Evelyn Hugo, Hollywood legend and silver screen starlet, finally agrees to an exclusive interview to discuss her private life and seven marriages—something she’s never done—but with one caveat: she will only talk to Monique Grant, an unknown journalist with a lackluster career thus far. The news shocks both Monique and her editor, who wants to assign the ‘scoop of the decade’ to a more senior writer. But for Evelyn, it’s Monique, or she’s taking her secrets to the grave.

 

The story is a fascinating glimpse into the struggles of a woman, especially a woman of color, to break into 1950s Hollywood. Evelyn Hugo is one of the best characters I’ve come across. She is dynamite! She’s brazen and unapologetic. She knows what she wants and will lie, cheat, and sleep her way to the top to get it. The author’s character building is so phenomenal it will have you wondering if Evelyn Hugo was a real person. At times, Evelyn seems like a mix of characteristics and biographical snippets from Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor, with a bit of Rita Hayworth and Hedy Lemarr, too.

 

Two of the central mysteries of the novel are: of her seven husbands, who was her true love? And why in the world would this extremely rich and renowned actress choose Monique Grant to write her memoirs? The novel delivers answers to these questions, and a whole lot more.

 

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid is a great read that will have you hooked. What seems like a straight-forward celebrity tell-all novel takes phenomenal twists and turns with a satisfying commentary on tabloid culture centered around a character that leaves a lasting impression long after the last page.

 

Jennifer

 

Norwood, the first book by the late Charles Portis, takes post-WWII America as its setting and the general human comedy of plans, agreements, and relationships as its subject in a small-scale road novel about misfits, con-artists, and fools. The story follows the misadventures of Norwood Pratt, a recently discharged Marine and aspiring country singer who returns to his hometown of Ralph, Texas to care for his sister Vernell. After his sister’s new relationship with a retired veteran makes life at home even more unbearable and his job as an auto mechanic becomes increasingly taxing, Pratt leaves under the charge a hustler who has asked him to take two cars to New York City with envelopes full of cash, forged papers, and a woman named Yvonne. Eventually, Pratt hopes, he will break into the country music business and sing with the great Hank Williams. These plans are bound to fail, as Williams has been dead for years and the New York scheme is a thinly veiled set-up.

 

As the novel spirals out from this initial botch, we realize we are in the same American wilderness as that of Herman Melville or Flannery O’Connor: a nation of grifters and suckers, where those roles reverse with surprising speed. With Norwood Pratt, Portis offers an alternative – the fool who survives, reinvents himself, and manages to be less lonely as a result. Once you finish Norwood, you’re left with a real sense of sweetness and community through the portraits of quirky characters that come together in order to survive a harsh world.

 

Joseph

Miryem’s family is poor and her mother is getting sicker by the second because her father is too kind-hearted for his job. Miryem’s father is a moneylender, and when he is unable provide for his family because people take advantage of his innate kindness, Miryem becomes a cold -hearted businesswoman in order to do his job for him. However, when Miryem grows more and more successful at moneylending she thoughtlessly boasts that she could turn silver into gold, which attracts the attention of the Staryk, a magical people who covet gold above all else. Since the Staryk king believes she can turn silver into gold he demands she make his silver into gold, and if Miryem cannot he will take her life as compensation instead.

 

Spinning Silver is a retelling of the classic fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin. However, Novik puts enough of her own personal touches on Spinning Silver that while it may have some of the same plot elements the story feels fresh and new. One of my favorite things about Novik’s story is her ability to make the settings of her world come alive. In fact, her environment descriptions were so well done that I felt cold reading more than once. Not only that, but Novik’s tale also highlights the individuality of different cultures and the unjust prejudices that can exist toward them by telling her novel through a variety of unique character perspectives. If a culturally rich story inspired by a classic fairy tale sounds like the book for you check out Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver.

 

Seth

Bryan Stevenson is an incredible person. As a young lawyer, he started the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). The EJI provides people free legal aid to those who were wrongly condemned or unfairly sentenced. In Just Mercy, Stevenson provides readers with an outstanding view of some of the justice being handed out in this country. Most of the people who are treated unfairly in the courts are people of color, the poor, or both. Stevenson and his team at the EJI work countless hours and years to get justice for the ones who were wrongly convicted, like Walter. Walter was sentenced in 1987 to death for killing a young girl even though there was evidence to prove his innocence. His case was one of the first that Bryan took on and you will see firsthand the great work he and the EJI did and are still doing. Just Mercy was an excellent read. If you liked The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton, you will definitely want to read this.

 

Shannon

After immigrating to San Francisco, Suyuan, An-mei, Lindo, and Ying-ying find each other and form The Joy Luck Club, an informal but sacred meeting to play mahjong and enjoy each other’s friendship. Decades later in the 1980s, Suyuan has recently died and it is her daughter June’s duty to fill her mother’s seat at the mahjong table to keep the club going. As June is accepted into the club, she uncovers parts of her mother’s concealed past before coming to America.

 

Although June and Suyuan’s story is arguably at the center of the book, the other three women of The Joy Luck Club also have important stories, as do their daughters. Tan breaks the novel into four sections, each section is divided into four chapters. Two of the sections are told from the daughters’ perspectives as first generation Asian Americans. The other two sections are told by the mothers with some chapters from their lives in China and some chronicling their struggles after immigrating. Suyuan is an exception however; June tells her mother’s stories now that Suyuan has passed on. Not only has she taken her mother’s place at the mahjong table but is now the only one left to share her story.

The Joy Luck Club is at times heart wrenching. It is a story of cultural conflict, perseverance, loss, and finding ways to make your own luck in otherwise dire circumstances.

 

Alaina

 

 

Imagining a world without humans seems like a difficult exercise from present conditions. We have impacted the climate nearly beyond redress. We have transformed the landscape around our desires and large-scale projects. We are, as far as we can see, an active force in the built environment we share with other living things. And yet, our extinction remains an unpleasant possibility and fiction can help us think through that grim future. Andrew Krivak’s novel The Bear is a recent attempt at depicting a world almost entirely without us, offering an almost optimistic response to bleaker novels like The Road by Cormac McCarthy and The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay.

 

The novel concerns a father and daughter who are living a spare survivalist existence in a fragile balance with the harsh limits of the seasons, hunting and foraging for food and clothing. We are not told what happened to the other humans in the time before the novel and it ultimately doesn’t matter; the force of the story comes from Krivak’s lyrical prose style and the fable-like plot. After the father dies early in the novel, the daughter becomes “the last one” of the humans and is cared for by a group of wild animals who work to remind her of the lessons she has learned in the responsible use of other living things. By the end of the novel, the reader is led to accept particularly difficult aspects of the novel’s reality that overlap with our own – that the world will endure without us, that natural cycles of birth and death will continue, and that human intelligence is not the only kind to have a lasting impact on the life of the planet.

 

Joseph

To say more would perhaps ruin the horror, the community, the love, and the fear that unravels through Beloved. Morrison is able to explain in one story of life in Cincinnati the horrors of post-slavery life, the relationships of black women, of mothers and daughters, and so, so much more. It can be easy to forget that America didn't snap its fingers and magically fix slavery by ending it, but Beloved will force you to always remember. It may sound silly, but I view Beloved and Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut as kindred in my mind: they both skewer the notion that things can be "just fine" after a traumatic event like slavery or war, and we all do whatever it takes to get to "just fine" in our heads, for better or for worse.

Based on the 2011 book of the same name, A Discovery of Witches is a historical fantasy that follows the paranormal love story between Diana Bishop (Teresa Palmer, Warm Bodies and Lights Out) and Matthew Clairmont (Matthew Goode, The Imitation Game, Downton Abbey, and The Crown).

Diana, a witch who shuns magic, is a scholar researching alchemy at Oxford when she accidentally calls up a long-lost alchemical text, Ashmole 782. Matthew Clairmont, a handsome brooding vampire, has been searching for that manuscript for over a hundred years. Diana dives into a forbidden love affair with Matthew while trying to understand what her magic—or lack thereof—means and how to protect themselves from The Congregation, the ruling body of magical creatures who’ve outlawed interspecies relations.

 

The cinematography is stunning! Visual treats you can expect: gorgeous shots of Oxford, idyllic British countryside, moody scenes in breathtaking Venice, and crumbling castles with oubliettes in France. Besides the visual allure of the show, the cast is phenomenal. The chemistry between Palmer and Goode is so electric chemistry we can forget that they’ve only known each other a couple weeks.

 

I made the mistake of starting this series at 10 pm on a work night and binged until 1 am (I couldn’t stay awake any longer). Season 1 is only 8 episodes, and I was desperate for more. SKY confirmed it’s renewed the show for two more seasons, to complete the trilogy book series. The premise of forbidden love and vampire romance is nothing new, but for fans of Twilight, True Blood, and Vampire Diaries this is a very welcome series perfect for bingeing.

 

Jennifer

When I thought about what to review this month, I wanted to be conscious of March being Women’s History Month. I looked through my list of favorite films directed by women and I knew there was no other when I saw Wonder Woman on my list. Is reviewing Wonder Woman for Women’s History Month a bit too on the nose? Perhaps, but let me explain why Patty Jenkins’ film is a masterpiece for everyone watching.

 

Diana is an Amazonian warrior princess living on a hidden island, Themyscira. One day, a WWI pilot crash lands on her island and informs the inhabitants of the war raging in the outside world. Diana is compelled to leave her sheltered home and hunt down Ares, the god of war, who she believes is responsible for the mass destruction the pilot speaks of. She enters the world of man and although lethal, her idealistic and sheltered upbringing make her strong moral compass her weakness. Her innocence and naïve understanding of morality create great challenges as she navigates this new world. While undoubtably a superhero movie, Wonder Woman is also a historical drama, romance, and coming of age story.

 

In addition to centering around a female superhero, the film’s true female empowerment is in how the film was crafted, from the casting to how the film was shot to the costume design. The Amazonian warriors of Themyscira are made up of women with a variety of skin tones. They are fierce but undeniably feminine at the same time. Diana is played by a woman of color, Gal Gadot, unlike the mostly male, Eurocentric superheroes we typically see on the big screen. We also see different body types, primarily in Lucy Davis’ role as Etta Candy, a plus size secretary that is beautiful and intelligent.

 

This is a welcome departure from Hollywood’s stereotypical funny but rarely pretty fat girl sidekick. Jenkins also shoots the film in an empowering rather than objectifying way. When Diana and the Amazonians are fighting, there aren’t panty shots. In previous iterations of Wonder Woman, cleavage has often been accentuated as part of Diana’s costume, in this film you don’t see any cleavage apart from one scene where Diana borrows a ball gown, and even then, it is minimal. The camera doesn’t focus on body parts, but the actor in the scene, their whole body, their face, their emotions.

There’s a lot to unpack in Wonder Woman, but it never feels too weighty. It is an enjoyable film to watch as a casual viewer, a film nerd, or a comic book fan. I highly encourage you to pick it up and see for yourself.

 

Alaina

 

Josiah

Jess

by C.S. Lewis