Enjoyable and fantastical standalone from a fantasy author I always enjoy. Wonderful historical (Spanish Inquisition) and cultural details throughout Enjoyable and fantastical standalone from a fantasy author I always enjoy. Wonderful historical (Spanish Inquisition) and cultural details throughout and many twists.
Perfect ending that made up for the more predictable parts of the story (e.g. the romance).
After hundreds of years, if there were so many sinners left, what had the Inquisition accomplished? They might root out Jews and Muslims and Erasmists and alumbrados, but then what was left? The machine had been built to consume heresy and impiety, so would it simply keep finding heresy and impiety to feed on? Valentina's soul certainly hadn't been saved. The vicar's threats hadn't made her good, only scared - and not of purgatory. All this spectacle, all this misery, and she didn't fear hell more than being shut up in a house with her lawful husband.
honestly it still feels too soon to have a kids book about this - but then again there is an entire series of "I Survived" disaster kids books that aphonestly it still feels too soon to have a kids book about this - but then again there is an entire series of "I Survived" disaster kids books that appear to be pretty popular so maybe there are just some morbid or anxious kids that need to feed something in their psyches. This books is a 2024 Oregon Battle of the Books book that was assigned to my kiddo and I will give it props for handling the intensity fairly well - it's focused on Molly and her sister Adi who attend a connected middle school-elementary school a few blocks away from the Twin Towers and starts the night before 9/11/01. One of Molly's dads is an airline pilot flying to St Louis the morning of and his mother, "Gran," who lives with them is still going strong as an EMT with the fire department that services the Twin Towers area so the stakes were pretty high, especially as I could not recall the destinations of the 4 hijacked planes. But most of the action follows Molly searching for her sister in the middle of the chaos of Manhattan and running from the debris when each tower collapses. 9yo did pretty well with the drama until I mentioned what I was doing that day and then she kind of freaked out realizing this happened in her mom's lifetime. I rather wish the OBOB disaster had been the Titanic or something more removed. ...more
This is a great concept with beautiful (if especially gory) art and so-so plot execution. I like the time-travel rules here though the existence of thThis is a great concept with beautiful (if especially gory) art and so-so plot execution. I like the time-travel rules here though the existence of the passage to travel through is hand-waved, there is a throughline about fate interwoven between the future dystopian scenes and the scenes in the 1400's. I think perhaps that's my biggest problem with it - if we're going to assume some amount of fatalism, taking out Columbus seems like a noble undertaking but ultimately, not sufficient or lynchpin enough to halt the inevitability of European conquest. It does however provide readers who aren't well versed in history with the most notable explorer in American culture so I get the decision.
I'll definitely read the next volume but doubtful that I'll spend money on it as I did for this heralded debut. ...more
Witches secretly fighting Nazi's in WWII + secret societies should be the perfect GN afternoon read... and it was...fine. I think either the author orWitches secretly fighting Nazi's in WWII + secret societies should be the perfect GN afternoon read... and it was...fine. I think either the author or illustrator got sidetracked with naked rituals in the forest instead of supernatural spycraft so the latter was limited & bor-ing. ...more
a fun and compelling read through a fictionalized historical Hollywood my problems with it: I don't think Taylor Jenkins Reid is either biracial OR bi-a fun and compelling read through a fictionalized historical Hollywood my problems with it: I don't think Taylor Jenkins Reid is either biracial OR bi-sexual and while I think people can write outside their sphere, we're talking about identities she gave the title and main characters and she uses these identities as allegories for each other which gave me the "um...."'s. Also aside from the MC, the book is VERY white and even the MC can pass for white if she tries. All other POC are dead and/or have no lines in the story. Its a big contrast to the LGBTQ world hidden inside old Hollywood which is much better represented... except that even when we're talking present-day, it's still hidden... (view spoiler)[only to be revealed in the tell-all that makes up this story (hide spoiler)]. The MC/narrator being half black however impacts her in only the most obvious ways and (IMO) didn't add to the story's layers in any way. So.... my review is all on the negative which means I might come back and remove a star after I sit on it a bit. Otherwise, while the tone and narrative style matched Daisy Jones and the Six, the story was vastly different and addressed a whole host of different topics and the tale was a quick, compelling read with great prose - so props to the author, and I'll likely check out the next one....more
Read for Oregon Battle of the Books w/the kiddo - really good kids book about immigration, Jewish life/European diaspora, worker's rights/strikes, CubaRead for Oregon Battle of the Books w/the kiddo - really good kids book about immigration, Jewish life/European diaspora, worker's rights/strikes, Cuba and the rise of fascism prior to WWII This prompted some great convos with the kiddo...more
I really wanted to like this - aside from everyone I admire buzzing about it, and it's place in the 2022 Tournament of Books - it has amazing world buI really wanted to like this - aside from everyone I admire buzzing about it, and it's place in the 2022 Tournament of Books - it has amazing world building and thoughtful things to say about society, the history of colonialization, language, and more. And there is magic (in language!, in the space/gulf between the meanings of words between languages!), Dickensian children abandoned or used by their father, Oxford academia and class politics. But, like Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell, I just couldn't get interested and ultimately failed to pick it back up again one of the many times I laid it down to scroll on my phone or read something else. ...more
These stories should be exactly my jam. I spent an inordinate amount of time going down quantum physics rabbit holes the minute I had my own PC and reThese stories should be exactly my jam. I spent an inordinate amount of time going down quantum physics rabbit holes the minute I had my own PC and regular access to the internets in college (there was a site I could virtually smash particles together and see what results in slow motion!) and every advanced math or physics major I've known has had an existential crisis at some point about "What is REAL?" But there is a lot of romanticizing the crazy (abusive, dirty, manipulative, broke, womanizing) genius here .... and they all happen to be men. There are a lot of bodies strewn behind these men in their paths to enlightenment but the enlightenment seems to be the end that justifies the means. And it occurs to me that no woman (or non-white person) would be allowed to go without bathing, paying their debts and behaving so erratically without ending up in jail or an asylum. Maybe that is the point... but I suspect not.
It was interesting to then read Lauren Groff's Matrix and consider the innocuous Prussion Blue of the Mother Mary paintings after reading about further developments of this chemical compound in the early chapters of this book. ...more
It’s quite a thing when the world is upside down to hear someone say it don’t have to be — that a man could be paid enough to feed and house himself.
It’s quite a thing when the world is upside down to hear someone say it don’t have to be — that a man could be paid enough to feed and house himself. … Rye felt listed by a sense of hope.”"
Honestly a well-researched (shown not told) historical fiction will do more to interest me than just about anything especially if the characters are interesting... no matter the topic. And the topic of labor wars in old-timey Spokane is not on the top of my list despite this being my hometown. The same was true with Egan's Manhattan Beach - the plot was not necessarily something to interest me and it ran off the rails at times but the subject matter and attention to historical place and time detail made me like it.
This story has a significantly different feel than Walter's Beautiful Ruins which was one of my all-time favorites. That one was romantic and artistic and earnest and full of beautiful Italian scenery in the 50's as well as a cinephile's rose-colored glasses in modern Hollywood. The Cold Millions title refers to the 99% left behind in the literal frontier cold while railroad barons and coal mine millionaires leech off their backs to live in luxury - and brutally punish any demands for better pay, safer work, job security. It's sneakily about modern issues of police brutality (and how policing exists to protect the rich from the people who make them rich), class warfare and the weapons of misogyny, racism and xenophobia deployed to separate the majority who could overcome so much if working in solidarity. It's often grim, sometimes hopeless, its dirty and infuriating.... so many feelings opposite to those felt during the previous read. I didn't realize till now that Walters is a progressive leftist - especially surprising as my anti-union, conservative father loved this book (we only ever overlap in reading sci-fi). He worked at Bunker Hill (Idaho) in the 70's and Kaiser Aluminum throughout the 80's and 90's as one of the few non-union employees and voted/supported the Reagonomic sentiments that unions were destroying American capitalism and putting corporations out of business. But the history recorded here has resonated down the decades and he remembers the impact these events had on the psyche of the Bunker Hill workers 60 years later - where they still discussed the labor riots and the bombing of the Idaho mine. It's amazing what an empathetic and gifted author can do to present modern issues in a widely accessible manner to a degree that this daughter diametrically opposed to her father's views could agree with him on the value of this tale. It doesn't supplant Beautiful Ruins in my mind, mostly because I wanted that feeling of romance and hope and love of art again, but I admire everything it accomplished. I highly recommend the Powell's conversation between Walters and Amor Towles as well which the miracle of remote author interviews allowed my father and I to simultaneously attend....more
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