Book Chats with Malea: Episode 3

Below is a slightly cleaned up transcript of my third Book Chats video. Links to all of the books I discuss and a few other items are linked as you come to them in the transcript, but I've also made a list of all the links at the bottom of this post. I tidied up the transcript a little to make it easier to read as a blog post. To watch the video, you can head to YouTube HERE.

Please note, some links are affiliate links in nature and I may earn a small commission--at no extra cost to you--if you purchase through them. Thank you in advance!

Hi friends, welcome to my YouTube channel for another book chat video. 

This is my third book chat. I meant to do one a little while ago, but life kind of side tracked me, and I slowed down my reading, and really felt like I didn't have a lot to say. But today we are going to review 1-2-3-4-5-6, 6 books, and talk about three additional ones. 

I apologize if you hear cars honking, or any sirens, or traffic noise. I do live in a downtown core of my city, and I have my patio door open. It's a really beautiful day, and I just want to enjoy the breeze from outside. 

So, with that in mind, grab yourself a cup of coffee. I have mine in one of my favorite coffee mugs from Case Study Coffee Roasters in Portland, Oregon. 

And let's get to it. 

So, first we're going to talk about a book that I'll pop here on the screen, The Littlest Library by Poppy Alexander. If you see me looking over this way, I have a little note card for the books that I read in ebook form. I do read in both ebook and physical book form, but I read The Littlest Library by Poppy Alexander. 

Initially, when I mentioned this book in one of my first videos, I didn't think I would like it. I was just not really getting into it. It wasn't really flowing for me, but the more I read it, the more I enjoyed it. It's really cute. It's definitely cozy romantic comet comedy. It's like a cozy rom-com set in the English countryside in a tiny little village. 

I identified a lot with the main character, she's very shy. She's feels socially anxious and socially awkward. She feels like just like when is life going to start for her? Things aren't really going her way, but she ends up finding community in really unexpected ways, and the community pulls together around her as well, and it's just a lovely little story. 

By the end, I was hooked. I loved it. On the Story Graph app, I gave it five out of five stars. 

I am generous with my with my stars on Story Graph, unless I just really hate a book. So, most of the books that I end up finishing end up being between four and five stars. Story graph does let you differentiate a little bit with quarter stars, so 4.25 4.5 4.75 and so on. 

But I gave The Littlest Library by Poppy Alexander five stars. I just enjoyed it. I liked the coziness. I think when I initially started reading it, I just wasn't in the mood for something cozy, but I did end up loving it. 

The next book we're going to talk about, I also read as an ebook. So, this is Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson. I also gave this one a five star. 

This is not cozy. Much of the story centers on the shooting death in, in the middle of a robbery of a boy and his sister as a witness to it, the death and shooting, and the trauma that our main character, I don't know if it's Eby or Eby, her name is Ebony, but she goes by a nickname. She has to endure all this trauma from that incident. 

She was the younger sister, and she and her brother were home alone when somebody broke in, killed the brother, and a very special, important jar was broken in the process. This jar was a part of the family lore for generation after generation after generation. It was made by an enslaved ancestor and was carried through generations and used through generations in a variety of ways, including helping people escape enslavement. 

This story encompasses a lot of historical fiction, but it was also modern contemporary fiction. We follow our main character, Evie, from the New England states in the United States to France, and then back. We go through a few different time periods. We go to the time period of this enslaved person learning about making pottery, and I learned a lot about how enslaved people were used to create pottery. You know, I think a lot of US history books teach us that enslaved people were just used in fields and for as servants and homes and things.
 
They actually were used and forced to do a lot of types of work, sometimes this work they didn't, they didn't have creative freedoms, but it included things that now are considered creative, beautiful art objects, but their original purpose and the way that they were made has deep, deep rooted history in slavery and negative deep roots, but the way that this book talks about the jar is just so beautiful. 

The way that it treats the development of this family over generations is so beautiful, despite the generational trauma, despite the slavery trauma, despite the racist trauma. I really liked the main character. She was not an upbeat, happy, cheerful character with all this trauma, both from ancestral trauma, racism, the trauma of losing her brother, and all these other things, but I really enjoyed the main character, and I really understood her motivations for a lot of the things that she did in the book part of this book, and you learn this really early on, so I'm not spoiling anything, but she is engaged, and her fiance calls it off. He basically disappears--he doesn't even call it off--he's just gone, which starts her journey to France, and sort of, you could say, running away, but I really like this book, and I like the way that the end of the book wraps up all these different threads, the historical threads, the modern threads, her trauma from her brother dying, the trauma of this really significant, important object in the family being broken, and her, the life she was starting to build in France, also gets wrapped up in a really nice way. 

I highly encourage you to read Good Dirt. I am definitely going to look for more by Charamine Wilkerson. I really enjoyed the writing style as well. She was direct and descriptive enough without overdoing it, and she wasn't overly sentimental around some of these really horrible, horrible, horrible things that historically, as well as in the modern timeline of the book, she didn't really shy away from very much, she was very upfront and realistic, and I think a lot of the ways that she described her characters and the things they were going, and the historical aspects. It was a great read. 

So, that was Good Dirt by Charamine Wilkerson. 

The next one I read, the physical copy, I got this. This copy is an advanced reader's copy. I got it through volunteering at a literary festival, and they invited all the volunteers to come, and we got to a party celebrating the volunteers, and they had a lot of books out, and we were able to select books and take them home. 

Inside the Wolf by Amy Roland, I, I admit I judge books by their covers. I loved the cover of this. That's what really drew me to it. 

In this book, we follow the main character, whose name I can't remember--It's written in first person--anyway, we follow the main character. She has returned home from life in the city, where things didn't work out the way she expected them to. She was an academic, and things just weren't going the way she wanted them to. She was really focused on storytelling and myth, and how those things are woven into our lives, and just academically things weren't happening the way they were supposed to. 

She ends up coming home to the family farm. We find out that both of her parents are dead and her brother is dead. So, trigger warning: this does involve suicide. It does also involve two accidental deaths of children by gunfire. So, if that is difficult for you, skip this book, although the way that the main character and the author treat the aftermath of the children involved is really sensitive and caring. 

The main character, her brother died by suicide, and her best childhood friend, when they were children, died by a gunshot wound, not by suicide. It was an accident, which you do find out towards the beginning of the book, but the details and circumstances around that get unwoven as the book goes on, and as another tragedy in the community happens involving a gun. 

I really enjoyed this book. I really like the characters, even though the characters weren't so nice. I liked them, and I would say that the main character is not really a nice person. She's very stuck in herself, she's very, you know, stuck in her own grief over losing her brother and her parents, and this childhood tragedy that happened in her life, but she builds new community. She tries to make amends, and there's a lot of storytelling woven in throughout this. 

If you have a deep interest in historical storytelling, or in myths and fairy tales, and how those influence real life, that is woven throughout this book, and I really enjoyed it. 

Inside the Wolf by Amy Roland, beautiful cover, you can see the wolf there, amid the greenery, amid the plants. I really enjoyed this one. Also, five stars out of five. 

Next, this one was very funny. I also gave it five stars. Completely different genre from Inside the Wolf. I'm Not the Only Murderer in My Retirement Home by Fergus Craig--tells you right there that our main character is a murderer. She, at the very beginning, she's let out of prison. You find out she was a serial killer, but she's apparently reformed and recovered--if you can recover from being a serial killer. Anyhow, she gets out of prison. 

She's been in prison for a long time, so things have changed a lot. She's learned a lot about being out in the world, but she ends up in this retirement home where somebody is murdered. Turns out they aren't the only person that gets murdered, but the people that she meets at the retirement home, they don't know she is a serial killer when they first meet her. They discover this over time, so she's developing these friendships. 

They find out the truth, and they're like, "Hmm, should we still be friends with her? Oh, did she commit the murder of this person?"

So there's a lot of navigating of friendships and relationships in the middle of the murder mystery. It's, it's just a fun whodunit. If you watched "Inside Man" with Ted Danson, it's a series on Netflix, and you enjoy that [Correction: It's "Man on the Inside"], I think you will enjoy this book. 

It's funny, it is in some ways cozy. It does take place in England, sort of the outskirts of London. 

I very much enjoyed this. I definitely would consider reading it again. If you read this and enjoy this one, you will also enjoy these two books by Helen or Helene Tursten: An Elderly Lady Must Not be Crossed and An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good. You can read these two books in any order, you can, doesn't matter which one you read first. Although there is a tiny reference in one to something that happens in the other, it's not enough to make a difference in the order that you read these. These are hilarious, an elderly lady going around killing people, but in very funny, "Huh, how did an elderly lady manage that" kind of way, and her reasoning for these murders is it's just hilarious. I, I really enjoyed these. They are an excellent compliment to I'm Not the Only Murderer in My Retirement Home. All right, moving on. Also, 5 out is five stars.

Oh, the next one. This One is Mine by Maria Semple. I give this one a 4.0. I have read almost everything by Maria Semple. I think there's only one book by her that I haven't read yet, and everything else I've given a 5.0. 

This One is Mine. . . I just, I really wanted to give it a 5.0 but the characters are horrible people. They are odious, they are terrible. You do find out at the end that one of them is a much better person than you think she is, going through the novel, but I just disliked her so much that I didn't find these things redeeming. I didn't like her. 

I think Maria Semple's other books are vastly better. This I did enjoy it enough to keep reading it, and to finish it, and to give it a 4.0. 

I have to admit, I like books where the characters are terrible people, but usually you find out that one of them is terrible for a reason, or you find out that they actually are a terrific person, and the horribleness was misunderstanding. There's some of that in this book, but not a whole ton. 

I would say read it if you like Maria Semple's work. I would say read it if you enjoy reading books where the people are terrible, but I think they were just so terrible that I just couldn't get past their terribleness. I promise I'll stop saying terrible. 

All right, the next one is another 5.0. I loved this book. I read it so fast, I wish I had picked it up sooner, because I loved it. I've actually had it on my shelf for quite a while, but this is Joe Nuthin's Guide to Life by Helen Fisher. 

Joe seems to have autism, although you never find out if he's formally diagnosed or not. You can tell from the back of the book that his mother dies, and she leaves him two books that are guides to life, how to live, how to do things, how to care for yourself when the person who's been your primary caregiver is no longer there. You get the sense that she knows she's going to die soon, but her death is still a surprise when it happens, and the way it happens. 

Joe is bullied at work, and there's two primary bullies, but he sets out--he's determined to make one of them his friend, and he uses his mom's two guidebooks to help him along the way. 

You learn a lot about Joe through this book, but you also learn a lot about the people who care for him, and he learns a lot about life through the book; he makes friendships in likely and unlikely places. It's a sweet book. I wouldn't say it's cozy, but it's very sweet. It's very tender. 

There are a couple. . . There is some domestic abuse in the book, so be wary of that. Be aware of that. It's not so much abuse of Joe as another character. Joe is bullied for sure, but there's another character who is definitely suffering domestic abuse, so you want to be aware of that if that's a problem or difficult for you. 

But this book is also very funny. It's very humorous. Helen Fisher does a good job of balancing the humorous and the sad, scary, traumatic. 

I really enjoyed this book, and if there was a sequel, I would definitely read it anyway. 

The last thing I want to talk about isn't a book review, although I have read this book a few times. On my Facebookpage and my blog, starting today, June 1, I'm doing a read-along: A Blueprint for Revolution, I think the author's name is Srdja Popovic. I'm not 100% on the pronunciation, but it's Blueprint for Revolution: how to use rice pudding,Lego men, and other non-violent techniques to galvanize communities, overthrowdictators, or simply change the world.

We're going to be doing this chapter by chapter, one chapter every other week. The first discussion, starting this week, will focus primarily on the cover and the introduction and table of contents, or the preface and table of contents. 

If you are interested in reading along, the links will be in the description, and I would gladly have you there if you find this after June 1, next year, the year after, and you still are interested, follow the links. I don't plan to take them down. 

Just remember, be kind, be courteous, be open to hearing other opinions, but it is my read along, and if somebody is, you know, if somebody is violating boundaries or being abusive or bullying, I will block you. So Blueprint for Revolution read along starts today. 

Thank you, and I'll see you for the next book review. 

Bye.

~*~*~*~*~

Please note, links may be affiliate in nature. If you purchase through them, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you in advance!

The books and other things mentioned:

• The Littlest Library by Poppy Alexander
• Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson
• Inside the Wolf by Amy Rowland
• I'm Not the Only Murderer in My Retirement Home by Fergus Craig
• "Inside Man" [Correction: "Man on the Inside"] with Ted Danson on Netflix
• An Elderly Lady Must Not be Crossed by Helene Tursten
• An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good by Helene Tursten
• Joe Nuthin's Guide to Life by Helen Fisher
• Blueprint for Revolution by Srdja Popovic
• The first discussion post for Blueprint for Revolution is HERE.

Find me on Facebook HERE where you can join the "Blueprint for Revolution" read along and get other reading and bookish updates.

BANNED BOOKS: Sold by Patricia McCormick

(Please note: links to purchase books may be affiliate in nature. I may receive a small commission if you purchase through these links, but at no extra cost to you.)

How do you write a book involving unspeakable sexual horrors happening to children without feeling the deepest pits of despair?

Patricia McCormick managed to do just that in her book Sold about Laskhmi, a 13 year old girl sold by her step-father and trafficked for sexual exploitation. 

McCormick originally traveled to India and Nepal as a journalist doing research on sex trafficking of young girls, but what she found was so much more than could ever go into a single article. She states that she wrote this for students--young teens--and that she was meticulous about her word choices and phrasing as she wrote. She specifically did not want to use graphic language. Instead, she tried to reflect the language that a young girl who doesn't even have the words to describe her experiences would use. She further noted:

"It’s written specifically for young people who want to know about the wider world. I worked with wonderful editors, fact checkers, all kinds of responsible parties who want to make sure that what we’re bringing to students, what we’re bringing and putting into their libraries, is informative and doesn’t brutalize them. Just because this is a brutal topic, we don’t have to brutalize them with that kind of language.”

The book is brutal, but also hopeful.

The book is NOT as explicit as those seeking to ban it would have you believe. 

Yet, it is one of the most banned books in the United States, regularly in the top five banned books. The most banned is Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult which I wrote about HERE.

This is one of the saddest books I've ever read, but the end was also perfection. While this book centers on the sexual slavery and trafficking of girls in Nepal and India, it is also a book about never losing hope. The book, told in the first person from Lakshmi's point of view is visceral. I felt Lakshmi's hope as it waxed and waned, her dread and fear as she realized the lies she'd been told, her terror at being abused sexually and physically, and her despair at being told she had to work off a debt.

Young Lakshmi is brutally abused and beaten by the owner of the brothel, then drugged and sexually abused by men for days after first arriving at the brothel. She is powerless, yet she has a small bundle of possessions from her remote, mountain village home that she regularly holds in her arms in order to inhale the familiar scents of that home. She holds on to hope that she will return there someday. At times, throughout the book, I had the sense that Lakshmi's hope was on the cusp of being broken, but through tiny moments of kindness from others--a boy who teaches her English words and gives her an American book, another boy who leaves her tea and gives her a Coca Cola without demanding payment--her hope is renewed over and over.

While the book strongly alludes to Lakshmi being raped repeatedly by adult men, it never really explicity describes these experiences, although sexual content is the primary reason for bans and challenges to Sold. McCormick makes it a point to not describe the details too clearly. Instead, she describes Lakshmi's fear and her occasional dissociation from what is happening to her. 

The book also walks a fine line between the horrors of child sex slavery and the growing relationships the girls and young women build amongst themselves. There are tender moments of care and friendship between the girls that help to alleviate the tension as the story moves along. These moments also help to humanize the characters and build them up as multi-demensional people to a degree that you feel like any of these girls could be a real person. 

During the 2023-2024 school year, PEN America notes that Sold was tied for the third most banned book in the United States with bans in 85 school districts. The book tied with The Perks of Being a Wallflower. 

One of my many frustrations about book bans is that they seek to severely restrict access to books that include characters and situations that people experience in real life and these books allow those who are not free to express their own experiences to know that they are not alone. Jodi Picoult has noted that teenagers have told her that they had plans to hurt themselves or others at their schools until they read her book, Nineteen Minutes--they have told her that her book saved them and others because they felt seen and understood. We need MORE of that, not less. 

Books save lives.

The website Common Sense Media indicates Sold is appropriate for ages 13 and up, though the reviews of the site's users have a range of what readers feel is appropriate for this book. Some of the reviews point out that this book is important, in part, because girls across the globe have experience sexual harrasment or assault. Readers who feel shamed by their experiences, despite being victims, may find strength in Lakshmi's journey and the ultimate outcome of the story. They may see themselves in Lakshmi and the other girls in this book. Many readers note that there is quite a bit of sexual content--but again, the sex is not graphically described so much as Lakshmi's emotional response and inner thoughts around it are explored. It's also important to note that there are other instances of physical violence and alcohol abuse. These are all topics that most young people are much more aware of than adults want to acknowledge. A teenager living with an alcohol or abusive parent or family member or a child who is sexually harrased or abused may find strength in Lakshmi's journey.

McCormick has stated:

"To ban this book is to erase the young people around the world who are currently enslaved . . . To ban this book is a disservice to the women who shared their stories with me so the world could know about their plight. And to ban this book is disrespectful to the young readers who want to know about the world as it is – so they can make a difference. 

"But, perhaps most important, to ban this book is to take away a lifeline for readers who are experiencing abuse. These kids know what adults often don’t. Books aren’t the problem; they are part of the solution."

According to PEN America, 60% of book bans in the 2023-2024 school year were for books considered to be Young Adult. Further, 59% of banned books are challenged due to addressing grief and death, while 57% are challenged for touching on sexual topics or content. 

According to reviews on the book's page on the Barnes and Noble website:

• Publishers Weekly considers Sold appropriate for ages 12 and up.
• School Library Journal considers the book appropriate for 9th grade and up.
• Kirkus considers the book Young Adult. 

These reviews also note that the book has won several awards:

• National Book Award Finalist
• Publishers Weekly, Best 100 Books of the Year
• NPR's Best Books of the Year
• American Library Association, Top Ten List, Best Books of the Year
• Gustav-Heinemann Peace Prize
• Booklist Editor's Choice Award
• New York Public Library Best Books for Teens
• Children's Literature Council's Choice
• Book Sense Pick

You can buy Sold by Patricia McCormick HERE.

You can buy Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult HERE and you can read my review HERE.

SOURCES LINKED (not necessarily in order):

• https://pen.org/report/beyond-the-shelves/
• https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sold-patricia-mccormick/1100600727
• https://www.phillyvoice.com/most-challenged-banned-books-america-sold-patricia-mccormick/
• https://hhsmedia.com/52117/feature/author-of-book-sold-mccormick-shares-journey-of-writing-book-about-trafficking/?print=true
• https://people.com/jodi-picoults-nineteen-minutes-was-the-most-banned-book-last-year-8736199#:~:text=The%20book%20is%20about%20a,feeling%20isolated%2C%22%20she%20continues.

BANNED BOOKS: Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

Earlier this year, a small group of friends and I decided we wanted to read some banned books. I suggested the most banned books across the United States: Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult.

According to Pen America, this novel is one of 19 that has been banned in 50 or more school districts with the following four books being the next most frequently banned:

• Looking for Alaska by John Green
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• Sold by Patricia McCormick
• Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Nineteen Minutes, in fact, was banned 98 times in the 2023-2024 school year. Looking for Alaska was banned 97 times. More than 80% of all book bans (not just the titles I've noted) appear to come from Iowa and Florida. Texas and Utah also came up regularly in the articles I read for this post.

In the case of Picoult's book, nearly every ban is focused on a single page and a single depiction of date rape. They are not at all focused on the fact that the book is about a school shooting in which ten students die and many more are injured. Nor are they focused on the fact that the entire novel centers on a student having been brutally bullied his entire life.

Think about that. ONE PAGE depicting a teenage girl being date raped is the reason for objections to this very long novel. The edition of the novel I read was published in 2013 and is 656 pages long.

ONE PAGE is the focus of nearly every ban of this book. 

A violent video game and description of human characters in the game being slaughtered in a school shooting was not the cause of objection.

A student being mercilessly bullied--even having his pants and underwear pulled down in a school cafeteria and numerous students seeing his penis, which Picoult describes--was not the subject of the objections.

Cold and calculated planning of a school shooting by one student was not the reason for objections.

Blood, injuries, and death of multiple students did not merit all of these objections.

A heavily implied suicide by one character and an explicitly stated plan by another character was not the subject of all of these objections.

Instead, it comes down to one page depicting a date rape that is not nearly as graphically described as the penis of the boy who is subjected to bullying. 

As with pretty much all book bans, I have to wonder how many of those proposing or supporting such bans have actually read the material to which they object. 

I want to encourage you to pick up and read Nineteen Minutes or one of the numerous other books regularly facing bans. 

Picoult's book was long, but it was engaging and I saw myself, at various points, in many of the characters--the parents, the popular girl who felt like an imposter, the teachers trying do right by their students, the boy who was bullied until he couldn't take it anymore. I found myself identifying in some way with most of the characters except for the group of bullies. 

There were parts of the novel that were hard to read due to how emotionally raw and painful they felt, but this was an extremely well written and thorough depiction of modern high school and modern teenage life. It carefully wove together the complicated relationships of students, parens, and community members amid a tragedy, the events leading up to it, and the aftermath. It also laid bare some of the most difficult aspects of being a parent and how parents never truly know their children's deepest thoughts and feelings--even if we experienced similar situations in our own youthful years. 

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult is a moving, but dark novel with a compelling story to tell. I hope you will read it and report back with your thoughts afterwards. 

You can purchase a copy of the book through Bookshop.org HERE.

Sources Linked:

• https://pen.org/press-release/nearly-200-percent-surge-in-school-book-bans-during-2023-2024-school-year/
• https://pen.org/banned-books-list-2024/
• https://apnews.com/article/jodi-picoult-nineteen-minutes-book-bans-c22ff8f0f5c8baddfaa0c8ff5268436e

My favorite books year by year: 2016 to 2024

Behind the scenes, I am working on significant updates across my blog, but I thought it would be fun to list my favorite books from each year since I started keeping track of my reading in 2016.

Leave a comment and let me know what your favorite books have been over the years!

2024: Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice

2023: Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan

2022: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

2021: The Push by Ashley Audrain

2020: The Friend by Sigrid Nunez 

2019: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

2018: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

2017: Stir: My Broken Brain and the Meals that Brought Me Home by Jessica Fechtor

2016: The Vegetarian by Han Kang

There were a few years where it was hard to narrow my favorite down to just one book.

Have you read any of these? What did you think of them?

Book Review: Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin

As I write this, I am sitting in a friend's apartment in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I'll be in Argentina for an entire month, and as I noted in THIS post, one of my reading strategies is to choose a theme -- for January, I decided that my theme would be Argentinian fiction. 

Please note: links may be affiliate links in nature. Your purchases through these links may result in small commissions for me at no extra cost to you. Thank you in advance! Book links are to Bookshop.org.

At the start of January, I chose four books:

• Thus Were Their Faces by Silvina Ocampo
• Trafalgar by Angelica Gorodischer
• The Adventures of China Iron by Gabriela Cabezon Camara
• Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin

(I tried to include the accent symbols in the author names, but my computer and/or Blogger wouldn't cooperate!)

The first book I finished is the short story collection, Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin -- winner of the National Book Award for Translated Literature in 2022. Not only did this book fit my theme, but by being short stories, I also felt like I was accomplishing some reading goals with every short story that I finished which, in turn, helped to keep me reading. 

Schweblin's book is seven short stories in which something is missing or lost or fading away. Each of them is deeply rooted in realism with an edge that cozies right up next to magical realism. Magical realism is deeply rooted in Latin American literature and deeply tied to Argentinean literature specifically, primarily starting in the 1940s. 

The short stories in this collection are at times disorienting -- one centers on a woman and her incredibly lonely descent into dementia. Another focuses on a young girl who finds herself alone amidst a family emergency and a meeting with someone that feels at once sinister and exhilarating. Another involves possible ghosts. Then, there are the choices made -- or not made -- between spouses that leads to a sense of loss.

Each story feels complete in and of itself, but each also is dark and somewhat mysterious without falling into the magical aspects of magical realism. Most of the stories feel highly modern, though a couple could be set across a few time frames from the last 100 or so years. 

These are truly stories of loss and emptiness, as suggested by the collection title. According to the reading app, The StoryGraph, my reading preferences are typically reflective, emotional, sad, and dark -- Seven Empty Houses by Samanta Schweblin, definitely fits with these unconscious preferences, particularly the story about the woman with dementia. I highly recommend this collection!

What are you reading? Is it part of a larger theme that you've chosen? Share in a comment!

BOOK REVIEW: We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman

(Links are affiliate in nature. I may receive a small commission or payment at no extra cost to you if you make a purchase through these links. Thank you in advance!)

Years ago, my mom was in a reading rut and asked me for some book suggestions -- like me, she was a voracious reader. It was rare for my mom to find herself in a lull with reading, so I happily supplied a list of 10 books or so and she started in on it. 

After the first three books on the list, my mom came to me and said that she appreciated the list, but she'd no longer be reading from it and would not take reading suggestions from me again.

Her reason? Most of what I like to read is "depressing and sad", according to my mom. That has not changed over the years. 

Case in point: We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman.

This novel is devastating but beautiful.

We All Want Impossible Things is about love, loss, and grief, as well as motherhood and friendship. It really highlights that we are all human and reminded me a lot of something one of my high school English teachers said (she was quoting the author, Wally Lamb, I believe): "The best fiction is often more true than real life." This book was so true to my experience of grief and loss that it definitely felt more true than real life! I've had a lot of heart break over the last few years, and this novel helped to mend some of it.

This book made me cry a lot, but despite being so sad, it also made me laugh quite a bit!

We All Want Impossible Things is about a woman whose best friend is in hospice and how she navigates that alongside being a single mom to a teen daughter and a college aged daughter, while still being in love with (and also not in love with at the same time) her ex-husband, and while trying to figure out her own life.

If you enjoy the work of Anne Lamott, particularly the novel Rosie, you'll like this one. It's equal parts sad and funny. My mom would still would have found it depressing.

I found We All Want Impossible Things to be deeply satisfying. It is filled with all the ups and downs of relationships in many areas of our lives, includes good food, cozy living rooms, sex without being gratuitous, awe and wonder at the world around us, and so much more. I will definitely read this one again!

Buy it on Bookshop.org HERE.

Buy it on Amazon HERE.

BOOK REVIEW: No Land to Light on by Yara Zgheib

Links are affiliate in nature and may result in a small commission for me if you purchase through them. Thank you in advance!

No Land to Light on by Yara Zgheib is by far one of the best books I've read in a very long time (in addition to Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan).

This book combines so many emotions: hope, sadness, worry, outrage, love, tenderness, and more!

No Land to Light On features shifting points of view between the two main characters with news editorials sprinkled throughout. The book is the story of a Syrian refugee who has become a legal US resident who falls in love with a Syrian woman who immigrated to the United States in order to attend college at Harvard. They marry and eventually find that she is pregnant. 

The young couple endures the ups and downs of navigating growing love and the prospect of becoming parents while also working through different experiences and different levels of comfort within the United States -- she is far more comfortable and wholeheartedly embraces her new status as an American. he clings to his Syrian roots while feeling the pull of a new way of life. 

Sama left behind bitterness and ran towards opportunity. Hadi left behind parents, friendships, and a love of the land and his father's orchards. He also left fear and violence as he moved towards the promise of freedom and a chance to start over in America, but clouded with fear of the unknown.

Upon the death of his father, Hadi returns to his homeland for the funeral. Little do they know that his attempted return to his legal home in the United States will coincide with a travel ban that includes Syrians -- even if they are legal residents of the United States. 

As Sama awaits his return at the arrivals section of the airport, amid the chaos of protestors, she goes into premature labor and starts her own harrowing journey. 

No Land to Light On by Yara Zgheib, published by Simon & Schuster, is beautifully written, despite the sometimes difficult topics. 

Up next, expect a review of the classic book Animal Farm by George Orwell.

Purchase No Land to Light On by Yara Zgheib:

• At Amazon HERE
• At Bookshop HERE

January and February 2023 Reading Roundup

So far, in January and February of 2023, I've read far more than in the same time period the prior few years! 

In part, I've been making a conscious choice to sit down with a book instead of mindlessly scrolling or watching TV. I've also just been far less stressed than in the last few years, so it's been more natural to pick up a book without having to make a conscious effort. 

Links within the body of this post are affiliate links for Bookshop.org. Links at the end of the post are from Amazon.com. Either way, these may result in a small commission for me if you make purchases through these links. Thank you in advance!

In January, I finished:

• The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton (American fiction)
• Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (non-fiction; memoir; autobiography; poetry)

In February, I finished:

• Cold by Mariko Tamaki (young adult fiction; murder mystery)
• The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson (Contemporary British fiction; chick lit; Rom-Com; lighthearted and sweet)
• Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan (Contemporary American fiction; psychological thriller; family and friend relationships; near future climate crisis)

As of this writing -- the second to last day of February -- I am currently working my way through:

• No Land to Light On by Yara Zgheib (Contemporary fiction; dramatic and tense but EXCELLENT)
• The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson (Contemporary Swedish fiction; humorous)
• Animal Farm by George Orwell (Fiction; satire)

I have several other books in progress from months past, but these three are at the top of my list.

So far, the best book I've read in 2023 is Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan. Whoa! This book is tense, but I could not put it down! The book takes place in the near future amid a growing climate crisis that is making life nearly unbearable in what is an otherwise very typical suburban United States neighborhood. As the story unfolds, we see relationships  shift between a group of neighbors and their children. The kids are growing up and shifting allegiances. The parents are mostly trying to hold their lives and families together with varying degrees of success. Ultimately, everything unravels when one of the kids disappears into a sink hole. Cracks in all of the relationships -- family units, friends, and so on -- begin to form and unthinkable acts of violence occur under the cover of darkness. Although this was a devastating story, it was also exceptionally written and I highly recommend it.

What has been your best read so far in 2023?

BOOK REVIEW: Know My Name by Chanel Miller

Know My Name by Chanel Miller was by far the best book I read in 2020 (followed closely by Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi). Miller's book is a memoir about her experience as a sexual assault survivor, including the attack, the court case that followed, and rebuilding her life after physical, emotional, and mental trauma. 

I particularly enjoyed Miller's ability to weave memories of earlier times in her life into her telling of what happened to her. She is a master story teller, even when it comes to the awful, most horrifying bits. Miller's memoir is filled with both vulnerability and strength. At times I found myself openly weeping and crying while at other times I cheered and smiled large at her ability to find joy amid the depths of despair. 

After being attacked by Brock Turner on the Stanford University campus in 2015, Miller sunk into a deep depression that was only made worse through the madness of the criminal justice system. Instead, however, she fought her way back to herself and rebuilt her life. It is clear from her memoir though, that this also entailed dealing with long lasting trauma that may follow her and inform her choices and thoughts and overall being for the rest of her life. She chose over and over to not give in. She chose over and over to experience life and explore her interests. That's not to say it was easy and that's not to say she didn't go through periods where she did want to give up, where she did succumb to her fears and dark thoughts. But, she always climbed back out of the depths. 

Included in the memoir is Miller's victim impact statement which is a masterpiece that no one should ever have to write. It is a masterclass in how not to rape, how not to assault, how not to behave, how not to treat others. 

Miller's assault was not that long ago, but I am sure it will have a lasting ripple effect on her life, the lives of her sister and parents, on her friends, and others. I'm sure the intensity has and will continue to dial down over time, but the assault and all that came with it will always still be there, like a little grain of something in their shoes that they forgot about for the longest time. Then it shifts, and they feel it with every step until they try to remove it, but can't find it. It shifts again and they move on and don't feel it -- even forget about it again until, one day, there it is yet again. 

Every now and then Miller's attacker comes up in the news and do not feel a single bit sorry for him when the news is related to him having a hard time in life. He brought that upon himself. 

Rather than rewrite things I've already written, the rest of this post is primarily from comments I made in a small book group myself and three good friends read Know My Name. I've only edited a little bit for clarity and length. 

This was such a hard book to read, but I'm so glad that I did! I'm so glad I bought it instead of getting it from the library. I'll read it again, but not anytime soon. I know I'll recommend it to many people in years to come too. 

I'm struck by similarities with the Netflix short series "Unbelievable" which is excellent and based on real rape cases near Seattle and in Colorado. In both Miller's book and the Netflix show, there seems to be a clear division in the way men handled and treated victims compared to how women responded. There are some women who will take the "what were you wearing/doing/drinking" or "you should have kept your legs closed" stance and also some women who get embarrassed or don't want to to be involved in such intimate invasions, but I see it far more in men both in media and in life. It's unfortunate since men can be excellent allies -- and they aren't exempt from being victims as well. 

Women are constantly held to double standards from birth and both Miller's book and "Unbelievable" highlight that fact. As I was finishing Know My Name, I also was reading the poetry collection Wild Embers by Nikita Gill which was the perfect compliment to Miller's memoir. The poems feature themes about the double standards women are held to, about boys and men being given a pass for bad behavior because of the idea that "boys will boys", and how women are forced into the defensive position when we deserve to stand strong and not to be subjected to abuse. 

I loved Miller's book (and "Unbelievable" and Wild Embers), but it provokes a strong emotional response as a reader and was difficult, at times, as a result. I was struck by Miller's ability to create vivid images and to craft metaphors while mining the depths of her memories and lived experiences to create context, emotions, and so on.

I hope you'll consider reading Know My Name by Chanel Miller. I think about it regularly even though it's been months since I read it. 

You can buy a copy of Know My Name on Bookshop HERE.

Or find it on Amazon HERE. 

Or look for it at your local library. 

As of my writing this, "Unbelievable" is available on Netflix HERE.

You can find Wild Embers by Nikita Gill on Bookshop HERE.

Or on Amazon HERE.

Or try your local library.

Please note: links may be affiliate in nature. Making purchases through such links may result in a small commission to me at no cost to you. Thank you in advance.