“Moon brow” by Shahriar Mandanipour. The reviewer in Locus gave this one a negative review, but that made me want to read it, maybe honestly because I need to get a handle on modern Iran for Persephone and I haven’t made a vast effort to find resources. Research can be so all-encompassing.
I have made some ridiculous assumptions in my notes, and it turns out some of them are okay. Others lead to backstory I guess?
The review I read said this book was no Persepolis, in terms of its in-cluing for western readers. I’m not sure that’s a reasonable comparison. I had a conversation with the boy about this: not all books are “meant for me”. Persepolis was written (I think) to explain modern Iran to the French. Moon Brow was written to explain the 1979 revolution to younger Iranians? Just a theory. I liked the ending.
I also had no idea why this was reviewed in Locus. There was no real F&SF or horror content. If I had all the time in the world it would be neat to try to understand the differences between the scribes on the left and right shoulders, but one of my favorite things was when they sniped at each other. This book was worthwhile enough to me that I requested the author’s other novel that has been translated into English (so in like 2 years it will bubble to the top of the Library Hold Challenge, wait for it).
“Black Helicopters” by Caitlin Kiernan. I did not mean to get this book out of the library at this time, but the website sort of crashed and then I forgot and by the time I remembered it was already in transit. I have a policy of not stopping things once they’re in transit, because it’s maybe meant to be. Plus, it’s only like 200 pages long so it wasn’t going to kill me.
CK did some really neat things here. I especially liked the scene that was rendered in French (so somewhat comprehensible) maybe 1/3 of the way through, then again in English.
“Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mantel. It was already on my list, but then the boy lent it to me. It was recommended to him by his girlfriend. This was a really fun book. My pandemic needs to move a bit more slowly than this one.
I really liked that Miranda felt no real obligation to publish her graphic novels to a wide audience.
LHC #34: “Mrs. Caliban” by Rachel Ingalls. It was on my list, and she died so I moved it up. It was so fun! There was not a single unnecessary word, I’m pretty sure. I sort of felt like it was too awesome to be allowed.
LHC #35: “The Mount” by Carol Emschwiller. It was also on my list, and she died so I moved it up. I read about half of this on the subway going to/from dance class. The main character seemed so different from most books, the POV much closer. He seemed so human and confused.
“The Cruel Prince” by Holly Black. Got it for Christmas. I love Holly Black. Read it on a plane, will look for the sequel. I didn’t totally buy Prince Cardan, but he’s pretty complex, and that might be because Jude doesn’t totally buy him and it’s her POV.