The Rainbow Troops: A Novel is not so much a novel as a memoir or collection of vignettes from the author’s childhood in Indonesia. It is an eye-opener about life in the world’s fourth most populated country, the largest Muslim-majority country. Hirata is Indonesia’s best selling writer of all time (according to the book blurb) and The Rainbow Troops was a huge best-seller in Indonesia and abroad. Hirata provides a vivid depiction of the poverty that many Indonesians experience and of the hope that education […]
The Persistence of Memory
Salt Houses is Hala Alyan’s first novel, but not her first book. She is a published poet with a doctorate in psychology, and in Salt Houses, she demonstrates both her beautiful way with words and her remarkable ability to delve into the psyches of the members of one family. Each character in this book has his/her own unique voice and way of seeing the world. And that world changes from generation to generation, quite literally, as they are forced to move from one city and […]
Meta Mystery!
Here’s your 2017 beach read. It’s a murder mystery set within a murder mystery, a meta-mystery, if you will, that peers with a gimlet eye at both the process of writing and the publishing industry. This book is great fun to read and stocked full of characters who draw you in and/or repulse you. Both mysteries will keep the reader firmly planted in his/her seat until all whodunnits have been revealed in a most satisfactory way. The novel opens with Susan Ryeland just home from […]
To live for or to die for? That is the question.
The Weight of Ink is a fascinating work of historical fiction set in London of the 17th century and 2000-2001. It is brimming with compelling characters and interwoven plots related to scholarship, feminism, academia, anti-semitism, love, guilt and atonement. Throughout the novel, across time, the question that torments our main characters has to do with how one lives one’s life and supports one’s beliefs: is it better to die for what you believe or to live at all costs? And what do you do if […]
You know, for kids!
About a year ago, the Marvel Comic Moon Girl got a lot of positive press because its heroine is a young girl of color and because it was revealed that Lunella Lafayette, aka Moon Girl, is perhaps the smartest character in the Marvel Universe, outshining intellects such as Tony Stark and Reed Richards. Lunella is a science/math/engineering wunderkind and a fourth grader. She is also bored at school, friendless, and, in her opinion, deeply misunderstood by most of the people in her life, including but […]
Is this where the Roxane Gay fan club meets?
I finally made it to the Roxane Gay party! Bad Feminist is a critically acclaimed collection of essays by Roxane Gay that covers many topics. The essays are divided into categories such as “Gender and Sexuality,” “Race and Entertainment,” “Politics, Gender and Race,” and “ME.” Within each category, Gay offers a number of essays related to the topic at hand, writing with insight, well-argued liberal opinions, and humor. She is well versed in politics and pop culture, and is willing to reveal something of herself […]
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