Ron Seybold
A powerful and piercing prayer for people
You'll find yourself dog-earing pages all the way in this spectacular story. The long wind-up of the first third of this fine book pays off with big hits of comedy, wisdoms, and peanut butter. The ending does not disappoint, either. If you want to know who we are, ask this alien. Then go find a sunset and put on the Debussy. I love this book!
A quirky journey with surprising smiles. Thanks for the ARC copy to explore.
You won't read another like this. At once a celebration of friendship and an elegy for loss, The Codger and the Sparrow unreels improbable surprises that ride along in a hearty road story. The mashup of aging alcoholic and rising teen artist is only the start of the tension in this swift novel. Besides the generational gap, there's a bridge to be built between these characters' race and culture. Away this spirited book travels, searching for the duo's desires while it keeps a close eye on the details that would spark a careful artist's eye. The images it captures are extraordinary poetry.
Community service after skirmishes with the law is the device that brings this pair together, seeking a return to love and a fresh start at happiness. We travel along with curiosity across these chapters, guided sometimes by the nostalgia of paper maps and at other times the spot-on steps of a smartphone. There might be peace at the end of these pages, but I won't give away that spoiler here. In this novel, the journey is the destination. Enjoy this ride.
A high flyer
Few books reach this altitude. I reveled in its characters and drew the warm blanket of its lavish world around me, day after night. Shipstead has written a book whose equal might only be Lonesome Dove. As that classic's love is to men, this one adores its women. Read this and savor the creation of a story that encircles all of our doubts and dreams. Yes, you can do something this grand, if you set a course for majestic points.
A moving, fine-crafted adventure of the heart
Semegran's latest novel is a moving and tender story of middle schoolers in 1980s Texas, entering into an adventure that conjures Lord of the Flies with good measures of Stand By Me. The charm is in watching the story of how these boys became older in a matter of days—when their lives were on the line—while the book embraces universal childhood fears and hopes. This is a book rich in detail; it revels in specifics of time and place. It made me feel as if I was living in the part of Texas where it unfolds. The dialogue between the boys rings true, too.
Genuine stories stay with us, and Semegran's book shows the mark of lived experience, observed with the wisdom of survival. If the 1980s were your richest years, this is a book that can remake middle school into a great lesson in love.
Even more tension here in the second installment
There's a rich tableau of intrigue in the latest book in the Final Wars series. With the cyborg queen of New Paris deposed and in exile, hidden by an emperor's son, the Nipponese and Martian cultures have intense conflicts come to a boil in this book. It's an amazing thing to see artificial intelligence-driven military power facing off against a generations-old Nipponese royal family, one where three sons duke it out for control of their world: a moon base called Nippon One.
The Japanese culture and traditions are fully deployed in this book. Final Wars Rage has a reverence for the code of the Japanese people and an awareness of how those habits can hobble a people, too. If you wonder how the country's national anthem would play out during a tense negotiation with a world directed by AI constructs as leaders — yeah, that's centuries-old tradition against advanced AI code — Final Wars Rage delivers. The book also breaks the boundaries of death and the life after, wrapped around the great tent pole of love.
The writing is vivid and the dialogue is sharp. There's visceral violence, because that's what you might expect out of the 23d Century where the technology is still well designed for destruction of humans. The green fog is still hovering around what's left of Earth, a planet that's not entirely wiped out. It's a pirate playpen now. But one of the greatest gifts here is the characters, drawn with attention to detail and the kind of connections you can expect in a book that has its eyes on a trilogy.
It's hard to get everything that this book does well into a review like this, so go enjoy the discovery. Book One mixed French with Japanese milleaus in the same adroit way that Book Two blends Martians and Nipponese. Though it all, the hero Bastien Lyons gives us a set of shoulders to ride through the adventure. What he sees in his heart, as well as before his eyes, gave me a wild ride.
Wow, what a ride. In a post-post apocalyptic world, a French orphan from a dank ghetto has grown into an elite military warrior. He stands up against his military society to sacrifice his career and cast off his comforts, then becomes an outlaw and fugitive. This book is a heady blend of Japanese and French cultures, all oh-so-authentic, played out onto the 23rd Century where the moon and Mars are fully colonized and Paris is reduced to a city in the sewers. The characters carry heavy losses and harbor deep dreams, and there's a streak of madness where it can do the story the most good. It's impressive to read Japanese and French alongside striking English, and none of it ever seems to be there to call attention to itself. Along the way we meet a benevolent priest and a relentless robot—the former full of compassion and that best mentor magic like Shepherd Book in Firefly, the latter crafted to be a device whose spirit reminds you of the shiniest parts of Iron Giant and the soulless T-1000 in Terminator 2.
Asthana makes it all work together, using an arch tone that mounts his voice you hear drumming long after you're done reading. The sex isn't salacious and the combat violence feels genuine, the latter told with some reverence for the classic war stories we know and love. There's plenty of sensory detail all around. Good to see this is the first of a series, just to know that the adventures of Bastien and Marie, as well as the Emperor of Japan and the Martian High Council, will continue to take flight. Recommended.
Written with the literary aplomb of a freewheeling comic, To Squeeze a Prairie Dog invites readers to savor the small family moments of Texas state data entry workers. The Austin where the story unfolds is a loving snapshot of 13 years ago, when dot matrix printers still ruled and reporters gave out business cards. Amid the character snapshots that splash ordinary people onto the page, this book stops to display pathos and fables in equal measure. A governor in a gold-plated wheelchair, a supervisor working his hardest at his drinking and guitar, and a guileless newbie discovering Austin and the glories of workplace snacks — these are the people in Semegran's quirky book. Comedy by way of absurdity is in plentiful supply here. If you wonder about the personal lives of people who input the details of your life inside the soulless buildings of a state capital, To Squeeze a Prairie Dog will pop open your eyes.
Scott shared his book with me prior to publication. Honest opinions here.
This is a searing, sparkling story of life from the other side of the tracks, in a small town, where our heroine is learning much more than what's being taught in her high school. She's learning about love and how it can overpower even the old hurts. If you've ever lived the life of foster family or public assistance, this will beam with authenticity. If you've ever wondered about the hearts and desires of people well-removed from prosperity, this is your chance to immerse yourself in details that are rich with sensory delights, even while they sketch the down-and-out. There's love and tenderness in here, too, enough to make you cry. You can't help but be there, battling your way out of a tough start in a young life. A great debut not to be missed.
Full of joyful spirit of youth. Detailed sketch of life in rural Progressive Era, without much elbow rubbing with famous people. Fascinating work here with the setting of a resort in upstate New York. I loved the work with the characters, and the bonus is the way Donnelly uses vocabulary to extend her main character's personality and desires.
This is such a treasure of exercises and invitations into the spirit of writing your own life. It's got the trademark “just write 10 minutes, go!” of Natalie's practice. Yes, she really does urge you on like that in person, something I got to experience at a workshop with her at Kripalu. Highly recommended, full of the kinds of suggestions a great coach will nudge you along with. Easy language, and her examples show how writing at a 7th grade level is most inclusive, while preserving rich meaning and vivid images.
This is a powerful story, told with mastery, about a family that's unlike any I've ever seen on a page. While it resonates with all of the classic characters of the Holy Roller world, it's also personal and tender and sad, all in a way that makes you want to keep reading to see how Donna will escape with her own soul intact. Despite the abuse and the neglect, she tells the story without pity or judgement – which, coming from a world powered by sin and damnation, is remarkable. The sins committed in the name of salvation will keep you reading this great book.
A powerful, heart-rending, and inspiring book. Humans could take notes from this one. You will never look at your dog the same. If writing like this can illustrate the life of the heart using a beloved pet as the protagonist – telling a story from the dog's point of view – just imagine what it will do for the humans in the story. Not one false note.
