I love this book for its combination of serious political speculation, action, and character study. I also love seeing cynical, louche ol' Gore Vidal admiring and loving Lincoln for having at once high ideals and a brilliant sense of politics.
Lincoln was, as Vidal presents him, completely underrated by most of his peers. There is a lot of action and even more politics and history presented with high entertainment value. An intellectually stimulating book that brings out all the best of Vidal's cleverness—but also his honest admiration for those who hold the line against true evil.
Lincoln is the cornerstone of Gore Vidal’s fictional American chronicle, which includes Burr; 1876; Washington, D.C.; Empire; and Hollywood. It opens early on a frozen winter morning in 1861, when President-elect Abraham Lincoln slips into Washington, flanked by two bodyguards. The future president is in disguise, for there is talk of a plot to murder him. During the next four years there will be numerous plots to murder this man who has sworn to unite a disintegrating nation.
Isolated in a ramshackle White House in the center of a proslavery city, Lincoln presides over a fragmenting government as Lee’s armies…
I love to read about people who would be called victims by many, but who prevail—not by being heroic exceptions, but by suffering deeply and struggling on, because that’s what people do.
This novel is especially good on the loyalty and love among the siblings in a motherless family. It's in the voice of a wonderful teen-age narrator who is reading mythology for her summer homework, and identifies with Medea of mythology.
The young people mostly have the big-hearted courage of survivors, and there are also all the classic narrative conflicts: people versus nature; people versus each other, people versus themselves and versus society.
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'A brilliantly pacy adventure story ... Ward writes like a dream' - The Times
'Fresh and urgent' - New York Times
'There's something of Faulkner to Ward's grand diction' - Guardian
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WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
Hurricane Katrina is building over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the coastal town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, and Esch's father is growing concerned. He's a hard drinker, largely absent, and it isn't often he worries about the family.
Esch and her three brothers are stockpiling food, but there isn't much to save. Lately, Esch can't keep down what food she gets;…
I loved this novel about a young woman growing up in what was then Rhodesia. I’m a total sucker for coming-of-age stories.
Tambu, the narrator, is a village girl who is chosen by her uncle, the headmaster of the missionary school in the larger town, to become a scholar and hope of the family. I love how we get Tambu's experience and determination, of course, but also her careful analysis of how to change yet stay true to her roots.
The author doesn’t explain a lot for those of us who don't know the region, but we get what we need to know about a world where relationships are everything, and responsibilities go in many directions.
FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE SHORTLISTED AUTHOR OF THIS MOURNABLE BODY, ONE OF THE BBC'S 100 WOMEN FOR 2020
'UNFORGETTABLE' Alice Walker 'THIS IS THE BOOK WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR' Doris Lessing 'A UNIQUE AND VALUABLE BOOK.' Booklist 'AN ABSORBING PAGE-TURNER' Bloomsbury Review 'A MASTERPIECE' Madeleine Thien 'ARRESTING' Kwame Anthony Appiah
Two decades before Zimbabwe would win independence and ended white minority rule, thirteen-year-old Tambudzai Sigauke embarks on her education. On her shoulders rest the economic hopes of her parents, siblings, and extended family, and within her burns the desire for independence. A timeless coming-of-age tale, and a powerful exploration of…
This prequel to The City Built of Starships, relates the adventures of Soledad, intelligent and strong-willed, who must make sense of life and love in an isolated community as she attempts to survive.
Her forerunners emigrated from the home planet to colonize this new place. The original colony quickly degenerated into a brutal class system, dominant Officers holding sway over subordinate Hands.
Resisting this hierarchy, a quasi-Buddhist band sought desert solitude. Young Soledad, growing up in this community and now approaching adulthood, must make sense of herself and her place in a dangerous world. She finds solace in friendships with a few peers and, especially, in her interactions with the telepathic pterodactyl-like indigenous “yaegers.”
