Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin

I couldn't put this novel down. It's about a group of friends who meet as children and at college and who form a company to develop games. Sam and Sadie meet in the hospital as young teens; Sam is recovering from a car accident and Sadie's sister is undergoing treatment for cancer. They make friends over their mutual love of video games before their friendship is upended over a misunderstanding. They meet again while at college; Sam is studying mathematics at Harvard, and Sadie is studying game design at MIT. Sam's roommate Marx becomes an integral part of their friendship and the three of them embark on a successful venture to design video games. I really love Zevin's writing; she manages to write about online games and their development in a way that is fascinating even for people like me who don't play games at all. Their relationships grow and morph over the years, through many challenges and tragedies. This author also wrote The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, which I read in 2014 for my book club (same with this book) and reviewed here. I loved that book as well and look forward to what Zevin will bring to us next.
 

Alfred the Great, by F.H. Hayward

 

This brief (140 pages) 1935 biography of Alfred the Great touches on the key points in his life including the myths surrounding him along with the battles fought against the "Danes," although it doesn't go into too much depth on any of the topics. It's a well written and enjoyable read that is part of the Great Lives series published by Duckworth. The copy I have (borrowed from the PSU library) doesn't have a dust jacket (it may not have been published with one) and was bound in a faded red cover. It didn't have any illustrations, so I borrowed a free image of a statue of Alfred the Great that I found online. The book contains a chronology of key dates in Alfred's life and reign along with a very brief bibliography (with only five entries), but no index.

Seen yet unseen: A Black woman crashes the tech fraternity, by Bärí A. Williams

 

In this insightful account of attorney/startup advisor Williams’s experiences in the technology industry, she discusses the challenges that Black women face in a field that continues to be dominated by white men. During employment stints at companies such as StubHub and Facebook, where she was lead counsel, Williams played major roles in addressing discrimination against women and Black people, all while she herself encountered microaggressions and coworkers who undermined her work. Recounting many of these situations in detail, she demonstrates how many companies’ outward support of DEI efforts is more performative than sincere. She asserts that artificial intelligence is especially dangerous when it is developed without the input of women and people of color. Her argument is supported by well-known examples—the inability of some software programs to recognize Black faces, for instance—and examples from her own personal experiences. Her book further decries the impact of big technology companies on Black American communities through gentrification. She proposes several feasible routes that the technology industry could take to improve its practices so that it attracts and retains more Black women workers. VERDICT A revealing and intimate look at a Black woman’s experiences in the technology industry.

This review was previously published in Library Journal 149:4 (April 2024): 103.

Lucy by the sea, by Elizabeth Strout

 

This was the February pick for my State College book club. I'm new to the club this year, so I don't know if they've read earlier books in this series by Elizabeth Strout, but this was my first book by her. I really didn't find much to like about the book. The main character, Lucy Barton, is a successful author whose ex-husband convinces her to leave New York City just as the COVID-19 pandemic was starting. They move to a recently-vacated but still furnished home in Maine where they take walks and get to know the locals. I found the writing flat and unappealing. It's repetitious in places, with Lucy reporting on everything she hates in a childish way. Later, she meets a neighbor and says hello to him every day, then repeatedly tells her ex how much she loves the man. Lucy is an unlikable character and she narrates the story with a step-by-step account of her days. It's a little boring and I wonder why Strout would present a novel in this fashion. Was she trying to capture the boredom some may have felt during the pandemic? If so, she may have succeeded too well. I finished the book quickly; it's so simple that it's a very fast read. I don't think I could recommend this one.

Trust, by Hernan Diaz

 

I really liked this story told from four different perspectives. I had read several reviews of the book before I started it, so I had a good idea of what was coming; otherwise, I might have been a little disconcerted by each subsequent section of the book. There are four sections altogether, with the first being a novelized version of someone's life; the second is a draft of a ghostwritten but not finished biography; the third is the memoir of the ghostwrite; and the fourth is the journal of the woman profiled in the earlier sections. Each section appears to reveal more of the truth about the woman's life. The writing is very good. I did wonder about why the book was framed in this way, other than just a creative exercise. It was interesting and thought-provoking.