Recent reads . . . as always, my favorites are starred.
1. The Mare
- Mary Gaitskill's novel, Veronica
is one of the most haunting books I've ever read. It's also amazing. So I expected some sort of tragic sadness from her newest book, The Mare. But instead, the novel starts off somewhat sappily sweet when a tween girl from an inner-city neighborhood goes to stay with a childless couple in the country for the summer (via a charity called the Fresh Air fund). The book alternates perspectives, mainly between the girl, Velvet, and Ginger, the "country" wife (for lack of a better adjective). Velvet eventually becomes a realistic character, full of teenage desires, as she tried to balance the two radically different worlds in which she's found herself. But throughout the novel Ginger remained somewhat of an empty shell, who never came to life for me. ***2. Some Luck
- This is the first book in a trilogy involving 100 years in the life of a midwestern farm family. The beginning was a little cheesy as it is told through a young baby than toddler's perspective. But eventually Smiley finds her pace and I could not put this book down. I ended up falling in love with every character, from the selfish oldest son to the animal loving middle child. A great read.3. Mislaid
- I've written about Nell Zink before (click here) and I'm still not sure what to make of her. In this novel, a lesbian mom, while escaping her gay husband, kidnaps her daughter and lives in poverty for a series of years, while pretending to be black (because she stole a dead child's birth certificate). It's sort of funny, it's sort of uncomfortable. It's a farce, maybe. I don't know. But it's worth reading. ***4. Life After Life
- Everyone told me I'd love this book and they were all right. The writing is crazy good. And the idea that the smallest changes in a day/week/month could effect your entire life is (as always) fascinating. 5. My Documents
- These short stories by Chilean writer, Alejandro Zambra, occur during the Pinochet years. Some are better than others, but they all focus on people unsure of the present and scared to question the past. The best (if you ask me) is Memories of a Personal Computer, where the story of a relationship is told through how the couple uses (and disuses) technology. ***6. Americanah
- I'm a little obsessed with Adichie after reading her book/pamphlet We Should All Be Feminists
. And I LOVED this novel. We live in a neighborhood with a lot of families from different countries and I always want to ask, "What do you think? Are you happy here? Did America fulfill your expectations?" But I can never find a non-cheesy way to have this conversation. This novel was, for me, the conversation I've been wanting to have. The story involves a Nigerian woman's experiences in America, but it's so much more than that. It's a love story. And it's about race. And nationality. And travel. And being poor. And later, not being poor. After I finished it, I felt like my best friend had just left. I didn't want to let her go.
- The idea of this novel is intriguing - everything you learn about the narrator is revealed through ten conversations she has while traveling to teach a creative writing seminar. And the writing is really good. But several of the conversations didn't seem "real" to me, after awhile I kept asking myself, "who talks like this?". Still, an interesting read, which made me wonder what I reveal about myself when talking to strangers. 
- I'm so glad someone finally wrote a novel about how hard early parenthood can be and how little modern medicine/ society seems to care. But the narrator is such a bitch, really an absolute bitch, that I became sick of listening to her rant after awhile. 
- I keep going back and forth on whether to star this (I don't want to star everything). It's an intriguing novel, in which a somewhat-routine dinner between two brothers and their wives becomes completely horrific. I found the end a little over-the-top awful, but, still, I couldn't put this book down. And the plot makes you think about how far you would go to protect your own children (though hopefully never as far as one of the brothers). It also makes you wonder if some people truly are just born evil and then find equally evil people to marry them. 
- READ THIS BOOK. It's about family dynamics and mistakes people make and, basically, how life goes on. The story, while told well, isn't necessarily original, but the way in which it is told (half way through the novel you learn "the end") makes this book different than anything else I've read. 
- I need to tread lightly here, because I know so many people who love this book, which tells the stories of a blind French girl and a German orphan during World War II. And I can see why people like it - Doerr writes well, the characters are likable, and each chapter carries an element of suspense - but I I found it a little cheesy, with main characters who seemed inordinately "good". (Plus, as I mentioned last month, I loved Doerr's memoir, 
, and found it disappointing that I didn't find his fiction as compelling). 
- READ THIS BOOK. On the overnight train from Paris to Venice we shared our compartment with a German au pair named Sophie who was writing her thesis on Irene Nemirovsky, an author whom I had never heard of (and nothing irritates me more than not knowing about a well-regarded author). And now I'm a little obsessed with Nemirovsky. First of all, her writing is beyond amazing. And this novel - which deals with Nazi occupied Paris during World War II - is good, really good, we're talking War and Peace good, even though Nemirovsky never had a chance to finish the third through fifth sections. Nemirovsky died at Auschwitz as did her husband. Neighbors and friends saved her children by hiding them throughout the war and her oldest daughter, Denise, carried a suitcase full of her mom's writings everywhere she went. But it wasn't until Denise turned 50 that she opened the suitcase and started reading her mother's undiscovered masterpiece, hence how Suite Francaise came to publication. If the background story alone isn't enough to make you read it, then trust me, the book stands on its own. So so good. 
- READ THIS BOOK. Similar in some ways to Girl on the Train and Gone Girl, Her is a you-can't-put-it-down thriller. The plot being that one woman befriends another woman, but her intentions seem sinister. You know something bad is going to happen, you're just not sure what or when. Or, really, even why. But the thing that makes this novel stand out is that the writing itself is so so good. Harriet Lane perfectly captures early motherhood and how it feels to lose some of your own identity when creating a family. 
- Every bookworm's summer needs at least one guilty pleasure and this was mine. The characters are underdeveloped and the excess is over the top, but wow was this fun to read. And it made me grateful that I'm not crazy rich. Or even slightly rich.
- Before traveling to Rome, I wanted to read a book that would excite me for our trip. Thrilled by the possibilities. This is that book. It's also a really great rumination on life with young children. Random trivia - throughout the memoir, Doer tries to work on a novel about Nazi occupied Paris, but finds it hard to make much progress given the distractions of Rome. I assume this is the novel that became, 
- I didn't love the first few stories in this collection and almost quit, but then, slowly, gradually they became better. The story about the random houseplant that thrives in neglect is probably my favorite. 
- This memoir discusses the hassles and nuisances of traveling on Italy's railways. The writing is solid and the stories are (often) funny, in a frustrating after-the-fact way. But after I reached the book's half-way point, I realized that reading about Tim Parks' misfortunes and adventures had me in a constant state of anxiety regarding our upcoming vacation. So I stopped reading and became a happier person. 
- In 1995, the New Yorker sent Adam Gopnik to Paris to report on city life. This collection of essays resulted. Some are funny, for example when Parisians tried to open a "NYC style" health club and nobody wanted to sweat. Some are boring (really boring), I could care less whether Gopnik likes European football (i.e. soccer). But almost all of them are snarky and, since summer reading = happy reading, after awhile reading this book felt like a chore. 
- In high school I read Sassy magazine and listened to Sonic Youth, which is probably the closest I've ever come to rebelling in any form. I thought Kim Gordon radiated cool, but I found her music complicated and unnecessarily loud. The lyrics went over my head, but I listened anyways, trying to figure out the identity of Mildred Pierce(so goes life before the internet). 
in that both memoirs are also love stories of New York city. But Gordon herself comes across as honest and real; she discuss hard topics, like child rearing and divorce, without resorting to cheesy cliches and easy answers. Anyways, I still find Gordon the epitome of cool, but no longer do I find her unreachable. Really a great read.
- I blogged about this wonderful graphic novel a few weeks ago (click 
- I spent three months on the library waiting list for this book. Yet when it finally arrived, I never bothered to read more than three pages. I guess I'm not really ready to tidy up. Or I'm too lazy. Oh well, I'm already back on the library waiting list, maybe this time I'll actually read the book. 
- I first learned about Nell Zink, a few weeks ago from 
- READ THIS BOOK!! After I read Cormac McCarthy's The Road, I swore off apocalyptic fiction, as I tend to worry enough without throwing the end of the world into the mix. But so many people loved Station Eleven that I decided to give it a try. And I loved this book. Deeply deeply loved. Because it's hopeful. And it shows how things get lost and found again (sort of like Tom Stoppard's play Arcadia). And it made me believe that even in the most horrible of situations, there will be happiness too. 
- I think almost all mom photographers are a little enamored with Sally Mann (how could you not be?) and the beautiful, haunting, controversial images she made of her children. So I wanted to love Mann's memoir. And I didn't hate it. But I had previously read the memoir's best chapter in the 
- All three of my kids are somewhat Minion obsessed. I don't quite understand, I mean they're funny enough as co-stars, but I can't imagine a whole movie of just Minions. But F read the book and loved it. So who am I to judge?
- After I read about the Dullards on 
- My mom mailed History Safari to the kids after discovering it in a thrift store. And since then it has become T's favorite book. I'm not sure why (he's too young for the text), but the pictures are very detailed, so he enjoys looking at them and asking us questions about ancient times. 
- I loved this book as a child. And even with a battered covered and destroyed spine, my kids seem to enjoy the old stories as much as I did. Davy Crockett. Pinocchio. Paul Bunyan. So much fun to discover them all again. 
- This is a really quirky selection Margaret Atwood's recent short stories. She calls them "tales about tales" and very few of the stories seemed to have much in common. Though almost all the characters are old and reflecting on life in some way or another. Not a bad read, but definitely not Atwood's best.
- I spent 2 months on the library waiting list to finally read this book. I love HBO's Girls. I love Lena Dunham. And, like Dunham, I'm a sharer. In conversations, I often receive a look like "whoah, too much information." I have a hard time with the line between appropriate and over the top. And civility. But, wow, some of the stuff Dunham shares made me uncomfortable. All I could think is "her mom read this? How awkward." No subject is off limits. I'm still not sure how I feel about all of this information, should some things remain private? I don't know. But for a Dunham fan, it's still almost impossible to not to enjoy this book, even while you cringe. 
- I can't say this is deep literature or anything close. But I could not put it down. Not for a second. The suspense, oh the suspense. And the end was worth it. A really fun book to read. 
- I love the concept of a book about bees told through the perspective of a bee. And the author uses beautiful details to describe how Flora, the main character, sees/smells the world around her. But there didn't seem to be much of a plot, rather Flora stumbles from one situation to another. After awhile reading The Bees began to feel like a chore and I never made it past page 123. 
- READ THIS BOOK. Peter Hessler's memoir of the time he spent in the Chinese "river town" of Fuling during the 1990s made me feel like I was there with him. I love when a book has the power to transport you somewhere else, with people so real that you expect to meet them one day. This is that book. 
- This is my favorite new cookbook. It's fancy, but doable. After Dan spent a weekend away for work, the kids and I made him the rainbow chip cake as a welcome home surprise. It was by far my best baked good ever. Amazing.
