Clara's Reviews

Author Matthew Kneale uses the many sackings of Rome as a genius framing device for studying one city over 2500 years. Each time Rome gets sacked we pause to learn about the lives of the Romans of the era, the regional and political factors leading to the conflict, and the transformations made in the crucible of war. Rome comes alive as clearly in 387 b.c.e. as it does in 1943 in this brilliant ode to the city and its history. - Clara

Barracoon would be a significant document were it only about Cudjo (Kossola) Lewis, the last survivor of the last recorded slave ship to the United States. His memories, recounted orally, preserve a trans-Atlantic history that has long been suppressed. But Barracoon is also a story about Zora Neale Hurston, the Harlem Renaissance, and the reclamation of African American folklore. Woven throughout Hurston and Lewis’s conversations is a yearning for roots and a fight for identity. - Clara

Heschel remains one of the most insightful and progressive spiritual thinkers. This collection, edited by his daughter, excerpts speeches and writings on social justice, prayer and inner life, faith and science, and the spiritual center of tradition in modernity. I recommend Heschel to anyone interested in living mindfully and affecting positive change in their communities. - Clara

The sexual politics of college (and post-college) life are central to successful discussions of gender equality. In this must-read book Wade investigates what hookup culture looks like, the unequal impacts of it (oftentimes along racial and gender lines), and its relationship to an ever-changing lineage of American youths and how they initiate and experience sex and romance. - Clara

I love nonfiction writing that teaches through objects. Color melds history, science, travel writing, economics, and color theory in a meandering exploration of the world through the pigments that dazzle our eyes at every moment. Finlay has a talent for ferreting out stories and painting pictures with her words. This is a great read for fueling your curiosity! - Clara

Hirsch’s experiences facing chronic illness are a window into a significant public health and social issue. Ilnesses affecting young women are less likely to be taken seriously and the women are disproportionately affected by barriers in work, relationships, and medicine. Invisible amplifies the diverse voices in order to offer community and arm with information. - Clara

I firmly believe Louisa Hall to be the most creative and boundary-pushing fiction writer of the 21st century. This speculative novel explores artificial intelligence through the vast canon of recorded words that computers feed on. Hall makes meaning out of an overload of data. Alan Turing, chat transcripts, a puritan diary, and unsent letters all contribute to this incredible story. - Clara

Come for the murder mystery, stay for the queer women and a vividly painted portrait of San Francisco in 1876. San Francisco before the 1906 earthquake feels like a fascinating foreign country, offering a setting different from any historical fiction I've read before. I adored the twists and turns through tenements and languages, music and time. - Clara

LaValle has written a modern-day fairytale that entrances as it draws you into the unique rhythms of a young family in New York. Apollo, a "book man" who hunts for the big find in boxes of used books, is our window into the old, uncanny forces hovering beneath the surface of the new millennium. This horror fantasy packs a big punch! One of my favorite books! - Clara

The blood of Iphigenia bought her father, Agememnon, passage to the Trojan War, but there are consequences when a man betrays his children and a king betrays his queen. Tóibín brings to life the pettily human and divinely mystic of Greek drama in a vivid novel about revenge, loyalties and intrigues. - Clara