Happy April! Here’s the February newsletter. …oops?
The good news is that I have read quite a bit in the past two months! The bad news is that I was bad at writing it down. BUT I’m going to try and catch up this week, sending this newsletter and (fingers crossed) another one (March) next week to get us all read to go for April! Wish me luck!
Tournament of Books Books I Read in February
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida - Shehan Karunatilaka
Colombo, 1990. Maali Almeida—war photographer, gambler, and closet queen—has woken up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. His dismembered body is sinking in the serene Beira Lake and he has no idea who killed him. In a country where scores are settled by death squads, suicide bombers, and hired goons, the list of suspects is depressingly long, as the ghouls and ghosts with grudges who cluster round can attest. But even in the afterlife, time is running out for Maali. He has seven moons to contact the man and woman he loves most and lead them to the photos that will rock Sri Lanka.
I love the idea of this, I love the ghosts in this, I love the writing in this, I do not know enough about Sri Lanka and its politics to have followed this plot. As I was reading, I was very aware that I was only probably following 70% of it, another 30% flying over my head as it mentioned things that clearly would have dinged in an Sri Lankan’s head but I just white man blinked them by. This is definitely worth a read, it was really quite good, but maybe watch a documentary on the history of Sri Lanka in the last sixty years or so first and fare better than I did.
Samuel has lived alone on an island off the coast of an unnamed African country for more than two decades. He tends to his garden, his lighthouse, and his chickens, content with a solitary life. Routinely, the nameless bodies of refugees wash ashore, but Samuel—who understands that the government only values certain lives, certain deaths—always buries them himself.
One day, though, he finds that one of these bodies is still breathing. As he nurses the stranger back to life, Samuel—feeling strangely threatened—is soon swept up in memories of his former life as a political prisoner on the mainland. This was a life that saw his country exploited under colonial rule, followed by a period of revolution and a brief, hard-won independence—only for the cycle of suffering to continue under a cruel dictator. And he can’t help but recall his own shameful role in that history. In this stranger’s presence, he begins to consider, as he did in his youth: What does it mean to own land, or to belong to it? And what does it cost to have, and lose, a home?
This is a tiny book which I read in an afternoon. It goes back and forth between Samuel’s life before the island and his meeting with the man who washed up. It’s not bad but I wanted more. There are some very moving bits when he gets released from prison and is trying to figure out how to live his life again but ultimately, this felt like an allegory that didn’t quite know what it wanted to say.
An online obituary writer. A young mother with a dark secret. A woman waging a solo campaign against rodents — neighbors, separated only by the thin walls of a low-cost housing complex in the once bustling industrial center of Vacca Vale, Indiana.
Welcome to the Rabbit Hutch.
Using the tried but true set up of following different neighbors over the course of a few days as things slowly culminate to one big event, this novel just works. I will admit, now that I’ve finished it, that a few of the bits felt extraneous, interesting but ultimately not really adding to the overall story. But I raced through this and the section that is basically a short story about Blandine and her teacher will stick with me for ages. There’s even a section told in art towards the end of the scenes in the book as observed by one of the teenage boys whose been around the whole time. I very much enjoyed this.
Mercury Pictures Presents - Anthony Marra
Like many before her, Maria Lagana has come to Hollywood to outrun her past. Born in Rome, where every Sunday her father took her to the cinema instead of church, Maria immigrates with her mother to Los Angeles after a childhood transgression leads to her father’s arrest. Fifteen years later, on the eve of America’s entry into World War II, Maria is an associate producer at Mercury Pictures, trying to keep her personal and professional lives from falling apart. Her mother won’t speak to her. Her boss, a man of many toupees, has been summoned to Washington by congressional investigators. Her boyfriend, a virtuoso Chinese American actor, can’t escape the studio’s narrow typecasting. And the studio itself, Maria’s only home in exile, teeters on the verge of bankruptcy. Over the coming months, as the bright lights go dark across Los Angeles, Mercury Pictures becomes a nexus of European émigrés: modernist poets trying their luck as B-movie screenwriters, once-celebrated architects becoming scale-model miniaturists, and refugee actors finding work playing the very villains they fled. While the world descends into war, Maria rises through a maze of conflicting politics, divided loyalties, and jockeying ambitions. But when the arrival of a stranger from her father’s past threatens Maria’s carefully constructed facade, she must finally confront her father’s fate—and her own.
This is another one of those books that is a collection of points of view of a single point in time. Some sections worked better than others but setting parts of this in Hollywood in the 40s and others in Italy in the 20s and 30s was clever and kept the pace up. It never really culminated in one big event like Rabbit Hutch did (unless, I guess, you count the offscreen World War II) but this was more populated by characters and their backstories than events that were happening. Might be hit or miss but curious if my mother (whose two genres are thriller and world war II books) would be interested in this.
The Violin Conspiracy - Brendan Slocumb
Growing up Black in rural North Carolina, Ray McMillian’s life is already mapped out. But Ray has a gift and a dream—he’s determined to become a world-class professional violinist, and nothing will stand in his way. Not his mother, who wants him to stop making such a racket; not the fact that he can’t afford a violin suitable to his talents; not even the racism inherent in the world of classical music.
When he discovers that his beat-up, family fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, all his dreams suddenly seem within reach, and together, Ray and his violin take the world by storm. But on the eve of the renowned and cutthroat Tchaikovsky Competition—the Olympics of classical music—the violin is stolen, a ransom note for five million dollars left in its place. Without it, Ray feels like he’s lost a piece of himself. As the competition approaches, Ray must not only reclaim his precious violin, but prove to himself—and the world—that no matter the outcome, there has always been a truly great musician within him.
A mystery and a coming of age book, all in one! The mystery is a little bare bones, admittedly, but the backstory that leads to it is equally interesting and infuriating. I spent most of the book all:
Really enjoyed this book, though much more for an interesting plot that was a quick read and watching Ray put horrible people in their place with his talent and wit.
The Only Non-TOB Book I Read in February (other than for review)
Lost in the Moment and Found - Seanan McGuire
If you ever lost a sock, you’ll find it here.
If you ever wondered about a favorite toy from childhood... it’s probably sitting on a shelf in the back.
And the headphones that you swore this time you’d keep safe? You guessed it….
Antoinette has lost her father. Metaphorically. He’s not in the Shop, and she’ll never see him again. But when Antsy finds herself lost (literally, this time), she discovers that however many doors open for her, leaving the Shop for good might not be as simple as it sounds.
And stepping through those doors exacts a price.
I love the Wayward Children series because they are always great, they’re always different, and they’re all novellas so you can read them in an afternoon. While all of the books deal with children in rough situations, this one was a little more intense with abuse than previous volumes, especially adults gaslighting children. It also felt a little more didactic than normal, although I suppose that’s to be expected when dealing with that kind of topic. It’s probably my least favorite of the series but that’s like saying it’s my least favorite chocolate in the box. Always well worth a read.
Since this is the “February” newsletter, I’m trying to remember what my February looked like to share with you all. I’m pretty sure it was mostly the day job, which had a little bit of a scare on Valentine’s Day when there was a police shootout across the street and we were briefly in lock down. ~~I hate this country~~
March’s newsletter will be much more exciting as I actually went out of town 3 out of 4 weekends. A life! I had it! Briefly! I promise I will tell you about it!
See you all in a week or so! Promise! Until then, happy reading!