About a Book

In Karen Thompson Walker ’s 2012 debut novel The Age of Miracles , the Earth’s rotation is slowing down, and the world begins to fall apart, or rather falls into new patterns and rhythms. The effects start out small-a moment of daylight adds itself, then birds start to land in droves and die, and eventually a stretch of daylight lasts six weeks. Here among the changes is nearly 12-year old Julia, a California girl living with her two mostly dull parents, who has a tough go of it at school, not a lot of friends, and who is our guide into what is happening on Earth, as well as in her family and community. Sure, thousands of whales are beaching themselves and dying, but the bigger question is, will her crush Seth Moreno ever talk to her? Thompson Walker does enough work on the science of what is happening to make it believable, especially to those readers who only need a nod to whether any of this is possible, because what we really want to know is, are Julia and Seth going to k

This is the book that doesn’t end. It goes on and on, my friend. In Dexter Palmer ’s America , as seen in Version Control , the world is very much like ours today: people live and thrive through their devices. Rebecca Wright lives in that world, as does her eventual husband, Philip Steiner. When the two meet via the dating site Lovability, where Rebecca works as a customer support representative, the two unalike individuals make a go of it. The go they make is strange, influenced by the Causality Violation Device (CVD), Philip’s life work. A lot of time is spent making it clear that Philip does not want the CVD called a time machine, but it’s a time machine. A lot of time is spent showing how the machine has made Rebecca’s life fuzzy, both because she’s been in it, but also because it is Philip’s true love. Version Control suffers from Palmer’s talent for exposition. The theories of the time machine (which is NOT a time machine) as well as the emotional journeys of the no

In a fantasy world where gods and politicians face off, you might think the main character in A Tasteof Honey has bigger challenges than a romance. The rub in Kai Ashante Wilson ’s otherworldly novella is that the love Aqib has for another man is bigger than any other threat. Jumping in time between the possible present, another possible present, and many points in history, A Taste of Honey spends most of its pages exploring the days Aqib first met and fell in love with a soldier named Lucrio. Aqib is royalty in this world, son of the Beast Master, and goes against expectations when he falls for Lucrio. While there are dragons in Wilson ’s Daluça, there are also familial obligations and love, and those steal focus here. While a fantasy fan might come for the battles, Wilson wants them to stay for the romance. Aqib and Lucrio are reminiscent of many literary couples meant to be kept separate, who can’t help their desire to be together. They make a powerful couple as they phy

Veronice Roth ’s Divergent series and Suzanne Collins ’s Hunger Games trilogy come to mind while reading Lois Lowry ’s The Giver . In all of these books, there is a fictional world where children are asked to do the impossible, and they in some way rebel against expectations. In The Giver , Jonas is born into a Utopian society, birthed by a woman specifically tasked with bearing children for the community, and given to his family unit for rearing. At the age of 12, the society’s children are given their assignments-the jobs they will have for the rest of their lives. Jonas is given the unique job of the Receiver, and will be trained by the one and only other receiver/giver. The older receiver, an elderly and exhausted man, has been collecting all the memories from the society, holding them to himself, so as not to upset the rest of the population with feelings like pain, loneliness, and loss. The society is supposedly perfect, but Jonas doesn’t think so. He thinks his peopl

In The Hellbound Heart , Clive Barker introduces the world that would become his Hellraiser series. A search through the book’s online legacy reveals how groundbreaking horror fans consider it. A first time reader (and non-horror fan) can expect a gruesome story, stereotypes, and cringe-worthy writing. The main character Frank pursues hedonistic satisfaction through Lemarchand’s box, a puzzle that summons the Cenobites, pleasure giving creatures from another dimension. The Cenobites trap Frank in their world, but he comes up with a plan to escape. Using his sister-in-law Julie, Frank makes her fall in love with him from beyond, and makes her bring him human sacrifices so that he may drink their blood and grow strong. Eventually Frank turns on his brother, Julie, and anyone whose blood he can drink. I get it: Barker is showing us how we can become overcome by our own desires. Imagine a very bro-y bro writing a book about a beast who takes what he wants, rapes when he wan

Sy Montgomery , about a third of the way into The Soul of an Octopus describes touching one of the creatures as “an uplink to universal consciousness…of sharing an intelligence that animates and organizes all life.” This experience of the universal consciousness seems to drip off the pages of Montgomery’s work, letting us feel that we are all as connected as she to the “infinite, eternal ocean of intelligent energy” she explores. Montgomery introduces us to several octopuses, which she met at the New England Aquarium in Boston while preparing to write the book. She writes about the mollusks with such tenderness, revealing their different personalities, that each becomes a compelling character in the book. We are invested in each creature by the time Montgomery sprinkles the science into the pages, allowing us to care and also learn.  The book is filled with Montgomery ’s curiosity, and it is infectious. Pages overflow with octopuses escaping their tanks, flowing out of l

Set during the American industrial period of the 19 th century, Katherine Paterson ’s Lyddie takes the life of its titular main character in hand, and infuses it with enough hardship, overcoming, and triumph to engage a reader while also telling a larger tale of how life might have been for workers during the time. 10-year old Lyddie’s father abandons his family’s Vermont farm in 1843, and Lyddie must go to work as a hired servant to make money for her mother and siblings. Separated from her mother, who goes to live with other relatives, Lyddie shows that her bucolic upbringing also provided the fortitude needed for what awaits her in the world outside the farm. First working in a tavern, Lyddie adjusts to working among strangers for the first time. She then ventures to Lowell , Massachusetts to work in a cloth factory, where she hopes to make enough money to pay off the farm’s debts and reunite her family. By the time she reconnects with her family towards the end of