Mini Reviews

Bel Canto (Ann Patchett) - A beautiful tale of human nature, love, and opera, unfolding within the improbable confines of a hostage situation.

Twelve Months (Jim Butcher) - The 18th and final installment in the Harry Dresden series. Across the series arc, Dresden evolves from two-bit wizard detective to supernatural powerplayer. Pulpy fun.

Bunny; We Love You Bunny; All's Well (Mona Awad) - Mona Awad is a genius. I have read hundreds of books in my life. It is very rare that I think, "this person is doing something new with language." Awad is that writer. I was intrigued but ultimately disappointed by All's Well, but the Bunny books are masterful. Strange, surreal explorations of feminine creativity, horror, and the generative power of imagination.

The Change (Kirsten Miller) - Three women entering menopause discover emerging supernatural abilities, and the power they have to help address gender-based inequality and violence. It could easily have been too heavy-handed, but it wasn't. A compelling later-life coming of age story, wrapped up in a murder mystery. Recommend.

The Decagon House Murders (Yukito Ayatsuji) - A charming Japanese whodunit. A small group of mystery-loving college friends visits a strange 10-sided home on a remote island, the site of a recent fire and several suspicious deaths. Once there, they realize they are trapped in their own murder mystery. 

Horror Movie (Paul Tremblay) - I did not like this book. It had an interesting premise (a spare group of amateur filmmakers take method acting too far), but it spun off the rails. Felt like a very novice Lovecraft film.

Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy) - I read about half of this book and then decided to stop punishing myself. I get it, humans are horrible and the frontier was a nightmare of cruel violence. But I have enough horrible images in my brain, I don't need stories of massacring women and babies. Also, while the poetry of the writing is beautiful, it just goes on and on and on. At first it was great, like Howl, but it's unrelenting. I dragged myself thru 156 pages and it was quite enough.

Appetite for America: Fred Harvey and the Business of Civilizing the Wild West - One Meal at a Time (Stephen Fried) - This book was very dry and slow, and I had to keep pushing myself to return to it, but ultimately it is quite an interesting story. A supremely fastidious, obsessively-driven man, Fred Harvey elevated Wild West dining from barely edible slop to haute cuisine, thru excellent business acumen and sheer force of will. A very intriguing picture of life on the frontier, making an interesting trio with the Little House books and Blood Meridian. Taken together, Blood Meridian represents the brutal subjugation of Native Americans and the West, which paved the way for frontier families like the Ingalls, who were later followed by the railroads and corporations like the Harvey venture.