Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore

Robin Sloan's Mr Penumbra is a lighthearted, clever collision between books, googlers and wizardry in a San Francisco bookstore. Our hero and narrator, Clay, is a RISD grad in search of a job. He wanders into a strange bookstore and we're off. Clay has a likable voice, which is one the charms of the book. His frequent second thoughts and pithy observations in the middle of conversations are delightful. He slowly learns that his employer, Mr. Penumbra, is part of a secret society which is trying to solve a puzzle left in a book by an early Venetian printer, Aldus Manutius. Clay was a gamer as a teen, and an avid reader of a fantasy trilogy. So, decoding is an elixir to him and he is hooked. He soon adds his own unorthodox high tech methods to crack the code. Enter google and the googlers, and a good deal of fawning over google. This is redeemed by musings on books, the future of books, the love of books, and, the future of Media. Clay involves his friends in the quest, some high tech and some no tech, an unlikely band, which is a key ingredient in this type of genre. Speaking of "type", a font plays an important role in the story, so, attention bibliophiles. Have fun!

The Constant Heart and The Informer

The Constant Heart, published in late 2012, is vintage Craig Nova. The story is of deep and changing relationships, and people in tough situations. As often is the case in his work, Nova writes of the manipulation and abuse of women by men. His prose is clear, concise, dry, and, every few pages, Nova makes an observation that is startlingly insightful. Heart is about two relationships. First, the relationship between a father and a son, and the lessons about kindness, gentleness and forgiveness that the father imparts. These attributes are out of synch with the times we live in, and the novel explores this. The second relationship is the friendship over the years between the son and a girl/young woman. Her life has had little kindness in it, instead, foster homes, half way houses, and jail. These three lives collide with a man who has been exploiting her. She goes past the point of no return and the two gentle men are willingly pressed into service to help her. The resolution of the problem is a bit contrived, but doesn't detract from the story, the writing and lessons he learns.

Nova's previous release, The Informer, is the strongest of his 12 novels. The prose style is similar to Heart, and is superb. The story is of a woman detective in Berlin, before and after WW2. It is not a mystery novel. The various characters she has to deal with are developed in a powerful way that is tied to the workings of the story. They all have an agenda and motives that she must interpret and juggle.  Again, Nova is looking at women in extremely difficult circumstances, who are manipulated by bad, bad men. Some of the scenes are breath stopping. However, Nova's clear prose is at work again, and these scenes are made all the more dramatic by being under-written. The Informer is strong stuff, I recommend that you read it!