My Substack is named From Nothing to Something. My last post was October 2024. So I think it’s safe to say that the Nothings are beating the crap out of the Somethings.
Still, an occasional Something is better than Nothing, right?
Enjoy The Gruesome Vegetarian!
I’ve been a fan of Julia Kastner’s writing, which I first read through her reviews in Shelf Awareness. On a lark I sent her an ARC, and to her great kindness, she read it and liked it enough to review it. It’s such a lovely piece of writing — I think her review may actually be better than my book! Yeah, it’s that good. Please read it! And yeah, read my book, too, if you want. 😉
Posting this from rainy and beautiful downtown Portland — and getting ready for the reading tomorrow:
Saturday, November 2, 2024 7PM PT
Portland Book Festival, Cover to Cover Event
Rose City Book Pub
1329 Northeast Fremont Street, Portland, OR 97212
with Anthony DiPietro, Douglas Cole, and Anna B. Moore
I’ll also be at Unsolicited Press’s Exhibiter Table #69 at Portland Art Museum between 10-11am.
Now, on with the review!
This book came to me in an unusual way, and I just happened (entirely by accident, as far as I’m aware with my conscious brain!) to pick it up a few days before its publication date, and finished reading it on the very eve. So, happy birthday to this book just published on Tuesday (October 29, 2024). And a brilliant book it is: deeply beautiful, full of tragedy and pain but also awe and even bliss and the exaltation of quiet, daily acts of love and creation.
Much gratitude to the fine folks at Booklist for giving a starred review for Lines! ❤️❤️❤️
Is it too early to do a “best of 2023” list? I don’t think so, not when I’ve been seeing Christmas trees at Costco since September. Drum roll, please!
And here’s what 883 authors and many readers considered their best of 2023.
Another review for Deep Roots, but this one has quite a few spoilers, so you might not want to read it until you’ve finished the book. 🙂 Thank you, Korean Quarterly, for covering my second Siobhan novel! I should also thank them for using a photo of mine that dates back a decade and change. Nary a single gray hair to be found back in those youthful days…
In celebration of Deep Roots, I’ve composed a list on Shepherd — The best mysterious classic novels that take place in a grand manor house. I list five novels — check out which ones I chose.
Three days until the book’s pub date, though I have heard from some people that they already have it in their hands. Hearty thank you to the kind folks at Booklist who reviewed (and liked!) Deep Roots. Full review below.
It’s a good one! Check it out.
Sung J. Woo (Love, Love) is one of those agile writers able seamlessly to insert detailed backstories mid-series: reading his second Siobhan O’Brien mystery, Deep Roots, without benefit of the inaugural Skin Deep is no less absorbing.
People often do a double-take when meeting Siobhan in person: “I was adopted by an Irish father and a Norwegian mother,” she’s forced to explain about her ethnic Korean heritage, which strangers have decided doesn’t match her name. Now 40, she finally seems at peace with who she is. She’s settled into running the detective agency she inherited when her boss died suddenly. She’s hired college student Beaker as her intern–and just in time, because she needs someone to check her e-mail while her new assignment takes her to a private island in the Pacific Northwest.
[read the rest of the review at Shelf Awareness]
Grateful to Mystery Scene for a super kind review!
First in a promising new series, Sung J. Woo’s Skin Deep introduces Siobhan O’Brien—a 40-year-old Korean American adopted in infancy by an Irish father and a Nordic mother. For the past two years, the laid-off newspaper reporter has been apprenticing under Ed Baker, a private detective in the upstate New York town of Athena. Now that she finally has her PI license, Siobhan is eager to assume more professional responsibility—but when Ed dies of a heart attack and bequeaths her the agency, she suffers a crisis of confidence. Siobhan strongly considers liquidating the business’s meager assets and starting over, but then her dead best friend’s little sister, Josie Sykes, shows up at the office. Two weeks ago, the dean of Llewellyn—a formerly single-sex liberal arts college in nearby Selene, New York—called to advise Josie that her adopted 18-year-old daughter, Penelope Hae Jun Sykes, was taking a leave of absence. Josie has since been unable to contact Penny, and is deeply concerned for her welfare—especially given that the girl has a serious medical condition. Siobhan agrees to assist, enrolling as a continuing education student at Llewellyn to provide cover. Her investigation reveals a newly coed campus full of furious feminists, a suspiciously robust police presence, and a tight-lipped college president who has ties to a yoga retreat with cult-like roots. A diverse cast replete with vividly sketched characters—the majority of them female—elevate this fun take on the classic PI novel. Siobhan is a snarky, smart, and refreshingly relatable narrator whose burgeoning romance with a widowed lawyer adds to the tale’s emotional complexity without detracting from its central puzzle. Snappy dialogue complements the breezy plot, which, like Siobhan, never takes itself too seriously. Kinsey Millhone fans, this one’s for you.
Katrina Niidas Holm / Mystery Scene (https://www.mysteryscenemag.com/component/content/article/26-reviews/books/6934-skin-deep-2)
The lovely review that appeared in Library Journal now makes an appearance on Smithsonian’s BookDragon. Never a bad thing to have multiple outlets highlighting your book!
