nomadreader

I always follow the announcement of the National Book Award 's 5 Under 35 honorees each year. The award is given to work that "promises to leave an indelible mark on the literary landscape." This year I was thrilled to see all five are women , and three of the selections are novels. One of the things I most love about the 5 Under 35 is that each honoree is selected by a past National Book Award participant. A novel I might not otherwise pick up (or know about) may rise to the top of the list when I see an author whose work I've enjoyed thinks it shows immense promise. Chemistry  by Weike Wang  I'm drawn to fiction written by writers who are also scientists. While this novel is definitely about a chemist, but it's so much more. It's a refreshing take on a coming of age novel that challenges the genre's conventional tropes. I desperately want the narrator to have a name so I can talk about her, because I learned so much from her perspective ...

Remember last month, when I said I thought the great reading slump of 2017 might (finally) be going away? It did. I finished a whopping sixteen (16!) books. How did I manage such a feat? Well, part of my strategy to break out of the reading slump of the last several months was to keep starting new books if I didn't feel like reading the one I was in the middle of, so I spent some time finishing all of those books. I also made more time for reading. I took vacation the week of Thanksgiving. I've been going to bed earlier to read in bed more. And I also focused on reading what I was in the mood for, which apparently only include mysteries and nonfiction. Whatever it is, I'll take it. Here's what I read in November: Books read: 16 Fiction: 10 Memoir: 4 Nonfiction: 6 Comics: 1 Young Adult: 1 Audio: 2 Mysteries/Thrillers: 7 New-to-me-authors: 4 Re-read: 1 My favorite November book: The Wife  by Alafair Burke (it comesout January 23rd, 2018--look for my review ...