Wednesday, March 27, 2024

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djeli Clark, 224 pages

Eveen is an undead assassin who has no memory of her life, but is slowly working off years of tribute to her patron goddess, abiding by the three unbreakable rules of assassins: a contract must be just, you can't kill anyone who isn't contracted, and once you take a contract, you have to carry it out. But when Eveen takes a contract that involves killing someone who evokes impossible memories, she has to reevaluate exactly what "unbreakable" means while simultaneously solving the mystery of who this woman is and keeping them both alive long enough to sort it out.

This was a ridiculously fun book, with excellent worldbuilding and intriguing characters. Of course, that could describe any of Clark's books, so I'm not particularly surprised by this. It's well worth the short time it'll take to read through this one.

*This book will be published Aug. 6, 2024.

Uncommon Measures

 Uncommon Measures, by Natalie Hodges, 224 pgs, 2022


A great piece of memoir writing that tracks the author's failed dreams of becoming a first-rate, solo violinist alongside some of the most recent scientific breakthroughs as they apply to music and our perception of time. Hodges recounts her struggle with performance anxiety, practicing difficult classical pieces over and over again, only to miss notes during the execution. She also touches on her Asian-American heritage growing up with a "tiger" mom, dancing Tango to unlearn her fear of performance, and ultimately accepting that the grand musician's dream she once held for herself must go unrealized. Along the way, she introduces us to several scientific studies regarding how the musicians brain operates during times of improvisation, how entrainment works to help us move to a beat and how unburdening your mind from the physics of time allows people to enter a "flow state." Of interest to anyone inclined towards classical music, performance, or even sports--a heartfelt and vulnerable work that covers an often unviewed aspect of the artist life. 

Listen to this playlist of all of the music mentioned throughout the book.




Monday, March 25, 2024

Dominoes

Dominoes by Phoebe McIntosh, 288 pages

Layla McKinnon has always thought it was just a funny quirk that she and her fiancĂ©, Andy, have the same last name — she's biracial and grew up in North London, he's from an upper-middleclass family with deep Scottish roots. But when she sees a documentary just a few weeks before their wedding day, Layla discovers that Andy's ancestors may have enslaved her ancestors. The revelation sends Layla into a tailspin, causing her to re-evaluate everything from her lack of genealogical knowledge to her upcoming nuptials. 

The premise of this book set it up to potentially veer into sappy cheese or dark and gritty (or, if the author really mishandled it, way too light and quirky). Instead, McIntosh walked that very fine line, and created a book that's an enjoyable, engrossing read that also addresses colorism, the generational impact of slavery, and privilege head on in the context of Layla's life. I was impressed, and highly recommend this one.

The Fox Wife

 The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo, 390 pages.

This novel follows two protagonists in Manchuria at the start of the twentieth century. Bao is a detective in a time before private detectives are really a thing that exist, but he's been able to hear lies since he was a small child, and using this power to solve people's problems brings him great satisfaction. He is especially intrigued when a girl is found frozen to death in an alley and people say it is the work of foxes, a subject that has fascinated him his whole life. Snow is a fox spirit (a traditionally trickstery spirit who consumes qi to live) on the hunt for her child's murderer. Their separate searches often overlap across Manchuria at the end of the Qing dynasty, and together the reader can put together answers to a whole slew of questions. 

I quite enjoyed this book, although I definitely have some criticisms. The setting was really interesting, and I think Choo did an excellent job making this story feel very rooted into it's setting while also keeping it accessible to people who don't know all that much about Chinese history. I also really like both of the protagonists, and I really enjoyed watching them interact with the world. Unfortunately, even when the protagonists eventually meet it never really feels like the two stories come together, which is puzzling since the plots definitely do. The perspectives shift every chapter, and I found it, without fail, jarring. I believe it is because it feels like the two protagonists are in different genres despite having very similar plots. Despite sometimes feeling like I was reading two books squished together, I still really liked it, and found it fun to put together the information gathered across different plots. I would recommend this book, especially to fans of historical mysteries and classic detective readers who don't mind a splash of fantasy.


My Life in Pieces

 

My Life in Pieces: An Alternative Biography by Simon Callow 320 pp.

Actor and author Simon Callow provides an overview of his life and work in theaters, movies, and authoring articles, critiques, and books. It is part memoir and part anthology of his writings and sometimes seems jumbled as a result. His beginnings in the theater were not as an actor but in the workings and accounting in the box office, first at the Old Vic when Laurence Olivier was running things, and later at other venues. Watching the actors and the process of producing plays made Callow decide he wanted to act and he began to study acting. It was during that period when he became active in the gay liberation movement. He also began writing, generally about the theater and was frequently published in periodicals involving theater, film, and actors. Directing soon followed. While not as well known in the U.S., Callow has become a fixture in British theater earning a CBE for his service to acting. As I said, this book is a mixture of his life and his writings but, while mostly linear in time frame, still feels disjointed. Callow read the audiobook.

Saturday, March 23, 2024

The Eyes Are the Best Part

The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim, 288 pages

Korean American college student Ji-won is still dealing with the aftermath of her father abruptly abandoning his family when her mom gets a new boyfriend. George is white, brash, and casually racist, but Ji-won's mom seems to love him, so what choice does Ji-won have but to go along with it? Meanwhile, Ji-won's struggling at college, as she's lonely and doesn't have the great grades she's used to from high school. As George's rudeness escalates, Ji-won's mental state deteriorates to the point that she becomes fixated on his bright blue eyes and all of the hatred they represent to her.

This is a really fantastic twist on psychological horror, seeing the villain's descent into madness from her own point of view. It's also a great example of social horror, seeing how all of the microaggressions affect Ji-won's mental state. As you could expect from the title and cover (which will likely be fueling my nightmares for months to come), there's a bit of cannibalism in this book, and while it's not something you want to read while eating, it wasn't nearly as stomach-churning as I feared it would be. I was pleasantly surprised by this one!

This book will be published June 25, 2024.

Friday, March 22, 2024

People of the Wolf


People of the Wolf (North America's Forgotten Past #1) by Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear, dramatized by a full cast (1990) 448 pages

Hoopla has a fully dramatized GraphicAudio version split into two halves. There is music and sound effects throughout. I've read other historical fiction about ancient people of pre-history. This one is much more about mysticism, destiny, and dreams than the day to day survival of early humans using the plants and animals available to them. It is about migration patterns and reminded me of a PBS Nova program that looked at Ice Age Footprints. Archeologists are finding that humans came across to the Americas much earlier than previously thought. The story mainly concerns two brothers who compete to lead their people, their tribe. One brother is power hungry and wants to fight to destroy the "Others," who are maybe Neanderthals, or maybe just another tribe of Homo Sapiens. Classic dark versus light theme. The good brother has a dream of the wolf spirit leading the people South past the great ice. He doesn't want the responsibility of being a dreamer for the people at first. He eventually learns from an experienced dreamer named Heron about the oneness of life. I don't think I'll continue the series. It wasn't as good as the series that starts with The Clan of the Cave Bear. But it wasn't terrible either.

Thursday, March 21, 2024

A Surfeit of Lampreys


 
A Surfeit of Lampreys by Ngaio Marsh 336 pp.

The Lampreys in this story are not the dangerous eel-like fish with the toothed, sucking mouth. Marsh has created the Lamprey family, an eccentric brood that has no sense of money management or social graces. The family includes dotty family members and those who are outright mad. Soon after the arrival of a young friend from New Zealand, Charles Lamprey and his wife Charlot are trying to convince Charles' brother, Lord Wutherwood to give them money to get them out of yet another financial crisis - something the Lord has done before. However, the meeting does not go as planned and Lord Wutherwood is found dead in the elevator after meeting with his brother. Inspector Roderick Alleyn takes on the investigation and is incessantly thwarted by the Lamprey offspring who do everything in their power to confuse the facts and lead the Inspector astray. Eccentricity and madness do not thwart Alleyn and he once again manages to solve the crime. This episode seemed to drag and, more than once, I found myself dozing off while reading it.

Moon Over Soho

 


Moon Over Soho (Rivers of London series #2)
by Ben Aaronovitch  375 pp.

Peter Grant returns as a London Police Constable / Sorcerer's Apprentice in this second magical installment of the series. This time his investigations turn to the deaths of jazz musicians dropping dead but carrying supernatural signs which show the deaths are magical instead of natural. In the mean time Peter has a new "girlfriend" who is also supernatural but doesn't realize it. While Peter's magical teacher recovers from injuries sustained at the end of the first book, he has to do most of the investigating alone with his limited magical skills. Constable Lesley May, Peter Grant's love interest in the previous book is recovering from the extreme disfiguring injuries she sustained in book one. Because she cannot actively investigate she instead is analyzing old records from Oxford to help with the investigation. To add to the mysterious, magical crimes, a creature Grant calls "The Pale Lady" is killing men she mutilates with her vagina dentata. With all the dangerous supernatural creatures there is quite a bit of grotesque goriness but it is all integral to the story. I have to read the next one to find out how the wizard Thomas Nightingale and Constable May are getting along.

Tangled Up in You

Tangled Up in You by Christina Lauren, 320 pages

Ren has lived a VERY sheltered life on an off-the-grid farm in Idaho. She's 22 and she's never stepped foot in a school or used the internet or even eaten a burrito, though she has read a lot, and taught herself multiple languages and high-level STEM concepts. So when she heads to college, she's naĂŻve but excited, despite the strict rules her parents have laid out. One of the first people she meets is Fitz, a charming and good-looking senior who seemingly has it all — a perfect academic record, a rich family, and a reputation as a fun-loving ladies' man. But Ren's academic prowess threatens Fitz's plans, and when a class project leads to a shocking discovery for Ren, the pair find themselves thrown together on a cross-country road trip.

OK, there's the summary. The easier way to describe this book, however, is as Tangled fanfic set in modern-day America. The whole story is there, down to our heroine's affinity for animals and specific plot points from the animated Disney movie. And if that's what you're looking for, that's great. I wasn't particularly looking for that (I went into it thinking it was more of a Rapunzel-based story than a retelling of a Disney movie), so I was a bit disappointed, as I wanted slightly more original and three-dimensional characters. But aside from some quibbles about the road trip (that first leg where they left at 6 a.m. was only a three-hour drive and included no sightseeing, yet they arrived at dinnertime?), the book was fine. Nothing to write home about, but also a quick easy read.

This book will be published June 25, 2024.