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. Through 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.”

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

2/5 stars

How’d I find it? Thanks to this bookstagrammer, I get all kinds of great recommendations for reads off the beaten path.

Why not 3 or more stars? I Who Have Never Known Men has a fascinating premise: a young girl and 39 women are imprisoned for years in an underground cage patrolled by guards, and no one knows why or how they got there. Once they escape to the desolate world above, the story spins its wheels for the rest of this short and nightmarish novel, stalling at any moment that threatens momentum. Harpman’s commitment to letting the reader marinate in uncertainty is quite the tease and memorable indeed.

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.”

Liberation Day by George Saunders

3/5 stars

What's it about? George Saunders tinkers with technology, absurdity, and amusement parks in this collection of nine short stories.

How’d I find it? You know when you go into a bookstore on a Tuesday when the fresh titles are laid out, and you see not only a new book from a favorite author, but also that it’s signed? I had that experience at Solid State Books.

Who will enjoy this book? If you like the work of Karen Russell or Stephen Millhauser, these stories strike similar notes.

What stood out? As usual, Saunders brings wit and playfulness to the page, and his writing sparkles. “Mother’s Day” and “Elliott Spencer” were the book’s most successful stories. Much of Liberation Day reads like retooled versions of past powerhouses; the title story recalls Tenth of December’s “The Semplica Girl Diaries,” while “Ghoul” shares elements with “Bounty”. Having recently finished CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, I received this collection as an entertaining echo.

Which line made me feel something? I related cosmically to the narrator of “The Mom of Bold Action,” whose deluge of thoughts seems to keep her from ever actually writing: “‘The Discontented Dog.’ The Discontented Dog was never happy. No matter how many peanut-butter thingies he was given. When he was in, he wanted out. When out — She grabbed another peanut-butter thingie from the box. ‘The Peanut-Butter Thingie Who Sacrificed Himself So the Other Peanut-Butter Thingies in the Box Could Live.’”

Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and Elephants by Mathias Énard

4/5 stars

What's it about? In the aftermath of a falling out with Pope Julius II, Michelangelo accepts a commission from the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II to design a bridge for Constantinople (today’s Istanbul). A dreamy morsel of a novel about desire, inspiration, and the work of creating.

How’d I find it? I was so mesmerized by the English translation’s cover that I bought a copy of the original French during a trip to Paris.

Who will enjoy this book? The tone will be familiar to fans of Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino and the “Letters from Zedelghem” section in David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas.

What stood out? Énard makes Constantinople a character in its own right; time and place are beautifully rendered here, an exquisite strength. While the language drips with sentiment and poignancy, the effect happens to work perfectly for its subject matter — a fictional interlude in the life of a Renaissance genius. I also enjoyed the kernels of authenticity sprinkled throughout the tale, like Michelangelo’s lists of ephemera and translated correspondence from the period.

Which line made me feel something? The title comes from Rudyard Kipling and is wondrously evoked in the novel (translation attempt my own): “We conquer them in telling of battles, kings, elephants, and marvelous beings; in telling them of the happiness beyond death, the living light that presided over their births, the angels surrounding them, the demons who menace, and love, love, that promise of forgetting and fulfillment.”

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 through which to view 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.”

March by Geraldine Brooks

3/5 stars

What's it about? Geraldine Brooks found a surefire win in this Little Women spin-off that follows Mr. March as he serves as chaplain and teacher in the Civil War. A story about the price of one’s ideals and the miscommunications in a marriage.

How’d I find it? My husband recommended this read, and I found my own copy in a Little Free Library in Capitol Hill in DC. A walk from where I worked to a bar to meet friends, and an offering of books along the way that held me up a little, just enough. I need a bigger backpack.

Who will enjoy this book? Little Women fans, of course. Those who seek historical fiction along the lines of Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell will also like March.

What stood out? The book reads like Water for Elephants, the kind of bestseller that goes down smooth and easy. We hear Marmee’s voice at a crucial moment in the book to tease out the climax, a device that lifts the curtain on how differently one partner can experience a relationship. Despite our protagonist’s abolitionist tendencies, the language used for characters of color can shock in 2024, and I found myself wincing a few times, particularly in scenes involving Grace, who reconnects with Mr. March during the war. The allusions to the famous little women disappoint in their lack of invention; Amy is merely vain with blonde curls, and Jo is clumsy and dark.

Which line made me feel something? As a former DC resident, this warning from the ever faithful Mr. Brooks stirred in me a chuckle: “I am afraid that Georgetown in particular has an unfortunate reputation. I have been informed that drinking places are ordered closed at a half past nine, and they say there can be, well, a good deal of unseemly behavior on the streets at that hour.”

Billy Summers by Stephen King

3/5 stars

What's it about? Veteran Billy Summers has one last job as a hired assassin before he gets out of the game. Of course, it’s his messiest assignment yet, and Billy starts to question how to tell the bad guys from the good. A well-written crime novel with momentum and heart.

How’d I find it? My aunt passed this along as “a good one.” She was right.

Who will enjoy this book? The HBO series Barry is the perfect companion to Billy Summers. Certain similarities make me wonder if King was inspired by the show.

What stood out? Billy’s alias as a writer provides the frame to learn more about his horrific childhood and deployments in Iraq. The novel within a novel schtick makes the timing in this book perfect. The arrival of Alice, who contributes much of the aforementioned heart, steers the story into sentimentality, but King is, as always, an able navigator. A nod to The Shining that comes out of nowhere gave this fan much joy.

Which line made me feel something? This had never occurred to me: “Billy thinks of telling her that dead, like unique, is a word that cannot, by its nature, be modified.”

The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier

3/5 stars

What's it about? After a terrifying bout of turbulence, Air France flight 006 touches down at JFK with all 243 passengers unscathed. Or does it? This speculative thriller runneth over with ideas about fate and the soul.

How’d I find it? This book was on the frontlist table at Solid State Books, and I heard positive feedback from readers that inspired me to get my own copy.

Who will enjoy this book? Those who appreciated Emily St. John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility or How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu will enjoy the interconnected stories and gigantic cast.

What stood out? Le Tellier crams in everything but the kitchen sink. There’s child abuse, interracial relationships, a hitman for hire, closeted sexuality, suicide, terminal illness, and on and on. The first 150 pages are pure character introduction, with most chapters ending with the arrival of a federal agent, but the anticipation is worth the reveal. I recommend reading the English translation by Adriana Hunter, as she ably smooths over Le Tellier’s awkward attempts at relating American culture. Macy’s is not a supermarket, sir.

Which line made me feel something? At the point in the book where I’d simply had enough of new characters, Le Tellier drops this disarming bit of self-awareness: "He surrenders to the fascination of lives other than his own. He’d like to choose one, to find the right words to describe this creature, and succeed in believing that he has come close enough to it not to betray it. Then move on to another. And another. Three characters, seven, twenty? How many simultaneous stories would a reader consent to follow?"