What are you reading now: April 19, 2025

Really just started Mercury Rising. The Man Who Loved China will follow.

Just started Jade War, which I expect to be picking at for the rest of the month. Also starting The Storm Before the Storm.

I'm about 100 pages from finishing Tony Judt's excellent history, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945. My wife and I are leaving for two weeks in Albania on Tuesday. I'm not sure yet what I'll be taking with me to read on the plane.

The Last Council – Kazu Kibuishi
3***

Book # 4 in the Amulet graphic novel series has Emily hoping to join the Guardian Council, a group of the most powerful stonekeepers. But she has to endure several challenges to prove herself worthy, and in order to succeed she needs to find a way to trust others. The key is trusting the correct source / entity.

She finds that she has her own strengths, and that she has both allies and enemies where she didn’t expect them.

Kibuishi continues with his extraordinary illustrations. The fight scenes are particularly effective, but I enjoyed the few humorous moments more.

I'm still reading Strange Weather by Joe Hill. The first 2 novellas were very good in different ways, the second being a sobering critique of the United States.

I'm still reading Demons of Unrest by Erik Larson and Bronwyn's Bane by Elizabeth Scarborough for a bit of lightness. It's not holding my interest like I thought it would but I'm still going to try to finish it this month.

I have been reading She Had Some Horses: Poems by Joy Harjo a bit at a time since September and finished it yesterday.
Happy Poetry Month!

The Storm We Made – Vanessa Chan
Digital audiobook read by Samantha Tan
3.5*** (rounded up)

A Malayan mother falls into a role as a spy under the spell of Japanese General Fujiwara. Cecily is unhappy with the British colonization and is lured by Fujiwara’s promises of an “Asia for Asians.” But, of course, the occupying forces of Japan during WW2, are not what she had in mind. Now in 1945, her family is in danger. Her fifteen-year-old son, Abel, has disappeared. Her youngest daughter, Jasmin, hides in the basement to avoid being forced into service in one of the comfort stations. And her older daughter, Jujube, serves tea to drunk Japanese, becoming angrier by the day.

This is work of historical fiction tells the story of the Pacific Theater with a different focus. In the forward the author comments that her grandparents tell lots of stories – of their youth, of falling in love, of early marriage – but they steadfastly refuse to expound on “those four years” when the Japanese occupied Malaysia. Pressed, they were more likely to respond “we lived, like everyone else.” Still, with persistent questioning she was able to learn some of what happened and of how they survived the ordeal.

Chan explores personal choice, desires, memories, anxiety, desperation and the relationships between oppressors and the oppressed. She also writes about “the ambiguity of right and wrong when survival is at stake.” She has the four members of the family narrate in turns, giving the reader slightly different perspectives on what was happening.

Her images are stunning, at times frightening. And the tension never left this reader. Even during scenes of relative peace, one knew that danger was just around the corner.

Samantha Tan does a marvelous job of narrating the audiobook. She has clear diction and set a good pace.

Just Mercy – Bryan Stevenson
Digital audiobook read by the author
4****

Subtitle: A Story of Justice and Redemption

Adapted from the book jacket: Bryan Stevenson was a young attorney when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man sentenced to die for a murder he insisted he didn’t commit.

My reactions:
This was compelling and inspiring. The young Stevenson was definitely idealistic and perhaps naïve, but he was not about to take no for an answer. He was tenacious in finding evidence and insisting that the courts did the right thing for his clients. He championed the cases that no one wanted, and focused on the men, women and children (yes, children) disproportionately condemned to die because they were poor and Black. This is not to say that everything turned out well. Stevenson was up against a system that had been born of deeply entrenched fear and hatred and racism. Some went to their deaths before sufficient evidence could be brought before a sympathetic judge. And yet, for Stevenson “liberty and justice for all” are not just words but a call to action.

Stevenson narrates the audiobook himself. I cannot imagine that anyone else could have done a better job of it. His passion and compassion are evident.

How Did I Get Here?: A Memoir
by Bruce McCall
3/5 stars
This is the interesting memoir of Bruce McCall who became a writer/artist. He wrote for National Lampoon and also for Saturday Night Live. Memoir/Biography

Likely To Die – Linda Fairstein
3***

Manhattan DA Alexandra Cooper gets a high-profile case when a leading neurosurgeon is brutally murdered in her office at a major medical center. It appears to have been an attempted rape, but things don’t quite add up. With thousands of people coming in and out of the medical center each day, including numerous homeless vagrants who make themselves at home in the center’s tunnels, Alex and her team have their work cut out for them.

I really like that Fairstein has given us such a strong female heroine. Alexandra is an independent, intelligent, strong (physically and mentally) woman who excels at her job and has a wide range of colleagues and friends who support and admire her. I particularly like her relationship with detective Mike Chapman. Their banter shows the deep affection and regard they have for one another. What an excellent team!

While this takes place almost exclusively in Manhattan, the two do have a chance to take a trip across the pond to London for a conference, where they come across some important information for their case.

Fairstein gives us a number of plausible suspects. I was sure I had it figured out, then second-guessed my original assumption, then was certain that I was right from the beginning … only to be completely surprised at the reveal. Good job!

The new thread is up over here.