nomadreader

The backstory: A Burning is the debut novel of Mega Majumdar, who was born and raised in Kolkata, India. She moved to the United States to attend college at Harvard University, followed by graduate school in social anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. She works as an editor at Catapult, and lives in New York City. The basics:  "An electrifying debut novel about three unforgettable characters who seek to rise--to the middle class, to political power, to fame in the movies--and find their lives entangled in the wake of a catastrophe in contemporary India. Jivan is a Muslim girl from the slums, determined to move up in life, who is accused of executing a terrorist attack on a train because of a careless comment on Facebook. PT Sir is an opportunistic gym teacher who hitches his aspirations to a right-wing political party, and finds that his own ascent becomes linked to Jivan's fall. Lovely--an irresistible outcast whose exuberant voice and dreams of glory fill the ...

Often I find myself listening to audiobooks that fit together, either by narrator, genre, theme or setting. As I find myself staring at a long list of them to review, I decided to start writing Litsy-length reviews and grouping them together in a new recurring series I'll call Audio Interludes. Today's installment features a trio of contemporary novels narrated in British and Irish accents. When All Is Said  by Anne Griffin narrated by Niall Buggy If an old maudlin Irishman narrator is your thing: do I have a book for you! Maurice Hannigan, over the course of one night, orders five different drinks a hotel bar and toasts each one to a different person who impacted his life. Through these five (very long) toasts that are more like stories, we learn about his life in interesting, and non-linear ways. For a debut novel, this book is bravely told, but for such an emotional book, it also felt like it was trying to be a little too clever. Is a lovely goal, but it didn't fu...

(this post contains some spoilers, both of this book and the rest of the series) There is so much to like about this book: 1. That cover is stunning. 2. The premise, a tv documentary working to solve cold cases by interviewing everyone involved, including the suspects, is great. I would definitely watch "Under Suspicion" if it were real. Reading the books is like watching the show, but we also get the behind-the-scenes action. 3. Laurie's dad is really great. 4. This novel is set at the Met Costume Ball. That's fun. And it inspired a really funny conversation with my friend Leslie, where we guessed what the conversation was like between Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke. It went something like this: "Who is the most glamorous celebrity you can think of who would attend the Costume Ball?" MHC: "Barbra Streisand!" AB: "Definitely Beyonce." 5. It's a fun, entertaining read. but... There is so much not to like about this ...

The backstory: Greer Hendricks worked as an editor for more than 20 years. For her first novel, she teams up with one of the authors whose work she edited. My thoughts: The Wife Between Us  is one of this season's buzziest books, which is always a dangerous proposition for a thriller. And this particular thriller is one that benefits from the reader knowing as little as possible going into it. I'm glad I read this one before its publication so each surprise was still a surprise. I read a thought of mysteries and thrillers, and I can't recall the last time I actually said out loud while reading, "wait, what?!" and flipped back a few pages to make sure I hadn't misread. This novel's first big twist is so much fun. It flips this novel on the reader, and it made me realize I was reading a very different novel than I thought I was. Unfortunately, after the thrill of that twist, I realized I actually preferred the novel this begins as rather than the one it ...

The backstory: The Sellout  won the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and has been longlisted for the 2016  Booker Prize . It was also a 2015 New York Times  Notable Book  (including being honored as one of the five best fiction titles of the year) and a contestant in the 2016 Tournament of Books . The basics:  "A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, Paul Beatty's The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. It challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality—the black Chinese restaurant."--publisher My thoughts: The first ten percent or so of this book had me thinking, "this may be the most provocative and brilliant thing I've ever read." I should remind myself when I get that excited about a book that early, it's nearly impossib...

The backstory: The Book of Memory  is on the 2016 Baileys Prize longlist. The basics:  "Memory, the narrator of Petina Gappah’s The Book of Memory, is an albino woman languishing in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare, Zimbabwe, after being sentenced for murder. As part of her appeal, her lawyer insists that she write down what happened as she remembers it. The death penalty is a mandatory sentence for murder, and Memory is, both literally and metaphorically, writing for her life. As her story unfolds, Memory reveals that she has been tried and convicted for the murder of Lloyd Hendricks, her adopted father. But who was Lloyd Hendricks? Why does Memory feel no remorse for his death? And did everything happen exactly as she remembers?"--publisher My thoughts: The Book of Memory  was one of the novels I most anticipated this year. The premise is downright beguiling. Gappah's background is as a lawyer, and I loved that she infuses law in this novel without ...

The basics:  "A dazzling fusion of storytelling, visual art, and reportage that grapples with weather in all its dimensions: its danger and its beauty, why it happens and what it means."--publisher My thoughts: In the manner of a stereotypical Iowan, I am fascinated by the weather. I often have a hard time believing my corner of the world can have such variance in temperatures every year. When it's below zero, I can't fathom the stifling heat of summer (and vice versa.) To live in a place where weather impacts my life in so many ways, I fear I've forgotten so much of the science of weather I learned in school. I hoped Thunder & Lightning  could help fill in those gaps and teach me about weather. Lest you have that same misconception: it's not really what this book is about. I'm also fascinated by people who live at places with more universal temperature extremes (always hot or always cold) or those who lack the four seasons. There's some of...

narrated by Erin Bennett The backstory: I've never read Elin Hilderbrand, and I was in the mood for a Christmas book, so I started her Winter Street series when it was available at the library. The basics: The Winter Street series is centered on the Quinn family, who own the Winter Street Inn, a bed and breakfast on Nantucket island. When the first book begins, patriarch Kelly and his second wife, Mitzi, run the inn, while two of Kelly's adult children, Ava, who is a music teacher, and Kevin, a bartender, also live at the inn. His third child, Patrick, lives in Boston with his wife and kids. Kelly and Mitzi's son Bart is a Marine in Afghanistan. Kelly's first wife, Margaret, is a famous evening newscaster in New York City. My thoughts: Fun fact: Elin Hilderbrand is a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop. I learned this while listening to Winter Street , which I listened to a lot of as I drove to and from Iowa City for a meeting this month. I'm embarras...

narrated by Debra Winger The basics:  "Gloria Steinem had an itinerant childhood. When she was a young girl, her father would pack the family in the car every fall and drive across country searching for adventure and trying to make a living. The seeds were planted: Gloria realized that growing up didn’t have to mean settling down. And so began a lifetime of travel, of activism and leadership, of listening to people whose voices and ideas would inspire change and revolution."--publisher My thoughts: I've been fascinated by Gloria Steinem for a long time, as she was one of those public figures I just always seemed to know about. Yet I remember when I discovered she was born in 1934 and couldn't believe it. Not only did she seem younger, but it made her achievements that much more impressive; she was that much more ahead of her time. For someone I feel like I know so well, for the sheer number of years she's spent in the spotlight, when I heard about this mem...

The basics:  "When Charlotte Rainsford, a retired schoolteacher, is accosted by a petty thief on a London street, the consequences ripple across the lives of acquaintances and strangers alike." -publisher My thoughts: I find myself drawn to novels that address the unlikely connections between people, so the premise of How It All Began appealed to me immensely. Lively uses the premise to trace connections of various levels that all begin with a mugging. As each new character was introduced, I was fascinated to guess the connections. Promising as this premise was, I didn't find all of the characters particularly interesting. And even the interesting ones got bogged down in odd subplots at times. Despite my questioning of some of Lively's storytelling choices, her observational prose frequently took my breath away: "Time was, long ago, pain occasionally struck--toothache, ear infection, cricked neck--and one made a great fuss, affronted. For years now, pai...

narrated by Tavia Gilbert The backstory: After loving Jami Attenberg's last novel, The Middlesteins , I was excited to read her new one. The basics: Set in Jazz Age New York City's Bowery neighborhood and based upon a real person, Saint Mazie  is the story of Mazie Phillips, a young woman who loves to party. When the Depression hits, Mazie can't help but help. My thoughts: The premise of this novel checks so many of my boxes, yet as I listened, Mazie never quite came alive for me. I think it's a combination of Attenberg's structure and Gilbert's narration style. The novel is structured as a documentary film, so there are numerous excerpts from Mazie's diaries, as well as interviews with descendants of those she knew. Perhaps especially on audio, this structure made the narrative feel fractured. I really wanted to love this book, but over all, I feel mostly 'meh' about it. It's such a great concept, and Attenberg is a great writer. This bo...

The backstory: The Moor's Account  is on the 2015 Booker Prize longlist, was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize , and was a 2014 New York Times  Notable book. The basics: The Moor's Account is "the imagined memoirs of the first black explorer of America—a Moroccan slave whose testimony was left out of the official record. In 1527, the conquistador Pánfilo de Narváez sailed from the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda with a crew of six hundred men and nearly a hundred horses. His goal was to claim what is now the Gulf Coast of the United States for the Spanish crown and, in the process, become as wealthy and famous as Hernán Cortés." (from the publisher) My thoughts:  Lalami uses language to differentiate our narrator from his captors: "How strange, I remember thinking, how utterly strange were the ways of the Castilians—just by saying that something was so, they believed that it was. I know now that these conquerors, like many others before them, and no...

The backstory: Toni Morrison won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. The basics: God Help the Child  is the story of Bride, a blue-black-skinned woman whose mother hated her skin color. Despite this tension, Bride grew up to be a confident, successful woman. Through Bride and those associated with her, Morrison tells stories of the long-reaching impacts of love and abuse in childhood. My thoughts: I spent much of my time reading this novel thinking "If I didn't know Toni Morrison wrote this novel, I would never guess" and "I don't know what to think about this novel, but there's something odd or weird about it, particularity the magical realism." ...That changed once Booker began narrating. Suddenly, Morrison was back, and the novel really came alive for me with sharp-witted observations: "All he did from freshman year through sophomore was react--sneer, laugh, dismiss, find fault, demean--a young man's version of critical thinking....

The backstory: A Dangerous Place  is the eleventh historical mystery featuring Maisie Dobbs. My reviews of the other eleven (plus Winspear's stand alone historical novel) are in my Book Review Database . The basics: Set four years after the last Maisie Dobbs novel, Leaving Everything Most Loved , in A Dangerous Place , we meet up with Maisie in Gibraltar in 1927 during the Spanish Civil War. She gets off her England-bound ship in Gibraltar because she's not quite ready to return. Note: this review contains spoilers about what happened in those four years of Maisie's life between books, all of which are revealed in this novel's first thirty pages.  My thoughts: Sunday I wrote about the Maisie Mail I received. These postcards appear in the book itself, along with many others. After setting the stage in Gibraltar in the opening pages (Maisie stumbles upon a dead body), Winspear recounts the last four years of Maisie's life in the form of postcards, letters, an...

The backstory: After loving The Lotus Eaters  ( my review ) and enjoying  The Forgetting Tree  ( my review ), Tatjana Soli's two previous novels, I was eager to read her most recent novel, The Last Good Paradise. The basics: Set on a small, isolated island in the South Pacific, The Last Good Paradise  is primarily the story of Ann and Richard, a couple from Los Angeles seeking respite from near financial ruin. Ann, an attorney who dreams of being an artist, and Richard, a chef with complicated issues around eating animals, escape to this island, where they encounter a quirky cast of characters. My thoughts: I tend to enjoy novels about people living in or visiting far away places (as my Internet moniker is nomadreader, after all.) And Soli offers a fascinating exploration of an unnamed island in the South Pacific in The Last Good Paradise . Admittedly, the thought of having the means and opportunity to leave reality behind sounds amazing to me, but I wouldn't o...

The basics: Confessions of a Scary Mommy  is an irreverent and honest book about the journey into motherhood, from Smokler's surprise first pregnancy to the present, when she has three children. My thoughts: When I started back at work after maternity leave, a friend told me I had to read this book. So I did. And there were some parts I really liked. Each section begins with anonymous confessions. I admit: some made me laugh, some made me sneer, and others made me sad for the person who confessed. They were unconnected and eventually a little annoying. The book itself is arranged somewhat chronologically and thematically. Predictably, I enjoyed some parts more than others, as I'm the mom to a 12-week-old, not three kids who walk and talk. As with most stories of parenting, I connected and related to some more than others. The reading experience itself wasn't deep enough for me. I'm all for irreverent and honest, but I still wanted depth and a stronger voice. It fe...

The basics: The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher  is a collection of unrelated short stories. My thoughts: Hilary Mantel is an author who intimidates me. Although many rave about her two most recent novels, Wolf Hall  and Bring Up the Bodies , both of which won the Booker Prize , I don't find myself as drawn to them. Still, I wanted to read Mantel, and her new collection of stories presented the perfect opportunity. The title story and book cover are audacious, and I was eager to dive in. There is no link, thematically or otherwise, to these stories. In that sense, the collection doesn't feel like a collection. If pressed, I wouldn't even guess the same person wrote all of them. As is typical, I enjoyed some more than others. The standout story in this collection is "The Heart Fails Without Warning," which tackles anorexia by examining the perspectives of each member of a family with two daughters, one of whom is anorexic. It's haunting and beautifull...

The backstory: To Rise Again at a Decent Hour , Joshua Ferris's third novel, is on the 2014 Booker Prize longlist. He's also one of The New Yorker's 20 Under 40 . I've previously enjoyed his novel The Unnamed  ( my review .)   The basics: Paul O'Rourke has a thriving dental practice in New York City, an obsession with the Boston Red Sox, and a rather pathetic social and love life. When a website for his dental practice appears, he's perplexed. Soon a Facebook page and Twitter profile emerge as well. Paul isn't behind any of them, and he's troubled someone seems to know so much about him and is misrepresenting him as religious. My thoughts: Paul O'Rourke is an instantly memorable character. He's delightfully (or perhaps annoyingly to some) quirky. He's an alarmingly honest narrator who has no problem talking about himself honestly, and he has strong opinions on everything--from the small to the very big. The two biggest themes in this b...

I've been tearing through Michael Connelly's lengthy backlist, and I often find myself with repetitive things to say about them, so I'll mostly be doing mini-reviews of his titles, unless one compels me to write more deeply.  Note: the reviews of Lost Light and The Narrows contain spoilers from prior Connelly books. Chasing the Dime  is a stand-alone thriller about Henry Pierce, a tech guru whose company is on the verge of making millions. His girlfriend, and now former colleague, breaks up with him, and when his new apartment landline turns out to be the former number of a prostitute named Lilly. The frequent calls are a nuisance, but he soon sets off to track Lilly down and finds himself getting deeper into the sexual underworld--and putting himself, and his company, at risk. Chasing the Dime  is the first Connelly book to have a narrator who is not a criminal nor in law enforcement. As a reader, I often found myself frustrated with Henry and his lack of acce...

The backstory: A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing, Eimear McBride's debut novel, is shortlisted for the 2014 Baileys Prize for Women's Fiction . The basics: "Eimear McBride's acclaimed debut tells the story of a young woman's relationship with her brother, and the long shadow cast by his childhood brain tumor, touching on everything from family violence to sexuality and the personal struggle to remain intact in times of intense trauma."--from the publisher My thoughts: When I sat down to start A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing , I was curious and excited. I knew it was receiving praise from some very big names   and that it was experimental in nature. I eager to become part of the Eimear McBride club. After ten pages, I realized I had zero idea of what I had read beyond words. I started over. Finishing A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing  is something of an accomplishment for me. It was incredibly challenging to read and required a high level of concentration. It w...