Sing to It by Amy Hempel

 Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2021--San Antonio

Sing to It by Amy Hempel is a collection of short stories.  Several are very short--between 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 pages long.  Hempel seems to have a knack for thinking thoughts and her idea of their meanings or her impressions related to them.  That's what the shortest stories are.  But even the longest story in the book has many of these short thoughts inserted among the ongoing information that creates the broader story.  It's easy to read her writing, and her expressions are delightful in relation to her thoughts.  I spent more time on this book than most because I have had more things going on in my life while reading it and because I had become a bit tired of reading one book after another every 4-7 days.  My rating for the book is 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

Nights When Nothing Happened by Simon Han

 Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021--San Antonio

Nights When Nothing Happened by Simon Han was a TIME Must-Read 100 for 2020 and is about a family of Chinese immigrants to Texas (Houston and eventually Plano).  It's a story that will be relatable to quite a few immigrant families--initially a happy marriage between a man and a woman from two different classes who soon have a young son, a parent (in this case, the wife) who leaves their homeland to go to the U.S. for advanced studies and a chance to make a better life for them all, a husband who, after only 6 months, breaks the plan for him and the son to stay in China for 5 years until the wife has finished her studies and has an income, a husband who has a hobby that he hopes to turn into a career (although a career that has little success), the conflict that develops as the husband takes the main role caring for the children because his job is more flexible and hers is more important for supporting them all, a second child, a female, who is born after the 5 hard years of getting established in the US, discipline and behavioral problems that develop both at home and at school that relate back to the way the father was raised in China, etc.  Tied in with all of this are the mythical stories that are brought from China and shared with the children, the misconceptions about what is actually true that can develop due to love of one's family, etc.  For me, it was an up and down story that bored me at times and became exciting and interesting at other times.  Plus, there was a bit too much detail about Texas and, especially Plano; I think the author is too Texan and has bought into the boasting habit of Texans, especially the Dallas area where one constantly hears statements of citizens trying to confirm and to convince others of what a World Class City it is.  I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara

 Thursday, Jan. 7, 2021--San Antonio

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara is a story about children who start disappearing in a poor slum on the far outreaches of a major Indian city.  Although not written specifically for adolescents, it would appeal to them.  The author, after putting her writing project aside because she wasn't pleased how it was going, took it back up later when she realized that telling the story from the perspective of three 9-year-old friends (schoolmates--2 boys and a girl) would make the story work better.  The result is a serious story with lots of humor and charm based upon the naive perspectives and thoughts of the children plus a good use of English as it is often spoken by Indians--maybe because literal translations from the way words or organized in Hindi are then stated in the same format in English:  "We are upgoing to the top floor."  As children start missing in their slum, the main characters become amateur investigators based on their experiences of watching police shows on TV.  It's a good book (listed by TIME as one of the 100 must reads of 2020) and fun to read.  I gave it 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

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.