Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016--San Antonio, TX

I finished reading Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri today.  She is one of my favorite writers.  I seldom read more than one book by an author.  One reason is that many are not good enough to avoid having a "style" which becomes boring over time.  This is at least the third book I have read by Lahiri, however, and every book has been worth reading.  (Almost every book she writes is good enough to be shortlisted for major writing prizes, so I'm not the only one who appreciates them.)  Unaccustomed Earth is considered a collection of short stories, but it is really a hybrid with the first part being a series of short stories and the latter part, although also short stories, being much like a novel since they involve the same characters at various points in time.  As I began reading, I remember thinking, "I'm enjoying this; it's well written, but I'm going to have to give it just 3 1/2 stars out of 4."  But as I got closer to the end of the book, my opinion started trending higher.  Then the last two pages convinced me.  One sentence caused me to realize, without telling me so, what had happened and what it meant for the future of all the characters and sent me into an emotional tailspin that convinced me that is book is worth 4 stars out of 4 like so many of her other books!!!  (Please do not read the ending of this book before reading the rest.)

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Monday, Jan. 4, 2016--San Antonio, TX

I finished reading Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto.  It's a "different" kind of novel.  To me it seems to be two short stories sold as a novel.  Both stories deal with overcoming the loss of loved ones at an early age.  The artist has a nice way of describing feelings.  The book was super-popular in Japan with the term Bananamania being used to describe how people were reacting to it.  I gave it 3 stars out of 4.