6. People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks (2008)
Skillfully
told, often dark, gripping. We begin with a fictional book conservator
in the mid-1990s who is examining the (real) centuries-old Sarajevo
Haggadah, and with different sections of the novel we dip into different episodes of the imagined history of the volume's creation and survival,
against the odds - medieval Spain, Renaissance Italy, 19th-century Vienna, World War II-era
Bosnia. Some of that history is
horrifying, some is quite beautiful and will linger in my memory.
7. Lifetime Guarantee: A Journey Through Loss and Survival, by Alice Bloch (1981)
I read (and loved) this writer's semi-autobiographical novel, The Law of Return,
last summer. This book is a memoir of a period of her life in which her
younger sister was ill with leukemia, and two other family members died.
Not a book I would normally read, but I'm even keeping this one! Her lyrical, intelligent, and self-aware writing carries the day again.
8. How to Disappear Completely: On Modern Anorexia, by Kelsey Osgood (2013)
Now
here's a curious one. It's one part a memoir of the author's own
experience of an eating disorder, and it's one part cultural piece ON
the eating disorder memoir genre and how we - whether well, "well," or
decidedly unwell; whether writers or readers - variously interact with
it. Most particularly, where do those who read about eating disorders and think, I want that fit in? I flew through this in about a day; it really fed my intellect and
challenged how I relate to my own past and to the histories of other
women's disorders. It contains one of the more perfect conclusions I've
encountered - I don't think I will forget the poignant last five or so
pages for a long time. I am truly grateful for this book and it moved
me.
As advisory, I will also note that it left me in a state
of some emotional disorientation for a week or so, although I'm going to
attribute part of that to a streak of darker reading (see above) in
addition to some personal stressors and, you know, pandemic. It avoids
the overt triggers, i.e. doesn't contain any weights, calorie counts, diet descriptions, but I would say tread with care and read with some emotional buffer. Your
mileage, of course, may vary.
9. Gingerbread, by Helen Oyeyemi (2019)
Quirky and interstitial. It seems like a contemporary adult novel based in our world, but then it really doesn't. The plot didn't 100% satisfy me but I certainly enjoyed her ideas and writing. This reminded me of Jaclyn Moriarty and Theodora Goss, if they were mishmashed together.
10. Jenny Mei Is Sad, by Tracy Subisak (2021)
(I just got this picture book out because I'm interested in emotional intelligence as a children's topic, but I don't have enough of an opinion to really say something.)
11. The Naturalized Citizen, by Carol J. Pierman (1981)
This book of poems seems to have been nearly forgotten by time! Few traces of it online, although I have now added it to Goodreads. It has an interesting, sometimes sparse tone. I enjoyed some of these. I didn't feel like I entirely "got" that many. Here is one poem from this volume.
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What about you - anything wonderful you've been reading lately?
