What are you reading this week of June 4, 2017?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

43. Really excellent.

I'm a white person whose grandparents came here more than a generation after the end of slavery, so my personal connection to it is non-existent, other than this country as a whole having been profoundly affected by it.

The horrors of slavery are mentioned almost casually, which makes them both more believable and more horrifying.

I will say the ending left me a bit puzzled. It doesn't feel as if everything is actually tied up, but it's still a powerful and interesting book. It's actually on the short list for the John W. Campbell award for best novel of 2016. Winner will be announced next Friday at the award ceremony in Lawrence, KS. "Underground Airlines" by Ben Winters is also on the list. Usually the winner attends, but not always. I'll be there, lucky me.

There's also a best short story award, the Theodore Sturgeon Award, and I haven't read any of the stories on that list.