I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
Reviewed by Dana Sanchez
Branch Manager, La Jolla / Riford Library
San Diego Union-Tribune, June 29, 2025

“I Who Have Never Known Men,” by Jacqueline Harpman, is a haunting and introspective novel that explores the human condition in a post-apocalyptic world. The story follows forty women who are trapped in a cage underground with no knowledge of how they got there or why they’ve been imprisoned, and with limited memories of their lives prior to being captured. They are constantly monitored by male guards and have no sense of time or place, have no privacy, and are only given meager provisions to survive. When an alarm sounds and the guards frantically disappear, they leave the keys to the women’s cage within reach, and with it the opportunity to escape and learn more about their mysterious circumstances. Through the protagonist's journey in the outside world, Harpman raises profound questions about identity, community, and the very fabric of society, and challenges readers to confront their own assumptions about gender, power, and relationships.

This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno
Reviewed by Steven Torres-Roman
Humanities Librarian, Central Library
San Diego Union-Tribune, June 22, 2025

This contemporary supernatural horror novel is a smart, slow burn that offers up a unique blend of haunting/ghost story, classic demonic possession, and folk magic, all bound together with an existential and Lovecraftian cosmic horror twist. Our protagonist, Thiago, struggles with family dysfunction and generational trauma, but finally finds some happiness and peace with his spouse, Vera. When the couple move into a new apartment, however, what begins with some scratching in the walls and a creepy malfunctioning “Itza” smart speaker device leads to tragic deaths, curses, murders, possessions, and a disturbing view of how predatory entities see humanity. No matter how far Thiago flees, this malevolence follows, and there seems to be no escape. The book reads like an intimate letter from Thiago to Vera, but simultaneously conveys a bleak, nightmarish vision of human existence. Moreno is relentless in relating this tale of mounting terror, and there is no saccharine relief to placate readers – caveat lector.

Lojman by Ebru Ojen
Reviewed by Jolanta Danaziene
Library Assistant III, Pacific Highland Ranch Library
San Diego Union-Tribune, June 8, 2025

Ebru Ojen, a Kurdish-Turkish writer and actress, masterfully manages to create a claustrophobic atmosphere and portray the feelings and states of mind of a mother and her daughter under critical conditions. Selma and her two children are stranded in their cabin in a remote Kurdish village amid a life-threatening winter storm, where she gives birth to her third baby. Cut off from the outside world, the family desperately waits for the husband and father to return home as they struggle to stay alive and sane through the relentless blizzard. This novel, the winner of the Republic of Consciousness Prize in 2024 for the U.S. and Canada, conveys a powerful story about motherhood and womanhood, the desperation that transforms love, and the conflict between dreams and reality.

The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman
Reviewed by Steven Torres-Roman
Humanities Librarian, Central Library
San Diego Union-Tribune, May 19, 2025

I can guess what you might be thinking: "Do we really need another book about vampires?" And normally, I might agree with that sentiment, but this book made me reply with an emphatic YES, yes we do. Joey Peacock appears to be fourteen years old, but he’s actually around sixty. He resides under 1970s New York with his "family," a cadre of vampires that includes the matriarchal Margaret and the thoughtful, wise Cvetko. When Joey witnesses a group of undead children in the subway, he is curious and concerned - it's forbidden to turn someone so young, and these hungry tykes don't have the self-discipline and self-restraint necessary to stay under the radar for long. But Joey seems to have forgotten something rather crucial - appearance is illusive, and vampires can live a very, very long time ... I cannot recommend this novel highly enough - Joey is charming and vulgar by turns, and there are moments of dark humor that may cause you to laugh out loud. But fair warning - Joey's warning, in fact - this story may also break your heart.

The Matchmaker’s Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman
Reviewed by Helene Idels
Librarian II, North Clairemont Library
San Diego Union-Tribune, May 4, 2025

I became engrossed with “The Matchmaker’s Gift,” by Lynda Cohen Loigman, as the chapters alternated between an early 1900s Sara Glickman and her 1990s granddaughter Abby. From an early age Sara, a Jewish immigrant, had the gift of sensing when two people should be paired as soulmates. She couldn’t help but facilitate these matches even at the dismay of the old Jewish male matchmakers, known in Yiddish as the Shadchanim, whose livelihoods she was encroaching upon. Upon Sara’s death, Abby was gifted with Sara’s journals to continue the matchmaking tradition. Abby herself had become a newly minted divorce lawyer to the rich and famous, and due to the trauma of her parents’ divorce when she was a young girl she was soured on the concept of love. The setting for each chapter is a bustling New York City, ranging from the Lower Eastside pushcart era of the Jewish shtetls to the modern 1990s era. Each segment of the story was so compelling that I often found myself blurting out responses as the plot unfolded. I won’t spoil the ending, but love definitely was and is in the air.

Trust by Hernan Diaz
Reviewed by Jason Rogers
Branch Manager, North Clairemont Library
San Diego Union-Tribune, April 20, 2025

“Trust” is more than just a book--it’s a puzzle, where readers will wonder if they can trust the narratives. This novel of twentieth century high finance depicts the intersection of the lives of the ultra-wealthy, their dissatisfaction with life despite their wealth, and the vulnerabilities and tragedies that no amount of money can ameliorate or avert. Readers will likely be musing over all the pieces of this puzzle long after they finish the book, fitting together the varied voices of interesting characters and their texts, their intrigues, and the echoes of their losses, creating a mélange of emotional nuance, as well as touching on an implicit critique of the opulence and decadence that wealth seems to foster.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi
Reviewed by Steven Torres-Roman
Humanities Librarian, Central Library
San Diego Union-Tribune, April 6, 2025

Charlie Fitzer is having a difficult time getting his life back together – he’s been through a difficult divorce, lost his job as a business journalist, and has been reduced to living in his old family home and trying to make ends meet as a substitute teacher. His only friend is his cat, Hera. When his estranged, wealthy Uncle Jake dies, Charlie finds himself the inheritor of Jake’s businesses – and his multi-trillion-dollar supervillain empire, complete with secret volcano headquarters. After a failed assassination attempt and a meeting where the other world-class villains attempt GDP-level extortion, Charlie must quickly learn who to trust and how to handle hostile takeovers at this monumentally deadly level. This breezy, funny, and fast-paced novel is the perfect choice for bibliophiles looking for a summer blockbuster read!

Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao
Reviewed by Isabella Wood
Librarian II – Youth Materials Selector, Central Library
San Diego Union Tribune, March 23, 2025

Every lesson Hana Ishikawa's father ever taught her was meant to prepare her for the day he retired and she inherited her family's pawnshop. This particular pawnshop does not trade in antiques, jewelry, or other typical valuables. Instead, the customers that find this pawnshop are carrying a regret - one choice that they made, or didn't make, that altered the entire course of their life. These regrets weigh heavily on the minds of Ishikawa's customers, who choose to pawn their regrets away and wake up the next morning with more peace of mind. Hana spent her entire life learning to run the pawnshop, to meet with customers and convince them to sell their life choices to her. She was not, however, prepared to wake up on her first morning as the pawnshop's owner to find the store ransacked and her father missing - alongside a valuable Choice from the shop's vault. There are darker forces at play, and Hana's life depends on finding her father and retrieving the Choice before it's too late. The world-building in Water Moon truly shines in this brilliant blend of fantasy, mystery, and romance.

The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
Reviewed by Joel Bakker
Collection Development Librarian, Central Library
San Diego Union-Tribune, March 9, 2025

No one has ever written about Southern California with the weary, evocative grace of Raymond Chandler, and no one has walked its mean streets like Philip Marlowe, the model of the hard-boiled detective: half wise guy, half knight errant. The Long Goodbye, Chandler’s penultimate novel, written while he lived in La Jolla, begins with Marlowe tentatively befriending Terry Lennox, a well-mannered alcoholic, and aiding Lennox in a no-questions-asked escape to Mexico. For his troubles, Marlowe finds himself entangled in the murder of Lennox’s wife Sylvia, then almost immediately stumbles into the potentially lethal woes of another unhappy couple, the disgraced writer Roger Wade and his erratic wife, Eileen. Chandler keeps the twists coming, but it is the melancholic mood, Marlowe’s hard-bitten wit, and an L.A. so real you can taste the gimlets and feel the hot, dry Santa Anas blowing through that truly stick with the reader.

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
Reviewed by Steven Torres-Roman
Humanities Librarian, Central Library
San Diego Union-Tribune, March 2, 2025

After her aged parents die in a tragic car accident, Louise Joyner is left with her grief, the responsibility of dealing with her parents’ estate, and a frustrating contention with her estranged and irresponsible younger brother, Mark. Returning to Charleston, Louise is reminded of a disconcerting feature of her childhood home: the house is utterly filled with the products of her mother’s obsession--hundreds upon hundreds of dolls and puppets hanging from the walls, seated on the furniture, and occupying every room. While taking inventory and cleaning out this creepy hoard of felt forms and dark, reflective eyes, Louise experiences a host of bizarre phenomena--strange noises throughout the house, a television set that seems to switch itself back on once she’s left the room, and dolls reappearing after she’s disposed of them. Is Mark playing pranks in an attempt to drive Louise away? Or is she trying to sell a haunted house?

Harlem World: How Hip Hop’s Super Showdown Changed Music Forever by Jonathan Mael
Reviewed by Robert Surratt
Manager of Access Services, Central Library
San Diego Union-Tribune, Feb. 9, 2025

Before Kendrick Lamar versus Drake, before Jay-Z versus Nas, there was the Fantastic Romantic Five versus the Cold Crush Brothers at the Harlem World nightclub in 1981. In Harlem World: How Hip Hop’s Super Showdown Changed Music Forever, author Jonathan Mael explores the early phenomenon of rap and hip hop—from its community room beginnings and summertime park jams to its emergence in the late-night club scene as the disco era waned. The organic rise of hip hop’s underground culture created an echelon of “ghetto celebrities,” such as inventive DJs who looped record breaks for acrobatic dancers and showcased masters of ceremonies who enchanted listeners with braggadocio rhyme routines aimed at keeping the party live. While the book centers on the now-infamous onstage battle between the rival crews, it foreshadows the event by recounting a pivotal moment in hip hop’s history: the 1979 release of Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight,” which ultimately changed how people encountered and engaged with the music.

Drunk on All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson
Reviewed by Steven Torres-Roman
Librarian, Central Library
San Diego Union-Tribune, Jan. 26, 2025

Earth’s future has some interesting challenges: rising sea levels, an unsteady economy, absurd levels of social media saturation and surveillance, and contact with an alien species, the Logi. Lydia works as a translator for the Logi cultural attaché, Fitz. Translating for the Logi is rather demanding – very few humans have the ability to perceive the aliens’ thoughts, and the training is rigorous. Fortunately, Lydia is very good at her job, though telepathic translating can be tricky, as the aliens’ projected thoughts can induce a state of inebriation in a human mind. When an exhausting evening of interpreting leaves Lydia’s memory a blank, she finds herself at the center of an intergalactic incident! As various factions maneuver to take advantage of the situation and manipulate events for their own purposes, Lydia’s only hope is to do some amateur sleuthing. Robson successfully takes the pulse of present social media trends in depicting a convincing (and absurdly humorous) near-future, and the character of Lydia is a delightful, relatable working-class woman who, though out of her depth, perseveres and discovers surprisingly impressive reserves of courage and ingenuity.

The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum: The Rise and Fall of an American Organized Crime Boss by Margalit Fox
Reviewed by Angie Stava
Catalog Librarian, Central Library
San Diego Union-Tribune, Jan. 12, 2025

Imagine landing in New York in 1850 with no money, knowing that no matter how hard you peddled, you would be doomed to poverty in the tenements. Would you accept it? Or, like Fredericka Mandelbaum, would you make your own luck? Within just twenty years, German Jewish immigrant Mandelbaum rose from a street peddler to become the leader of the largest organized crime network in New York. With a single store as a front, she moved millions of dollars worth of luxury goods - silks, jewelry, anything that could be stolen by the thieves she mentored. Later, specializing in diamonds and then bank robberies, she was untouchable for decades because Fredericka cultivated not just thieves but politicians, police, and businessmen who could all be bought. This is an unforgettable story of how one woman’s personality intersected with Gilded Age New York to create a dramatic, remarkable and criminal life.