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Cover of A REMARKABLE MAN

A REMARKABLE MAN

by the incident, merely disgusted by human stupidity,” the author writes of Hida. Petitjean’s short book offers a warm tribute to this “frail figure” whose eyes “gleamed with intelligence and humanity” as he recounted his experiences in Hiroshima. In excerpts from interviews and speeches, Hida offers a rare account of the horrors that he witnessed. “I realized their flesh was decomposing,” Hida says of the bomb’s victims. “Everyone knows the human body decomposes after death, but these people were still alive. None of it made any sense. I overcame my disgust and continued to examine them.” Of the 300 or so doctors in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing, 60 were killed in the blast, and Hida was one of only a couple dozen doctors left with the impossible task of helping more than 100,000 victims. Hida himself suffered from radiation poisoning. “My bones have aged very quickly, and my back’s always been in a terrible state,” he says. He needed surgery at age 61 and had to be hospitalized again at 70. “I will keep fighting,” Hida tells Petitjean. True to his word, he kept traveling throughout Japan—speaking out against the dangers he had seen with his own eyes—until he was nearly 100."⭐ 3.9/5(8)

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Cover of A RUIN, GREAT AND FREE

A RUIN, GREAT AND FREE

by magic. In the refuge called Moon, some of the restless residents are sneaking out to visit neighboring towns, threatening to blow their cover both to the Black Hand and to the Black Hand’s secret monster backers, the Cult of the Zsouvox. Meanwhile, in the universe from Turnbull’s first novel, The Lesson (2019), Patrice Paige uses technology that the alien Ynaa left behind after their disastrous first contact with humanity to increase her political influence and shield the Earth from all future alien encounters, even as the Ynaa known as Mera rebels against her people’s conquest of other planets. But these crises pale against the larger\u002Dscale threat: Both of these universes, and indeed all universes, are threatened by the Zsouvox, a creation of the gods that seeks to devour everything that exists. It’s a lot to take in\u003B as always, Turnbull packs in a ton of plot within a relatively economical number of pages. The advantage of writing in a multiverse is that it allows you to throw in any storyline\u003B whether it makes sense to have added a resolution to The Lesson here is difficult to say. It does share a common theme with the main monsterverse plot, best summed up by that well\u002Dknown aphorism attributed to Spider\u002DMan’s Uncle Ben: With great power comes great responsibility. If you have magic, physical strength, advanced alien tech, and/or immortality, it behooves you to do the right thing\u003B the trick is figuring out what the right thing is. Turnbull settles the more cosmic conflicts and perhaps even some of the personal ones, but leaves the broader social confrontation of prejudice somewhat more open\u002Dended, other than suggesting that while violence can be remarkably effective in quashing opposition on a small scale, it’s not going to solve the larger problem. Given how central anti\u002Dmonster prejudice is to the story, it leaves the Convergence Saga feeling curiously unresolved. But it’s hard to say how Turnbull could have resolved it, and perhaps that nagging feeling is deliberate on his part. Magic might fan the flames of hatred, but people don’t need the devil to do evil."⭐ 4.5/5(22)

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Cover of A SILENT TREATMENT

A SILENT TREATMENT

by her first husband. Widowed after Vanasco’s father died, her mother was lonely, prompting the move. Now, she complains that she’s still lonely, unhappy living in the basement, and that she feels useless. But when Vanasco finds classes, a volunteer opportunity, and a book club, her mother is dismissive. In probing the history of their mother\u002Ddaughter relationship, Vanasco reveals an unusual complication: Although the author calls herself Jeannie, her birth name is the same as her mother’s—Barbara—causing confusion for doctors, banks, the gym where they both are members—and, it appears, intensifying an interdependence that both women struggle to resist."⭐ 4.2/5(43)

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Cover of A SLOWLY DYING CAUSE

A SLOWLY DYING CAUSE

by Inspector Beatrice Hannaford, with Lynley and Havers not turning up until 120\u002Dodd pages in, and with a handy excuse for heading to Cornwall: Lynley, it turns out, is heir to a crumbling estate there, “the country pile that accompanied the cringe\u002Dworthy title he’d inherited from his father.” The fuzz put their heads together to sort out poor Lobb’s situation, and, as ever, the solution emerges in a perp who’s been there all along but has been overlooked. The book is, also as ever, too long by a quarter, but it’s got plenty of intriguing twists and turns that will leave the reader guessing."⭐ 4.2/5(157)

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Cover of A THOUSAND WAYS TO DIE

A THOUSAND WAYS TO DIE

by police and seven times more likely to be shot dead by another civilian with a gun.” Lee traces this pattern to America’s beginnings, when “an uncleavable relationship between the trade of humans and the trade of guns” contributed to the nation’s bloody foundation. After this historical background, Lee moves around the country, describing how Southern gun traffickers illicitly arm Chicagoans despite the state’s stringent gun control laws, fueling the city’s uncontrollable violence. In New Orleans, he notes how, while reporting during Hurricane Katrina, at least one of his white colleagues makes excuses for police shootings aimed at some of the city’s poorest Black residents. In Massachusetts, he interviews a worker at the Smith \u0026amp\u003B Wesson factory who loses his job after publicly questioning the company’s ethics. Throughout these stories, he weaves in his own personal history, recounting how his grandfather’s and stepbrother’s murders left lasting, traumatic impressions on his extended family. Lee’s experience reinforces one of the book’s key messages—that gun violence is both a byproduct and cause of “the systemic, institutional, and structural racism that feeds it.” At best, Lee’s work is empathetic, analytical, and insightful, drawing subtle connections in clean and conversational prose. Some chapters hold together better than others: “(G)un\u002DCivil Rights,” for example, is cohesive, while “Gigglebox” tends to meander. All in all, the book is a provocative and informative read that expertly blends memoir with hard\u002Dhitting reporting. "⭐ 4.5/5(64)

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