Review 475: People of the Morning Star

People of the Morning Star by W. Michael Gear
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This is book #21 in the series North America's Forgotten Past as well as the first book in a sub-series: People of Cahokia.

In this book we are introduced to a huge city called Cahokia, located in the south. The people build huge mounds, with the elite living on the top of these mounds. People from all over, all languages, have come here to live near the miracle that happened with a living God being embodied in a human body. The bulk of the book is trying to figure out why the rulers are being attacked, killed or nearly. 

I will have to read the next in the series sooner than later, so I don't forget the story line.

March 25, 2024 – Started Reading

March 25, 2024 – 

page 21

 

 3.28% "read through introductory material, now beginning the story..."

March 26, 2024 – 

page 63

 

 9.84% "starting chapter 5 -- there is a plot to kill Morning Star, a resurrected Sky World soul into a human body. Also, Fire Cat Twelvekiller high war chief and three others from Red Wing Nation were captured and being brought to Morning Star as prisoners."

March 27, 2024 – 

page 140

 

 21.88% "starting chapter 15. Well, the first assignation attempt did not work. And Night Shadow Star has become inhabited by the Underworld spirit of Piasa."

March 28, 2024 – 

page 216

 

 33.75% "mid chapter 24 ....they are searching for the people who are attempting these assassinations, they did get kill one person, but two were caught just in time. Meanwhile we do get the killer's view point, very briefly and he's trying to rope in High Dance, leader of the House of Evening Star."

March 29, 2024 – 

page 249

 

 38.91% "starting Chapter 28: still on the hunt for who is attempting to create chaos and assassinate the leaders."

March 30, 2024 – 

page 341

 

 53.28% "starting Chapter 41"

March 31, 2024 – 

page 433

 

 67.66% "starting Chapter 54. Feels like the story just needs to wrap up, have the final confrontation. Yet so many pages left. (too many?)"

March 31, 2024 – Finished Reading

Review 474: Land of Milk and Honey

Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A dystopian near future book, where a smog covers everything, blocking out light crops fail worldwide. A new mung-bean flour, a gray food, that replaces so much as sustenance that can be grown. Our narrator, the main character is a chef. She wants the fresh food no longer attainable, except in this mountain land that is advertising for a chef, where the ultra-rich have retreated. She lies on her application in the hopes of getting the job, which of course she gets in for a trail period, being the chef for the Sunday dinners with the residents.

The book is somewhat elusive, at least at first. It is very food-centered. I’m not considered a foodie or anything like that so much of this is lost on me. The lists and descriptions of food, don’t do much for me.

The story is so wrapped-up within the food, but it also is speaks about climate change, greed of the ultra-rich, racism, manipulation and much more, yet not deeply. There are topics brought up but mostly dismissed in order to list more foods. The narrator’s feelings of complicity, guilt, and yet desire is all wrapped up with food, even when she doesn’t eat.

And yet despite everything, the novel ends with hope.

Review 473: Crank

Crank by Ellen Hopkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Next month (April) a new top 10 of the most banned books will be coming out. I was looking over last year’s list, nearly all are young adult titles. This one stood out for a me a little, as it said the book was in poetry form. I was curious about the format.

So, I wanted to see what this was…read a preview then decided, okay let’s read a bit more, see how this goes, then read the entire book in one day.

This is one of those cautionary tale for teens against getting into drugs, particularly meth, which also goes by many other names. The main character reflects what happened to the author’s daughter, so it is more based on fact than fiction.

The daughter, Kristina, was sent to her father’s for a summer visit of several weeks, court ordered after nearly no contact for eight years. He lives in another state, she gets on a plane alone for the visit. Her father is negligent to an extreme.

Kristina comes home with a new personality, calls herself Bree to her new friends and has new habits, such as smoking cigarettes, kissing boys, and oh yeah a monster habit for meth. It’s a downward spiral from there.

And this brief summary is exactly what happened to the author’s daughter as well.

The poetry format was unique, and occasionally got in the way of the story-telling, but for the most part it was just a unique way to tell this story. A powerful book for sure.

Review 472: The Mysterious Life of the heart

The Mysterious Life of the heart by Sy Safransky
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The writing is of a good quality throughout. The introduction says the selections when read front to back follow a journey. There is a sense of that, with more innocent and new love in the early selections, with later in love type love, following a terminal illness or death.

Overall the entries felt more geared towards the sad part of love. The love being focused on here is romantic love just about exclusively. Other types of love do seep into the stories, but it is the pairing up that is the theme.

Perhaps it was my wish for more on the new love, the joy of love and less on the disaster of love, and the pain of love lost. Yet I’m not sad to have read these stories and essays, and the poems interspersed were just right.

Of course, with all collections a few were more enjoyable than others, although with the quality of writing here none are poorly written. It is just my personal preference for maybe two or three that I did not enjoy as much, which is far fewer than found in most collections.

Review 471: The Great Divide

The Great Divide by Cristina Henríquez
My rating: 3.25 of 5 stars


While overall I did like this story, I wasn’t blown away. I found there were too many characters and not enough depth. While the backdrop is building the Panama Canal, we actually don’t see very much of it in the story. (Okay, there is the digging, but this really is not the focus.)

Instead the story is about the people in Panama at that time, and their personal story. Many people went there because of the this grand project, while a few people are locals. For those Panamanians their story helps to highlight the changes to their country.

In the novel, a few of the characters have some resolution to their immediate problem, but for others we don’t have that, instead only to infer. One character introduced very late in the book has no resolution and makes me wonder why was that person there anyway? Perhaps that is nitpicking, but that felt like the author was trying to be all encompassing and the book would be stronger less.



Thanks to Ecco, Harper Audio and NetGalley for an advance audio review copy of this book.