nomadreader

The backstory: I Am China  is longlisted for the 2015 Baileys Prize . The basics: I Am China  recounts the lives of Jian, a musician and political activist, and his love for Mu. It's also the story of Iona, a British woman tasked with translating this disorganized collection of diaries and letters from Jian and Mu. My thoughts: The premise of this novel is an intriguing one, and I immediately identified with Iona as she set out to try to make sense of this correspondence. This novel jumps across time and its characters move throughout the world. It isn't constructed chronologically, but rather Guo dips in and out of the present through Iona's translations in progress. Initially, I quite liked this approach of getting to know Jian and Mu with Iona, but the more I read, the more I began to question Guo's narrative choices. Jian and Mu's lives coincide with many momentous times in modern Chinese history. As more and more of these moments unfolded, I began to qu...

March is coming to an end, and so is the Mockalong. I'm pleased I managed to finally  read To Kill a Mockingbird , even if I didn't love it . I did love Calpurnia , and I'm curious to see what role she will play in Go Set a Watchman , which I've pre-ordered for my Kindle  (and remain really excited about.) This week, as I've reflected on the Mockalong, I admit I might not have prioritized my reading of To Kill a Mockingbird  without this readalong. Hosting the Mockalong made me accountable to my own reading goal, even as I abandoned my original plan to watch and review the film for this final post (when you don't really love a book, sometimes watching its film adaptation isn't a terribly exciting prospect.) Admittedly, it's somewhat awkward to not be a champion of the book you pick for a readalong, but literature isn't about agreement. I loved the conversations I had with people about To Kill a Mockingbird , particularly those who took the time ...

The backstory: After enjoying Allison Leotta's first mystery featuring Anna Curtis, Law of Attraction , and the following e-short story, Ten Rules for a Call Girl , I was excited to read Discretion . The basics: The titular Discretion is a high-end, secretive escort company. When a young escort dies after falling from a balcony in the Capitol, U.S. Attorney Anna Curtis works the case as a sexual assault and homicide. My thoughts: Clearly drawing inspiration from real-life scandal, including Eliot Spitzer, Discretion  offers a fascinating look at the role of escorts in Washington, D.C. One of the things I've come to like most about Leotta's books is the way she manages to write from multiple points of view. Anna is the main character, but she isn't the only window into the world. By seeing the world of high-end prostitution (and low-end prostitution) through multiple points of view, it's possible to better understand the world. It's a more complicated appro...

narrated by Tanya Eby The basics: After completing a residency in pathology, Dr. Judy Melinek began a two-year rotation as a forensic pathologist in New York City in July 2001. Working Stiff  is the story of those two years, and also the story of Judy's life and work. My thoughts: The timing of Dr. Melinek's story certainly piqued my curiosity in a macabre way. It's such a big part of the book's description, that I was surprised it wasn't addressed earlier. Instead, Melinek (and her husband and co-writer T.J. Mitchell) tells her story more thematically than chronologically, which proves to be a very wise narrative choice. Working Stiff  begins with much insight into Melinek's life and choices than I expected. She talks about why she chooses pathology and how she and T.J. chose to get married. She speaks candidly about her father's suicide when she was a teenager. This personal narrative only serves to add to her insight, particularly as no one could...

The backstory: G. Willow Wilson is the opening keynote speaker (tonight!) at the Association of College and Research Libraries conference . After enjoying Ms. Marvel: No Normal , I grabbed her other books from the library. The basics: Cairo is the story of a drug runner, a journalist, an American expatriate, a student, and an Israeli soldier in contemporary Cairo. My thoughts:  As the characters are introduced, it is not initially clear how they relate to one another, but Wilson weaves their storylines together in intriguing ways. While this graphic novel starts firmly planted in reality, it soon incorporates elements of fantasy. While I found those turns visually stunning and intriguing, in some ways I thought they distracted somewhat from the social and political commentary. I'm certainly not an expert on Cairo, and the book taught me quite a bit. I imagine I did not understand each reference, but I never felt as though I couldn't follow the story (in fact the fantasy...

The backstory: Elizabeth Is Missing , Emma Healey's debut novel, is on the 2015 Baileys Prize longlist. It was also longlisted for the 2014 Dylan Thomas Prize . The basics: Elizabeth Is Missing  is the story of Maud, an older woman suffering from Alzheimer's. Her friend Elizabeth is missing. Through flashbacks, we also see Maud as a young woman and her struggles with the disappearance of her older sister, Sukey, shortly after World War II. My thoughts: This novel is billed as a psychological thriller, which I don't think it actually is. It is a compelling page turner, but the titular mystery is the least interesting thing about it. It's emotionally complex, and it's definitely a page turner, but I found the mystery of Elizabeth to be not much of a mystery. Instead, the mystery of Sukey is what fascinated me more. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the novel is Maud herself and how much she misunderstands and mis-remembers. As I read Elizabeth Is Missing ...

The backstory:   To Kill a Mockingbird  won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. The basics: Told from the point of view of Scout, a precocious girl in 1930's Maycomb, Alabama, To Kill a Mockingbird  is the story of that town, its views on race and class, and Scout's family. My thoughts: I wanted to love this book, as it is nearly universally loved. I respond strongly to themes of race and class, and yet I failed to connect to this narrative, with a few exceptions. I wrote last week about Calpurnia , who was by far my favorite character in the book. She was fascinating and complex, and I wish there were more of her in the novel. I appreciate that Lee chose to write this novel from the perspective of Scout. At times it helps the reader see things as an outsider, but it also limits the narrative. Admittedly, one of my literary pet peeves are child narrators who are impossibly smart and perceptive, and Lee avoids that quagmire by making Scout consistently her age, but I misse...