Eden by Tim Lebbon
Ooh this one was interesting. It’s called a “supernatural eco-thriller / eco-horror”, which sounds a little nuts, but really describes the story well. We start out somewhere in the (not too distant I feel like) future where global worming has almost irreparably damaged the Earth. The world powers … [Read more]
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Kya feels at home in the marshes of South Carolina. She grows up in a shack in the marshes with her parents and siblings. Slowly each member of her family leaves because of her abusive father. Eventually Kya is left alone at about age 9 or 10. She has to learn how to survive, because she doesn’t … [Read more]
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
"In a single year, my father left us twice." This is a multi-generational family novel, but because of the fractured nature of the family and the family history, the narrative is considerably fractured as well. Because as outsiders to the story, we have some of the official history, there's a … [Read more]
Symbiont by Mira Grant
The SymboGen-designed tapeworms were created to relieve humanity of disease and sickness. But the implants in the majority of the world's population began attacking their hosts, turning them into a ravenous horde. Now those who do not appear to be afflicted are being gathered for quarantine as … [Read more]
Mating by Norman Rush
"In Africa, you want more, I think" This book has been making the rounds again, and I have had a copy of it for about 20 years now, and finally got around to it. Our narrator in this long novel is an anthropology grad student working in Botswana who has recently kind of figured out that the … [Read more]
The Kennedy Imprisonment by Garry Wills
"Hampton, New Hampshire, February, 1980: This night seems made to vindicate Frank Capra's version of democracy." This is subtitled "A Meditation on Power" and was published in the early years of the Reagan years. One of the things I think about Garry Wills is how much he seems to believe in the … [Read more]
