Book Review: The Book of Speculation is a first novel by Erika Swyler, and a great way to start a writing career. A man descended from a family of circus performers gets a mysterious old book in the mail and needs to find out what curse has plagued the women in his family, who all drown on the same day in July at some point in their lives. The book bounces back and forth between the present and past, relying on illustrations by the author of tarot cards and other items to keep the story moving forward. The plot wasn’t as quickly moving as I would have hoped, but it’s a strong start for a first novel. I would give it three and a half stars, but the ending was so poignant and well done, I’m rounding up to Four Stars.

Book Review: Publishers are funny. They won’t publish books from talented authors they don’t know (yet), but once that author becomes famous and they can make a boatload of cash, they’ll publish everything by that person. Such is the case with the recent Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee, and such is the case with Wind/Pinball by Haruki Murakami. In the preface to the two short novels (novellas, really) Murakami sounds almost embarrassed to be releasing these, having written them at his kitchen table in the 1970s. And I can see why he’s embarrassed: Although there are hints of the brilliance to come, neither of the stories are engaging … nor can there be anything that could remotely be described as a plot. These meandering but mercifully short tales can be tackled in one sitting. But they were probably best left in the slush pile. One star for each novella, so Two Stars.

Book Review: When I began reading The Fall of Princes by Robert Goolrick, I was really excited. The writing is absolutely gorgeous, and I had forgotten what a talent he was. I loved his first novel, A Reliable Wife, as well as his follow-up Heading Out to Wonderful. Before I got to page 50, I went online and ordered his first book, the memoir The End of the World As We Know It. But somewhere shortly after that, I realized the huge problem with this book. At least for me, in order to like a book, I have to be emotionally vested in the main character … and I wanted the main character in this book to die a slow painful death. He works in a Barnes & Noble now, and flashes back to his days of excess as a stock trader in the 80s. Chapter after chapter of cocaine use, whoring, and friends contracting AIDS made me just wish the whole thing would end much quicker than it did. I returned the book, but look forward to reading his memoir–which I’m sure will have a much more sympathetic main character. Two Stars for the wonderful writing.