How High We Go in the Dark

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Really a collection of short stories connected into a novel. Like literally--many were published as stand alone stories. I feel like I should be annoyed by this--the author knew short story collections don't sell so she simply shuffled in some connecting details into existing stories and called it a novel. But actually, it works so well. I loved it. Each chapter (story) explores death and grief in startlingly new and insightful ways. The fact that it is a novel about death and grief, and orbiting around a devastating plague should make it hard to read, but Nagamatsu also celebrates life, its resiliency and the fact that life and relationships are so precious that is why we grieve when it ends. For all the harshness, this novel is filled with such unique ideas, relatable characters, and hopeful outlooks that it stayed with me long after I read it.

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My Name is Lucy Barton

My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another quiet book that was profoundly moving in places. Focusing on the relationship of mother and daughter, one that was difficult (though the difficulties are mostly only alluded to), but carried a lot of unspoken love. It also explored the idea of what it is to be a writer, to share with the world your story, and to discover what that story is. I also loved the quiet acts of kindness the character observed and cherished. In all, it was a book that felt like a healing and an inspiration.

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Why Not Me?

 

Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Kaling's collection of essays start off as most female comedians seem to (see: Tiny Fey; see: Amy Poheler): essays about the"secrets" of Hollywood glamor (see, I'm just like you and need an army to make me look good) and how hard they work (I know this looks easy but I don't even have time to put on a face mask because I am doing all this work behind the scenes). But when Kaling falls off the preprogrammed itinerary she really shines. The details of her one of her romantic interests is surprisingly candid and thoroughly relatable. Her short story written in e-mails is literally one of the best stories I've read. It's a quick diversion and genuinely funny in parts. Great plane read.

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The Return of Faraz Ali

The Return of Faraz Ali by Aamina Ahmad
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Such an interesting time and place. Enigmatic characters. This book starts out like a detective novel but quickly becomes a story of history, culture, and above all, family. It's about what happens when we choose to follow our conscience and the reasons why we don't. It's about loyalty and who deserves it. Faraz is not a hero, sometimes not even likable, but I was 100% invested in him and his family and Pakistan's history and culture.

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In war, Wajid had learned, nothing mattered but getting out of it, away from it.  Ghazi had learned that everything was war.

The lost bookshop

 

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

this had a lot of ingredients but just couldn't really figure out what it was trying to be. a lot of issues, a lot of literary elements, even a few literary genres all mashed up together. Without anything to focus on it kind've all got muddled in my brain, and I couldn't sympathize with any of the characters, or care about any of the plot lines. Take away a few things and tighten the rest of the story around a clear concept and it would've been a great book.

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The Island of Dr. Moreau

The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very interesting novel and not what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be about Other-ness and the dangers of going to far in science (much like Lovecraft) and it is, but it is also a pretty transparent allegory about life, God, religion, and fallen man. It's not a very optimistic view of things but draws out some good questions and makes you think of things in a new light.

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It is when suffering finds a voice and sets our nerves quivering that this pity comes troubling us.

The study of Nature makes a man at last as remorseless as Nature.

Before they had been beast, their instincts fitly adapted to their surroundings, and happy as living things may be.  Now they stumbled in the shackles of humanity, lived in a fear that never died, fretted by a law they could not understand; their mock-human existence began in agony, was long struggle, one long dread of Moreau--and for what?

An animal may be ferocious and cunning enough, but it takes a real man to tell a lie.

Abundance

 

Abundance by Jakob Guanzon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is one of those books you read when you need to find compassion and/or realize your life is not so bad. Henry is having a very bad day while trying earnestly to be a good dad and provider to his son Junior, but the result of mistakes in his past, good intentions gone wrong, and dumb luck combine against him. It doesn't help that everyone looks the other way when he needs help, like most of us do when confronted with a less desirable stranger. This book helps us realize that we are all a few bad decisions or stupid mistakes or unlucky breaks from being where Henry is and despite that, he, like us, is trying to do right by the people he loves. And only people who have enough money think that money is not everything: when all you have is $1.34, even a penny is a godsend. Even while you watch this train wreck happen, it's hard not to get sucked into Henry's life and still hope for a different outcome.

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No sunset pyrotechnics for his return, just the sad confetti of brown leaves beneath charcoal clouds.

an American flag dangles from its side, turning stripes into prison cell bars.

It's notably cooler in the frozen food aisle, humming like a choir in a seashell.

At the far end of the aisle is a cluster of shoppers bent over their cart handles, a herd of metallic cattle