Featured New Release Of The Week: Blood Victory by Christopher Rice

This week we’re looking at the most intense book yet in a series of a super-soldier who hunts down serial killers. This week, we’re looking at Blood Victory by Christopher Rice.

Unfortunately I’m facing a form of “writer’s block” these days that is barely allowing me to write a Goodreads level review, so that is all I have to offer this week.

Visceral. That is probably the singular best word I can think of to describe this book.

Once again, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK WITHOUT READING BONE MUSIC AND BLOOD ECHO FIRST. They are absolutely serial (see what I did there?) and build on each other – you can follow along with the story here easily enough without reading those two first, but major revelations from each are openly discussed here and will thus be major spoilers.

That dispensed with, back to “visceral”. I gotta admit, my sense of dread of what Charley is encountering in this book made me walk away from it at several points. I knew I was always coming back, because this was an ARC, but I had to take a break because the dread was just too much. Fortunately Rice resolves those issues rather quickly in most cases, instead spending time seemingly trying to build up just such a level of dread before releasing the tension and moving on. In the back half of the book, we get much more exposition of the motivations of the killers of this mission, and one of the more grisly uses of Charley’s super strength we’ve seen so far.

All told an excellent addition to the series, and one that leaves the reader ready for the next book. Very much recommended.

Featured New Release Of The Week: The Last To Know by Jo Furniss

This week we’re looking at a great book about the destructive power of secrets. This week we’re looking at The Last To Know by Jo Furniss.

Unfortunately I’m facing a form of “writer’s block” these days that is barely allowing me to write a Goodreads level review, so that is all I have to offer this week.

Secrets Have Consequences. When you’re the last person to know a secret, the community around the secret has a way of feeling a bit dense. When you think you know the secret, but there are even deeper secrets behind the secret, you can find yourself wondering “what if”. This was a strong look at these ideas, and felt a bit similar at times to Douglas Preston and Lincoln Childs’ Still Life With Crows, or at least that was the connection my Autistic mind made somehow. Truly a great book, and very much recommended.

Featured New Release Of The Week: Fallout by Lesley MM Blume

This week we’re looking back at one of the most monstrous events in human history. This week we’re looking back on the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, on its 75th anniversary through the lens of Fallout by Lesley MM Blume.

Fallout is not the story of the Hiroshima bombing, but of the coverup of its true horrific effects – and one man’s efforts to uncover them. Fallout is the story of the expose Hiroshima, written by John Hersey and published in The New Yorker on August 31, 1946. As Fallout cites the essay heavily while telling the story of how it came to be, and since The New Yorker’s website currently has the essay free to view at least as of the writing of this post in late June 2020, I very much recommend you take a moment to go read the original essay. It really is as powerful as Blume describes, and truly deserves its story being told.

Blume does the singular most remarkable job I’ve ever seen in a nonfiction book in at least one way: Nearly 40% of the text of the ARC I read of this book was bibliography. In my experience, a seemingly comprehensive bibliography averages closer to 25% to 33% of the text of a nonfiction book. Though at least in my ARC edition, the notes were not referenced in the actual text. It is unknown at this time if that was intentional or if that will be fixed prior to publication, but the effect was that it made the story flow much easier without the constant footnote references, so perhaps it is a great thing that they were listed but not directly referenced.

Blume also has a knack for the narrative, and does a remarkable job of keeping what could be a dense and complicated issue taut yet crystalline. Reading this book really gives the sense of being there and searching for the truth, yet also having the hindsight to know which passages and influences will ultimately bare out in the annals of history. Her passion for this particular essay, the history of it, and the history it describes, becomes abundantly clear almost from the first words of this effort.

Hiroshima was an absolutely critical essay for every American to read, understand, and internalize, and Blume’s work here detailing the history of how it came to be should be read right alongside Hersey’s original essay. Very much recommended.

And as always, the Goodreads review:
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Featured New Release Of The Week: Happily Whatever After by Stewart Lewis

This week we’re looking at a fun and quirky dramedy from a rare *male* Lake Union author. This week we’re looking at Happily Whatever After by Stewart Lewis.

Unfortunately I am being afflicted by a form of “writer’s block” right now, so all I have to offer is the Goodreads review that has been up for several weeks now:

Life… Finds A Way. Ok, so I blatantly ripped a line from a very famous franchise that has literally nothing at all to do with this book, but it completely fits. This is a fun, quirky story about how life’s seemingly random encounters can turn out to work out quite well indeed, and it does a phenomenal job of making the ride just dramatic enough to twist the heartstrings while ultimately staying true to itself. If you’re looking for a more laid back, “oh, this is happening now, ok” level of escapism in these trying times, this is the book you’re going to want to pick up. Very much recommended.

Featured New Release Of The Week: The Lost Girls of Devon by Barbara O’Neal

This week we’re looking at a solid tale of intergenerational family drama across four generations of a single family. This week, we’re looking at The Lost Girls of Devon by Barbara O’Neal.

Two years ago, O’Neal’s 2018 book The Art of Inheriting Secrets was one of the very first Featured New Release posts here. A year ago, her 2019 release When We Believed In Mermaids was also a Featured New Release. Today, we continue that emerging tradition with O’Neal’s newest release.

And I admit, at first I didn’t think I really had enough to say about this book to be able to give it this slot. But when I sat down to write the Goodreads et al review, it turned out I had more to say than I thought, so here we are.

This book doesn’t have Secrets‘ sense of discovery and wonder. It doesn’t convey the abject pain and heartbreak and waterworks of Mermaids either. What it does have, and what it shows remarkably well from many different angles, is the drama of how certain events can play out in the lives of family across multiple generations. Just to use the same example I used in the Goodreads review, in particular it shows how the second generation’s decision to begin living her life for herself – when her daughter, the third generation, was still a child – plays out not just with her daughter, but also her mother (first generation) and her daughter’s daughter (fourth generation). We see the complexities of the mother/ daughter relationship between 2 and 3, but we also see 1 and 4’s perspectives on it and how that decision impacted each of their lives. There are multiple other similar issues between various groupings of the four, and O’Neal does a remarkable job of balancing each voice.

A bit of action near the end feels a bit out of place, but wraps up the primary external plot thread in a way that manages to feed into the drama between the family members.

All in all an excellent display of O’Neal’s storytelling abilities, and one not to be missed. (Though you can largely leave the handkerchief at home for this one, fortunately.) Very much recommended.

As always, the Goodreads/ Amazon review:
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Featured New Release Of The Week: Side Trip by Kerry Lonsdale

This week we’re looking at a bold and refreshing departure that also masters a type of tale the author had never told before. This week we’re looking at Side Trip by Kerry Lonsdale.

Over the last several books, Kerry Lonsdale has managed to tell amazing tales that always used some variant of the same basic idea. The books have been phenomenal, but it was getting to a point where one wondered how she would be able to continue in that vein.

So what does she do?

She tells a completely new story and writes the best book she’s written in her career – which is saying something, because her previous four books really were that awesome.

Here, she uses as one of her primary characters a young woman whose motivation is all too easy for me to understand, because we very nearly shared some version of it. Here, Joy lives with guilt from a car crash she survived… but her sister didn’t. In my own case, many years ago I was in a double T-bone car crash yards from my house with both of my younger brothers in the car. Long story short, my Toyota Corolla caught both a Ford Bronco and a Toyota Tacoma broadside, and had one of those two – I do not remember which – hit even a couple of inches further back in the car than it did, I would have shared Joy’s fate. Even as it was, thanks to incompetent personnel at my small town hospital my brother still came close to losing his life that day.

But shockingly, it wasn’t when we get the full reveal of all that happened that night that brought on the waterworks here. And the waterworks *will* come in this book. No, the events of that night had been well established if never explicitly shown by the time they are finally shown. But there is something else, much closer to the end of the book, that opened the faucets pretty damn wide. And it would have been the *perfect* ending – or so says the man that says that Smallville should have ended with the Season 7 finale, rather than continuing on for 3 more years as it did. (Even though even from the moment it aired, I’ve held that the finale we actually got on that show – particularly its last hour, the actual finale – is the singular best hour of television to ever air. So I’ve been known to be wrong, and your mileage may vary.)

What Lonsdale actually closes the book with satisfies a few things and adds quite a bit more depth to the overall tale, so to a point I get why she ended it the way she did. And it even makes the book somewhat reminiscent of a pair of my favorite movies from many years ago, but to list which two would be to get too close to spoiler territory for my comfort. But I still say it should have ended at the waterworks point, as that would have been even more courageous – but courageous doesn’t always sell. 😉

Ultimately a truly remarkable book, and a very refreshing departure for this particular author. Very much recommended.

As always, the Goodreads/ Amazon review:
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Featured New Release Of The Week: Of Bears And Ballots by Heather Lende

This week we’re looking at an intriguing look at rural small town American politics. This week, we’re looking at Of Bears and Ballots by Heather Lende.

This one got my attention mostly because I myself ran for rural small town City Council twice a decade ago – unsuccessfully both times – and so whenever I see an actual book come out about such experiences, I’m immediately interested. In this one, it turns out that this particular town has a couple of very big differences than my far-from-the-sea town did: 1) The jurisdiction here includes a cruise terminal and Glacier Point, a major cruise excursion destination. 2) While the town that I ran for Council in is the home of country singer Luke Bryan, San Fransisco Giants catcher Buster Posey, and American Idol Season 12 winner Phillip Phillips (and I have interesting experiences being in area crowds with both singers), Lende’s town – Haines, AK – happens to be the hometown of Parker Schnabel of Discovery Channel’s Gold Rush family of shows. And one of the controversies Lende spends a fair amount of time on in this book is her decision – along with other members of a split Council – to hire Parker’s aunt, Debra Schnabel, as the town’s Manager. It was a controversy big enough that it nearly led to her ouster less than one year into a three year term, and it apparently set the tone for the rest of her term and indeed for the narrative of this book.

Overall the book did exactly what I expected of it – it showed the realities of life on a small town City Council, the striking dichotomies of being “The Honorable Heather Lende” or “Ms. Lende” or such in meetings and “Heather” as soon as the gavel sounds to close the meeting. Of having disagreements about policy so stark that voters initiate a recall election against you… and then finding out people you thought were good friends, who go to church with you, shop at the store your husband runs, or other seemingly major small town connections… signed the damn petition that forced the recall to happen. I had a degree of that myself even in my unsuccessful runs, watching people as they walked into the singular voting precinct in my town (Lende’s had two, despite having roughly the same number of voters) as I waved campaign signs from across the street while talking to an area reporter. So while I was never recalled, I know well the… interesting… feelings Lende discusses quite well in the text.

In her calls for civility and her support for Robert’s Rules of Order as a mechanism for returning us back to a more civil era of politics and the Rule of Law, Lende actually manages to evoke a sense of President Andrew Shepherd as portrayed by Michael Douglas in The American President. Which their shared liberal politics helps to cement, to a degree. 😉

Ultimately, this was a very satisfying and fairly quick (for a nonfiction book) read, and it is very much recommended.

As always, the Goodreads/ Amazon review:
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Featured New Release of the Week: Feeding The People by Rebecca Earle

This week we’re looking at a remarkably well researched novel history. This week, we’re looking at Feeding the People by Rebecca Earle.

This is one of the more novel histories I’ve ever read, whose central point is looking at the Andean Potato as at least a sign, if not a driver at times, of world history through the last several centuries since it was brought to Europe and popularized there post-Columbus. Structurally, it divides its chapters between various ages – Enlightenment, Scientific, Globalization, etc – and examines how potatoes were playing a role in world history during those ages. And it makes some very interesting cases that I personally had never considered, but which largely make sense.

Truly the most remarkable thing about the book though is just how well documented it is – literally 42% of the edition I read was bibliography and index. Considering that more normal documentation rates for even books I generally consider to be well documented are closer to 25-30%, this is exceptional indeed.

For its completeness, its documentation, and yes, its novelty, this is absolutely a very much recommended book.

As always, the Goodreads/ Amazon review:
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Featured New Release of the Week: Modesty by Hafsa Lodi

This week we’re looking at a seemingly comprehensive look at modern Muslim fashion. This week we’re looking at Modesty by Hafsa Lodi.

I grew up in a fairly conservative Christian tradition, the Southern Baptist Church. While my church was a *bit* more moderate in dress – women were allowed to wear pants, though it was frowned upon by the senior citizen crowd, for example – I was in a region (exurban Atlanta) where knowing people who attended more conservative churches with more stringent dress codes wasn’t uncommon. On church beach trips or pool parties, for example, one piece swimsuits for females were a common requirement. Even in that era, men and boys were expected to at minimum wear pants and close toed shoes along with some appropriate top (could be just a tshirt, as long as the torso was covered, though men generally wore at minimum polo shirts to services, and often dress shirts and ties). Hell, for much of my life my dad has been a deacon (church elder, basically) in the church my parents and brothers (and their families) still attend to this day. I actually remember one infamous example where our preacher was preaching at a church in a neighboring County in August. This being Georgia, let’s just say you don’t exactly want to wear pants in Georgia, and this was a Revival service to boot – a week long (ish) event of nightly church services, seen as a way to be extra pious and encourage more people to come to church. So it wasn’t exactly like this was a Sunday morning service (the “most holy” services in at least that brand of Christianity, where standards and protocols tend to be the most stringent). My parents were insisting I wear pants. I was insisting I wear shorts because it was so hot. At this point I was in my early teens or so, young enough that I couldn’t yet drive, old enough that I could make my desires known and fight for them. I actually don’t remember how that situation turned out – I don’t remember if we made the service that night or what I wore, though there is a faint thought that I did in fact wear pants and we did in fact make it to service.

The point being, while I’ve never actively considered how hard it may be to find trendy clothes that fit the modest standards of such groups, I have been a part of a culture that at least expects it, if not outright demands it/ forces it. So I get a version of where Lodi is coming from here, even while never experiencing her exact situation.

Which ultimately leads to the one criticism I have of this book.

Lodi does an *amazing* job of documenting Generation M, the Muslim Millenial Female, and its desires for trendy yet traditional (ish) fashion. She truly does a remarkable job of showing the history of both uncovering a century ago or so and recovering over the last 50 years or so, including the various debates and schools of thought on each. For a treatise specifically on these issues, this book is seemingly damn near perfect and for that alone it was utterly fascinating – as despite having watched a few episodes of America’s Next Top Model or Project Runway, I’m not exactly knowledgeable of that world at all really.

But the most glaring weakness of the book, the one that leaves it at just “amazing” rather than elevating it closer to “transcendental”, turns out to be that very laser focus on Muslim issues specifically. Sure, she starts and ends with an example of her childhood Mormon friend, and Christians and Jews (and specifically Mormons, whose Christianity is doubted in at least some circles) are mentioned sporadically and even no-faith reasons are mentioned even less, but are in fact mentioned. But they are almost always more as an aside and are never considered in any real kind of depth. What this book really needed was maybe just a single chapter each where Lodi stepped away from the Muslim angle and actually – if briefly – explored the same histories. thought processes, and modern issues of those specific groups. Particularly from the non-faith, skin care/ sun avoidance angle, it could have been a truly remarkable addition to the text here.

But again, even with that omission, this is truly an excellent book and particularly for those remotely interested in fashion generally or modest fashion in particular – and especially if you’re an Instagram addict with those proclivities – you’ll want to pick up this book immediately. Very much recommended.

As always, the Goodreads/ Amazon review:
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Featured New Release of the Week: Stranger In the Lake by Kimberly Belle

This week we’re looking at an intriguing story of small town optics and murder. This week we’re looking at Stranger in the Lake by Kimberly Belle.

Having grown up on the wrong side of the tracks in a small Southern town on the shores of a big lake, this book had me hooked from the moment I heard about it. And now having read it, I can tell you that Belle has done an amazing job of crafting a story that shows very well how that life and that culture can be. I can’t really speak too much without going into spoiler territory on some front or another, so let me offer a few generalities:

In this book, you will find a fervent church goer that is fully committed to the idea of Jesus solving all problems.You will find a woman who lives a life of luxury but knows what it is like to have nothing. You will find a rich man who tries to ignore his demons with work. You will find a rich man who can’t ignore his demons and loses everything. You will find a powerful man intent on ever more power. You will find a powerful man trying to project an image of success. You will find a mother willing to do whatever it takes to keep her child safe. And, in all likelihood, you will find yourself somewhere in the middle of it all.

Belle manages to expose human nature through the eyes of all-too-familiar old school small town Southern culture, and does an amazingly good job of it. Very much recommended.

As always, the Goodreads/ Amazon review:
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