I could not put this book down once I started reading it. At the same time, I didn’t want to read too much at one sitting because I wanted to absorb what I’d read and I didn’t want the book to end.
ASYMMETRY
I could not have given this book a better title if I worked on it for the rest of my life. Never have I loved a book so much on the one hand and then completely lost interest on the other. The title, and my issues, stem from the structure of the book, which is essentially two short stories put together with a brief final chapter that sort of ties them together (sort of!).
THE BIRTH HOUSE
Confession: I definitely chose this book for its cover. I was intrigued and almost bought it several times before finally getting it from the library after a long wait. But whatever I thought it would be about, The Birth House sucked me into a world and story that I never dreamed existed, and taught me some Canadian History at the same time.
THE BLUE NOTEBOOK
The Blue Notebook is brutal to read, and yet I am grateful for the window it gave me into a world I knew nothing about. Levine has spent his life working with NGOs and non-profits all over the world to study and help children in extreme poverty. This is his first novel inspired by one moment in his travels.
BENEATH A SCARLET SKY
I don’t know why WWII stories keep showing up so often on my reading list, but immediately after reading The Alice Network, I picked up this book with no expectations at all. Beneath A Scarlet Sky is the novelized true story of Pino Lella, who as a teenager helped Jews escape Italy, worked as a spy within the Nazi organization in Milan and assisted the Americans in removing the partisans once the war ended. It is an unbelievable tale, made all the more thrilling by the fact that it is true.
THE OVERSTORY
I confess, I had never heard of Richard Powers before my friend Jane recommended that I read The Overstory -- because it was good and because it had won the Pulitzer Prize. I’m not sure how I missed Powers, who has published 11 books prior to The Overstory. But now that I’ve read the book, I can understand why it won the prestigious prize.
THE FOOD EXPLORER
Thank goodness for the twice-yearly “Authors on Stage” program at Wellesley College, which I’ve happily attended for years with my friend, Pam. If not for this wonderful series, which each time features three authors talking about their new books, I may never have found The Food Explorer. As the title suggests, the book tells the remarkable story of David Fairchild, an American botanist, who from the late nineteenth century well into the twentieth, devoted his life to traveling the world in search of new plants and foods that he could bring back to America. He added a vast quantity of foods to Americans’ diets and increased by a huge amount the diversity of what farmers grow.
THE ANGEL OF DARKNESS
Although I have never reviewed Caleb Carr’s earlier book, The Alienist, I find myself recommending it all the time to people who want an engrossing, fast-paced and smart book. Its wide appeal is, I’m sure, why Amazon Prime made a series out of it. It took me a few years to read the sequel, The Angel of Darkness, but I was not disappointed.
THE WIDOW CLICQUOT
This amazing book is the true story of the woman who created the Veuve Clicquot empire in France just after the French Revolution when women weren’t generally allowed to own property or run businesses. Upon her husband’s death when she was 27 years old, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin assumed leadership of the wine company she and her husband had run together. With genuine strength and a natural ability for business, she nurtured the company through multiple political and financial firestorms – to become one of the first and most successful business women of her time.
DISAPPEARING EARTH
This debut novel set on the remote Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia tells the fascinating story of two young sisters who go missing one day and the year that follows as the search for the girls ensues. Each chapter is set one month after the previous one and examines the search from a different character’s perspective: the mother of the girls, a neighbor, a witness, a detective. This structure could have felt contrived, but instead added to the overall appeal of the book.
BELLEVUE SQUARE
It’s hard to categorize this book, and I am sure I have never read another one like it. Part mystery, part thriller, part brain teaser, every page you turn the story gets weirder and more engrossing.
NINE PERFECT STRANGERS
Maybe you know Liane Moriarity as the author of the book on which the amazing mini-series BIG LITTLE LIES was based – with a cast that included Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley and Laura Dern. But Moriarity has written seven other novels as well, including her latest,Nine Perfect Strangers. Moriarity is a gifted storyteller, drawing readers in with realistic characters, spot-on dialogue and engaging story lines. Just when you think you know what will happen next, the author deftly throws a curveball and sends you some place unexpected.
CATCH-22
Considering the list of “books I should have read, but somehow never did,” Catch-22 was at the top. Had it not been for my son and his self-generated challenge to read some of the books he had never read, I may never have tackled this one. Oh! And then Hulu recently produced Catch-22 as a six-part series starring George Clooney, which further incentivized me to read the book.
BECOMING NICOLE
While not a memoir, this book takes a very close look at a young woman who was born male and her journey, along with her family, to transition to the gender she was meant to be.
A BEAUTIFUL, TERRIBLE THING
I don’t read a ton of memoirs, but this one is GREAT! I devoured it, staying up way too late several nights in a row. Not only is the story completely hypnotic, the book is structured to keep you turning pages.
ANATHEM
Anathem is almost 1,000 pages long, and way outside my comfort zone of usual genres. It took me almost 200 pages to start enjoying it, but once I was in, I was ALL IN! The book is an incredibly crafted work of what the author himself calls “speculative fiction.” This means it takes place on an imagined planet with an imagined history, vocabulary, political landscape, etc. Having said that, if you can get past the made-up words, and allow yourself to be confused for a little while, the planet Arden begins to resemble Earth in more ways than one.
HARRY POTTER AND THE CURESED CHILD
For those who are confused: no, there is not a new Harry Potter novel out. This is the published script of the play that is currently performing on Broadway and the West End in London, and it is a delight!
PRAIRIE FIRES
Caroline Fraser has written a fascinating biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Using precious little autobiographical information left by Wilder and supplementing it with a similarly small amount left by her daughter, Fraser adroitly weaves a compelling tale of Wilder’s life. She explains how Wilder came to write her beloved Little House on the Prairie series in the midst of the Great Depression when she herself was in her mid-sixties.
LOTS OF CANDLES, PLENTY OF CAKE
There is no doubt about it: I am a huge Anna Quindlen fan. She occupies a spot on my “must read” list. Every time I see that she’s published a new book, I scoop it up. (See reviews of Miller’s Valley, May 2017 and Alternate Side, June 2018.) Quindlen won the Pulitzer Prize and for a long time wrote a column for the New York Times.
ABOVE ALL THINGS
When I started this book I knew absolutely nothing about Mt. Everest or any of the people who have climbed it. I had no idea who the first person was to make it to the top. But even if you are someone who knows a lot of Everest history, I think this will still be an extremely enjoyable book, just a bit less suspenseful.