August 2019 books

A Reaper at the Gates by Sabaa Tahir


I tried on two non-consecutive occasions to get into this book, giving it several chapters each time, and finally gave up. I really like An Ember in the Ashes and this author but ultimately, the direction this series took was just not for me. And that's ok!

Blood Shrike will always be my favorite governmental title, though.

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Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon by Robert Kurson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved Kurson's Shadow Divers and he does for space in this book what he did for the deep sea in that one. I loved learning more about this possibly overlooked and underrated mission to space that was arguably more important than Apollo 11 - really!

My only complaint is that I wanted more. He hints at the Russians' reactions to key events but I would have loved more of a deep dive there. (Oh, and the hints show that the Russians were extremely gracious losers, even in the face of some obnoxious, if hard-earned, "USA! USA!" stuff.) Kurson also contextualizes this mission in the Year of Dissent that was 1968 but only from the perspective of these straight-laced engineers. What did the Dissenters think of this space stuff?

So there's another half of a book that's not here, but what is here is pretty much spellbinding!

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Atlantia by Ally Condie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really liked the concept and world of this book but ultimately I wanted it to be about 300 pages longer than it was. There was so much here to work with with plot, characters, and mythology that I don't think its current length did it justice - it felt rushed and underdeveloped.

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The Invitation-Only Zone: The True Story of North Korea's Abduction Project by Robert S. Boynton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book starts out a bit unevenly, alternating between a grand explanation of Japanese racial theories and the history of the DPRK. Eventually it turns its full attention to abductions of Japanese people by North Korea and that's when things get BONKERS. Each chapter is more jaw-dropping than the last! But it's all thoroughly grounded in its historical context (see: those first chapters I mentioned, which seem out of place but anchor the whole book and are dang interesting, to boot) and it is so full of careful regard for its human subjects. There are long-suffering heroes here, for sure, but they are flawed and make bad decisions sometimes, like any of us. I didn't expect to feel so much while reading this book, but I did.

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Logavina Street: Life and Death in a Sarajevo Neighborhood by Barbara Demick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Second reading August 2019:

I loved and lived and breathed this book years before I even went to Sarajevo and on a second reading, now that I've been there, it has earned a place on my list of all-time faves. It is so true to the feeling you get in that city and I only wish I could have brought a copy of it with me on my trip so I could cross-reference every page.

Things that stood out to me on this reading
1. How well this book does something that similar books sometimes struggle with (We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled, as good as it is, comes to mind): namely, painting a vivid picture of The Before. The author never lived in pre-war Sarajevo and there are no flashbacks in this book and yet through the stories of its characters you FEEL the loss of the lives they had before the siege.

2. How resourceful Sarajevans cobbled together wartime recipes to make do, wrote them down, and then later in the war, went back to those recipes and realized they couldn't even scrape together those desperate ingredients anymore.

3. How one day, the electricity went off, and just...never came back on, except sporadically. And then how at first you cancel school and keep your kids in the basement where they are safe from mortars and snipers...until you don't. It's not sustainable. Kids need to play and go to school and that doesn't suddenly become un-true just because there's a war on.

If you can't go to Sarajevo, read this book. If you CAN go to Sarajevo, then read this book beforehand and bring it with you on your trip.



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The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fourth reading August 2019. I had already read this book three times: once on audio and twice on Kindle. And yet when I walked by a paper copy on the shelf at the library I could NOT resist checking it out and taking it home for a fourth read. Such is the power of this book!



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