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DECEMBER ON 5C4

An intense novella of ideas that looks into the heart of faith and generosity.

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Strassberg presents a brief fantasy novella about discussions in a psychiatric hospital between two men who resemble Jesus Christ and Santa Claus.

In this short, somewhat whimsical tale, two very different men meet in a ward for patients with mental illness: a short Jewish man named Josh with a brown beard, and Nick,a big-bellied fellow with white whiskers. Josh was just committed by paramedics because he was found wandering in traffic after breaking up with his boyfriend; Nick is the former CEO of Myra Toys who used to travel frequently on business (“I basically lived my life out of a big red sack,” he says, in one of Strassberg’s many winks at the reader. “I must have carried that bag over my shoulder forever”). Both men find themselves in the ward during the Christmas season, and they initially find themselves in conflict as they fall into arguments about metaphysics in the common rooms. Josh is spiritual and empathetic, assuring Nick that “God doesn’t want our independence; he wants our interdependence.” Nick, guessing that Josh is an unhoused person, is sharply intolerant at first: “I know if you’ve been bad or good, and you’ve all been bad,” he rumbles. “My tax dollars go to pay for the land where you illegally squat in your tents.” In the slow, skillful development of the relationship between these two men, Strassberg plays on the initial gimmick of having Jesus and Santa analogues meet, and steadily broadens the story into a more ambitious meeting of the minds, drawing on elements of philosophy. Nick is predictably jolly, but Strassberg’s greatest creation is Josh, who prays only for “an ordinary mortal life” and is the source of most of this slim book’s most memorable passages: “Perfection is the enemy of the good, but for me, I’ve met perfection,” he complains at one point. “And perfection has met me and just won’t leave me alone.” Very little happens in the book other than these verbal encounters, but readers will be too interested to notice.

An intense novella of ideas that looks into the heart of faith and generosity.

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2024

ISBN: 9798337610870

Page Count: 95

Publisher: Nat 1 Publishing

Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025

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  • New York Times Bestseller

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THE WOMEN

A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.

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A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.

When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.

A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.

Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024

ISBN: 9781250178633

Page Count: 480

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023

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IRON FLAME

From the Empyrean series , Vol. 2

Unrelenting, and not in a good way.

A young Navarrian woman faces even greater challenges in her second year at dragon-riding school.

Violet Sorrengail did all the normal things one would do as a first-year student at Basgiath War College: made new friends, fell in love, and survived multiple assassination attempts. She was also the first rider to ever bond with two dragons: Tairn, a powerful black dragon with a distinguished battle history, and Andarna, a baby dragon too young to carry a rider. At the end of Fourth Wing (2023), Violet and her lover, Xaden Riorson, discovered that Navarre is under attack from wyvern, evil two-legged dragons, and venin, soulless monsters that harvest energy from the ground. Navarrians had always been told that these were monsters of legend and myth, not real creatures dangerously close to breaking through Navarre’s wards and attacking civilian populations. In this overly long sequel, Violet, Xaden, and their dragons are determined to find a way to protect Navarre, despite the fact that the army and government hid the truth about these creatures. Due to the machinations of several traitorous instructors at Basgiath, Xaden and Violet are separated for most of the book—he’s stationed at a distant outpost, leaving her to handle the treacherous, cutthroat world of the war college on her own. Violet is repeatedly threatened by her new vice commandant, a brutal man who wants to silence her. Although Violet and her dragons continue to model extreme bravery, the novel feels repetitive and more than a little sloppy, leaving obvious questions about the world unanswered. The book is full of action and just as full of plot holes, including scenes that are illogical or disconnected from the main narrative. Secondary characters are ignored until a scene requires them to assist Violet or to be killed in the endless violence that plagues their school.

Unrelenting, and not in a good way.

Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023

ISBN: 9781649374172

Page Count: 640

Publisher: Red Tower

Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024

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