I Am Not Your Enemy: A Memoir by Reality Winner (Spiegel & Grau). Reviewed by Gretchen Lida. “In the end, even if her motives were a bit fuzzy and her actions impulsive, she proves herself to be the kind of person we very much need to prevent fascism: a troublemaker. She’s one of the brave souls willing to gum up the works for those who would grab absolute power. No matter what people say, Reality Winner did her part, and she paid dearly for it.”

Oxford Soju Club: A Novel by Jinwoo Park (Dundurn Press). Reviewed by Alice Stephens. “But even when from the same country, the characters experience very different realities, as with Doha, protected by his family status, and Yohan, condemned by his, the difference a mere tick of fate. Class, geography, generations, and family all conspire to separate Koreans so that they’re eternally at loggerheads with each other: elite and lumpen, North and South, parents and children, heirs and bastards. The only one at peace is Jihoon, who seems to control his own destiny…right up until the moment he doesn’t.”

Maria La Divina: A Novel of Maria Callas by Jerome Charyn (Bellevue Literary Press). Reviewed by Martha Anne Toll. “Charyn has a distinct storytelling style that takes getting used to. If he were a student in a writing class, his prose would be termed ‘all tell and no show.’ Since he has published more than 50 books, one must assume his style is deliberate. He plunges readers into action yet keeps them at arm’s length by avoiding interiority in his characters. This approach makes for a page-turner, but not always a satisfying one.”

Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution by Amy Coney Barrett (Sentinel). Reviewed by Paul D. Pearlstein. “She cautiously plays down her contentious vote to overturn Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and attempts to explain why she agreed to give President Donald Trump unlimited, king-like powers in Trump v. United States. She presents herself as a neutral, open-minded observer compelled to reach her unassailable conclusions via originalism and textualism. (‘Elementary, my dear Watson.’) Barrett believes her analytical methods foster an unbiased, almost algorithmic-like process for resolving statutory disputes that all but mandates the inevitable, extremely conservative results.”

The Night That Finds Us All: A Novel by John Hornor Jacobs (G.P. Putnam’s Sons). Reviewed by Tara Laskowski. “John Hornor Jacobs’ novel follows plucky Samantha Vines, a self-described ‘short, skinny, tattooed, buzzed white hair’ sailor with a salty tongue and attitude who’s asked by an old pal to help deliver a 100-year-old sailboat from Seattle to England. It’s not the most appealing job in the world, and the crew includes people she has a complicated past with. But she’s down on her luck, has a bit of a drinking problem, and desperately needs money, so she’s not in a position to say no to the well-paying gig. Even if the boat is haunted. And even if Sam almost immediately starts getting, if not bad, then definitely weird vibes the moment she sets eyes on The Blackwatch.”

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