Joseph Mallozzi's Blog, page 134

February 16, 2022: Amazing Covers!

A few that caught my eye this week…

Vampiverse #6 – cover art by Meghan Hetrick

Iron Fist #1 – cover art by Gunji

Thor #22 – cover art by Marc Aspinall

Batman: The Knight #2 – cover art by Carmine di Giandomenico

Catwoman #40 – cover art by Jeff Dekal

Detective Comics #1053 – cover art by Irvin Rodriguez

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #8 – cover art by Bilquis Evely

Regarding the Matter of Oswald’s Body #4 – cover art by Julian Totino Tedesco

Orision #1 – cover art by Carlos Villas

Quad #1 – cover art by Diego Sanches

Animal Castle #3 – cover art by Felix Delep

Cloaked #3 – cover art by Jordi Armengol

The Sword of Hyperborea #2 – cover art by Yishan Li

Ascencia vol. 1 – cover art by Doaly

So, which were YOUR favorites?

 

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February 15, 2022: Valentine’s Day Shi-Bang at Giulietta!

Last night, Akemi and I celebrated Valentine’s Day with a romantic Italian meal at Giulietta on College Street – with our foodie friend Dr. Blackjack!

The last time we’d visited was a little over two years ago – just prior to the pandemic.  Hopefully, it won’t be another two years before we make a return visit.

Carne Crudo (hand-cut beef, umbrian black truffles, hens egg, parmgiano reggiano & crostone): This one was more for Dr. Blackjack and I as Akemi isn’t a big fan of truffle (which she says: “Tastes like old man’s pillow.”), but I suspect this is more of a reaction to phony truffle oil than it is to actual truffles – which is what we have here, shaved atop the tartare toast.  Akemi DOES, however, like crusty bread and, in the end, ended up enjoying the end pieces just fine.

Crudo di Pesce Spada (marinated swordfish, olives, capers, lemon, chili, mint & olio nuovo): Akemi is, on the other hand, a huge fan of sashimi and raw fish preparations, so she wanted to try this one, even though she’d never had swordfish before.  I’d had it cooked in the past and found it texturally similar to cooked tuna, a preparation I avoid at all costs.  The dish was served with tiny slices of birds-eye chili that packed a powerful pop.  Dr. Blackjack and I really enjoyed this dish but Akemi, it turns out, is not a fan of swordfish.  She prefers hamachi.

Polpo e Fagioli (grilled octopus, cannellini beans & salsa verde): On the other other hand, we could all agree that this dish was spectacular.  Special shout-out to the cannelloni beans that reminded me of the preparation my grandmother used to make back in the day.

Trippa alla Romana (roman style braised tripe, tomato, pecorino & pangrattato): This dish is probably not for everyone – but it WAS for everyone at our table.  One of the best plates of the night.

La Valentia (tomato, spicy ‘nduja sausage, smoked scamorza, roasted garlic & basil): This smoky, spicy, and a little sweetness c/o of the generous pieces of roast garlic.

Tagliolini alla Genovese (braised veal cheek ragu, white wine, soffritto, olive oil, pecorino & parsley): Of the two pasta dishes we ordered, this was Akemi and Dr. Blackjack’s favorite.

Tortelli ai Funghi (porcini & ricotta filled pasta, foraged mushrooms, butter & thyme): While I preferred the stuffed pasta.  Given the choice, I’ll almost always prefer the stuffed pasta.

Red Fife Tiramisu (red fife ‘spagna’, custard, rhum, espresso & dark chocolate): I’m a bit of a stickler when it comes to tiramisu, but this one was great.

As was the nutella soft serve.

 A wonderful dinner.

In celebration of Valentine’s Day, Akemi made a super dense, ultra-rich sake-laced chocolate cake.

Akemi informed me that February 14th, Valentine’s Day, is a huge deal in Japan.  MUCH bigger than the rather tame celebration we tepidly enjoy here in the West.  It’s a day where Japanese women do special things for their significant others – like baking cakes!  A month later, March 15th, is White Day.  And, on that day, the tables are turned.  The hunter become the hunted!  Akemi is very much looking forward to what I have planned for HER.  She is expecting it to be “Shi-bang!”

Suji wasn’t left out!  Akemi prepared her daily soup (turmeric and mussels) which she roundly ignored after getting a sniff of the egg Akemi had made for her.  My girl likes what she likes.  Like her dad.  It’s obviously genetic.

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February 14, 2022: Baron’s Book Club Blab Blog!

A few more new and upcoming books for your consideration…

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a traditional Caribbean black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child, challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage, and themselves.

Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor’s true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake when the time is right”? Will their mother’s revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?

My thoughts: Byron and Benny, the son and prodigal daughter of the recently deceased Eleanor Bennett, gather at a lawyer’s office to hear their mother’s final message to them. But the recording she has left them proves as illuminating as it is surprising, a lengthy recap of Eleanor’s life, from her humble childhood in the Caribbeans to the tragic event that drastically changed her life and set her on an unexpected path. The novel offers shifting narrative POV’s that chart the struggles of Byron, Benny, and a mysterious woman who is introduced late in the story but whose true identity ultimately impacts the lives of all. Eleanor’s chapters, however, are this book’s strong point, detailing an inspiring tale about friendship, conviction in the face of adversity, and secrets. Lots of secrets. There are times when it feels like this book stretches itself a little thin in its attempts to touch on varied social issues. While most are well-integrated into the story, a few feel like missed opportunities, simply presented and then glossed over in the telling. Still, wonderfully crafted characters, strong, nuanced relationships, and a central mystery that is only resolved in the closing pages make Black Cake a compelling and rewarding read.

4/5

***

The Tally Stick by Carl Nixon

Up on the highway, the only evidence that the Chamberlains had ever been there was two smeared tire tracks in the mud leading into an almost undamaged screen of bushes and trees. No other cars passed that way until after dawn. By that time the tracks had been washed away by the heavy rain. After being in New Zealand for only five days, the English Chamberlain family had vanished into thin air. The date was 4 April 1978. In 2010 the remains of the eldest Chamberlain child are discovered in a remote part of the West Coast, showing he lived for four years after the family disappeared. Found alongside him are his father’s watch and what turns out to be a tally stick, a piece of scored wood marking items of debt. How had he survived and then died? Where is the rest of the family? And what is the meaning of the tally stick?

My thoughts: This one starts off strong with the accident that orphans three young children, then takes an unexpected turn when rescue presents itself in an unexpected form.  From there, my reading experience mirrored the frustrations of our wayward protagonists as they attempt to make sense of, and then resist their new lives.  We jump back and forth in time between their struggles and the story of an aunt who, 32 years later, travels to New Zealand to learn the truth about what happened.  The latter feels more like a distraction that doesn’t add much to the overall story outside of a nice, ironic twist at book’s end.  It’s an interesting read albeit very bleak.  Given that we already know the sad ending, it often feels like we’re biding our time until the last predestined piece of the somber puzzle snaps into place.

3/5

***

Helltown: The Untold Story of Serial Murder on Cape Cod by Casey Sherman

1969: The hippie scene is vibrant in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Long-haired teenagers roam the streets, strumming guitars and preaching about peace and love… and Tony Costa is at the center of it all. To a certain group of smitten young women, he is known as Sire―the leader of their counter-culture movement, the charming man who speaks eloquently and hands out hallucinogenic drugs like candy. But beneath his benign persona lies a twisted and uncontrollable rage that threatens to break loose at any moment. Tony Costa is the most dangerous man on Cape Cod, and no one who crosses his path is safe.

When young women begin to disappear, Costa’s natural charisma and good looks initially protect him from suspicion. But as the bodies are discovered, the police close in on him as the key suspect. Meanwhile, local writers Kurt Vonnegut and Norman Mailer are locked in a desperate race to secure their legacies as great literary icons―and they both set their sights on Tony Costa and the drug-soaked hippie culture that he embodies as their next promising subject, launching independent investigations that stoke the competitive fires between two of the greatest American writers.

My thoughts: I don’t read a lot of true crime because I have a fundamental issue with books that blur the line between fiction and non-fiction, dramatizing events and incorporating fictitious dialogue to flesh out scenes and drive a true story-based narrative.  Helltown offers well-researched insights into serial killer Tony Costa, his horrific crimes that are laid out in visceral detail, and his subsequent trial.  In addition, the book also tracks the experiences of real-life authors Kurt Vonnegut and Norman Mailer who were tangentially connected to Costa’s story and ended up writing about the case.  Their dedicated chapters, while interesting, never failed to take me out of the story.  Nevertheless, if serial killers are your thing, this book does deliver an absorbing account of Cape Cod’s most notorious murderer.

3/5

***

The Swells by Will Aitken

A boatload of white privilege, The Emerald Tranquility is the most luxurious cruise liner afloat, its passengers some of the richest people in the world. Meanwhile the ship’s crew, overworked and underpaid, live packed tightly together in airless below-deck cabins.

Briony Paget, globetrotting luxury travel writer, emulates the rich — though homeless and penniless herself — as she hops from gig to all-expenses-paid gig. 

The passengers encounter a great number of cataclysms at sea, but no matter the catastrophe, the great ship always sails on.

On her own personal voyage, Briony encounters Mrs. Moore, an enigmatic old woman clandestinely fomenting a mutiny on this bountiful ship. With the captain overthrown, roles quickly reverse: the crew become the ship’s new leisure class and the aged passengers learn how to mop floors and scrub toilets. 

Briony, confused and terrified by the resultant chaos, must decide which lot to cast her fate with, in this savage satire of the way we live now.

My thoughts: It’s described as “darkly hilarious satire”, but I’d argue it’s more broadly farcical with its caricatures and over-the-top dialogue and situations.  More wacky than sharp in its skewering of social conventions, it’s tonally akin to a Wes Anderson film or any of the Marx Brothers offerings.  There are some very funny moments, but the humor is so silly that it becomes wearisome after a while.  This would have made a brilliant short story.

***

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan

It’s 2010. Staggeringly successful and brilliant tech entrepreneur Bix Bouton is desperate for a new idea. He’s forty, with four kids, and restless when he stumbles into a conversation with mostly Columbia professors, one of whom is experimenting with downloading or “externalizing” memory. Within a decade, Bix’s new technology, Own Your Unconscious—that allows you access to every memory you’ve ever had, and to share every memory in exchange for access to the memories of others—has seduced multitudes. But not everyone.

My thoughts: Jennifer Egan’s follow-up (prequel) to A Visit From the Goon Squad is a challenging read that. while clever and brimming with humor and memorable characters, ends up collapsing under the weight of its varied viewpoints.  Fans of the first book will be better served here than first-time readers to the Egan-verse.  Still, the book boasts some wonderful characters and terrific stories, one of my favorites involving a stubbornly contested property dispute.

3/5

***

Very Cold People by Sarah Manguso

For Ruthie, the frozen town of Waitsfield, Massachusetts, is all she has ever known.

Once home to the country’s oldest and most illustrious families–the Cabots, the Lowells: the “first, best people”–by the tail end of the twentieth century, it is an unforgiving place awash with secrets.

Forged in this frigid landscape Ruthie has been dogged by feelings of inadequacy her whole life. Hers is no picturesque New England childhood but one of swap meets and factory seconds and powdered milk. Shame blankets her like the thick snow that regularly buries nearly everything in Waitsfield.

As she grows older, Ruthie slowly learns how the town’s prim facade conceals a deeper, darker history, and how silence often masks a legacy of harm–from the violence that runs down the family line to the horrors endured by her high school friends, each suffering a fate worse than the last. For Ruthie, Waitsfield is a place to be survived, and a girl like her would be lucky to get out alive.

My thoughts: The entirety of the story is told in a series of short paragraphical observations, diary-like missives from our protagonist as she reflects back on her childhood growing up in a dysfunctional family.  This unique narrative approach was, to be honest, a little difficult to appreciate in the early goings but, as the story and these character developed, it was something I fully embraced.  In retrospect, it’s a deceptively clever structure that reads like a darkly humorous reminiscence but gradually strips away the nostalgia to lay bare the horrifying secrets underlying the whole.  No doubt one of the best books I’ll read this year.

4/5

***

So, what are YOU reading?

The post February 14, 2022: Baron’s Book Club Blab Blog! appeared first on Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog.

February 13, 2022: Suji Sunday!

A  certain pug went on a poop strike this past week to protest my trip to Montreal.  Despite Akemi’s attempts to coax her, Suji stuck to her, uh, guns until my return on Thursday.  After that, the embargo was lifted and she more than made up for lost time.

As I mentioned in last week’s update, she has suddenly stopped walking.  She has always experienced weakness in her hindquarters, but always compensated with the front legs.  Now, all four legs seem to be incredibly weak.  Akemi suspects this is due to injury, the result of wipeout on the slushy pavement a couple of weeks back, but we’re really not seeing any improvement.  So we made an appointment for her to visit a physiotherapist – sometime in April as that was the earliest opening.  In the meantime, we’ve been exercising her legs, giving her massages, and taking her out for “carpet runs” which require us to support her as she saunters up and down the hall.  Good for her.  Terrible for our poor backs.

Despite her bum paws, our girl continue to be very high spirits, especially when she feels we need a reminder about serving breakfast, dinner, or putting her to bed (where she gets her goodnight treats).

Getting some love from mom.  Her fur is stained from the turmeric and mussel soup Akemi gives her from her joints.  I’m thinking we should bathe her in the stuff and then post her on social media as a “rare golden pug” like the exotic yellow bird they discovered a few years back that caused much excitement…until they realized it was a seagull that had fallen into a vat of curry.

Exercise and massage time…

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Top 10 Kpop Songs of January, 2022!

Top 10 Kpop Songs of January, 2022
#9. #Enhypen #엔하이픈 #Blessed_Cursed
Putting together a pretty impressive discography given they only debuted in late 2020.#Engene #KpopTop10 pic.twitter.com/o1C6Lenrpn

— Joseph Mallozzi (@BaronDestructo) February 10, 2022

Top 10 Kpop Songs of January, 2022
#7. #Taeyeon #태연 #CantControlMyself
One of the grand ladies of Kpop delivers yet again.#SONE #So_One #KpopTop10 pic.twitter.com/SbUxqwnIQR

— Joseph Mallozzi (@BaronDestructo) February 10, 2022

Top 10 Kpop Songs of January, 2022
#5. #MAMADOL #MMD #마마돌 #WooAhHip
Love the premise of this group of working/singing moms. Great debut. #KpopTop10 pic.twitter.com/Vd0qPwOQkg

— Joseph Mallozzi (@BaronDestructo) February 10, 2022

Top 10 Kpop Songs of January, 2022
#3. #Momoland #모모랜드 #NattiNatasha #YummyYummyLove
These girls can do no wrong.#MerryGoRound #KpopTop10 pic.twitter.com/OuqUmHjoEG

— Joseph Mallozzi (@BaronDestructo) February 10, 2022

Top 10 Kpop Songs of January, 2022
#1. #WJSNCHOCOME #슈퍼그럼요 #SuperYuppers
My favorite sub-unit follows up last year's debut, Hmph!, with an equally great track. Major #OrangeCaramel vibes! #Unjung #KpopTop10 pic.twitter.com/BUnnpemVjb

— Joseph Mallozzi (@BaronDestructo) February 10, 2022

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February 11, 2022: Back in the Toronto swing of things!

This little lady protested my trip to Montreal by not pooping for the duration of my time away.  With me back home, however, she has decisively reversed this policy in a very big way.  Still limited mobility in her legs, but significant movement on the bowel front.

Today, my wife stopped to take a photo of this potato, chuckling at its sleepy expression… and weirding out the other shoppers. pic.twitter.com/nkCR9UrJeq

— Joseph Mallozzi (@BaronDestructo) February 11, 2022

Montreal was a lot of fun.  As always when I travel back, I ate well.  Maybe a little too well.

Pistachio-Cream Cheesecake Topped with Crushed Pistachios

Now that I’ve returned, my oatmeal dinners resume as previously scheduled.

I absolutely need this set.
Cats and dogs apologising at Japanese press conference is our newest gacha capsule toy obsession https://t.co/k7aGwJ1XHq via @RocketNews24En

— Joseph Mallozzi (@BaronDestructo) February 11, 2022

Apparently, the pug apologizes for overeating.  Perfect.

Today’s Yes/No…

2 pound Chocolate Soufflé? Yes/No
You can eat the largest chocolate soufflé in NYC at Max Brenner right now https://t.co/fEG1DRm0jn

— Joseph Mallozzi (@BaronDestructo) February 11, 2022

So, who are you rooting for in this year’s Super Bowl?  As much as I like Matthew Stafford and the prospect of him finally getting a ring, I have to go with the Bengals, partly because they’ve never won a Super Bowl, but mostly because they have the coolest helmets in the league.

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February 10, 2022: The Montreal Wrap-Up!

I bid Montreal adieu as I prepare to head back home to Toronto.

Mom making taralli for Akemi…

Sis models the Akemi’s belated Christmas apron.

No trip to Montreal would be complete without a visit to Smoke Meat Pete.  Meat was a little dryer than on past visits but still delicious.

I am, apparently, impatiently awaited back in Toronto where someone – who shall remain nameless – hasn’t pooped since I left town three days ago.

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February 9, 2022: Amazing Covers!

A few that caught my eye this week…

Devil’s Reign #4 – cover art by Joshua “Sway” Swaby

Detective Comics #1052 – cover art by Lee Bermejo

Suicide Squad: Blaze #1 – cover art by Matias Bergara

Good Boy #3 – cover art by Francesco Francavilla

Avengers #53 – cover art by Joshua “Sway” Swaby

Batwoman/Catwoman #10 – cover art by Clay Mann

Detective Comics #1052 – cover art by Irvin Rodriguez

So, which were YOUR favorites?

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February 8, 2022: The Big 88!

In Montreal to celebrate mom’s 88th birthday!

Mom in action.

Her famed rabbit dish.

Fernando who is technically my sister’s dog but prefers to live with mom.

Sis with the not-pizza.

Sitting down to lunch.

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Deep pistachio tiramisu!

Pistachio cookies.

Turning in for the night in my old bedroom.

Sis, all color-coordinated and such.

Color explosion.

Mom shows off the 50th Anniversary album she received from work.  She is considering retirement.

Surprise flowers c/o Andria, Akemi, and yours truly.

Caramel showing off his new do.

Birthday lunch…

And the pickled eggplant…

I can’t imagine eating anything until lunch tomorrow.  It’s 3:30 p.m. and I’m ready for bed.  Except…

Somebody just dropped off sushi.

Cooking lessons with Mama Mallozzi: Tagliatelle con Lenticchie.

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February 7, 2022: Baron’s Book Club Blab Blog!

My torrid reading year continues apace…

Red Dirt Girl by C.A. Lupton

It’s the late postgenomic era and the loss of habitable landmass has led to severe limits on human birth. In the drive for species perfection, fewer and fewer can breed, and the long-simmering tension between the reproductive ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ is coming to the boil.

A young woman’s body is found, and Detective Cooper-Clark (Coop to his friends) thinks it a routine case: yet another victim of the ‘red-dirt cocktail’ of drugs, disease and despair. But when he discovers the female had recently miscarried an illegal pregnancy, the case turns anything but routine.

Convinced the lost baby is the key to the murder, Coop finds himself sucked into the dirty waters of state-sponsored eugenics and to the heart of an existential struggle for control over human reproduction.

My thoughts: This sci-fi noir novel sets up a murder mystery in a dystopian near future where human genetic modification is used to curb population growth and bio-engineer perfection. When the body of a young woman is found, detective Cooper-Clark begins an investigation that reveals some troubling secrets about his ordered community. The author creates an interesting world not all that removed from our own, setting up an intriguing puzzle whose missing pieces end up casting a light on various suspects as well as where we may be headed as a society. There are some interesting twists in the narrative, but I didn’t find the characters engaging enough to make an emotional investment in their varied stories. A good book. Just simply not one that stands out amongst 2022’s many offerings.

3/5

***

Tantalus Depths by Evan Graham

Mary Ketch signed on to the deep space survey mission to Tantalus 13 to get some time and distance between her and her problems at home. It was supposed to be a simple piloting job to help an artificially intelligent, self-constructing factory called SCARAB build a mining base on a barren rock.

That all flew out the airlock when that barren rock turned out to have a solid sheet of pure platinum from pole to pole just under its surface: platinum just a bit too pure and uniform to be natural.What first seemed to be a big pay bonus soon becomes the greatest discovery in human history as Tantalus 13 is revealed not to be a planet at all, but a titanic artificial construct of unknown purpose. However the crew’s sense of achievement dwindles as crewmen begin to experience violent and fatal “accidents,” and Mary suspects the guilty party may be the increasingly deranged SCARAB. But SCARAB may not be acting alone, and Tantalus has only begun to reveal the secrets that lie in its depths…

My thoughts: It’s Ringworld meets Alien by way of 2001: A Space Odyssey in this engrossing novel about a mission to an A.I.-constructed mining base that ends up holding much more than expected. It’s a fantastic set up that builds beautifully as the team discovers that the world they have landed on is composed of pure platinum, and then that beneath the surface of this prized rock lies a dangerous extraterrestrial life form. It becomes clear early on that the A.I., SCARAB may not be wholly trustworthy which is a problem considering its ability to monitor all communications and its operational control over a bevy of killer drones. Following a deadly accident during a deep dive exploration, crew members begin to drop and our protagonist, pilot Mary Ketch, must face off against a formidable opponent who could pose a threat to Earth itself.

I was totally on board for most of this novel and absolutely loved it’s hard sci-fi elements and creeping sense of foreboding throughout that early goings. I was hoping we’d delve more into the backstories and personalities of the crew but, outside of our protagonist, Mary, we don’t really get to know any of them. As a result, their deaths don’t really land with much of an emotional impact. Finally, the ending, doesn’t do justice to the superbly constructed opening, shifting from clever SF mystery to more of an action-driven finale. And while that’s not to say it can’t work, Alien being a perfect example, there are two instances where our protagonist manages to escape free and clear only to make highly dubious decisions that serve no purpose other than to set up a more decisive showdown.

I’d give the first three-quarters of this book 5 stars, while the last crucial quarter gets a 3.

4/5

***

And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin

In a world reeling from an unusual plague, monsters lurk in the streets while terrified survivors arm themselves and roam the countryside in packs. Or perhaps something very different is happening. When a disease affects how reality is perceived, it’s hard to be certain of anything…

Spence is one of the “cured” living at the Ironside rehabilitation facility. Haunted by guilt, he refuses to face the changed world until a new inmate challenges him to help her find her old crew. But if he can’t tell the truth from the lies, how will he know if he has earned the redemption he dreams of? How will he know he hasn’t just made things worse?

My thoughts: Unreliable narrators tell the story of a near future where their fellow citizens are transformed into flesh-eating creatures. OR their fellow citizens are stricken by a disease that makes them imagine others are being transformed into flesh-eating creatures, prompting them to kill these imaginary monsters. There’s an underlying message here about the divisions in our world and how the absolute certainties of our beliefs can rob us of empathy and understanding, and in that respect, this short read is very successful. But from a pure story standpoint, it’s confusing and ultimately frustrating as some of the book’s bigger questions remain unanswered.

3/5

***

The Villa by Clare Boyd

Two weeks in a stunning villa in the South of France was supposed to heal the rifts in this fractured family. Flaky croissants and rich black coffee every morning before long days by the sparkling pool. Balmy candlelit dinners once the kids have gone to bed.

But Nora is shaking as she gathers her family around the large oak table on the terrace at the front of the villa. Her two daughters eye her suspiciously as she tops up her wine and clears her throat to speak. But when she opens her mouth, the secret Nora came here to tell won’t come out…

My thoughts: A family gathers at a villa in the South of France. There, the mother plans to reveal the secret she’s been keeping from her two adult daughters. But, it turns out, it’s not the only secret that will be revealed in his somewhat soapy tale. We’re heavy on the melodrama as mother, Nora, does an absolutely terrible job as matriarch, making some truly questionable decisions that end up driving a wedge between her and her daughters. They also rob the character of some much-needed sympathy especially in the late goings as developments that should pull on the heart-strings feel more firmly unfortunate than sad. Clearly, I’m not the audience for “sentimental fiction” (although the genre has pleasantly surprised me in the past) but, on the other hand, I think that even this book’s target audience might find it a underwhelming.

3/5

***

My Annihilation by Fuminori Nakamura

Turn this page, and you may forfeit your entire life.

With My Annihilation, Fuminori Nakamura, master of literary noir, has constructed a puzzle box of a narrative in the form of a confessional diary that implicates its reader in a heinous crime.

Delving relentlessly into the darkest corners of human consciousness, My Annihilation interrogates the unspeakable thoughts all humans share that can be monstrous when brought to life, revealing with disturbing honesty the psychological motives of a killer.

My thought: My second unreliable in as many days headlines this confusing Japanese thriller that is, at times, a little Memento, at other times, a little Shutter Island, and still at other times a little like that old Fritz Freleng cartoon where Bugs Bunny hypnotizes Elmer Fudd into believing he’s a rabbit. The characters are very surface and secondary as the focus is on the narrative sleight of hand that keeps the reader guessing. There’s an interesting twist or two, but they’re predicated on at least one coincidence that makes the whole feel contrived rather than dramatically satisfying.

3/5

***

The Good Wife of Bath by Karen Brooks

England, 1364: When married off at aged twelve to an elderly farmer, brazen redheaded Eleanor quickly realizes it won’t matter what she says or does, God is not on her side–or any poor woman’s for that matter. But then again, Eleanor was born under the joint signs of Venus and Mars, making her both a lover and a fighter.

Aided by a head for business (and a surprisingly kind husband), Eleanor manages to turn her first marriage into success, and she rises through society from a cast-off farm girl to a woman of fortune who becomes a trusted friend of the social-climbing poet Geoffrey Chaucer. But more marriages follow–some happy, some not–several pilgrimages, many lovers, murder, mayhem, and many turns of fortune’s wheel as Eleanor pursues the one thing that all women want: control of their own lives.

My thoughts: A feminist retelling of Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Tale follows the life of the titular character, from adolescence to old age, through the Black Plague, the Peasants Revolt, and five husbands. Our heroine is an endearing protagonist, whip-smart and determined in the face of enormous obstacles She’s a woman who struggles to make the best of the bad hand dealt her by a male-dominated 14th century society. Yet despite the odds, she enjoys several victories, big and small. The author does not shy away from the more controversial aspects of the original tale, choosing to address issues like child marriage and domestic abuse, and passing harsh judgment on their reality. Despite the rather somber subject matter, the book has plenty of humor, which makes for an immensely entertaining read, at least until the late goings when things take a dark turn following the death of one of the book’s best characters. After that, the story, robbed of the core relationship that propelled the early narrative, loses momentum enroute to a somewhat drawn-out conclusion. Overall, a little too long, but a pretty fine read nonetheless.

4/5

***

The Latinist by Mark Prins

Tessa Templeton has thrived at Oxford University under the tutelage and praise of esteemed classics professor Christopher Eccles. And now, his support is the one thing she can rely on: her job search has yielded nothing, and her devotion to her work has just cost her her boyfriend, Ben. Yet shortly before her thesis defense, Tessa learns that Chris has sabotaged her career—and realizes their relationship is not at all what she believed.

Driven by what he mistakes as love for Tessa, Chris has ensured that no other institution will offer her a position, keeping her at Oxford with him. His tactics grow more invasive as he determines to prove he has her best interests at heart. Meanwhile, Tessa scrambles to undo the damage—and in the process makes a startling discovery about an obscure second-century Latin poet that could launch her into academic stardom, finally freeing her from Chris’s influence.

My thoughts: Tessa Templeton is completing her Doctorate in Philosophy and is looking forward to a bright future – but it all comes undone on the heels of a terrible letter of recommendation written by her mentor, Professor Christopher Eccles. He has apparently sabotaged her career in order to keep her close. She confronts him. He denies. She digs and finds proof. He admits it. Then the bulk of the novel sees Tessa going off to explore an anthropological find while Chris deals with his ailing mother. The narrative is dense and academic and, at times, tough slogging. Chris, as a character, vacillates from detestable to pathetic while Tessa’s behavior is at erratic and baffling. I understand this is a retelling of the Daphne and Apollo myth and that, in itself, is a little baffling given my familiarity with the Greek legend and the way this story plays out. Not exactly a page-turner although it has its moments. Maybe something for fans of scholarly thrillers.

3/5

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So, what have you been reading?

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