Tell Me Who You Are by Louisa Luna
Read as part of CBR16 Bingo: free space. Ok I will get to my thoughts about this book in a second. But… It’s probably been talked about before by folks in other spaces but I find it notable that so many female-written thrillers are based around a woman running away from her past. Could be because of an abusive ex or parents but it is often — as it is here — about a traumatic event that occurred when they were younger. I’m not trying […]
Manhattan Noir by ed. Lawrence Block
Read as part of CBR16 Bingo: ring. One of the suggestions for this category was “reaching for the brass ring.” Many move to Manhattan to reach for the brass ring. Most of these stories are about how they failed. Sorry to those who actually read all my reviews because I know I repeat myself constantly. But man, I just love the Akhasic Noir series. I already love cities, those I’ve been to, lived in, can only dream of. And there’s just nothing better than Manhattan. […]
Holly Hernandez and the Death of Disco by Richie Narvaez
Read as part of CBR16Bingo: Disco. The book is set in the 1970s, in New York City, has a prominent theme at a discotheque and has the word “disco” in the title. Imagine if Harriet the Spy was a high school girl of Hispanic descent in 70s Brooklyn and you’d have the vibe of this one. There are two stories here, one about Holly and the other about Xander. I don’t want to spoil them but the dueling narratives do not imply an unlikely friendship. […]
A Ticket to the Boneyard by Lawrence Block
Read as part of CBR16Bingo: Earth Day. But I’m replacing the Earth Day square with a “re-read” square. Earth Day is just not a subject that interests me and I have no books at home or on my TBR that would fit a flexible definition of this square. But that’s not a knock on the person who created the Bingo sheet because they created a lot of otherwise awesome squares! Going through my Matthew Scudder re-reads, I realized this would be a tough one. But […]
Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta by James Hannaham
Read as part of CBR16 Bingo: liberate. Carlotta is coming home from prison, which is some sort of liberation and she’s trying to find her way as a trans woman in the world, seeking her own path to liberation. I’ve written before about my beef with contemporary writing and how smarmy it’s become. Every villain has to twirl their mustache, every hero has to overcome a specific obstacle to warm the audience’s heart, everything is so boringly Manichaean. There’s little space for complexity, imperfection, growth, […]
The First Quarry by Max Allan Collins
Kings of the Garden: The New York Knicks and Their City by Adam J. Criblez
Out On The Cutting Edge by Lawrence Block
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Nevada by Imogene Binnie
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford Dictionary by Simon Winchester
Exalted by Anna Dorn
Happy Pride to all who celebrate! The First Quarry**** I was disappointed in the quality of the last couple of Quarry novels so I wasn’t expecting much…but this was good. One of his best plots and I really enjoyed it. Could’ve done without the racism. Big believer that you can show the casual racism of the past (1970s) without wallowing in it and the book does that. Otherwise, it’s good. Kings of the Garden: The New York Knicks and Their City**** Stretching a four star […]
