Middle Spoon by Alejandro Varela

Sunday, Mar. 28, 2026--San Antonio

Middle Spoon by Alejandro Varela is a book that was rated highly last year and the author will be here at the San Antonio Book Festival next month.  It was available for immediate checkout on Libby.  I had just finished a book and I had 3 more on hold with one coming within days and the other two within a couple of weeks, so I decided to read this one during the wait time.  I almost quit it during the first few pages, though.  I got the sense of an author trying harder to impress me with his vocabulary than to get me into the story.  I stayed with it because the story started being interesting while the sprinkling of "impressive" words decreased greatly.  The protagonist is a member of a family of 4--the younger of two married gay men and their two children.  The men have been together for about 20 years in a committed, but open relationship.  The book takes place after the younger man has developed a side relationship with a man 8 years younger than he is.  The relationship has lasted for 3 quarters of a year, but has its problems.  The married man has fallen in love with the younger boyfriend, but it is a lopsided relationship in several ways.  Beyond the age difference, there is a maturity difference, an income difference, and a difference in what each one wants.  The married man still loves his husband and his children and wants to stay in that relationship.  His husband has no concerns if that is how it works out.  But that raises many questions which is what the book is really about.  How can a polyamorous relationship work over time?  Can the boyfriend accept being a part of one?  Will the children and the husband accept the boyfriend.  The book actually begins when the boyfriend has ended the relationship as it has currently existed (outside of the family relationship).  The protagonist is suffering from heartache.  He's also ADHD, has been seeing two therapists at the same time over several years, is a Black Latino in a mixed racial marriage/family which is already a problem within society in general, and is worried about how difficult it will be for society to understand an accept a polyamorous family.  He is writing unsent emails to the boyfriend as a way of trying to work through his heartache, of trying to figure out if he will get over it, of analyzing the details of the relationship over time, of trying to figure out how to get the boyfriend back, and of trying to figure out if he can make the polyamorous relationship work out if he can get to the boyfriend to agree to try it.  His mind is so "unique" that the book is often humorous while his ADHD inflexibility is often frustrating.  I don't consider it to be a great book, but it is a good enough book.  I have it 3 1/2 stars out of 5.  

Note:  The authors early book, The Town of Babylon which I have also read, is a better book in my opinion.  

All That Life Can Afford by Emily Everett

Saturday, Mar. 21, 2026--San Antonio

All That Life Can Afford by Emily Everett was on a list of best books of last year.  I isn't a great book, but it is a book that is pleasurable to read.  It is the story of a young lady who grew up in a very poor family but was very intelligent and happened to live in the hometown of Smith College where she was admitted on a full scholarship.  The book follows her to London where she has been admitted, again on scholarship, to a university to work on a master's degree in literature.  Beyond that, it is very much like a romance novel (except for not having any sexual liaison details) as she ends up dating the wrong guy while you keep hoping she will realize that she has made an error.  It also includes details of how she allows herself to become involved in living a high society life which she cannot afford.  The book is full of tense moments caused by poor decisions.  And like most romance novels (other than the withheld details of sex encounters that has already been mentioned), she ends up with the right guy in the end (but the reader knows this is going to happen 10% of the way into the novel, so it isn't really a spoiler to say so).  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico

Tuesday, Mar. 17, 2026--San Antonio

Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico is a short novel that was shortlisted for the Booker International Price (for books translated into English).  It's different.  Approximately the first 10% of the book is describing an apartment in detail--the number of rooms, the walls, the doors, the floors, the furniture, the decor, the plants, the choice of kitchenware (plates, knives, etc.), the choice of bedspreads and upholstery (color, fabric, and design), the plants, the views from the windows of each room, etc.  But that detail tells a lot about the protagonists who are then introduced.  They are a young couple from Italy who are IT designers (of web pages in detail--font, colors, photos, layouts, etc.) and have moved into this apartment in the former eastern part of Berlin because it is the trendy, inexpensive, and most exciting spot in Europe where they can live a cosmopolitan life while working by contract remotely.  The novel starts in the 90s and moves forward to the present.  At first, they are living quite well on what they make because they are very good at their jobs and are always on top of the constant changes in IT trends in design and because they arrived in Berlin when it was cheap to get rent their rent controlled apartment.  They were living the kind of exciting life they imagined as being like it would be in New York City, but even more exciting and cheaper.  They made friends among expats who came from all parts of the world for the same reason they came.  They were exploring the city on a daily basis while only having to work a few hours to afford it all.  And as time passed, they started noticing things:  All the newcomers like them were causing the neighborhood to change.  Quaint, inexpensive shops, bars, restaurants were disappearing.  Buildings were being remodeled/enlarged in the same way to create the "new look" they had created for themselves.  These changes made prices go up.  The small galleries they had found exciting with opening parties with free drinks and snacks were being replaced in the same way--becoming more professional, more expensive, and more sterile in appearances.  The couple began to notice that their budget was getting tighter over time.  The increased competition of IT designers meant that they couldn't raise the rates for their work, so the increase in the costs of everything except for their rent meant that they had to work more hours for more clients which gave them less time to enjoy the city and their friends.  They were becoming disillusioned with how their lives in Berlin had changed, and they started wondering if there were places where they could rediscover life as it had been--inexpensive in an exciting place attracting young international expats.  Since they could keep their apartment in Berlin and even make money off it by subletting it for more than their rent, they tried Lisbon and discovered drawbacks there.  They tried Sicily, but it was worse.  They returned to Berlin only to find that it had continued to gentrify and to get more expensive and that most of their international friends' lives had changed; they had started families which changed their lifestyle or had returned to their homes.  The atmosphere they missed from the early days of the wall coming down in Berlin and it becoming an inexpensive magnet city for creatives from around the world just didn't exist anymore.  The novel continues as they return home after inheriting a farm from an uncle.  There, they work to create their own version of a good life among international expats by using the buildings on the farm to recreate a co-working space and several apartments that could be rented.  Of course, when one has just happened to find themselves in a unique time and situation, its natural to hope to create the excitement of that experience  over and over again, but it is not typically possible.  There comes a time to have to realize and accept how fortunate they were to have had that experience in the first place.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

Thursday, Mar. 12, 2026--San Antonio

I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai is a different kind of "who done it" novel.   It centers around a murder that took place toward the end of the senior year at a private prep school--not an ultra exclusive one, but one exclusive enough to attract students from near and far.  It centers around a student who had been there on scholarship, was somewhat reclusive while there (while keeping watch on everything happening), and a couple of decades later is still bothered by the fact that she thinks the wrong person (the black janitor) was found guilty for committing the murder.  She is now a podcaster and is returning to the school to teach two 2-week long mini-courses during the winter break for students staying on campus.  Two of her students decide to investigate that murder as their class podcast project and the book is structured around her writing to her former music teacher who she suspects was the actual murderer.  In writing to him, she goes through all of the other potential suspects one at a time outlining how it could have gone if they were the murderer while reaching a point where she explains why it doesn't seem likely that it could have been each of them--building up to the point when she goes through why she thinks he was the one.  Former classmates become involved through the students' research process, and other podcasters who have already been interested in the past become involved further.  But the book itself is as much about the problems of modern society as it is about finding the real murderer.  It is about the cancel culture that exists where people are always ready to immediately jump to conclusions and criticize others to the point that they lose jobs and are hounded by those who have turned against them.  It's about the tendency to believe that a minority member is likely the criminal and to build a case against them without thoroughly investigating the crime.  It's about friends protecting friends by agreeing to tell the same story so that no one of them has to suffer what they consider to be undue suspicion.  It's about how what is known and suspected can lead to conclusions that may be partially right but not completely right.  I read the book because a reviewer from the NY Times said that it was recommended to her and she became so wrapped up in the story that she finished the whole book within one day.  I enjoyed it, too.  I gave if 4 stars out of 5.

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood

Friday, Mar. 6, 2026--San Antonio

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and was named a top book of the year by many notable publications.  It's a fascinating novel--different from most I have read recently.  The central character (unnamed) is a woman who grew up in a desolate part of Australia, left to become and environmentalist and conservationist, and has become disillusioned by the failures to preserve all aspects of life and the planet itself.  In the first few pages, she is returning home after 30 years away to visit her parents' graves.  While there, she ends up spending a few days of respite in a cabin at a monastery which has a church (not a chapel, because it was consecrated as a church in the past) and has only a few nuns living there (no priest).  It's a place for a quiet (not a silent) retreat.  Meals are basic and the nuns work to maintain the place while raising a garden and some animals.  Plus, the nuns have multiple services a day in the church (before breakfast, after breakfast, midday, and vespers in the evening) at which attendance is allowed.  They are the only things for a visitor "to do" other than reading, sleeping or wandering.  At the beginning, she even avoids sharing mealtime with the nuns; she just takes products from the pantry that she can use to feed herself in her room.  At the end of her 5 days, she heads back to Sydney.  But in the next chapter, a few years have passed, she has left her husband, she has left your job in conservation, and she is back at the monastery and is a permanent resident living and working with the nuns.  The rest of the novel is almost like a memoir.   She recalls friends from school and what they were like, her mother and father and what they were like, one student in particular who was aggressive and unapologetic, etc., while interacting with the nuns and with a former male classmate who volunteers regularly to assist the nuns when needed.  She never develops an interest in leaving the place even when the woman who was the aggressive, apologetic student returns as a nun bringing back the bones of a former nun who, years ago, left the monastery to run an assistance program in Asia and then disappeared.  Instead, her mind continues contemplating the past and dealing with the frustrations that she has with the returned nun and even occasionally with the nuns she lives with.  There is no "end to the story" other than the she is still there when the nun, who brought the bones at the beginning of COVID and has had to remain for about 2 years waiting for flights resume, finally can depart.  The unnamed central character doesn't.  She seems destined to be there for the rest of her life.  I gave the book a rating of 4 stars out of 5.

Heart the Lover by Lily King

Monday, Mar. 2, 2026--San Antonio

Heart the Lover by Lily King was named a top book of 2025 by at least 7 major sources.  I enjoyed reading it so much that I finished it within 2 days.  It's the story of the lives of 3 college friends with the main protagonist being a woman named Jordan who wants to become a novelist, came to the elite university on a tennis scholarship which she gave up during her first year, has been racking up loan debts while working one or two jobs at a time, and is NOT a part of the special literature program for top students which Kash and Sam (two best friends from school days in Knoxville) are.  Kash notices Jordan in a class and encourages his friend Sam (who is not as outgoing, popular, and charming as Kash is) to ask her out.  Eventually Sam does ask Jordan out and they begin a relationship that is hindered by the fact that Sam is a Southern Baptist who has made an oath to be sexually abstinent until marriage and whose parents are far more conservative and critical of others than he is.  But the relationship develops based on what was called "everything but" in Jordan's high school--oral sex, OK; masturbation, OK; penetration, NOT OK.  But as time passes it becomes obvious that Sam cannot escape the expectations of his family and that both Kash and Jorden are attracted to each other.  The book covers a span of about 3 decades in which Sam never changes, Kash cannot escape the responsibility he feels to be Sam's best friend, Kash and Jordan start a relationship which they hide from Sam, Kash and Jordan break up after their relationship involved too much time apart and a failure by Kash to fully commit, Jordan moves on with her life feeling betrayed by both Sam and Kash, Kash becomes a lawyer instead of the novelist he wanted to be, Jordan becomes a successful novelist, Jordan and her husband are waiting for an important appointment for surgery that may save her son's life and will require them to be free to travel immediately to Houston when notice comes, and she gets call about a tragic situation that causes her to feel that she must make a temporary trip that brings all three of them back together because there is a secret that has been kept through all of these years.  Because there is a large emphasis on literature topics during their college days that only majors in literature could find very appealing in such depth as they are covered and because of giant leaps in the story timeline that require the reader to figure out the new time and situation, I gave the book 4 stars out of 5, but the story was really an interesting one that was more entertaining than most books I have read lately.

The Director by Daniel Kellmann

Friday, Feb. 27, 2026--San Antonio

The Director by Daniel Kellmann was longlisted for the Booker Prize.  It is historical fiction built around the life of the real German film director G. W. Pabst.  Considered to be one of the best film directors during the silent era and the director who made Greta Garbo famous, Pabst was a proponent of communism in the lead-up to WWII.  He was filming in France when Hitler came to power, so, even though not Jewish, he fled to the USA like other Germans who disagreed with the new government.  But in the US, he felt unappreciated and became upset because they would only give him funding for a film based on a poorly written script and tried to control certain aspects of the filming.  He returned to Europe by going to Switzerland, but prospects for being able to work there were very low.  He got word that his mother, living in their home in Austria (already annexed by Hitler), was doing poorly and needed to be taken to the sanatorium.  Traveling there to deal with the problem, the family's plans were to return to Switzerland and to travel back to America; they had all the exit papers and visas necessary for doing that.  But the next day, the German government declared war and invaded Poland.  Exit papers would not be honored.  Life became very difficult very fast.  The caretaker of the family home was now the local Nazi official in charge of the community, and he and his family forced Pabst and his family to move downstairs in the home and to become the caretakers while the caretaker family moved to the better quarters upstairs.  Fortunately for Pabst (since he was the greatest German director left in Germany and was not Jewish), the government overlooked his communist inclinations and provided funding for him with a guarantee that he could make non-political films that would be artistic honor the country externally.  He was also required to let Leni Riefenstahl serve as his assistant director so she could become their primary director of propaganda films.  The book continues with Pabst making films, their son (a creation of the writer and not someone that ever existed in real life) grew old enough to become exited about the date that he would be drafted into the army with this schoolmates, and the war eventually started turning around with it becoming more and more evident that the Nazis were losing.  Pabst made his last film which he considered to be his greatest, but it became lost to history.  It was an interesting story to read, but so many of the details are about how scripts are written, how films are made, how Pabst's work was different from that off others, etc., that it seemed to be too specialized and too distant from the actual war.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy

Sunday, Feb. 21, 2026--San Antonio

The Wilderness by Ann Flournoy took me far more time to read than it should have.  The story was interesting, but it didn't "grab" me.  That left me reading only a few pages at a time and then putting it aside--over and over again.  It's the story of a group of friends as they go through college and then through life and sometime living near each other and sometimes across the country from each other.  It tells the ups and downs in their lives and their relationships (among each other and with others including the changes in them over time).  It also covers the changes in society over time with the end of the novel set in 2027 when one of them dies during societal upheaval taking place in the US under a President who is determined to control life with force.  I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud

Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026--San Antonio

This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud was on many lists of top books of 2025 and was longlisted for the Booker Prize.  It is historical fiction related to several generations of one extended family, but it concentrates on one particular generation--that of the married couple Francois and Barabra while going backwards to tell the stories of their parents and siblings and forwards to tell the stories of their own children and grandchildren.  The novel begins in the early 1940s.  Gaston, a French navel officer, has been recently moved from an assignment in Beirut to Salonica (Thessaloniki today).  But Hitler's armies are moving into France quickly and Paris is expected to fall when they do.  Gaston has decided to send his wife and children to Algeria which is where they grew up, fell in love, and married.  The story backtracks to tell about life in Algeria before the war and continues through the war, through the uprisings against colonial rule in Algeria, telling of their son's successes in education, and follows what is happening within the family as Francois, the son, decides that his furture must be in America (where he eventually meets and marries Barbara).  Throughout the family history, there are cultural problems resulting in misunderstandings and hurt feelings, times of discrimination, times of tension, feelings of failure in various ways, examples of sacrifice, examples of misinterpretation of why things are happening, etc.  There is a point in the middle of the novel where so much detail is outlined so quickly that reading the book became a bit of a drag.  But, in general it is a good story and is exciting at times.  The ending becomes a shocker.  Overall, I gave the book 4 stars out of 5 (although I wavered at times in thinking I should go half a star lower). 

My Friends by Hisham Matar

Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026--San Antonio

My Friends by Hisham Matar is probably the best book I have read in the last 6 months.  I found it to be fascinating and exciting.  It was a finalist for the National Book Award and longlisted for the Booker Prize.  So far, of all the books I have read from those two lists (which is about 2/3 of them), this has been the best in my opinion.  (The only one that might have been as good is Flashlight by Susan Choi.)  It's the story of friendships that develop among 3 young men who leave Libya and end up living most of their lives as expatriates because of events that make it dangerous for them to return home where Col. Gaddafi rules as an iron-fisted dictator.  Its a story of missing family and the homeland while adapting to life in their new home (mostly the UK) to the point that they realize they are not really completely at home in either place.  It's a story of historical fiction--built around events that actually happened, but with fictional characters involved.  There was a point where my interest started to wane for a few pages, but then the excitement picked back up.  All of the characters are well developed and fascinating in different ways.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

Flesh by David Szalay

Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026--San Antonio

Flesh by David Szalay won the Booker Prize this year.  It's an interesting story, but I don't understand all the hype about it.  It follows the life of Itzvan, a Hungarian, who doesn't seem to get too excited about anything except when he is riled up and when that happens he tends to over react by fighting.  Otherwise, he just goes with the flow.  When the next door neighbor asks if she can kiss him, the first step in a grooming process when he is a teenager, his response is, "Okay."  He says "Okay" at lot throughout the book.  But his involvement with older women becomes a continuing part of his life story which is a pour to riches to just barely not poor one over time.  He's not much of a decider.  He tends to be a follower.  And he tends to accept what is happening step-by-step without much concern or excitement.  I have now read all 5 of the shortlisted books for the Booker Prize and 3 more that were longlisted.  It's been a disappointing year for me.  Only one of them did I rate higher than 4 stars out of 5--Flashlight by Susan Choi.  I also rate this winner of the prize 4 stars out of 5.

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026--San Antonio

I quit reading The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami when I was 17% of the way through it. It wasn't because it isn't a well-written novel.  It was because it was making me miserable and upset reading it.  The story is about an ordinary citizen becoming entrapped in a government surveillance program most likely because the interviewer at customs when returning home was offended by her questioning if it was due to her last name but also because the program is secretive with no definite guidelines and no requirement to reveal the reasons.  The citizen is sent to a retention center for 21 days, but no one seems to get out after that length of time since restrictions so tight that it is easy to keep extending the time for not following rules.  This story is too close to what is happening today in our country to immigrants and even to U.S. citizens being caught up in that program.  The further I read in the book, the more upset I became.  No rating for the book.  I do not recommend it for reading by anyone who has an ounce of empathy for others being caught up in such a system.

The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller

Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026--San Antonio

The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and named as a top book of 2025 in many places.  It is a well written book.  It's a little slow at the beginning.  (I only read about 5% of the novel the first day, and I had to go back and re-read it again the next day to remember what was there and to apply that knowledge to what I was reading beyond there.)  But there comes a big turn of events just after all the characters introduced in the book have attended a boxing day party (Dec. 26, 1962).  Within a few days a snow storm has started and is not letting up.  It became known as the Big Freeze of 1963.  The first half of the book had set up the characters in a way that you know that many of them have made decisions in life that are questionable and others have suffered because of events in their lives that they had no control over themselves.  Most of the characters are not that appealing.   In the second half of the book, there is a snowball effect in which the consequences of the poor decisions and the actions of the characters spiral downward and the reader wonders what is going to go wrong and how bad will it get.  Well, there is no happy ending (and the author adds one sentence about 3/4 of the way through that lets you know in advance that this will be the result).  But it is an exciting ride which, combined with the very good writing, caused me to rate the book 4 stars out of 5.

The Rest of Our Lives by Ben

Monday, Jan. 11, 2026--San Antonio

The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits is about family relationships, personal desires, a road trip to figure things out, and coming to terms with how it has all turned out.  It's a short novel (240 pages) that was a finalist for the Booker Prize last year.  Tom is a middle-aged law professor living in Westchester County, New York, who has always talked about writing a book based on interactions with strangers in pick-up basketball games at local parks around the country.  He has had students file a complaint about his teaching and is on a semester-long enforced sabattical leave.  His father left his family before he was a teenager and his relationship with both his younger brother and his son are somewhat estranged.  His wife had an affair with another man 12 years ago, but he decided to stay with her until both their kids had left home.  His trip starts when he drives their daughter to Pittsburgh where she will begin her freshman year of college and then decides that rather than returning home he would like to see his brother in the Midwest, his best friend from his college days in Denver, and his son and the grave of his father in Los Angeles.  It's an easy read which kept my attention so well that I finished it within 2 days.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.

Playworld by Adam Ross

Thrusday, Jan. 8, 2026--San Antonio

Playworld by Adam Ross was named a best book of 2025 by The New Yorker and a notable book by the New York Times and Washington Post.  I agree with the judgement of the latter two.  The book is a bit too long with too much detail and only rare instances that are particularly interesting.  But this coming-of-age novel does have some rare instances of "meat" to keep the reader involved and and to make the story unique.  Griffin, the central character, is a 14-year-old boy whose family lives in Manhattan.  The father has made a passable living mainly doing jingles and commercials.  The boy, however, has been starring as the central character in a super hero TV series for children for several years.  He has done this at his father's insistence to help "pay his way" in life.  Supposedly the cost of his private school is paid from his money.  There is a question of whether the rest of his money is all being saved for paying for college for him or whether it may also be helping support the family's lifestyle.  The story covers a critical period when the boy, even after having been cast in a feature film by a universally respected writer/director, is questioning whether he wants to continue being an actor, has as his main interest in life a desire to participate in his school's wrestling program, and is feeling like a misfit when it comes to establishing a relationship with a female.  He wants a girl his age to become his girlfriend, but she is more interested in a senior who treats her poorly.  In the meantime, he finds himself developing an inappropriate relationship with a married woman who is a friend of the family.  His family life also becomes unsteady.  His father has left town to play a major role in touring tryouts for a new musical that might be his big break in life.  His mother has eventually left the apartment because of becoming aware that the father is having an affair with one of the leading ladies in the musical.  And his brother who has always been his roommate and who he loves, has also moved out of the apartment and is becoming distant because of both what's happening with their parents and his frustration with Griffin whose memory has blocked what really happened when their apartment burned many years ago.  I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 5.