Reading Update

Book #18 of the year was Polite Society, by Mahesh Rao. My daughter gave me this Jane Austen retelling, in which an approximation of Emma takes place in Delhi, for Christmas. I enjoyed it very much. 

Book #19 was Pictures of Hollis Woods, by Patricia Reilly Giff. I read this in order to teach it to my seventh graders. It's the story of a child called Hollis Woods because of the place she was abandoned as a baby, and her struggles in the foster care system. I found Hollis' story of attachment troubles and abandonment very affecting, and worried that it was going to have a tragic end, but thankfully it ended happily, as befits a middle grade novel. The character development is believable, and my students are enjoying the book right now.

 

Book #20 was The Last Garden in England, by Julia Kelly. This was an entertaining story about a garden in three different time periods. We meet the woman who initially designs the garden, the people living there and working the land during World War II, and the modern gardener who is restoring the original design. 

 

Book #21 was The Push, by Ashley Audrain. The reviews compare it to We Need to Talk About Kevin, and the subject matter is very similar. I found the whole concept very unsettling, the stuff of nightmares. The narrator may or may not be reliable, and you're kept guessing about that all the way through. It's well-done and kept me reading.

 

Book #22 was A Thousand Ships, by Natalie Haynes, a retelling of the Iliad from multiple female points of view, from the Muse to the wives of various warriors to Briseis and Chryseis, Penthesilea, and Penelope. This was a highly enjoyable read for a mythology lover like me. I'm currently reading The Silence of the Girls, which essentially does the same thing, so I'll have something to say about that pretty soon. 

 

Book #23 was American Dirt, by Jeanine Cummins, a story about illegal immigrants making the journey from Mexico. I had read some criticism of this book long before I read the book itself. People said that it was stereotyped and inaccurate, and that the Spanish in it read like something from translation software rather than natural language. I'm not in a position to judge any of that, since I have no knowledge of Mexico or Spanish.  I didn't find it badly written, as some accused it of being. It was readable and convincing, in my opinion. But the other criticisms could very well be true. 

Book #24 was the 2021 Newbery Medal winner, When You Trap a Tiger, by Tae Kelly. I didn't love this book as much as I expected to. I thought that the main character was hallucinating, and I kept thinking it was going to turn out she was sick. I have no problem with magical realism, but I wasn't sure if that was what was going on. There was just something about the mixture of realism and fantasy that I found difficult to reconcile, especially in a book for children, and even more so, one which deals with such a serious matter as a terminally ill grandparent. Maybe I need to read it again.

 

Book #25 was Winterkeep, by Kristin Cashore. I couldn't wait for a new Kristin Cashore book, and there were many things I loved about this as I have about her others. But this one was probably my least favorite in the Graceling Realm series. All of the books are about people who have faced trauma, and Kristin Cashore writes inventive, mind-bending fantasy. 

 

Book #26 was a birthday gift from my daughter, World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments, by Aimee Nezhukumatathil. It's short essays about nature and human life, beautifully written and inspiring. 

 

Book #27 was Leave the World Behind, by Rumaan Alam. This story about an unspecified disaster was incredibly convincing and well-written, but I wished for a couple hundred more pages. Having completely bought the situation and found the characters compelling and interesting, I was not satisfied to be left hanging the way I was at the end. What? That's it?