New Releases

The Latinist
Mark Prins

Lee's review:

Tessa Templeton, a highly-focused student at Oxford, learns shortly before her doctoral thesis defense that her advisor, Christopher Eccles, is quite probably working to ensure that she cannot find a position anywhere other than within his domain. In all of this, there are numerous spot on descriptions of academia.

As the novel unfolds, Eccles’s tactics become more-and-more invasive, and Tessa’s options quickly become less viable. As she attempts to recover from the damage to her career and finds a new opportunity in her area of research, Eccles rapidly begins to lose control of his infatuation with Tessa. In addition, Eccles’s mother is dying, and as he recalls incidents from his childhood, we can better understand the complexity of his motivations.

The story of Daphne and Apollo comes up frequently, but it is hardly a clear parallel to the relationship between Tessa and Eccles.

Despite the title and the focus on a second century Roman poet and Latin, the novel is very readable, and I found myself staying up late to finish the last half of the book! An excellent debut!

Releases January 4; may be preordered now.

Lee’s review is included in this month’s Indie Next List!

The Torqued Man
Peter Mann

Tim’s review:

Two men meet in Spain at the end of the Spanish Civil War. One, Adrian de Groot, is a reluctant member of the Nazi German Intelligence Service. He's tasked with recruiting disaffected Irish Republican fighters who have been captured fighting for the Republican Spanish. Frank Pike is one such fighter, just about to be shot, when he's offered the job of helping de Groot. They will create a diversionary front in Ireland, so that German forces will be better able to invade England. But as the two men become acquainted, things become complicated. When the Russian Front is opened and plans for the invasion of England are postponed, the two men briefly become lovers. [aside: I told you things become complicated] Both men also begin secretly pursuing their own agendas.

Peter Mann is a professor of European History. His portrayal of life in Berlin as the war grinds slowly towards defeat is blisteringly gritty, both objectively (the daily struggle for necessities), and subjectively (moral and ethical boundaries shift under relentless brutal stresses.) Not for the faint of heart, this book is richly rewarding for readers seeking well developed characters of rare quality.

Releases January 11; may be pre-ordered now.

The Good Son
Jacqueline Mitchard

Sally’s review:

The novel begins with Thea waiting outside a prison for the release on parole of her only child, 20 year old Stefan. At 17, Stefan was convicted of manslaughter in the death of his girlfriend, Belinda. He was on drugs at the time and has no memory of what happened.

Thea and her husband, Jep, quickly learn that Stefan’s adjustment to life outside prison will be difficult, and that their own lives will be affected as well. Protesters organized by Belinda’s mother are frequently outside their home and Stefan’s experiences in prison have left him fearful in most situations. He is also filled with guilt.

Several storylines quickly develop. Thea, a college professor, is pressured to take an unplanned sabbatical. Stefan struggles to find employment and to find meaning in his life. Occasionally, Thea sees a threatening and sinister figure nearby. She also receives a series of disturbing texts and phone calls.

The book, which deals with the themes of motherhood, guilt, and forgiveness, is a rewarding read.

Releases January 18; may be pre-ordered now.

Joan Is Okay
Weike Wang

Lee’s review:

Joan is an ICU doctor in New York City. She gladly takes on extra shifts because it is in the hospital ... in her role as an attending physician ... that she feels most comfortable.

There are pressures to become “more” ... from her brother, from her sister-in-law, from the renter across the hall, and even from the doorman. Joan, however, has found a life that she finds quite satisfying.

Written in the first person, Joan provides the reader with more humorous commentary than she provides to the people around her. And it is this wit that makes her a more thoughtful and lovable character than we might otherwise find her.

This was a great read. It gives the reader a chance to ponder what it means to be different, to be anonymous, to be an outsider, to be accepted, and to be loved.

Release date January 18; may be pre-ordered now.

Violeta
Isabel Allende

Sally’s review:

The pandemics of 1920 and 2020 are the bookends to Violeta’s life. In between, her long life in an unnamed South American country is packed with events, people, and experiences. Her wealthy, city-dwelling family loses everything in the Great Depression. After the suicide of her father, the family relocates to a farm in a remote part of the country, living on limited means. Violeta, once a spoiled and willful child, grows into a passionate woman. She has a talent for making money and for forming long-term relationships—some nurturing, others destructive. She sees the fight for women’s rights, the overthrow of the government, and people she cares about involved in drug abuse, life on the streets, and dubious employment. Allende, the consummate storyteller, packs a century full of history into one rich life.

Releases January 25; may be pre-ordered now.

The Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything (Abridged)
A. Rutherford and H. Fry

Bob’s review:

How can you possibly turn down reading a book with that kind of title? Well, if you start reading it, you’ll find that the book begins by discussing playing peek-a-boo with a baby…not exactly what I expected. But I forged forward.

I suppose if you are writing an abridged book on Everything you certainly have the power to pick and choose what topics you want to cover. Here is a question to get things (and the book) started.

How do we pass on knowledge? Maybe better is how do we acquire knowledge in the first place? One might guess you could boil it down to either intuition or scientific study. But a lot of past studies have gotten things wrong. You have to sort out the good from the bad.

So we begin with a study on what would be required to keep track of all this knowledge above, i.e. if you knew everything how/where do you store it? Bob Newhart, the comedian, had a bit where he said that if you gave an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters (this was a while back) they would eventually write all the great books because the random letters coming together would, at some point, make sense. Which is true from a probability standpoint. Soooo you would have to save everything these poor primates wrote and, of course, you would need an infinite number of editors to check it (job security.) So if you use this “infinity” logic and apply it to genetic coding (remember in biology class) it puts a hole in the theory of evolution. Hmm now that’s interesting and unexpected.

This tongue-in-cheek thinking is tried out on a number of things to include multi-dimensional universes. So what does a 4-dimensional sphere look like? The book will tell you.

There’s just a lot of fun thinking going on in this book that kind of gets your mind going. I liked it (my abridged evaluation.)

Release date January 25; may be pre-ordered now.

Mermaid Confidential
Tim Dorsey

Lee’s review:

Serge A. Storms has decided that he needs to adopt a “Pump the Brakes” philosophy, where he can slow down a bit from his manic road trips and live in greater harmony with his surroundings. This leads to a condo complex in the Florida Keys, where “Pump the Brakes” is a way of life. He is, as is usual, accompanied by Coleman (Seymour Bunsen), who has never found a mood-altering chemical that he does not enjoy to excess throughout every day.

The adventures unfold around the removal of condo lease holders who are disruptive to the community, a woman who is caring for her elderly father and volunteers at a children’s hospice, two rival drug cartels, and ... for added excitement ... a hopeless gang of criminals who are led by a violent and drug-addled woman.

It is always amazing that Serge, despite being a serial killer, is actually quite admirable.

If you have followed this series (this is #25), you will not be disappointed. If you have not, this is probably as good a place as any to begin.

Releases January 25; may be pre-ordered now.

Seven Games: A Human History
Oliver Roeder

Bob’s review:

Alright, have you ever played the following games: Checkers, Chess, Go, Backgammon, Poker, Scrabble and Bridge? Thought you knew how to “play” them? Well, I had played six of the seven games and fundamentally thought, “I know how these work.” I couldn’t have been more wrong. Yes, including the game of Checkers.

This is a very interesting book (or maybe it’s seven different books all crunched together.) The author does a great job explaining the historical development of each of these seven games. He further explains how much time and effort must be dedicated to being really good (competitive) at playing them. How people memorize thousands of opening plays, or in scrabble’s case, thousands of words at the tournament level. A side note, scrabble at the big kids level is not restricted to just English. And the author adds his own experiences playing these games at a tournament level. For each game, the author also discusses how computers learned to play these games and how they fare playing against human champions.

As I said, very interesting and nicely written. I think you might enjoy this one.

Release date: January 25; may be pre-ordered now.

BeagleAndWolf.com

Newsletter Archives