It’s fitting to end 2018 with the best selling book of the year, Becoming by Michelle Obama. The book is broken up into three parts, the first about her childhood and teenage years through college. This is the part I took the most issue with, as I feel like so much was left out. The reader never got a real view into teenage stumbles or anything that would be considered remotely controversial. Much is made about this book being honest,…
Ordinary People by Diana Evans is a novel that follows the lives of two black couples during a year of marital struggles in London, starting on the eve of the Obama presidency. One couple lives in a crooked, drafty, possibly haunted house which becomes a character all its own; the other couple has moved outside the city to get away from crime and to raise their kids. The four are friends and their lives intersect in ways that are both…
A Separation by Katie Kitamura is a small, taut, suspenseful novel about a woman who has been separated from her cheating husband for six months, but his parents don’t know. Then he goes missing in a small town in Greece and she is called upon to go look for him. As the novel slowly unfolds, Kitamura’s power to draw the reader in with her almost hypnotic prose is on full display. An undeniably smart, well written book, yet also forgettable.
Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven, is a novel about a young woman named Lilia who moves from place to place and has never learned to settle down, ever since her father took her away from her mother when she was a young girl and they spent years on the run. St. John Mandel is a brilliantly original writer, I was mesmerized by this story of a lost young woman searching for truth…
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides is a novel about three college students in the 80’s full of ideas and idealism, longing for romance and truth, each on different, yet intersecting paths. This is a heady novel full of big ideas and literary references, sometimes at the expense of the story. Eugenides is an undeniably great writer, but by the end I was feeling more tired than inspired. An interesting, but forgettable read.
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld is historical fiction based on the life of Laura Bush and her unlikely and reluctant rise to First Lady. This is a beautifully written book, I was completely drawn in from the beginning. It was illuminating and also frustrating to find out how differing her views were from her husband, yet she never really spoke up about important things she believed in, even though she was well read and educated. A great read no matter…
Unsheltered is the new highly anticipated novel from Barbara Kingsolver. It follows two families living in the same falling down East Coast house in two different centuries. I wish I could say I loved this book, but I didn’t. Kingsolver used to be one of my favorite writers. In this book I didn’t really like the modern day characters, I was much more interested in the past story of the female biologist who is actually based on a real woman….
Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown, is a great mystery without the murder and violence and it made me wonder why there aren’t more books like it. A young beautiful Berkeley Mom goes off hiking alone one weekend and falls off a cliff and dies. A boot is found, but no body. A year later her teenage daughter and husband are still trying to come to terms with their loss when they begin getting signs that the Mom might still…
The Unaccustomed Earth is a collection of short stories by Jhumpa Lahiri. Lahiri is my favorite writer of short stories and this is a wonderful collection. They are each long enough to stand alone, but taken together they are even better, and indeed the book ends with a trio of linked stories. Lahiri writes mostly of young Indian couples in the US, and her characters are so well crafted the reader feels as if they know them. Wonderful stories, beautifully…
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo is a book that actually did change my life. This is different from every other self help, simplifying book I’ve ever read. I found Kondo’s approach fresh, even revolutionary, and I dove right in, following her method completely. It changed not only the space I live in, but how I live my life and where I put my attention. A highly recommended read.