Month: January 2019

A Torch Kept Lit: Great Lives of the Twentieth Century

On By upstateasbIn Biography, History, NonfictionLeave a comment

Great lives eulogized by Mr. W.F.  Buckley, Jr., himself a true Renaissance man, and collected here for us by James Rosen.  These artful essays are shaped by Buckley’s unique intelligence and insights and, to quote Mr. Rosen, his “…oceanic view of the world…”.  With elegance, humor, irony and his hellacious vocabulary, Mr. Buckley shares with us the famous and infamous, friends and family, presidents and artists, the sanctified and the damned.   From those who changed the course of history to history’s footnotes, praise is given, puffery is punctured, evil is recognized….according to Mr. Buckley.

Full Disclosure: A review copy of this book was provided to me by Crown Publishing / Crown Forum via NetGalley. I would like to thank the publisher and the author for providing me this opportunity. All opinions expressed herein are my own.

Tap Out: Poems by Edgar Kunz

On By upstateasbIn PoetryLeave a comment

Poetry as abrupt and jarring as broken bone.  Unless you can appreciate lives lived at the hard, ugly edges and find the brutal beauty in humanity that shows up drunk and loud, spitting and stealing, then stay away.  But here’s the thing.  This is humanity that won’t tap out, no matter what.  Hitting bookstores on March 5!

Available on Amazon by clicking here or your local indie bookstore at this link.

Full Disclosure: A review copy of this book was provided to me by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / Mariner Books via NetGalley. I would like to thank the publisher and the author for providing me this opportunity. All opinions expressed herein are my own.

Heather Gudenkauf’s Before She Was Found

On By upstateasbIn Mystery & Crime Fiction, Psychological ThrillerLeave a comment

Iowa.  Tiny little place.  Pitch, Iowa.  But, as we know, and as this smartly written thriller demonstrates, the internet and social media can destroy lives – even in Pitch.  An adept author tells a deviously crooked story in several voices: pre-teens seeking acceptance by those who have not outgrown childish cruelty, a struggling single mom, a grandparent loving a flawed grandchild, a doctor trying so hard to help and missing the mark.  This book has no pretensions, but If you enjoy being taken out of the everyday and into the thought-provoking dark, this is a good writer and a good story.  Release is currently scheduled for April 16.

Full Disclosure: A review copy of this book was provided to me by HARLEQUIN – Trade Publishing (U.S. & Canada) / Park Row via NetGalley. I would like to thank the publisher and the author for providing me this opportunity. All opinions expressed herein are my own.

Mary Lynn Bracht’s White Chrysanthemum

On By upstateasbIn Historical Fiction, Literary FictionLeave a comment

Beginning in Korea during World War II, this beautiful work of fiction tells the story of two sisters born into the diving women of Jeju Island which has been under Japanese occupation since the early 1900’s.   The diving culture itself is harsh and fascinating, as is life as second class citizens under Japanese domination.   We know so little about Korean culture and history, and this good, good book is eye-opening, entertaining and well worth the read.

Full Disclosure:  A review copy of this book was provided to me by PENGUIN GROUP Putnam – G.P. Putnam’s Sons via NetGalley.  I would like to thank the publisher and the author for providing me this opportunity.  All opinions expressed herein are my own.

Tara Westover’s Educated: A Memoir

On By upstateasbIn MemoirLeave a comment

So much has been said and written about this wonderful memoir that I won’t even try to say more.  If you’ve missed it, you really should make a U-turn.

Full Disclosure: A review copy of this book was provided to me by  -Random House Publishing – Random House via NetGalley. I would like to thank the publisher and the author for providing me this opportunity. All opinions expressed herein are my own.

The Trial of Lizzie Borden: A True Story

On By upstateasbIn American History, Biography, History, Nonfiction, True CrimeLeave a comment

Meticulously researched, carefully crafted and no detail is overlooked.  Particularly loved the commentary of the journalists attending the trial.  But did she or didn’t she?  I know what I think, but what I know for sure is as follows.  It wasn’t 40 whacks or even 41.   Lizzie bought herself a really nice house.  She finally pissed off her sister, and she lived oddly ever after.  With Boston terriers.  And I know for sure that if it’s about Lizzie Borden, I’m all up in it.  Enjoy.

Available now from your local indie bookstore or at Amazon.com.

Full Disclosure: A review copy of this book was provided to me by Simon & Schuster via NetGalley. I would like to thank the publisher and the author for providing me this opportunity. All opinions expressed herein are my own.

Kevin Munoz’s The Post

On By upstateasbIn Horror, Sci-Fi / DypstopianLeave a comment

I always hesitate when I see a new contestant in the dystopian/zombie apocalypse rat race.  Let’s face it.  By this point the genre has been done to death, and while I’m still an avowed fan of all stripes of horror, it takes some pretty impressive writing to make the walking dead stand out to me these days.   Enter Kevin Munoz’s debut, The Post.

What’s left of humanity exists in small, protected enclaves in Munoz’s world, after a pandemic decimates Earth’s population and oil supplies are contaminated.  The Little Five, a walled district in Atlanta, Georgia, is the setting for this tale, which on top of “hollow-heads” and “shriekers”, features murder, human trafficking, slave-trading and a white-knuckle journey to rescue a kidnapped teen.  Munoz’s sharp yet compassionate writing makes for a stand-out zombie fiction entry.  The Post just released earlier this week from Diversion Books, so curl up on the sofa on one of these cold winter’s nights and give it look!

Full Disclosure: A review copy of this book was provided to me by Diversion Books via NetGalley. I would like to thank the publisher and the author for providing me this opportunity. All opinions expressed herein are my own.

Wu Ming-Yi’s The Stolen Bicycle

On By upstateasbIn International Literature, Literary FictionLeave a comment

What a glorious, magical, mystical novel!  About a stolen bicycle.  What?  Those words and it’s about a stolen bicycle?  Indeed.  Let’s start with bicycles.  You’ll find that’s a much deeper subject than you ever knew.  And Taiwan, a culture and territory almost totally unknown to me.  WWII in southeast Asia with elephants.  Can’t lose with elephants, now can you?  And more, but this book is far, far more than its oh, so interesting parts.  This is a magnificent swirling crystal of a book.  Look into it and lose yourself.  A modern masterpiece.

Full Disclosure: A review copy of this book was provided to me by Text Publishing / Text UK via NetGalley. I would like to thank the publisher and the author for providing me this opportunity. All opinions expressed herein are my own.

Truevine: Two Brothers, a Kidnapping, and a Mother’s Quest: A True Story of the Jim Crow South

On By upstateasbIn History, NonfictionLeave a comment

Truevine is a small town in Virginia, and this superb nonfiction work from Beth Macy is the story of the Muse brothers, African-Americans with albinism, who were born there, and into poverty, around the turn of the last century.   As small children, they were lured away/kidnapped/sold to be exhibited in circuses and sideshows as freaks, anything from wild men to Martians.  This was the only life they knew as they grew to manhood and beyond, ultimately lost from family, but never forgotten.  Exhaustively researched and sensitively told.  Loved it.  We wonder, from this vantage point, what life would they have chosen if the choice had been theirs to make.

Full Disclosure: A review copy of this book was provided to me by Little, Brown and Company via NetGalley. I would like to thank the publisher and the author for providing me this opportunity. All opinions expressed herein are my own.

Tim Winton’s The Shepherd’s Hut

On By upstateasbIn International Literature, Literary FictionLeave a comment

I read constantly, and I love Australian authors, so why did I not know Tim Winton?  Oh, but if I didn’t, I do now, and that’s the thing about reading, isn’t it?  This affecting novel is told in the first person by Jaxie Clackton, a horribly abused young man you will never forget, as rough and raw as his short life has been.  Jaxie runs away into the western Australian wilderness where, with his survival in doubt, he discovers another unlikely loner grubbing out an existence.  What a story this is, rich in both place and characterization.  Thank you, Mr. Winton, for this book and for everything else you’ve written that I’m going to read.

Full Disclosure:  A review copy of this book was provided to me by Farrar, Straus and Giroux via NetGalley.  I would like to thank the publisher and the author for providing me this opportunity.  All opinions expressed herein are my own.