Thanks to @spiegelandgrau for sending me a copy of The Boys by Katie Hafner. This book tells the story of Ethan and Barb, but mostly Ethan. He was always a loner until he met and married Barb. He’s more anxious than she is, especially when it comes to something like being a parent. When Barb brings home two foster boys during the pandemic, the additions to their family start to test their relationship in new and unexpected ways.

I really don’t want to say too much here, because there are layers to this story that I don’t want to give away. I’ll just say that this was a surprisingly heartwarming book for me that went places I didn’t expect. I thought it struck a great balance between being charming and unsettling, and I really liked it. I’m looking forward to discussing this one with others, so please let me know if you read it!

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers feels like a hug in book form. Shoutout to @emdashbookparty as this was her pick for my 12 books 12 friends goal! This novella is set on another planet, similar to Earth, where robots eventually became sentient and no longer work for humans. Robots have been living separate from humans for many years, in the wild, and humans have retreated to a few cities and left most of the planet for nature to reclaim.

This book follows Dex, a nonbinary human who feels unfulfilled and changes careers to become a tea monk. During their travels they meet Mosscap, a sentient robot sent back to human society to check on them. A charming friendship ensues.

This novella is a quick read. The world is hopeful - a future in which the planet survives and thrives, and people are respectful and kind. Reading it was comforting, kind of like being served a warm cup of tea 🍵 I’d recommend it if you like sci-fi in general and want to read something quick and heartwarming. I’m looking forward to the next book in the series!

Thanks to @aaknopf for sending me Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. It is a really good book. It follows two friends who meet in childhood and reunite in college to found a video game company. You don’t have to like video games to enjoy this one - it will appeal to everyone, I think - but if you do like video games, it’s a definite bonus. I do like video games so really liked that aspect.

The two main characters are Sam and Sadie. Sam had major Jude St. Francis (from A Little Life) vibes to me, only slightly less depressed. He lives with chronic pain in his foot due to a car wreck years earlier. The friendships also reminded me of ALL - in addition to Sadie, Sam has a loyal friend in his college roommate, Marx, and they care deeply about his well-being.

This book gave me lots of warm and fuzzy feelings. I like reading stories of flawed but likable well-developed characters and relationships. It covers several decades of their life. It’s a testament to Zevin’s writing that even the side characters were interesting. Now, I will say the last 1/3 of the book took a turn that I didn’t really like. There’s one specific thing that felt a little bit like a cop-out that lead to not having to address the complexity of the relationships head-on. I think this specific thing cheapened the experience for me. Overall, for me this was not a perfect book, but it was extremely enjoyable and I really realllllly hope it gets made into a movie or show so I can spend more time with these characters.

I think the vast majority of people will find something to love in this one. I’d recommend it to everyone, and honestly move it to the top of your list because I think it will actually become a favorite for many. If you’ve read this one, slide into my DMs and let’s chat about it! Otherwise, add it to your TBR and look out for it in July!

I listened to the audiobook of The 9.9 Percent by Matthew Stewart over the course of a few weeks. This book deepened my understanding of income and wealth inequality in the US. The book focuses not on the gap between the top 0.1% and the rest of us, but instead on the not quite billionaires that make up the rest of the top 10%. It looks at the structures in place that have led to the growing inequality we see today. It touches on everything from the Varsity Blues scandal to how the members of this club justify their affluence.

This book was a really interesting listen. If you’re interested in understanding more about how inequality perpetuates and also interested in things like how the rich really live (Succession fans, any of you?) you might like this one too.

When I think about classics, despite having been proven wrong by many a book, I still tend to assume they will be boring, the writing will be stilted, reading them will feel like a chore, and I just won’t enjoy them that much. None of those assumptions proved true for Passing by Nella Larsen.

This short but impactful book was a page-turner. At the beginning, Irene, a light-skinned Black woman, is visiting Chicago when she runs into an old acquaintance Clare, who she knew from childhood. Clare is also Black but has been passing for white, is married to a white man, and has a child with him. As Clare coerces her way back into Irene’s life, Irene is torn between judging Clare’s choices and helping protect her by corrobrating her dangerous lie. In a particularly unsettling visit with Clare, Irene is made aware of just how racist Clare’s husband is.

Irene was such an interesting narrator. She’s far from perfect - she’s controlling to a fault, obsessed with maintaining her family’s own status and appearances, and has lots of class privilege. Her family is wealthy - her husband is a doctor, and they employ servants in their house. She’s light enough to pass for white when she must. She judges Clare harshly, but never really turns the lens inward.

This book was tense, with a building sense of foreboding that leads to an ambiguous end. I love an ending where the reader gets to form their own theory, and I have mine for this one 👀 DM me if you want my take - no spoilers here from me! Overall, I loved this one. Definitely a great one to pick up if you want to read more classics but are a little wary of them. I am looking forward to watching the Netflix adaptation too!

Thanks to @aaknopf for sending me Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. I really loved this one. Mandel is so skilled at world-building in a way that feels authentic with just the right amount of detail. I felt this way about Station Eleven when I read it many years ago too.

Like Station Eleven, this novel contains a pandemic. Sea of Tranquility has some sci-fi elements, whereas Station Eleven felt more like a straight up post-apocalyptic novel. I loved Station Eleven for the feelings it evoked in me, and Sea of Tranquility managed to do much of the same. This one felt melancholy a lot of the time, and I love when a book manages to make me feel that way.

I don’t want to say too much about the plot of this one - I think it would be best enjoyed without the risk of any spoilers at all. This book does contain multiple timelines, so I would recommend it if you’re into that. It reminded me of Cloud Cuckoo Land in that way. I was genuinely interested in every character in this book. The sci-fi components are also not too out-there. Although this book does have those elements, I feel like it reads more literary and less like genre fiction.

My only complaint about this book is that I wanted it to be longer! I wanted more! I wanted more details and to see more of the inner lives of the characters. I think this book would make a brilliant TV show because of this.

If you’ve read and loved Station Eleven, I would definitely recommend this one. It’s a new fave of mine for sure.

Thanks to @fsgbooks/@mcdbooks for sending me Cult Classic, the new novel by Sloane Crosley! This book was such a fun ride. It’s part mystery, part rom-com, with a side of sci-fi and lots of wit.

Lola is at a work reunion with her former colleagues from a crumbled psychology magazine when she steps outside for a cigarette and runs into an ex-boyfriend. Then she runs into another, and another… soon she’s swept up in a peculiar scheme to help her decide if her fiancé, Boots, really is the one for her.

I thought this book was so funny and charming, while being mysterious enough to keep me turning pages. Lola’s observations are keen and the writing is clever. This book defies genre, mixing a little bit of everything into something that is just really enjoyable. I’d especially recommend it to women in their 20s and 30s who have done a lot of dating and are now a bit cynical. It’s a wild ride and now I’m a little bit obsessed with Sloane Crosley.

Thanks to @aaknopf for sending me The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka. I thought this book was so lovely and moving. It’s divided into three sections. The first and longest section uses a first-person plural perspective, which I always really like. It follows a group of swimmers who have made a second home of an underground swimming pool. When a mysterious crack appears in their beloved pool, it threatens their routines in and the swimmers deal with it in different ways. One of the swimmers, Alice, is suffering from dementia. The second part of the book switches to focus on Alice after she is no longer going to the pool. Part of it is written from a second-person perspective, which makes it a particularly heart-wrenching portrait of someone slowly losing track of their memories. My own grandpa was in a memory care facility similar to the one described in this section, so I found it especially emotional and moving. The third section is also written in the second-person perspective, but switches to focus on Alice’s daughter.

This book has truly exceptional writing, is beautifully poignant, and is one that is bound to stick with me for a very long time. The first section describes quaint characters with compassion and humor, and the rest of the book tenderly and carefully speaks to the experience of a family living with a dementia diagnosis.

I very highly recommend this book. If you have ever watched someone you love go through memory loss, I think you will find it especially impactful.

Thank you to @catapult for sending me Portrait of an Unknown Lady by María Gainza! This book is a translation by Thomas Bunstead. In this novel, an unnamed Argentinian narrator rises from an auction house employee to become a fairly prestigious art critic. Lead by her auction house mentor into the underground world of counterfeit art, the narrator is completely taken by the story of an infamous art forger.

The stories of the art forger Renée start with the mysterious Hotel Melancólico, a run-down old mansion formerly host to bohemian graduates of Argentinian Fine Arts Academy. After her mentor’s death, the narrator is swept up in finding out any information she can about Renée, to potentially author a book about her, or maybe just to satisfy her own curiosity.

The search is frustratingly unfruitful. The stories that remain about Renée are opaque and cryptic. While the narrator might not find the resolution she seeks, while searching for the full portrait of the artist, she ends up painting more of a portrait of herself.

I liked this one, but it wasn’t an especially quick or rewarding read for me. I don’t think I fully understood it. I’d recommend it if you particularly enjoy works in translation and books about the art world.

Thanks to @randomhouse for sending me Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I read this one for book club. I read The Martian years ago and loved it at the time. This book was fun but ultimately felt like more of the same.

Weir definitely knows how to write a page-turner. This book starts with an astronaut who wakes up on a space ship with limited memory of how he got there, with two other crew mates who didn’t survive the journey. He slowly begins to remember the details and realizes that it’s up to him to save earth from astrophage, an alien organism absorbing the sun’s energy. It’s exciting to see Weir’s problem-solving at work, and I love how based in science his books feel. Eventually, though, this book felt repetitive - every other chapter he has to face a new challenge, and of course since he’s the smartest astronaut ever, he’s able to solve every problem in the nick of time. After a certain point I just wanted the story to resolve.

The other thing that bothers me about Weir that I just can’t get past is that his audiobooks are Audible Exclusives. Someone pinged him on Twitter about it and his response was that writing is his full time job and he needs the money…. Just rubbed me the wrong way because isn’t the revenue from his blockbuster hit movie enough? He couldn’t take a small cut to let his audiobook be available through indie bookstore and libraries? Made me not like the guy. He seems like a jerk.

Overall this was a fun/quick read, but felt very similar to The Martian. Since this was the second of his that I’ve read, it was less novel and exciting this time. I’d recommend if you really really loved The Martian, or if you haven’t read The Martian and want to try some fun sci-fi.