Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart won the Booker Prize for 2020 and was a finalist for the National Book Award for 2020.  Set in Glasgow during the Margaret Thatcher period of the closure of mines and the deterioration of industries throughout the UK, it is a book of this desolation occurring and its effects on one particular family.  Although titled after Shuggie, the story revolves around his mother Agnes who has grand ambitions, but fails to achieve them due to the circumstances of the time and to alcoholism which is affecting many others, including most of the residents hanging on in a small council-owned neighborhood at a closed mine where she and her three children find themselves living as her second husband leaves them and her life starts truly unraveling.  Shuggie is the youngest child and the one trying to most and giving up last in terms of helping his mother even has he never reaches beyond the age of 14 in the years covered by the novel.  Plus, Shuggie continually encounters problems of his on throughout the book for regularly being perceived as and taunted for being a "funny" boy.  Several reviewers have compared this book, covering the poverty and hardships of Glasgow in the 1980s, to those by Dickens covering the similar aspects life in London in the 1800s.  It is well written.  Although distressing, hope remains throughout including hope for Shuggie at the end of the story.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Apeirogon by Colum McCann

Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020--San Antonio

Apeirogon by Colum McCann took me longer to read than most novels.  The author calls it a hybrid novel.  There is an ongoing story built around the true lives of two men--an Israeli and a Palestinian--who have bought lost young daughters to violence and who both have become speakers for an organization promoting peace between Palestine and Israel.  At the same time, there are detailed extraneous bits of information which either eventually relate directly or indirectly to something in the story line.  Reading the details and keeping everything in mind to see how they eventually are meaningful is what slowed me down.  Instead of reading 75 or so pages a day, I found myself reading 25-40.  The book was long-listed for the Booker Prize, named one of the best books of 2020 by BBC, and called a "once in a generation masterpiece" by the Observer.  The story and complexity of its construction made this a fascinating book.  When I balance that with the frustration of following it, I decided to give the book 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

Real Life by Brandon Taylor

Sunday, Dec. 6, 2020--San Antonio

Real Life by Brandon Taylor is the story of a young black graduate student who grew up in Alabama and is now at a major Midwestern university.   It was a relief for him to leave Alabama due to the systemic discrimination he faced both for being black and for being gay.  But the former still exists in the Midwest where he is expected to be less intelligent, less capable, and less dedicated in his student lab research activities.  Like many people of color have said is a necessary ingredient to living their lives, he studies and works harder and for longer hours to try to give no excuse for their expectations to be true, yet they are still assumed by a competitive student and the lab supervisor.  He is friends with a cohort group of graduate science students who welcome him into their fold.  In his 3rd year of studies, he knows these friends quite well and spends time with them, but he has no one special in his life.  The one member of the group to whom he feels an attraction is straight.  The book covers topics such as their daily lives, the personal interactions with each other, the limitations of what they let the others know about themselves, etc.  At times, the detailed information about the lab work and even the detailed conversations between the friends seems to cause the story to drag with no real purpose.  But at other times, I found I didn't want to put the book down.  The book was a finalist for the Booker Prize and a New York Times notable book of the year.  I gave it 4 stars out of 5.

The New Wilderness by Diane Cook

 Sunday, Nov. 29, 2020--San Antonio

The New Wilderness by Diane Cook is a science fiction novel set in the future--one that could plausibly happen.  It was on the short list for the Booker Prize this year (2020).  It follows the lives of people who have left life in the city which is a highly polluted high-rise megalopolis what covers all available land except for special designated areas for mining, for storing waste, etc., and one very special area that is closed to the public and being maintained as a wilderness.  Those who have left are a group of 20 who are admitted to the wilderness as an experiment to see if people can live there without damaging it.  They have to learn how to take care of themselves while following a book of rules.  They are supposed to move every day.  They must carry their trash (and discard it on their monthly check-ins at ranger stations), must make sure that where they have camped cannot be realized by anyone who shows up after they have left, must follow orders related to where they should head and which ranger station will be their next check-in point.  But it is also the story of one particular family--a professor of history (especially of those living in wilderness areas) whose mind glorifies the idea of going to the wilderness more than his body can handle it, his wife who goes along with the plan because their daughter is sick from the pollution in the city and who becomes a leader within the group of 20, and the daughter who adapts well to wilderness life and who, when she is a young teenager, grows into a role of being the guide for the group as they move from place to place.  It's a good book.  I didn't want to put it down.  Warner Bros. has bought the rights for the book to be made into a TV series.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

To Calais, In Ordinary Time by James Meek

Monday, Nov. 23, 2020--San Antonio

To Calais, In Ordinary Time by James Meek is a story set in 1348 with various stories colliding and unfolding as it progresses:  1) A young man who should be free since his father was free but who is considered a serf by the landowner (local lord) decides the only way to get is freedom is to to use his skill as a bowman in the war in France.  The right to buy his freedom for 5 pounds with the spoils he will gain in France is his demand to the lord for signing up to represent his manor region in the war.  2)  A young daughter of the same lord is trying to escape an arranged marriage by her father who has promised her to an old neighboring lord in return for the neighboring lord promising his own daughter to him.  She is fascinated by the story of a romance novel she is reading and repelled by the idea of being married to an old man, so she runs away to find the man she loves who is off fighting in France where he has been given property for his accomplishments in battle.  3) A local serf in charge of the pigs runs off to follow the young bowman whom he has loved since childhood and takes a disguise as an unknown twin sister to make his escape and to try to appeal to the bowman (who identifies as heterosexual and is engaged to a local woman) as someone he can come to love.  4)  A group of bowmen who are traveling back to France for further fighting have with them a French woman who has been their captive since they killed her father and raped her and have strict rules of conduct and obediency for the bowmen in their group to follow.  The French woman faces regular abuse from the bowman who has claimed her as his own and tries to keep all other men at a distance from her.  5)  The plague has been raging in France and starts making its entry into England as all these people move toward the port where they are to catch a boat to go to France.  Reading the story is complicated due to the use of so many words from the local dialect when the bowmen and others who are not formally educated speak.  It's an interesting story, but I almost gave up on it due to the difficulty of the language.  Eventually I was invested in all of the characters to the point that I wanted to continue reading to know what would happen.  I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

Trust Exercise by Susan Choi

 Friday, Nov. 13, 2020--San Antonio

Trust Exercise by Susan Choi is a complex book that won the National Book Award for fiction in 2019.  It's a story built around the students attending a high school for the performing arts in a large American city (based on hints that it has an opera house, has Spanish moss hanging from oak trees, is not near a river or a body of water, has a park name I could match, and others, I pictured Houston as the location).  Students, a graduate, and a faculty member from a similar school in England who make a visit in the spring to stay with the American students and perform a play at their school are also a part of the story.  A major topic throughout is sexual exploitation.  Another topic is that most of these students dreaming of becoming stars in theatre, dance, voice, etc., will never make it--that a rare few students over the years have had some minor success and maybe one has had success that could be considered great enough to avoid the "minor" designation but not great enough to be a known name by most people.  Most of these students are talented only in one discipline and some of them have quite limited talents even in that best discipline.  So the book is about the struggles of these students, their families, and their faculty members in dealing with their hopes and dreams and with their disappointments and failures.  There is a major twist that occurs right in the middle of the book.  At times the story flows smoothly and is very entertaining.  At other times, it is drug down by details (lots of explanations of the true meanings of words as they are used and what else they could mean) and confusion (due to the fact that the same character may be referenced by different names at different times).  The complexity of the story (including the twist that occurs) must be the reason it won the award.  As I read, at times I thought I would give the book 4 1/2 or maybe even 5 stars, but at other times, I wanted to give it 2 1/2 to 3 stars and considered quitting it.  By the end, I was glad to be finished with the book and settled on a rating of 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

Memorial by Bryan Washington

 Friday, Nov. 6, 2020--San Antonio

Memorial by Bryan Washington is the second book by this author that I have read recently.  The first was Lot, a collection of short stores.  Mr. Washington is a Houston author who is receiving lots of acclaim.  Before Memorial was released in the past few weeks, I read articles in TIME and EW about it and heard a report on NPR about it.  I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up on the short list for the next National Book Award.  The book is well written in a unique style that is very conversational and often consists of short entries (of only a few lines each) that slowly build the story.  It revolves around two young minority men (Benton who is Black and Mike who is a Japanese immigrant) who are gay, live in Houston, and establish a relationship which appears to be unstable for long-term success.  But the main story taking up most of the book starts about 3 years into that relationship when Mike's mother is coming from Japan to Houston for a visit at the same time that he finds out that his father (estranged from his mother) is dying in Japan.  Mike leaves for Japan to make a last-ditch effort to establish a relationship with his father (whom he hasn't seen since he was 9 years old) before his mother, who Benton has never met arrives at the home where the two men live.  Relationships are strained on both sides of the world with Benton and Mike's mother slowly, and with great difficulty, getting to know and appreciate each other and with Mike and his father slowly, but with great difficulty, reestablishing a relationship which over time each has had mostly negative feelings about and learning to appreciate each other.  I thoroughly enjoyed the book and gave it 4 stars out of 5.

The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante

 Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020--San Antonio

The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante is the second book I have read in a month by this pseudonymous author.  This is her latest novel (released in English in August of 2020) and has gotten great reviews all over the world.  I found it to be a fast, easy read.   The main character is a young female high school student whose life changes dramatically as she learns that life is not always as simple as it seems and has to deal with adjusting to having relationships with her relatives, her friends, and new acquaintances that are not as straight forward or as easy as relationships when she was young and innocent.  Set in Naples, there is the contrast between two parts of her own family whose neighborhoods are very economically different and whose lives have been lived at a distance also because of conflicts, disappointments, and grudges.  But it also deals with her having to determine what is important to her in life and whether she will make decisions that lead her into a life of the kinds of conflicts that have been occurring for decades within the family.  It's a good book, although I did find myself wanting yell at the young lady that she needed to grow up and not be so self-centered.  I gave the book 4 out of 5 stars.

Normal People by Sally Rooney

Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020--San Antonio

Normal People by Sally Rooney was a book that I read in only two days.  Normally, I put a book down and come back to it several times before I finish.  But this story interested me.  Set in a small town in western Ireland, it is about class differences, popularity differences, intelligence differences, sexual activity differences, etc.  More specifically, it is about a popular young male student who is poor and raised by his unwed mother in a loving home and an unpopular young female student who is raised in a wealthy family whole members lack love for each other.  It follows these two people as they have a secretive sex life while in high school and then both leave for Dublin and college at the most prestigious university in the county.  It continues to follow them as their lives dance around each other's without their realizing they cannot be happy with anyone else.  It is a spare book (about 250 pages) that held my interest.  I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli

Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020--San Antonio

Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli is a book that took a long time to pull me into the story.  I almost gave up on it in the first half.  It became more interesting from there, and the last quarter was riveting.  It''s the story of a marriage involving two children falling apart as the two children (really step-children) form a bond with their own special adventure that will keep them connected as brother and sister for the rest of their lives.  Besides seeming to have fallen out of love, the married couple face the age-old problem of their careers making it impossible to stay together without one having to give up his or hers.  The father dwells on the history of the Apache Indians--how brave and fierce they were and how they were so mistreated by the US government.  The mother dwells on the children who are coming alone as immigrants from Central America and Mexico--how difficult it is for them to make the trip alone at their age and how mistreated they are by the US government when they cross the border.  I gave the first half of the book a rating of 3 stars, but it became a 4-star book within the last quarter of it.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

 Thursday, Oct. 8, 2020--San Antonio

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante is the first in a series of 4 books which are in the process of being adapted into an HBO series which has broadcast the first two seasons.  All four books do not have to be read; this  one is easily a stand-alone novel.  Written initially in Italian, I read the English translation.  Another interesting fact is that Elena Ferrante is a pseudonym, and no one knows who she really is (somewhat like the British street artist Banksy) although her novels have been printed and acclaimed throughout the world.  This Book One of the series follows two girls living in a poor suburb of Naples.  They hardly interact until they reach school and realize that they are the two smartest children in their class.  The story is told by the one who feels she always comes in second to the other.  There are jealousies, occasional hurt feelings, etc., but the one always coming in second over time realizes that the competition makes her a better student than she would be otherwise, and even when she progresses further in her education, she realizes that her friend who drops out due to not being able to afford to continue in school still continues to be smarter.  The book starts out seeming to be a simple story, but as it progresses there are layers upon layers of complexities that develop and the reader learns about the dynamics of not just the lives of these two girls but also those among most of the families living within the neighborhood.  It is very well written and becomes better the further you get into the story.  I gave it 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

The Story of a Goat by Perumal Murugan

 Sunday, Aug. 27, 2020--San Antonio

The Story of a Goat by Perumal Murugan is an unusual book.  Written for adults, it is an allegory centering on the life and thoughts of a female goat while showing that the life of the people of the village in India where it is set is just as difficult based on government rules and regulations, expectations of friends and neighbors, and harsh weather circumstances as that of the animals on a farm.  The female goat experiences love, ecstasy, rape, starvation, loss of loved ones, etc., as the story progresses.  The book is easy to read and the story keeps one's attention due to moving quickly along.  It was long listed for the National Book Award for translated literature.  I have it 3 stars out of 5.

The Friend by Sigrid Nunez

 Monday, Sept. 21, 2020--San Antonio

The Friend by Sigrid Nunez is not your usual type of novel.  It has a unique format that is more like a memoir (especially since the character telling the story is a female novelist like the writer), but not even that in a traditional sense.  It's as if she is writing down her thoughts as memories as they come to her--even in as little as 3 lines at a time.  But as the reader gets deeper into the book, you realize that the pieces are all fitting together to tell a story based on her best friend (and probably the love of her life), his dog, death, grief, and life as an artist.  BUT, there is a surprise twist just before the end of the story.  The novel won the National Book Award for 2018.  It is short (just over 200 pages), and intriguing.  I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.  

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Monday, Sept. 14, 2020--San Antonio

I just finished reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  The book is from 2014 and a film based on it came out a few years later.  The book was named a top ten book of the decade by both TIME and EW, but I have just make the effort to read it.  (I usually find reading a book to be more entertaining than seeing the film.)  It is definitely a book that keeps one's attention.  At the same time, there are such tense moments that I found I had to put it down for a bit before continuing several times throughout the process of reading it.  It's a psychological thriller that will probably leave any reader glad that it was not him or her in the relationship that is described.  I gave the book a rating of 4 out of 5 stars.

Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford

Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020--San Antonio

Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford is a book written in 1949.  Set 25-30 years earlier than that, it would be called a costume drama if made as a series for television (which it apparently was during the 1980sl  It was in a list of books suggested for reading during the coronavirus pandemic, and it was available for download to my Kindle from the library, so I decided to try it.  It took me a while to get involved in the story.  But by the end of the book, I was enjoying it even though it wasn't as well written as most novels that I typically read.  I have the book 3 stars out of 5.

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai

 Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020--San Antonio

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai is a very good book.  It was a finalist for the National Book Award and was named one of the top ten books of the year by the New York Times.  There are multiple stories going on as the book jumps forward and backward in time, but they all tie together.  There's the woman who studied art in Paris and was the mistress of a known painter before WWI and returned after the war to be model for a number of famous artists; in her old age, she wants to donate her private collection of sketches and paintings by these famous artists--pieces that no one else even knows exist.  There's the story of the young gallery acquisitions director in Chicago who is gay and is negotiating in the 1980s with the woman to get her to donate her art to his gallery.  There is the story of a young girl who leaves her family in the 1980s with her brother (both teenagers at the time) when the father kicks the brother out of the house for being gay with her story continuing as far as 2015.  There is the story of the AIDS epidemic from the point before it even had a name through the loss of so many friends, colleagues, and relatives to it in the 1980s and 1990s while there still were no treatments that would allow them to continue to live.  There is the story of a young woman who is alienated from her mother, runs off with an older man to join a cult, and eventually is seen in a photograph with a young girl (daughter?) on a bridge in Paris.  And there is the story of the photographer who documented so many of these lives and eventually became world famous, so much so that he was known by just his last name and was having major exhibits around the world.  The book builds slowly at first.  By the time the reader gets halfway through it, it is hard to put it down.  And toward the end, it becomes impossible to put it down.  No wonder it was so well recognized as a great book of the year.  I gave it 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Friday, Aug. 14, 2020--San Antonio

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller is the imagined story of the personal interwoven lives shared by Achilles with the exiled Prince Patroclus from the time they are children (age 10) until their deaths in the Battle of Troy when they are in their late 20s.  All the known truths of their story are woven together by the author, a professor of Latin and ancient Greek, into a well-written and fascinating story involving many of the famous names from Greek Mythology and history.  I was a fan of both Greek and Norse mythology when I read them in high school, and this book kept me very interested and invested in the story.  The closer I got to the end, I kept looking at the page number/percentage of book already read hoping it still was not yet going to end.  I gave the book a rating of 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

 Saturday, Aug. 8, 2020--San Antonio

Days Without End by Sebastian Barry is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read.  Line after line within the book is a marvel.  And since it is set in the American West of the mid-to-late 1800s, the writing skills of the author are further magnified by his apparently authentic use of terms and expressions of that time that caused me to touch my fingers to the text (on my Kindle) to get a pop-up definition to be sure of what was being referenced.  The story itself is fascinating--a western covering such often overlooked topics such as the use of young men to dress as women for the entertainment (dancing partners or stage performers) of miners, a young man eventually discovering that he felt internally more like a female than a male even though he had fought as a soldier in both Indian wars and the Civil War, two men being able to have a life-long homosexual relationship that was secret but also often accepted by those close to them, etc.  But homosexuality is a very small part of the story and is never explicitly described.  It's the story of how two young men met and spent their lives finding ways to make a living, help others, and get by while trying to be good people and staying together.  The writing, however, is the star of the book; how wonderful it was to come across gem after gem of insightful wording.  The book won 2 major literary awards in 2017 and was named a top book of the year by TIME.  I gave it 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom

Saturday, Aug. 2, 2020--San Antonio

The Yellow House, a memoir by Sarah M. Broom, won the National Book Award for nonfiction books in 2019, but I could not finish it.  I read 27% of the book and gave up on it.  It is set in New Orleans and is about a family in the area known as New Orleans East.  There are just too many uninteresting details with the story moving too slowly to keep my interest.  At 27% of the way through, the house wasn't even yellow yet, the family is still having babies (#10, I think, was the latest one), and the first one is getting married.  The writing style is easy to read, but I just saw no need to keep going with the story.  After spending a whole week only getting through 27% of it (because it didn't hold my interest for more than 15-30 minutes at a time), I just didn't want to invest any further time in it.  It's not a bad book, just one that didn't hold my interest, so I will give it 3 stars out of 5.  

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Monday, July 27, 2020--San Antonio

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia is actually a book written for adolescents.  It was a Newbery Medal Honor Book and a National Book Award finalist for best children's book.  It is about three African-American sisters who leave their home in Brooklyn where they live with their father and grandmother to spend the summer of 1968 in Oakland with their mother who left them just after the birth of the youngest.  The mother is a poet and a supporter of the Black Panther movement.  She leads a very independent life and sends the girls to the summer day camp operated by that group.  The girls try to understand their mother's distance, make new friends, spend a day exploring San Francisco, and learn to appreciate their Black heritage.  Best of all, though, they can be hilarious!  By the end of the book you will feel that you know and love them, and you will hate to let go of them yourselves.  I give the book 4 stars out of 5.

Exhalation by Ted Chiang

Thursday, July 23, 2020--San Antonio

Exhalation by Ted Chiang took me longer to complete than most novels because I became bored so often.  Even though it has been highly recognized with very positive reviews, there were times when I almost quit reading it.  It is a selection of science fiction short stories.  When there are characters related to the science fiction concepts, I thoroughly enjoyed the book.  But the author spends so many pages providing a theoretical background for justifying the science fiction concepts that at least 1/3 of this book just seemed like he was trying to prove how wonderful his mind is at coming up with his ideas vs. trying to entertain the reader.  Those boring parts aren't worth more than a rating of 2 out of 5 stars, but because the parts with the characters in them were so interesting and enjoyable, I will rate the book overall as 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

Lot by Bryan Washington

Saturday, July 11, 2020--San Antonio

Lot by Bryan Washington was named by TIME and one of the top short books (fewer than 300 pages) of 2019.  It really is a set of short stories about immigrants, but there are two characters who show up in several of them (although never in the same story together).  It is set in Houston, and anyone who knows Houston well will recognize the streets and neighborhoods mentioned.  It is  well written and the stories are easy and enjoyable to read.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

The Knockout Queen by Rufi Thorpe

Friday, July 3, 2020--San Antonio, TX

The Knockout Queen by Rufi Thorpe got an A- from Entertainment Weekly and a good review in TIME.  I enjoyed the book, but I just didn't have the feeling that it was worth such high praise.  It deals with a number of contemporary topics--alcoholism, teenage homelessness, high school bullying, corporate corruption, ineffective criminal justice system--pulling them together in one story about a young woman and a gay young man who are neighbors without close friends.  The title could have been better than it is; it is a direct reference to something mentioned only in the last few pages, although it is an indirect reference to one of the major turn of events toward the middle of the story.  Some parts of the story went too fast, and some parts weren't justified very well.  Because I enjoyed reading it without becoming too excited about it, I give it 3 stars out of 5 (at least 1 1/2 stars less than most other readers).

The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall

Saturday, June 27, 2020--San Antonio

The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall is a story steeped in Christian belief and non-belief and the factors that lead to either of those states of mind, including events that can cause one to question belief or to suspend it all together.  As a non-believer, it's not a topic I would normally explore, but the book has gotten good reviews and it is so well written that reading it is a pleasure.  It revolves around two couples whose lives become tied to each other when the two men become co-pastors of the same church.  But the book starts much earlier than that with the stories of the lives of each of the four persons that led them to find each other.  I found myself wanting to continue to read even when I should have gone to sleep or been doing something else.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

Tuesday, June 23, 2020--San Antonio

Less by Andrew Sean Green is the story of a young gay writer known more for his good looks, his famous poet lover, and the quality of his first published novel than for anything else in his life.  It is set when Less is about to turn 50 and is embarking on an around-the-world trip hobbled together from fortunate opportunities since he is low on funds and his latest book has been rejected by his publisher who seems to be cutting ties with him. He looks back on his life with the realization that it has been far less than a successful one, career-wise or lover-wise, than he would have wished.  The author was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for this book.  In respect to that, the novel reinforces my experience, based on other Pulitzer winners I have read, that I have no idea what the criteria are for winning the prize since quality of writing seems often NOT to be a major factor.  I also was disappointed by something I often observe in novels and never appreciate; the author seemed to have collected lots of observations throughout life with the intent of working them into his writing and did so very often in this book whether they actually contributed significantly to the story or not.  Furthermore, there were times that his wording seemed to be chosen more for showing the reader what a witty or knowledgeable writer he is than for the purpose of adding to the story itself.  Due to these factors, there were times I almost quit the book.  But parts of it were very interesting and keep me going to the end.  As general literature, I would rate this book 3 stars out of 5.  As gay literature, since the category seldom has really high quality writing, I would boost it on up to 3 1/2 stars out of 5

Olive, Again by Elizabeth Stout

Saturday, June 20, 2020--San Antonio

I read the original Pulitzer Prize winning novel entitled Olive Kitteredge a few years ago and really enjoyed its series of short stories about life in a small coastal town in Maine with Olive being the central character in several of the stories and occasionally tied to some of the others.  Then, last year, I read and heard the great reviews for Olive, Again, Elizabeth Stout's follow-up novel which I have just now read.  Written as before as a series of short stories, Olive is the central character in more of them this time and seems to be tied in some way to the rest of them.  It carries Olive into the second and final part of her later life as she has a second marriage and as she eventually has to learn to be alone and begins to suffer the difficulties that come with old age.  She's a character who is grating at times, but is lovable, too, and she mellows a bit as time passes.  It was pleasant to be with Olive again in this second novel with stories just as well written and just as many occasional laugh-out-loud lines as the first one.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

Tuesday, June 16, 2020--San Antonio

I decided to read Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks because it is set in a village in England suffering from the plague in 1665-1666, a village which voluntarily decides to self-quarantine to try to stop the spread of the disease.  I thought it would be interesting to read it while we are voluntarily self-quarantining in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The book is very well written and the story is riveting.  I found myself feeling as if I were there and, as a reader, not wanting to take a break.  It would make a great Masterpiece Theater series on PBS/BBC.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5. (It would have been 5 stars except I agree with some readers that the ending seems so implausible.) 

Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips

Friday, June 12, 2020--San Antonio

Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips was a finalist for the National Book Award and was named the 7th best book of 2019 by Entertainment Weekly.  Its setting is Kamchatka Peninsula in far northeastern Russia where the author spent a year as a Fullbright Scholar doing research and writing.  The story details what life is like in the remote area which, even though it is a peninsula, can only be exited by ship or plane due to a large range of mountains blocking it from the rest of the country.  It is built around the disappearance of two young girls. All the people in the stories are tied together in one way or another, although the number of them can make it difficult to keep track of who all of them are.  It's a good story which I rated 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.

The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat

Thursday, June 4, 2020--San Antonio

The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat is historical fiction set along the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.  It follows the story of a Haitian woman who was taken into the home of an upper class Dominican family when she was found at the riverside immediately after her parents had drowned.  The story is based on an actual event that took place when the Dominican dictator decided that his country was being overrun by illegal Haitian immigrants who had crossed the river to mainly do manual labor related to the raising of sugar cane.  There was a massacre in which many Haitians died and most others barely made it back across the river to Haiti.  Families were divided, what happened to friends and relatives was unknown, etc.  The reader will not be able to read it at the current without thinking of the right-wing movement in America to seal off the border between the US and Mexico and to send all illegal Mexicans and Central Americans back to their home countries.  The book is well written, but it took me about 50 pages to get really involved in the story.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

The Testaments by Margaret Attwood

Monday, May 25, 2020--San Antonio

The Testaments by Margaret Attwood, a sequel to her The Handmaid's Tale which I read a few years ago, won the Booker Prize in 2019 and was named by many reviewers as one of the best books, if not THE best book, of the year.  It fills in information about both the rise and the fall of Gilead, the theocratic, male-centric government that was created in portions of the former USA after a coup.  It is well written.  The story moves quickly and keeps one's attention.  I gave the book a rating of 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Wednesday, May 20, San Antonio

I seldom read multiple novels by the same writers.  That's partially due to writers often repeating a style.  (After being excited by Hawaii, I burned out very quickly on books by James Michener!)  But The Nickel Boys is the second novel I have read by Colson Whitehead within a month.  That's because they have both been so well reviewed by major publications.  Plus, they both have won Pulitzer Prizes for literature (which doesn't always mean much, but in this case does in my opinion).  This novel is a riveting story that made me want to keep reading every time I picked it up to continue the story which is about a juvenile detention facility for boys (fictional story, but based on the stories of a real facility that existed in Florida) which mistreated the boys (the blacks far more than the whites), regularly hid the punishments administered and deaths that occurred there, had corrupted administrators who lined their pockets with money the boys earned and from selling much of the food to local businesses that was supposed to be served to the black boys, etc.  It's a sad story that rings so true about corruption when it comes to justice related to black citizens in America.  It is one of the best books I have ever read.  I gave it 5 stars out of 5.

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Friday, May 15, 2020--San Antonio

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong is a beautifully written book filled with metaphors and similes and sometimes just simple statements that indicate very unique observations by the writer.  It is written as a letter to his illiterate mother which means it was really written as a letter to his illiterate mother as a way to analyze and process what had happened in the history of his family and, in particular, in his life.  The book was on the long list for the National Book Award in 2019 and has rave reviews from TIME, NPR, New York Times, etc.  The central character is gay, but the book is about being gay only in the sense that it is a part of the author's telling about the life of an immigrant family and his part of it.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Saturday, May 9, 2020--San Antonio, TX

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead won the National Book Award three years ago and the Pulitzer Prize the same year.  It is NOT a book about the Underground Railroad.  In fact, the railroad, when a part of the story, is a literal railroad with rails--one of the aspects of magical realism Whitehead uses to tell his story which really dwells on how bad the treatment of slaves was and how the USA, no matter what the Declaration of Independence says, was founded by white people for white people and that its whole history has been built upon the premise that white people assume the right to take what they want from non-whites and get rid of who they want who is non-white.  Therefore, the story, with asides of magical realism about attempts to deal with the "problem" of the blacks in different ways--a state in the South that puts up a front of caring for the blacks while giving them limited opportunities and sterilizing them to assure they will never become the majority or a threat to whites, another state in the South that declares the existence of blacks to be illegal and hangs them from trees outside of towns and leaves them hanging there forever as a warning, and a northern state where blacks build an ideal community that comes to an end when the local whites start feeling threatened by their success--shines a mirror on the fact that things today in the USA are not much better for blacks than they were back then even though slavery is now abolished.  It's a fascinating book that held my attention throughout.  I gave it 5 stars out of 5!

The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels

Sunday, May 3, 2020--San Antonio, TX

The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels includes religious pomposity, community fears, efforts to enforce "community standards", school bullying, schools' tendency to punish the one who reacts rather than the one who instigates problems, maternal love, paternal difficulty showing affection, parents' pressures for children to be what they what they would prefer them to be, homophobia, etc., all built around the story of a young gay man who left home to escape all of this in the early 80s just as AIDS was spreading and returned home 8 years later to die.  It is a well written book published just this year which received a grade of A- from Entertainment Weekly and a recommendation in TIME.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegn

Wednesday, April 29, 2020--San Antonio, TX

I chose My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegn as my second book to read during the coronavirus stay-at-home directive.  It wasn't the best choice even though it was about a woman trying to sleep time away.  At least 3/4 of the book involved listings of drugs, TV shows, movies on videotape, etc., that the character was using to try to succeed--the drugs to put her to sleep and the others in hopes of assisting her toward that goal.  I would have rather read a 3-page magazine short story about it rather than investing the time to read almost 300 pages.  The book is well written, but just didn't keep my interest.  I gave it 2 1/2 stars out of 5.

Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Friday, Apr. 24, 2020--San Antonio

I finished Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner earlier this week as my first book to read during the coronavirus stay-at-home order.  I recalled that it was on almost every top-10 list of books from last year.  Although the main character is a Jewish man who is only 5'5" tall and is facing problems in his life, especially marriage problems, the book essentially becomes about all the characters having problems in their lives after several years of marriage or after having never married at all.  What I liked best about the novel is that every few pages, there would be something that would make me laugh aloud.  That was great considering my isolation from the rest of the world right now.  It's a good book and easy to read.  I gave it 4 stars out of 5.

Reading During the Coronavirus

Friday, April 24, 2020--San Antonio, TX

Normally, I do almost all of my reading of novels while I am traveling (which is anywhere from 2-6 months per year.  Because my trips are long, I do not rush each day.  I usually go out for 4-5 hours, return to my room or apartment, and maybe go out for another 1-2 hours later.  Reading takes up most of my leisure time when not out exploring.  But I also watch Netflix if I have decent Wi-Fi and spend time reading the news each day. 

After the first 3 weeks of isolation at home during the coronavirus outbreak, I became tired of watching Netflix, reading the news, and playing online games.  I realized that it was much like being on a trip where opportunities are limited in relation to the amount of time I had available.  So I decided to add reading to my list of home activities.

I checked out my first book (using the Libby app for library eBooks) last Thursday and finished it by Tuesday.  I am now on my second book which I will finish this weekend.  I will continue reading as long as the stay-at-home order remains in effect.  And I will add the books read to my list here with my brief comments and ratings.