The Widows of Malabar Hill
The Widows of Malabar Hill, a new mystery series set in early twentieth-century India. Once again, I’ve discovered a new mystery series that has absolutely captured my imagination. The Widows of Malabar Hill, written by Sujata Massey, features Perveen Mistry, a young Indian woman who studied law at Oxford and has now returned to her […]
Saint X
SAINT X Alexis Schaitkin’s debut novel, Saint X, opens with the languid ennui of a mid-winter Caribbean vacation. An omniscient narrator sets scenes filled with string-topped bikinis, rum fruit punches, sunburns, and sex. “As afternoon slips into evening, the guests drift away from the beach. They spend the hours before dinner recovering from the day—the […]
The Housekeeper and the Professor
THE HOUSEKEEPER AND THE PROFESSOR A simple precis of Yoko Ogawa’s The Housekeeper and the Professor cannot do justice to the mystique of this very special story. The set-up involves only four characters—the professor, his sister-in-law, the housekeeper, and her son. The Akebono Housekeeping Agency has given the housekeeper a new assignment. Her task is […]
What You Have Heard is True
WHAT YOU HAVE HEARD IS TRUE: A MEMOIR OF WITNESS AND RESISTANCE I can’t recall reading another book about a topic absolutely foreign to me that went like an arrow to my heart. A friend loaned me What You Have Heard Is True, predicting that I would really like it. I said, “Okay, I’ll read […]
Two from Rose George – The Big Necessity & Nine Pints
THE BIG NECESSITY AND NINE PINTS Both of these books merit independent reviews, but since they were written by the same author and both investigate and analyze topics that have critical importance to human life, I have chosen to review them together. The two topics that George writes about might be categorized under the rubric […]
Slave Old Man
SLAVE OLD MAN The books I often find most difficult to review are those recommended by someone whose suggestions are not taken lightly. So, on Ron Shoop’s (retired RH rep) recommendation, I requested a copy of Patrick Chamoiseau’s Slave Old Man with the promise that I would, indeed, review it. This review took me at […]
Trainwreck
Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear . . . and Why Trainwrecks, Sady Doyle metaphorically muses, are women who have lost control of their own narratives. Whether their personal behaviors caused their degradation, or whether their downfalls derive solely from being shamed by others, trainwrecks signal something crucial to all other […]
Nein, A Manifesto
Nein, A Manifesto Home alone, reading Eric Jarosinski’s Nein. A Manifesto, and I’m laughing so hard that tears are running down my cheeks! I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve discovered anything this funny! Moreover, the humor is cumulative, so what was making me smile on the first few pages becomes ear-splitting by […]
A Cafecito Story
A Cafecito Story Heads up, readers! Summer is gone, fall is still falling, goblins have spooked, the really big bird has been eaten, and then – yes, Black Friday was yesterday, and now the winter solstice looms. It is high time to seriously shop for those holiday books. Quite by accident, I came across A […]
Severed
Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found At any moment I expected Frances Larson to quote from Stanley Holloway’s English music hall hit song of 1934, “with her head tucked underneath her arm, she walks the bloody tower ” describing the post-decapitation perambulations of Anne Boleyn after “the headsman bobbed her hair.” Even […]