* Nights When Nothing Happened by Simon Han

The narrator of Nights When Nothing Happened is the first-born child of a couple of Chinese immigrants now living in Texas. We learn that he was raised by his grandparents while his parents were getting established in the US, and that his little sister has some trouble at home and at school–and so do their parents. It’s going to be a bumpy road for the Cheng family, and not all of it is caused by the dislocation of the move.

I did not care for the dreamlike quality of a lot of the story. Others may love it.

*** Coffeeland by Augustine Sedgewick

Coffeeland: One Man’s Dark Empire and the Making of Our Favorite Drug does not try to recount the whole history of the coffee trade. Instead, it focuses on one plantation in El Salvador, founded by an emigrant from Manchester, and the San Francisco coffee merchants that sold its crops. (Before the opening of the Panama canal, the location of El Salvador on the West Coast of Central America made it a more attractive partner than Brazil.) The story covers the harsh labor practices, the gradual transformation of the land into a monoculture, and how the way coffee was sold and valued influenced the type of coffee that was grown–as well as the story of the owner’s family, including the children’s education in San Francisco-area schools, schools that exist to this day.

* Plunder by Menachem Kaiser

The grandfather of the author of Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure lost his apartment building in Poland during the holocaust–and most of his family. Trying to reclaim the property requires the services of a strange lawyer called “The Killer”, explorations of handwritten property records, and baffling rulings that long-dead relatives are not really considered dead since the Nazis did not care to keep great records, and even if said relatives would now be 120 years old. Of course, that’s not quite enough to fill a book so there are long descriptions of treasure hunters that seek Nazi gold in Silesia, yielding more adventures than gold. There are some heart-breaking moments but the overall effect is that of a travel diary.

*** Everyone in This Room will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin

Everyone in This Room will Someday Be Dead stars an atheist lesbian who is mistakenly hired as a church secretary by a delightfully bumbling priest. It’s good to have a job, but her morbid fixations continue as she struggles to keep the facade of a churchgoer, eke out another date with her new girlfriend, and continue a doomed correspondence with one of her deceased predecessor’s friend, quite successfully, until she is found out.

The stream-of-consciouness patter is funny and on point despite the macabre subject matter.

*** The Cult of We by Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell

Hubris and startups. The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion reminded me of Bad Blood, the story of the ill-fated Theranos and its manic CEO. Adam Newmann only lied to his investors and employees, which I suppose is milder than lying to the FDA and the public, but his antics and money-grabbing ways are more shocking. And, with WeWork, investors should not have been as easily snookered since the real estate business is pretty established–but of course Newmann worked very hard to convince investors that he was building a tech company, and produced financial statements that hid many tricks.

More shocking than the boozy parties, cannabis-fueled international flights, or inventive financial reports may be the fact that his investors paid him to go away when the gig was up. The little people are laid off, the big people are paid off.

*** The Startup Wife by Tahmina Anam

The wife of The Startup Wife founds an artificial-intelligence startup with her spiritually-inclined husband and the black-sheep scion of a wealthy family. Although she’s the creator of the platform, her husband is soon revered as a messianic figure by both users and the business press, pushing her aside of the center of power in what we know is a brutally sexist tech startup environment. It could be stark but there’s also a lot of humor, notably her relationship with her parents and sister.

The pandemic is deftly worked into the climax of the story. No doubt we will see more of that in years to come.

** Surviving the White Gaze by Rebecca Carroll

The author of Surviving the White Gaze is a biracial woman who was adopted by a white couple who chose to raise her in a lily-white New Hampshire town and without any links to Black culture. Her white birth mother, whom she met as a teenager, is dismissive of her biological father and manipulates her rather cruelly. So it’s a hard slog towards, ultimately, a successful life. Why are parens, knowingly and not, cruel?

** The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji

The Decagon House Murders stars a mysterious island on which four people were murdered. The members of a university mystery club arrive on a strange field trip during which they hope to solve the murders. Instead, they drop dead, one by one, and the murderer could be one of them.

The story starts very slowly so if you decide to read it, be patient. The plot is twisted!

** Featherhood by Charlie Gilmour

The author of Featherhood: A Memoir of Two Fathers and a Magpie accidentally rescues a magpie and ends up fostering it for months–which he would not recommend, as magpies can be aggressive and very messy animals! This brings him back to his father, who abandoned him rather cruelly and himself raised a jackdaw, so the story alternates between the magpie’s messes and his attempts at reconnecting with his father. It’s certainly an unusual perspective and I thought it went a little long for my taste.

** Sunny Days by David Kamp

Sunny Days: The Children’s Television Revolution That Changed America does feature a few appearances by Big Bird or Oscar the Grouch, but it mostly focuses on the politics and funding maneuvers behind Sesame Street, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, The Electric Company, and more. It’s rather astonishing that funding and various broadcasting rules were approved through administrations of different hues and for a long time to deliver a better experience to children. The author is not afraid to point out that the shows were very sexist originally (and, in my view, quite limited in the cultures they showcased). The focus on politics makes for a pretty dry book. I do recommend the excellent biography of Mister Rogers for a good companion book.