The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gothic.

I wasn't expecting this.

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John Adams by David McCullough
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of the things that has occurred to me while reading McCullough's biography of John Adams is that biographers seem to fall in love with their subjects. I mentioned this to my daughter the other day in a Skype call. We both thought "of course they must, spending so much time with the person." But then it occurred to me that none of Hitler's biographers fell in love with him. Who could, after all, but then perhaps that's also why biographies of Hitler always seem so unsatisfactory.

McCullough's bio of Adams is excellent, by the way. Unfortunately, it did little to shed light on the conflict between Adams and Hamilton. By the way, Fox News did not invent "fake news." It's been around a very long time.

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Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories by Sherman Alexie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sherman Alexie is always a fun read. His first person narrators have to be the most self-deprecating characters in literature.

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The Night Torn Mad With Footsteps by Charles Bukowski
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bukowski, the raving mad poet of the west coast, most popular with young men with little experience with reading poetry in the 1970s and 1980s. I surprised myself while reading this as I'm also reading a collection of stories by Sherman Alexie and, except for the details, they could have been written by the same man. Or at least a writer with an identical voice. Both men seem to have studied writing at the feet of Hemingway. Although both men have a much better sense of humor than Papa did.

Oh, and Bukowski was still publishing into this century. Even though he died in 1994.

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The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bennett's novel kept reminding me of Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man." While not a tour de force, "The Vanishing Half" has plenty to say about the Black experience in America. And it's an easy enough read for the average high school student.

The novel discusses frankly issues of skin color, particularly for Black women, covering more than one generation. It's both an entertaining and informative read. Highly recommended.

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Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Of course British scientists would create a robot that is morally superior to humans. So let's examine the implications. Things are a bit topsy turvey in this world. But overall, McEwan is a good story teller.

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For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Nearly fifty years after it was written, this has become a classic. It's been on my reading list for years.

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Tomboyland: Essays by Melissa Faliveno
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a hard book to read. Not because of the writing style, which is excellent, poetic, and very clear, but because of the subject matter. Faliveno takes on subjects that can be gut wrenching, especially in the current political climate. Sexuality. Guns. The environment. She makes them all personal. And she's not apologetic about offending either side of an issue, or for that matter, both sides.

For those who are interested in questions of genré, this work challenges the notion of what makes a piece of writing an essay and a memoir. I found myself questioning such notions throughout the book. Of course, there is always the notion of "What difference does it make?"

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