I am too far behind to provide extended reading notes, and yet I wish to maintain the list. Instead here is a quick listing of what I read in April and May.
20. Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty. Book club selection. I expected more from this book, but then I think I always do from Moriarty’s novels. It is true that the author explores interesting questions concerning fate and pre-destination in this novel, but I felt the development was rather clichéd and the characters interesting but not fully fleshed out enough for me to fully engage. An entertaining quick read, that ultimately felt like a bit of an overindulgence in sugar.
21. Seascraper by Benjamin Wood. Historical Fiction. Heartwarming. This was a short, beautifully written, and uplifting novel, that also resonated in my thoughts for sometime. Set in 1962 young Thomas Flett is barely eking out a living carrying on his grandfather’s dying career as a shanker. It is a profound story of emotional repression, loss, isolation and yearning. The ending is ultimately uplifting without seeming forced or contrived.
22. Project Hail Mary by Andrew Weir. Science Fiction. Fun, Light, Fast Moving. Doesn’t stand up to scrutiny but that is beside the point. I thoroughly enjoyed it this, and it moved quickly enough that I was able to suspend disbelief.
23. Saga of Brutes by Ana Paula Maia. Brazilian literature. Darkly comic, often brutal, but also compassionate. A compilation of three novellas about the men who do the dirty work of society, disposing of disposable things, men who perhaps feel themselves to be brutes, and worthless, because society treats them as such. Yes, their work is brutish, but they men themselves are not devoid of humanity or compassion, although their actions may appear to be so. The literary strength of the novellas varies, but the stories were compelling, disturbing, and thought-provoking. This novel will stay with me a long time.
24. The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, deservedly so. Its unusual premise combined with beautiful writing, memorable characters and distinctive style make for a very engaging book. A bit too emotionally manipulative for me perhaps — infertility, cancer, blindness, Holocaust survivor, death of a child, dementia, mental illness, bullying, asylum seeking — really, I would have found Sybil von Antwerp compelling with a small subset of these. Despite this, I thoroughly enjoyed the book.
25. Death on Cromer Beach by Ross Greenwood. Police procedural. Easy and engaging read with good character development and a strong sense of place.
26. Death at Paradise Park by Ross Greenwood. Police procedural. Second in series. Still a good sense of place but this installment felt a bit far-fetched and pushing at the limits of belief.
27. Death in Bacton Wood by Ross Greenwood. Police procedural. Third in a planned series of three. The series comes to a conclusion, but lacks connection between the volumes. That said, the plot is more convincing than in the second installment. Solid on the procedural aspects of the novel, perhaps looking toward a new series.
28. The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak. In this story two young people in Cyprus fall in love, are separated, reunited, and move to London where they have a daughter. The mother dies and the daughter is trying to reconcile her grief with her family history and her sense of being “apart” in society and in a family that does not discuss its history. The story is told in large part by a fig tree, which has been brought to England with the family. Parts of this story are quite clichéd and others almost too analytical, yet I felt it worked beautifully on an emotional story-telling level, if not always literarily. Shafak seems to merge many current themes and influences — the increasing interest in the interconnectedness of trees, Richard Powers, science, Internet Memes — with traditional mysticism and superstition, including magical realism, loss, pain, heartbreak, and hope, into a story that is simultaneously disjointed yet oddly interconnected and complete. I think the odd disconnect in the writing here helps flesh out Ada’s own sense of isolation and lack of connection. Worth reading again.
29. The Black Wolf by Louise Penny. Armand Gamache takes on an international conspiracy. I’ve long loved this series but am not really interested in Gamache taking on the broader political ills of society. I do understand Penny’s statement that the series must evolve, I remain uncertain that I wish to evolve with it.
30. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. I wanted to like this book from when we first met Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus. He initially reminded me of the stories my father told throughout my childhood of Pedro the octopus, who travelled with my family and had many adventures. Allas, although uplifting and quite enjoyable fluff, I felt this book was also annoyingly predictable and clichéd. Aside from Marcellus, I felt the characters were two-dimensional trite stereotypes.
31. Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín. A rather conventional immigrant novel revolving around the journey of Eilis Lacey to America, back to Ireland, and then returning to America to settle into her new life. I found Eilis to be frustratingly passive and yet I found her story engaging and moving.
32. My Mexico by Diana Kennedy. This is a cookbook, but it is also a memoir and a paean to the cooks of Mexico. I’ve had it for decades; I’ve cooked many dishes. But it has been a long time since I’ve read it, cover to cover. I did so this time around and thoroughly enjoyed the process. I’m not sure I had fully given the book the attention it deserves, not as a cookbook, but as a book about food.
33. Long Island by Colm Tóibín. I found this second installment in the Eilis Lacey story to be stronger and more compelling than the first. The form itself remains fairly conventional but I can see here how Tóibín is using this structure to deeply explore the mindset of the residents of an Irish small town (and Eilis herself). The novel is full of things that can’t (or won’t) be said and the way these secrets and repressions shape and harm the lives around them.
All in all, a fairly happy mix.
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