Walkabout by James Vance Marshall

4/5 stars

What's it about? Thirteen-year-old Mary and her little brother Peter are the only survivors of a plane crash in the Australian Outback. Before the elements can overtake the unseasoned American children, they meet an Aboriginal boy completing a rite of passage. A smart novel that challenges prejudice and notions of civilization.

How’d I find it? I will read anything put out by New York Review Books, and I found this title at the ever reliable Powell’s.

Who will enjoy this book? Those who appreciated the classic Picnic at Hanging Rock or its film adaptation will like Walkabout. A close readalike is The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell, as Walkabout also happens to be an all-ages book.

What stood out? Rich descriptions of nature round out the simple story and create the feel of a journey as our characters seek water, shelter, and food. The book’s brevity—125 pages—serves it well, as Walkabout can be gobbled up in one sitting to allow the reader days (or weeks) to digest its heavier themes of intolerance and miscommunication. Culture and experience distance Mary from the stranger they meet; his nudity and dark skin offend her, and the boy interprets her horror as a bad omen.

Which line made me feel something? I won’t soon forget this terrifying forest: “But around them, choking them to death, coiled the dodders - the predatory vines, sucking the nutriment out of their roots, gripping the trees with tentacles like tightening tourniquets. And intertwined with the dodders were the jikkas: headless, tail-less, rootless, vegetable snakes; growing on and on, from either end, wrapping their vampire arms around anything they touched.”

Mistakes We Never Made by Hannah Brown

1/5 stars

How’d I find it? As a die-hard member of Bachelor Nation, I have been anticipating this book for months. Hannah Brown is one of the show’s most beloved Bachelorettes and gave the world some epic reality TV moments.

Why not 3 or more stars? Mistakes We Never Made was written with a ghostwriter, and when multiple minds are working on a text, I expect a certain level of mastery. I expect the protagonist to be bearable, even if obnoxiously self-deluded. I expect the two sex scenes in a romance novel to be more than a few paragraphs of missionary. I expect to be reminded only sporadically of the love interest’s signature odor of “woodsmoke and lavender.” I expect a mostly chronological story that takes place over three days to eschew chapter titles alerting the reader to the day of the week. I expect the unresolved plot points laying the ground for the next installment to be treated more elegantly.

The book delivers in one crucial way for Hannah’s fans by including Easter eggs from her time as the Bachelorette, like an homage to that iconic pedestal move.

I did not like this book, and Jesus still loves me.

Sharks in the Rivers by Ada Limón

4/5 stars

What's it about? U. S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón embraces the beautiful and ugly of our world in this collection about wildness and humanness. Poems of water, mouths, and wending one’s way.

How’d I find it? I read The Carrying in 2020, and it blew my socks off; I extol and weep over “Instructions on Not Giving Up” at least once a month. Sharks in the Rivers has been high on the list ever since. This copy came from the fabulous poetry section at Multnomah County Central Library.

Who will enjoy this book? Readers of Natasha Trethewey, Ross Gay, and Aimee Nezhukumatathil should like this one.

What stood out? Limón knows her voice, and the book has a cohesive quality that allows the through lines of the work to sing at just the right volume. I admire collections that manage to link all the poems without feeling repetitive or monotone. Limón excels at devastating turns in her shorter pieces, and “Crush” is a prime example.

Which line made me feel something? From “Fifteen Balls of Feathers:” “He was reading backward on the couchette / while the world went by and I was / counting the faces of sunflowers. 1,753,285 yellow fools / thinking they’re going to go on forever.”

Holly by Stephen King

2/5 stars

How’d I find it? One Tuesday last September, a customer rushed into the bookstore searching the shelves for this newly released Stephen King novel. Our copies had not yet arrived. A few months later, this most excellent cover enticed me from the shelves at Walmart, and I took it home.

Why not 3 or more stars? Holly takes place from within the firm clutches of COVID-19 tragedy and fear. It all felt forced to me and got in the way of the greater story at hand. Why did the specificities of pandemic America matter to this book? I’m not quite sure, but I am certain that the pace of the story warranted more speed, especially since the baddies are revealed from the outset. Hurry up, Holly!

Milk by Dorothea Lasky

1/5 stars

How’d I find it? I recently read Lasky’s The Shining and was interested to check out more of her work. This copy came from Multnomah County Library.

Why not 3 or more stars? I appreciated Lasky’s approach to the themes of motherhood and the limitations of the corporeal; the sensuality of her work evokes Lana Del Rey. The piece “There is no name yet” certainly deserves a read. That said, the often singsong quality to the poems and throwaway nature of their logic read as underdeveloped. The style of poetry in Milk is simply not my taste.

Two Nurses, Smoking by David Means

3/5 stars

What's it about? In these sometimes connected stories, people grapple with anguish, loss, and choices. David Means writes an earnest collection that wants us to feel something.

How’d I find it? I read in Harper's “Stopping Distance,” in which a man and woman connect through a bereavement group for parents who have lost children, and went out to pick up the book that contained it. Politics and Prose always has the goods.

Who will enjoy this book? This read strongly reminded me of The Sadness of Beautiful Things and will appeal to fans of Simon Van Booy. Dog lovers, the story “Clementine, Carmelita, Dog” will bring you to tears and make your day. Means did well to lead the collection with this stunner.

What stood out? Aside from the aforementioned Homeward Bound-esque tale, I enjoyed the two Harper’s stories best, the other being "The Red Dot,” about a local restaurateur who questions everything when he sees his ex-wife kayaking. “The Depletion Prompts” closes the collection, an interesting take on craft that offers context for the preceding stories. The book’s Achilles’ heel is forced sentiment that occasionally shouts from the page. I couldn’t always buy in.

Which line made me feel something? Means sure loves a long sentence, and this snippet from “The Red Dot” is a beaut: “We were both thinking, I’m sure, about the dangerous currents that ran all the way up the estuary, dug deep by retreating glaciers, or volcanic activity, a ridge meeting the sea so that the sea and the river battled each other twice a day, if you want to look at it that way, or, better yet, lovingly embraced each other in a mutual, moon-drawn embrace, running silently through the darkness of night and in the heat of day past all the human folly and abject sadness we create when we’re here, as it would when we were long gone—just bones and earth”.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

3/5 stars

What's it about? In a violent America, Lauren Olamina knows her community exists on borrowed time, its protective walls no match for murderers, fire-crazed drug addicts, hungry dogs, and thieves. As Lauren prepares for a life outside, including managing her secret ability to feel others’ pain, she develops her own spiritual philosophy and ambitions to spread it to others. A book about the journey, survival, and found families.

How’d I find it? The legacy of Octavia Butler means this read has been on my radar for years. I picked up a copy at Powell’s.

Who will enjoy this book? Those who liked the Broken Earth trilogy by N. K. Jemisin should appreciate.

What stood out? Parable of the Sower takes the form of Lauren’s diary, which contains the reader within Lauren’s steadfast, no-nonsense worldview and obscures some of the book’s more interesting characters, like Bankole and Grayson Mora. Butler does not hold back in hammering home the bleak nature of the book’s reality; death, rape, and loss lap like waves. The ramifications of Lauren’s pain-sharing abilities don’t come through, but perhaps this plot point is more important in the next installment.

Which line made me feel something? While many of Lauren’s philosophical writings can come off as Instapoetry, the opening verse offers much to chew on: “Prodigy is, at its essence, adaptability and persistent, positive obsession. Without persistence, what remains is an enthusiasm of the moment. Without adaptability, what remains may be channeled into destructive fanaticism. Without positive obsession, there is nothing at all.”

Dead in Long Beach, California by Venita Blackburn

4/5 stars

What's it about? Graphic novelist Coral discovers her brother Jay dead by suicide and hides his passing from loved ones as she reconciles with the loss. In her first novel, Blackburn ably finds humor in the grief.

How’d I find it? I heard about this book on the Fully Booked podcast and had to read it after listening to the interview. Thanks to Multnomah County Library for the copy.

Who will enjoy this book? Those who savored The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty or Orange World by Karen Russell will appreciate the craft, wit, and humanity of Blackburn’s achievement.

What stood out? Dead in Long Beach, California is a collage of Coral’s mourning, excerpts from her science fiction series and fan fiction, and the reflections of an omniscient “we” who unpack key moments of Coral’s life and relationship with her brother. Both siblings remain inaccessible as characters, which makes Coral’s choices all the more horrid. But it works for Jay, a canvas for the book’s real focus: how major loss ripples and rocks through lives.

Also, this cover. Bananas. What on earth was the marketing strategy?

Which line made me feel something? A nugget of pure gold: “We have measured the hormones, the chemicals of fright and disbelief, the boil of the blood when a person encounters the dead. As close to one being as all of humanity truly is and pretends to be in their poems and scriptures, there is something different when the dead is familiar, when the corpse is expected to be articulated with a remembered smell, sound, and texture.”

The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares

4/5 stars

What's it about? Such a cunning little tale that it would be criminal to reveal much. Suffice it to say that a fugitive exiles himself to an island where all is not as it seems. Marvelously executed and funny to boot.

How’d I find it? Thank you, Powell’s! Your generous supply of the outstanding NYRB imprint never disappoints.

Who will enjoy this book? Fans of Ted Chiang, The Portrait of Dorian Gray, or the film Infinity Pool will revel in this novella.

What stood out? Bizarre and tragic, romantic and creepy, The Invention of Morel builds via fantastic turns that gratify the playful mind. Bioy writes a solid tease and knows when to leave the details murky. I felt that the epistolary format didn’t serve the plot, but this is a small gripe.

Which line made me feel something? Hilarious: “We are suspicious of a stranger who tells us his life story, who tells us spontaneously that he has been captured, sentenced to life imprisonment, and that we are his reason for living. We are afraid that he is merely tricking us into buying a fountain pen or a bottle with a miniature sailing vessel inside.”

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.”