Book Review

The Last Green Valley

Casey

It’s remarkable how many stories from World War II still slip under the radar—stories about human resilience and resolve that deserve to be told. The Last Green Valley by Mark Sullivan feels like one of those stories. I’ve always been drawn to WWII narratives, particularly those set on the European front, but many focus primarily on the Holocaust and people fleeing Nazi persecution. While this novel does reference those atrocities, it tells a story I had never encountered before: a family attempting to find salvation with the Allied forces while fleeing Stalin’s army through Nazi-occupied Europe.

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Book Review

All the Pretty Horses

Casey

I really had to sit with this book after I finished it before I knew what I wanted to say—or even what I thought about it. As many readers know, Cormac McCarthy doesn’t use quotation marks (and sometimes even neglects apostrophes), which can make following dialogue a challenge. At times, I found myself expending more energy just reading the text than fully understanding what was happening on the page.

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Book Review

Eaters of the Dead

Casey

As part of my goal to read all of Michael Crichton’s works in publication order, Eaters of the Dead was next on my list. I didn’t know much going in, but quickly learned it’s a mash-up of the real-life travel writings of Ahmad ibn Fadlan and the epic of Beowulf — a blend of historical fiction and myth retelling. I also knew it was the basis for the film The 13th Warrior, though I haven’t seen it.

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Book Review

The Great Train Robbery

Casey

n today’s episode of “What Genre Did Michael Crichton Write?” we find he has a penchant for European historical fiction with a dash of American Western flair thrown in for good measure. Just when you think you’ve got him pegged as the guy who writs about deadly microorganisms or rogue neurosurgery experiments, here he is, transporting us to the grimy streets and gilded railcars of Victorian-era England.

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Book Review

Beloved

Casey

I cannot overstate how surprised I was by this book. I was expecting historical fiction. What I got was horror. Historical horror… Whatever the genre, Toni Morrison is true to form here and pulls no punches.

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Book Review

The Underground Railroad

Casey

You can usually tell how a book is going to read if it won the Pulitzer as this one did. Basically, it’s going to be heavy and probably a little tough to get through. This book is no different. It is clear that Colson Whitehead was blessed with the gift of writing. But sometimes I don’t want a lot of flowery language or metaphor slowing me down.

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Book Review

The Nickel Boys

Casey

This was another one of my reads for Black History Month 2024. I found somewhere, probably on Goodreads, a list of books by black authors that were meaningful to other black authors. When I came across this pick, the 2020 Pulitzer Prize winner, I read the description and something just stuck out to me. Probably the injustice, which arguably is something of a theme in black literature, what with the gross injustices imparted upon many black citizens, especially in the 1960s. Let’s just say that this book was well worth the read.

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