I’ve read most of Walter Mosley’s underrated Easy Rawlins series and, while this is far from the best, this is probably his rawest work. It’s also perhaps an apology for how he has written for female characters in the past. Taking place in the shadow of the 1965 uprising in Watts led by black citizens after yet another act of police brutality, it lends a setting that is never far from the events of the story. Whereas, Mosley contextualizes in Easy’s dialogue about the circumstances […]
Los Angeles Nightmare
My James Ellroy kick continues, this time with a book that’s more of a horror novel than mystery. Book two of Ellroy’s LA Quartet, this is where he began to find his voice. One could see glimpses in The Black Dahlia of the writer he would become. The Big Nowhere proves he can handle a story with a larger scope than a typical paperback mystery. Ostensibly about the police squeezing the communists who hold the line for unions combating their studio employers, The Big Nowhere manages to mesh in the mob […]
Cute contemporary, bantery, love to hate to love romance.
This book isn’t normally my genre (contemporary, or contemporary romance). But I make exceptions if I’ve read and liked books by the author before, or if someone whose tastes that are similar to mine says a book is worth checking out. Dating You / Hating You fits into both categories. I loved this author duo’s YA book Autoboyography when I read it last month, and this book in particular was a favorite of y’all here at the CBR romance reading hivemind when it first came […]
Can I be friends with Tiffany Haddish plz?
Tiffany Haddish‘s memoir The Last Black Unicorn is a trip! I first came across her on Jimmy Kimmel retelling her now famous swamp tour Groupon story. She was hilarious and seemed like a ton of a fun. I’m so happy Groupon figured out what is up and has her doing commercials. I knew she was a comedian and starred in Girls Trip, but beyond that I didn’t know much about her. Thus, I was super pumped to read her book. And it did not disappoint! If you […]
“Why is some accident of uncontrolled neurochemistry the ‘real me,’ and a carefully reasoned system of priorities somehow false?”
Borderline is a sharp urban fantasy book with a new take on the “fairies walk among us” trope. It stands out, in part, for its unusual protagonist (more on that later) but also achieves above-average marks for its balance of fresh world-building with a well-paced plot. Leaning too hard on one or the other can result either in a story that drags under the weight of excessive detail, or an ill-defined, unprincipled universe where anything goes with the plot because anything can be magicked to […]
I always feel like a chump for having zero magical powers when clearly the world is full of magicians and superpowered beings!
The Everything Box is superfun! I added it to my library queue after some happy Cannonball Read reviews, and am so glad I did. I read almost this entire book in one sitting. I would best describe this as Neil Gaiman Lite, which is NOT a criticism. There is a richness missing that would make it a full Gaiman experience, but sometimes you don’t need the bone marrow spread on top of the rib-eye on top of cheesy polenta. Sometimes you just want a salad […]