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Village Books by Craig McLay
4 ★

This was no doubt the funniest book I have read this year. I was laughing out loud on every page (ask my family and co-worker). The movie and book references are spot on and hilarious. The crew that works at Village Books are an extremely diverse group, but they all seem to get along somehow. It takes a while for any really plot to start and even then it’s not much of one. The characters like to ramble on about things and the way the topic changes in conversation made me feel like I was sitting in a room with my friends. I person says something that make another think of something else, and so on.
Village Books is the type of small town bookstore that I like, especially with a café right next door. As with any small business, there is a large company trying to buy them out. We don’t meet the woman who owns the bookstore until the end of the book and she is a firecracker. The ending is bitter sweet. Bad things happen that end up helping the staff of Village Books in many ways.
This book had so much going on, but it was so enjoyable. Excellent characters and the friendships are priceless.

Melissa wrote: "
Village Books by Craig McLay
4 ★

This was no doubt the funniest book I have read this year. I was laughing out loud on every page (ask my family and co-worker). ..."

I read this book 6 years ago (!!) and really enjoyed it! The "buddy" that I was reading with didn't really care for it, maybe didn't even finish it. I couldn't understand what she didn't like about it. I'm so glad you did!

Ibrahim Nasrallah, Time of White Horses [2007, tr. 2012] 584 pages

This month's reading for the World Literature group I am in on Goodreads, Time of White Horses is a historical novel set largely in a fictional Palestinian village called Hadiya, from the beginning of the twentieth century through the Nakba of 1948. It is part of a series called The Palestinian Comedy, only three novels of which as far I know have been translated into English. (See my review of The Lanterns of the King of Galilee.) The book is divided into three parts; the first part deals with the declining years of the Ottoman Empire before the First World War, the second with the period of the British Mandate and the "Great Revolt", and the third covers the period of World War II and the Nakba. The first two parts are about the life of Khaled, the son of Hajj Mahmud, from his boyhood through his death at the hands of the British; the third part focuses more or less on his sons Mahmud and Naji. As in The Lanterns of the King of Galilee, there is a white mare who plays a major role in the book, or in this case a line of white mares.

Some reviews of the book, including one of the book-jacket "blurbs", compare it to Naguib Mahfouz' The Cairo Trilogy, also a story about one family against the background of anti-colonial resistance (and one of the best works of contemporary fiction I have ever read), but I would have to say that if there is any similarity to Mahfouz, it is not to the realist author of The Cairo Trilogy but to his earlier, romantic histories in the style of Sir Walter Scott. The novel is written in a very Romantic style, with a larger than life hero and a few totally and consciously evil villains -- no "banality of evil" here, or any of the later Mahfouz' nuances. Although I liked the book and would recommend it, it lost a star for me for its undifferentiated treatment of the "enemy" groups, the British and the Jewish settlers, very different from the novel of Habiby and the poetry of Darwish which I read for the same group. Perhaps because it is not entirely realistic, it was less difficult to read than I expected given the tragic nature of the subject matter. There are even some comic passages -- Naji's revenge on his military superior, for example.

The book does have one feature which is more modern, or "postmodern": there are italicized passages which purport to be "oral history", eye-witness accounts of events, and there are "historical footnotes", some of which refer to actual history and some which treat the fictional characters of the book as if they are historical, thus blurring the distinction between fiction and fact.

The novel opens with the arrival of the white mare Hamama in Hadiya, and the forging of a sort of mystical bond with the young boy Khaled -- similar to that of Sheik Daher, the historical main character of Lanterns, with the white mare in that book. When she is later taken by the Ottoman tax collector, the barely teenage Khaled follows them and like a Palestinian Rambo single-handedly wipes out a whole squad of Ottoman soldiers, gaining a mythical reputation which he largely keeps throughout the book. He leads many struggles against the Ottomans. Then there is a gap between the first and second parts, and we find him leading a guerilla struggle against the British, which is somewhat more realistically described (according to a secondary source I read, this part is at least partially based on a real figure of the Great Revolt.) This part of the book was the most interesting to me because I knew little about the revolt, and that little was mainly about the urban workers' struggle and the General Strike, rather than about the peasant struggle. The third part returns to more familiar -- and discouraging -- ground, with the increase in Zionist settlement and the contradictory relations between the Zionists, the British, and the Arab states, ending with the destruction of Palestine in the Nakba. The interesting thing here is Nasrallah's focus on the Palestinians' resistance, rather than treating them the way much of the literature does as passive victims of the Zionists. (He may exaggerate somewhat in the opposite direction.)

White Fragility – Robin DiAngelo – 3***
I’m not sure what to think about this book. I am a person of color. And this book is written by a white woman, trying to explain why it is so difficult for white people to have meaningful conversations – and, more importantly, change behaviors – about racism. I agree with some of her perspectives and applaud her efforts at calling out racism in a tactful manner. Not that her tactic always works. I listened to the audio because it was the version that arrived first, and I needed to read it for my F2F book club discussion. But I think this is a book best absorbed via text format.
My full review HERE

American Spy – Lauren Wilkinson – 4****
What an interesting and inventive debut. Told as a letter to her young children, Marie relates the events that led to her meeting their father and her career in counterintelligence. Wilkinson uses some events from history – particularly the assassination of Thomas Sankara – to frame this story of personal responsibility, family dynamics, and loyalty: to family, to country, to social ideals.
My full review HERE

Peter Handke, Die Morawische Nacht: Erzählung [2008] 560 pages

The last novel of my reading in Peter Handke. At first, I was somewhat surprised by seeing the subtitle, "A Story" on a novel of over five hundred pages, but this is essentially a "story" which is told orally by the protagonist in one night on the Morawa River, aboard a houseboat called "The Moravian Night". The subject of the story is the boat captain's "Rundreise" or circular trip through Europe. At first sight the various episodes seem fairly random, as in the (more linear) trip through the Sierra de Gredos in his earlier long novel, but as I thought more about it there does seem to be a symmetrical structure, though not obvious or worked out in detail.

Apart from a brief prologue where the Hearers gather on the book and an equally brief epilogue, the novel begins and ends aboard the boat. The trip itself starts out with a description of the enclave of Porodin and a bus trip, and finishes up the same way. The first episode (a meal in a cemetary) and the last (a "conference" of "cranks" who want to re-establish a united Balkan state) deal with the past and future of the Balkans. The next episode (a return to a place of his past, the island on which he began his career as an author, and a meeting with his girlfriend from that time) corresponds to the next-to-last episode (the return to his birth-village and meeting with his brother) and form a triangle with a chapter on a visit to his father's grave. There is a sort of chiasmus, with chapter 3 (a synposium on "Noise") matching up with chapter 6 (a jew's harp convention) and chapter 4 (on disguises and apparent madness) matching with chapter 8 on the same themes. The meeting with the "foreign woman" also in chapter 4 is similar (although of more importance) to his meeting with the woman reader on the train in chapter 7.

The various episodes are more interesting than in his earlier "trip" novels; if I hadn't already formed a fairly negative impression of Handke's work, this one might have interested me in his writing. It is the latest book (chronologically) I have read by him.

Illuminae (Illuminae #1) by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
5 ★

Kady Grant and Ezra Mason have just broken up and now their planet has been attacked and destroyed. They are now on separate rescue ships, being chased by a warship while the 3rd rescue ship is being overcome by a deadly virus that is killing other survivors. Kady and Ezra figure out that they need to work together to save everyone from the warship pursuing them and the AI system failing and no longer protecting them. It’s possible that AIDAN (the AI system) may even be dangerous.

I don’t even know where to start with this review. The story is told in the form of emails, text messages, memos, surveillance camera summaries and AIDAN’s communications. It’s an interesting ride through space that some readers may find hard to follow. If you do happen to read it, look at the dates before each entry and try to remember them. That was where I got a bit confused.
Kady and Ezra are great characters. Ezra is actually a bit silly at times. He is a lot more laid back then Kady is and seems to keep her grounded during everything even though he is on a different ship. Ezra has been thrown into a job that he seems to enjoy while Kady does whatever she wants. She’s actually a really smart girl.
AIDAN reminds me a bit of Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey. He does come around though and the reader realizes that he’s really not the bad guy. He has a reason for everything he does, even if it was for revenge, a feeling you wouldn’t think he’d be able to acknowledge.
This book had me glued to from start to finish. So much so that when I completed it I moved right on to book 2.

Ibrahim Nasrallah, Gaza Weddings [2009, tr. 2017] 156 pages [Kindle]

The third book from The Palestinian Comedy; the first two were long historical novels based on fact, while this is a concentrated, emotional novel. It is the story of two neighboring families in the Gaza Strip more or less at the present time. I can't say more; the situation begins unclear and there are gradually revelations. A very powerful book.

Mahmoud Darwish, Unfortunately, It Was Paradise: Selected Poems [2003] 194 pages [Kindle, Open Library]

This anthology was apparently added to Open Library a few days after I read his other books. About forty percent of the book consists of his long poem Mural, written in 2000 after his near death due to heart failure, which is a meditation on death. It contains some really amazing passages, unfortunately linked together by less interesting passages (although I suspect some may have been more interesting if I picked up on allusions to the Qur'an) It also contains selections from other collections, Fewer Roses (1986) with 25 poems, I See What I Want to See (1991) with one long poem, "The Hoopoe (very difficult, again many allusions to the Qur'an), and two I had already read complete, Why Have You Left the Horse Alone (1995) and A Bed for the Stranger (1999). The book ended with three of his best-known early poems. Very good poetry from one of my favorite poets.

Taha Muhammad Ali, So What: New & Selected Poems, 1971-2005 [2006] 197 pages

An anthology of poetry by another Palestinian poet, Taha Muhammad Ali. Ali's style is quite different from al-Qasim and Darwish, less intellectual and symbolic, more about everyday life; the introduction says it was written in a more vernacular language, although of course that wasn't obvious in translation. (The book is actually bilingual, but I don't know Arabic.) Some of the poems were humorous. I enjoyed the collection. The book also includes a short story, the title story "So What". The book is a longer version of a book that was published earlier called Never Mind.

Nawal el-Saadawi, Memoirs of a Woman Doctor [1957, tr. 1988] 103 pages

Her first novel, this had a big impact as the first feminist novel by an Egyptian woman, although she hadn't at the time read anything about feminism. She says it was not autobiographical, although it represented her experiences and opinions as a medical student. It was censored, and the original manuscript was lost, so it is not complete. I plan to read more of her later work over the next couple months as part of my mini-project of reading Arabic literature in translation.

Gemina (The Illuminae Files #2) by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
5 ★

Kady and Ezra made it through the Kerenza invasion and helped save most of the survivors from a fast approaching warship and a deadly bioweapon that was released over Kerenza. Gemina moves the reader to the Hypatia next destination: Jump Station Heimdall. Here Hanna and Nik, two teens from different sides of the track, must try to save the residents of Heimdall from a BeiTech strike team and alien predators.

Wormholes, space-time continuums… oh my! So much fun packed into 659 pages. This book flowed just like the 1st one and had me hooked from page 1. Hanna and Nik are so very different, but were able to connect enough to work together. I really liked Nik. He comes from a crime family and has done jail time, but underneath all that bad boy armor is just a kid who wants out. His cousin, Ella, is the best. She has the best sarcasm in the galaxy and a fabulous sense of humor despite her aliments.
Some readers may have an issue with how easily Hanna, Nik and Ella are able to take down the elite BeiTech strike team, but I found the suspense and strategies intriguing. The whole wormhole space-time continuum was a nice twist. Almost confusing at first, but I loved the outcome.
Kady and Ezra do appear in this book as well toward the end. It was a nice mesh of the two books. I got so caught up in the books that when I turned the last page I had to run to my bookshelf and grab book 3. The last line of this book may have helped with that sprint to my bookshelf as well. There aren’t many book series that get me this excited. I’ll be sad when it ends.

Secretariat – William Nack – 4****
Subtitle: The Making of a Champion. I think everyone knows about this horse and his extraordinary Triple Crown victory. Nack did extensive interviews with the people involved: owner Penny Tweedy, trainer Lucien Laurin, jockey Ron Turcotte, and groom Ed Sweat, as well as the many others surrounding the horse. The book starts slowly with a laborious genealogical history of both the people and the horse. But once he starts writing about the actual races …Nack makes the telling of those races almost as nail-bitingly exciting as it was to watch them live.
My full review HERE

Illicit Intent (Bishop Security #2) by Debbie Baldwin
4 ★

Calliope Garland is in a bit of trouble and she can’t call the police. She has some vital information that some bad guys want and another items she doesn’t even know she has. This means there are now 2 groups of bad guys after her. On instinct she calls Miller “Tox” Buchanan. Tox is a great character with many faults, but he knows he has them and doesn’t try to hide them. Well…he doesn’t try to hide all of them. He and Calliope are complete opposites that really complement each other. The chemistry between the two is immediate and intense.
The two incidents going on at the same time was a bit confusing at first. There are a lot of characters and a lot of back story. It all comes together smoothly, but it takes some concentration to keep the two different parties separate. The suspense is definitely there and the storylines are very intriguing.
Tox and his group of friends are a truly amazing group of guys. The way they joke with each other and pick on each other shows the reader how much they all mean to each other. The family compound is definitely there.
The ending is the best. The reader sees it coming, but it made my heart happy.

(Thanks to the author for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.)

Obsidio (The Illuminae Files #3) by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
5 ★

Kady, Ezra, Hanna and Nik are now aboard the container ship Mao and enroute back to Kerenza to see if anyone survived the invasion by BeiTech. Little do they know that the conflict is still active and many survivors are starting to rebel against the Pounders, BeiTech troops on the ground trying to keep order. Asha Grant, Kady’s cousin, survived the attack and is currently working as a pharmacy intern at the hospital. She is working with an underground resistance group and trying to keep a young child who is hiding from the troops. If they find her they will kill her. Rhys Lindstrom shocks Asha when he appears working for the other side. He is an old flame of hers and they parted ways on a bad note.

The final book in this trilogy bring everything full circle. Kady, Hanna and Ella make a great team and Ezra and Nik are a team made in combat heaven. With everyone working together, and AIDAN helping out, they are bound to beat BeiTech and see justice served.
It was an exciting and tragic ride through space. There are no plot twists, but there are plenty of OMG moments. Asha and Rhys are a great addition to the team and I liked having Kady’s dad around. He was a voice of reason, but still listened to the kids, unlike some others.
This whole trilogy had been one amazing ride and I will miss AIDAN and all the others. I wish there was more.


Memento (The Illuminae Files #0.5) by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
4 ★

This was a nice short story about AIDAN and the beginning of invasion of Kerenza IV. It shows the reader that AIDAN has been dedicated to the safety of the ship and crew for a while and that he has had his own “personality” from the start. It’s a brutal story though with more death and heartbreak.
I read the book on my Kindle and did find it hard to read. It’s written in the same format as the books and this made the print small. This book can be read either before or after the trilogy

Walk Two Moons – Sharon Creech – 5*****
I was completely drawn into the book from the beginning, as I learned that Sal was forced to move from her beloved Kentucky farm some 300 miles north to a town where there wasn’t even a tree in her yard. I liked the multi-generational aspect of the novel, as well as the story-within-a-story way Creech revealed what had happened. As Sal told the story of Phoebe and the lunatic, she was peeling back the layers of her own story, and finding ways to process her loss. Though I cried at the ending, I was left with a feeling hope. A marvelous book.
My full review HERE


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The Unteachables – Gordon Korman – 4****
This was a fun, enjoyable middle-grade book about kids – and at least one teacher – who need a little extra help and a hefty dose of understanding and empathy. I loved how the kids came to understand one another, and how they came to understand their teacher and his struggles. I think that young teens and middle-grade students will particularly like the focus on what the kids CAN do. Put down and bullied, they are clearly NOT helpless victims. Bravo!
My full review HERE

Beneath the Bonfire – Nickolas Butler – 4****
In this collection of short stories Butler explores relationships: men and women; male bonding; fathers and children; people and the land. The ten stories are dark and mesmerizing, Butler’s characters are lonely and yet reaching out for connection. I recognize the landscape which can be brutally unforgiving for the person not experienced or equipped to survive the dangers of the north woods.
My full review HERE

Adina Hoffman, My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness: A Poet's Life in the Palestinian Century [2009] 454 pages

A biography of the Palestinian poet, Taha Muhammed Ali, by Adina Hoffman, a friend and the wife of his translator. The author is Jewish, and immigrated to Israel from the United States, where she gradually became shocked by the realities of the history and situation of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel, especially after becoming friends with Taha. (He is referred to throughout the book by his first name.) The book contains much background about the history of Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians, and about the history of Arab and specifically Palestinian literature.

Taha Ali was born in Saffuriyya, the ancient city of Sepphoris in Galilee; the biography traces his boyhood up to the time the town was destroyed by the Israelis during the Nakba. Like Nasrallah's fictional village of Hadiya, Saffuriyya was considered a stronghold of Palestinian resistance under the Mandate. One of the most interesting parts of the book were the interviews with Dov Yermiya, the commander of the Israeli forces which captured Saffuriyya; he was later dismissed from the Israeli army for criticizing the actions of the Israelis in the invasion of Lebanon. One of the themes of the book is that people can change.

Like his younger contemporary, Mahmoud Darwish, Taha and his family initially fled north; after a stay in the refugee camps, they became "illegals" in their own country, eventually settling in Nazareth, where Taha would spend the rest of his life, opening a souvenir shop near the Christian Church of the Annunciation. They later managed to become Israeli citizens. Although he published some short stories earlier in magazines, he became a poet late in life, much after his younger contemporaries had made their reputations; like Umberto Eco, he published his first book after he was fifty.

Hoffman explains that he was initially more or less ignored in Israel, partly due to literary conservatism which did not recognize free verse as poetry, partly because he was not formally affiliated with either the Communist Party or the nationalists; his first recognition was from outside the country where his style was more in keeping with the avant-garde. That should not be taken as meaning that his poetry was in any way academic or obscure; in fact he writes in a much simpler and more direct (though less directly political) style than for example al-Qasim or Darwish (I recently read his book of poetry So What translated by Hoffman's husband Peter.)

Fadi Zaghmout, The Bride of Amman [2012, tr. 2015] 192 pages

I am somewhat ambivalent about this book. Formally, it is a novel, but it isn't really. It tells the story of five people, four women and a gay man, in Amman, Jordan. Each of the characters exemplifies an aspect of the oppression of women and gays in the traditionalist culture of Jordan: Leila, the woman who has just gotten a college degree and is greeted by her mother with "now you should get married"; her sister Salma, who has passed the optimal age for marriage and is looked down on as a "spinster"; the friends Hayat, a victim of sexual abuse who is having an affair with a married man and Rana, a Christian who is in love with a Moslem; and the gay man Ali. What makes this not quite a novel is that while the stories, which alternate throughout the book as first person monologues, are interesting and convincing enough at some level, and eventually interact, they are essentially just examples: the book is very didactic and the characters have no lives apart from the "problems" they illustrate. Their interior consciousnesses tend to become little essays discussing the questions of social relationships in almost theoretical terms, full of Western liberal catchphrases like "the transgender community". Zaghmout, the (male) author of the book, is described as a "gender activist" and blogger, and he says that the book originated from things he was blogging about. The reviews of the novel on Amazon tend to discuss it in terms that are more appropriate to nonfiction, describing it as a work of sociology and an example of "intersectionality." The author also seems to have an exaggerated view of the degree of sexual equality that exists in the West; I remember having a discussion with a Swedish feminist who had a very different account of conditions in that country. The happy ending(s) of four out of five of the stories also seem a bit unbelievable. On the other hand, if the book was actually a bestseller in Jordan as the Amazon description says, then perhaps there is a need there for this kind of social description packaged as a work of fiction.

Naguib Mahfouz, The Beginning and the End [1949, tr. 1985] 412 pages

Although not published until 1949, this novel was written in 1942-43, thus contemporary with his earlier historical romances about ancient Egypt rather than the more realistic novels he wrote after the war; yet it seems much more in keeping with his postwar realist style. It is a tragic novel about a poor family from the countryside living in Cairo about 1936. It opens with the death of the father, a minor official, which plunges the family into desparate poverty. In addition to his widow, there are four children. The daughter, Nefisa, in her twenties, is rather homely and already resigned to never marrying; there are a nineteen-year-old son, Hussein, and a sixteen-year-old named Hassanein, who are the central characters. There is also an older brother, Hassan, who is somewhat of a vagabond, unwilling to work at a serious job. We see the effects of poverty on the family, as well as both good and bad choices they make in trying to deal with it. Like everything I have read by Mahfouz, it is incredibly well-written, which comes through even in translation.

Nawal el-Saadawi, Searching [1968, tr. 1991] 114 pages

I was saddened to see on the internet that Nawal el-Saadawi, whom I have just begun reading, died on March 21 at the age of 89. A doctor, she was for a time the head of the Egyptian Public Health Service, before being removed by the conservative religious government of Anwar Sadat; she was later imprisoned by the Sadat regime for her political opinions and then spent the rest of her life as an activist for women's rights.

This short, early novel opens with a young woman realizing that her boyfriend has not shown up for their usual Tuesday evening date. We learn that she has a degree in chemistry and has been working for six years in a dead-end government job where she does no research. She makes a decision to open her own chemical laboratory. Over the course of the novel she begins questioning her life, goals and feelings, as well as the nature of the society around her, and gradually it becomes difficult to separate reality from her nightmares.

No Good Deed (Lucy Kincaid #10) by Allison Brennan
4 ★

Former FBI agent Nicole Rollins has escaped from custody and kills five officers in the process. Nicole is a smart person who kills without remorse and Lucy’s skills and knowledge will help track her down. This man hunt puts Lucy in the crosshairs of a dangerous group of people. It also puts many of Lucy’s co-workers and loved one in danger.

The hunt for Nicole was intense. Her family is truly messed up and finding out how everyone was related proved that. It takes a truly devious person to do what Nicole did.
Lucy still has some learning to do, but she does a great job helping track down Nicole. I think the more she proves herself the more people will actually listen to her. It wouldn’t hurt for Lucy to have a bit more confidence in her abilities. Sean is helping her realize this, but it’s going to take time.
Sean once again gets involved in this case and it puts his life in danger. I think a bit more than in the last book. His computer skills are superior to many and he’s smart when it comes to covert operations. Kane gets in a bit of hot water as well. I think we may see a new Rogan romance in the future and possibly see Kane in the states more.
Overall the story was great and the suspense intense. I’m hoping at some point to read one without Sean getting involved. I’d like to see Lucy do it all on her own and possibly gain the confidence she so desperately needs.

Naguib Mahfouz, The Thief and the Dogs [1961, tr. 1984] 135 pages

Mahfouz's first book since The Children of the Alley in 1959, this was the beginning of a series of short novels dealing with the failure of the 1952 revolution to achieve real progress in Egypt. The protagonist, Said Mahran, has just been released after spending four years in prison for burglary, which we are given to understand was in support of the political opposition to Britain.

While he was in prison, his former associate Ilish has married his divorced wife Nabawiyya and taken his daughter Sana, who no longer recognizes him; he suspects, whether rightly or not, that he was caught due to their betrayal. Also during that time Egypt has gotten its independence.

He visits his radical mentor Rauf Ilwan, who is now wealthy and publishes a newspaper; basically Ilwan disowns him. In a mostly stream-of-consciousness style, we see Said destroy his life and that of his one real friend Nur by his attempts at getting revenge against the three traitors.

Cari Mora by Thomas Harris
3 ★

During the search for cartel gold under a house in Miami, Hans-Peter Schneider sets his eyes on Cari Mora and thinks of all he can do with her in his violent fantasies. What he doesn’t know is that Cari Mora escaped the unthinkable from her native country and has skills and a fierce determination to survive.

This was an interesting tale about a treasure hunt with a dangerous end game. The story did not hold my attention as much as I thought it would, but the ending had me hooked. I was unable to put it down. There are a lot of characters and it can get confusing at times. There are also multiple storylines that come together at the end.

The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin
4 ★

Most witches are able to harness magic from the season of their birth. Clara is different. She is an Everwitch and is able to harness magic from all seasons. This magic has caused her grief and pain. After her magic causes the death of her parents she is sent to a school to teach her how to embrace and control her power. At the school her magic ends up killing her best friend and Clara is sent to live by herself in a secluded cabin close to the school. It isn’t until her seventeenth year that she meets Sang and learns so much about her magic and love.

I found this book unique and interesting. Most of the books I have read contain elemental magic. This is the first I have read that focuses on seasonal magic. It was a light read broken up by seasons and each section explains how the change in season affects each witch.
Clara had a relationship with Paige when her magic killed their friend and she ended up breaking up with her due to the fear that she would be next. Paige holds a huge grudge against Clara and is extremely brutal during their interactions. Paige’s honesty helps Clara toward the end of the book and it also helped me like Paige more. She wasn’t ever my favorite character.
Sang is a great character that helps Clara so very much. The friendship they have is strong and it’s no surprise that they fall in love. I loved that he never tried to hold her back or try to push her too hard like the teachers did.
I really enjoyed this book. Clara’s self-doubt got on my nerves a bit, but this story was interesting. Since Sang is studying botany there is a lot of information about herbs and plants and the health benefits of them all. This is Rachel Griffin’s first book and I’m looking forward to more from her.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own.

Fadi Zaghmout, Heaven on Earth [2014, tr. 2017] 213 pages

Zaghmout's second novel, this is a science fiction novel. It takes place in 2091; the setting naturally is in Jordan, although there is nothing apart from the names to differentiate it from any Western city. As with much speculative fiction, the book is investigating the ethical dimension of scientific progress. The premise is that, following a worldwide pandemic in 2026 (only off by six years) medical research accelerated, resulting in a nanobot technology to reverse the aging process, which on the face of it seems like a utopian dream. The book then deals with some of the ethical dilemmas which result from that, in terms of the right to die, the limiting of procreation, family dynamics and so forth. The book is occasionally satiric; the political situation hasn't changed in almost a century. Perhaps because of the science fiction form, or because of the humor, the thesis aspect of the book was less distracting than in The Bride of Amman, his first novel; he also develops the characters more rather than just treating them as examples. The book is enjoyable and has some interesting and original ideas, although there are also echoes of more famous science fiction novels; in particular, I was disappointed with his superficial treatment of the Omar theme, compared with the way a similar idea is treated in Alfred Bester's classic The Demolished Man, which won the first Hugo Award back in the 1950s..

Nawal El Saadawi, God Dies By the Nile [1974, tr. 1985] 138 pages [Kindle, Open Library]

In the novel that El Saadawi considered her most significant, she turns away from the urban settings of her first novels to deal with the corruption and superstition in a rural village on the banks of the Nile, Kafr El Teen, perhaps similar to the village in which she was born. The book opens with the widow Zakeya going out before dawn to work in the fields; when she returns at dusk, she learns from her brother Kafrawi that his oldest daughter Nefissa has run away. Over the course of the novel, we see that the village is run by a corrupt Mayor from Cairo, a relative of an important minister in the national government who has contempt for the peasants and oppresses them, especially the women, with the help of his three henchmen, the head of the Village Guard, the barber and "doctor", and the Sheik of the village mosque. The style is direct and powerful, and the novel moves through one crime after another to a climax which is perhaps not unexpected.

Home – Nnedi Okorafor – 4****
Book 2 in the marvelous “Binti” science fiction trilogy. Okorafor is a wonderful storyteller! I love the way she crafts her tale, combining science fiction and traditional mysticism. I also like how she weaves in a message of social justice and against racism. Binti is one strong female lead. I’m looking forward to Book 3, to see how (I’m not even wondering whether) Binti manages to bring peace between warring factions and ensure the future of her people.
My full review HERE

Naguib Mahfouz, Autumn Quail [1962, tr. 1985] 185 pages

In Autumn Quail, the second of his novels of the 1960's, Mahfouz returned to the time of the Revolution of 1952. The book opens with the protagonist, Isa, returning from the massacre of the Egyptian policemen by the British at Suez, to find Cairo aflame, both literally and figuratively. He is an important bureaucrat of not quite the highest rank; he belongs to the "loyal opposition." Once, he had been an activist, suffering arrest and torture for taking part in demonstrations, but now he and his party have become corrupt and part of the establishment. When he learns that the king has been overthrown by the army officers led by Nasser, he is ambivalent; the new regime has accomplished at once all that his party has claimed to be promoting for decades, but his party has had no part in it. He is soon demoted and then removed from government service entirely for past bribery and corruption; out of a job,and dishonored, he loses his fiancée. Whether from pride or just lethargy, he obstinately refuses to make his peace with the new order, represented by his radical cousin Hasan. He sums up his state of mind in the statement, "although my mind is sometimes convinced by the revolution, my heart is always with the past." The novel follows his gradual degeneration for five or six years, to an ambiguous ending.

The novel is not so much a study of the revolution or its results as it is the study of what happens to the person whose idle dreams of reform have been carried out by a movement that bypasses the reformist political games he is accustomed to; one could think of the Constitutional Democrats (Cadets) or the Mensheviks in the Russian Revolution, for example. Or what would happen to the "liberal" Democrats if there were a revolution in the United States. As with all of Mahfouz's novels, the political is combined with the personal to shed new light on both.

Fadi Zaghmout, Laila [2018, tr. 2020] 115 pages [Kindle]

Laila, Zaghmout's third novel, is a bit weird. It is told as stream-of-consciousness of a dead woman. The novel begins when Laila, a dominatrix, drops dead while pegging her submissive lover Tariq with a strap-on dildo. After getting out of his bonds, he cuts up her body and dumps it (in a trash bag) into a dumpster near the airport. For the remainder of the book, her thoughts alternate between observing the consequences and remembering her past life. Like the author's first novel, The Bride of Amman, the book is very didactic, with her thoughts, like those of the five characters in that novel, often resembling a feminist pamphlet rather than fiction. The translation is evidently not by a native English speaker and is occasionally very ungrammatical; the publisher would do well to invest in a copy-editor.

Naguib Mahfouz, The Search [1964, tr. 1987] 140 pages

This noir crime novel about a man searching for his father shows that Mahfouz can write well in any genre, but otherwise it is a very minor work.

Bone Crier's Dawn (Bone Grace #2) by Kathryn Purdie
5 ★
This book starts off where the last one ended. Aileese is still being held "hostage" in the castle by Prince Casimir and Sabine is trying her best to be Matrone of her family. We end up having a repeat issue from the first book when Sabine runs from the gates and the Chained and Unchained souls are unable to past through. The souls end up heading to town and end many lives. Including the kings.
There are many tense situations throughout the book and tears will be shed. Although one death is for the good of all, it was still sad. Aileese and Sabine's mother, Odiva, is a bit more evil in this book and the reader gets to see just how devious and demented she is. She very selfish for someone who was the Matrone of the family. I'm surprised she was able to hold it all together as long as she did.
Sabine gets a little side tracked also. She has many doubts about herself and her role in life, but most of it is because of the jackal bone she possesses. It's a relief when she finally realizes this.
I'm not a fan of duologies like this for many reasons. The biggest is that the characters are great and the reader never really get to know them. It always feels like there is more to tell. This duology ended well with no loose ends, though. I was happy with the outcome and the excitement had me glued to the book. Hopefully the author will write another series centered around Bone Crier's. The concept is interesting and fun.

Sinan Antoon, I'jaam [2004, tr. 2007] 97 pages [Kindle, Open Library]

I had previously encountered Sinan Antoon only as a translator. This short novel, his first, has the form of a memoir written in prison, composed mainly of memories and dreams/nightmares, detailing life under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. The title is untranslatable, as there is no equivalent concept in English; it refers to the dots which distinguish letters in written Arabic. The memoir was supposedly written without dots, thus making the meaning ambiguous; the dots were added by an official, along with stupid comments handwritten in the margins. A very interesting book.

Virgin River (Virgin River #1) by Robyn Carr
4 ★

Melinda Monroe is a young widow who decides to move out of the big city for a change. She takes a job as a midwife/nurse practitioner in the small mountain town of Virgin River and soon learns that small town life may not be any easier than big city life.

I absolutely love the TV show and was not disappointed by reading the book after the fact. The storylines are a bit different and some of the events are mixed up in the show (one story line doesn’t even start until book 2), but it doesn’t change the charm of the story. Melinda has many issues that she has to overcome, but the simple life seems good for her. Jack is a bright light on her horizon and he is so taken with her. You don’t see the magnitude of his love and desire for her in the TV show like you do in the book. Their love for each other is intense.
The people of Virgin River are fabulous. It makes one yearn for the simple life and friendships. Doc slowly warms up to Mel, but doesn’t show it very often and Hope is very nonchalant about everything.
The only real issue I had with the story was Mel’s inability to get over her husband’s death. This is not something, thankfully, that I have had to deal with, but it really interfered with her ability to move on and find love again.
There is a huge surprise at the end that warms the heart and makes the reader want to continue onto book 2 immediately. The author did to excellent job making the reader fall in love with Virgin River and all the residents.

Naguib Mahfouz, The Beggar [1965, tr. 1986] 143 pages

Another in his series of short novels about Egypt after the Revolution, The Beggar is sort of a cross between two earlier novels, The Thief and the Dogs and Autumn Quail, and Sartre's La nausée. The protagonist, Omar, like Isa in Autumn Quail and Rauf Ilwan in The Thief and the Dogs, is a former activist (and also former poet) who has abandoned the political struggle (and poetry) for material success, in his case a successful law practice, and become relatively wealthy. He succumbs to what today would be seen as clinical depression, but is presented here as an "existential" crisis, a feeling that his life has lost all meaning; he has lost interest in his work and in his wife Zeinab.

We also meet two old friends, the cynical Mustapha, who has also become successful but seems to have no self-doubt, and Othman, who has spent many years in prison for refusing to implicate Omar and Mustapha in a bombing attempt and has retained his original idealism. We might expect Othman to be similar to Said in The Thief and the Dogs, but he is not; although disappointed that Omar and Mustapha did not make use of his sacrifice to continue the struggle, he does not hate them or seek for revenge. We also meet Omar's wife and his teenage daughter Buthayna, who has also developed an interest in poetry.

The book revolves around Omar's attempts to find some meaning to his life. The book becomes somewhat surrealist toward the end, as we are not quite sure what is real and what is Omar's dreams or hallucinations.

Sinan Antoon, The Corpse Washer [2010, tr. 2013] 200 pages [Kindle]

The first person narrator is a corpse washer for the Shiite community in Baghdad, the equivalent of a mortician but without embalming; he washes corpses with ritual prayers and shrouds them for burial. He is also an artist, who studied to be a sculptor, and the metaphor of statues is present throughout the book. The novel takes place mainly during the period of the American invasion and occupation, although there are flashbacks to the period of the dictatorship. His previous novel, I'jaam dealt with the oppression of Saddam Hussein's regime; the motif of this one is expressed by an old man who keeps repeating, "The student is gone, the teacher has arrived."

Like the two other novels I have read set during the occupation, Ahmed Sadaawi's Frankenstein in Baghdad and Muhsin al-Ramli's Daughter of the Tigris, we see the rise of random violence, both sectarian (Sunni vs. Shiite) and criminal, as religious hatreds intensify and the occupiers do little to maintain public order. Antoon, however, presents more real political analysis than either, especially in the chapter about the visit of Uncle Sabri, a former Communist who went into exile during the Saddam period, and who predicts the rise of sectarian violence.

The book is well-translated, by the author, who was previously known mainly as a translator.

The Lost Girls (Lucy Kincaid #11) by Allison Brennan
4 ★

While Lucy is working a case involving missing girls who may have been sold into a human-trafficking organization Sean flies out to find his ex-girlfriend’s son and husband who have disappeared in Mexico.

This was a hard story to read. There is more than human-trafficking going on and the brutal means the bad guys take are truly evil and heinous. I always find it hard to process what some people will do to children.
Siobhan Walsh is a main presence in this book and I really like her. She is obviously smitten with Kane and I would love to see that relationship work out. Siobhan is a true friend and a fierce woman who will stop at nothing to find her friends daughters.
Sean finds out that he has a son in this book and I’ll admit I was as shocked as he was. He plays a dangerous game to save his son’s life and that just shows you what kind of dad he’s going to be if he is given the chance. Due to circumstances beyond his control he is able to tell Lucy about his son and when she finds out from his ex-girlfriend she starts questioning their relationship. I felt like Lucy went a little overboard here. She did not make me happy with her rash decisions made out of anger or immediate thoughts that Sean did not trust her. She really didn’t give him much credit in the situation. She did not once look back at the timing of the incident.
Lucy also made me proud of her in this book, (so many mixed feelings. Anyway, she finally realizes that everyone is tiptoeing around her and always asking her if she is okay because they think that she is fragile. This realization makes Lucy finally stand up for herself. I just hope she is able to remember how strong she in future cases.

Naguib Mahfouz, Adrift on the Nile [1966, tr. 1993] 167 pages

Anis Zaki, a low-level civil servant in the Department of Archives, and a small group of his friends meet regularly on a houseboat on the Nile to smoke kiff. They are joined one night by a journalist and would-be playwright, Samara Baghat. Thus begins a discussion on seriousness versus absurdism, and one of Mahfouz's most interesting short novels.


Antoine de Saint Exupery, Le Petit Prince, Avec dessins par l'auteur [1943] 113 pages [in French]

Ostensibly written as a children's book, this parable shows the absurdity of grown-up behavior through the eyes of a child -- from another planet.

Naguib Mahfouz, Miramar [1967, tr. 1978] 156 pages [Kindle, Open Library]

One of Mahfouz' most important novels, Miramar combines the realistic, political concerns of the Cairo Trilogy from the forties with the more modernist and symbolic techniques of his previous novels of the sixties. The novel is set in a pension (in American English, a boarding house) in Alexandria, the Pension Miramar, at about the time it was written. It is told from the perspectives of four of the lodgers. The beautiful young servant girl Zohra, a peasant from the countryside who is fleeing her grandfather's attempt to force her into marriage with a much older wealthy man, and wants to learn to read and write and learn a trade, is in some ways the real center of the novel, as we learn the characters of the others by the way they interact with her. The introduction by the well-known author John Fowles, which is very good on Mahfouz' development and on the meaning of the book, as well as explaining the historical allusions, suggests that she "symbolizes" Egypt; certainly she represents the majority of the Egyptian population who are peasants.

The first and last chapters are from the perspective of Amer Wagdi, an over eighty-year-old retired journalist and former Wafd activist from the time of the first revolution in 1919, who was a friend and colleague of Sa'ad Zaghloul, the leader of the Wafd and first prime minister of formally independent Egypt under the monarchy of King Fouad. An honest supporter of Egyptian independence, he broke with the party when it began collaborating with the British during the Second World War. He is dominated by his memories, but seems like the most honest of the men at the pension, and takes a paternal interest in Zohra. As a foil to Amer, there is another aged boarder, the reactionary Tolba Bey, who owned a huge amount of land (probably 2000 times the average peasant holding) which has just been "sequestered" (i.e. expropriated) by the Revolutionary government of Gamal Abdul Nasser.

The second chapter is told from the perspective of Hosni Allam, an idle, hedonistic young man from the same class as Tolba Bey, who still has enough land to live without working but occasionally talks about starting a business.

The third chapter is told from the perspective of Mansour Bahy, also a young man, about whom we don't really know anything to begin with, so to avoid spoilers I will leave it at that.

The fourth chapter is told from the perspective of Sarhan el-Beheiry, an opportunist who argues for the Revolution but about whom we find out some secrets.

The novel is more directly political than Mahfouz' others of the period, showing the corruption overtaking the Revolution and the hollowness of its claims to be socialist -- like most anti-imperialist revolutions in the third world it calls itself socialist and carries out some nationalizations, mainly of foreign enterprises (the Suez Canal Company, most famously) but essentially it is limited to the bourgeois tasks of the French Revolution, land reform in the countryside and some educational and health activity among the peasantry; and even these are not carried out consistently. The Revolution is basically top-down and undemocratic; after the disastrous war with Israel (shortly after the book was written) it was replaced by the more explicitly bourgeois regime of Anwar al-Sadat and many of the reforms were reversed.

The Arabian Nights (Translated by Husain Haddawy) [tr. 1990] 518 pages

Haddawy has translated the edition edited by Mahdi, which is based on the fourteenth-century Syrian manuscript, the oldest surviving manuscript; he maintains (although not all scholars agree) that this Syrian tradition represents the original and stylisticly homogenous core of the work, and that the more recent Egyptian manuscripts on which the other editions and translations have all been based have combined it with originally independent (and inferior) stories. Other scholars consider that this sort of accretion is the essence of the work. (In any case, even the Syrian tradition is obviously based on a much earlier, now lost, Persian collection with the same frame story of King Shahrayer and his wife Shahrazad, going back to the beginning of the Middle Ages, which in turn incorporated stories from India and elsewhere.)

This version does not contain many of the works which we think of when we think of the Arabian nights -- for example the stories of Sinbad the Sailor, Aladdin and the lamp, or Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. I will be following it up over the next month with the first, very adapted (French) translation of Galland, selections from the classic ten volume English translation of Richard Burton, and perhaps some other versions, to get as much of the material as I can.

In any version, this is a book which everyone should read and enjoy (except "woke" liberals -- the treatment of women, Blacks, and disabled persons would undoubtedly offend; and for that reason and the sexual content I would not recommend it to readers below high school age. It's not the Disney version.)

Quite a Year For Plums – Bailey White – 3***
A charming look at the eccentric people who inhabit a small town in Georgia. I had a hard time getting into the book. That was my problem, I think, rather than the book’s. I usually enjoy these slower, meandering, character-driven works, but it just didn’t quite work for me at this time. It was okay. There was nothing really wrong with it. But I barely remember it just a day after finishing it.
My full review HERE

Seriously … I’m Kidding – Ellen DeGeneres – 3***
I like Ellen DeGeneres. She’s a talented comedian and I’ve been a fan of hers for years. But watching a talented performer give a 5-minute monologue that is funny and entertaining is not the same as reading a book … or, in my case, listening to it. It wasn’t great literature, but it was fine. I doubt I’ll remember it tomorrow.
My full review HERE

Book Concierge wrote: "

Quite a Year For Plums
– Bailey White – 3***
A charming look at the eccentric people who inhabit a small town in Georgia. I had a hard time getting in..."

I love Bailey White! I love listening to her read her books. She has a very old sounding voice, which lends itself to how she writes, IMO. But she really isn't as old as her voice sounds.
I'm glad you enjoyed this one :)

Bluffton – Matt Phalen – 4****
Subtitle: My Summers With Buster Keaton. This graphic novel explores the early 20th century era of Vaudeville, and one particular summer resort that catered to many of the era’s Vaudeville stars – including the Keaton family and their talented son, Buster. It’s a wonderful way to introduce young readers to this by-gone era.
My full review HERE

Sinan Antoon, The Book of Collateral Damage [2016, tr. 2019] 303 pages [Kindle]

Sinan Antoon's fourth novel, The Book of Collateral Damage is written in a modernist experimental style. It has a first-person frame story, narrated, with memories and dreams and so largely not in chronological order, by Nameer al-Baghdadi, an expatriate Iraqi academic who (like Antoon himself) left Baghdad after the Gulf War, obtained a doctorate in Arabic literature from Harvard, and ends up teaching at New York University. Also like Antoon, he returns to Baghdad after the American invasion to help film a documentary; this is the beginning of the book. While in Baghdad, he visits al-Mutannabi Street, a street of bookstores, and meets Wadood, a strange bookseller who is writing a catalog of "the first minute" of the invasion, told mainly from the perspectives of animals and inanimate objects. Wadood gives him a manuscript of what he has written, and excerpts from Wadood's writing alternate with the frame story about Nameer's own life in America. Wadood's short vignettes illustrate the personal costs of the war, the "collateral damage" to ordinary people and things in Baghdad, while the frame story keeps it from being too intense to read for long stretches. (As one can see from the Notes at the end, there are a number of quotations from Walther Benjamin; for the past ten years I have been commenting at least once a year that I need to read Benjamin and maybe now I'm retired I will get to him.) This is the June book for the World Literature group on Goodreads and I think it is one of the best books we have read in this year of reading Arabic literature.

The Winter of Frankie Machine – Don Winslow – 4****
Wow, what a ride! The action is fast and furious, and deadly. Retired Mob hit-man Frank Machianno (a/k/a/ Frankie Machine) is really on his own, with no one to trust. And the reader is pretty much on her own as well. There are more potential suspects than Carter has pills. The action is non-stop and there are surprises right up to the ending. This is the first book by Winslow that I’ve read. It won’t be the last.
My full review HERE

Naguib Mahfouz, and Seif Wanli, Mirrors [1971, tr. 1999] 186 pages

Originally serialized in the Egyptian equivalent of TV Guide, this novel consists of a little over fifty short (mostly one to three page) descriptions of fictional characters by Mahfouz, most accompanied by original portraits by the artist Seif Wanli. The characters are in alphabetical order according to the Arabic alphabet, so they seem random, although obviously Mahfouz had a plan in mind. Together, they represent all the political, social and economic layers and age groups from the 1919 revolution to the time it was written. The politics of the characters range from pro-British, pro-monarchy, Wafdists, and supporters of Nasser's revolution, to Communists and one example of the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as the apolitical and especially the opportunist. The characters interact in various ways as friends, enemies, lovers, coworkers and fellow students, neighbors etc. Of course with so many characters it is sometimes difficult to remember who is who, and it helps to have some knowledge of modern Egyptian history (although I have gotten that from his earlier novels.) A brilliantly original work commenting on the whole of urban "middle-class" Egyptian life (while there are some rich people and some lower class criminals, there are no peasants and few if any factory workers, as is true of most literature since the end of the 1930's.)

The Bane Chronicles by Cassandra Clare
5 ★

Oh, how I have missed this series. Magnus Bane is one of my favorite characters from The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices and these stories did not disappoint. He is just as charismatic as ever and his humor is refreshing. The stories expanded on moments from the other series and explained some moments that were only mentioned. Most of the stories seemed to go in chronological order, but I felt that 1 was misplaced. There are a couple of stories with Alec and one was told before the first battle with Valentine and the members of his Circle. The last story is told in voicemails to Magnus following the incident in City of Lost Souls. I wish I had read this sooner so that I could remember exactly what happened.
I have moved right on to Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy and then will start The Dark Artifices series. No more breaks from Cassandra Clare books for me.

What the Night Knows by Dean Koontz
5 ★

Twenty years ago John Calvino’s family was brutally murdered by Alton Turner Blackwood. John ended his murder spree and his life. Now John believes that Blackwood is back to finish the job.

It takes a lot for a book to spook me and this story had the right amount. Shadows, movement in the dark, mirrors… yep, glad I didn’t read it at night.
Alton Turner Blackwood is a sociopath and a truly scary man. The story alternates between John Calvino’s life now and Blackwood’s journal. The journal is a nice addition that gives the reader a look into Blackwood’s life and development. It’s a shocking and disturbing story.
John Calvino is a detective and the concept of the story goes completely against the mindset of a detective. There are no tangible clues, no absolute evidence, but John knows in his heart that Blackwood is back. The way the presence appears in the house and the way it moves around, place to place and person to person, is chilling. It will make you think twice the next time you shake hands with someone or feel something “just not right”.
Some of the descriptions of the murders are graphic and may not sit well with some. Blackwood is extremely sadistic and does not make death quick for the women. The ending of the story is exciting and very intense. Although Blackwood‘s story is over, Dean Koontz has created a character that will stay with the reader.