Book #147 of 2020: How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang Although it’s not necessarily my typical sort of read, I’ve found this novel about a pair of Chinese-American siblings amid the California Gold Rush to be utterly captivating. It’s a deeply personal and well-realized tale that somehow avoids the performative …
Continue reading “Book Review: How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang”
Book #146 of 2020: A Conjuring of Light by V. E. Schwab (Shades of Magic #3) This last volume has the most coherent plot stakes of the Shades of Magic trilogy, but it’s still a pretty rambling adventure that never seems to take full advantage of the cool multiverse setting. There’s also a lot of …
Continue reading “Book Review: A Conjuring of Light by V. E. Schwab”
Book #145 of 2020: Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi (Beasts Made of Night #1) This debut novel from Nigerian-American author Tochi Onyebuchi has an interesting concept of an underclass of magical sin-eaters who assuage the consciences of their society’s wicked nobility, but the plot is pretty slow and I struggle to ever understand …
Continue reading “Book Review: Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi”
Book #144 of 2020: Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson This standalone fantasy novel is a real gem, populated with endearing characters and the glimmering magic tomes that whisper to them in the darkness. I’m reminded of Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom series, and not merely because the heroine has been raised in a library like …
Continue reading “Book Review: Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson”
Book #143 of 2020: The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein A rather dry account of an interesting and important topic. Author Richard Rothstein walks readers through various related factors that have led to black families being congregated within lower-resourced ‘inner cities’ across America, from overtly …
TV #23 of 2020: Shameless, season 5 After a season of unusual focus and compelling character drama, it is disappointing but I suppose not surprising to see Shameless crashing back into its usual brand of messiness. I don’t mind these characters being self-destructive, but I do mind the lazy writing that too often lets them …
Book #142 of 2020: Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice I really like the #ownvoices details that author Waubgeshig Rice brings to this novel about a Canadian Anishinaabe reservation going through the apparent collapse of all wider society in the heart of winter. That First Nations perspective builds an interesting dynamic into the …
Continue reading “Book Review: Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice”
Book #141 of 2020: The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings #2) This second volume of the epic fantasy classic continues the charm and adventure of the debut, with further settings, concepts, and character moments that have proved indelible upon both the literary genre that followed and myself as …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien”
Book #140 of 2020: The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa First published a quarter-century ago and re-released last year in a new English translation, this Japanese novel offers a quiet and sorrowful dystopia. The tale is set on an island where people are gradually forgetting the function of everyday things like ribbons and candies, and …
Continue reading “Book Review: The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa”
Book #139 of 2020: Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi Published in early 2016, this is a meticulously thorough presentation of American anti-black racism and notions of race more generally, from pre-revolutionary slavery through the extrajudicial killings that sparked the modern #BlackLivesMatter movement. The material …
The Lesser Joke: book reviews and more