I admired the three books of Colum McCann that I read previously, so I was looking forward to this one. The narrator tells us he needs the work assignment he’s been given, writing about the cables that carry internet traffic on the ocean floor, to go well. Ideally, there would be a break in the cable and he would go out to sea with the folks who repair breaks. He makes his way to South...
It was a review in the NYT that brought this book to my attention and the story that the author’s great-grandfather was an important figure in the immigration of ten thousand Jewish people fleeing to Galveston, Texas from Russia that hooked me. The author has written a family history that used newspaper quotes and multiple historical figures to tell her family’s stories. It is...
When The Washington Post put this book on their list of the ten best for the year, I was interested, and it has turned out to be a great read for me. Stein was born in 1874 and was raised in Oakland, California in a wealthy family. Her parents died when she was young, but her older brother successfully invested the family money and sent money to the siblings. Gertrude attended Radcliffe and...
Having loved Sandwich by this author, I was eager to read this. While this one had more distressing matters at its core, it was an appealing read. The narrator is Rocky writing about herself, her husband, her two grown children, and her 90-something father who lives with her. For me the wreck referred in the title was painful because it was a car-train wreck that ended the life of a contemporary...
It’s taken me days to recover from the realization that I missed that this book purported to be written by one of the characters as her M.F.A. thesis. I only learned about that from talking to Jennifer when I had just finished the book. I listened to the beginning of the book again and yes, right at the beginning it says it was written by Robbie for her thesis. One of her motivations was to...
This year I read fifty books; almost half were non-fiction and six of them were among the thirteen listed here. Once again, I loved revisiting the wonderful books I read in the past year and recalling the awe they brought me. Listening to the thirty audiobooks while I put together puzzles, worked in the kitchen, or walked was a pleasure. Sandwich by Catherine Newman. I read this during a...
This book is a book about the friendship of four Black women whose long-time connections endured their times of living on opposite coasts and their very different economic situations. I don’t have much hope that I can write about it in a way that does it justice, but I will write to remember moments that moved me. Desiree and her sister Danielle were raised by their grandfather, Desiree...
I learned about this book on a reading blog I have consulted for years, Tony’s Book World. I am sad to say it was Tony’s last entry before he died last summer. Tony worked in the world of computers, lived in Wisconsin, and was a great reader. I was emboldened by his writing to read much more ambitiously than I would have otherwise; I credit him with making me willing to read books that left me...
Initially I found this book to be a bit preachy with its earnest messages, but I was won over by the author’s unique life and her willingness to face the great complexities of life that affect us all. And of course she could write about those complex issues with clarity. She was born in Korea and lived there her first five years. Her father, a multi-generational Tacoma-based Jewish man...
I was drawn to this Australian book by Kim’s review that describes it as caught between a crime story and a romance. Although she made it perfectly clear that it focused on medical matters, I was nevertheless surprised by the intensity of the focus. The story is told by a woman with cystic fibrosis about her doctor and secret lover who was found dead near the hospital where she was at the...