Swift River by Essie Chambers

 Monday, June 30, 2025--San Antonio

Swift River by Essie Chambers is an interesting novel.  It was named a best book of 2024 by many online publications, and I liked the story.  The problem I had with it was that I just wasn't motivated to go back to it quickly.  In other words, it isn't a page-turner.  I was interested, but not excited by it.  The story incorporates a number of aspects that have affected the lives of Blacks in America--the immigration from the South to the northern manufacturing areas, sundown cities that ran all of the blacks out of their city, mixed-race marriages and how families react to them, etc.  The protagonist is a 16-year-old mixed (white/black) race girl who weighs over 300 lbs. and is the only "black" person living in her town since her father disappeared 7 years ago leaving her there with her white mother and grandmother.  But it back-tracts to tell the stories of her family when they lived in Alabama and left for better opportunities and of when all but her aunt (a mid-wife and trained by the local doctor to even perform other medical duties and was, therefore, valuable to the community) were eventually run out of the northern factory city of Swift River where they had settled.  Life has been hard for the protagonist, and she dreams of leaving the hard-scrabble life she and her mother lead to find a place where she can fit in better, make friends, and go to college.  During the time she plans for this, she carries on a communication with an aunt still living back in Alabama which answers her questions about her family history, and she wonders if her disappeared father died 7 years ago or is just living elsewhere.  I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig

Thursday, June 19, 2025--San Antonio

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig is the story of Grace--a retired school teacher who is depressed and lonely.  She feels guilty for not having gone out with her 10-year-old son on a day when he died and for having had a one-time dalliance with a colleague which she kept secret from her husband.  Her life is essentially meaningless.  Then she gets word from a lawyer that a long ago fellow teacher has remembered her kindly for having invited her to spend Christmas with her rather than letting her be alone and has left her a home on the island of Ibiza.  Not wanting to take advantage of the opportunity at first, Grace eventually takes a leap of faith and goes to the island.  There, her life takes a turn as she makes new friends and finds purpose in trying to help protect a nature preserve.  The reader will have to take a leap of faith, too, since there are supernatural science fiction elements to the story.  But read it and enjoy the adventure.  I gave it 4 stars out of 5.

All Down Darkness Wide by Sean Hewitt

Saturday, June 14, 2025--San Antonio

All Down Darkness Wide by Sean Hewitt is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read.  It is a memoir of and Irish man who grew up west of Liverpool hiding his real self in so many ways to try to fit into life there--working to lose his Irish accent, to hide any indications that he might be gay, etc.  Currently a professor at Trinity College in Dublin, a reviewer for the Irish Times, and an award-winning poet, the book covers the part of his life before--when a child discovering the church he loved didn't really love what he was, yearning to fit in and be accepted by others in school, yearning even more to have physical contact with males, discovering on his own that he could meet others by cruising in dark, possibly dangerous places in the evenings, falling in love as a graduate student only to learn have his Swedish lover to become a victim of SAD (the depression so common with people who live in northern climates) and try to commit suicide.  What I liked the most about the book is the way he describes all of these experiences--in words that are perceptive, clear, and beautiful.  What I disappointed me is the length of time (number of pages) spent on describing the depth of his partner's depression and its effects on their lives.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Tuesday, June 10, 2025--San Antonio

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus was recommended to me by a friend who said it was funny.  I read it because several books I have read this year, although well written, have not been funny and were rather tedious to read.  With this one, I kept having the feeling that I was reading a book that did not seem to be that good.  Built around a mystery and the concept of female liberation, there were obvious hints throughout to guess what was coming at the end.  Most of the characters were just going in circles involving frustration, depression, discrimination, etc., making the book much longer than it had to be.  But I did find it funny at times. The dog was my favorite character and provided the most laughs.  It's not a bad book, but it is a long way from being a good book, I think.  I generously decided on a rating of 3 stars out of 5 out of love of the dog!

Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte

Thursday, June 5, 2025--San Antonio

I wish I had never decided to read Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte.  It was longlisted for the National Book Award and named by the New York Times as a top book of the year, plus it was on my "hold" list for about 16 weeks before I got it from Libby which made me think it was really going to be good.  Once I did get it, it took me over a week to read the book that has only 272 pages!  Why?  I kept disliking the characters and thinking why should I be reading about these objectionable people.  Then, about 35% of the book rambled in minute detail about how a character was mad at life and spending hours a day on social media creating multiple identities just for the purpose of mischief and getting people riled.   Finally, the "idea" of it all is revealed toward the end.  It at least made things make sense and tied what I had read together.  But I it didn't make me happy that I had kept on reading.  I'll admit that the concept is an interesting one (although there is no real story as one expects when reading a novel), and that the writer is very intelligent and detailed in his writing.  But those do not overcome 1) the sense of the waste of my time it involved and 2) the fact that there was never a sense of an immediate need to see what would be coming on the next page.  For me, this book needs two ratings:  0 stars out of 5 for its worth for reading and 2 stars out of 5 overall due to the creativity involved in writing it. 

Blood Test by Charles Baxter

Wednesday, May 28, 2025--San Antonio

Blood Test by Charles Baxter is supposed to be a comedy.  I did chuckle a few times during the first quarter of the book.  But I had to push myself to continue reading from there and found nothing laughable about the rest of the book.  I know by having read the reviews that this book is supposed to be a critique of modern American society--a farce.  And it is obvious that it is not meant to be read as serious at all.  But for me, the premise, that a successful, intelligent and religious man follows through in taking a blood test which is marketed as being capable of providing results to forecast the individual's future, was too far beyond potential belief.  Scams in America today tend to SOUND believable even though they are planned to do nothing but take advantage of those falling for them.  That this was obviously a scam just led me to lose interest in continuing the novel at the pace I had been reading up to that point.  I had no interest in a character who was so gullible.  I spent at least 3-4 days longer to read this short novel than I should have, but I stayed with it because it has been so popular.  (I had to be on a wait-list for about 12 weeks before getting my copy from the ebook library.)  I'm now glad that I have finished it and can put it behind me.  The most I can rate this book is 3 1/2 stars out of 5. 

There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib

Wednesday, May 21, 2025--San Antonio

There's Always This Year by Hanif Abdurraqib was longlisted for the National Book Award and named a best book of the year by Time, NPR, The Washington Post, The New York Times Book Review, and others.  It is a fascinating book.  I consider it to be essentially a philosophy book built around the story of the life of a Black man who grew up in a poor neighborhood of Colombus, OH, playing pickup basketball with his friends at the local poorly maintained park while following the history of both the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA team and the city of Cleveland during many years of mostly disappointment and depression for both the team and the city.  If you read about the life of the author, it's obvious that this book is essentially his autobiography with greater intentions than just to tell his life story.  It is one of the most interesting books I have ever read and one of the better written ones, too.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.