Shadows of Carcosa: Tales of Cosmic Horror by Lovecraft, Chambers, Machen, Poe, and Other Masters of the Weird

5/5 stars

What's it about? This collection of top-notch stories explores atmospheric horror and the dread of the unknown. A book of veritable bangers.

How’d I find it? When I managed a bookstore at Busboys & Poets, this book always caught my eye. Now it’s mine!

Who will enjoy this book? The cryptic editor’s note at the end of the book suggests that this read is meant for the Lovecraft fans, but any horror lover would appreciate.

What stood out? Despite the fact that all the stories are written by men whose oeuvres straddle the 19th and 20 centuries, these tales showcase a diversity of style and subject, united in their pervasive creepiness. “The White People” by Arthur Machen and Ambrose Bierce’s “The Damned Thing” were absolute masterpieces. I didn’t quite understand the meaning of “cosmic horror” or why these pieces were lumped together, but fortunately the work stands alone

Which line made me feel something? This terrifying landscape description from “An Inhabitant of Carcosa” by Ambrose Bierce: “Protruded at long intervals above it, stood strangely shaped and somber-colored rocks, which seemed to have an understanding with one another and to exchange looks of uncomfortable significance, as if they had reared their heads to watch the issue of some foreseen event. A few blasted trees here and there appeared as leaders in this malevolent conspiracy of silent expectation.” Shudder.

Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin, Translated by Megan McDowell

5/5 stars

What's it about? A new technology is sweeping the world. Kentukis, cute pet robots controlled by anonymous human users, offer companionship to their keepers and an intimate relationship with a stranger to their dwellers. What might such privileged access cost us? Can privacy exist in a world where someone is always watching? A genius novel about connection.

How’d I find it? Samanta Schweblin’s prowess ensures that every book she puts out is a winner. I picked up my copy at Powell’s. I mean, look at that cover!

Who will enjoy this book? I was heavily reminded of the charming stories in Out There by Kate Folk while reading Little Eyes. Another short and creepy read that features tech gone bad? This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno.

What stood out? Schweblin structures the novel in vignettes, using locations as chapter titles. The effect turns the book into pins in a map, a book-length collection of reels. My favorite storyline: Emilia, a single woman in Lima whose son gifts her the chance to be a dweller, becomes so attached to her German keeper that she pushes the boundaries of her role as household rabbit. Little Eyes feels like a warning from the future, one that clearly ruffled me, as I’m composing this review in incognito mode.

Which line made me feel something? In a chapter focused on Alina, the bored partner of an artist: “Why were the stories about kentukis so small, so minutely intimate, stingy, and predictable? So desperately human and quotidian…Sven would never change his art for her. Nor would she change, for anyone, her state of existential fragmentation. Everything faded.”

Fire by George R. Stewart

5/5 stars

What's it about? A lightning strike in the Sierra Nevada creates the wildfire known as Spitcat, which rages over eleven days in this outstanding nail-biter of a nature novel. Though intricate portraits of the firefighters, animal inhabitants, and the forest itself, Stewart crafts a luxurious landscape in which readers will become heartbreakingly invested.

How’d I find it? Fire was the August 2024 selection of the NYRB Classics Book Club, which you absolutely need in your life.

Who will enjoy this book? Fans of The Overstory by Richard Powers or Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson will not be able to put Fire down.

What stood out? This read utterly enchanted me. Chapters open with a philosophical or historical treatment of fire, including the glorious line “Lightning is the true Prometheus,” before zooming into the happenings of one of the book’s characters, including the Spitcat herself. I couldn’t get enough of John Bartley, the ranger who loves the trees as family, and Judith, the plucky young lookout who first sees smoke. Originally published in 1948, the book suffers from some racist and sexist language, its only weakness.

Which line made me feel something? Stewart’s writing blew my socks off. Take, for example: “Now a fire is more like a shape-shifting monster, stretching out long and encircling arms before it. Now a fire is like a nation, growing weak for a while, and then springing up with a new vigor, as millions of flamelets within it die, or as new flamelets blaze up. But—man or monster or nation—like them all, the fire is the thing-in-itself. It begins, and is, and ends; it is born, and lives, and dies.”

Tell the Machine Goodnight by Katie Williams

5/5 stars

What's it about? Pearl works for Apricity, whose proprietary tech tells people what they should do to be happier. But do people even want to be happy? Pearl’s son Rhett has an eating disorder, and maybe Apricity can tell Pearl how to save him. A gorgeous novel about humanity and fulfillment.

How’d I find it? The New York Times review made reading this book a priority. I found a gently used copy at Powell’s.

Who will enjoy this book? Tell the Machine Goodnight is for the sad girls, a pet sub-genre of mine that includes all of Lana Del Rey’s discography and the film Sometimes I Think About Dying. You know what? I’m creating a tag called Lana to commemorate works of this ilk. If you appreciated the writing chops and feels of Biography of X by Catherine Lacey or the “sad girls of the future” lilt of Everything You Ever Wanted by Luiza Sauma, you’ll enjoy Williams’s first adult novel.

What stood out? Williams chooses to shake up the narration throughout the book, made up of standalone chapters à la Olive Kitteridge. The effect rounds out the story’s focus on the human, which contrasts with the added chaos of technology. Calla Pax, a superstar for her screaming abilities, was a particularly compelling character.

Which line made me feel something? The meaning of Apricity recalls our blue light present and holds its melancholy tightly: “The warmth of the sun on one’s skin in the winter.”

Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest by Hanif Abdurraqib

5/5 stars

What's it about? A heritage, a celebration, and an elegy delivered with Abdurraqib’s romance and ruin. No one writes culture quite like Hanif, and his honoring of A Tribe Called Quest is a sweet masterpiece.

How’d I find it? Hanif is one of our finest writers, so I want to read whatever he’s putting out.

Who will enjoy this book? Sure, this book will speak to hip-hop listeners, but it’s also for the MTV generation for whom music was a lens for America.

What stood out? Smart, generous, and nostalgic, the essays of Go Ahead in the Rain chart the rise and fall of A Tribe Called Quest within the legacy of Black art. Abdurraqib weaves in his own coming-of-age vignettes as a kid in Columbus who used music as a foothold. The book is gorgeously written, especially the chapter “Lament,” written in the form of letters to Q-Tip, Phife, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad.

Which line made me feel something? It’s hard to pick just one in a book so excellent, but I’ll settle on the following: “Which is why the sample is a joy, isn’t it? The wind blows a memory of someone into a room through sound, and the architect captures that memory with their bare hands and puts it on wax.”

Old New York by Edith Wharton

5/5 stars

What's it about? In these four outstanding novellas, Edith Wharton hones in on the constraints of class within New York society of the mid-1800s.

How’d I find it? It’s no secret that I love a pocket edition. I was browsing a neighborhood library book sale in Washington, DC, and this tiny Wharton collection in mint condition (no longer) had to come home with me.

Who will enjoy this book? This is Literature with a capital L. If you like the big names in short fiction, these novellas will charm you. This is also a great book for fellow Austenites looking for a cunning period read. Wharton delivers.

What stood out? I may not have enjoyed Ethan Frome, but this book is a real winner. Each story is unique — a young man is entrusted with his family’s legacy in “False Dawn,” while “New Year’s Day” plays with the trope of a woman scorned — which makes the collection extra engrossing. The ending of “Old Maid” came out of nowhere and instantly put me in tears.

Which line made me feel something? From “The Spark,” in which a certain Civil War poet makes an appearance: “Those four years had apparently filled to the brim every crevice of his being. For I could not hold that he had gone through them unawares, as some famous figures, puppets of fate, have been tossed from heights to depths of human experience without once knowing what was happening to them—forfeiting a crown by the insistence on some prescribed ceremonial, or by carrying on their flight a certain monumental dressing-case.”

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

5/5 stars

What's it about? Tayo returns to the reservation after serving in World War II, barely surviving his battle with post-traumatic stress disorder. In connecting with his heritage and his people’s knowledge, he reconciles with the world around him and his place in it. A one-of-a-kind novel about the power of storytelling and the ignorance of human violence.

How’d I find it? I’ve long been reminded of my need to pick up Ceremony by displays at independent bookstores. Now that I’ve read it, I can affirm that it’s canon.

Who will enjoy this book? The writing is a blend of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods and Annie Proulx, visceral and visual and poetic. Those who enjoyed Layli Long Soldier’s Whereas should appreciate the themes in Ceremony.

What stood out? Leslie Marmon Silko wrote a perfect book. Ceremony is beautifully and creatively crafted, at times dreamlike and at others taut with the anticipation of loss. I loved the inclusion of Pueblo stories and descriptions of the rituals that encourage Tayo to heal. Tayo himself is a complicated character to inhabit for so many pages, and time in his mind provokes anguish that makes the novel immersive.

Which line made me feel something? “The silence was inside, in his belly; there was no longer any hurry. The ride into the mountain had branched into all directions of time. He knew then why the oldtimers could only speak of yesterday and tomorrow in terms of the present moment: the only certainty”.

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson

5/5 stars

What's it about? Tyson breaks down the basics of our universe and its many mysteries, both solved and unsolved, in a series of palatable essays that inspire curiosity. A read that leaves one humbled and grateful to exist.

How’d I find it? If you’ve ever strolled around the Hampden neighborhood of Baltimore, you’ll often pass on the sidewalk a cardboard box of books free for the taking. I found this book in one of those boxes, and now it is mine to revisit or pass along.

Who will enjoy this book? This is a book for the people, particularly the spiritually, philosophically, or scientifically inclined. Close readalikes include Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything and Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens.

What stood out? I am on a hot streak of finding five-star books, and Astrophysics for People in a Hurry sparked what I crave most in a nonfiction read: a desire to learn more. Tyson had me scrolling through Astrophysics Journal for research on quasars, sketching out my own theories, and enrolling in a quantum mechanics class on Coursera. The book’s many descriptions of scale boggle and satisfy the brain. Example: “more bacteria live and work in one centimeter of my colon than the number of people who have ever existed in the world.”

Which line made me feel something? “Again and again across the centuries, cosmic discoveries have demoted our self-image. Earth was once assumed to be astronomically unique, until astronomers learned that Earth is just another planet orbiting the Sun. Then we presumed the Sun was unique, until we learned that the countless stars of the night sky are suns themselves. Then we presumed our galaxy, the Milky Way, was the entire known universe, until we established that the countless fuzzy things in the sky are other galaxies, dotting the landscape of our known universe. Today, how easy it is to presume that one universe is all there is.”

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

5/5 stars

What's it about? I recognize that this may be very confusing within a book review for Jurassic Park, but I cannot restrain myself: “‘God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs.’ ‘Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth.’” An apt synopsis of the book, though the earth inheritors are unstoppable female dinosaurs rather than human women.

How’d I find it? My spouse said I should read this, and I couldn’t put it down for four days. Thanks to Powell’s for the copy.

Who will enjoy this book? I’m pretty sure most readers already know whether or not they like Jurassic Park. Horror fans, you are in for a terrifying book.

What stood out? Crichton’s ability to build tension rewards the reader mightily; he had me chewing my nails over breakfast at Lutz Tavern. I appreciated the story’s pacing, its tangents into chaos theory, and the perspective shifts between characters. Not a page is wasted. A downside: Dr. Sattler gets little to do except nurse, and Crichton only tells us a character’s race if they’re not white.

Which line made me feel something? Ian Malcolm with the truth bombs: “But we have soothed ourselves into imagining sudden change as something that happens outside the normal order of things. An accident, like a car crash. Or beyond our control, like a fatal illness. We do not conceive of sudden, radical, irrational change as built into the very fabric of existence. Yet it is.”

The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery

5/5 stars

What's it about? Sy Montgomery makes friends with octopuses in this exploration of the soul and of the diversity of consciousness on Earth. A hug of a book that I was ready to dismiss but couldn’t help but admire for its spirit and openness to discovery.

How’d I find it? My spouse says this book was given to him to prove the cruelty of eating mollusks. It’s effective — you’ll never want calamari again.

Who will enjoy this book? If you’re constantly watching documentaries on Netflix or anything narrated by David Attenborough, this read is for you. A fiction readalike? The Overstory by Richard Powers or The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler.

What stood out? Montgomery inhabits her project by befriending cephalopods, learning to dive, and becoming entangled in the happenings of the New England Aquarium. I appreciated the memoir approach to consciousness as a subject. Blending personal experience and science, The Soul of an Octopus is a human book about something beyond our species.

Which line made me feel something? “Perhaps, I muse, this is the pace at which the Creator thinks, in this weighty, graceful, liquid manner — like blood flows, not like synapses fire. Above the surface, we move and think like wiggly children, or like teens who twitch away at their computer-phones, multitasking but never focusing. But the ocean forces you to move more slowly, more purposefully, and yet more pliantly.”