Settling into the new rhythm of our lives has left plenty of time for reading! Pass on your book recommendations in the comments and read on to hear some of ours.

Michelle: I have finally carved out some time to read post move and have enjoyed a variety of novels, science fiction, a memoir, and a novella.

Feast: True Love in and Out of the Kitchen by Hannah Howard. A free Kindle book via Amazon Prime.

My Rating: *****

I am a foodie, I love fancy food and street food. I love eating out and cooking at home. I watch movies, TV, and documentaries about food. I love collecting cookbooks and reading about food and this book was right up my alley. It is a memoir about food obsession, compulsion, addiction, and recovery. It was equal parts gritty NYC foodie culture (at times reminding me of Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly), food porn, and a heartbreaking personal narrative. I found Hannah’s story compelling and sped through the book in a matter of days. By the end of the book I felt inspired to prioritize self love, patience, and embracing the skin I am in. Howard’s newest book Plenty: A Memoir of Food and Family is definitely on my “too read” list.

Partners by John Grisham. A digital library loan.

My Rating: ***

I have paperback versions of The Firm and The Pelican Brief. Decades ago Andrew started the tradition of gifting me John Grisham hardcover books, so I have amassed quite a collection. I am not sure I will have room to display all of them in my much smaller Portuguese house, but they should be arriving with our other belongings in a matter of days.

In November of 2019 I read Rogue Lawyer. I found the main character Sebastian Rudd entertaining, but REALLY wanted to know more about his mysterious sidekick. Fortunately Grisham wrote an E-book that covers the backstory of how the two characters met. It is a super speedy read at 70 pages and most chapters are only 2-4 pages. I like a good precursor story and this was just enough to fill in some gaps created by the original full size novel.

The Paid Bridesmaid by Sariah Wilson. A free Kindle book via Amazon Prime.

My Rating: ****

After two heavy Kazuo Ishiguro novels and a deep space nail biter, I wanted something light and silly. This book definitely fit the bill. Although the plot fits the rom-com norm to a T, the characters were likable, the repartee was interesting enough and I zoomed through this book like an easy breezy summer day.

Andrew: My last bookmark check-in was early June so I have quite a few books to blab about. One major change for me is that I got my digital library card and have been loving the pace it sets for me to finish books.

Blackout by Erin Flanagan. A free Kindle book via Amazon Prime.

My Rating: ***

Main character Maris is a recovered alcoholic who starts experiencing blackouts. The most interesting part of the book for me was Maris’ internal struggle about not revealing the situation to other people. She has a history of making huge mistakes in life due to alcohol consumption and feels like revealing the blackouts will convince her friends and family she has fallen off the wagon. Maris eventually realizes that multiple other women are also having strange blackouts and the story struggles to wrap things up – veering into silly future technology sci-fi and mad scientist territory.

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. A digital library loan.

My Rating: ***

My favorite author is Haruki Murakami and multiple books that I’ve read recently come from recommendation lists based on his works. Kitchen is a collection of two short stories about dealing with grief. I was very excited to finally read this novella but felt that the stories were both beautifully told while also so directly relayed that there wasn’t any “food for thought” when all was said and done.

The Three-Body Problem and The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin. A digital library loan.

My Rating: **** and ****

I think that both of these books are worth a read if you enjoy science fiction! I don’t want to spoil any of the plot since they are also being adapted for a Netflix series. These were (as far as I can recall) the first novels I’ve read that were translated from Chinese. Although confusing at first I very much appreciated the cultural insights the stories presented. Lots of crazy science fiction shenanigans, surprising plot twists, and scientists doing sciency stuff. I’m excited to continue the series soon, just needed a short break.

Recursion by Blake Crouch. A digital library loan.

My Rating: *****

This is a detective thriller science fiction time travel extravaganza. In the near future an inexplicable “disease” is spreading which causes it’s victims to suddenly have a whole second lifetime of memories that seem vividly real. This is leading to mental illness, suicide, and a host of other problems. Gloriously fun, currently my third favorite book of the year so far! I know my opening description makes this sound like it might be best read by super nerds, but it is a story about personal relationships and decisions. Even if sci-fi isn’t normally your thing give this one a shot! Also, if you do read this and want to go a few steps further into the deep end give me a holler and I’ll recommend one of my favorite books of all time.

Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton. A digital library loan.

My Rating: ***

A post apocalyptic zombie tale told as a first party narrative by a domesticated crow called Shit Turd. Highly recommended to me by my cousin Fatbaby. I thought it tried too hard to push some very obvious societal criticisms. The big reveals throughout the book are telegraphed to the point that it becomes irritating and repetitive. Its irreverent humor did make me chuckle quite a few times and, after a long break, I will read the second book in the series.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A Heinlein. A digital library loan.

My Rating: *** (generous!)

Someone recommended this bloated novel to me and I hope they did so based on memories from reading it in 1961 when it first came out because it doesn’t hold up. The premise is interesting – there is a voyage to explore Mars that ends in a space ship crash and (as far as everyone on Earth knows) failure and the death of the crew. About 20 years later a new voyage sets out to recover the lost ship and data. They discover that some of the crew survived long enough to have a baby who was raised by actual Martians!! The young man is brought back to Earth (with the Martian’s blessing) and it is soon discovered that he has learned how to tap into a plethora of super human powers under the Martian’s tutelage.

Seems OK so far. Heinlein now starts having characters go on long philosophical rants about society and the story veers sharply into a debate about and advocacy of free love. Martian man starts a religion based on orgies and alien magic. There was something really interesting here but it is completely unrealized in favor of Heinlein trying to have his characters boink a lot. I’ve over simplified things but this was a huge disappointment.

Book of Night by Holly Black. A digital library loan.

My Rating: ***

This was a totally serviceable magical fantasy mystery. Shadow magic (various manipulations of people’s shadows) exists in this alternate reality. The main character is a non magical thief who used to steal magical tomes but has retired. She is drawn back into the criminal world of shadowy intrigue and her world is turned upside down as the story ramps up. Filled with fun twists and turns, I would have liked it more if it ramped up a bit faster, the middle felt over long and slogged a bit. It is the first in a series and I may consider reading the next entry, but probably not.

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. A digital library loan.

My Rating: ***** (Currently my Book of the Year)

Waaay back in high school my English teacher had us spend a year reading and discussing “coming of age” novels. I had plenty of gripes about this teacher but I think the books and topic were picked from a nationally distributed list. In retrospect I really want to know “why”? I think the whole concept of teenagers having a magic moment, event, or realization that turns them into adults is complete and utter hogwash. I doubly think that reading Lord of the Flies or Catcher in the Rye as some sort of guide to all this is ludicrous (this isn’t a criticism of the books themselves, just the concept they were being used to advance in this case). There are still times where I contemplate the idea of what it means to “grow up”.

Egan’s novel is an amazing kaleidoscope of stories about interconnected characters. The links between characters reveal themselves slowly as each individual weaves between the foreground and distant background of the plot. Egan uses modern technology to include a slideshow as one chapter in the book (with audio) and it absolutely works. Life is a complicated and messy adventure and the Goon Squad will visit us all, throwing various curve balls along the way.

Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov. A digital library loan.

My rating: ***

A Ukrainian author, who has a pet penguin, gets hired to write advance copy for obituaries by his local newspaper. I read lots of translated novels and have a strong feeling that the translation of this novel didn’t do the story any favors. Satire and droll humor can be found here but the overall feeling is ennui. The main character’s life is a series of events that he participates in for no more reason than they present themselves as possibilities. An extremely problematic sexual encounter halfway through and an overly ambiguous ending make this a book I won’t be recommending to anyone.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. A digital library loan.

My rating: **

You may have noticed that I’m quite liberal with my star ratings. I reserve * for books that I feel went out of their way to irritate me. They are one step up from broken. They have insulted me. When I look at my ** list it is filled with books that I feel I should have enjoyed (many are sequels to books I loved or written by authors who wrote a book that I gave *****) but didn’t. Maybe if they didn’t have this burden of expectation they would rate higher, but I am human and can’t just forget my past experiences when rating a book.

The Midnight Library started with promise and then literally let me down by the time I got halfway through reading it. The main character dies and wakes up in a library filled with untold books of her life. Each book tells the story of her life if she made a different decision at some point in her past. She picks a book, then picks up her life from the moment she died as it would be in that new story. She gets to keep doing this until she finds a life she is perfectly happy with, keeping the wisdom gained from each attempt.

I became increasingly irritated, here are some of my thoughts:

• Hmmm, if this ends with her deciding her life was basically great in the first place I will be super pissed.
• So, she is dumped into a life (like that of a scientist or rock star) but doesn’t actually have the knowledge gained which got her to that point, but she is always able to “fake it til she makes it”. She didn’t get a science degree, she doesn’t know the songs she wrote as a rocker, but always manages to pull through.
• This super privileged character led such a charmed life that she ACTUALLY could have been almost anything by just changing one small decision in her life. Olympian, megastar, scientist, astronaut, etc. This is beyond a child’s fantasy about how the world works in its optimism. It is almost disgusting in its lack of acknowledging that the main character lived a magically charmed life and that most of these options wouldn’t be available to most people.
• Oh, fuck you book, you are going to end in the most predictable (see thought 1) way possible. You have wasted my time. I don’t care that the writing was generally good. I feel like this whole story could have been summed up with a poster that just said “You Are The Best You!” If I saw that poster I’d want to tear it down and rip it up: of course I’m the best me, I’m also the worst me, I’m the ONLY me, “your sentiment is sappy and stupid!” I would yell at the poster as I stomped on its tiny little pieces that I’ve scattered on the ground.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. A digital library loan. Not available on Kindle so I read the whole thing on my phone.

My rating: ****

I’m better now, I’ve totally recovered from The Midnight Library.

This modern sci-fi is very character focused. A space crew made up of both humans and other alien species takes a job that requires them to spend a year flying to a small angry planet. Some things happen, but more importantly you learn about each character as they learn about each other (being trapped on a tiny ship for a long time). Each character has an interesting perspective and I found it very enjoyable to learn about their quirks and foibles.

A lot of things do happen to the crew on the long journey but this novel is much less focused on the action and more on the reactions which often happen during the time the ship is just making its way through space. I definitely plan on reading the next book in the series and will keep you updated.

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov. A digital library loan.

My rating: ***

I read somewhere that I should read this book without knowing anything about the plot. That was fine advice but at minimum I think a reader should know that this is one of those books that is probably studied in various university courses and will be best enjoyed with a notepad at hand and lots of page markers to keep track of different things. I also didn’t recognize that the Russian-American author (Nabokov) wrote Lolita among many other novels. I will go into a few things about the plot below but my quick review (if YOU want to go in blind) is that I believe this is a great example of meta-fiction but the underlying premise is too thin to sustain a novel of this length.

The premise of Pale Fire is that a poet dies and his last poem, a 999 line epic, falls into the hands of a fellow professor who idolizes him. This professor, who may have other identities, gets the poet’s grieving wife to give him publishing rights. The professor then publishes the poem Pale Fire with his own lengthy (250 pages) interpretation of the poem which he believes he greatly influenced.

This novel pushes the idea of an unreliable narrator to the veritable end of the road, then keeps going. It is interesting but I just didn’t find it that fun to read.

Both: We used to read books together much more frequently. We started a Goodreads online bookclub in 2012, but struggled with finding participants who were equally passionate about nerdy book talk (or reading Crime and Punishment for example). Recently we reconvened and read three of the same books.

We would probably humor the idea of doing a group read again if there were enough interested participants. It was just too much work doing discussion topics, trivia contests, etc – when usually only one other person participated.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. An Amazon digital purchase.

Michelle: My Rating: *****

I read this book after hearing Andrew’s impassioned monologue about it being his favorite book of the year (he was careful not to include any spoilers). I didn’t read Weir’s The Martian and probably still should. Since I had some extra time on my hands, I dug in. I found the beginning slow reading, but after a few crises had thickened the plot, I had a much more difficult time putting the book down. Weir balances science, sci-fi, and character development in a way that appeals to the masses. I ended up feeling like a seat mate with the main character on a wild and woolly emotional rollercoaster. The ending was like eating an amazing dessert at the end of a fabulous dinner party that was filled with stimulating conversation and great company.

Andrew: My Rating: *****

I’m really glad M read this one and had fun talking about it with her as she made her way through. A terribly fun science filled space adventure. I still refuse to spoil anything but will say that my favorite character of the year can still be found in these pages. And M is right – the ending is superb.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. A digital library loan.

Andrew: My Rating: ****

My brother heard I planned on reading this and asked to join in since it had been gathering dust on his garage shelf. I told M and she also joined. Rob didn’t make it very far but M and I talked a lot about both the plot and the ethics discussed in the novel. This was a depressing read which, upon reflection, highlighted how depressing some things in the modern world really are. I do recommend reading this, but find someone to talk to about it as you go (or when you finish) – Michelle and I would be glad to rehash some of our feelings.

The writing style does have a dreamlike quality but the story it tells is grounded in a very grim reality.

Michelle: My Rating: ****

Andrew recruited his brother and myself to read this book together. Since it was a library loan (which wasn’t made clear to me during the initial “let’s read it together” proposal) we were on a deadline to read about 10% ever day. On day one I couldn’t put this book down and finished at least 25%. It was pretty weird, quite sad, and irritatingly factually vague as you try to suss out the plot, but I found myself having quite a lot to discuss with Andrew as we read through it together. I still had many questions and concerns at the end of this book, but Ishiguro gave me so much to think and talk about that I immediately started reading his older novel The Remains of the Day.

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. A digital library loan.

Michelle: My Rating: ****

I love films and Anthony Hopkins is top notch. I am certain that I saw this film years ago, but the details had faded from my memory. Reading Ishiguro’s books back to back was interesting and it was easy to draw several parallels between the two. Characters in both books were preoccupied with proving that their life’s work and struggles had larger worth and meaning – does everyone do this? Maybe in some capacity. The characters recounted their past and told stories in similar ways. Ishiguro is adept at painting a character with broad enough strokes so that almost any reader can find a way to compare their own life to the struggles playing out on the pages. There were large sections of dialogue that I underlined because they resonated with the work-life imbalance and frustrations I used to struggle with. I couldn’t help but want to discuss and dissect the book with Andrew even though I didn’t really like the main character. This book gets a high rating from me because Ishiguro created another thought provoking, conversation inspiring narrative.

Andrew: My Rating: ****

I can’t disagree with anything M said about this novel. We had some amazing back and forth discussions about the book. I was surprised (not necessarily in a positive way) at how similar the character’s narrative voices were – I almost found it distracting when reading the two books back to back. Of the two books I found this one more compelling, maybe because it lacked the vagueness of Never Let Me Go I don’t think I’ve seen the movie and look forward to watching it with M at some point.