The Lioness, by Chris Bohjalian
It’s 1964 and movie star Katie Barstow and her brand-new husband, David Hill, travel with a group of their friends to Tanzania for a photo safari. They’ll be glamping, with experienced local guides to help them see wild animals from a safe distance and a support staff to make sure the G&Ts are chilled at the end of the day. But it doesn’t take long for things to go very, very sideways; a team of gun-happy Russian mercenaries shows up and kidnaps part of the group. This is the kind of book where you read the list of characters — which includes actress Carmen Tedesco and her screenwriter husband; Terrance Dutton, Katie’s Black co-star in a recent film; and Katie’s psychologist brother and pregnant sister-in-law — and realize it’s going to be a lot shorter by the end of the story. Which is to say that if you are troubled by descriptions of wild animals pouncing on people, or by acts of human-on-human violence, this is probably not the beach read for you. As the action unspools — that kidnapping plot turns out to be more complicated than just the prospect of ransom for a famous American actress — I got invested in the characters and their back stories, picked my favorites, and rooted for them to avoid the hyenas and duck the gunshots.
Just Pursuit, by Laura Coates
I heard Laura Coates discussing her book on Criminal (one of my favorite podcasts), and knew I had to read it. Coates, now a CNN senior legal analyst and Sirius radio host, spent four years as a federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., and wrestled with the way that her work put her “at odds with my principles and lived experience as a Black woman.” When she got the job offer, a colleague shut the door and warned her to think twice. “Two words, Coates: human misery,” he told her. She thought she could use the powerful position of a prosecutor to change things from within the system, but the stories she tells demonstrate why she came to doubt that. The moral conflicts pile up: Is there any way she can stop ICE from arresting a car theft victim who came to the country illegally as a teenager? How can she participate in a system that won’t take 15 minutes to investigate the claim of a man picked up by the warrant squad that they have the wrong person? What to do about the colleague who gleefully shows her how to interrogate a young Black defendant without regard to how the conversation will put him in danger? This book exposes the everyday failings of the U.S. justice system and Coates’s struggle to figure out if her “presence in the system was an asset and not somehow a betrayal.” She voted with her feet, leaving the day her four-year commitment ended, choosing to work for justice in different ways, including writing this excellent, heartbreaking book.
Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, by Juno Dawson
In Dawson’s version of the UK, witches not only exist, they’re eligible to join the civil service as part of Her Majesty’s Royal Coven. That’s what Elle, Niamh, Helena and Leonie did as young girls, 25 years ago. These days, they’re on very different paths. Helena, a witchy Tracy Flick, has risen to become High Priestess of HMRC. Elle is trying to live a quiet life away from all the supernatural stuff, though that’s all at risk now that her daughter seems to be developing her own powers. Leonie has started her own more diverse, inclusive (and more fun) coven in London. And Niamh is a country vet, mourning her husband’s death and her twin sister Ciara’s betrayal, both of which occurred during a destructive civil war involving witches and warlocks several years ago. The action begins when a prophecy suggests that a recently identified young warlock is going to bring untold ruination to the world. But the warlock isn’t what he initially seems to be, and Helena — whose talking points echo those of a very famous British children’s book author who has very fixed ideas about gender — is determined to take a different, uncompromising approach than her old friends, with grim consequences. If you like this clever fantasy, which is simultaneously a complete hoot and an incisive look at politics, identity and power, you’ll be as delighted as I am that it’s the first of a planned trilogy.
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