That title is from my Kindle notes as I was reading this story, in response to the main character, who is supposedly the devil, who says things like “Homosexuality is not flammable. You can’t burn by it alone.”, and therefore makes him approximately 9000% less devilish than many humans I know. I wasn’t sure what to make of the synopsis Net Galley provided for this book before I received it; “Fielding Bliss has never forgotten the summer of 1984: the year a heat wave scorched […]
What Is Hidden In Snow Is Revealed At Thaw
“As if on Blackåsen, there was no God. As if Blackåsen belonged to someone else.” In the summer of 1717, a settler family—a husband, wife, and two daughters—arrives on the fictional Blackåsen Mountain. Before they can so much as settle in, their daughters discover the body of a murdered man. What follows is a winter of secrets, mysteries, and ghosts. Read the rest at Pop Culture Penalty Box. [Photo is mine, and is of Alta, Utah, not Sweden.]
An insightful take on the American Dream
(This post originally appeared on Persephone Magazine.) Cristina Henríquez’s newly published The Book of Unknown Americans, is not about immigrants’ relationship to white people. Ideally, this would not be unusual in a novel, but in a literary landscape that is still struggling with diversity, it’s refreshing to read her insightful take on the American Dream. And what is the “American Dream,” anyway? Different economic classes might answer in specific ways, but at the root of every response is the wish, “Can life be a little […]
There’s an excellent book floating around in here somewhere, but…
(This post originally appeared in Persephone Magazine.) Set during World War I and promising an aristocratic feminist awakening, I wanted to like Somewhere in France a lot more than I did. Jennifer Robson’s story of Lady Elizabeth Neville-Ashford and Doctor Robert Fraser goes on too long for what is at stake, but it still has its redeeming qualities. Lady Elizabeth — Lilly, to most everyone who knows her — has left her comfortable lifestyle in order to join the war effort. Her parents more or less […]