Book Review: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Book #186 of 2018:

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Having really enjoyed Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere, I knew I needed to seek out this debut novel of hers as well — and I’m quite glad I did, because I think I like it even better. This is a beautifully-written Asian American family drama, exploring issues of racism, the complexities of a mixed-race household, and the weight of parental expectations in a moving and quietly devastating sort of way. It’s also one of the few books I can think of that opens with an unexplained death but doesn’t focus primarily on unraveling that mystery. Instead, Ng concerns herself with how this family has lived, both before and after their missing daughter turns up dead. It’s a bold and effective writing choice, and one that injects real human stakes into the narrative.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

Book #185 of 2018:

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

An outstanding and meticulously-researched oral history of the Great Migration, in which millions of African Americans moved from the south to the north and west over the decades from World War I to around 1970. This massive population shift has been largely invisible to the popular consciousness, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson has done tremendous work — interviewing over twelve-hundred people about their experiences and pulling archive materials to supplement their testimony — in presenting it here.

Her delivery is also powerful beyond the simple facts of the Great Migration, focusing on three families in particular to illustrate their lives in the Jim Crow south, their difficult decisions to leave behind that familiar world, and what they made of themselves in their new homes. These vignettes are intimate accounts of difficult times, bolstered by smaller anecdotes from Wilkerson’s other sources. Her narrative cuts back and forth across time and space, constructing a beautiful mosaic of the people whose journey was more like immigration to a whole new country, as they settled in clustered groups from the same hometown and brought the traditional folkways of the Old World with them.

The scope of this book is simultaneously narrow and wide, and its aggregate effect is both moving and eye-opening. I heartily recommend it to anyone looking to better understand African American history or even American history as a whole.

★★★★★

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TV Review: The Middleman, season 1

TV #43 of 2018:

The Middleman, season 1

My latest rewatch of this action-comedy cult classic, which lasted only 12 episodes on ABC Family in 2008 before getting tragically canceled. I guess I’m not surprised that the show struggled to find an audience, but it really is so much fun, with witty dialogue, clever pop culture references, and loads of meta humor about the medium. Each episode offers goofy comic-book / B-movie plots, as our heroes fight off all threats “infra-, extra-, and juxta-terrestrial.” It’s worth seeking out if you’ve never seen it before, especially for the talented cast (of whom only Natalie Morales and Mark Sheppard have gone on to have much of a career after this). I don’t think it’s streaming anywhere, but if you’re one of my IRL friends or otherwise live nearby, I’m happy to loan you my DVDs.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey

Book #184 of 2018:

Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey (The Expanse #1)

I like the setting and plot of this sci-fi thriller, which blends the creepy deep-space body horror of Event Horizon with a less-fantastical version of Red Rising‘s interplanetary political tensions. Author “James S. A. Corey” (actually a collaboration between Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) has written a page-turning space opera that definitely takes a few unexpected turns and sets up the series nicely.

But although I enjoy the storyline of this first novel, I’m not such a fan of its characters — or of the low-level background racism and sexism that generally exoticizes anyone who isn’t a white man like the writers and their two viewpoint protagonists. I’ve heard good things about the TV adaptation of these books, so I’m now trying to decide whether I want to read any further or just give the show a try instead.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: A Higher Loyalty by James Comey

Book #183 of 2018:

A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey

I read this book earlier in the year, but I wanted to refresh my memory before my book club discusses it on Monday. My original review, reposted below, still stands:

—

Former FBI Director Jim Comey is a polarizing public figure, and it’s nearly impossible for a contemporary reader to set aside their preconceptions of him in reading this book. (He’s also a fellow graduate of my alma mater and someone with whom I have mutual acquaintances, and although we’ve never met personally ourselves, these connections do further shade my objectivity.)

Nevertheless, the author acquits himself well in laying out the conflicted thought process behind some of his more controversial actions during the 2016 presidential election and its aftermath. We may still find some of his decisions to be obtuse, but overall his reasoning seems clear, defensible, and non-partisan. And while his insights into the personal character of Donald Trump — or lack thereof — are not quite revelatory, they still represent an important perspective of someone who has interacted with him closely.

If you take Comey at his word, this book is intended less as a personal critique of President Trump and more as a handbook of lessons the Director has learned for leading with integrity. Drawing on his personal experience serving under three presidents and beyond, Comey has a lot to say on loyalty to an ideal larger than one person or political party. It’s sometimes hard to see that in neutral terms, or to trust that this author is being truly neutral himself, but it’s still a valuable lesson for our current political moment.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: Nation by Terry Pratchett

Book #182 of 2018:

Nation by Terry Pratchett

This novel about the aftermath of a natural disaster in the Pacific Islands is fine, but it doesn’t quite spark the joy and humor in me that I expect from Terry Pratchett at his Discworld / Good Omens best. I think I would have better enjoyed reading about these native characters rebuilding their home without the presence of shipwrecked foreigners, even if Sir Terry does use the opportunity to poke a little fun at British imperialism along the way. Still, this is leagues better than Dodger, Pratchett’s other late-career foray away from his regular series.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

Book #181 of 2018:

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

Too many unanswered questions in this story of a newly-married seventeenth-century Dutch woman receiving mysterious figurines from a reclusive artisan. Largest is the issue of the title character, whose unexplained gifts are fantastically intricate and insightful (if not outright prophetic), but I also have a hard time with the characterization of the novel’s heroine, who is regularly bullied and ignored by her new husband and his household as they struggle to conceal certain scandalous secrets.

Author Jessie Burton presents an interesting picture of how diversity of race and sexuality would have shocked this historical society, but I never feel as though readers are shown why a small-town teenager of the era would be unfazed herself — nor why she would be so devoted to her new relations after their initial treatment of her. The ensuing tale is atmospheric, but it doesn’t hold together for me.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

Book #180 of 2018:

Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch (Gentleman Bastard #2)

Plotwise, this sequel is an unfortunate step down from author Scott Lynch’s brilliant debut, The Lies of Locke Lamora. Whereas that earlier fantasy crime novel effortlessly weaves its various strands into one compelling whole, this follow-up spends a third of the book setting up a new location and cast of characters only to then jettison all that and literally send its protagonists out to sea. Their ensuing piratical adventure is fun, but it really doesn’t connect back with anything from the start of the novel until near the very end. (I’m also a bit sour on the cliffhanger flash-forward that starts off the book, which when finally revisited turns out to have been misleading and largely without consequence.)

With all that being said: this is still a very good story! Along with the piracy business, it offers more of the Ocean’s Eleven heist shenanigans of the first book, and Lynch establishes this corner of Locke Lamora’s world with the same detailed care as before. The new characters are great — especially the daring ship’s captain and black mother-of-two Zamira Drakasha — and the returning cast are given some interesting fresh challenges. There’s even a touching love story, which is one element not really present in book one. It’s by no means the instant classic of Lies, but this second Gentleman Bastard novel is still very much worth the read.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward

Book #179 of 2018:

Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward

There are no real bombshell revelations in this inside account of the early Donald Trump presidency, which reads like a less tawdry Fire and Fury but is overall in line with other coverage of the administration. Still, original Watergate reporter Bob Woodward is well-respected in Washington for his integrity, and his perspective lends a certain gravitas to what the author has witnessed in hundreds of hours of ‘deep background’ interviews conducted with anonymous White House sources for this book.

For the most part, it’s a negative picture: a president who trusts his gut feelings over experts and confirmed studies, often to the exasperation of administration officials and other Republicans, and who will shamelessly lie about even the smallest, most easily-contradicted details. But Woodward also captures a side of Trump that is often missing in mainstream media coverage: his concern for the child victims of chemical attacks in Syria, his reluctance to risk American military lives, and his firm commitment to isolationist policies that he believes will benefit his base. Critics may be inclined to brush off such humanizing details, but they add up to a more nuanced image of the president and a true sign that this book has not been intended as a partisan critique.

The major takeaway, however, is that many in Trump’s own White House don’t trust him or know how to handle his chaotic governing style, in which a tweet can derail a sensitive review process and outlandish presidential directives can be ignored under the not-unreasonable assumption that the Commander in Chief may simply change his mind or forget. Woodward stops short of passing judgment on what Trump’s aides have told him in confidence, but it would be hard for a reader to conclude that any of it is indicative of a healthy functioning democracy.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton with Lara Love Hardin

Book #178 of 2018:

The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton with Lara Love Hardin

A powerful memoir from a wrongfully-convicted black man who spent 30 years on Alabama’s death row before finally being exonerated in 2015 by the efforts of appeals lawyer Bryan Stevenson. As with Stevenson’s own book Just Mercy, it’s an indictment of the death penalty itself and an intensely personal story of how easily an innocent life can be caught up and ruined by injustices in the justice system. Author Anthony Ray Hinton writes movingly of the struggle to keep his faith while awaiting execution, as well as the difficulties he’s faced adjusting to a modern world of internet and GPS after three decades behind bars. His story puts an all-too-human face on capital punishment and should be required reading for anyone who still supports such measures.

★★★★☆

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