Og Mandino: The Greatest Salesman in the World starts with a well-written chapter about a man in the ancient world preparing to give away his fortune…and I would likely take it more seriously if the cover didn’t read “This book is destined to influence countless lives.” Such blurbs remind me of Hollywood proclaiming a movie a "cultural phenomenon" before it comes out.
Resoketswe Manenzhe: A number of fiction books take place in South Africa. That is, although France and Australia and Russia make occasional appearances, South Africa pops up on a regular business. Scatterlings is based around the 1827 Immorality Act. So not a pleasant topic though lyrically presented.
Sarah Manguso: Very Cold People is one of those novels that doesn’t indent the first line of every paragraph. I generally consider that unless one is Jack Kerouac, the lack of proper formatting is just lazy.
Manhattan Noir is a collection of, well, noir stories. The stories are presented by place–Greenwich Village, Clinton, Battery Park and so on. I read a story about a female serial killer by Lawrence Block. It was suitably chilling!
Sarah Ladipo Manyika: While I enjoyed the beginning of Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun, I didn’t continue reading. An elderly women whose faculties and memory are fading hits a bit too close to home these days. (My 95-year-old mother is in memory care.)
I read "Tangerine" several years ago; I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads. "This one of those books you can't put down--while experiencing an agonizing feeling of dread. Bold, attractive Lucy Mason is a psychopath who preys on sweet, insecure Alice Shipley. This relationship started their freshman year of college and continues as Lucy arrives in Tangier, Morocco where Alice and her new husband are living in 1956. The chapters are told in first person, alternating between the two women. The book is well-written and the characters and setting spring to life. Unfortunately, my hopes that somebody would believe Alice and save her were in vain, and Lucy is probably still out there manipulating, lying, and deceiving people."
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