The Last by Hanna Jameson
So…nuclear war. Been in the news a lot these days. How about that, eh? I never knew how good I had it as a kid in the (mostly) harmonious 90s. The Iron Curtain fell, the Cold War was over, 9/11 had not yet happened and the only existential threat to America was our collectively stupid reaction to the President’s affair with an intern. Wish somebody told me those would be the good ol days for the States. Anyway, I came upon this book because I […]
Saving Grace by Debbie Babitt
Catholic guilt is often seen as a cultural experience of many Americans who grew up in ethnic enclaves that practiced Catholicism. I’m not sure if it is a universal Catholic experience (maybe it is?) but it’s prevalent in a lot of Catholics I know who were born and raised in the States. Catholic guilt is a recurring theme in media; explored in great detail in the films of Martin Scorsese. It’s old hat at this point but as millions of Americans come from Catholic backgrounds […]
Real Easy by Marie Rutkoski
I sat on this review for most of the day, unsure of what to make of this book. I think I’m gonna land on the side of “good” and give it a 4-star seal of approval. I think a lot of people are coming into this looking at the subplot of crime involving a stripper and assume this is a Hustler$-esque pulp tale. It’s not that at all. Instead, it’s how people’s lives revolve around a popular stripper who has gone missing, including, but not limited […]
Trouble Is What I Do by Walter Mosley
Sleeping With Strangers by Eric Jerome Dickey
The Trees by Percival Everett
One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying Democracy by Carol Anderson
These are my February leftovers, i.e. books that I read but didn’t give a full review either cuz I didn’t have time or didn’t have much to say. There are fewer than normal this month because Black Reconstruction by W.E.B. DuBois took up most of my time. Trouble Is What I Do **** Another good entry in the Leonid McGill series. It’s short and that streamlines the story more than its predecessors. I still read these as if Leonid is dead and NYC is his purgatory where […]
Black Reconstruction in America: 1860-1880 by W.E.B. Du Bois
I had been meaning to tackle this legendary W.E.B. Du Bois’ tome for years, finally deciding to do it this month. It wasn’t what I expected, in many ways. Those expectations came with my own ignorance in not knowing a lot of Du Bois’ work. I’d read little of him before getting to this. I knew that despite his status amongst the Black intellectuals and historians of his time, he was outcast near the end of his life for leaving the NAACP because of his […]
The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
If you love New York City, as I do, you’ll love this book as much as I did (my favorite read of 2022 so far by far). Let’s just start there. Like author N.K. Jemisin, I’m an NYC transplant, even if she had more experience visiting it in her youth than I did. Like her, I came with an understanding and expectation of what I thought the city was and was going to be for me. And, according to the afterword, I learned and changed […]
