The Island of Sea Women

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A great historical fiction read. I loved reading about this female focused community on the island of Jeju off Korea. From the details of diving, to the spiritual ceremonies, to the atrocities that occurred after WWII, historical details are beautifully woven into the story. The main character, Young-sook, is well-developed and through her we experience her joy and escape in diving, the responsibility and pride she feels as a diver, and the complexities she experiences in her relationships. The diving, the rubbings her friend and her do to memoralize events in their life, and their belief in messages from the dead all cumulate to emphasize the importance of looking at things more deeply to find peace and forgiveness.

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Human Croquet

Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If you liked Inception this may be the book for you. You are reading along, and then something sort of weird happens, and you think ok, we're going to go there. And then something even weirder happens and you think WHAT?! But just keep reading. Because it's good writing and even greater storytelling. And if it feels and is a precursor to the much better Life After Life it's still worth the read.

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Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat

 

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you ever wanted to know why something tastes good, this is the book for you. Nosrat uncovers the science behind the food you eat to explain why salt can make things taste sweet, and how heat works to break down proteins to change the texture. Nice whimsical drawings as well. I would highly recommend getting a physical copy since it lends itself to flipping through to find recipes and refer to charts. The ebook just doesn't work well, especially in regards to the recipes with all of the variations.

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Goodnight Stranger

 

Goodnight Stranger by Miciah Bay Gault
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Points for the setting which sounds beautiful and is appropriately isolating. Also, there were a couple of really creepy (in a good way) scenes. But there were one too many (convenient) quirks: Lucas doesn't use the phone (why?), Lydia both wants to leave the island desperately and also she loves the island and gets panic attacks if she can't see it (?), and (view spoiler)[ she moves out AFTER Cole leaves when Lucas is at his lowest point(?) (hide spoiler)]. The ending also seemed a little anticlimactic. But thrillers are hard, and this one has plenty of propulsive action in the middle. Not a bad airplane/beach read.

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That was a lie, though,.  Lucas wanted to go back in time, I wanted a future.  But the problem was the same for both of us:  we were stuck here--the two of us together--perpetually in this present moment.

The Liar's Dictionary

 

The Liar's Dictionary by Eley Williams
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm a sucker for trivia about words, new words--clowder is a grouping of cats-- and the history of words and this book has plenty of that sort of trivia. This is also a quirky book with surprising plot twists and some transcendent passages (also plenty of passages where nothing happens and it plods along). Its a book that illustrates both the power and powerlessness of words and how transitory language can be. Its a fun book.

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jungftak (n.), a Persian bird, the male of which had only one wing, on the right side, and the female only one wing, on the left side; instead of the missing wings, the male had a hook of bone, and the female an eyelet of bone, and it was by uniting hook and eye that they were enabled to fly—each, when alone, had to remain on the ground from Webster’s Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language (1943)

If you put your eyes far too close to an engraving all is little dots and dashes, like a fingerprint unspooled.

In many ways David Swansby looked like his handwriting: ludicrously tall, neat, squared off at the edges.

David meant apricity (n.), the warmness of the sun in winter.

Apricide (n.) means the ceremonial slaughter of pigs.

Weasel words are empty, hollow, meaningless claims.

curriebuction 1. A confused gathering attended with quarrelling or panic

When a cartoon character is represented swearing or cursing, there is a word for the series of hashtags and exclamation marks and toxicity symbols in their speech bubbles: grawlix. @# $%&!

The Unpassing

The Unpassing by Chia-Chia Lin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Devastatingly beautiful. "The unpassing" could refer to so many things here, but mainly about the inability of this immigrant family to let go of their youngest daughter, when she dies of an illness. Their grief is held inside each of them, separating themselves from each other. The Alaskan wilderness, with its dense forests and silty mud becomes a manifestation of their angst. It is so perfectly written and told. The main character is the 10-year-old brother who doesn't understand everything, and Lin is so good at holding back, trusting her readers to infer when needed and keeping some details forever murky. I don't think I have been affected by a book this much in a long time. Must read.

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you had to keep your gaze close, lest you catch a glimpse of something bigger than you could accept.

we woke to the anxious bleeps of the alarm clock, and with that small and sudden violence, school began. 

Exit West

 

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Although there are magic doors, everything else about this novel seems to mirror the refugee experience in the present. Without focusing on how the refugees get to new places, Hamid can zero in on feelings and relationships: why do they leave (or not); who do they go with; the feeling of not knowing where they land or what this new place will mean for them; the reaction of the nativists that already live there; how tribalism in new lands can result; the strains that these forces have on established relationships; the list goes on. Saeed and Nadia stand in for so many refugees, and their journey both informs and evokes compassion.

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