pieces of the puzzle

The Virtue of Sin by Shannon Schuren
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review:  Miriam was born and raised in New Jerusalem; her parents were among the first faithful.  She accepts her world at face value (strict male/female separation before marriage, weird rules of socializing after marriage, interpretation of dreams, etc.) but when the ordained Matrimony doesn't go like it's supposed to, she starts asking questions.  Interestingly, she's willing to accept the unexpected results, except that so many people, from charismatic autocrat Daniel on down, are clearly upset about the outcome.  Daniel even seems to think that what happened somehow puts the community in danger.  But once Miriam starts looking, she sees oddities everywhere.

"It's like a puzzle that's been jumbled.  Like someone tried to jam some pieces in where they don't belong," says Miriam.  I couldn't have described it better.  At first glance, this is yet another book about a religious cult, featuring a young woman who begins to question the garbage being fed to the faithful.  Except there's a lot to figure out in this book.  Like, who actually is a true believer, and to what lengths is Daniel willing to go to preserve his power?  To what lengths has he already gone?  And what in the world is Susanna up to?

There are definitely a lot of layers in this book.  In addition, I found Miriam to be a particularly good character, and her inner voice drew me in right away.  With elements of Vox, The Handmaid's Tale, and Educated, this book is an believable imagination of what the inside of a cult looks like to insiders.  I wouldn't mind if Schuren took the characters a step further and imagined how they adjust after the action in this part of the story ends.

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

The Best Books to Read at Every Age

I'm both ahead of and behind my times!
The best books to read at every age, from 1 to 100

oh, so lovely

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
Rating: 4.5 stars (out 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: Evvie (pronounced eh-vee) is not a misanthrope.  She's not particularly socially awkward.  She just... doesn't really feel like it right now.  A young widow, her husband died literally as she was preparing to leave him (he deserved to be left).  Except that nobody knows that; they all think she's properly grieving for him.  So, you know: guilt.

Dean is a former Yankees pitcher who's got the yips.  He's tried everything to get his arm back, but nothing works.  His childhood best friend is also Evvie's best friend, and it just so happens that Evvie also has an apartment in her house that would be perfect for Dean while he tries to figure out what he wants to do with the rest of his life.

What follows is a fairly predictable boy-meets-girl story, with a few false notes.  But it is oh, so lovely.  Reading about Dean and Evvie made my heart happy.  Both characters leap off the page (seriously, I was tempted to look up and see if they were actually in my living room with me) and their trials and tribulations are both realistic and compassionately drawn.  Is this a perfect book?  No.  Do I think it's going to be very popular this summer?  Yes.  Do I highly recommend it?  Even more yes.

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

expect the unexpected

Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)
Genre: historical fiction
Review: Ok, I did not see that coming.  Usually, when a character does something unexpected near the end of a book, it means that the author has written herself into a corner that she can't get out of without someone having an epiphany or just acting way out of character or something.  But in this case, the behavior totally felt like something the character would do, even if I wasn't expecting it.  I won't even tell you which character does the unexpected thing, so read the book to find out.  It's worth it all the way through.

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

on the path

Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss by Rajeev Balasubramanyam
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: I'm not sure what bliss Professor Chandra is following, or how he's following it, but he's an interesting guy to read about.  A distinguished professor of economics, has just been denied the Nobel Prize (again), he is hit by a bicycle and suffers a heart attack, forcing him to take a break, under doctor's orders.  And he does try.  He tries to reconnect with his children, and attends a mindfulness retreat.  He learns a lot about himself, and his children, but I didn't really see where the bliss comes in, since he's mostly just as conflicted at the end as he is in the beginning, if a bit gentler about it.

Bliss, not so much, but Chandra himself does come to understand and accept a lot about himself and his past mistakes.  His journey, with all its missteps and imperfections, is very believable, and you'll find yourself rooting for Chandra to find a way, not to bliss, but to more happiness.  Or maybe just contentment?  Or self-awareness?  Whatever he's on the path to, it's an enjoyable journey, for the reader, at least.

One thing that really stood out to me is the very subtle way that Balasubramanyam points out the ways in which Chandra was a terrible father.  His casual cruelties to his children are reported as straight facts; there is no extended narrative exposition explaining the effects of his words, allowing readers to make their own judgments without interference.  This is a mark of a good author, one who truly shows, rather than tells, and he does this with aplomb throughout the book.

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

Lunacy: how science fiction is powering the new moon rush

The Guardian recently ran an interesting article about the impact of science fiction on current pushes to return to the moon.  Read the full article here.

"Science fiction is often seen as an anticipation - a fiction peculiarly expected to graduate into fact.  But if technologies once found only in SF do sometimes become real they do not, in so doing, always cease to be science fiction.  SF is not, after all, simply a literature about the future; it is a literature about the shock of new capacities and new perspectives, about transcendence, estrangement and resistance in the face of the inhuman.  Its ideas shape and contrain the ways in which technological possibilities are seen, understood and experienced long after those possibilities are first tentatively realised."

flat on the page

The Tubman Command by Elizabeth Cobbs
Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)
Genre: historical fiction
Review: Any student of Civil War-era history has some basic knowledge of Harriet Tubman, but perhaps not much beyond her role on the Underground Railroad.  If nothing else, this book will deepen the reader's understanding of her ongoing role in liberating slaves throughout the War itself.  Cobbs focuses on Tubman's actions as a scout for the Union Army at their camp in Beaufort, South Carolina.  Tubman, or "Moses", as she was known by the "contraband" freed slaves, both recruited other scouts and helped to organize the slaves on the nearby plantation so that they would be ready to move when the Army came to free them.

A good novel of historical fiction makes the past come alive in a way that non-fiction can't.  Unfortunately, I can't really say that Tubman leaps off the page in this book.  Rather, it reads more like a work of narrative non-fiction from a close third-person point of view.  However, readers interested in either the Civil War or Harriet Tubman will learn a lot from Cobbs's research and the information goes down very easily.

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