VANGUARD: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote and Insisted on Equality for All by Martha S. Jones looks back at the many black female activists who, stuck with the joint burdens of sexism and racism, pushed back against both, starting as far back as the antebellum era. A good collection of figures who deserve to be better known and a look at the obstacles that cropped up not only in the white power structure but black church and civil rights groups (should women be allowed to speak, let alone preach?). Jones writing style, however, didn’t really work for me; At the Dark End of the Street didn’t cover as wide a time span but it’s more interesting.
I like Fabian Nicieza’s comics a lot but his novel SUBURBAN DICKS didn’t work for me at all. A disgraced reporter and a woman who gave up FBI profiling for motherhood join forces after they realize a random gas-station robbery was something much more sinister and the cops are determined not to admit it. The snarky banter that works in Nicieza’s comics gets exhausting when it’s page after page of print, the leads aren’t likable (not always a fatal flaw but it is in this one) and the snarkily funny tone doesn’t fit for the ugly nature of the cover-up.
INVISIBLE CITIES by Italo Calvino reads like Lord Dunsany’s short story Idle Days on the Yann stretched to novel length. Set in the court of Kublai Khan, it has Marco Polo entertain his employer with stories of strange cities such as one suspended over a ravine on nets and one where every structure has fallen, leaving the plumbing behind. Individually intriguing, tedious at book length.
MURDER IN MENNEFER by my friend Al Sirois is a Y/A set in ancient Egypt. The protagonist is the legendary healer and architect Imhotep but here he’s just a grieving young man struggling to keep his family afloat after the accidental death of his father and the discovery Dad’s savings are much less than expected. This was fun, particularly all the Egyptian period detail; I’m not sure if it’s out yet but if not, it will be soon.
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