August Book Review
This is the third month in a row that I'm posting a book review post! All the gold stars for me! Consistency and sticking to #goals FTW! 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
I read 11 books in August: 2 audio books, 9 paper/kindle books. Family visits and road trips and a family emergency lowered my monthly average a bit. That's the way things go sometimes. Luckily I'm not doing this to win any prizes for Most Books Read In A Year, and hopefully you're not either. 😉
Here's what I read in August 2018:
The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My Review: I re-read this for the Daytime Fiction Discussion Group at One More Page Books, and I am happy to say it did not disappoint the second time around. What a beautiful, heartbreaking, hilarious, grace-filled novel. This book takes a span of history in Ireland, starting from the end of WWII (1945) and ending when Ireland legalized same-sex marriage in 2015. It looks at an extremely religious conservative country, ruled by the Catholic Church, go from extreme intolerance and hypocrisy to becoming the first country to legalize gay marriage via popular vote. We see this all through the life of one gay man, born in 1945, who comes of age at a time where the very core of who he is is seen not just as immoral, but as against the law. We see the repercussions on the lives of everyone when we deny people the right to be who they are: not just the individuals themselves, but also the lives of everyone around them. We see the pain of realizing that you can endure rejection and potential incarceration, being an outcast from society for the rest of your days, or you can choose to live a lie. The effects are staggering. It's a chronicle of lives wrecked by social contempt and self-loathing. And yet this isn't an overly serious book. Not at all! While there are parts that will break your heart, there are parts that will make you laugh out loud, and ultimately will stitch your broken heart back together. You see how people create their own families through love and loss and forgiveness and grace. You will want some of these characters to be real, to be your friends and family. I simply loved this book.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ *Audible
My Review: This book lives up to the hype. I listened to the audible version, and the narration was FANTASTIC. I've been hearing nothing but rave reviews about this one, so I was prepared to be a little disappointed. I am happy to report that I was blown away by this book. It's so well done. This book is technically in the Young Adult genre, which I generally don't love; this book is an exception. I love knowing that this book is out there, available to YA readers. I hope there are lots of YA book club discussions happening around this title. The issues in this novel are timely and important, and there is no better way to understand a point of view than to enter the mind of a character in a well-written book. Empathy and understanding start when you feel like you know what it would be like to walk a mile in another person's shoes; the author does a superb job here. Okay, listen: in case you can't tell from my profile, I'm a middle-aged white lady. I've never lived in the type of neighborhood described in this novel. With that said, to me this book seemed true to life and really offered perspectives from all angles without devolving into stereotypes. I know the movie is coming out this fall; I have high hopes! If your family watches the news and has differing opinions on Black Lives Matter/Blue Lives Matter/All Lives Matter, I would highly recommend reading this book and discussing it together. Seriously. It's that good.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My Review: I re-read this for my neighborhood book club, and as usual with a re-read, it was a different reading experience. The books don’t change, but we do. I liked it the first time around; I was truly moved by it the second time I read it. It’s such a poignant book; it just feels so British: all quiet reserve and restraint on the surface, with deep unspoken emotion just beneath the surface. As I read this book I kept thinking of an adage I heard once: we don’t usually regret the things we’ve done, we regret the things we didn’t do. The kind words left unsaid. The road not taken. In this book Harold literally takes to the road on an unlikely pilgrimage to process all of his regrets: as a father, a husband and a friend. There are beautiful passages that will give you pause. There is religious imagery that will make you see the holy in the prosaic. It’s that kind of book. I’m glad I re-read it; it’s the kind of book worth savoring. I’ll add it to my “to read again someday” list, because I suspect it’s the kind of book that holds future wisdom I missed the first two times.
Consider the Lobster and Other Essays by David Foster Wallace
4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My Review: I consider myself to be pretty well read, and yet I have never read anything by the formidable and much admired David Foster Wallace. I think it's because when I think of DFW, I think of Infinite Jest and at 1088 pages, it's a tad intimidating. I think it's safe to say I'll probably never pick it up. But when this essay collection came up on my Kindle Daily Deals email, I snatched it right up. And it was timely, because this collection includes his essay on John McCain, and I bought it the day McCain died. He wrote this piece after riding McCain's campaign bus, the Straight Talk Express during his run for the Republican nomination in the 2000 election. It is worth getting a copy of this book just for this essay. I would say it's worth getting a copy of this book just for the few paragraphs detailing McCain's experience in the North Vietnamese POW camp. Foster Wallace is masterful at putting the reader in McCain's shoes here, at making the hero human. Maybe I felt it so intensely because of the day I happened to read it (I read this essay the day of McCain's public memorial service). It was powerful. The title essay about the lobster brought back childhood memories of summer camping trips to Maine. His description of how lobster is prepared reminded me of my first foray into vegetarianism: watching my mom boil a live lobster over our campfire was traumatic, to say the least. The piece about his experience of 9/11 in a small Illinois college town was so moving, especially with the hindsight of 17 years. And his essay on the porn industry in the late '90s seems quaint to 2018 sensibilities. His talk about how VCRs being in every home changed how people consume porn made me think, "that's adorable.” The critiques of DFW are legit: too many footnotes, too many random asides, too longwinded. All true. And yet I can see from this one collection that he has legions of die-hard fans for a reason. He was clearly a gifted writer with a keen eye for observing human behavior. His loss to the literary world is our collective loss for sure.
Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My Review: I've read the first 5 in this series, and I enjoyed them quite a bit. We were away on our annual trip to Minnesota, and I've read the other ones here before, so I felt compelled to read this one now. I also knew that Louise Penny was going to be at the National Book Festival in DC when I got back, so I thought it would be good to have one of her books fresh in my mind! (sadly, I ended up having to miss the festival. whomp whomp). This series has avid fans for a reason. These books are technically mysteries, but the mystery in each novel is almost secondary: each book explores the characters in more depth, both the character of Gamache and the villagers of Three Pines. If you're looking for a fast-paced whodunit, look elsewhere. But if you're looking for a slow burn mystery with strong character development and charm to spare, this is the series for you. Less Gillian Flynn, more Agatha Christie. This book was better than some of the earlier ones. I will definitely pick up #7!
Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My Review: This book is light and fun without being mindless or fluffy. If you’ve just finished a serious book, it’s the perfect palette cleanser. This book is loosely based on the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal. If you’re old enough to remember that media juggernaut, this book will take you back and make you cringe. Hopefully over the last 20+ years, we can see how poorly she was treated and how unfair it is that Bill Clinton was able to rebuild his life while Monica has remained a collective cultural punchline. There are references to The Scarlet Letter here, but as the main character notes, ”they didn’t put a scarlet letter on her chest, but they didn’t need to. That’s what the internet is for....(she) will wear that “A” until she’s dead.” When her mom tries to encourage her with the story of a murderer who was able to overturn his wrongful conviction, she says, ”I’m not a murder. I’m a slut, and you can’t be acquitted of that.” This makes the book sound heavier than it is. If you’ve read ”Where’d You Go, Bernadette?”, it’s similar in tone, fast-paced and funny. I can definitely see this being made into a movie. And when it does, 13-year-old Ruby will steal every scene.
That Kind of Mother by Rumaan Alam 2 stars ⭐️⭐️
My Review: I’m so disappointed. I need to remember that anything under 3.5 on GoodReads is a risk! I heard a stellar review of this book on a podcast from someone with whom I usually share taste in books, so I overlooked the 3.1 score. I need to remember that GoodReads > Podcasts. This book had great potential! But the themes it was supposed to explore (race, adoption, etc) were barely touched upon. Seriously, barely. There was the obligatory story about driving while black and an anecdote about a teacher maybe? probably? singling out a black kid for bad behavior that she’d overlook in a white student. That was it. In a novel about a white family adopting a black baby, that’s all the friction they encounter. Mmkay. There was a lot about the main character’s poetry career though. Oy. I couldn’t connect with any character at all; some very intense events happen here, but it was like reading about it all through gauze. This book would’ve been well served by having chapters told from different points of view, but since I didn’t feel like I knew any of the characters, by the end, I didn’t care. Also, final annoyance: the book takes place in the suburbs of DC. There are mentions of Tenleytown, Bethesda, Silver Spring. Old Georgetown Road, DuPont Circle. I live here, so this was all familiar, which is why it made me cringe every time he referred to their house on Wisconsin Drive. It’s Wisconsin Avenue. It was like nails on a chalk board. This may sound like minor nit-picking, but it’s not, I promise. Wisconsin Avenue is a major landmark thoroughfare. Can you imagine a story taking place in NYC and reading about Madison Drive instead of Madison Avenue? It seriously bugged me!
by Sam Quinones 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My Review: Wow. If you want to understand how America now finds itself in the grips of a staggering opioid epidemic, read this book. It’s non-fiction that reads like a good novel, only sadly, it’s all a true story. The author lays out how a perfect storm of a new type of drug suppliers (think small cell operators instead of giant drug cartels) and doctors prescribing opioids at unprecedented levels, combined with a savvy drug manufacturer poised to make a huge profit came together to get us to where we are now: there is an overdose death by opiates every half hour in this country. Drug overdoses passes fatal vehicle accidents nationwide for the first time in 2008. The story is fascinating and tragic, enraging and truly sad. People trusted doctors and ended up addicted to opioids. When they could no longer get them legally, because the morphine molecule is so strong, they turned to heroin. A tiny village in Mexico supplied the mid-sized cities in this country and turned many of them into hollowed out drug dens, never using weapons or carrying large amounts to stay under the radar of law enforcement. They’d stake out methadone clinics to get new customers. Soon wealthy white suburbs became the biggest customer base. There is plenty of blame to go around here, but the book ends on a positive note for one Ohio town that’s been particularly hard hit. I think every American would benefit from reading this book; we can’t begin to fix the problems if we don’t understand them. And if you’re a reader like me (living in an east coast urban setting, whose life is largely untouched by this epidemic), this book will give you insights and understanding into what is happening to our country.
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My Review: A sweeping epic that follows one Korean family through the turmoil in Japan and Korea during the twentieth century. As I’ve said in other reviews, I love historical fiction that takes me to a time and place I know little (or nothing) about. Before reading this I knew nothing about the Korean experience in Japan: being treated as second-class citizens, seen as lazy, dirty, dumb (fill-in-the-blank stereotype that humanity always uses to denigrate a group of people they see as “less than” and therefore “other”). As one of the characters says to his son, “living every day in the presence of those who refuse to acknowledge your humanity takes great courage.” I know the basic outlines of history (WWII, the Korean War, Korea dividing into North and South Korea), but of course the best way to understand what these historical events mean on a human level is to read literary fiction. Seeing the extreme poverty, the grit and determination to survive, the steadfast love that parents have for their children and the sacrifices they made to ensure a better life, all against the backdrop of the time and place in which these characters were placed: it’s why I read books! The author invites us to bear witness to the stories of ordinary people forgotten to history. I put off reading this one because of its length, and I’m giving it four out of five because it did feel a bit too long. That said, it is still an outstanding book that is well worth your time.
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkah 4.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
My Review: I really loved this book; the half star is because there were parts that could’ve been edited down. I would love to pick this for book club when it comes out in paperback, but I know people will balk at how long it is. That aside, this is a devastatingly beautiful book. It broke my heart a hundred times. The book alternates between 1980s Chicago and present-day Paris, with overlapping characters; normally when a book switches between two times, I would have a clear favorite, but I loved both equally. The author deftly compares the Lost Generation of the early 20th century to the young men lost to the early days of the AIDS epidemic in America. Both had young men full of life and promise, at the threshold of their young lives, living vibrant lives in vibrant cities, only to be cut down in their prime by disease and corrupt governments and fights that had nothing to do with them. One of the characters ponders ”just as she’d once been in a story...growing up with her brother in a city on their own, making it in the world, when the virus and the indifference of greedy men had steamrolled through. She thought of Nora, whose art and love were interrupted by assassination and war. Stupid men and their stupid violence, tearing apart everything good that was ever built. Why couldn’t you ever just go after your life without tripping over some idiot’s dick?” I am old enough to remember the AIDS crisis; I remember the complete lack of government response, the homophobia, the fear and the shame. But I can’t remember ever reading a novel that puts you in that time, when it was new and there was so much misinformation. And as a straight woman, I certainly don’t know what it was like to have fought to find my way into a gay community, to have established my own chosen family, only to watch everyone in that family get sick and die around me, one by one. It’s unimaginable heartbreak. This experience should be the premise for many more novels; storytelling through well-drawn characters is the best way to understand what it’s like to live an experience that is different from your own. This story needs to be told and heard; this book takes on the task beautifully.
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah 4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ *Audible
My Review: I put off reading this book because it falls into one of two genres that I tend to stay away from these days: WWII/Holocaust stories and Civil War/Slavery stories. I've read so many books in these two categories that I can't believe there is anything new to say. And both of these genres take such an emotional toll to read that I have to be really compelled to pick it up.
If you are an avid reader of contemporary fiction, then you know this book was big when it came out a few years ago. It was on all the lists for all the things. Several trusted fellow readers recommended it to me. And yet. I couldn't make myself read it.
But I was looking for my next Audible listen, and this had stellar reviews for both story and narration, so I relented and decided to give it a go. The narration was excellent, and it turns out, this book earned its spot on all those lists. It's an excellent book and a beautiful story. I don't think she did anything new here, and the final chapter was a bit weak considering how strong the rest of the book was, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Maybe "enjoy" isn't the right word. I fully appreciated this book.
