A book is a magical thing that lets you travel to far-away places without ever leaving your chair.
– Katrina Mayer
A Woman of Endurance
Publisher’s Weekly calls Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa’s novel “intense and bittersweet.” The poignant story follows a woman who lost her:
- Mother-given name, Keera
- Freedom and faith when stolen from Yorubaland then renamed Pola
- ability to care after this slave breeder repeated loses babies before she can know them.
The novel contains magnificent characters like the stoic Simón who Pola wounds while he prevents her suicide. And the wise woman who helps Pola heal physically and emotionally. The story also contains anti-heroes. Beyond slave catcher and owner callousness and brutality, Llanos-Figueroa also presents damaging effects black people rank themselves by darkness.
A key question is: Can Pola overcome abuse and bitterness enough to love again?
My Sister the Serial Killer
is: How long will Ugly Duckling Korede keep cleaning up after her beautiful sister Ayoola’s murder of men enthralled by her beauty.Set in Nigeria, the novel opens,
I had hoped I would never hear these words again.
The story studies family dynamics and loyalty. Here, the dutiful Koredo must decide whether to continue protecting her younger sibling. Or, keep a good-hearted doctor from prison after defending himself from Ayoola’s fourth attack.The book shows how manipulative an innocent-seeming, attractive person can be. A valuable reminder.
Audio Sample
Harvard Crimson Review
BBC Africa Book Club Interview
Remarkably Bright Creatures
Marcellus is a giant Pacific octopus. He’s displayed at the Sowell Bay Aquarium. Nearing the end of his life, the highly-intelligent, soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusk has found ways to escape his tank and enjoy culinary delights swimming in other enclosures.
The aquarium’s widowed, nighttime cleaning lady never understood how her son and only child vanished during a boating accident. Marcellus has the decades-old clues. Can he help Tova find peace of mind, even happiness before he dies and/or she retires?
Kirkus Reviews calls Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel, “a charming, warmhearted read.”
Talking to Strangers
This enlightening book is scholar Malcolm Gladwell’s follow up to Tipping Point, Blink, Atomic Habits , David and Goliath and more. Of Talking to Strangers, the Los Angeles Times wrote, “Gladwell has again delivered a compelling, conversation-starting read… At a time when the world feels intractably polarized, a book examining the varying ways we misinterpret or fail to communicate with one another could not feel more necessary.”
Gladwell’s eye-opening research was prompted by Sandra Bland’s 2015 arrest and subsequent suicide because she lit a cigarette to calm her nerves. Gladwell then shows how Cuba duped United States intelligence, Penn State’s Jerry Sandusky practiced pedophilia for years, Hitler misled world leaders, and more.
The book’s subtitle is important: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know.
The Knowledge
Lewis Dartnell’s intriguing book opens,
The world as we know it has ended. A particularly virulent strain of avian flu finally breached the species barrier and hopped successfully to human hosts. The contagion spread devastatingly quickly in the age of high-density cities and inter-continental air travel and killed a large portion of the global population before any effective immunization or even quarantine orders could be implemented.
This scenario is followed international tensions creating the nuclear winter that decimates all life The third wipeout suggested is a meteor strike like the one that caused Earth’s previous mass extinction. The fifth both wiped out dinosaurs and let mammals grow.
Should these situations occur, The Knowledge explains how scattered human populations could—over generations—reboot civilization. First, the book recommends scavenging a surprising array of items [like golf cart batteries] and abandoning cities. Dartnell explains how soap, even photography materials, can be made. He reminds that small groups could build communities for mutual defense and to manage plant life. Fascinating.
The Reversal
From best-selling author Michael Connelly’s “Lincoln Lawyer” series, The Reversal features Mickey Haller’s return. This defense lawyer conducts business from his Lincoln car. Here, he’s asked to switch sides and prosecute Jason Jessup. He’d been convicted of a brutal child kidnapping and murder then released on DNA evidence.
While free, Jessup presents a healthy, all-American innocence when cameras are recording. At night, troubling behaviors convince Haller’s team that re-conviction is essential. One challenge: Despite the prosecution’s best efforts, a single juror—one with a hidden grudge against law enforcement—can set Jessup free.
Of The Reversal, a Booklist Starred Review reported, “Reading this book is like watching a master craftsman, slowly and carefully, brick by brick, build something that holds together exquisitely, form and function in perfect alignment.”
More Reviews
Michael Connelly describes The Reversal
Full Audiobook [free]
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