The Saracen Lamp

So far this is my least favorite Ruth M. Arthur book but it's all right.  It's about a lamp that is passed down to three different women.  The one that was the most interesting to me was Perdita who lived in modern times.  She's a crippled girl who takes it upon herself to walk again.  There's an evil doll that Perdita talks to that doesn't encourage her healing.  This follows Ruth M. Arthur's usual obsessions such as ancestors, the supernatural, and evil dolls.  (See her masterpiece https://bethsbookoftheweek.blogspot.com/2019/02/a-candle-in-her-room.html) Arthur has a formula but she does it well.  Not only that when you read a book of Ruth M. Arthur's you know it's hers.  Too many authors don't add anything unique that is generally theirs.  You can't say this with Ruth M. Arthur.  I've never paid for a book of Arthur's.  The prices are high.  It's called interlibrary loan.  

The Book of Sand and Shakespeare's Memory

This combines two works that Borges did in 1975 and 1983.  I've been reading a bit of Borges lately mostly because I read a fascinating autobiography on him.  The stories I liked the most were "The Other" and "August 25, 1983".  Both of those stories have the same concept.  An older version of Jorge meets a younger one.  I wonder sometimes what I would have to say to a younger version of myself.  Would I warn myself of trials ahead?  (But then I would probably be a coward to accept the trials or be horrified.)  What kind of advice would I give?  They are stories that make you think.  I was disappointed in "Blue Tigers."  The first thing I read by him was "The Book of Imaginary Beings" and he had an interesting section on blue tigers.  The story starts out about blue tigers but then becomes a story about stones.  That's not what I wanted.  Someone should write a short story on them. 

The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place

This book shows that Julie Berry is a very diverse author. I read The Passion of Dolssa recently.  It was historical fiction.  If the author's name wasn't on the cover I would take it for two authors. This is a black comedy.  It's a young adult book about a headmistress and her brother being killed.  The girls in the school want to stay together so they cover it up.  But how long can they successfully do it?  Not only that the murderer is still loose.  This book was cute.    

Kindred

I'm a fan of Octavia E. Butler.  I've read a number of her works but this is still her best.  It's about a woman who is transported back in time to keep helping this white boy named Rufus who is an ancestor of hers.  Initially, she thinks that he must have some important purpose.  She tries to make a difference in the boy's life, hoping that she can have an impression on him.  However, he starts turning into his dad selling slaves and the like.  The book ends up with a bang.  You feel for the character as she has to degrade herself to fit into the slavery times.  Yet she is an extraordinary bright woman.  This is great literature.  This is the type of book that should be in Modern Library.  

The Passion of Dolssa

Too many young adult books have annoying characters.  I've read a number recently and even good ones seem to have that fault.  This book differs from the genre in that it doesn't take place in high school.  In fact, it takes place in the 1200's.  It deals with Dolssa, a healer who is taken to be a heretic.  Botille and her sisters hide her from a persistent man Friar Lucien who is hunting her.  Soon she is healing again and the hunt for her becomes easy.  I welcomed this historical fiction book.  It was certainly different than the other young adult books I've read.  I applaud the change.  Young adult publishers need to get more books like this in print. This is a book about characters who don't even know prom is.  It's refreshing.  

The Blacker the Berry

This was another book from the Harlem Renaissance.  I didn't care for the main character Emma Lou as I found her snooty.  I was involved though with the book and finished it in a short time.  It's about Emma Lou's struggle to find a place where she belongs.  Her skin is too dark for the African Americans around her and the Caucasians. She goes to college for a few years.  Then she goes to Harlem where she falls for a loser player called Alva.  He even has the gall to tell her she is imagining the discrimination.  However, you as a reader see it happening everywhere around her.  The reader is frustrated by some of her actions like her quitting college and going back to Alva.  However, the ending left me satisfied.  

Borges: A Life

It's kind of weird that I chose to read this whereas I've never read one of his books of short stories.  Nevertheless, I picked it up on the shelf and read it.  It's cool that a high school dropout was able to become one of South America's best writers.  However, Borges comes across as very smart and determined.  He sent his work to millions of places, not over that he started many literary magazines himself.  This book also goes over all of the trials in his life: his blindness, his hatred of the Perons, and his several unrequited crushes.  The most frustrating of which was the writer Norah Lange.  She was a woman clearly in love with another man.  Whenever the man dumped her she went right back to Jorge only to go back if the man showed the slightest interest.  I felt like telling Jorge she's not into you.  This book made me read The Aleph which I reviewed earlier.