Author 'Nathan Burgoine posted this simple, direct method of not getting paralyzed by the prospect of having to write reviews. The Three-Sentence Review is, as he notes, very helpful and also simple to achieve. I get completely unmanned at the idea of saying something trenchant about each book I read, when there often just isn't that much to say...now I can use this structure to say what I think is the most important idea I took away from the read and not try to dig for more.
Think about using it yourselves!
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Tali Girls: A Novel of Afghanistan by Siamak Herawi (tr. Sara Khalili)
Rating: 3.25* of five
The Publisher Says: An intimate look at the lives, loves, horrors, and dreams of girls and women in an Afghan mountain village under Taliban rule
A heartbreaking tragedy in the vein of The Kite Runner from a major English-speaking Afghan figure famous for his books and long career in politics
Siamak Herawi brings Afghan women centerstage and takes us deep into the heart of his motherland to witness the reality of their lives under the Taliban’s most extreme interpretation of Islam. Based on true stories, the result is a sobering and harrowing tale that relates the current ethos of a country under occupation by one power or another for more than half a century.
Told in a direct, conversational prose, this chorus of voices offers us a vivid picture of the endless cycle of the suffering of girls and women in the grip of the Taliban authorities, of the imbalance of power and opportunity.
The central figures illuminate the power of love, friendship, and generosity in the face of poverty and oppression. Their experiences and dilemmas have a visceral power and we become deeply attached to Kowsar, Geesu, and Simin. These are testaments of resilience, hope, courage, and visceral fear, of doors of opportunity opening just a crack that offer a way out.
In Sara Khalili’s vibrant and nuanced translation from the Persian, Tali Girls tears down the curtain and exposes the treacherous realities of what women are up against in modern-day, war-torn Afghanistan.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Do you believe it can't happen here? Even after the decade of horrible we've endured since 20 January 2025? Read this clear-eyed, scathingly honest book about what happened in Taliban country. The author's used a polyphonic approach to telling stories based on real experiences. It lends an immediacy to the read; it dilutes the emotional investment in the characters. On balance a choice I understand, but don't feel is for the story's best expression. Hence, at the halfway mark, I settled into a rating of 3.25 stars instead of 4.5, which is where I was headed from the off.
Archipelago (non-affiliate Amazon link) charges $16.99 for an ebook. Used paperbacks are cheaper; I think the read is worthwhile and deeply engaging.
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Blood on the Brain by Esinam Bediako
Rating: 3* of five
The Publisher Says: An impulsive, madcap, and newly concussed young woman comes of age as she navigates her Ghanaian American identity, her relationships, and the muddled landscape of history, memory, imagination, and delusion.
Twenty-four-year-old Akosua is easily knocked off her feet. When she falls and hits her head, she’s too preoccupied with her latest dramas to fully absorb the shock. In the span of three months, she has broken up with her boyfriend Wisdom, discovered that her deadbeat dad has moved back to the States from Ghana, and dropped so many classes that she believes she’s the only history grad student in the history of grad students to be registered for just one partial-credit class. Instead of facing her problems, Akosua seeks distraction in Daniel, a “good Ghanaian man.”
But as her head injury worsens, she questions whether she can continue to run away from her father any more than she can keep ignoring her brain and its traumas. Vibrant, funny, and bittersweet, Blood on the Brain is a novel about the complications of family, romance, and culture—and how coming of age can feel like a blow to the head.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Books about women obsessing over men who clearly do not want to engage with them, will not provide emotional connection for them, and have no interest in or intention of making any changes to step in that direction are unpleasant to me. When the woman in question is quite clearly using every means at her disposal to use that reality as a seriously maladaptive coping mechanism for the wounds inflicted by paternal rejection and neglect from childhood, my blood pressure begins to spike to dangerous levels for a reader who's already had three strokes.
Add in a literal closed-head injury as the catalyst for some nascent stabs at introspection, and we're back at the level of aggravation I felt while viewing 1945's Spellbound, or "severe with spells of acute." I've given it three stars for the very well-used and -placed Ghanaian cultural tidbits, and the flashes of humor I quite enjoyed.
Red Hen Press (non-affiliate Amazon link) charges $9.99 for an ebook.
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GRIMby David Cinnella
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: Gabriel Matthews has always been able to see the Grim Reaper when death is near. Silent and imposing, the Reaper has lingered as a terrifying yet fascinating figure in the teen’s life.
Until now.
When unexpected tragic news arrives, the Reaper offers Gabriel a terrible choice, one that demands everything he has to give, and that will thrust him into a nightmare far worse than he ever imagined.
The cost? His humanity.
As Gabriel spirals deeper into the Reaper’s dark game, the lines between right and wrong blur, and every decision he makes brings him closer to the point of no return. Death, it seems, isn’t just the end. It’s where the true horror begins.
Grim is a chilling tale of sacrifice, morality, and the devastating cost of love. Perfect for fans of Scythe and Death Note, this gripping horror fantasy will haunt you long after the final page.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: A very interesting, well-told thought experiment for anyone who ever wanted with every atom of their being to have someone back. It goes down better as a teen, but I suspect each of us could easily conjure someone we'd take Death's deal to keep.
The horror elements here are of the unscary-to-me supernatural kind. The ethical and moral questions posed are far more interestinfg than any frisson a horror fan might be missing. The author's prose os more than up to the job he needs it to do. I'm not eager for more because it's a change rung on the theme; but a decent one.
The Kindle edition's out Tuesday the 26th; it's $5.99 (non-affiliate Amazon link).
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Three Days in June by Anne Tyler
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: A new Anne Tyler novel destined to be an instant classic: a socially awkward mother of the bride navigates the days before and after her daughter's wedding.
Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter, Debbie, is getting married, and she hasn’t even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail’s ex-husband, Max, arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay, and without even a suit.
But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband to be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max’s past.
Told with deep sensitivity and a tart sense of humor, full of the joys and heartbreaks of love and marriage and family life, Three Days in June is a triumph, and gives us the perennially bestselling, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer at the height of her powers.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Gail's me: Needs a much more effective social filter, has a complicated past full of times said filter could've prevented...unpleasant...conflicts with long-lasting consequences, and isn't going to get one. Her complicated life gets moreso when her ex shows up the day before their daughter's wedding, sunnily expecting her to fix his issues (again), just as she's reeling from personal disappointment and their daughter's untimely news about the groom in the scheduled wedding.
I'm being coy about the problem her daughter drops on her because it is The Point, and spoiling it will genuinely make the read utterly pointless, sort of like The Crying Game. (Not a hint!) In Tyler's hands it's a short but fun ride, a solid character study, and really quite poignantly amusing. All missing stars are for the goddamned c-a-t.
Knopf (non-affiliate Amazon link) says "$14.99 please" at checkout.
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The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening by Ari Shapiro
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“The Best Strangers in the World is a witty, poignant book that captures Ari Shapiro’s love for the unusual, his pursuit of the unexpected, and his delight at connection against the odds.”—Ronan Farrow, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and New York Times-bestselling author of Catch and Kill and War on Peace
From the beloved host of NPR's All Things Considered, a stirring memoir-in-essays that is also a lover letter to journalism.
In his first book, broadcaster Ari Shapiro takes us around the globe to reveal the stories behind narratives that are sometimes heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking, but always poignant. He details his time traveling on Air Force One with President Obama, or following the path of Syrian refugees fleeing war, or learning from those fighting for social justice both at home and abroad.
As the self-reinforcing bubbles we live in become more impenetrable, Ari Shapiro keeps seeking ways to help people listen to one another; to find connection and commonality with those who may seem different; to remind us that, before religion, or nationality, or politics, we are all human. The Best Strangers in the World is a testament to one journalist’s passion for Considering All Things—and sharing what he finds with the rest of us.
I BOUGHT THIS BOOK ON KINDLESALE.
My Review: The Felonious Yam and Muskolini are coming for NPR. Racism and sexism figleafed Muskolini's war on the bureaucrats investigating the wrongdoings of his businesses. The Felonious Yam was heading to jail on multiple counts. They made common cause, so neither would suffer the humiliating legal consequences of their long-running cons against the taxpayers.
Queer journalists like Ari Shapiro were bringing the goodness of US citizens to the public. That doesn't stoke the outrage machine that makes stupid people feel smart, and good about their viciousness; so the institution they serve, NPR, will take them down as the scum that's risen to the top shutters an impartial, evidence-based information source to better aid in hiding their crimes.
HarperOne (non-affiliate Amazon link) would like $11.99 for this memoir. I'm here to say that is a fitting farewell to the smiling face of freedom.
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This space is dedicated to Nancy Pearl's Rule of 50, or "the Pearl Rule" as I've always called it. After realizing five times in December 2021 alone that I'd already Pearl-Ruled a book I picked up on a whim, I realized how close my Half-heimer's is getting to the full-on article. Hence my decision to track my Pearls!
As she says:
People frequently ask me how many pages they should give a book before they give up on it. In response to that question, I came up with my “rule of fifty,” which is based on the shortness of time and the immensity of the world of books. If you’re fifty years of age or younger, give a book fifty pages before you decide to commit to reading it or give it up. If you’re over fifty, which is when time gets even shorter, subtract your age from 100—the result is the number of pages you should read before making your decision to stay with it or quit.
So this space will be each month's listing of Pearl-Ruled books.
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Helpmeet (67%) by Naben Ruthnum
Rating: 3.5* of five
The Publisher Says: It's 1900, and Louise Wilk is taking her dying husband from Manhattan to the upstate orchard estate where he grew up. Dr. Edward Wilk is wasting away from a mysterious affliction acquired in a strange encounter: but Louise soon realizes that her husband's worsening condition may not be a disease at all, but a transformative phase of existence that will draw her in as much more than a witness.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Beautiful sentences, emotionally evocative imagery, a genuinely affecting story, give this body horror novella all its stars. The quiet emotional truth of loving a person who has wronged you, who will never know their own interior well enough even to know they have wronged you, would have earned it more stars. What I disliked was the truly horrifying body horror. My friend E, who's a horror writer, was even taken by surprise by how affecting these images were. Let him tell you about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV_NskzBfAw
A bridge too far for me, and very sad to say it. This is a creative talent indeed; I'll seek his non-horror work out, see if I can stick that.
Undertow Publications (non-affiliate Amazon link) asks a minimal investment of $4.99 for the ebook.
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The Sower of Black Field: Inspired by the True Story of an American in Nazi Germany (35%) by Katherine Koch
Rating: 3* of five
The Publisher Says: Throughout the Third Reich, millions of Germans pledged allegiance to Adolf Hitler. In the Bavarian village of Schwarzenfeld, they followed an American citizen.
As he struggles to rekindle the faith of a guilt-ridden Wehrmacht veteran, a morose widow, and her grieving teenage son, Fr. Viktor Koch, C.P. is haunted by self-doubt. What is driving him to stay in the Third Reich? Is he following a higher plan, or the mystic compulsion of his German heritage? Exposed to American ideals, his parishioners grow restless under Nazi rule. Relying upon his ingenuity to keep them out of prison, Fr. Viktor solicits aid from an unlikely intercessor-the Nazi charity worker who confiscated his monastery for state purposes.
In April 1945, American liberators make a gruesome the SS have left a mass grave of concentration camp victims on Schwarzenfeld's borders. Enraged by the sight, the infantry commander orders the townspeople to disinter 140 corpses, construct coffins despite material shortages, dig a grave trench, and hold a funeral ceremony-all in 24 hours. If they fail to fulfill this ultimatum, he vows to execute all German men in town.
Fr. Viktor has to pull off a he must convince his countrymen that his followers are not the enemy. Their humanity is intact. And most of all, they are innocent.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: It was my mistake to accept this DRC. It is okay in writing but poor in thinking, in my opinion; valorizing a Catholic priest set me off, but making this little microcosm of unNazi Germans leans into the "Good German" myth I find so...off-putting.
Germans and the Catholic Church have terrible sins of omission and commission to atone for, just like those in the US will when the horrors of the camps come once again to our shores. This book is not that; this book is exculpatory of the few for the crime of indifference committed unapposed, uhectored, unchastized by these good people hiding from the evil that surrounds them. Not good enough for me.
Free to read on Kindle Unlimited (non-affiliate Amazon link) should you be so inclined.
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