On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong ***

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong...

 is a letter by first-generation Vietnamese American, Little Dog, to his illiterate mother, Rose. They live with his grandmother, her mother, Lan, meaning orchid. He describes himself as a “queer yellow faggot.” The family lives surrounded by poverty and drugs. “To be gorgeous, you must first be seen, but to be seen allows you to be hunted.”

Little Dog is writing about his life from the perspective of his twenty-eight years. On one hand, he escaped his childhood poverty to attend college. “I, the first in our family to go to college, squandered it on a degree in English.” On the other hand, he is surrounded by death. His teen lover, Trevor, dies from an overdose of heroin laced with fentanyl at the age of 22. His grandmother died of bone cancer, not diagnosed until it was stage four, and death was imminent.

His mother worked in a nail salon where the hours were long, the chemicals dangerous, and she had to constantly demean herself for tips. “In the nail salon, sorry is a tool one uses to pander until the word itself becomes currency. It no longer merely apologizes, but insists, reminds: I’m here, right here, beneath you. It is the lowering of oneself so that the client feels right, superior, and charitable.”

The book includes vivid scenes of Little Dog’s sex life with Trevor, drug use, and life during the Vietnam War. The writing is poetic, but, for me, that wasn’t enough to balance the brutality and abuse. Depressing.

What genre does this book fit into? The author acknowledges the English Department at Brooklyn College for teaching him, “that rules are merely tendencies, not truths, and genre borders only as real as our imaginations small.”

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Dakota Nights by Debbie Macomber *****

Dakota Nights by Debbie Macomber. Powerful women. Passionate kisses. This book is a G-rated romance with pregnancies, dangerous secrets, multi-generational families, and holidays. It celebrates small towns and small farmers. If you want love at first sight that lives happily ever after, this is your book.

Dakota Nights is a compendium of two novels, Always Dakota and Buffalo Valley. Buffalo Valley follows Always Dakota and is half its length. Since Buffalo Valley refers extensively to Always Dakota, it is best to read them together, with Always Dakota first.

Always Dakota is a story of four relationships.

Margaret Clemens was innocent and rich. Matt Eilers had a reputation and was dating a cocktail waitress, Sheryl Decker. Regardless, Margaret wanted to marry Matt. She was the opposite of seductive, feminine Sheryl. As far as [her father] knew, she’d only worn a dress twice in her entire life. He’d tried to get her into one when she was ten and the attempt had damn near killed him. But, as everyone said, “Margaret’s Margaret.” She got Matt, but Sheryl wouldn’t let him go.

Calla hated her mother, Sarah, for divorcing her father, Willie Stern, and marrying Dennis. To make matters worse, Sarah and Dennis were having a baby. Calla punished her mother by going to live with Willie in Minneapolis, who proved to be a worse parent than anything Calla had imagined.

Merrily kidnapped Axel from his abusive parents, who were preparing to sell him to pedophiles. She lived in fear that she would be discovered. Her husband, Buffalo Bob, convinced her to turn herself in. As a result, the authorities in California took custody of Axel, she faced the possibility of jail time, and they had to apply to adopt Axel against California parents who didn’t have criminal records like Bob and Merrily in North Dakota.

Rachel started a quilting business in Buffalo Valley with a bank loan. She would accept a marriage proposal from bank president Heath until she paid off her loan.

Buffalo Valley.

Vaughn Kyle’s girlfriend Natalie was an executive and mega-retailer, Value-X, and had her eye on Buffalo Valley for the next store. “Buffalo Valley doesn’t have enough retail choices.” When she learned Vaughn had relatives in the area, she sent him to collect intelligence. In Buffalo Valley, “he met Carrie, and the attraction between them was undeniable.” With Carrie, he learned about small towns…Christmas tree lighting, cookie exchanges, and neighbors working together to overcome adversity.

“So you want to give me your heart?” she said

“Don’t you know?” he asked her.

“Know what?”

“You already have it.”

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South Breaks by Hannah Steenbock *****

South Breaks by Hannah Steenbock. “South was tired. They were on the first journey of her life, and the last.” It was her time.  “She had to die… to protect the Holy Empire.“ But South didn’t die. Instead, she learned that she had powers and that everything she believed was a lie. A novel about family, bravery, and justice.

“She must be the only Rabbit still alive... Her beloved Moon had been the first of them to go… Moon had already been tied down onto the sacrificial half orb on top of the Moon Pyramid when she made love to him for the last time.”

After escaping from the priests and learning about the Empire’s evil, the priests stole her niece, Shani. Along with her brother Goha, South had to rescue Shani from the Empire before Shani was sacrificed at the top of the Moon pyramid.

Her quest required her to uncover and accept her powers.

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The Blockchain Killing by Robert J Muller *****

In The Blockchain Killing by Robert J Muller, Alec Chenais is a hacker torn between three forces. He works at 1Weaklink, a startup that is developing a toolset to break blockchain privacy for the NSA. Elliot Perry is a Silicon Valley billionaire who helped to elect Trump and wants to hack blockchain to rule the world. Ludivine is based in Paris and wants the 1Weaklink code for her own purposes. When Alec’s girlfriend, Aamna Jaffrey or AJ, and the better coder of the pair, is murdered, Alec abandons coding to seek revenge. An international technothriller of coding, murder, and money.

AJ is from Pakistan, and her parents expected her to marry to benefit the family business. When her mother introduces her to the man, “Aamna, this is Farazman Syed. He is to be your husband. And this is the matchmaker, Begum Rabia Safdar,” her response is, “Fuck you, you silly buffoon.” She escapes to MIT.

When Elliot Perry realized that he was up against the NSA, he moved his efforts onto the 222-meter mega-yacht "Mugwump" in international waters.

Alec is up against the NSA, Perry, and Ludivine. They all have unlimited financial, hacking, and murderous resources.

Alec’s mother is Mary Bethune Chenais. Mary McLeod Bethune was an American educator, philanthropist, humanitarian, womanist, and civil rights activist, founder of Bethune-Cookman University. A wonderful biography of Mary Bethune and Eleanor Roosevelt can be found in The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. https://1book42day.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-first-ladies-by-marie-benedict-and.html

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The First Last Concert by Dee Lorraine *****

In The First Last Concert by Dee Lorraine, Victoria Robbins is a black woman of faith and ambition in a world of powerful men – a corrupt politician, a tormented entertainer, and a retired boxer. Throughout this, she doesn’t lose her faith or her goal to be an award-winning writer. Her quest takes her to NYC, Paris, and Kuala Lumpur. Not even the COVID-19 lockdown can stop her. An inspirational story.

Her first challenge is as a speech writer for Senator Harkenbrook, where she is introduced to the darker side of political organizations and campaign financing.

Next, she works for “Killer” Cain Foxworth, the retired boxer and NYC publisher who never wants to hear “No” from anyone who works for him.

Her third job is a publicist for jazz pianist Zechariah bin Shukri, who is tortured by the lack of performing opportunities during COVID-19 and trauma in his past. She manages this job with her writing and envelopes of $100 bills.

Throughout this, she draws on her faith to keep pushing herself and others forward.

A surprising character is “The magnificent black [97 key] Bösendorfer 290 Imperial Concert Grand piano.”

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A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher *****

A Wizard's Guide on Amazon

A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T Kingfisher opens when Mona discovers a dead body in her aunt’s bakery. Someone is killing magic people. As wizards go, Mona is the bottom of the barrel. She turns yeast and flour into tasty bread. Regardless, aided by Bob, the sourdough starter, she saves the city. “Siege. Sorcery. Sourdough.”

Mona can solve many missteps during the baking process. “You don’t want to knead them too much, or it makes them tough. I stuck a floury hand in the dough and suggested that maybe it didn’t want to be tough. There was a sort of fizziness around my fingers and the dough went a little stickier. Dough is very amicable to persuasion if you know how to ask it right. Sometimes I forget that other people can’t do it.”

Mona’s magic was often helpful. “As we passed the surly Jorges, I glanced down at his lunch, which was black bread and cheese. You’re feeling really dry, I suggested to the bread. Really stale. Hard as a rock…as long as I can see it, I can work with it. It wants to go stale. Bread is very accommodating that way.”

Her friend Knackering Molly could animate dead horses. Don’t ask. Read the book.

Some quotes:

“It is nearly impossible to be sad when eating a blueberry muffin. I’m pretty sure that’s a scientific fact.”

We met each other’s eyes, and then we both looked away. After a minute, I said, “I never wanted to be a hero.” His face was solemn. “Nobody ever does.”

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