like ships in the night

The Impossible Us by Sarah Lotz

Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: speculative fiction

Review: Imagine that you found your soulmate, but that they were in a parallel universe and you could only communicte via email due to a "glitch" in whatever it is that keeps one universe separate from another.

Well, if you're Bee (from our universe) and Nick (whose universe has much better ecology, among other things), you eventually decide that each should seek out the other's doppelganger in their own universe.  And then you spend a lot of time soul-searching about whether that's the right thing to do, whether either should tell anyone the whole truth, and a whole lot of other things.

Bee and Nick alternate chapters, with some of their email exhanges at the end of each chapter.  The writing is very British, and this American reader had trouble sometimes knowing whether Nick (in the parallel universe) was using slang that we don't have here, or just slang that I didn't know (they also have slightly different grammar rules in the parallel universe?).

This was something of a roller coaster read, dragging in the middle as Nick and Bee go back and forth a lot while they try to figure out a way to be together, then speeding up and almost seeming like a thriller, then slowing back down, before finally reaching a very feel-good conclusion.  Despite these inconsistencies, both Nick and Bee come across as fully-realized characters, and the conclusion feels neither unearned nor overly convenient, but rather hopeful, verging on heart-warming.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

spare feelings

News of the World by Paulette Jiles

Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: historical fiction

Review: Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd has fought in three wars, starting with the War of 1812 when he was just barely 16.  Now, in 1870, he travels across Texas bringing the inhabitants news of distant places.  He reads from newspapers from Philadelphia to India to London, and steers clear of politics as best he can.

On a pass through Northern Texas, he is entrusted with a young girl, recently rescued from the Kiowa, after having been abducted four years earlier.  Now ten, Johanna has no real memory of her family, doesn't remember how to speak English, and, if asked, would consider herself a member of the Kiowa nation.  But nobody asked her.  The Kiowa are giving up all of their captives under threat of raids, and Johanna's remaining family has paid handsomely for her to be shepherded back to their home near San Antonio.  It's a long journey (handy maps in the endpapers of the book help the reader follow along) and one fraught with dangers.

The real story though, is what happens between Johanna and the Captain as they travel and begin to feel like family.  Unfortunately, Jiles's spare writing style doesn't really do justice to the feelings she wants the reader to understand the characters are feeling.

As for the movie, it is similarly spare, giving it the same overall tone as the book.  Several major plot points are changed, for what I'm sure were valid cinematographic reasons, but the overall story arc is the same, and being able to see the expressions on the characters' faces certainly helps in understanding the feelings that Jiles writes into her story.

an undecided book

Groundskeeping by Lee Cole

Rating: 2 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction

Review: Owen is stuck between his humble beginnings, as he sees them, in rural Kentucky, his string of menial jobs, and his sense of himself as a writer living a cerebral life.  He's convinced that his girlfriend looks down on him for coming from a blue-collar background, and he can't blame her, as he himself continuously sneers at his parents for their unenlightened political viewpoints and small-town perspectives.

I'm not sure what book Lee Cole thought he was writing here.  Possibly a book about a struggling writer.  Possibly a book of class differences in romantic relationships.  Possibly a book about someone who rejects his conservative upbringing in favor of his current liberal outlook.  Unfortunatley, the book ultimately doesn't succeed in being any of those.  Instead, it's a mash of unrealized characters who spend a lot of time in unfulfilling conflict with themselves and each other, and it all just seemed pointless and pretentious.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

beyond the wall

Gallant by V. E. Schwab

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fantasy

Review: Olivia knows her mother only through her journal and longs to escape her life at the orphanage where everything seems to exist in shades of grey and ghouls that only she can see lurk in the corners and under the beds.  When a letter from her uncle arrives at the orphanage and promises her a home and family, she leaps at the chance.  But her mother's journal has warned her to stay away from Gallant, the family home.  And maybe her mother was right that not having a family is better than what she'll face on the other side of the wall.

I confess that I hadn't read anything by Victoria (V. E.) Schwab until The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, and I confess that I only picked up Gallant because I loved Addie LaRue so much.  I knew that Addie LaRue differed from her other work, but I was curious.  And I was not disappointed.  Although it seems that Schwab has returned to something closer to her previous brand, her writing is just as lovely as it was in Addie LaRue, and the story is just as compelling.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

how to be a private citizen

None of Your Damn Business: Privacy in the United States from the Gilded Age to the Digital Age by Lawrence Cappello

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: non-fiction, law

Review: Cappello gives us an in-depth look at various types of privacy and the debate surrounding it in the US.  He's particularly skilled at showing the links between the different kinds of privacy (from organization privacy through to decisional privacy) and the importance of viewing privacy as a full spectrum, rather than trying to isolate one kind of privacy from another.  He also notes that giving up certain aspects of privacy over the years in the name of national security seemed like a good idea at the time, but points out that once given up, those rights are awfully hard to get back.

Although the writing is dense, it is far from dry, as the author's wit and sense of humor peek through often.  This book is excellent for anyone interested in the history of the debate over privacy.

an essay for everyone

These Precious Days: Essays by Ann Patchett

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Genre: essay collection

Review: There is something for everyone in this collection, whether long-time Patchett fans, or those just introduced to her.  Those who want a little insider's look into her craft will enjoy the essay on cover art.  There's an essay about her relationships with her father and stepfathers, an essay about her relationship with a close childhood friend, and essays about her love of the work of Eudora Welty and how she discovered Kate DiCamillo.  There's an essay on how she never wanted to have children, some sections of which are several pages, although she packs as much punch into the sections that are a single paragraph or even a single sentence.

And many more.

And really, who else could pull off an essay about how Snoopy is her role model as a writer, teaching her valuable lessons about rejection letters and how a writer doesn't need a fancy studio?  Ann Patchett is a wonder.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.