3.5 Stars
Brazilian coming of age story that's characterizations and setting shine.This is a fun ride, but don't spoil it by reading too many reviews because once you know where it's going the power is diminished. Dual timeline of a boy and the man he becomes. We interlope on a childhood filled with the reckless endeavors and feats of worth that ensure blood, pain, and admiration. Hermano's viewpoint is extremely self-conscious, always judging himself by looking from the outside, an adolescent paralysis--can't act without prejudging the outcome. The reader feels the disembodiment.We begin the journey with a wild and ill-advised bike ride through the neighborhood, Esplanada. It's a colorful journey with all the attributes that give it a distinct flavor: cachaça, reckless disregard for trespassing, black magic shrines, cultural observances, and the wildness of an unscripted youth. Life uncaged, with all the joys and dangers it entails. And I loved this because it reminded me of my childhood in the Caribbean. So, there is a definite sense of armchair traveler associated with the storytelling. The flip side of the story is the wild and ill-advised climb up the unknown mountain. How does the man resemble his youth. How do confidants affect us, and how does our inner drive motivates us, makes us choose A or B? Do we change or merely repeat?This went from reminiscent and idyllic, even in its broken parts, to ominous and foreboding. The tension ramped up, and suddenly, adrenaline was flowing. I'll be honest, the acceleration in the last third of the book is where the power lies. All that came before are the trickles leading to a raging river. You sense the potential for something big to happen, but you're not sure where or how. I recommend this for those who enjoy reading transformative moments when childhood is abandoned and the mantle of adulthood taken.
Advance Reader Copy, Due out August 15, 2017.
3 Stars
Poor Polynices and Eteocles, though to be honest, Eteocles is an asshat. The whole thing was just...
So, yeah. Basically cursed by their grandfather, Laius for disobeying Apollo, and compounded by their father, Oedipus--Yikes! You knew it wasn't going to end well. Antigone is still my girl, gotta reread it.
HERALD
I forbid you to act thus in violation of the city.
ANTIGONE
I forbid you to make useless proclamations to me.
Best part of this one were the cool descriptions of the Argives' shields--SWEET! Some awesome designs.
3 Stars
Sea lovers friends to lovers story.
So, I am all things ocean. Even the creepy shiver of juvenile great whites trawling the SoCal shore, right now. That makes the content of this story a +1 because of all the sea life and water time spent. It's a pretty straight forward and sweet childhood friends to lovers' story with a shot of adrenaline. Two young Cali dudes, love and the ocean = delightful interlude. Perfect quick bedtime story or lunch break read. Still thinking about that tasty lobster.
4 Stars
Totally regret not reading this sooner.Because I'm the sort of degenerate reader who reads the second book before the first or the fourth in a series and then hodgepodge the rest in randomly--yeah, I'm one of those--I wish I'd dusted off my patootie and jumped straight back to this one after reading the sequel. And holy crackerdoodles I hope there's more in this series--I want. There's a book due this year, right?Gimmee. *throws money*Nasty acid-spittle demon dogs, a half-breed elf bounty hunter and the golden prince. Jeez... this is just awesome. I totally was on board with the post-apocalyptic Southern California with humans and elves just out of a war and hating each other--YES! Oh yeah, and dragons. And a suped-up Mustang! God, I miss cars you could actually fix without a computer.
4 Stars
Pulp fiction joyride across seventies LA. This is the stuff cult movies are made of. Hex-rated is a mash-up of Magic Castle, A Boy Named Sue, and Lair of the White Worm. Take a disenchanted, down-on-his-luck guy trying to do the right thing, James Brimstone--most of the time. Add some noir elements like a doll and that just ensures trouble. 
There is a lot of scathing commentary about history and the revisionist lies we like to tell ourselves. Set in the 1970s, it's unvarnished from the plethora of body odors and various fluids to race relations and the Hollywood machine.
These myopic twits wished all those blacks would go back to where they'd come from before they helped us win the war by doing dangerous munitions and navy work, and that kind of racist amnesia also fed the battle cry for all the Asians to go back home, even though most of them had been here long before the current set of whites who'd fled the dustbowl and came to California and proclaimed it their white Shangri La.
Overall, fun and appropriately tawdry as the cover implies.
5 Stars
You humans, you know, whoever built you sewed irony into your sinews.
On the face of it, this seems to be a very simple fairy tale story albeit with astonishingly gorgeous prose. Valante's wordsmithing is art; I think I ended up with over 50 bookmarks. Also, the delicate story within a story within a story is so precise that it could be easy to ignore or miss without the relevant prerequisite knowledge about the history of Russia. 
This story does not wander, it is cyclical. It embraces a never-ending mindset rather than a linear one. This is an older conceptual philosophy that predates Christian theology. Marya and Koschei come full circle like a wheel spinning. Remember, dream, mourn. There is no beginning without an ending, but with each ending comes a beginning. This is elegant. The layers of history and symbolism and life are delicately constructed, all nestled inside of each other. This is a book where writing a review is difficult, nigh impossible because there are too many nuances to address without pages, every single thing that appears does so for a reason and will appear again. I loved Koschei from the beginning:
If she had looked out the window, she might have seen a great, hoary old black owl alight on the branch of the oak tree. She might have seen the owl lean perilously forward on his green-black branch and, without taking his gaze from her window, fall hard—thump, bash!—onto the streetside. She would have seen the bird bounce up, and when he righted himself, become a handsome young man in a handsome black coat, his dark hair curly and thick, flecked with silver, his mouth half-smiling, as if anticipating a terribly sweet thing.
I will read this again, not because I will forget it, but because it is so beautiful, bleak, and sharp that I must.
3 Stars
A coffee table book featuring a heavy reliance on Getty pieces. The book assumes little prior knowledge by the reader explaining how the book will deviate from preconceived ideas or stereotypes of females (damsels in distress) during the Middle Ages. It is geared towards a curious general reader, who should find this engaging without being too academic. It is divided into four thematic sections. Ideals of Womanhood: Beyond the norm in terms of illustrations with a couple extraordinary examples: an Ethiopian Virgin Mary, two unusual representations of Saints Catherine and Agatha, and a Persian manuscript featuring King Khusrau and Shirin.Warnings to Women: The imagery addresses issues of immodesty and unchaste behavior, often erotic and bordering on salacious, the identity of the patron plays heavily into the interpretation of the illumination. The saving grace in this section is the idea of redemption. Daily Life: Broad title for non-religious or parables that highlight events in women's lives. Illuminated manuscripts were not cheap or plentiful. Patrons requested them and thus they commemorate important events of wealthy persons. Weddings, lineage, Caesarian birth, etc, and if the events are of religious figures they are presented in secular environs: Maria Lactans and Saints' baptisms. The naturalism is a reflection of Northern European trends that is surprisingly unaddressed in the book. Additionally, various female occupations are represented: bakers, spinners, and harvesters. Women in the Arts: Focuses on patronage, artists, and writers, The selection is not terribly large, but it does hold images that aren't often seen in a field where Book of Hours or prayer books dominate. Overall, excellent concise explanations of the context surrounding the imagery. It addresses the intended audience or patron in many cases, at times this seems paradoxical to the theme or rendering of the image. Most of the images are from Northern European artists as reflected by the J. Paul Getty Museum's holdings. Additionally, there are several lovely illuminations that don't fall into the typical Book of Hours or Christian works with a Persian manuscript and Torah images. Small gripe is that there are a few identifications of the illuminations that are discussed, but the evidence is not present in the image, often elsewhere in the work. Additionally, there are no essays about medieval women included in the book, the focus is the illuminations--yes, the reader will hear snippets about Heloise and Abelard and the lives of various saints, but not as much overall context of the time period. I guess I had hoped for a bit more depth regarding the subject rather than a just a gallery of images as lovely as it is.
