Leo Vidal Book Reviews

  Review: The Trivial Matter of the Universe by Adrian Stride Felix Culpa is the sort of man history would overlook. After an accidental spell in cryogenic storage and a disastrous space mission, he finds himself repeatedly dropped into Earth’s distant past. His only guide is Alfred, a brilliant, manipulative intelligence who can see what Felix sees and rarely resists making a joke at his expense. Their uneasy partnership gives this sprawling comic science fiction novel its heart. Stride builds a universe where Birth, Marriage, and Death began as bureaucratic departments and became self-aware black holes. Elsewhere, a powerful Chamber of Commerce monitors events, and a heavily armed vessel called Emotional Support has an alarming enthusiasm for its work. These ideas are inventive, but the pleasure lies just as much in their execution: official procedures follow characters into absurd situations, while grand questions about existence are interrupted by petty ambition, awkward conv...

  Book Review: The Zionists Who Hate Jews by Joss Sheldon The Zionists Who Hate Jews is an ambitious, provocative, and unapologetically polemical examination of the relationship between Zionism and antisemitism. Joss Sheldon challenges the familiar claim that Zionism necessarily protects or represents Jewish people. His central argument is that prominent Zionists have repeatedly disparaged certain Jewish communities, collaborated with antisemites, endangered Jewish lives, and attempted to silence Jews who oppose Zionism. The book follows this argument from the origins of modern political Zionism to contemporary Israeli politics. Early chapters examine figures such as Theodor Herzl, Max Nordau, Moses Hess, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, Chaim Weizmann, and David Ben-Gurion. Sheldon quotes statements that he interprets as contemptuous of assimilated Jews, religious Jews, Diaspora Jews, and Jews of Middle Eastern and North African origin. He argues that some early Zionist leaders accepted antise...

  Review of What Thorne Hall Remembers by Elise Marchant Thorne Hall is a place of locked rooms, winter roses, and lights that seem to respond to the people walking beneath them. When Raine Beauchamp arrives to confront the reclusive Byron Thorne about her father’s debt, she expects a difficult bargain. She does not expect a house that feels familiar—or a man who reacts to her as though their meeting is anything but new. Elise Marchant gives the Hall a vivid presence. Its shifting warmth and cold, damaged rooms, and strange attentiveness create an atmosphere that is both romantic and unsettling. The mystery develops through letters, family records, and small physical clues, while brief glimpses of the past gradually change how we understand Raine and Byron. Raine’s skill at repairing furniture is one of the novel’s strongest details. Watching her work gives her a life and purpose beyond the romance, and the care she brings to damaged objects echoes the book’s larger questions abou...

Book Review: The Hemp Ritual Handbook by Aaron Zeeman Aaron Zeeman’s The Hemp Ritual Handbook: A Slightly Disrespectful Guide to Cannabis Culture is an entertaining, outspoken, and deeply personal tour through the customs that have developed around cannabis. Part practical handbook, part cultural history, and part memoir, it captures the habits, language, humor, fellowship, and ingenuity of generations of cannabis users—particularly those who came of age when even possessing marijuana could carry serious consequences. The book is organized around 144 “hemp rituals.” These range from obtaining, growing, drying, and storing cannabis to rolling joints, using pipes and bongs, concealing odors, listening to music, celebrating 4/20, managing pain, meditating, and sharing cannabis with friends. Some rituals are useful instructions, while others are affectionate observations about behaviors that experienced cannabis users will immediately recognize. Zeeman is especially engaging when discuss...

  The Man Who Remembered by John Caulfield Review:  https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/4291092302?source=link_share The Man Who Remembered is an ambitious psychological mystery that combines detective fiction, suppressed memories, speculative technology, lucid dreams, and questions about the nature of identity. John Caulfield creates a strange, unsettling world in which the boundary between reality and illusion becomes increasingly difficult to locate. James Lee is an English solicitor whose life has fallen apart since the disappearance of his wife. He is drinking too much, struggling professionally, and living with large gaps in his childhood memories. When a woman named Alice Chase mistakenly telephones him instead of a private investigator who shares his name, James makes the impulsive decision to accept the assignment himself. Alice believes her husband is obsessed with another woman and wants James to follow him and uncover the truth. What begins as an unusual infidelity in...

  Blood Ground by Damir Salkovic Goodreads Review:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8950782024 Blood Ground is a gripping blend of historical adventure, supernatural horror, and survival thriller. Spanning several centuries but concentrating primarily on two ill-fated expeditions to Mount Kenya, the novel explores humanity’s dangerous compulsion to uncover, possess, and exploit things that should perhaps remain hidden. The book opens in 1635, when Jesuit priest Fernão Abreu discovers something horrifying in the isolated heights of Kĩrĩnyaga, or Mount Kenya. Pursued by creatures that can assume both human and animal forms, he realizes that his supposedly sacred mission has exposed an ancient evil. His desperate attempt to keep the mountain’s secret from reaching the wider world establishes the novel’s ominous atmosphere. The main story moves between two expeditions separated by thirty years. In 1935, ambitious Henry Neville Dunbar travels into the Kenyan wilderness afte...

  Enlightened Populism by Mohamed Mohamed Nabil is an unconventional, forceful collection of political observations, social-media commentary, public responses, and longer reflections addressing some of the defining controversies of 2020 and 2021. Rather than presenting a conventional political argument in carefully ordered chapters, the book captures political thought as it develops in real time. It reads partly as a record of an extraordinary historical period and partly as a sustained indictment of the institutions, corporations, and political leaders that the author believes have failed ordinary people. The earliest sections consist primarily of brief comments originally written in response to news stories and online discussions. Many of these observations are only a sentence or two long, followed by the replies they received from other readers. The subjects include the COVID-19 pandemic, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, racism, police violence, environmental destruction, voter sup...

 ★★★★★ A Brilliantly Intelligent Romantic Thriller About Identity, Trust, and the Cost of Being Known Pantheon: Book One by Lacunae is an exceptionally intelligent romantic conspiracy thriller—one that combines international intrigue, corporate maneuvering, clandestine operations, and a compelling slow-burning love story. It is sophisticated, atmospheric, and psychologically rich, with two extraordinarily capable central characters whose growing attachment becomes every bit as consequential as the dangerous conspiracy surrounding them. The novel opens in Hong Kong, where Vivienne Ho is negotiating the acquisition of a container terminal. From the first pages, it is apparent that she is no ordinary investment professional. She notices doors, service corridors, surveillance possibilities, body language, and potential exits before anyone else has finished looking around the room. Her preparation is meticulous, her financial reasoning is formidable, and her ability to read people bord...

Laraine Stephens combines an ingenious murder mystery with richly detailed Australian history in The Bathing Box Murders , another entertaining installment in the Reggie da Costa mystery series. Set in Melbourne in 1928, the novel offers an absorbing mixture of buried secrets, financial deception, social unrest, family tragedy, and old-fashioned investigative work. The mystery begins after a ferocious storm strikes Melbourne’s bayside suburbs. When the weather clears, a solitary walker ventures onto Brighton Beach and discovers that one of the bathing boxes has been knocked from its foundations. Beneath it are two shallow depressions in the sand. His curiosity turns to horror when he begins digging and hooks his finger through the eye socket of a human skull. The remains belong to wealthy businessman J. Arnold Witherspoon and his wife, Hope, who were believed to have left Australia for an extended European tour eight years earlier. During their supposed travels, their lawyer continued ...

  ChatGPT Work on Your Desktop is a practical and accessible introduction to using ChatGPT as more than a question-and-answer tool. Its central strength is its focus on actual work: organizing files, automating repetitive responsibilities, creating reusable skills, managing multi-step workflows, and moving projects from initial instructions to completed results. The book appears especially valuable for readers who are curious about artificial intelligence but do not have a programming background. Rather than overwhelming them with technical explanations, it emphasizes clear procedures, realistic examples, and methods that can be applied immediately. This practical orientation should help professionals and everyday users understand how ChatGPT Work can function as a genuine digital assistant. Another appealing feature is the book’s structured approach. AI tools can initially seem powerful but confusing, particularly when users are unsure how to incorporate them into their daily ...

  Chair Tai Chi for Men Over 60 by Alexander Filevski is a practical and encouraging guide for older men who want to improve their mobility, coordination, posture, and confidence without attempting an intense conventional workout. It is especially well suited to beginners, people who feel unsteady while standing, and anyone whose stiffness, health limitations, or reduced mobility has made exercise seem intimidating. One of the book’s greatest strengths is its realistic approach. Filevski does not promise miraculous results or suggest that Chair Tai Chi can replace every other form of physical activity. He explains that seated practice may support mobility, posture, coordination, gentle muscle activation, and body awareness, while acknowledging that it cannot fully reproduce the demands of walking, standing balance, aerobic exercise, or progressive strength training. That honesty makes the book more trustworthy than many exercise guides aimed at older readers. Safety is treated ser...

Amazing Answers for Curious Kids: Space Edition is an exceptionally engaging introduction to astronomy and space exploration for children ages six to twelve. Ross Austin takes some of the biggest and most fascinating questions imaginable—about planets, stars, black holes, astronauts, rockets, alien life, and the universe itself—and answers them in language that young readers can understand without making the science feel simplistic. The book is organized around 84 “why” and “how” questions, allowing children to read it from beginning to end or jump directly to whichever subject captures their attention. The range of questions is impressive. Some address basic concepts, such as why Mars is red, why the Moon shines, and why planets orbit the Sun. Others venture into more challenging territory: What would happen near a black hole? Can telescopes see back in time? Does time move differently in space? Could another universe exist alongside our own? The result is a book broad enough to serv...

  I’m a Weapon by Sean Robins  Jack has been alive for less than an hour when he is sent into a disastrous battle. He is a combat android built to obey orders, but he immediately begins asking questions his commanders would rather he didn’t: Why should he sacrifice himself? Does being made as a weapon mean he has to act like one? That questioning gives I’m a Weapon its heart. Jack’s growing independence emerges through his choices, especially when he encounters civilians caught under military occupation. He can calculate risks and casualties in an instant, yet he struggles to understand why helping strangers matters so much to him. His relationships with the people he protects make that change convincing and give the action an emotional purpose. Robins writes Jack with a lively, irreverent voice. His literal interpretations, dry observations, and fascination with human culture bring humor to grim battlefield scenes. The combat and escape sequences move quickly, while the larg...

  The Deadline Plate by Eric Jourgensen A broken water fountain leads the student journalists of Palm River High to a story their school would rather celebrate around than investigate. Then a mysterious printing plate sends Lila Hernandez and her newsroom team to nineteenth-century New York, where Nellie Bly’s investigation of Blackwell’s Island is in danger of disappearing from the historical record. The time-travel premise is engaging, but the novel’s strongest idea is about journalism: finding a story is only the beginning. Lila, Zora, Benji, and Quinn must check claims, preserve records, protect sources, and decide what they can responsibly publish. Their different skills make the group feel like a working newsroom rather than four interchangeable adventurers. The scenes around Nellie Bly are especially effective because she remains a determined reporter with work to do, not simply a historical figure for the students to meet. Jourgensen also gives the threat a memorable form. ...

  What the Ice Yields by Leslie A. Piggott A morning run takes an unsettling turn when Cari Turnlyle and her husband discover a car beneath the ice of a lake. The man inside has been missing for months, yet the people closest to him offer conflicting explanations for his disappearance. As Cari follows the story for her newspaper, detectives Genevieve Viacorte and Alex Runimoss pursue the evidence. The discovery makes an effective opening: it is vivid, disturbing, and immediately raises questions. Piggott then builds the mystery through interviews, family tensions, and small details whose significance becomes clearer as the investigation progresses. Cari’s reporting gives the reader one route into the case, while the detectives’ work provides another. I enjoyed seeing those perspectives gradually converge. The relationships give the book much of its warmth. Cari and Bob’s affectionate banter feels lived-in, and Cari’s friendship with Genevieve makes their conversations about the cas...

Beautiful Catastrophes is a difficult, deeply personal collection of poetry and creative nonfiction about trauma, destructive behavior, and the work of changing. Walker does not ask readers to overlook the harm he caused because he suffered as a child. The collection’s most compelling idea is that understanding where a pattern began does not remove the responsibility to break it. The poems give shape to isolation, shame, and the feeling of being trapped inside one’s own mind. “The Realization of Self” is especially effective: the speaker crosses state lines looking for escape, only to recognize that he has brought himself along. “The Space Between” finds a quieter register. Its speaker is neither triumphant nor fully healed, but still present and still writing toward a different life. The prose in Part II makes the collection more than a record of pain. Walker describes the abuse he experienced as a child and speaks plainly about the people he later hurt. His reflections on love and c...

  The Parts of Him I Kept by Natasha Williams  Natasha Williams’s memoir begins with a devastating event: her father drives off a Staten Island pier with her two-year-old half-sister in the car. From there, Williams looks back across a lifetime with a father who lived with schizophrenia and whose love for her was real, even when he could not keep his family safe. What makes the book compelling is its refusal to turn Francis Williams into either a villain or a saint. He is imaginative, funny, affectionate, and able to make his daughter feel deeply seen. He can also be frightening, unreliable, and consumed by delusions. Williams writes with equal honesty about her own conflicting feelings: devotion and embarrassment, protectiveness and anger, grief and the need to build a life beyond his illness. The memoir’s short, often vivid chapters move among childhood, adulthood, and her father’s final years. Scenes such as their day clearing jellyfish from a beach give their bond a warmth...

Review of The Demeter Code by Russell Brooks A stolen corporate secret, a threatened whistleblower, and a possible attack on the American food supply drive Russell Brooks’s The Demeter Code . What begins as an intelligence operation expands into a race involving corporate executives, covert agents, and people whose lives are at risk because of what they know. Brooks gives the thriller an unsettling premise: a danger hidden in something as ordinary and widespread as corn. The story moves quickly across countries and points of view, but its strongest thread is the conspiracy's human cost. Katy Sparks is especially compelling as she tries to be heard while powerful people work to silence her. CIA operatives Nita Parris and Ridley Fox bring contrasting strengths to the investigation, and their sometimes strained partnership adds tension beyond the immediate threat. The action scenes are vivid, and the investigation has enough turns to keep raising the stakes. Brooks also puts consider...

  A Clever, Unconventional Regency Romance About Truly Seeing Another Person Review:  https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/3554773477?source=link_share Viscount Unseen by Claire Karloff is an imaginative blend of Regency romance, Gothic mystery, humor, and speculative science. Its unusual premise immediately captured my attention: Lord Michael Lorraine, a brilliant but deeply isolated viscount with albinism, attempts to create a chemical treatment that will alter his appearance. Instead, the experiment renders him completely invisible. Four years later, Michael has withdrawn almost entirely from society. When he ventures out, he conceals himself beneath clothing, gloves, a cloak, and a mask. He has learned to protect his secret, his title, and his property, but this protection has come at the cost of companionship. Michael’s invisibility is therefore more than an entertaining plot device. It becomes a powerful symbol of how rejection and humiliation can cause someone to hide emo...