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Cover of BEGIN AGAIN

BEGIN AGAIN

by “Em”—a woman whom he struggles to recall but can’t. He and Tora survive in the wilderness by hunting, although they ultimately befriend a bear cub, whom Bjorn names Sild and who’s seemingly lost his mother. The woods are teeming with peculiarities, including a floating orb and an invisible presence that Bjorn consistently feels. Puzzling images inhabit his dreams, as well, including a recurring image of a house that he’s certain was once his. He vows to track it down, and Tora and Sild join him on his pilgrimage. What awaits Bjorn, though, are more questions: Is he who he appears to be, and what led him to that cabin in the woods in the first place? As the novel progresses, Maddox adds backstory, twists, and overt genre elements to the mix. Although the elucidation of Bjorn’s murky history treads familiar territory, this character\u002Ddriven tale, which includes flashbacks of Em, offers fresh takes on themes of devotion and retaining one’s identity. The best scenes unfold in the forest, where the author’s lyrical prose shines brightest: “The river was black with winter, the current cloying, haggard, pulling against the banks like an animal caught in a snare. Bjorn stood at its edge, his breath rising in pale plumes, his body still as frost\u002Dladen stone.” Throughout, a persistent moodiness prevails, escalating the suspense\u003B it often feels as if something is watching Bjorn, poised to strike. Overall, this is a tightly packed epic tale that smartly focuses on a personal journey of regaining a past and forging a future."⭐ 4.6/5(14)

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Cover of BEINGS

BEINGS

by two troves of records, both beginning in 1961 but radically different in detail and tone. In one, Barney and Betty Hill, rational civil servants in an interracial marriage, are astonished to see a spaceship as they’re driving down a dark highway. The sighting—and the encounter that follows—alters the course of their lives as they become ambivalent public figures amid a rising din of UFO spotters and disbelievers. (The Archivist knows something about alien visitors, too, but is even more reluctant to claim the association.) Through the second set of historical files, the Archivist tracks the life of Phyllis Egerton, a young writer driven from home when her parents discover her romance with her best friend, Rosa. Her new life in Boston is thrilling—Masad paints an electric picture of Phyllis’ double life as a newspaper copy editor and a lesbian finding her people, sartorial style, and science\u002Dfiction writing voice—but necessarily clandestine, since this is the very real world of the ‘60s: Public homosexuality is a criminal act. We get Phyllis’ story firsthand through her yearning, then defiant, letters to Rosa. In contrast, the Archivist takes more liberties with Barney and Betty Hill’s story, since their records are less personal. Without apology, the historian fills in the gaps for the reader, telling us both the facts and their elisions or outright inventions. It’s an education—they know the histories of civil and gay rights, and from experience, they “have always felt drawn to those who are ridiculed, misunderstood, shamed.” Miraculously, Masad makes this dense braid of stories easy to follow, elegantly blending serpentine sentences, endearing and intimately observed characters, natural dialogue, and playful, generous asides to keep the reader in enthralled suspense."⭐ 4.6/5(20)

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Cover of BELLE STARR

BELLE STARR

by the time he met 21\u002Dyear\u002Dold Eliza Pennington\u003B some of his offspring by earlier marriages were older than his new bride. John and Eliza had six children of their own: Their second son, Bud, was Myra’s favorite. They galloped together on horseback through the countryside, he taught her how to handle a gun, and by the time she was a teenager, “she was a fearless rider and a crack shot.” His death during the Civil War upended her life: She vowed, somehow, to get revenge. Educated briefly at a female academy in Carthage, Missouri, where she was one of the first students, she learned by living. Wallis captures the rousing atmosphere of the lawless west—Belle’s family moved to Texas after Carthage was burned by guerrillas—with outlaws going “on the scout” to evade capture\u003B horse thieves\u003B bank, train, and stagecoach robbers\u003B and murderous gangs terrorizing communities. Although Belle never killed anyone and was convicted only once, of horse theft, her life revolved around outlaws: family, lovers, husbands. Her first husband’s escapades led to his being murdered at age 29. Another husband, a mixed\u002Drace Cherokee, was killed in an exchange of “deadly gunplay,” as was Belle herself, ambushed in a murder still unsolved. Wallis’ Belle is a brazen woman, refusing to bow to the constrictions of her time: lawless, if not an outlaw herself."⭐ 3.9/5(38)

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Cover of BENEATH OUR FEET

BENEATH OUR FEET

by the BBC TV series Digging for Britain, which describes the exploits of two English hobbyists who scour the countryside with their metal detectors. Readers will not regret looking it up. Organic objects decay (mostly)\u003B stone and bone survive\u003B metals are a mixed bag. Amateur searchers, with or without detectors, find bottle caps, discarded toys, and metal scraps. Less often, items from distant times turn up—buttons, bullets, arrowheads, coins, jewelry, tools, and weapons. Almost no one finds a treasure trove or “hoard,” but “almost no one” among thousands of searchers produces a steady stream of bonanzas that will dazzle readers poring over the hundreds of crisp images. People on this island seemed to love burying stuff, and even Stone Age inhabitants had a taste for gold and knew what to do with it. Gold does not decompose, but it’s an exception, and most of the text describes efforts to find, extract, clean, reassemble, decipher, and interpret long\u002Dburied relics. Despite the lovely images, this book alone should not be anyone’s introduction to prehistoric Britain. The authors deliver a short summary of the era at the beginning of each chapter but stay focused on the objects themselves: the finders’ experience as well as that of the landowners. Rich hoards have sold for immense sums to private collectors, but precious metals and “treasures” belong to the nation, and public\u002Dspirited owners donate what they find."⭐ 4.9/5(9)

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Cover of BETWEEN

BETWEEN

by ancient aliens: “whoever created these bridges supposedly used gravitational fields to sync the movements of Earth and Carpes—and depending on that flux, either the eastern or southern portals activated accordingly.” However, what stands out is the compelling strength of its central character, and the emotional turmoil she faces\u003B Marda’s fight to save her family, despite Car Spellen’s schemes, is often affecting. However, Lily, Tony, and Ben lack convincing character arcs—in part, because Marda receives so much more attention. Similarly, the relationships that eventually form between the characters, while sometimes heartwarming, ultimately feels rushed and shallowly developed. Hopefully, a stronger sequel with remedy this."⭐ 4.8/5(13)

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Cover of BETWEEN TWO RIVERS

BETWEEN TWO RIVERS

by young students learning cuneiform, the Mesopotamian writing system. The author, an honorary fellow in Assyriology at Oxford, puts each of the objects in the context of the daily life of the era when they were made. So we learn about a young scholar who left his toothmarks on the clay tablet he was using for his assignment, or a barkeeper whose furniture budget included a suspiciously large number of beds. The hundreds of thousands of surviving cuneiform documents include not only royal decrees and official documents but letters between ordinary people—two mentioned here are a wife asking her husband to come home and a merchant planning his route to dodge tax collectors. The Sumerians, Babylonians, and other peoples who lived in the era were highly conscious of history, drawing connections between themselves and their predecessors—sometimes more than 1,000 years earlier. Their literary achievements include the Epic of Gilgamesh (which the author tells her young daughter as a bedtime story). The era’s advances in astronomy and mathematics contradict any notion that these were primitive, unenlightened times. Still, as the chapter on a stone mace found in the museum makes clear, brutal warfare was a too\u002Dcommon part of life, then as now. A final chapter on the priestess in whose palace the museum was located shows the important and varied roles played by women in Mesopotamian society."⭐ 4.1/5(424)

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Cover of BEYOND THE SCOREBOARD

BEYOND THE SCOREBOARD

by far the book’s greatest strength\u003B there seems to be no facet of the subject the author doesn’t examine in detail. Costante asserts that no matter what the event is, the presentation is crucial to the enjoyment of attendees (Chicago Bears fans sitting knee\u002Ddeep in snow notwithstanding)\u003B as any fan will acknowledge, poor bathroom arrangements or clueless staff can spoil a sports outing a lot quicker than a team doing poorly. Every sporting event director should read this book."⭐ 5.0/5(1)

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