Reading Update

Book #30 of 2019 was Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love, by Dani Shapiro. In her fifties, Shapiro took a DNA test on a whim and found out that the man she always thought was her father actually was not. This fascinating, well-written book explores identity, the effects on a family of secrets, and the history of reproductive technology. I very much enjoyed it.

Book #31 was Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, by Ben Fountain. I picked this up because of the author, after my husband and I read a book of his short stories and loved it. (I wrote about it here.) I read this one aloud to my husband, too, and it was brilliantly written, but I got a little tired of the profane and obscene language, especially as spoken aloud in my voice, and started editing it as I read. The word choice is extremely realistic for the characters, who are soldiers in the United States on a kind of victory tour after their heroism in Iraq is accidentally caught on film by a team of journalists embedded with another company. The whole book (now made into a movie, rated R, which I haven't seen) is set at the Super Bowl, where the guys of Bravo are being honored and fawned over by people who value patriotism as an ideal, but really know very little about the harrowing day-to-day experiences of soldiers. They are also traveling with a Hollywood producer who is trying to negotiate a deal to make their experiences into a movie. There's a lot of content here I wouldn't choose to read about: battle, football, the movie industry, young men bonding. But it's so well done that we both enjoyed it.

Book #32 was The Other Side of the Island, by Allegra Goodman. This was my third Goodman book, and I will definitely look for more of hers. This one reminded me of The Giver, but with climate change.

Book #33 was Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness, by Ingrid Fetell Lee. I wrote quite a bit about this great book here.  Here's part of what I said:

"Lee has a lot to say about design and color, and how our surroundings influence how we think and feel. She discusses ten aesthetics of joy: energy, abundance, freedom, harmony, play, surprise, transcendence, magic, celebration, and renewal."

Book #34 was Stella Bain, by Anita Shreve. I picked this up because I read it told the story of All He Ever Wanted (which I wrote about here) from the wife's side. That is true, though it took quite a bit of reading before I figured out how the books were connected.

Book #35 was Nine Perfect Strangers, by Liane Moriarty. This was a fun, though with some heavy topics, read about a group of people who go separately to a health spa and then are drawn together by the events that take place there.