We Do Not Part by Han Kang

Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025--San Antonio

We Do Not Part by Han Kang was longlisted for the National Book Award and named a top book of 2025 by BBC and Penguin, but it wasn't a great read for me.  There's an interesting back story about times on Jeju Island in South Korea during the 1940s and 50s about the Communist uprising--the atrocities committed by the government forces against general citizens assumed to be Communist supporters because of geographic location and association, the arrival of the US troops to assist the government forces, and cover-ups all the way to the 1960s.  There are mass killings, mass graves, sealed government records, etc.  The book emphasizes the story behind one village and one particular family.  But tied with this is a "mystical" story set in current times that involves two long-time female friends.  The woman in the hospital receiving treatments every 3 minutes has sent her friend many miles south to her home with the explanation that her pet bird must be saved from starvation while she is hospitalized.  But after a long, difficult trip to the home due to a heavy, long lasting snow storm the friend is "joined" (spiritually?) by her hospitalized friend who sent her where she continues to reveal the historical story.  Somehow, she is in her home handling, passing, and showing her long-term friend books, papers, and photographs that allow the long-ago story to come to completion.  Tied to it all are plans that the two friends have discussed a project for creating a memorial of undetermined purpose based on a vision in a dream.  For lovers of Creative (purposely with a Capital C), maybe it is a great book.  For me, it was a long slog that became interesting only at times when the backstory was being revealed.  I gave the book 3 stars out of 5.

The Antidote by Karen Russell

Friday, Oct. 31, 2025--San Antonio

The Antidote by Karen Russell is a finalist for the National Book Award this year. It's a mixture of history and fantastical fiction.  The purpose seems to be to expose how much history of the USA has involved bad decisions based on greed, racism, religious persecution, fear of the unknown, etc., and the convenient loss of memory and cover ups that allow these problems to be easily overlooked and/or put behind them.  Set in southwestern Nebraska during the Dust Bowl, topics covered include the treatment of pregnant unmarried women, the story of how Native Americans were treated and their land stolen, how Blacks continued to be marginalized and not even categorized by the government as natural born American citizens, ways in which people try to rid their conscience of things they have done that they know to have been wrong, how natural resources are wasted by the population followed by their moving elsewhere to repeat the same mistakes over and over again rather than trying to maintain renewable practices, etc.  The characters in the story are interesting--a "Vault" which is a female witch who can go into a trance, hear a confession, and leave the person making the confession no longer being conscious of the worry/guilt they confessed; a teenage girl whose mother was an alcoholic and is now living with her uncle whose wife was murdered; a traveling photographer employed by the government to document life in America during the depression; a sheriff who is incompetent, corrupt, and evil; a scarecrow that seems to have some human qualities; a cat that wants revenge on the man who took her kittens to the river in a pillowcase and drowned them; etc.  The story is also about hope during times bad enough and hopeless enough that some are going elsewhere to start anew.  I'm not a big fan of fantastical (magical realism?) fiction, so I kept my rating for the book at 4 stars out of 5.

Among Friends by Hal Ebbott

 Saturday, Oct. 25, 2026--San Antonio

Among Friends by Hal Ebbott has been named a top book of 2025 by NPR.  It is about the strain of time on relationships--particularly about a 25-year friendship between two college buddies (whose friendship seems almost closer to a gay relationship than a normal male/male friendship), between each of them and his wife (because the marriages have lasted long enough to move from lust and excitement to routine and because they have learned more about each other over time including things that are not appealing), and about the relationship between one of the couples and their 16-year-old daughter (when the husband and wife have differences of opinion on how to handle a disturbing event that has happened to her).  The book reminded me of Normal People because both are rather slow-moving stories that share certain topics--class differences and popularity differences, for instance.  Normal People is better written.  I found myself constantly having to figure out what was happening when and between whom because there would be complete changes between paragraphs with no double spacing or the placing of a printed divider to even let me know the change was taking place.  Many times, I had to go back and reread after going through one of these changes to reset my mind once I knew was happening.  But I can see Among Friends being turned into as good a film as Normal People was.  The story deserves a rating of 4 stars or higher, but because of awkward, non-evident transitions in the writing, I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

Sunday, Oct. 19. 2025--San Antonio

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai is a long, rambling, and often depressing novel that is a finalist for the Booker Prize.  Most of it takes place in India.  The story is of generations of two particular Indian families and those whose lives are a part of theirs including an American painter of European descent.  As a person who has traveled to India 6 times for months at a time interacting with Indian citizens more than a typical tourist (attending month- and year-after death celebrations, attending weddings, being a guest in homes and on farms, making friends throughout the country), there was so much in the details of this book that I know to be true about India and Indians.  It is a masterpiece in describing life and times in India.  At the same time, however, it zigs and zags (the aforementioned rambling) in a somewhat confusing manner.  It took longer to read because of the details and the largess of the stories.  I recommend the book to anyone who knows India quite well or who will read the book with great attention to the realistic details of life within India--relationships, feelings, resentments, traditions, etc.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025--San Antonio

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney has been named by NPR as a top book of 2025.  It's a mystery novel that takes place in England and Scotland.  The central characters are a man and a woman who are married.  They love each other, but there are problems.  The man is a bit set in his ways, and the woman is upset that he won't compromise on things she would like to happen.  The man is an author who has just begun to have some success with his books, and the woman is a reporter who has been their main provider but is getting some threatening messages related to her stories.  He seems to think that all is well with their marriage.  But she disappears.  The book begins a year after her disappearance.  We learn all of the above from his memories and worries about what has happened to her and from what she told a psychologist in sessions before her disappearance.  As the story progresses, it is revealed that there is much more to the story than either of them were admitting.  Much of what happens in the book occurs after he, who has been unable to write a contracted second novel since his wife's disappearance, is provided a last-ditch opportunity by his editor who also is the godmother to his wife--a chance to stay in a cottage the editor owns on a small remote Scottish island that has only 25 residents, no cell phone service, and an infrequent ferry service.  You'll have to read the book to learn what happens after he arrives on the island and what mysteries are revealed.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler

Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025--San Antonio

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler is a slice-of-life book that has been listed as a top book of 2025.  It covers three days in the life of an aging woman in which several things are happening.  She has been the assistant director of the private school where she teaches mathematics, but is told she is being passed over for the director's job at the end of the year when her boss will retire because she just isn't a "people person."  Her only child, a daughter, is being married.  Her ex-husband is staying with her during the 3-day weekend of the wedding.  And he has brought a cat from the shelter where he volunteers in hopes that she will adopt it.  She reflects on her marriage and what went wrong with it.  She worries about the daughter and whether she is making the right choice in terms of the man she is marrying.  She questions decisions she has made in life.  And she questions what decisions she should make for her future.  It is an interesting short book which is well written and is likely to cause the reader to reflect on his/her own life.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

One Good Thing by Georgia Hunter

Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025--San Antonio

One Good Thing by Georgia Hunter surprised me by how much I enjoyed it.  Set in Italy during WWII and dealing with the consequences of actions by the Fascists against Jews, I worried that it could be the same old, same old.  But it proved I didn't know that much about WWII in Italy.  I didn't know that it was years into the war before it became a big problem for Jewish residents there.  I didn't know about the resistance to Mussolini that caused him to be jailed for a time.  The story of this book revolves around 3 main characters--a native of Italy who is Jewish, her best friend who is Jewish and married to a man from Greece, and the very young son from that marriage.  The husband from Greece leaves the story early on to return to Greece to try save his parents.  So that leaves just the 2 women and the boy and all the people they meet on a short-time basis as their story happens.  They go on a journey from town-to-town built around trying to stay safe from the German soldiers and the Italian Black Shirts.  They are also involved in underground efforts for creating and delivering false IDs that "disguise" the Jews as being Aryans in an effort to keep them safe.  I just kept wanting to read more and more without putting the book down.  It is a novel, so it is a fictional story, but it is based on known stories of people and events from the war and even includes some real characters in "cameo" appearances based on what is known about their actions during the war.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.