Review: The Medici Return

The Medici Return by Steve Berry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This week, a doctor I work with told me the story of how allegedly the Catholic Church began its tradition of fish on Friday as part of a past Pope’s involvement in controlling the Italian fishing industry. While it’s an urban legend that proliferated very well without my knowledge, it nevertheless pairs very well with this latest Cotton Malone novel from Steve Berry, in which Malone investigates reports of an unpaid debt from the Vatican to the old Medici family. Naturally, there’s a Cardinal with a bit too much personal involvement, as well as an enterprising modern day Italian who claims descent from the Medici family, and if provable, he could inherit the collection of that debt with centuries’ worth of interest. All in all, a serviceable if slightly dry outing from Berry, but that probably owes more to me reading this one at the sane time as one I’ve truly been waiting for years to read, Samantha Shannon’s The Dark Mirror.

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Review: Mister Magic

Mister Magic by Kiersten White
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I’ll be generous with an extra star on this one, but I’m honestly not sure why. Kiersten White has historically been one of those authors whose books, every time I’ve tried one, I’ve come up disappointed, and this was no exception. I get that she’s using this one to work through breaking away from the Mormon world where she was born and raised (and to think I was one of those who found her attempts at queer rep in past books, particularly And I Darken, to suffer from heavy stereotyping, only to now realize the seeds for her leaving the LDS Church have been growing for years.) I get that she’s hopping onto the analog horror train, in the same “cursed 90s kids show” car where Jane Schoenbrun and Ransom Riggs have been riding lately too, not to mention Edgar Cantero some years ago with his god-awful (if somewhat ahead of its time) grimdark Scooby-Doo riff, Meddling Kids. Unfortunately, what sinks this book is its muddled and increasingly nonsensical plot, and characters who fall flatter than pancakes. I think I’ve finally learned my lesson at this point - no more Kiersten White books for me.

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Review: The Adventures of Tim & Fluff

The Adventures of Tim & Fluff by Firdaus Ahmed
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This one is for the kids, and for the animal lovers of all ages. Another reviewer compared it to Studio Ghibli, but I’d say if another animation studio could adapt this book, it’d be Aardman. (I may or may not have just gotten around to watching the new Wallace and Gromit movie last weekend in honor of its Oscar nomination…) But this book of animals learning to work together in the face of adversity in common would also pair well with the recent hit Flow, as well as The Wild Robot due to its high number of characters who read as neurodivergent in some way. Particularly Tim, the bouncy dog with the uniquely bunny-like locomotion, and Fluff, who embodies all the hauteur for which cats are known, but it’s all a façade even if he’s not ready to admit it. And both adorable pets have such a strong sense of justice, and know when to do the right thing even at risk of their friendships and their health. I hope to see more of their adventures someday, and to recommend this book to as many kids as I can, especially the kids who come to my workplace for doctor’s appointments.

P.S. Love how this book shouts out the best Chris of them all. Evans and Pine and Pratt and Hemsworth are all cool, but none beat the man whose name went to Luna's dad: Christopher Charles Wood.

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Review: The Sicilian Inheritance

The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It’s a tale of two Sicilian ladies, one a modern day American visiting her ancestral homeland, while the other is one of her ancestors, who found herself in a serious series of unfortunate events. Teen pregnancy, a patriarchy that flat out disrespected her, and a mafia murder whose truths are only now about to come to light…truth is stranger than fiction, and to hear Piazza say it, this book was inspired a lot by her own family history. It’s a surprisingly lighter read than I expected, in part because of the first person POV’s (though one is much more snarky than the other, as befits her status as a modern Sicilian American.) At some point maybe I should pick up more of Piazza’s books, especially if they’ve got more connections to such a fascinating place as Sicily.

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