Clara's Reviews

A new mom breastfeeds the devil. Lady thieves dance with ghosts. A school boy falls in love with a 2,000-year-old bog mummy. Every story in Karen Russell's new book thrills me. The close cooperation of the mundane and the fantastic feeds a witty, insightful perspective on humans and our inner worlds.  - Clara

I want to be Vivian Liao when I grow up. Tech genius, revolutionary subversive and chosen by a god, she is at the center of a whirlwind adventure across the galaxy to save space, time and autonomy. I loved the unique, brash characters running around in Gladstone's magic and computer-science-based world. So fun! - Clara

In the center of New Orleans's Reconstruction efforts, Drake LeVeq and Valinda Lacy are trying to build a better world for the newly free city. I'd never read a historical novel set in this era before and I completely devoured this. Jenkins brings this world to life with all its competing factions, lively rebirth, ruling families, and steamy passion. Laissez les bon temps rouler! - Clara

Aslan is one of the smartest religious scholars out there. This book reads as both a study of Islam and a commentary forces impacting religion in the modern world (he is especially adroit about extremism and orthodoxy). His perspective will make you fall in love with the beauty of the world’s second-largest religion and think deeply about how we navigate faith in the 21^st century. - Clara

In an era where Nashville had a lock on the Country Western sound, Bakersfield became the center of a music revolution. Price tells the story of legends like Merle Maggard and Buck Owens through the venues, events, partnerships, and innovations that created a vivid, pulsing sound. Layering country music with rural folk traditions and electric guitar this music is unforgettable. - Clara

General Dumas’ story deserves epic operas and an acclaimed HBO series it’s so thrilling and adventurous. As the son of a Marquis and a Haitian slave, Dumas rose to the highest ranks of the French army and commanded the respect of nations. Reiss’ quest to uncover Dumas’ story is a joy to read and discovering the seeds of his son’s novels is an eye-opening pleasure. - Clara

From Muir to Shackleton to Twain to Wollstonecraft, this collection sparks the imagination with vivid landscapes, hilarious incidents, bizarre characters, poetic musings, suspenseful thrills, and more. As editor Mark Mackenzie writes, these travel writing classics are not only time capsules of the authors’ experiences of ‘long-gone worlds but also inspirations for generations of travelers, artists, conservationists, and explorers. - Clara

Journalist Alissa Quart investigates the increasing barriers and burdens forcing families with children out of middle-class security. Kids are a luxury item in an economy where the proverbial golden ticket to security—education—is more often a ticket to overwhelming debt, unpaid overtime, side gigs, and a lack of job security. Quark’s combination of research and diverse personal narratives is fascinating, relatable, and galvanizing. - Clara

Moraga is one of the most powerful voices of Xicana feminism. In this biography of her mother Elvira, she grapples with the struggles and erasure of women (especially of indigenous women) in the Mexican diaspora. Elvira is the strong, difficult backbone in Moraga’s life journey from the mixed-race Los Angeles household of her childhood to the hard-won “queer familia” of her present. A beautiful reclamation of language, memory, and culture. - Clara

This is the kind of science fiction that invites you to flex your imagination and think in creative swoops you weren’t yet capable of. Chiang isn’t tied down by genre. These stories swing from a Scheherazade-style storytelling to Asimov-esque self-reflective automata to Silicon Valley relationship turmoil. I don’t know if Chiang has answers about free will or the order of the universe, but these stories—no matter how wild or mundane—bring us closer to understanding our own existence. - Clara