Dawn — Octavia Butler (Lilith’s Brood #1)
Dawn, the first in Lilith’s Brood or Xenogenesis trilogy, is excellent Afrofuturism. It’s also Octavia Butler at her best. Although published in 1979, Butler envisions a future for the Earth that’s not just possible but probable. And amid the futuristic story, she...Two Months of Witches
Books about witches are the perfect fit for fall. I dusted off my copies of Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic series and embarked on a two-month project. Then I read a brand-new book from Megan Giddings with a unique and thought-provoking witchy premise. Combining all...Prince Lestat by Anne Rice (Vampire Chronicles #11)
Lestat de Lioncourt, arguably the world’s most famous fictional vampire, deals with turmoil among his kindred in Prince Lestat, the eleventh entry into Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. Because of her death last year, it’s a sentimental choice for me. Rice centers the...Sara Gruen — At the Water’s Edge (Book Review)
At the Water’s Edge by Sara Gruen is tepid historical fiction with unlikable characters in this fish out of water novel. Three feckless and privileged young Americans travel to a village in the Scottish Highlands to find the Loch Ness monster. Because of the journey,...Chinua Achebe — Things Fall Apart (Book Review)
The late writer Chinua Achebe originally published his remarkable book, Things Fall Apart, in 1959. That it still lands on “best books ever” lists is a testament to its lasting effect on readers. Late to the party, I just read it for the first time this year. The book...Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury (Book Review)
Dandelion Wine is a masterwork in the art of connected stories or vignettes. In the hands of Ray Bradbury, small-town America in the summer of 1928 comes alive. Kids run free and adults sip glasses of dandelion wine on their porches. But there’s also an unsettling...Ruth Ware — The Woman in Cabin 10 (Book Review)
Ruth Ware set her mystery, The Woman in Cabin 10, primarily aboard a small luxury cruise ship traveling into the fjords of Norway. Our main character is Lo Blacklock, a socially awkward London-based journalist. She scored a trip on the ship’s inaugural journey from...Wild Seed by Octavia Butler (Patternist #1) — Book Review
Octavia Butler creates a fantastical story in Wild Seed, the first book of her Patternist series. The main characters are two immortals, living in Africa and America during the years leading up to the Civil War. Doro is a body-snatching, shape shifter who believes he...Vaddey Ratner — In the Shadow of the Banyan (Book Review)
In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner is about a gentle girl in a brutal country. While the book is fictional, its roots exist in the author’s own life. This enhances the intimacy of the tale. Young Raami is only seven when civil war overwhelms Cambodia. As a...Emily St. John Mandel — Station Eleven (Book Review)
Emily St. John Mandel wrote Station Eleven in the early 2010s and published it in 2014. So this is technically a backlist choice. However, with the pandemic-related storyline and the recent HBO adaptation, Station Eleven is more relevant than ever. I’ll review both...Circe by Madeline Miller (Book Review)
The 2018 book Circe by Madeline Miller retells the mythological story of the daughter of Helios and a nymph named Perse. Helios is the sun god and a Titan, the group of original gods. (That brings an entirely different meaning to the current term OG.) Myths credit her...The Hungry Tide — Amitav Ghosh (Book Review)
Author Amitav Ghosh introduced me to both the Sundarban Islands and Irrawaddy dolphins. The islands are at the easternmost part of India and continue into Bangladesh. I first discovered Ghosh’s unique style of environmentally conscious fiction in Gun Island. That book...Azedah Moaveni — Lipstick Jihad (Book Review)
Azedah Moaveni writes part memoir and part political discussion in her 2005 book, Lipstick Jihad: Growing Up Iranian in America and American in Iran. Although the events in this book are over 20 years old, as I read it in 2021 the topics and issues felt relevant....Tan Twan Eng — The Garden of Evening Mists (Book Review)
Early in The Garden of Evening Mists, Tan Twan Eng writes, “I felt I was about to enter a place that existed only in the overlapping of air and water, light and time.” This is an accurate description of a book that layers topics of Japanese garden design, Buddhist...Richelle Mead: Succubus Blues (Georgina Kincaid #1)—Book Review
Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead was a straight-up palate cleanser choice for me. You know, those books that don’t require much thought. I sped through the audiobook, partly because it’s shorter and partly because I enjoyed the story. Fantasy books often work like this...Bookshop.Org Affiliate
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