The Book of Lost Friends

This book by Lisa Wingate tells two intertwined stories, one set largely in the Reconstruction era South and one that is set in a small and still largely segregated town, Augustine, Louisiana in the 1980's. Hannie Gossett is a freed slave now working a sharecropping farm with an aunt and 2 brothers at the destitute Goswood Grove, the plantation where she and her family were enslaved. When she sees a girl sneaking into the plantation house after dark, she confronts her and finds out she is the illegitimate Creole daughter of Hannie's former master. She claims to be the rightful heir to Goswood Grove, but her half sister, Lavinia, denies it. Neither has the paperwork to prove their case and they decide to look for their father, who was headed to Texas two years ago and never returned. Hannie throws her lot in with them, disguised as a boy who can drive their wagon. It is a harrowing journey filled with predators of the human variety and a few surprisingly good people who want to help them.  Novice English teacher Bennedetta ("Benny") Silva has taken a job in the high school of the town that grew up around Goswood Grove. In a desperate attempt to engage her apathetic students, she borrows records from both the Goswood Grove library and the town library and asks the students to pick a real person and find out as much about them as they can. Links from the past to present day families slowly emerge. There is a minor romantic storyline that is entirely predictable and uninspiring. 

Reviews were mixed. Booklist asserts that "Wingate...makes history come alive with the dual tale of formerly enslaved Hannie Gossett in 1875 and Benedetta "Benny" Silva in 1987. Punctuating their struggles are real "Lost Friends," advertisements from a southern Methodist newspaper that featured messages from those searching for loved ones lost and separated by slavery." And they conclude, "Historical fiction fans will appreciate the authentic articles and the connection between modern times and the past, while adventure lovers will enjoy a voyage reminiscent of Huckleberry Finn." Library Journal tells us that "After the Civil War, the Southern Christian Advocate, a newspaper for the African American community distributed throughout the South, included a column called "Lost Friends" that allowed individuals to advertise for information about missing loved ones, generally sold off or stolen before or during the war. That column is the inspiration for this enthralling and ultimately heartening new novel from Wingate...Emphasizing throughout that stories matter and should never go untold, Wingate has written an absorbing historical for many readers." Publishers Weekly, however, says the book is a "disappointing outing" that is "marred by a lack of depth." Their conclusion is even more derogatory, "This underwhelming tale is sunk by its surfeit of deficiencies"

Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus

This non-fiction narrative about the initial reporting of and the search for origins of the SARS CoV-2 was a fascinating and enlightening read, as was David Quammen's previous book on a similar, broader topic, Spillover. During the pandemic, Quammen managed to monitor multiple virology databases and websites and interview over 95 eminent researchers and practitioners: infectious disease researchers, infectious disease ecologists, virologists, experts on the genetics and ecology of coronaviruses, evolutionary biologists, epidemiologists, public health officials, microbiologists, forensic DNA researchers, and more. He provides a brief biographical note on each person interviewed (for 1.5 - 2 hours on Zoom)  at the end of the book, along with an exhaustive bibliography of written sources consulted, and detailed notes on the text. He is truly an amazing researcher and science writer. He also clarifies some of the misinformation and out of context data that led to various conspiracy theories about the virus. Read his web page to find out why he was asked to write the book .

There are glowing reviews from multiple sources. The NYT closes with these quotes from the book: "'This virus is going to be with us forever,' Quammen warns, with a wealth of data and precedent to support him. We haven’t eradicated polio or measles. 'And those viruses have nowhere to hide except within humans.' This one could be cleared from every living human, and still exist in other animals. 'Covid-19 won’t be our last pandemic of the 21st century. It probably won’t be our worst.' In our international world, as one scientist tells Quammen, 'A disease anywhere is a disease everywhere.'” Similarly, The Guardian praises, "Few writers are able to understand the strings of amino acids that give these viruses their distinctive codes, let alone relate them to other Sars-like viruses. And even fewer possess the literary gifts necessary to make the genomics comprehensible to lay readers. Fortunately, David Quammen...is one of them." And Kirkus concurs, "An authoritative new history of Covid-19 and its predecessors...Unsettling global health news brilliantly delivered by an expert."

Murder in Old Bombay

This debut and award-winning novel by Nev March was picked for our mystery book group last month. Anglo-Indian Captain Jim Agnihotri has been badly injured in a military skirmish at the Karachi border and is recovering in the hospital when he learns of the suspicious deaths of two young women in Bombay. This is supposedly based on true events. No longer fit for service due to his injury, he is at loose ends until he offers the widower of one of the victims--the scion of a prominent Parsee family-- to try and solve the mystery. Adi Framji was also the brother of the other victim, and although the official verdict was suicide, he's convinced neither of them would have done that. Captain Jim has filled his time in hospital reading Sherlock Holmes novels and is anxious to try out his deductive methods. Soon joined in the investigation by Adi's other sister, Lady Diana Framji, Captain Jim is smitten although he realizes the difference in their social classes make such a relationship totally out of bounds. 

Publishers Weekly has good things to say about the book, notably "March fills the story with finely developed characters, particularly Agnihotri, who proves a zealous investigator. She also presents an authentic view of India under British rule while exploring the challenges faced by a character of mixed race." Likewise, Kirkus offers "March’s crisply written debut combines fascinating historic details with a clever puzzle." The New York Journal of Books offers an insightful examination of the underlying system of British colonialism that effects both characters and actions.

Golden State

I just loved the premise of this book by Ben Winter,  i.e., "In a strange alternate society that values law and truth above all else, Laszlo Ratesic is a nineteen-year veteran of the Speculative Service. He lives in the Golden State, a nation standing where California once did, a place where like-minded Americans retreated after the erosion of truth and the spread of lies made public life and governance impossible." But I felt that it sort of fizzled out after a very confusing reveal. According to his website, Winter is a "data scientist working in the mobile technology industry..." who writes futuristic dystopias. 

Publishers Weekly offers a brief storyline which goes " in the near future, California is a sovereign state governed by absolute truth, and telling a lie can result in jail time or worse. Laszlo Ratesic, a veteran police officer whose innate ability to know when someone is lying helps him piece together unsolved crimes, investigates the death of a construction worker who fell off of a roof during a job. The seemingly accidental fatality is filled with anomalies, which leads Ratesic and the young female officer he’s mentoring to uncover a grand-scale conspiracy with staggering implications." One of those anomalies is a novel hidden inside the cover of a dictionary that Lazlo and partner find in the victim's apartment. Of course novels (being fiction) are strictly forbidden reading. Lazlo believes in the premise of the Golden State until he finds himself unexplainably drawn into reading the novel. I can't say much more about the plot without spoiling some of the surprising twists and turns. In the end, Publishers Weekly was disappointed, concluding that "Winters’s exploration into the nature of truth will grip many readers, but this ambitious novel misses the mark." Kirkus, on the other hand, offers a more favorable recommendation, "it’s still a skillful and swift-moving concoction. For those who like their dystopias with a dash of humor. No lie." I would agree with Kirkus' comparison to author Philip K. Dick's novels (e.g. he wrote the novels on which the movies Blade Runner and Minority Report were based.) Whereas the Library Journal compares his work to other famous dystopian authors, saying "VERDICT Highly recommended for fans of dystopian fiction, especially those who enjoy classics of the genre, such as George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World."

The Book of Lost Friends

This pair of interwoven storylines by Lisa Wingate is well written but often hard to read for a couple of reasons. The subject matter of slavery and the continuing horrors of the "post-slavery/ Reconstruction" period is emotionally stressful. The other aspect of the book I found annoying was the constant back and forth between the stories narrated by Hannie Gossett who is a freed slave in her late teens and the more contemporary story of Benny Silva, a new teacher in a small Louisiana town working at a poor and largely minority-student school. It's not that this is an uncommon approach to story telling, but the transitions seemed so frequent that I would just be getting engrossed in one storyline and then get jerked into the other.  Library Journal summarizes the starting point for this story: "After the Civil War, the Southern Christian Advocate, a newspaper for the African American community distributed throughout the South, included a column called "Lost Friends" that allowed individuals to advertise for information about missing loved ones, generally sold off or stolen before or during the war. That column is the inspiration for this enthralling and ultimately heartening new novel from Wingate..." They go on to praise this book, saying "Emphasizing throughout that stories matter and should never go untold, Wingate has written an absorbing historical for many readers." Similarly, Booklist states that Wingate "makes history come alive with the dual tale of formerly enslaved Hannie Gossett in 1875 and Benedetta "Benny" Silva in 1987...Historical fiction fans will appreciate the authentic articles and the connection between modern times and the past, while adventure lovers will enjoy a voyage reminiscent of Huckleberry Finn."

On the other hand, Publishers Weekly did not provide a positive review, concluding, "This underwhelming tale is sunk by its surfeit of deficiencies." To her credit as an author of historical fiction, Wingate offers sources for follow up, such as: over 2500 real-life Lost Friends ads in the Lost Friends Database: https://www.hnoc.org/database/lost-friends/index.html

Dead Dead Girls

This book by Nekesa Afia is intended to be the first of a series, "A Harlem Renaissance Mystery," featuring Louise -- AKA "Lovie -- Lloyd, a 26-year-old lesbian Black woman living in 1920's Harlem.  Louise is trying her best to escape the strictures of a too controlling home situation and her reputation as "Harlem's Hero," a title given to her when she was 16 and, not only escaped after being kidnapped, but helped free three of her fellow captive girls. She spends her days waitressing at Maggie's Cafe and her nights at the Zodiac speakeasy dancing her heart out with friend and lover, Rosa Maria Moreno. When an inebriated Louise intervenes in a racially motivated arrest by punching a white detective in the nose, she is given an ultimatum. She can either help the senior detective solve the murders of 3 young Black women or go to jail. But if you're a Black, can you ever really trust the police? If you're older like I am, you might get a bit exhausted following Lovie's high level of risky activity, but you will certainly feel that you've gotten a feel for the Harlem of the 20's. 

Publishers Weekly concludes that "Readers will root for intrepid, fiery Louise, who elevates the mystery despite a disjointed investigation and haphazard denouement. The author couples tender relationships with strong senses of era and place. Afia has made an auspicious start." Kirkus calls the setting "vibrant" and says "Louise’s fight for respect and dignity is depicted with infectious passion."