This month things got serious in the U.S. with COVID-19 and life shifted radically from outdoors to in. One of the upsides of this is that I (and everyone else) have a lot more time to read! This is what I got into this month. Thank you Random House for gifting me these books, noted with a star!
Gangland Boston
Emily Sweeney
This was our book club book this month and it wasn’t the best. Emily Sweeney is a writer for the Globe so this poorly written book was a huge, and surprising, letdown. She somehow managed to make Boston crime, which is wildly entertaining, boring. I wouldn’t recommend.
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning*
Cathy Park Hong
Minor Feelings is a beautiful and interesting set of short pieces blending essay, story, and cultural critique to discuss the Asian American female experience. I found this very interesting coming from a different perspective. I read a lot about black and Latinx womanhood but Asian American women have at once very similar and radically different challenges. It’s a great read for deepening your world view.
The Circus*
Jonas Karlsson
This was a fun, quick book about a man whose friend disappears at the circus. The man spends the whole book hunting for his friend who vanished without a trace, all the while encountering other characters from his life and past along the way. There’s a twist at the end that may be a little predictable but was engaging all the same. Definitely recommend.
Mother, Daughter, Widow, Wife
Robin Wasserman
This is an excellent book but it is very heavy, so perhaps not ideal for the already tough scenario we’re working with. It’s about a woman who wakes up one morning and has no idea who she is. She ends up joining a research study on memory. The story goes back and forth between characters and timelines weaving all the stories together. It’s a great book, but not light.
The Swallows*
Lisa Lutz
In this story a group of prep school girls revolt against a sexist and pornographic website the boys made featuring reviews of the girls’ sexual performance. The result is an all out war partially fostered by a questionable new teacher and ambivalent on site faculty. It was a quick and engaging read. Not groundbreaking but interesting and it does pull on current issues.
Trick Mirror*
Jia Tolentino
Trick Mirror is a fascinating piece of cultural criticism, specifically focusing in my interpretation, on the lives of women. Jia delves into really interesting topics like our relationship with the internet and the way society tells us we should always be productive. It’s very good but isn’t really meant to be read all in one sitting. I’d recommend reading one essay, turning it over in your mind for a bit and then coming back.
Girl Waits With Gun
Amy Stewart
I picked up this book years ago and only just got around to reading it and it was a delight. Based on the life of the first female police detective, it’s a fun romp about the face off with a local mobster that turned her towards the cop life. It’s also part of a very long series, I can’t wait to dive into the other books once the library opens back up. Highly recommend.
Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line*
Deepa Anappara
This is a very interesting book about a group of children in a slum in India that are hunting for a lost friend. While they search, and deal with their everyday lives, children from their neighborhood continue disappearing. There’s a dark undercurrent in this book that comes to a boil at the end so it’s not exactly an uplifting read. But it’s beautifully done and does simultaneously illustrate the joy and humanity of children in impoverished India. I absolutely recommend, especially for people who don’t know much about contemporary India.
Inland*
Tea Obreht
Two characters’ lives intertwine to make this novel possible, a hard edged frontierswoman trying to survive when her family mysteriously disappears and a criminal who communicates with the dead. This is a wonderful read, illustrating the American west during expansion in a really interesting way and with wonderful, complex characters.