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I’ll Tell You in Person by Chloe Caldwell was a great personal essay collection for #storyseptember. @hayhails shared this one with me awhile ago, and I’m so glad I finally read it. These essays were entertaining and funny, while also feeling really reflective.
These essays are mostly about Caldwell’s life in her 20s, from working at a jewelry store, to babysitting for Cheryl Strayd’s kids, to her very difficult struggle with cystic acne. I especially loved the piece about her friendship with Maggie Estep.
These essays are definitely more anecdotal than critical - a very different type of collection than Trick Mirror, which I also just read. This collection reads more like a memoir. If you like personal essays and like reading about struggles of people in their 20s, I’d recommend this one!
These essays are mostly about Caldwell’s life in her 20s, from working at a jewelry store, to babysitting for Cheryl Strayd’s kids, to her very difficult struggle with cystic acne. I especially loved the piece about her friendship with Maggie Estep.
These essays are definitely more anecdotal than critical - a very different type of collection than Trick Mirror, which I also just read. This collection reads more like a memoir. If you like personal essays and like reading about struggles of people in their 20s, I’d recommend this one!
(#partner @penguinpress) • I was very lucky to receive an advanced copy of Zadie Smith’s new short story collection, Grand Union. This is the first collection I read for #storyseptember. I really like Zadie Smith in short form! Prior to this one, I’ve only read her novel Swing Time, and it was fine but not a favorite of mine. This one definitely made me more excited to check out some of her other work.
My favorite stories were:
• Sentimental Education, about a girl and her college boyfriend who brings his best friend along to college
• The Lazy River, about British families vacationing in Spain, that is an almost too spot on metaphor for life as we know it with social media
• Escape from New York, which made me really want a post-apocalyptic novel from Smith
• Meet the President!, which made me really want a sci-fi novel from Smith
• The Canker, which made me really want a fantasy novel from Smith
Basically, I loved all of the stories where Smith branched out in genre. She’s such a great writer, it seems that she does so with ease.
This book has sooo many stories in it! There are 19! For me, the large number of stories did make the collection feel a little bit disparate, but for the most part this is an extremely solid collection. If you’re a Zadie Smith fan or looking to branch into her work, I’d recommend it!
My favorite stories were:
• Sentimental Education, about a girl and her college boyfriend who brings his best friend along to college
• The Lazy River, about British families vacationing in Spain, that is an almost too spot on metaphor for life as we know it with social media
• Escape from New York, which made me really want a post-apocalyptic novel from Smith
• Meet the President!, which made me really want a sci-fi novel from Smith
• The Canker, which made me really want a fantasy novel from Smith
Basically, I loved all of the stories where Smith branched out in genre. She’s such a great writer, it seems that she does so with ease.
This book has sooo many stories in it! There are 19! For me, the large number of stories did make the collection feel a little bit disparate, but for the most part this is an extremely solid collection. If you’re a Zadie Smith fan or looking to branch into her work, I’d recommend it!
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I finished Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry as my first book of #AVeryMerryReadathon2019! I actually haven’t seen many reviews of this one, but it made the NYTimes top ten list this year as one of the five fiction picks and I always love reading the picks.
This book is about two old Irish men, Maurice and Charlie, both drug smugglers, sitting in the Algeciras ferry terminal waiting for Maurice’s estranged daughter Dilly to either arrive or leave on a boat to or from Tangier. The chapters alternate between the ferry terminal and flashing back in time to give snippets of the story of how the men got to where they are.
This book is full of sharp and witty prose. The banter between the old gangsters is really funny and almost charming. The flashbacks provide backstory, and we learn how Charlie got his limp and Maurice lost his eye, while the men’s estrangement from Dilly is slowly revealed.
Barry is exceptional at building an atmosphere. The flashbacks are set in various places around Ireland and the Mediterranean and they all feel distinct. In particular, the tension in one bar scene was palpable, as one patron makes his way to the bathroom to try and overhear bits of the conversation between Maurice and Charlie. I could picture the dark bar and my heart was racing in anticipation of conflict, but I was also laughing at the bartender’s tactics for trying to know what was happening and prevent violence.
This book is a really quick read. If you like troubled characters and a slowly revealing plot that’s not much of a plot but more of a melancholy look back at the lives of two aging gangsters, and you don’t mind a lack of quotation marks, this might be a good one for you! I really enjoyed it.
This book is about two old Irish men, Maurice and Charlie, both drug smugglers, sitting in the Algeciras ferry terminal waiting for Maurice’s estranged daughter Dilly to either arrive or leave on a boat to or from Tangier. The chapters alternate between the ferry terminal and flashing back in time to give snippets of the story of how the men got to where they are.
This book is full of sharp and witty prose. The banter between the old gangsters is really funny and almost charming. The flashbacks provide backstory, and we learn how Charlie got his limp and Maurice lost his eye, while the men’s estrangement from Dilly is slowly revealed.
Barry is exceptional at building an atmosphere. The flashbacks are set in various places around Ireland and the Mediterranean and they all feel distinct. In particular, the tension in one bar scene was palpable, as one patron makes his way to the bathroom to try and overhear bits of the conversation between Maurice and Charlie. I could picture the dark bar and my heart was racing in anticipation of conflict, but I was also laughing at the bartender’s tactics for trying to know what was happening and prevent violence.
This book is a really quick read. If you like troubled characters and a slowly revealing plot that’s not much of a plot but more of a melancholy look back at the lives of two aging gangsters, and you don’t mind a lack of quotation marks, this might be a good one for you! I really enjoyed it.
This is the second book I finished during #AVeryMerryReadathon2019 this weekend. It was so much fun! It’s about the first son of the US falling in love with an English prince. It’s a great alternative reality to imagine.
This book is full of quippy dialogue, emails, and texts between the two main characters, and the level of snark made me laugh out loud. I had a good time reading it. Just an FYI in case you somehow don’t know, this is a romance so parts of it are definitely quite steamy.
I’m just... not a big fan of the romance genre? So it feels sort of silly and unfair for me to critically review a book that I was bound not to ~love~ love because it’s not within my reading tastes. So I’m just going to leave it at that and say overall, this is a really fun queer romance, and I think it would be a perfect beach or vacation read. I’m glad I finally read it. Also this would be a great movie or show. Maybe I need to dream cast it on my blog.
This book is full of quippy dialogue, emails, and texts between the two main characters, and the level of snark made me laugh out loud. I had a good time reading it. Just an FYI in case you somehow don’t know, this is a romance so parts of it are definitely quite steamy.
I’m just... not a big fan of the romance genre? So it feels sort of silly and unfair for me to critically review a book that I was bound not to ~love~ love because it’s not within my reading tastes. So I’m just going to leave it at that and say overall, this is a really fun queer romance, and I think it would be a perfect beach or vacation read. I’m glad I finally read it. Also this would be a great movie or show. Maybe I need to dream cast it on my blog.
(#partner @randomhouse) • Good Talk by Mira Jacob is a graphic memoir in conversations. Many of the conversations are with her six-year-old son. Mira Jacob is Indian and her husband is Jewish. Some of the questions from her son are pretty heartbreaking - for example, he asks if his dad is scared of them because they have brown skin. Of course, the questions became more complex after Trump won the election.
It feels like Mira Jacob is sharing parts of her soul with us in this book. She’s vulnerable but also wry and witty. She is frank and open about her experiences as a person of color living in the US. I love the drawings, too, and she even includes some photographs. They made for a unique reading experience - we get to see things the way she saw them.
I saw that there is a TV series in the works based off this book, and I am soooo excited and hopeful that it happens. I think everyone should read this book, but even more people would be exposed to this work if it were also a show!
I don’t really have much else to say except read this. To try and further convince you, here are a bunch of adjectives to describe it: brilliant, funny, open, intimate, necessary, honest. A must-read.
It feels like Mira Jacob is sharing parts of her soul with us in this book. She’s vulnerable but also wry and witty. She is frank and open about her experiences as a person of color living in the US. I love the drawings, too, and she even includes some photographs. They made for a unique reading experience - we get to see things the way she saw them.
I saw that there is a TV series in the works based off this book, and I am soooo excited and hopeful that it happens. I think everyone should read this book, but even more people would be exposed to this work if it were also a show!
I don’t really have much else to say except read this. To try and further convince you, here are a bunch of adjectives to describe it: brilliant, funny, open, intimate, necessary, honest. A must-read.
Olive Kitteridge was on my TBR for a very long time. I like reading prize winners, and it won the Pulitzer. When @oprahsbookclub picked Olive, Again, it was the kick in the butt I needed to finally pick this one up. Even though you don’t have to read Olive Kitteridge before reading Olive, Again, I’m stubborn like that and wanted to anyway.
Olive Kitteridge tells the story of the title character through vignettes of other characters in their small town in Maine. Most chapters are focused on different people who encounter Olive and their lives, with Olive in the background, sometimes only very briefly. Some chapters are focused on her immediate family and some are focused on her. Olive is a retired teacher. She’s growing older with her husband, Henry, who loves her very much despite that she’s kind of judgmental and grumpy and can be irrational. She’s definitely very flawed and human, which I think is the draw of her character.
These stories felt slow to me, and I think it’s because the book is so character driven. I did enjoy reading about the characters and life in small town New England, but I also never felt very emotionally invested. These stories are often heavy and melancholy, but for some reason failed to move me emotionally. I don’t quite understand why this one won the Pulitzer. But, I did stay interested enough to read the sequel, which I’m hoping to get to before the end of the year.
If you like small town settings, ornery elderly characters, and stories of complicated people and often difficult lives, you may really enjoy this one. For me, it was a “liked but didn’t love”.
Olive Kitteridge tells the story of the title character through vignettes of other characters in their small town in Maine. Most chapters are focused on different people who encounter Olive and their lives, with Olive in the background, sometimes only very briefly. Some chapters are focused on her immediate family and some are focused on her. Olive is a retired teacher. She’s growing older with her husband, Henry, who loves her very much despite that she’s kind of judgmental and grumpy and can be irrational. She’s definitely very flawed and human, which I think is the draw of her character.
These stories felt slow to me, and I think it’s because the book is so character driven. I did enjoy reading about the characters and life in small town New England, but I also never felt very emotionally invested. These stories are often heavy and melancholy, but for some reason failed to move me emotionally. I don’t quite understand why this one won the Pulitzer. But, I did stay interested enough to read the sequel, which I’m hoping to get to before the end of the year.
If you like small town settings, ornery elderly characters, and stories of complicated people and often difficult lives, you may really enjoy this one. For me, it was a “liked but didn’t love”.