Svetlana's Reads and Views

     Name of Book: Author: ISBN: Publisher: Type of book: Fantasy, steppes, politics, fights, secrets, survival, gladiator, scorned love, magic, dark legends  Year it was published: Summary: Characters: Main character would be Sonja, a Hyrkanian woman who is best described as a nomad without any ties to anything. She is also known as a She Devil. Sonja has a devil may care/ hedonistic attitude towards life and does things she has little regrets for. She is a fierce fighter and in her own way is loyal. There are other characters such as Ysidra, Sonjas scorned lover, and Sylus, a twisted individual who is best described as sadistic.  Theme: Is it possible to love  Plot: The story is in third person narrative primarily from Sonjas point of view. Other characters also give their points of view such as Ysidra, Solus, the Hyrkanian royalty and guards. So I am not familiar with Sonjas world, thus a map would have been beneficial for me. And story does not really b...

     Name of Book: Author: ISBN: Publisher: Part of a Series: Type of book: England, horror, Victorian Era (1870s) physical horror and psychological, evil, governess, secrets, fall and winter,  Year it was published: Summary: Characters: Main character is Winifred Notty, a governess with DARKNESS inside. I am definitely struggling in describing her, but I would guess impulsive, murderous, deviant a well as a closeted umm c are the right descriptions. There are secondary characters but they are more caricatures than actual people. Mr Pounds is head of household who is obsessed with phrenology ( measuring skulls and seeing if there are criminal tendencies). Mrs Pounds is his wife who thinks she is beautiful but is ugly, and treats Winifred very harshly. The kids, Andrew and Drusilla. Drusilla is the oldest child who seems to care for Winifred and is often held back by her mother. Andrew is a spoilt first son.   Theme: People can be born evil? There is no thin...

    Title of the book: The why is everything; a story of football, rivalry, and revolution  Author: Michael Silver Publisher: W.W. Norton Publishing Date: 2024  ISBN: 9781324093602 Summary: The story of the brilliant, hypercompetitive young coaches who threw out decades of received wisdom to fundamentally remake America’s most popular sport. The why is everything. That’s the ethos of Kyle Shanahan, son of a coaching legend and now the leading figure in a revolution that is sweeping the league. Shanahan and the branches of his coaching “tree”—including Sean McVay, Mike McDaniel, Raheem Morris, and Matt LaFleur—came up in a martial sport where coaches and players did things a certain way for the simple reason that coaches and players had always done them that way. In the early 2010s, while working for the Washington Redskins, Shanahan and the others began to ask why, and in the process threw out decades of accumulated tradition in favor of unorthodox—and wild...

      Name of Book: A tide of black steel Author: Anthony Ryan ISBN:  9780316574587 Publisher: Orbit Part of a Series: Age of Wrath  Type of book: Fantasy, NORSE, spinoff/ sequel, 20 or 30 years after Covenant of Steel, Ascarlia, powers, conquer, politics, intrigues, magic, gladiator, slavery, seeds of colonialism   Year it was published: 2024  Summary: From the international bestselling author Anthony Ryan comes the spectacular first novel in a new epic new fantasy trilogy inspired by Norse mythology. A new age has dawned. An age of blood and steel. An age of wrath. The land of Ascarlia, a fabled realm of bloodied steel and epic sagas, has been ruled by the Sister Queens for centuries. No one has dared question their rule. Until now. Whispers speak of longships of mysterious tattooed warriors, sailing under the banners of a murderous cult of oath-breakers long thought extinct. A tide of black steel that threatens to vanquish all in its path. Ther...

      Name of Book: Warriors of god  Author:  Andrzej Sapkowski (trans David French)  ISBN: 9780316423717 Publisher: Orbit  Part of a Series: Hussite Trilogy (sequel to The Tower of Fools, prequel to Light Perpetual)  Type of book: Poland, historical fiction 1427-1429, some fantasy, Hussite wars, battles, endless Latin, romance, damsels in distress, spying, loyalty, revenge, determination  Year it was published: 2004 (2021)  Summary: From the New York Times bestselling author of The Reynevan—scoundrel, magician, possibly a fool—travels into the depths of war as he attempts to navigate the religious fervors of the fifteenth century. When the Hussite leaders entrust Reynevan with a dangerous secret mission, he is forced to come out of hiding in Bohemia and depart for Silesia. At the same time, he strives to avenge the death of his brother and discover the whereabouts of his beloved. Once again pursued by multiple enemies, he...

    Title of the book: Sunrise; Radiant Stories Author: Erika Kobayashi (Trans Brian Bergstrom) Publisher: Astra House Publishing Date: 2023  ISBN:  9781662601170 Summary: "A knockout." — Publishers Weekly (Starred review) "A remarkable collection." —Kirkus Reviews A collection of contemplative, lyrical stories examining the visible and invisible consequences of atomic power on Japanese society Sunrise is a collection of interconnected stories continuing Erika Kobayashi’s examination of the effects of nuclear power on generations of women. Connecting changes to everyday life to the development of the atomic bomb, Sunrise shows us how the discovery of radioactive power has shaped our history and continues to shape our future. In the opening, eponymous story “Sunrise,” Yoko, born exactly two years and one day after Nagasaki was decimated, mirrors her life to the development of nuclear power in Japan. In “Precious Stones,” four daughters take their elderly mother to th...

      Name of Book: Deceit Author: Yuri Felsen (Bryan Karetnyk)  ISBN:  9781662601965 Publisher: Astra House  Type of book: France, Russian emigre, obsession, 1920s, love, work, classicism, novels, life, futility, broken relationships, broken marriage, crushes   Year it was published: 1930 (2023)  Summary: Deceit is the first major work by Yuri Felsen, referred to by his contemporaries as ‘the Russian Proust’, a significant writer who died in the gas chambers in Auschwitz, and whose legacy and archive was destroyed by the Nazis. Written in the form of a diary, the novel recounts the unnamed narrator’s complex and emotionally fraught relationship with his love interest and sometime muse. While the plot itself is relatively simple, the real revelation in Felsen’s writing is its supreme originality of language and psychological introspection. Quite unlike any other writer in the Russian canon, Felsen evokes in rich, poetic, idiosyncratic prose n...

    Title of the book: Ultra Processed People why we can't stop eating food that isn't food  Author: Chris van Tulleken  Publisher: W.W. Norton  Publishing Date: 2023  ISBN: 978-1-324-07626-1 Summary: Goodreads Choice AwardNominee for Readers' Favorite Nonfiction (2023) New York Times Bestseller Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlisted for the Waterstones Book of the Year A manifesto to change how you eat and how you think about the human body. It’s not you, it’s the food. We have entered a new age of eating. For the first time in human history, most of our calories come from an entirely novel set of substances called Ultra-Processed Food. There’s a long, formal scientific definition, but it can be boiled down to this: if it’s wrapped in plastic and has at least one ingredient that you wouldn’t find in your kitchen, it’s UPF. These products are specifically engineered to behave as addictive substances, driving excess consumption. They are now li...

      Name of Book: The Third Rule of Time Travel Author: Phillip Fracassi ISBN:  9780316572514 Publisher: Orbit  Type of book: time travel, memories, alternative worlds, 2044, secrets, higher force, widowhood, science fiction, technology  Year it was published: 2025 Summary: Rule One: Travel can only occur to a point within your lifetime. Rule Two: You can only travel for ninety seconds. Rule Three: You can only observe. The rules cannot be broken. In this riveting science fiction novel from acclaimed author Philip Fracassi, a scientist has unlocked the mysteries of time travel. This is not the story you think you know. And the rules are only the beginning. Scientist Beth Darlow has discovered the unimaginable. She's built a machine that allows human consciousness to travel through time—to any point in the traveler's lifetime—and relive moments of their life. An impossible breakthrough, but it's not perfect: the traveler has no way to interact with the pas...

      Name of Book: The Fury of the Gods  Author: John Gwynne  ISBN: 9780316539951 Publisher: Orbit Part of a Series: Bloodsworn Saga  Type of book: Fantasy, wars, battles, revenge, North fantasy, gods, NORSE mythology, secrets, politics, loyalty, dedication Year it was published: 2024  Summary: The Fury of the Gods is the earth-shattering final book in John Gwynne's bestselling Norse-inspired epic fantasy series, packed with myth, magic and bloody vengeance THE FINAL BATTLE FOR THE FATE OF VIGRIÐ APPROACHES Varg has overcome the trials of his past and become an accepted member of the Bloodsworn, but now he and his newfound comrades face their biggest challenge yet: slaying a dragon. Elvar is struggling to consolidate her power in Snakavik, where she faces threats from within and without. As she fights to assert her authority in readiness for the coming conflict, she faces a surely insurmountable task: reining in the ferocity of a wolf god. As Biorr an...

     Name of Book: I'll be strong for you Author: Nasim Marashi  (trans Poupeh Missaghi ISBN:978-1-66260-036-4 Publisher: Astra House  Type of book: Iran, 2010s? Summer and fall, decisions, depression, Tehran, friendship, marriage, choices, decisions, family, party  Year it was published: 2021 (2014)  Summary: This award-winning debut novel by Iranian journalist Nasim Marashi follows the lives of three young women in Tehran over the course of two seasons as they pursue their wildly different dreams even as they discover that it may mean breaking with the past and endangering their longstanding friendship. Three recent college graduates in Tehran struggle to find their footing in this award-winning debut by Iranian journalist Nasim Marashi. Roja, the most daring of the three, works in an architecture firm and is determined to leave Tehran for graduate school in Toulouse. Shabaneh, who is devoted to her disabled brother and works with Roja, is uncertain ...

      Name of Book: Early Sobrities  Author: Michael Deagler  ISBN: 9781662602245 Publisher: Astra House  Type of book: 2016, sobriety, Pope visit, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, time, roommates, living and work situations, millennial life, introspection  Year it was published: 2024  Summary: Don’t worry about what Dennis Monk did when he was drinking. He’s sober now, ready to rejoin the world of leases and paychecks, reciprocal friendships and healthy romances—if only the world would agree to take him back. When his working-stiff parents kick him out of their suburban home, mere months into his frangible sobriety, the 26-year-old spends his first dry summer couch surfing through South Philadelphia, struggling to find a place for himself in the throng of adulthood. Monk’s haphazard pilgrimage leads him through a city in flux: growing, gentrifying, haunted by its history and its unrealized potential. Everyone he knew from college seems to be doing bett...

    Name of Book: Happy Author: Celina Baljeet Basra  ISBN: 9781662602306 Publisher: Astra House  Type of book: "Disneyland park in India" migrants, Europe, 2010, dreams, shattered dreams, reality, Punjab, crossing over illegally  Year it was published: 2023 Summary: For fans of Vikas Swarup and Charles Yu, the story of a starry-eyed cinephile who leaves his rural village in Punjab to pursue his dreams—a formally daring debut novel set against the global migration crisis. In a rural village of Punjab, India, a moony young man crouches over his phone in a rapeseed field near his family’s cabbage farm. His name is Happy Singh Soni, and he’s watching YouTube clips of his favorite film, Bande à Part by Jean-Luc Godard. In fact, Happy is often compared to a young Sami Frey by the imaginary journalists that keep him company while he uses the outhouse. Pooing, as he says, “en plein air.” When he’s not sleeping among the cabbages and eating his mother’s sugary rotis, H...

Name of Book: The Translator  Author: Harriet Crawley  ISBN: 978-1-913394-83-7 Publisher:  Bitter Lemon Press  Type of book: Russia, translators, second chances, 2017, oligarch life, secrets, spying, United Kingdom Year it was published: 2023  Summary: The Sunday Best Thrillers of 2023. Financial Best Summer Thrillers of 2023.   “A classic thriller of the new Cold War.” Antony Beevor, author of  Stalingrad.   A highly topical  espionage novel  about a Russian plot to cut the undersea communication cables linking the US to the UK. Also, a passionate love story between two people determined to stop this cataclysmic act. Clive Franklin, a Russian language expert in the Foreign Office, is summoned unexpectedly to Moscow to act as translator for the British Prime Minister. His life is upended when he discovers that his former lover, Marina Volina, is the interpreter to the Russian President. Together they will try to stop the att...

    Name of Book: Dom Casmurro  Author: Machado de Assis (trans Margaret Jull Costa, Robin Patterson)   ISBN:978-1-324-09070-0 Publisher: Live right  Type of book: Rio de Janeiro Brazil, memories, seminary, wealth, love, secrets, 1857-1870s, friendship, marriage, happiness, jealousy, suspiciousness, adolescence, childhood sweetheart, promises, fictional memoirs  Year it was published: 2023 (1899)  Summary: Dom Casmurro is the nickname of Bento Santiago, who, old and alone, reveals his memories. A promise from his mother shaped his destiny as a priest, but Bento Santiago, in love, abandoned the seminary. He studies law and marries his great love, but jealousy and distrust grow. He suspects that he is not the biological father of the couple's son, Ezequiel, but rather his great friend Escobar. Characters: Main characters are Bento Santiago who is best described as naive and takes things at face value. He is a jealous man but also loyal and semi tale...