s world about halfway through the book. I definitely recommend this book, especially for those who shy away from horror. This story is just a good, solid thriller.

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The Immortalists

Title: The Immortalists

Author: Chloe Benjamin

Genre: Literary Fiction

PopSugar Challenge Prompt: A book you’ve seen on someone’s bookshelf (in real life, on a Zoom call, in a TV show, etc)

I really shouldn’t judge a book by its title. I expected this book to be some sort of fantasy book. And it’s just not at all. I really wavered on whether or not I even wanted to read it, based on the title, but I’m so glad I gave it a go because I loved it. The characters are just so great and each one’s story is interesting. And although you don’t spend the entire book with all the characters, they are never far from the story.

From Goodreads: If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life?

It’s 1969 in New York City’s Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children—four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness—sneak out to hear their fortunes.

The prophecies inform their next five decades. Golden-boy Simon escapes to the West Coast, searching for love in ’80s San Francisco; dreamy Klara becomes a Las Vegas magician, obsessed with blurring reality and fantasy; eldest son Daniel seeks security as an army doctor post-9/11; and bookish Varya throws herself into longevity research, where she tests the boundary between science and immortality.

A sweeping novel of remarkable ambition and depth, The Immortalists probes the line between destiny and choice, reality and illusion, this world and the next. It is a deeply moving testament to the power of story, the nature of belief, and the unrelenting pull of familial bonds.

This book grapples with death a lot. When the kids get their predicted death dates, that knowledge greatly impacts them and how they live their lives. You follow one of the four kids at a time, but they weave in and out of each others’ stories that it feels like they are all in the same story together. I am so glad I read this one. I can’t say it was heart-warming, but the plot was interesting, and I was captivated by how the characters were so individually written and portrayed. I will definitely be thinking about them for quite awhile.

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The Astonishing Color of After

Title: The Astonishing Color of After

Author: Emily X. R. Pan

Genre: Ya fantasty/magical realism

Time Magazine recently listed its top 100 YA books of all-time. It’s not a list I entirely agree with. How can you have a list of YA books without Harry Potter? That series is one of the most influential book series of all-time, not just in the YA world. But, some really great books are on this list. A lot of recently published books made the cut. Some I’ve read from the list that I really enjoyed include Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, I’ll Give You the Sun, Everything, Everything, Six of Crows, The Sun is Also a Star, The Hate U Give, Dear Martin, Allegedly, Long Way Down, The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives, and With the Fire on High. Of course, I turned the list into a spreadsheet and decided to knock some off the list. I started here, for no particular reason. And although this book uses a trope I despise, I thought it was still a good read.

From Goodreads: Leigh Chen Sanders is absolutely certain about one thing: When her mother died by suicide, she turned into a bird.

Leigh, who is half Asian and half white, travels to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents for the first time. There, she is determined to find her mother, the bird. In her search, she winds up chasing after ghosts, uncovering family secrets, and forging a new relationship with her grandparents. And as she grieves, she must try to reconcile the fact that on the same day she kissed her best friend and longtime secret crush, Axel, her mother was taking her own life.

Alternating between real and magic, past and present, friendship and romance, hope and despair, The Astonishing Color of After is a novel about finding oneself through family history, art, grief, and love.

The lack of honesty about their feelings between Axel and Leigh is really annoying. I just hate that trope in writing so much. But the rest of the book is really beautiful. Leigh and her father and lost at sea after the suicide. Leigh tries to find footing by meeting her Taiwanese grandparents. As her mother’s past is slowly revealed, Leigh realizes the family has more secrets than she knows what to do with. But Leigh’s journey is why you read the book. The magical realism aspect of the book is far-fetched, but, that’s the point of MR. Leigh sees memories of her family and is slowly coming to terms with who her mother is. I really did enjoy this book, silly trope aside, and I think it will speak to a lot of young people.

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Crooked Kingdom

Title: Crooked Kingdom

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Genre: Ya Fantasy

I love these Crows. Each and every one of them are just so perfectly written. I read Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows before watching the Netflix series, but instead of finishing Alina’s story, I just wanted to see what happened to those rapscallions. And what I love about the book is that Bardugo does a fantastic job giving each characters his/her own voice. The way each person speaks, each mannerism, each ability is unique. When writing a large cast with 7+ important characters, differentiating them for the reader can be daunting. But Bardugo did this with ease.

From Goodreads: Kaz Brekker and his crew of deadly outcasts have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn’t think they’d survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they’re right back to fighting for their lives.

Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz’s cunning and test the team’s fragile loyalties.

A war will be waged on the city’s dark and twisting streets – a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world.

This story picks up immediately after Six of Crows, so reading them back to back is a good idea. The crew has to fight off one enemy after another, and then turn around and befriend some enemies to gain favor. But, nothing can break Kaz Brekker. You know he has a trick (or ten) up his sleeve. Watching the plot unfold and come together is work of art. Time and time again, I was in awe of how Kaz managed to escape. Bardugo left me guessing, but every plot turn was one that made perfect sense and was set up brilliantly. I can’t wait to finish Alina’s story, but I will miss the crows.

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Small Favors

Title: Small Favors

Author: Erin A. Craig

Genre: YA fantasy

Thank you Netgalley for this book!

What a delightful story. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and it kept me guessing until the very end. I’m not a big fantasy fan, but this one was much more like a fairy tale- creatures in the woods, mysterious silver eyes peering back at you, unexplained accidents, and struggles to survive. The main character, Ellerie, is a great lead. She’s resilient and strong but has her weaknesses and faults….. much like any person. But, writing teenage girls can be tricky. A lot of times they come off as annoying, but I loved Ellerie and was rooting for her the whole time.

From Goodreads: Ellerie Downing lives in the quiet town of Amity Falls in the Blackspire Mountain range–five narrow peaks stretching into the sky like a grasping hand, bordered by a nearly impenetrable forest from which the early townsfolk fought off the devils in the woods. To this day, visitors are few and rare. But when a supply party goes missing, some worry that the monsters that once stalked the region have returned.

As fall turns to winter, more strange activities plague the town. They point to a tribe of devilish and mystical creatures who promise to fulfill the residents’ deepest desires, however grand and impossible, for just a small favor. But their true intentions are much more sinister, and Ellerie finds herself in a race against time before all of Amity Falls, her family, and the boy she loves go up in flames.

I will say I thought the book could have been about 50 pages shorter. The town is being torn apart, and it seemed like that topic went on a bit longer than necessary. I got the point, but the fighting just continued. But my thoughts also could be simply because I was so excited to get to the end and see how it all worked out that I didn’t want to keep reading about the turmoil. In any case, that’s just a personal stance and is no reason for other people not to read. This book was great and is definitely one I would recommend to people who like this kind of story.

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Behind Her Eyes

Title: Behind Her Eyes

Author: Sarah Pinborough

Genre: thriller

PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: book with a black and white cover

W. T. F. did I just read? That was the craziest book! But I loved it. Verity was pretty insane. But, unlike the characters in that one, I loved all these. Even though the characters here were pretty bonkers, they were so much fun. I just don’t even know where to begin with this one. Mostly, it’s about a love triangle, who knows what, who is tricking whom, but it’s more clever than that.

From Goodreads: Louise is a single mom, a secretary, stuck in a modern-day rut. On a rare night out, she meets a man in a bar and sparks fly. Though he leaves after they kiss, she’s thrilled she finally connected with someone.

When Louise arrives at work on Monday, she meets her new boss, David. The man from the bar. The very married man from the bar…who says the kiss was a terrible mistake but who still can’t keep his eyes off Louise.

And then Louise bumps into Adele, who’s new to town and in need of a friend, but she also just happens to be married to David. David and Adele look like the picture-perfect husband and wife, but then why is David so controlling, and why is Adele so scared of him?

As Louise is drawn into David and Adele’s orbit, she uncovers more puzzling questions than answers. The only thing that is crystal clear is that something in this marriage is very, very wrong, but Louise can’t guess how wrong―and how far a person might go to protect their marriage’s secrets.

So, the love triangle between David, Louise, and Adele is crazy. Louise befriends Adele, keeps the affair a secret, but keeps seeing David (her boss), things escalate, and secrets abound. Normally, this type of book wouldn’t be my thing. But it’s so much more than just a crazy love story. It’s still a thriller with the craziest ending to a book I’ve read in ages. I’m telling everyone I know to read this one, just so they can experience the ride of it.

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Full Throttle

Title: Full Throttle

Author: Joe Hill

Genre: horror short story

PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt: an author who shares your Zodiac sign

I’ve read a lot by Joe Hill. The Fireman was my favorite, but I also enjoyed Heart-Shaped Box, Horns, and NOS4A2. I’m not a big short story fan, but I’m trying to read more. My strategy is to pick a book and read one a day, while I’m also reading other novels. It actually works well for me, and I’m definitely going to use this for my Stephen King story collections that I haven’t gone through yet.

From Goodreads: A little door that opens to a world of fairy tale wonders becomes the blood-drenched stomping ground for a gang of hunters in “Faun.” A grief-stricken librarian climbs behind the wheel of an antique Bookmobile to deliver fresh reads to the dead in “Late Returns.” In “By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain,” two young friends stumble on the corpse of a plesiosaur at the water’s edge, a discovery that forces them to confront the inescapable truth of their own mortality . . . and other horrors that lurk in the water’s shivery depths. And tension shimmers in the sweltering heat of the Nevada desert as a faceless trucker finds himself caught in a sinister dance with a tribe of motorcycle outlaws in “Throttle,” co-written with Stephen King.

There are some memorable stories in this collection. One is told entirely through tweets, which was excellent. One was formatted in a stair step fashion to mimic the plot. Another was told about an event from multiple perspectives of people on an airplane. “In the Tall Grass” was also co-written by Stephen King, and I know it’s also a Netflix movie, but I definitely will not be watching that. This story is so horrific, but great, but it’s one I know I won’t be able to stomach actually seeing. Overall, this was a great collection with some really creative stories, some really gruesome stories, and some really heartfelt stories. So far, Joe Hill hasn’t let me down.

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Transcendent Kingdom

Title: Transcendent Kingdom

Author: Yaa Gyasi

Genre: Black and African-American Literature

I read Homegoing earlier this year and just loved it. The story was so interesting, and the book was just beautifully written. I was just blown away at how captivating it was. And, although I didn’t love this one as much, it was still just such an excellent book. I had no trouble relating to Gifty and her struggles, even though I haven’t experienced them myself. Such is the talent of Gyasi, that even though I’m white, have parents who are still together, born in America, no family members with substance abuse issues, literally Gifty’s polar opposite, I could still get into her psyche because that’s what talented authors do. They create characters that anyone can inhabit, just for a few days. And Gifty will stick with me.

From Goodreads: Gifty is a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after a knee injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her.

But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family’s loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive. Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief–a novel about faith, science, religion, love. Exquisitely written, emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi’s phenomenal debut.

What was most fascinating to me was Gifty’s struggle with her faith. I’m not religious at all and never have been. So seeing Gifty in a tug-of-war with her beliefs was interesting. Her soul is laid bare in this book, and at an early age, she’s forced to grow up. I flew through this book, but not necessarily to see how the plot unfolds, like with most books. But, I just wanted to keep spending time with Gifty and seeing her evolve. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for Gyasi’s next book. Count me as a fan.