On Screen On Page: April 1, 2025
Nebula Award short list; James by Percival Everett; nuclear history from Frank Close; hummingbirds.
Potentials (should I buy them?)
One of the uplifting aspect of being known as a “book nerd” is that people rave about books they’ve recently enjoyed. My wife was told of The Place of Tides by James Rebanks, a relatively recent nonfiction book about eider duck harvesting in remote Norway.
I’m quite unsure about a June publication, The Hiroshima Men: The Quest to Build the Atomic Bomb, and the Fateful Decision to Use It by Iain MacGregor. On the one hand, the topic is endlessly fascinating and if it’s true that new archival material has surfaced, the book could be magnificent. On the other hand, I’ve read so much about this and the topic is not germane to the book I’m finishing off.
Roxane Gay’s reading slate rarely matches mine but her choices are so, so interesting. I’m most taken by this “quest” novel from a year ago: I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger. Rio Youers’s madcap thriller The Bang Bang Sisters (last July) also appeals. Interesting: Hot Air by Marcy Dermansky (a fortnight ago, amazing cover!) and Jemima Wei’s The Original Daughter (May).
Much as I admire Michael Connelly’s crime fiction novels, I don’t read them all. He releases them fast enough to leave me jaded. I skip the Renee Ballard series these days. Well, he has a brand new character coming out, independent of Harry Bosch, namely His June publication, Nightshade introduces Detective Stillwell (what’s his first name, I couldn’t find out?), happily married (i.e. not Bosch) on a rustic island. I’m likely to check it out.
Tim Goodman recommends a new Netflix series, Deli Boys, so I’ll at least try one episode.
I can’t recall who recommended Fish Tales by Nettie Jones.
I’m not enough of a sci-fi devotee to really understand the difference between the genres two major annual awards, the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award. I just pay attention to both, especially the winners, but I also scan each year’s shortlist. From this year’s Nebula shortlist, I spot two intriguing offerings: Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell (April last year) and Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory by Yaroslavl Barsukov (last December).
Purchases for my bedside table
Why am I terrified of Percival Everett’s James? Every time I hear praise, I duck away. Well, now someone else has made the decision for me. My longstanding men’s book group has chosen it. And I can’t wait to read.
My wife showed me the trailer of Every Little Thing, a doco about hummingbirds. Both keen birders, we’re delighted that it has come to our local Lido cinema.
I’ve read two of Frank Close’s many books, both bios of nuclear spies, both exceedingly stylish. His June publication, Destroyer of Worlds: The Deep History of the Nuclear Age 1895-1965 covers the “nuclear age” up to 1965. A must-read for me and the book I’m writing.
Three book clubs have nominated novels for me, a couple well in advance, all of them welcome: Anne Tyler’s Three Days in June; Nesting by Roisin O'Donnell; and Signs of Damage by Diana Reed.
Into Reject Bin
Embracing Uncertainty: How Writers, Musicians and Artists Thrive in an Unpredictable World by Margaret Heffernan.
The Human Scale by Lawrence Wright.
Julian Baggins’s How the World Eats: A Global Food Philosophy.
Cass R. Sunstein’s Climate Justice: What Rich Nations Owe the World—and the Future.
The Dream by Iain Ryan.
Potentially too upsetting: Peter Beinart’s Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza.
The first Richard Powers novel in years that I have bought but not read, shelved far away with regrets: Playground.
Dominion by Adde E. Cicchens.
Audition by Katie Kitamura.
Jane Caro’s Lyrebird.
John Green’s Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection.