Jocelyn's Reviews

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jessica Battilana is very aware of her repertoire—the recipes she knows by heart that she can always go to for something to eat. Now she’s sharing her standards with us. Each recipe has basic ingredients and instructions and is meant for experimentation and personalization. She introduces each with an explanation about why it’s in her repertoire and with tips on how to experiment with it. Whether you’re proud of your own repertoire or wondering when you’ll learn to cook, this is a great place to expand. - Jocelyn

Anna-Lisa Cox illuminates how the American frontier, originally established as a bastion of freedom and equality in the spirit of the Revolutionary War, opened the way for black men and women who were able to establish thriving farms, businesses, and communities, all while resisting theft, violence, death, and enslavement. Inspirational and harrowing, this is an important book that helps acknowledge the debt this country owes those Americans and their descendants, still under siege, still creating many of the best parts of their home. - Jocelyn

Fifty-five years ago, Robert F. Kennedy, acknowledging the growing frustration of African Americans, sought out James Baldwin, who in turn brought together Kennedy, Lorraine Hansberry, Kenneth Clark, and Jerome Smith for a conversation about history, politics and race. With passion, unflinching honesty, and the eloquence of a Baptist minister, Michael Eric Dyson—in this moment of political divide and #blacklivesmatter—wants to revisit that conversation. Will you join him? - Jocelyn

A secondhand book dealer finds a small volume of poetry in a bargain bin with a love letter between two British soldiers in World War II enclosed within it. So begins a search for the past and a story of love and war. Moments in time are but stanzas, breaths of connection and emotion and memory in a longer epic whose whole we can’t see all at once. All a glimpse of a beautiful mystery I hope Ian McDonald will soon explore further. - Jocelyn

Anthony Horowitz is both author and character in The Word Is Murder. The murder of a film star’s mother the day she’s arranged her funeral brings Horowitz himself into a mystery referencing Google-able reality but seeming too pat. Of course, Horowitz admits to his role as unreliable narrator, to allowing his desire to write compelling narrative win over real-life criminal facts. The result is layers of mystery, from murder to reality itself. I curse Horowitz for playing with me, but I’m still turning things over in my mind. - Jocelyn

Do you want to laugh uncomfortably? Awkwardly empathize? Be absolutely charmed? Full-page personal ads and the adventures of the lonely but undaunted teenage Tobias build one side of Erin Nations’ world, while customer service, memories of growing up a triplet, and honest reflections on being trans and transitioning introduce us to Nations himself. I am both uncomfortable and too comfortable in reading Gumballs because it feels so familiar to me, kindness and weirdness and all; it feels like home. - Jocelyn

Sitting in a French clinic waiting for her future, Kimia Sadr unravels layers of history: her own, her family’s, and Iran’s. History, culture, exile and immigration, oppression and free speech, love and sexuality, family and motherhood, Kimia’s story dances between the personal and the global and the epic. Stories beget memories beget stories, landing in a true, magical journey that I loved, that I want to put in everyone’s hands and minds now. - Jocelyn

Quite simply, this is a most lovely book. One that will quietly soothe the broken parts of your heart. From 1950 to 1996, from a British working-class town to Italy and back, this is about finding reasons to start living again when everything seems to have been lost. About rediscovering the joys in your past and the hope that there is more to come. Keep this one close and in your heart. - Jocelyn

This is what we’d get if Douglas Adams started writing in the ’80s instead of the ’70s. And was really into glam rock. And maybe had been jilted by David Bowie. And was, maybe, still a little in love with David Bowie. Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeroes, washed-up glitter punk multiracial Brit extravaganza missing their last Zero, are to sing, fight, and f--make friends to save humanity. A glorious, Looney Tunes-driven ride through planets and punk rock emotions, and what’s worth saving. - Jocelyn

Nottage is one of our contemporary master dramatists, a writer whose work will be (and should be) performed and studied for decades to come. Heartbreaking and true, Sweat frames a truly modern American tragedy that examines generation, race, class, family, and friendship within a real working class town. - Jocelyn