November 2025's Burgoine and Pearl-Rule reviews

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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I Met Death & Sex Through My Friend, Tom Meuley by Thom Vernon

Rating: 2.5* of five

The Publisher Says: In this dark comedy taking place over twenty-four hours, a blizzard pummels Toronto as a beloved high school teacher coerces his teenage student to assist in his violent suicide forcing the student, his best friend, the friend’s bulimic mom, and a down-low cop to outrun each other, the storm, and the ghosts haunting them.

I Met Death & Sex Through My Friend, Tom Meuley is a breathtaking and hilarious novel about the lengths people will take to erase themselves in order to matter.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: This book is a dopamine desert. I powered through to the end for some stupid, stubborn reason, and I wish to heaven above I'd Pearl-Ruled it.

Lots of aimless talk, all-narrative no-drive style. If there was any humor, or any actual—not reported—queerness in here I do not recall it.

Guernica Editions (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) sells trade paper editions for $24.95.

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Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: In this searing novel, a courageous young woman tries to protect her dream of becoming a doctor as civil war devastates Sri Lanka.

Jaffna, 1981. Sixteen-year-old Sashi wants to become a doctor. But over the next decade, a vicious civil war tears through her home, and her dream spins off course as she sees her four beloved brothers and their friend K swept up in the mounting violence. Desperate to act, Sashi accepts K's invitation to work as a medic at the field hospital for the militant Tamil Tigers, who, following years of state discrimination and violence, are fighting for a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority. But after the Tigers murder one of her teachers and Indian peacekeepers arrive only to commit further atrocities, Sashi begins to question where she stands. When one of her medical school professors, a Tamil feminist and dissident, invites her to join a secret project documenting human rights violations, she embarks on a dangerous path that will change her forever.

Set during the early years of Sri Lanka's three-decade civil war, Brotherless Night is a heartrending portrait of one woman's moral journey and a testament to both the enduring impact of war and the bonds of home.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: This is why I rated it how I did:

Other empires had reached for Sri Lanka: the Dutch, the Portuguese, and the British had ceased and relinquished it in succession, leaving in their wake people divided by colonial powers and central angles and bullheaded pride. Long before I was gone, Sri Lanka, then Ceylon stumbled once more into a lazy self indulgent independence: the majority, smarting at sights, perceived and actual, discovered ways for the country to promote their Buddha, their language and their histories—comeuppance for us for Tamils, who were a minority and who had flourished in English. Learn Sinhalese or leave your job Tamil civil servants were told—my father among them. I still haven’t forgotten the look on his face when he told us.

Very nice non-fiction prose. But this is a novel. I never found the fiction rhythm but I enjoyed the story, so....

Random House (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) only asks $1.99 for an ebook right now, so do not hesitate to indulge yourself.

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Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: From an unforgettable new voice in Caribbean literature, a sweeping story of two families colliding in 1940s Trinidad--and a chilling mystery that shows how interconnected their lives truly are

Trinidad in the 1940s, nearing the end of American occupation and British colonialism. On a hill overlooking Bell Village sits the Changoor farm, where Dalton and Marlee Changoor live in luxury unrecognizable to those who reside in the farm's shadow. Down below is the Barrack, a ramshackle building of wood and tin, divided into rooms occupied by whole families. Among these families are the Saroops--Hans, Shweta, and their son, Krishna, all three born of the barracks. Theirs are hard lives of backbreaking work, grinding poverty, devotion to faith, and a battle against nature and a social structure designed to keep them where they are.

But when Dalton goes missing and Marlee's safety is compromised, farmhand Hans is lured by the promise of a handsome stipend to move to the farm as a watchman. As the mystery of Dalton's disappearance unfolds, the lives of the wealthy couple and those who live in the barracks below become insidiously entwined, their community changed forever and in shocking ways.

A searing and singular novel of religion, class, family, and historical violence, and rooted in Trinidad's wild pastoral landscape and inspired by oral storytelling traditions, Hungry Ghosts is deeply resonant of its time and place while evoking the roots and ripple effects of generational trauma and linked histories; the lingering resentments, sacrifices, and longings that alter destinies; and the consequences of powerlessness. Lyrically told and rendered with harrowing beauty, Hungry Ghosts is a stunning piece of storytelling and an affecting mystery, from a blazingly talented writer.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: "Even without a mouth, the woman can scream, she said. Even without a stomach, one can go hungry. And even in death, one can lust for life."

Gothic, ghostly, set in a specific place and time evoked with charm and grace. I found I could not stomach the cruelty of each and every character, whether it was expressed in passive or active ways. It says a lot about honor, fairness, and their opposites.

Ecco (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) asks for 14.99 United States dollars. I'd get it from the library.

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Sing Her Down by Ivy Pochoda

Rating: 3.25* of five

The Publisher Says: No Country for Old Men meets Killing Eve in this gritty, feminist Western thriller from the award-winning author of These Women.

Florence "Florida" Baum is not the hapless innocent she claims to be when she arrives at the Arizona women's prison―or so her ex-cellmate, Diosmary Sandoval, keeps insinuating.

Dios knows the truth about Florida's crimes, understands the truth that Florence hides even from herself: that she wasn't a victim of circumstance, an unlucky bystander misled by a bad man. Dios knows that darkness lives in women too, despite the world's refusal to see it. And she is determined to open Florida's eyes and unleash her true self.

When an unexpected reprieve gives both women their freedom, Dios's fixation on Florida turns into a dangerous obsession, and a deadly cat-and-mouse chase ensues from Arizona to the desolate streets of Los Angeles.

With blistering, incisive prose, the award-winning author Ivy Pochoda delivers a razor-sharp Western. Gripping and immersive, Sing Her Down is a spellbinding thriller setting two indelible women on a path to certain destruction and an epic, stunning showdown.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: I should've liked this more than I did. I understand the effect Author Pochoda was reaching for with her visceral, visual similes and her keenly observed scene-setting visuals, something like Dorothy B. Hughes or Craig Rice would go looking for.

It wore on me because I don't feel she found terribly good ones. And there are a lot of them.

MCD x FSG (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) asks you for $11.99 for an ebook. Read a sample, if you vibe with the prose the story will reward you.

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The B-Side of Daniel Garneau by David Kingston Yeh

Rating: 3.25* of five

The Publisher Says: "Equal parts raunchy and sweet ... A fun, funny look at gay life in Toronto." - Kirkus Reviews

"A timeless, well-crafted story about love, family and friendship." -IndieReader

"Laugh out loud ... Reminiscent of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City." -Reedsy

The B-Side of Daniel Garneau concludes a rollicking three-book series set in Toronto featuring the misadventures of boyfriends Daniel and David, their eccentric family and friends. As Daniel prepares to graduate from med school and propose marriage, David sets out to donate his sperm so his brother can have a baby. But as his celebrity ex Marcus launches his boldest exhibit yet, an unexpected crisis forces Daniel to re-evaluate his priorities in life.

The B-Side of Daniel Garneau is the inspirational follow-up to A Boy at the Edge of the World (2018) and Tales from the Bottom of My Sole (2020). At turns both comic and tragic, it is a celebration of queer identities and non-traditional families, as Daniel struggles to discover himself and his path in the world. At its heart, it is a philosophical reflection on family bonds, and living with courage and love.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: As much as I liked the second book in the series, review linked above, I was deflated reading this one. It got repetitive, not of the series but within itself, as the focus never really got going on the group dynamic like it did in Tales from the Bottom of My Sole. I think most cishet people won't enjoy the read.

I did; but not as much as before.

Guernica Editions (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) charges $21.95 for a paperback. If you've read the others, maybe yes.

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Judas by Amos Oz (tr. Nicholas de Lange)

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: At once an exquisite love story and a coming-of-age novel, an allegory for the state of Israel and for the biblical tale from which it draws its title, Judas is one of Amos Oz’s most powerful novels.

Jerusalem, 1959. Shmuel Ash, a biblical scholar, is adrift in his young life when he finds work as a caregiver for a brilliant but cantankerous old man named Gershom Wald. There is, however, a third, mysterious presence in his new home. Atalia Abravanel, the daughter of a deceased Zionist leader, a beautiful woman in her forties, entrances young Shmuel even as she keeps him at a distance. Piece by piece, the old Jerusalem stone house, haunted by tragic history and now home to the three misfits and their intricate relationship, reveals its secrets.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Historically terrible winter weather hit Jerusalem in 1959 into 1960; Shmuel is lucky to find a live-in caretaking position for Gershon, allowing him warmth and protection from the awful outside. He's entranced by mysterious (as in why's she there, what's she do there? mysterious) older Atalia. Lots of talking; not much doing; plenty of meditation on Jewish ideas about Jesus, and about Judas...was he the first and only christian?...and so on.

No real interest in the topic from me but I sure felt the beauty of the words."Here is a story from the winter days of the end of 1959 and the beginning of 1960.It is a story of error and desire, of unrequited love, and of a religious question that remains unresolved." If that, with the certainty the whole book is like that, appeals, it's one for you.

Mariner Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) only needs $6.99 for you to secure legal access to an ebook.

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The Yelp: A Heartbreak in Reviews by Chase Compton

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Entertaining and touching—a vibrant memoir for anyone who’s had a broken heart.

When Chase Compton met the love of his life at a dirty dive bar on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, he had no idea how far from comfort the relationship would take him. Their story played out at every chic restaurant, café, and bar in downtown New York City. Ravenous hunger, it seemed, was their mutual attraction to one another—until suddenly the appetite was spoiled, and Chase was left to pick up the pieces of a romance gone wrong.

Left high, dry, and starving for affection (and cheeseburgers), Chase turned to an unlikely audience in a moment of desperation: Yelp.com. Detailed in the Yelp reviews is the story of how to survive a broken heart. Every meal and cocktail shared is a reminder of times spent with the ever elusive “Him.” In recounting the bites devoured and the drunken fits of passion that propelled the relationship, the author chronicles his whirlwind relationship with the man of his dreams, revisiting the key places where the couple ate, drank, and fell in and out of love in the West Village and beyond.

The Yelp is a memoir of personal transformation and self-realization, or more simply—a memoir of food and love, played out on a map of modern Manhattan’s culinary scene. The book includes the original twenty-eight Yelp reviews, with interwoven narrative chapters that provide context, insight, and delight to Chase’s story.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: A novel way for a man to get attention for his (largely) self-inflicted heartbreak. The form is indeed clever...using your Yelp reviews to mourn the platonic ideal dining companion you've, hmm, well...a case can be made for finishing this sentence with lost, mislaid, driven away...anyway, who ain't with you no more.

Honestly, I say too bad in sympathetic tones because he sounds like a guy Chase (if better equipped) could've made a good run at the future with. So sorry, bud.

Skyhorse (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) asks $12.99 for an ebook. Gay heartbreak sufferers on your Yule giving list ought to get one.

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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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The Sculthorpe Murder (Detective Lavender Mysteries #3) {31%} by Karen Charlton

Rating: 2.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Northamptonshire, 1810: As a new canal network snakes across the landscape, a vicious mob stakes its claim to the county. Every local constable is out on the hunt for the ruthless Panther Gang. When an elderly man is robbed and murdered in sleepy Middleton, the beleaguered magistrates send for help from London’s Bow Street Police Office.

Detective Stephen Lavender and Constable Ned Woods soon discover there’s more to William Sculthorpe’s demise than meets the eye. Mystery surrounds the old man and his family, and the stench of revenge hangs heavy in the air. Are the Panther Gang really responsible or is something more sinister afoot? As Lavender delves further into long-hidden secrets, Woods has demons of his own to contend with: ghosts from his past that stalk him through the investigation.

Uncovering decades of simmering hatred and deceit, Lavender and Woods must use all their wit and cunning to solve this evil crime.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: I tapped out at "'But did he drink brandy every night?' Woods remembered the poisonous concoction of brandy and ink cap mushrooms Sculthorpe had taken on the night he died." in chapter 13, because it was the last clumsy, awkward straw on my readerly back.

It's not awful, not incompetent, not any terrible thing; it's just not any very good thing either.

Thomas & Mercer (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) needs $15.95 to give you a paperback. YMMV as to style/mood/tolerance level.

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A Line Too Far (Australia Under Attack) {19%} by Barry Colman

Rating: 2* of five

The Publisher Says: Chinese commandos in a lightning raid have seized the vast, under-populated, resource-rich lands of Northern Australia. Thousands of Australian soldiers are held hostage. International realpolitik has left Australia abandoned by its supposed allies and its brittle social fabric is rapidly unwinding as the people panic.

A Chinese ultimatum demands the annexation of the country’s top half in ten days, or face a full scale invasion.

As other politicians clamour to sue for peace, Prime Minister, Gary Stone, in a desperate race against time and impossible military and political odds must commit to a risky and controversial plan to try and free the country.

A Note From the Publisher

At the heart of this novel is a serious security issue for Australia. In 1911, Australian Prime Minister Alfred Deakin said, "Either we must accomplish the peopling of the Northern Territory or submit to its transfer to some other nation." In 1942, as the threat of Japanese invasion of Australia loomed, Edward Ward, the Minister for Labour and National Services accused the previous government of a secret plan — the "Brisbane Line" — that would have seen Northern Australia abandoned in the event of a Japanese invasion. In A Line Too Far, author B.C. Colman draws an all-too-real scenario for the present day, showing that the basis of these fears is just as relevant today as it was generations ago.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Look at the publisher's note above, and at the name of the publishing company. In 2016, when I downloaded this, I ignored the blaring klaxons and strobing red lights, requested it, and then 45 was elected shortly after that; my stomach for Brad Thor-like writing and jingoistic stories fell into a pit and still hasn't re-emerged.

YMMV.

Liberty Publishing Company (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) still offers it.

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To Capture What We Cannot Keep: A Novel {16%} by Beatrice Colin

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: Set against the construction of the Eiffel Tower, this novel charts the relationship between a young Scottish widow and a French engineer who, despite constraints of class and wealth, fall in love.

In February 1887, Caitriona Wallace and Émile Nouguier meet in a hot air balloon, floating high above Paris, France—a moment of pure possibility. But back on firm ground, their vastly different social strata become clear. Cait is a widow who because of her precarious financial situation is forced to chaperone two wealthy Scottish charges. Émile is expected to take on the bourgeois stability of his family's business and choose a suitable wife. As the Eiffel Tower rises, a marvel of steel and air and light, the subject of extreme controversy and a symbol of the future, Cait and Émile must decide what their love is worth.

Seamlessly weaving historical detail and vivid invention, Beatrice Colin evokes the revolutionary time in which Cait and Émile live—one of corsets and secret trysts, duels and Bohemian independence, strict tradition and Impressionist experimentation. To Capture What We Cannot Keep, stylish, provocative, and shimmering, raises probing questions about a woman's place in that world, the overarching reach of class distinctions, and the sacrifices love requires of us all.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Downloaded in 2016, the note I made for myself after abandoning the read that December (consider what December 2016 was like) was: "Émile...Concours Hippiques...guinguettes...zut alors!"

That made no sense, so I went back and re-read from the top. I got to chapter 6, ran into those words and thought, "I'm about sick of this," and quit again. It's better than competent writing, but I just do not care at all if straight people get together, cross class boundaries, find glory in the sack or end up holding it, in 2025. Straight ladies with historical tastes, Francophilia, and plucky-widow tolerances higher than mine are advised to seek it out.

Flatiron Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) says "$11.99 please" at checkout. Read the sample, if it sounds good in your mental ear, go for it.

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The Angriest Angel {21%} by Christopher Halt

Rating: 2.5* of five

The Publisher Says: They’ve lived among us for decades without incident. Until now.

The Caelans are a nonviolent and technically advanced people who long ago conquered anger and interstellar travel. Virtually indistinguishable from us, they hide in plain sight. They live in our neighborhoods and work in our offices.

But something unexpected happens at their base of operations in the Midwestern United States. Anger begins to infect some of them—like a disease. When the mysterious outbreak takes their leader, Regulus Lafaye, he becomes hostile and violent. He even abuses his mind power, psy, in order to control others.

The Caelans’ peaceful nature makes it impossible for them to stand up to Lafaye’s aggression, until Avery—one of the uninfected—stumbles upon an unlikely hope: Chase Madison, a plucky criminal recently incarcerated for selling his ADHD meds. Avery discovers that Chase’s ADHD makes him immune to the Caelans’ psy, and therefore key to the cure.

It also makes him a target.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Sound the tocsin. I am dead to this...work:

"We have since psyed this indigena, but it's impossible to convince him to not see something that was right before his eyes, especially something out of the ordinary. Our only choice was to taint his credibility, which has succeeded thus far. My plan is to let him say whatever he wants to whoever will listen while tarnishing his personal backstory so he won't be believable. Do you understand?"

I think it's awful, content *and* execution; the content because it's done all the time and makes me very angry, the execution because I do not have a robust enough infodumpbrella to keep it off my hair.

Createspace Independent Publishing Platform (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link) (!) asks for $15.95 per paperback you purchase.

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