Book #26 of 2026 was The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, by Daniel Mendelsohn. This brilliant book is by the author of An Odyssey, which I read in 2019 and wrote about at that link. This book is about Mendelsohn's search for family members who died during the Holocaust in Ukraine. What happened to them exactly? Who were they exactly? What does it mean to remember someone or to remember an event? The book explores all these questions and more. While what happened in Ukraine during World War II is extremely difficult to read about, this book was a rewarding and fascinating read.
Book #27 was What We Can Know, by Ian McEwan, another remarkable book. It's set in 2014 and 2119, and both time frames are completely absorbing. In the future, in a world decimated by disasters and climate change, scholars try to figure out what happened in authors' lives in the past. And while they are good at researching, there are some things we just can't know. The ideas about how life could go on in a post-apocalyptic world were mind-blowing, as was the portrayal of the search for knowledge that still could go on in a world like that. I couldn't put this book down.
Book #28 was The Teacher of Nomad Land, by Daniel Nayeri. This book is set in Iran during World War II and it won the National Book Award last year. It was very much worth reading.
Book #29 was a re-read, The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy, and "Women's Work", by Kathleen Norris. Short but profound.
Books #30 and 35 were also re-reads, this time not profound. They were The Summer I Turned Pretty and It's Not Summer Without You, by Jenny Han. I have the third book in this trilogy on hold at the library. I read these ten years ago when I was teaching middle schoolers who were devouring them.
Book #31 was Foster, by Claire Keegan. More of a novella, or even a long short story, than a novel, this was a beautiful book.
Book #32 was Birding With Benefits, by Sarah T. Dubb. Of course I had to read this romance because it was about birding. But I would have liked more details of the birding and fewer of the extremely open door sex scenes. I'm sure that opinion does not make me the typical reader of a romance novel. Sometimes the birds the characters were after didn't even get named beyond "a bird," whereas every one of the lovers' body parts definitely did get named and described. The characters were participating in a birding contest based on the Tucson Bird Alliance Birdathon.
Book #33 was a new release, Counterweights, by Shannan Martin. Not only did the library acquire it after I requested it, but I got to check it out first! Martin has written beautiful essays about how to live in a challenging time without losing sight of the small things that give us joy. I loved her awareness of how many people struggle with addiction, poverty, and the justice system, even in the privileged United States.
Book #34 was The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton. This was a book club pick, and honestly, I probably wouldn't have finished it otherwise.
Book #36 was Lady Tremaine, by Rachel Hochhauser, a retelling of Cinderella from the point of view of the stepmother. While I can't say it's my favorite version of the story, it did keep me reading.
Book #37 was The War that Saved My Life, by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. Although this was a Newbery Honor book in 2015, I hadn't even heard of it until recently. Ada and her brother Jamie are evacuated out of London to be safe from bombing during World War II, and their lives are completely changed. Ada and Jamie are abused children in their London lives, and the author realistically presents their reactions due to the trauma they have experienced. So it can be a pretty upsetting read.
Book #38 was Nancy French's memoir Ghosted. I really enjoyed (and was horrified by) this story of a conservative writer in the age of Trump.
