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This Time, It Stuck

City of Margins by William Boyle

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This is the third William Boyle book I’ve tried. I still can’t get past the first 50 pages of Gravesend, as I found the characters to be uninteresting. The Lonely Witness was enjoyable enough but kind of a mess. Boyle, like George Pelecanos, writes character-driven crime tales that focus on their distinct urban neighborhoods. I always feel like I should enjoy both of their books more than I do. They always feel like I’m dropping in the middle episode of a well-produced television show that I’m unfamiliar with. […]

Brooklyn Girls

The Lonely Witness by William Boyle

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My first William Boyle novel I was able to finish. I gave Gravesend a shot and it wasn’t working for me. I do want to get through Boyle’s other novels, mostly because they take place in the urban recesses of New York City. His in particular all center around non-glamour Brooklyn. I like all kinds of New York City novels, including those. It’s why I want to keep trying with Boyle, despite not being as grabbed by his books as I want to be. Boyle has often […]

“We don’t know the people who live across the street or on either side of us.”

Pride by Ibi Zoboi

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cbr11bingo – Remix!  Zuri Benitez is of the rambling Benitez family. They live in Brooklyn – in Bushwick – in a one bedroom apartment where she and her four siblings share the living room as their bedroom, where block parties are regular and boisterous, and where she and her family and the neighborhood take care of each other. This is why Zuri views the new family across the street with suspicion. When a developer bought the property and revamped it into a flashy new home, […]

Where Brooklyn At.

Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem

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I don’t know what it’s like to have Tourette’s Syndrome, nor do I know the specifics of how it manifests in human behavior. As far as I know, neither does Jonathan Lethem. There is a troubling history of able bodied people using illnesses and non-ableness to become magical healers and special problem solvers. So maybe this book is complete trash because Jonathan Lethem gets those aspects wrong. But from an ignorant perspective, I liked this one. And I liked it not because he had Tourette’s […]

“Her voice carried the voices of a hundred thousand souls in it; a whole history of resistance and rage moved with her.”

Shadowshaper (Shadowshaper #1) by Daniel José Older

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3.5 stars And my cantankerous/ambivalent streak continues. Shadowshaper had so many the elements of a book I should have really liked: an inventive, unique fantasy and magic practice, a foundation in folklore that hasn’t been done to death, a dynamic protagonist, and a diverse, reliable, realistic support system for that protagonist. Additionally, the audiobook was masterfully performed by Anika Noni Rose, making Shadowshaper a joy to listen to. But something about the book, that I can’t quite put a finger on other than having this […]



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