Book of the Day Roundup: September 18-22, 2023
Nadia
Christine Evans
University of Iowa Press
Softcover $19.00 (246pp)
978-1-60938-909-3
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Secrets choke two London-dwelling refugees from the former Yugoslavia in Christine Evans’s startling, sensitive novel Nadia.
In Nadia’s childhood, being Muslim in Sarajevo was unremarkable. By her young adulthood, it made her a target. Nationalist forces took over, destroying the Yugoslavia she knew; village boys picked off people in the streets from their snipers’ positions in the hills. Confined to her apartment, Nadia found refuge with Sanja, the fearless, gorgeous artist to whom, even before, she could only whisper “I love you” in the dark.
Iggy was a village boy. He wanted to be a punk star. Instead, he became a soldier. With two band mates and childhood friends—one prone to viciousness; one tender, even in the depths of war—he traveled to Sarajevo. He saw Nadia and Sanja through his scope. He longed for before, when shooting at them did not feel obligatory. But, misgivings or not, Iggy still participated in the act of murdering Sarajevo’s “beautiful muddle.”
Three years past escaping, Nadia has an office job in London. In this city: lesbians can be out. Murderers are frowned upon. But specters still creep. Iggy slides into the seat next to hers; they recognize something in one another; bleak confrontations are sparked.
A tale thick with trauma and acute with a sense of longing for a home that was erased, this often brutal, sometimes lovely, and always humane novel wades through the refuse of war to elevate those who were blotted out. Nadia dances with a woman who looks like Sanja from a distance; she presses Iggy to seek news of Sanja. Iggy, tortured by visions, is careful about sharing what he knows. Around them both, houses-of-cards fall and concealed truths push toward the light.
Nadia is a poetic, unflinching novel that centers the victims and ripple effects of the Bosnian War.
MICHELLE ANNE SCHINGLER (August 27, 2023)
The Weather Woman
Sally Gardner
Head of Zeus
Hardcover $29.99 (496pp)
978-1-78669-525-3
Buy: Amazon
In Sally Gardner’s fantastical novel The Weather Woman, gender, societal recognition, and family inheritance lead to precarious circumstances in Victorian London.
Neva, whose parents neglect her, can read the weather with perfect accuracy. When she survives an accident on the Thames that orphans her, she’s taken in by Victor and Elise, who offer her a home and an education.
Victor understands that Neva’s gift is extraordinary. He creates an automaton called the Weather Woman to showcase her talents. And despite the social pressure she faces to marry and bear children, he encourages Neva to adopt the persona of Eugene Jonas, a sophisticated dandy with a fancy for men, so she has more mobility in their gentlemen’s society. But as time passes and Neva’s feelings for a Frenchman grow, Neva starts to question whether Eugene has taken over her entire personality—and whether she will ever find a place in London society.
Neva’s straightforwardness makes her different from other middle-class women. Her relationships are fraught because of her gender masquerade and her weather predictions. She’s also haunted by her past. The book is lively with her gripping internal thoughts, featuring color, past trauma, and self-harm.
As Neva makes enemies of men who seek to undermine her weather-reading ability—including Lord Wardell, who loses money due to her predictions—she finds herself tangled in unconventional and intriguing webs. Themes of marriage, sexuality, and gender loom against the historical background, in which maintaining one’s individuality is near impossible. Neva is even threatened with commitment to an asylum. Still, she grows into herself to secure her place, and her struggles become emblematic of the push for freedom.
In the oppressive Victorian London atmosphere of the historical novel The Weather Woman, the outcast members of society carve out a niche for themselves against stifling social expectations.
ALI ORTIZ (August 27, 2023)
Pocketful of Poseys
Thomas Reed
Beaufort Books
Softcover $17.95 (370pp)
978-0-8253-1026-3
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Simultaneously heartwrenching and comical, Thomas Reed’s novel Pocketful of Poseys follows a family from the death of their matriarch to their journey to scatter her ashes.
Cinny Posey, for all her upper-class panache, is an eccentric at heart. Three years after the death of her husband and facing a severe illness, she chooses to starve herself to death, to the protestations, but eventual acceptance, of those around her. Upon her death, a new adventure begins for her family.
More than a cursory tale of a family adventure, the book finds its footing in the rawness and imperfection of single moments. Scattering Cinny’s ashes to fulfill her final request holds a certain poetry in theory, but the practicalities of doing so lead to moments of irreverence that are both comical and moving. And Cinny’s family is treated with the same nuance: each member has their own life outside of their relationship to her. For example, Brian’s shift from dating a man to a woman is a nonissue in his own mind; the backlash he experiences is more about his family’s perceptions. Sage struggles following the sexual assault of her best friend, and the emotional burden she carries is palpable. The realities of what it means to be a mother, sister, brother, or the youngest person in the family are considered too.
As the journey begins, a chapter is set aside for each location. These chapters include letters from Cinny that outline her wishes and provide context; her voice is a beautiful blend of vulgarity and sophistication. And at the end of her family’s journey, their lives—in all their mundane glory—resume. Subtle and meaningful, the novel Pocketful of Poseys is about the complexities of family.
DEBBIE MCCARTHY (August 27, 2023)
Raising Kids beyond the Binary
Celebrating God’s Transgender and Gender Diverse Children
Jamie Bruesehoff
Rebekah Bruesehoff, contributor
Broadleaf Books
Softcover $254.00 (254pp)
978-1-5064-8864-6
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Jamie Bruesehoff’s thoughtful book Raising Kids Beyond the Binary explores issues of gender identity from a personalized, Christian perspective.
With elements of a memoir, this is a clear guide to understanding gender identities written by a woman who has experience with raising a transgender child—her daughter Rebekah. It also draws from Bruesehoff’s advocacy work within the transgender rights space and her Christian faith, conveying a strong message of inclusion and acceptance of gender-diverse children while acknowledging the challenges that cisgender parents and caregivers may have in understanding such issues.
While the book speaks to Bruesehoff’s experiences, it is clear about its intent to not center Bruesehoff in the struggles that transgender people face. Its work is empathetic and delivers repeated reminders that gender-diverse people, like Bruesehoff’s daughter, are the ones who deserve the most support.
With detailed explanations of terminology related to gender, sex, biology, and sexual orientation, the book succeeds in providing a thorough account of what it means to be a gender-diverse person. And it makes a strong case for affirming the existence and rights of transgender individuals through the use of biblical texts and expertise from Christian advocates. The book, however, is not limited to Christian views, and broader insight into the experience of transgender people is included, with a strong focus on the work of Black transgender people.
A poignant view into raising gender-diverse children, Raising Kids Beyond the Binary is a powerful account of a mother’s love and advocacy for her daughter.
GAIL HOFFER-LOIBL (August 27, 2023)
What Start Bad a Mornin’
Carol Mitchell
Central Avenue Publishing
Hardcover $28.00 (272pp)
978-1-77168-354-8
Buy: Local Bookstore (Bookshop), Amazon
Carol Mitchell’s novel What Start Bad a Mornin’ moves between the United States and Caribbean islands in search of buried memories.
Amaya has vague memories of her life in Jamaica before she moved to Trinidad and met her husband, Brian. Further burying her past, she chose to raise her son, Taiwo, in the United States. There, Amaya forms friendships and takes care of her son and her aging Aunt Marjorie while assisting at Brian’s law firm. Scenery and people help her to settle into this life; there are also reminders of her past, always just out of reach. However, after an encounter with a woman who claims to be her sister and an onslaught of repressed memories, Amaya’s life is upended.
After a slow start, the novel unfolds via precise details from Amaya’s life. With so much of her past forgotten, these details ground her. She observes a multitude of gardens; the shelter she and Taiwo serve food at; and the neighborhoods they traverse. These intricate details hold the story together as Amaya debates who to share her recalled memories with; information is also shared about her friends and herself, so that both the world and those who inhabit it are deep.
The dialogue is peppered with Jamaican patois; Amaya’s background is thus centered even when she can’t remember it. This language is spoken at home and around Aunt Marjorie, whose dementia leaves her confused in Virginia, so far from Jamaica. Still, Marjorie mistakes others for people Amaya can’t recall, leading her toward what she’s forgotten. Indeed, colloquialisms fill in the gaps that Amaya cannot.
The novel What Start Bad a Mornin’ illustrates the far-reaching power—and damage—of forgetting.
ADDISSYN HOUSE (August 27, 2023)
Barbara Hodge
