Mid-December Review Round Up

Thanks to an early season cold and sinus infection, I've finished four books in December and the month isn't even half over! (Pease don't ask how my Christmas shopping is going.) 

The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990 by Jonathan Mahler

This was a page-turner! Ed Koch's final term as NYC mayor was marked by turmoil. This book chronicles those years, rotating between several main stories as it moves forward in time: crime/race relations, Wall Street/financial crisis, AIDS, the homeless, and Donald Trump. I lived in CT and upstate NY during those years and remember much of this, but it was fascinating to have it presented chronologically in a single narrative.

The final paragraph:

The existential questions that New York faced as it entered 1986 were answered. The great working-class city was gone, and so was any realistic expectation that it might ever be bound by a singular civic culture. A new city, or, rather, an infinite number of cities had been born. Rich, poor, very rich, very poor -- for better and for worse, everyone would now live in their own New York.

I could not put this book down. Highly recommended. ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol 4 by Beth Brower 

Readers say the books in this series keep getting better, and now I'm convinced. Volumes 1-3 were very good, but I really loved Volume 4! Our group is scheduled to read Volume 5 in January, but I'm not going to be able to wait that long. I think it would make for perfect Christmas weekend reading! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen

by Jose Antonio Vargas

This book was mentioned in a couple of Nonfiction November wrap up posts, and I was happy to find both the ebook and audio available from my library. Dear America is not a book about the politics of immigration, but rather an account of Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and undocumented citizen Jose Antonio Vargas' lived experience. 

When he was twelve years old, Vargas was sent from the Philippines to live with his grandparents in California. He didn't discover his “illegal” status until years later when he used his visa to apply for a driver’s license, only to discover that it was fake. Vargas decided to keep his status hidden, went on to becomes a journalist, and eventually set out to discover what it means to be American.

His account offers a look at circumstances which can lead to undocumented status - circumstances I hadn't previously considered - and further illustrates how broken our immigration system actually is. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

Stone Yard Devotional  was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2024, published in the US earlier this year, and the New York Times recently crowned it one of the 5 best novels of 2025. I couldn't resist.

A middle-aged woman, for reasons we never learn, leaves her married life in Sydney for a small, isolated religious community in rural Australia. This rest of the novel is very light on plot. Three main story lines include the skeletal remains of a murdered nun are finally returned to the community,  a mysterious visitor, known to our narrator through troubling childhood events, accompanies those remains, and finally, the community is plagued with a near-apocalyptic mouse infestation.

The book mostly consists of beautifully written, haunting reminiscences of our narrator's childhood, her parents, and meditations on grief. The audio edition narrated by Ailsa Piper is especially lovely (and available for instant download via hoopla) and added to my reading experience. What a beautiful surprise!

⭐⭐⭐⭐💫