2022 Book List

A list of all of the books I have read in 2022 so far with summaries and my ratings and impressions of them.

1. Country of My Skull by Antjie Krog

Summary:

Country of My Skull is a 1998 nonfiction book by Antjie Krog about the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It is based on Krog's experience as a radio reporter, covering the Commission from 1996 to 1998 for the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions: Absolutely chilling. Provides a unique insight into South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission and masterfully depicts its shortcomings, contradictions, triumphs and downfalls. Though the book often feels contradictory, the author illuminates an incredible number of nuances and considers her own positionality within the complex task of reporting on the consequences of apartheid. The shortcomings are compensated but he author's hesitation to necessarily answer all of the questions she raises - rather, she allows the reader to sit with them while taking in the events and consequences of the regime. The reportage is frequently interrupted by the author's comments on how this task impacted her and on her own complex identity as a white woman reporting on the Commission. There are violent parts of this that the reader will likely never forget, but that, it seems, everyone should know. Overall, constructs an incredibly full image of the Commission and on South Africa post-apartheid.

2. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass

Summary:

Born a slave circa1818 (slaves weren't told when they were born) on a plantation in Maryland, Douglass taught himself to read and write. In 1845, seven years after escaping to the North, he published Narrative, the first of three autobiographies. This book calmly but dramatically recounts the horrors and the accomplishments of his early years—the daily, casual brutality of the white masters; his painful efforts to educate himself; his decision to find freedom or die; and his harrowing but successful escape.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions: An incredible story of an ex-slave, who, while enslaved, employed all of his wit and strength to learn to read and write and, eventually, liberated himself. A disturbing and incredibly important depiction of the chilling horrors of slavery, which, in its time, compelled a massive amount of readers and anti-slavery activists. Douglass masterfully employs various techniques to communicate the evil nature of slavery and the necessity and urgency of its dismantling. He firstly explains in detail how he taught himself to read and write, so as to dismantle any doubts that the narrative is written by someone else. He then spends a considerable amount of time detailing the horrors of slavery he’s witnessed, explicitly focusing on violence, compelling the reader to understand the extent of the regime’s evilness. An important thing to note is that Douglass makes the narrative all the more compelling and realistic by not shying away from focusing the “positive” aspects of his experience too - he mentions that some of his masters were at times kind to him, and outlines the help he received along his journey so as to make his experience more realistic and dispel any doubt the reader might have that it was real. He also comments on religion’s role in justifying and perpetuating slavery, ultimately condemning it as a tool that maintained the evil regime. Douglass eventually became an advisor to Abraham Lincoln and spent his life advocating for the liberation of slaves, and this narrative is an incredibly interesting insight into the details of his life and into the mind of a figure crucial to abolitionism.

3. First Love by Ivan Turgenev

Summary:

This vivid, sensitive tale of adolescent love follows a 16-year-old boy who falls in love with a beautiful, older woman and experiences a whirlwind of changing emotions, from exaltation and jealousy to despair and devotion.

Rating: 7/10

Impressions: Very fast-paced and easy to read. I was a bit thrown off by the lack of justification of every male character's infatuation with the main character's love interest. All plot revolves around these infatuations, but they are not properly explained or justified, which becomes somewhat frustrating. Nevertheless, it was very engaging and hard to put down, and had some interesting twists.

4. Violeta by Isabel Allende

Summary:

Isabel Allende tells the epic story of Violeta del Valle, a woman whose life spans one hundred years and bears witness to the greatest upheavals of the twentieth century. Violeta comes into the world on a stormy day in 1920, the first girl in a family of five boisterous sons. From the start, her life will be marked by extraordinary events, for the ripples of the Great War are still being felt, even as the Spanish flu arrives on the shores of her South American homeland almost at the moment of her birth. Through her father's prescience, the family will come through that crisis unscathed, only to face a new one as the Great Depression transforms the genteel city life she has known… Violeta’s life will be shaped by some of the most important events of history: the fight for women's rights, the rise and fall of tyrants, and, ultimately, not one but two pandemics.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions: A compelling story, painting an effective fictionalized history of what is most likely Chile through intimate moments of one woman's life. At times felt too on the nose, describing regimes and world events and their repercussions on this country in a somewhat redundant way, but was, because of this, very accessible. The choice to tell the story through the format of letters resulted in some monotony, but this made sense in the context of telling the story of one long life and often felt like a real memoir. Some characters, especially female ones, tended to lack enough distinguishing characteristics and blended together because of this, but there were many that were constructed with great detail and felt very unique. Ultimately, this novel was hard to put down and despite much challenging subject matter, was a pleasure to read.

5. Diary of a Lunatic by Leo Tolstoy

Summary:

"Diary of a Lunatic" by Leo Tolstoy was written in 1884. According to literary critic Janko Lavrin, in August, 1869, Tolstoy travelled from Nizhny Novgorod to the Penza district and slept overnight in the town of Arzamas. But he couldn't sleep, and was overwhelmed with a maddening fear of death.

Rating: 7/10

Impressions: Well-written, a great depiction of a panic disorder, and provides an interesting insight into how they were treated in the 19th century. The language is very focused and the main character is very compelling. Feels somewhat unfinished, though, and could have been longer and expanded on some of its ideas and plot points.

6. Stoner by John Williams

Summary:

William Stoner is born at the end of the nineteenth century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces a scholar’s life, so different from the hardscrabble existence he has known. And yet as the years pass, Stoner encounters a succession of disappointments: marriage into a “proper” family estranges him from his parents; his career is stymied; his wife and daughter turn coldly away from him; a transforming experience of new love ends under threat of scandal. Driven ever deeper within himself, Stoner rediscovers the stoic silence of his forebears and confronts an essential solitude.

Rating: 9.5/10

Impressions: A beautifully crafted story. It depicts William Stoner’s life from start to finish, and is seemingly simple, merely outlining all of its unremarkable events, and yet it was very hard to put down. Stoner is an existential figure, whose faint attempts to harness happiness are met by resistance at every turn. Every time he manages to carve out a place for himself in the world, this place is somehow corrupted and he complacently returns to his dim and habitual existence. At times he resists this complacency and stoically stands up for his desires, but, in the grand scheme of things, lives a life full of taken-away opportunities, loss, and abiding by others’ wishes. So rich with fully developed themes, presenting a disturbingly realistic story full of incredibly intimate moments. The perseverance of Stoner, curiously coupled with his complacency as the few things that had ever brought him real happiness kept being taken away from him, made me incredibly sad. What perseveres is Stoner’s beautifully described love for literature, a sort of light in the storm (or, rather, a monotonous ripple) of disappointment and loss.

"Dispassionately, reasonably, he contemplated the failure that his life must appear to be. ... He had dreamed of a kind of integrity, of a kind of purity that was entire; he had found compromise and the assaulting diversion of triviality. He had conceived wisdom, and at the end of the long years he had found ignorance. And what else? he thought. What else? What did you expect? he asked himself.”

7. White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Summary:

Set in St. Petersburg, it is the story of a young man fighting his inner restlessness. A light and tender narrative, it delves into the torment and guilt of unrequited love. Both protagonists suffer from a deep sense of alienation that initially brings them together. A blend of romanticism and realism, the story appeals gently to the senses and feelings.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions: Portrays loneliness in a very accurate and special way, simultaneously making the reader sad and comforted. The main character is incredibly compelling and easy to identify with and the writing is exquisite. The end feels somewhat rushed and the reasons for some of the characters’ feelings are underexplained, but, perhaps, on purpose.

8. A Human Being Died That Night by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela

Summary:

A Human Being Died That Night recounts an extraordinary dialogue. Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, a psychologist who grew up in a black South African township, reflects on her interviews with Eugene de Kock, the commanding officer of state-sanctioned death squads under apartheid. Gobodo-Madikizela met with de Kock in Pretoria's maximum-security prison, where he is serving a 212-year sentence for crimes against humanity. In profoundly arresting scenes, Gobodo-Madikizela conveys her struggle with contradictory internal impulses to hold him accountable and to forgive. Ultimately, as she allows us to witness de Kock's extraordinary awakening of conscience, she illuminates the ways in which the encounter compelled her to redefine the value of remorse and the limits of forgiveness.

Rating: 7.5/10

Impressions: Provided a very unique insight into Eugene de Kock, a figure that was central in the brutalities of South Africa’s apartheid regime, and developed a very intriguing discussion of the implications and intricacies of empathy, forgiveness, humanity, good vs. evil, and reconciliation. Quite dense at times - presented its themes and ideas very succinctly, but felt like it could have elaborated on some of them and developed them further. Similarly, there aren’t actually that many instances from the interviews themselves present in the book - rather, most of the book is a sort of wondering about and development of the aforementioned themes, and the plotline of the interviews feels unfinished.

9. Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez

Summary:

Data is fundamental to the modern world. From economic development, to healthcare, to education and public policy, we rely on numbers to allocate resources and make crucial decisions. But because so much data fails to take into account gender, because it treats men as the default and women as atypical, bias and discrimination are baked into our systems. And women pay tremendous costs for this bias, in time, money, and often with their lives. Celebrated feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez investigates the shocking root cause of gender inequality and research in Invisible Women​, diving into women’s lives at home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor’s office, and more. Built on hundreds of studies in the US, the UK, and around the world, and written with energy, wit, and sparkling intelligence, this is a groundbreaking, unforgettable exposé that will change the way you look at the world.

Rating: 9/10

Impressions: A fascinating and enraging illumination of the injustices that result from the gender data gap. Draws on a huge body of knowledge, citing tons of studies and examines the issue from an incredible amount of angles. Inspiring, infuriating, and sassy. Surprisingly, though it did a fantastic job illuminating the various intersectional oppression women experience, there was no mention of transgender women’s experience, which would have been interesting to consider alongside everything else. This might of course have resulted from a lack of sufficient data on those particular experiences. It managed to touch on just about everything else though and came together as a succinct and engaging literature review turned manifesto. Would recommend it to everyone - feels very important to know for a basic understanding of the nuanced injustices that half of the global population experiences and that we have not yet learned to resolve.

10. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Summary:

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect?

Rating: 6/10

Impressions: Engaging, but feels somewhat unfinished and indecisive. The beginning seems to indicate that the book’s central focus will be racial identity, and it is, but it is so heavily overshadowed by family drama that it starts to feel secondary. The timeline and pacing are kind of strange - there are huge chunks missing from characters’ lives, while certain periods are described with overlapping and redundant details. As a result, the narrative feels monotone and repetitive while managing to leave characters and events underdeveloped. The writing also feels lazy at times, since so many of the plot’s key moments rely entirely on characters bumping into each other in huge cities like New York and Los Angeles. The novel itself even seems aware of how unrealistic some of these coincidences are - one chapter begins with a commentary on statistics and probability. Most characters feel very underdeveloped and one-dimensional, somewhat blending together due to lacking unique characteristics. The ending was completely unsatisfying, as though several last pages were just torn out. The character of Stella (notably, one of the two protagonists) was perhaps the most underwhelming part of the entire novel - she completely lacks a character arc and remains indecisive and subdued throughout the turmoil of the novel’s events. Other characters are described as having a deep curiosity about and attachment to her, which is left entirely unexplained, making their motives meaningless. All that being said, it was still engaging enough to read and had a clear aesthetic and narrative style. Where I think it failed is in having a clear stance on racial identity and choosing to pass for white, but as an easy family drama-type of narrative it was compelling.

11. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Summary:

Brave New World is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, inhabited by genetically modified citizens and an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make a dystopian society which is challenged by only a single individual: the story's protagonist.

Rating: 7.5/10

Impressions: There were parts of this that I loved and parts that fell short. The structure of the world is outstanding, every detail is thought-out and developed. However, once the structure is communicated to the reader (in a somewhat expositional manner that nevertheless does work), we don’t see the characters interact with it very much. Many plot points occur within such bland settings as a character’s apartment. As the novel sets up such an intriguing world, I feel like a lot might have been gained from character interactions occurring within it. Weirdly, I was craving for the characters to literally be running through the various elements of the world and more of the plot depending on their altercations with those elements. As a result, the middle part of the novel feels a bit bland. What stands out is the world structure and the intriguing conversation between Mustapha Mond and John. Though the conversation feels somewhat unfinished, apparently (and inevitably, keeping in mind his background) due to John lacking sufficient knowledge to put out better arguments. Confusingly, Mond seems to “win” the conversation, which sends a mixed message for the value of such a world structure, so it might have been beneficial to provide John or somebody from John’s side with more knowledge to challenge Mond. This, of course, might very well have been an intentional choice, demonstrating the systemic unlikeliness of a revolution even among those who disagree with the order. Overall, the world is set up exceptionally, and considering that this novel was written in 1932, it is an outstanding achievement. Furthermore, it differs from other dystopias in that it suggests a society that is motivated by pleasure and contentment as opposed to pain and suffering, presenting an intriguing alternative. What lacks is the characters exploring, or, for lack of a better word, playing with the incredibly detailed world that is set up.

12. Mother to Mother by Sindiwe Magona

Summary:

Sindiwe Magona's novel Mother to Mother explores the South African legacy of apartheid through the lens of a woman who remembers a life marked by oppression and injustice. The book is based on this real-life incident, and takes the form of an epistle to Amy Biehl's mother. The murderer's mother, Mandisi, writes about her life, the life of her child, and the colonized society that not only allowed, but perpetuated violence against women and impoverished black South Africans under the reign of apartheid. The result is not an apology for the murder, but a beautifully written exploration of the society that bred such violence.

Rating: 7/10

Impressions: A very thought-provoking discussion of the nature of responsibility for murder in apartheid South Africa and of oppression that women experienced during it. Weirdly, it often felt unedited with some very awkward phrasing and uneven pacing, but the themes of the novel were very thoroughly developed. It felt very philosophical at times and seemed to confront the tendency to villainize individuals for committing crimes within a humanitarian crisis.

13. Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin

Summary:

Set in the post-martial-law era of late 1980s Taipei, Notes of a Crocodile depicts the coming-of-age of a group of queer misfits discovering love, friendship, and artistic affinity while hardly studying at Taiwan's most prestigious university. Told through the eyes of an anonymous lesbian narrator nicknamed Lazi, Qiu Miaojin's cult classic novel is a postmodern pastiche of diaries, vignettes, mash notes, aphorisms, exegesis, and satire by an incisive prose stylist and countercultural icon. Bursting with the optimism of newfound liberation and romantic idealism despite corroding innocence, Notes of a Crocodile is a poignant and intimate masterpiece of social defiance by a singular voice in contemporary Chinese literature.

Rating: 6/10

Impressions: Written as a series of diary entries from 1980s Taipei, this book depicts the struggles of being rejected by society due to sexual orientation and gender identity. Though the narrative itself was not particularly enticing, it masterfully unpacks the ways in which oppressed groups embody oppression and become alienated, and how this, in turn, can lead to them harming themselves and others. It makes its point well, but is quite repetitive at times, and some of the characters feel underdeveloped.

14. Sovereignty by Mary Kathryn Nagle

Summary:

A direct descendant of nineteenth-century Cherokee leaders John Ridge and Major Ridge, Mary Kathryn Nagle has penned a play that twists and turns from violent outbursts to healing monologues, illuminating a provocative double meaning for the sovereignty of both tribal territory and women’s bodies. Taking as its point of departure the story of one lawyer’s passionate defense of the rights of her people to prosecute non-natives who commit crimes on reservations, Sovereignty opens up into an expansive exploration of the circular continuity of history, human memory, and the power of human relationships.

Rating: 7.5/10

Impressions: Contains a ton of information on the history of Indigenous repression and points out how this repression intersects with other identities and creates further inequality. Set in two time periods with excellent parallels between the two, which demonstrates the ongoing legacy of the repression. Some relationships and plot points are underdeveloped and do not match the characters, which feels convenient and unjustified, but otherwise a great play.

15. Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner

Summary:

Adam Gordon is a brilliant, if highly unreliable, young American poet on a prestigious fellowship in Madrid, struggling to establish his sense of self and his relationship to art. What is actual when our experiences are mediated by language, technology, medication, and the arts? Is poetry an essential art form, or merely a screen for the reader's projections? Instead of following the dictates of his fellowship, Adam’s "research" becomes a meditation on the possibility of the genuine in the arts and beyond: are his relationships with the people he meets in Spain as fraudulent as he fears his poems are? A witness to the 2004 Madrid train bombings and their aftermath, does he participate in historic events or merely watch them pass him by? In prose that veers between the comic and tragic, the self-contemptuous and the inspired, Leaving the Atocha Station is a portrait of the artist as a young man in an age of Google searches, pharmaceuticals, and spectacle.

Rating: 9/10

Impressions: Hilarious, ironic, perceptive, and clever. A semi-autobiographical account of a poetry fellowship in Madrid and all of the struggles and contradictions it entails. Adam is simultaneously unlikeable and relatable, his misdirected meanderings through Spain, which entail everything but writing poetry, perfectly mirror his own struggles with the genre. The book exemplifies some of the debates in the field, such as that of whether or not poetry actually *does* anything, but is simultaneously a very relaxing and enjoyable read. Requires some lowering of expectations for Adam and letting go of the idea of discussing poetry in a pompous way, after which the book can be taken at face value as a satire on the kinds of conversations scholars are engaged in, while still being a worthy discussion of these conversations!

16. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Summary:

Written in Greek by the only Roman emperor who was also a philosopher, without any intention of publication, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius offer a remarkable series of challenging spiritual reflections and exercises developed as the emperor struggled to understand himself and make sense of the universe. While the Meditations were composed to provide personal consolation and encouragement, Marcus Aurelius also created one of the greatest of all works of philosophy: a timeless collection that has been consulted and admired by statesmen, thinkers and readers throughout the centuries.

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions: Though written as disconnected introspective reflections, there is a very clear tone and the text flows very naturally and turns out to be an engaging sort of chain of mantras. The advice that Marcus Aurelius wrote for himself is incredibly relevant even today, and serves as a good reminder of significant ways of improving one’s life, without sounding like a self-help book. The only downfall, and this might be a result of centuries of ideas being built on this work, is that the reader is likely to have heard most of these ideas before. Due to this, the text reads as a series of eloquently phrased reminders, more than anything truly revolutionary. It is nevertheless very important to read to gain context of similar and numerous trains of thought and perspectives.

17. Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Summary:

In an isolated castle deep in the Austrian forest, Laura leads a solitary life with only her ailing father for company. Until one moonlit night, a horse-drawn carriage crashes into view, carrying an unexpected guest – the beautiful Carmilla. So begins a feverish friendship between Laura and her mysterious, entrancing companion. But as Carmilla becomes increasingly strange and volatile, prone to eerie nocturnal wanderings, Laura finds herself tormented by nightmares and growing weaker by the day… Pre-dating Dracula by twenty-six years, Carmilla is the original vampire story, steeped in sexual tension and gothic romance.

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions: Multi-layered, provocative, and ambiguous trail-blazing gothic vampire story. Very interesting to read to get acquainted with early vampire works, but also simply for the stylistic elements and the complex dimensions of this story. Expertly comments on homoerotic relationships, gender, and class inequality, while simultaneously constructing an incredibly compelling and scary story.

18. Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad by M.R. James

Summary:

When Professor Parkins finds an old whistle, his stay at Globe Inn takes a turn for the eerie.

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions: Simple on the surface, this novella masterfully constructs an incredibly scary narrative and significantly comments on repressed homoerotic desire and the consequences of this repression in the context of gothic literature. One of the most haunting stories and undoubtedly the scariest I’ve ever read, and it manages to achieve this scary factor with its storytelling and implication of the reader.

19. Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Summary:

From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change forever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans. In Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro looks at our rapidly changing modern world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator to explore a fundamental question: what does it mean to love?

Rating: 3/10

Impressions: Incredibly underwhelming and disappointing. The sentence structure was irritatingly simple and lacked the flourish Ishiguro’s other works are known for. The characters felt very one-dimensional and had little redeeming qualities, so I did not feel attached to any of them. Most of the plot hinges on every character feeling very deeply for a character named Josie, but she is portrayed as an incredibly self-involved and entitled girl that has 0 interest in anything, so the characters’ motivations are unclear. Josie, in turn, feels very strongly for her IF Klara, who is also incredibly one-dimensional and underwhelming. The events of the novel are extremely repetitive and underwhelming, with high-stakes situations resolving out of the blue in an incredibly easy way, which is frustrating and renders the biggest plot points meaningless. The novel seems to try to bring in multiple themes such as environmental concerns, but they too are resolved and end so quickly and easily that they feel like add-ons and are actually quite tone-deaf. Overall, this novel was incredibly repetitive, frustrating, resolved its main challenge way too easily, failed to develop any suspense or make any of its characters appealing, and generally was very difficult to get through.

20. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Summary:

Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now? Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career. Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions: This book did a phenomenal job with conveying the atmosphere of the golden age of Hollywood - the plot, the language, the characters were all working toward creating this unique tone. The characters felt dynamic and the format of the interview/memoir did not get repetitive. It had a lot to say about gender and race issues, private and public life, sexuality, and the intersection of all of these themes. The only complaint would be that it didn’t seem like it added anything particularly new to these topics, but it definitely constructed a very engaging story and worked all of these topics into it in a way that felt natural, educational, and enticing. Overall, this is just a very solid, well-written book, and a real gem for getting an insight into the atmosphere of the golden age of Hollywood.

21. The Library Window by Margaret Oliphant

Summary:

Ostensibly a ghost story, The Library Window is also an exploration of what is real and what is not, or, as the author says, A Story of the Seen and Unseen. Its protagonist is fascinated by a window at her aunt's house in which she sees the ghost of a young, murdered writer.

Rating: 7.5/10

Impressions: Very contained, which adds to the claustrophobic tone of the main character’s experience. Interesting metaphors that serve as social commentary on the oppression experienced by women of the Victorian era. Seemingly simple, it is actually very focused and economical and delivers a very clear message. Feels like a counterpart to The Yellow Wallpaper.

22. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Summary:

In the summer of 1956, Stevens, a long-serving butler at Darlington Hall, decides to take a motoring trip through the West Country. The six-day excursion becomes a journey into the past of Stevens and England, a past that takes in fascism, two world wars, and an unrealized love between the butler and his housekeeper.

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions: Exquisitely written, some sentences just catch you off guard. Feels like an incredibly atmospheric ode to the vast and great stretches of the English countryside and a life dedicated to maintaining magnificent tradition. Written in a very grandiose and dignified manner, mirroring the life of the main character and the importance he believes his life and employment to have carried. Beautiful discussion of missed chances and life paths that were not taken, and whether or not it is worth dwelling on them. Reading this soon after Klara and the Sun makes me wonder whether Ishiguro has tricked all of us and is actually several different people with totally different writing styles, all masquerading as one frontman.

23. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Summary:

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet fishing village. Kya Clark is barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when the popular Chase Andrews is found dead, locals immediately suspect her. But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life's lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world—until the unthinkable happens. In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a profound coming of age story and haunting mystery. Owens’s debut novel explores how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman, who like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures.

Rating: 7/10

Impressions: Kind of conflicted about this one. Kya is a very appealing protagonist and her life in the marsh - her learning from it, interacting with it, living off of it - is very educational and captivating. The descriptions of first loves are also very well done, as well as their clashes with traumas inflicted by neglect and abuse. The author very effectively develops the storyline of growing up in isolation while having a natural craving for society, and how society unjustly rejects and stigmatises against recluses. Overall, the writing was very good. However, this novel had two glaring problems for me. Firstly, about three quarters of the way through, it seems to switch genres, suddenly resembling a courtroom drama, which has a quick and underwhelming ending that falls flat after the vitality of the first three quarters. The two parts don’t seem to fit together and, without Kya demonstrating much action in the second one, the ending feels disappointing. The author also plays the frustrating game of not telling the reader the answer to the central question of whether or not Kya is a murderer, despite otherwise allowing us access to ALL of her thoughts. Secondly, the novel’s female characters (aside from Kya) are surprisingly one-dimensional and passive. One is written in an incredibly stereotypical way, and the other one I expected to become an influential character as the novel progressed, because she is very much impacted by its events, but she is mysteriously absent and non-reactive. This was an unpleasant surprise, especially as for so much of the novel male characters one-sidedly and often negatively impact Kya’s life. The novel seems to have a good opportunity to write much more engaging secondary female characters, but, sadly, does not take it. Ultimately, and perhaps unintentionally, this results in a cringey perspective on gender inequality, as Kya just experiences alternating abuse and assistance from male characters… With a differently written last quarter, and with stronger secondary female characters, this book would be incredible.

24. Candide by Voltaire

Summary:

Candide is the story of a gentle man who, though pummeled and slapped in every direction by fate, clings desperately to the belief that he lives in "the best of all possible worlds." On the surface a witty, bantering tale, this eighteenth-century classic is actually a savage, satiric thrust at the philosophical optimism that proclaims that all disaster and human suffering is part of a benevolent cosmic plan. Fast, funny, often outrageous, the French philosopher's immortal narrative takes Candide around the world to discover that -- contrary to the teachings of his distinguished tutor Dr. Pangloss -- all is not always for the best. Alive with wit, brilliance, and graceful storytelling, Candide has become Voltaire's most celebrated work.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions: Despite being written in the 18th century, this book is very funny and entertaining. Packed with dark humour, adventures, and philosophy, it takes the reader on a journey along with Candide, who must learn that there is no underlying reason for injustices, and that his life is not the best possible world. Essentially a commentary on blind faith and optimism, the book is just a very enjoyable read, managing to pull very funny jokes out of some very dark subject matter.

25. The Kukotsky Enigma by Lyudmila Ulitskaya

Summary:

The central character in Lyudmila Ulitskaya’s celebrated novel The Kukotsky Enigma is a gynecologist contending with Stalin’s prohibition of abortions in 1936. But, in the tradition of Russia’s great family novels, the story encompasses the history of two families and unfolds in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the ruins of ancient civilizations on the Black Sea. Their lives raise profound questions about family heritage and genetics, nurture and nature, and life and death. In his struggle to maintain his professional integrity and to keep his work from dividing his family, Kukotsky confronts the moral complexity of reproductive science.

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions: Really loved this book. It sets the mood of Stalin’s rule very well, and provides a lot of very interesting information on those times. It manages to comment on so much - abortion bans in the Soviet Union, religion, young love, existentialism, human connection, self-realization… The characters are very well-developed and engaging, so this is a very human sort of read. At times felt like it needed more editing - the same thought would be expressed in slightly different ways twice throughout the same paragraph. In general, it felt like it could have been about one hundred pages shorter, as some sections were quite repetitive without adding much to the plot and character developments. As well, the part of the novel that concerned Elena’s dream-like state and visions felt like it really stood out from the rest of the novel. It’s as though the story suddenly becomes something else entirely before switching back to its original tone and narrative, so this felt like a very odd choice. It also did not add much to the book in my opinion, and I really had to push myself to get through it. Had to look ahead to make sure the narrative would eventually go back to its original format, and kept reading for that reason. Aside from that, this is a great book, hard to put down and full of very nostalgic sorts of details.

26. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Summary:

Acclaimed by many as the world's greatest novel, Anna Karenina provides a vast panorama of contemporary life in Russia and of humanity in general. In it Tolstoy uses his intense imaginative insight to create some of the most memorable characters in all of literature. Anna is a sophisticated woman who abandons her empty existence as the wife of Karenin and turns to Count Vronsky to fulfil her passionate nature - with tragic consequences. Levin is a reflection of Tolstoy himself, often expressing the author's own views and convictions.

Rating: 7/10

Impressions: This novel certainly does a lot of reflection on human nature, religion, morality, and identity. It’s a bit intimidating at first, with so many central characters to keep track of. There isn’t much of a plot, and a joking review I saw somewhere of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice comes to mind: “Just a bunch of people going to each others’ houses”... Instead of action, there are lengthy conversations between the many characters, so that each of them ends up being very fleshed out and has plenty of depth. Surprisingly, about halfway through the novel, things get very repetitive and it feels like some of the character developments just stop. There are times where two consecutive chapters essentially have the same plot or moral, so that the second one doesn’t contribute anything new. This has a particular impact on Anna’s character, which ends up having a weird imbalance, in that for most of the book (or, at least, so it seems), she is in a perpetual state of unrest and disbalance. The reader is not given enough time to learn of her uniqueness and special characteristics, before she is plunged into a state of tragedy that is expected to make the reader feel sorry for her. The writing is excellent, however, so the reader does feel sorry for her, but this feeling is not rooted enough, and therefore doesn’t have a full effect. The repetitiveness of some of the topics and even events and conversations in the second half of the novel is perhaps its biggest weakness for me. The second half felt like a sequel to a fantastic movie that comes out 2 years after the first one and flops magnificently. Otherwise (though this is mostly referring to the first half) it is a very monumental work in terms of commentary on morality and human nature, and feels like a must read, even if it can be hard to get through at times.

27. What is Art? by Leo Tolstoy

Summary:

During the decades of his world fame as sage & preacher as well as author of War & Peace & Anna Karenina, Tolstoy wrote prolifically in a series of essays & polemics on issues of morality, social justice & religion. These culminated in What is Art?, published in 1898. Although Tolstoy perceived the question of art to be a religious one, he considered & rejected the idea that art reveals & reinvents through beauty. The works of Dante, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Baudelaire & even his own novels are condemned in the course of Tolstoy's impassioned & iconoclastic redefinition of art as a force for good, for the improvement of humankind.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions: Intentionally or not, this book is a funny sort of roast of whatever Tolstoy believed to be worthless works masquerading as art. He clearly had some very harsh and absolutist opinions, and whether or not the reader agrees with them, it’s very interesting to get an insight into his point of view. He also provides a very efficient overview of other notable writers’ and philosophers’ opinions on what art is and which works can be considered art, which contextualizes his own ideas and is very educational. He discusses aesthetics, duplication, style, modernity and classics, and the role of the audience in distinguishing real art. A great balance of education and (intentional or unintentional, it’s not clear) humour.

28. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Summary:

A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance and silence. Through a series of letters spanning twenty years, first from Celie to God, then the sisters to each other despite the unknown, the novel draws readers into its rich and memorable portrayals of Celie, Nettie, Shug Avery and Sofia and their experience. The Color Purple broke the silence around domestic and sexual abuse, narrating the lives of women through their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience and bravery. Deeply compassionate and beautifully imagined, Alice Walker's epic carries readers on a spirit-affirming journey towards redemption and love.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions: A few words that come to mind to describe this book are blunt, resilient, vulnerable, wounded, and unyielding. It has an unwavering approach to describing the atrocities that Black people, in particular women, faced, but balances this out with constantly portraying resilience and unity within the characters. I’m a bit conflicted about the narration style, which is made up entirely of letters. It kind of made me care less about the events, since they are relayed in a very cold and monotone style, but also played well into this notion of how *regular* this pain and abuse are for these people… I think I would have preferred it not to be in the letters style, because I found that the events didn’t feel as immediate as they otherwise would have, and the characters felt a little bit cold. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but that was the impression I had of the entire book, even though the characters are extremely vulnerable… There was just some sort of barrier around them, and my best guess is that this is because of the letter narration style. Nevertheless this was a powerful read and showed a lot of nuances and differences of the Black experience. For instance, it shows the (somewhat unknown?) voyage to Africa done by Black missionaries, which I had not seen in any other novel before. Overall, this was moving, but somehow simultaneously a bit cold.

29. The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Summary:

Embellished with the author's lyrical prose, here is the story of Harvard-educated, aspiring aesthete Anthony Patch and his beautiful wife, Gloria. As they await the inheritance of his grandfather's fortune, their reckless marriage sways under the influence of alcohol and avarice. A devastating look at the nouveau riche, and the New York nightlife, as well as the ruinous effects of wild ambition, The Beautiful and the Damned achieved stature as one of Fitzgerald's most accomplished novels. Its distinction as a classic endures to this day.

Rating: 6/10

Impressions: What this book does incredibly well is communicate the tone of its time and the lifestyle of America’s elite. The characters are created very well and really work toward creating this atmosphere of gradually spoiling values and prosperity. On the other hand, these same characters really lack any redeeming qualities, which makes it impossible for the reader to feel any sympathy toward them and makes them seem unrealistic. I feel like Fitzgerald’s points would have hit home all the more strongly if the characters had glimmers of humanity that shone through in parts of the novel. Instead, we endure their vainness and self-centered tendencies for the entire book, and don’t see any depth to them that could probably lead their hardships to cause us sadness. Finally, what really stood out to me is that this novel seems to make its point in its very first chapters, really just by introducing us to the characters and the positions they occupy in society. After that, it proceeds to make the same point over and over again, without really adding anything new or showing any real character development. The ending is therefore quite frustrating and makes the experience of reading the entire book seem kind of pointless. We just get to watch as the main characters get more and more worn out by their blind self-righteousness and contempt for everything around them that doesn’t fit their mould of a good life, and at the end they do not learn anything. As a whole, the book definitely makes a point and is an excellent window into that generation and place, but could have either been much much shorter, or developed into other directions.

30. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Summary:

Piranesi’s house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house. There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.

Rating: 7/10

Impressions: Incredibly atmospheric and descriptive. It starts out super slowly and gradually creates a world that expands as the main character tells us more about it and explores it more himself. It is very satisfying to experience its development in this way. In a way though, this book felt a bit rushed. It has a cool premise, but it gets resolved way too quickly and easily, without us seeing the main character interact with the world more. This book feels like the first third and the ending of a book that has its two middle thirds missing and that needs to revise its ending a bit. Really wish we could have seen more characters and the main character go through more adventures and plot points. As it stands, this plot just feels like stuff that happens to the main character, and more quickly than he himself puzzles things together, which is a bit frustrating and makes the ending feel unsatisfying after the big reveal is explained. However, this was probably the most atmospheric book I read this year, and has a very enticing idea that I just wish was more developed.

31. Ignorance by Milan Kundera

Summary:

A man and a woman meet by chance while returning to their homeland, which they had abandoned twenty years earlier when they had chosen to become exiles. Will they manage to pick up the thread of their strange love story, interrupted almost as soon as it began and then lost in the tides of history? The truth is that after such a long absence "their memories no longer match." We always believe that our memories coincide with those of the person we loved, that we experienced the same thing. But this is just an illusion.

Rating: 7/10

Impressions: This book had a lot of moments that were very well-written, and I found myself re-reading certain paragraphs and sentences. Somehow, though, the characters felt sort of undeveloped and the entire narrative felt very surface-level, so I didn’t feel very connected to the book. It did convey the complicated nature of returning to a homeland that one doesn’t really belong to since abandoning it for a “better” life somewhere else, though, so in that sense it felt important. I can’t entirely understand why it didn’t touch me as much as it could have, it just felt kind of cold.

32. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Summary: A Gentleman in Moscow immerses us in another elegantly drawn era with the story of Count Alexander Rostov. When, in 1922, he is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the count is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him a doorway into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

Rating: 9/10

Impressions:

This book seems to be controversial, because it relayed the events of Russia’s and the USSR’s oppression inaccurately. I think it bothers a lot of readers, because it is unrealistic, and, in that sense, does not do justice to the repressions of those times. Specifically in this case, however, this was not a problem for me. On a few occasions throughout the light tone of this text, the author gets serious and recounts details of the oppressions, which indicates that he is aware of them, but nevertheless chose to write this story in an almost fairytale-like style. He creates a warm, light world that feels separate from the oppressions, while clearly being aware of them, which I found very valuable, since not many novels like this one exist. The whole thing has the atmosphere of a Christmas Morning, with the recurring themes of perseverance, adaptation, friendships, and life purpose in the face of captivity. The main character is uniquely endearing and likeable, and really holds the reader’s attention, and the various stories that he lives through feel like a fun adventure book. The world of the Metropole hotel, in which the main character is forced to live under house arrest, becomes a sort of light bubble that’s separate from the dark world outside. Of course, many things are unrealistic, but it feels very valuable to get this kind of book about these particular times, if it is first established that the author is well-educated on the real events.

33. A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen

Summary: The play concerns the fate of a married woman, who at the time in Norway lacked reasonable opportunities for self-fulfillment in a male-dominated world, despite the fact that Ibsen denied it was his intent to write a feminist play. It was a great sensation at the time,and caused a "storm of outraged controversy" that went beyond the theatre to the world of newspapers and society.

Rating: 7.5/10

Impressions:

Reading this after working on another one of Ibsen’s plays, Hedda Gabler, was a bit strange, because the plays are very similar. Hedda Gabler was published a year or two after A Doll’s House and feels like it sort of builds on it. Still, the two plays follow a very similar format, with similar characters, settings, and concerns. Hedda Gabler feels more dramatic and grandiose, as it concerns breaking free of gender and societal restrictions to find true beauty and strength. The main storyline of A Doll’s House is about a woman named Nora who comes to realize that she lacks purpose and channels for self-realization, while living under the care of a husband who treats her like a doll. The entire play leading up to this realization feels somewhat unsatisfying, perhaps resembling a prolonged first act of a bigger play. This play does seem to have paved the way for Hedda Gabler in many ways, because its main character Hedda already has the self-awareness Nora lacked from the very beginning, and the play generally feels fuller than A Doll’s House, though some of its characters very closely resemble those of the first play. If reading Ibsen’s plays, I would recommend reading these two in the order they were published, which can make for an interesting observation of Ibsen’s own process.

34. If This Isn’t Nice, What Is? by Kurt Vonnegut

Summary:Master storyteller and satirist Kurt Vonnegut was one of the most in-demand commencement speakers of his time. For each occasion, Vonnegut's words were unfailingly unique, insightful, and witty, and they stayed with audience members long after graduation. At times hilarious, razor-sharp, freewheeling, and deeply serious, these reflections are ideal for anyone undergoing what Vonnegut would call their “long-delayed puberty ceremony”—marking the passage from student to full-time adult.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions:

This book is perfect for that post-university identity crisis slump. It’s a collection of Vonnegut’s commencement ceremony speeches, and it’s half advice to new graduates and half his own reflections on life. He manages to be simultaneously cynical and uplifting, and incredibly charming the entire time. This is sharp, endearing, and hilarious, really worth a read even for those who didn’t just graduate university.

35. Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

Summary: In this seductive, wistful masterpiece, Capote created a woman whose name has entered the American idiom and whose style is a part of the literary landscape—her poignancy, wit, and naïveté continue to charm. It's New York in the 1940s, where the martinis flow from cocktail hour till breakfast at Tiffany's... And nice girls don't, except, of course, Holly Golightly. Pursued by Mafia gangsters and playboy millionaires, Holly is a fragile eyeful of tawny hair and turned-up nose, a heart-breaker, a perplexer, a traveler, a tease. She is irrepressibly 'top banana in the shock department', and one of the shining flowers of American fiction.

Rating: 7.5/10

Impressions:

It’s very hard to judge this book without comparing it to the film adaptation, which definitely knocks down the score for it… In the adaptation, Holly is incredibly charming, while in the book her character simply relies on shock value and is quite rude. Her relationships hinge on maintaining the promise of eventually sleeping with her, which somehow felt much more diluted in the movie, where she in general seemed much more dynamic. It really feels like the movie’s screenwriter and director saw the potential that was in Holly and developed it much more than the book achieves to. The movie then really supplements the book, and, as rare as it might be, feels stronger to me. It manages to capture her free-spirited side much more than the book does, because the book sort of makes it seem like it’s a very big burden for Holly to be free-spirited, as though in defiance of her past and origins. In the movie, she is portrayed as free-spirited by nature, with some anchoring circumstances. It’s interesting though, that most of the book (being as short as it is) made it into the movie, with the movie just being a bit more developed. So it’s clear that the book has very strong bones that the adaptation built on. Without comparing the two, the book doesn’t shine as brightly, but I think it’s a great read because it’s short, does have a unique character, and is very interesting to think about in terms of successful adaptations.

36. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende

Summary: In one of the most important and beloved Latin American works of the twentieth century, Isabel Allende weaves a luminous tapestry of three generations of the Trueba family, revealing both triumphs and tragedies. Here is patriarch Esteban, whose wild desires and political machinations are tempered only by his love for his ethereal wife, Clara, a woman touched by an otherworldly hand. Their daughter, Blanca, whose forbidden love for a man Esteban has deemed unworthy infuriates her father, yet will produce his greatest joy: his granddaughter Alba, a beautiful, ambitious girl who will lead the family and their country into a revolutionary future. The House of the Spirits is an enthralling saga that spans decades and lives, twining the personal and the political into an epic novel of love, magic, and fate.

Rating: 9/10

Impressions:

This novel really felt epic and was probably the best balanced combination of historical fiction, personal character stories, and magical realism. The narrative flowed really well, I caught myself forgetting that this was fiction, because it really felt like the author somehow spent three-four generations with a family and wrote down what she saw. The events progressed very naturally, and, combined with the excellently handled historical fiction aspect of this book, really felt real. The trouble with historical fiction seems to be that the history aspect is either overlooked or given too much attention, either overshadowing the personal character aspects, or becoming really unnoticeable next to them. This novel handles this balance perfectly. The historical background is not too overbearing, but ends up driving many plot points, as history does, so it feels very natural. It is also quite educational, especially toward the end, where it actually gets difficult to get through because of the difficult subject matter, but by that point the writing and the characters really carry the reader until the end. The magical realism similarly does not feel overbearing, because it really feels like it follows rules and is contained to one character. It therefore becomes a character trait like any other, and does not stand out too much. In general, this book feels like it should be studied to learn about the correct handling of these balances, because it is done extraordinarily well. The story itself and the characters are also very compelling and engaging, so the book is worth reading even just for these aspects. My only issue with the book was that in its first half its pacing felt a bit sluggish and the narrative got a bit repetitive about one third of the way through. The pacing and the events really pick up in the second half of the book though, so that really was not my final impression of it. Overall, this felt incredibly powerful and was the best mix of personal character stories, historical fiction, and magical realism.

37. Medea and Her Children by Lyudmila Ulitskaya

Summary: Medea Georgievna Sinoply Mendez is an iconic figure in her Crimean village, the last remaining pure-blooded Greek in a family that has lived on that coast for centuries. Childless Medea is the touchstone of a large family, which gathers each spring and summer at her home. In this single summer, the languor of love will permeate the Crimean air, hearts will be broken, and old memories will float to consciousness, allowing us to experience not only the shifting currents of erotic attraction and competition, but also the dramatic saga of this family amid the forces of dislocation, war, and upheaval of twentieth-century Russian life.

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions:

Really really warm and personal book, the author constructs each character with such nuance and depth that I really got lost in them. I didn’t necessarily see any big metaphors or symbols in this book (though it does seem to be rethinking the narrative of the traditional family), but I found that I wasn’t craving those at all, because the individual character stories and explorations really drew me in. The only downside with that is that I developed preferences for some characters over others and found myself wanting to speed through some chapters to get back to my favourite characters, but even with that this book was really really good.

38. A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov

Summary: In its adventurous happenings, its abductions, duels, and sexual intrigues, A Hero of Our Time looks backward to the tales of Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron, so beloved by Russian society in the 1820s and '30s. In the character of its protagonist, Pechorin, the archetypal Russian antihero, Lermontov's novel looks forward to the subsequent glories and passion of Russian literature that it helped, in great measure, to make possible.

Rating: 7.5/10

Impressions:

This was interesting to read because despite some dated elements, this book still resonates today, especially in the context of more conversations about colonialism. That aspect of the story aside, the main character was very compelling, as he’s a very ironic and sort of contrasted version of a typical hero, which flips a lot of tropes on their heads. There is something very intriguing about his mix of introspection and wickedness, and this makes the story intriguing, because, though the reader does not care for him per se, he is disarming in many ways. The pacing and descriptions did drag the story for me a little bit, but it feels like an essential one to read nevertheless.

39. The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells

Summary: This masterpiece of science fiction is the fascinating story of Griffin, a scientist who creates a serum to render himself invisible, and his descent into madness that follows.

Rating: 5.5/10

Impressions:

This was a bit frustrating because for the most part this book is very repetitive. The first two thirds of it consist of residents of the town Griffin stays in gradually realizing that he is invisible and then choosing to hunt him down, but most of the scenes are almost identical, which wastes a lot of time. Surprisingly, the most exciting events of the book - the actual process of discovering the invisibility serum - are *told* by Griffin to his friend, whereas what happens in real time are the townspeople’s reactions, which is a strange choice because this is much less interesting. What really stood out was some of the unexpected experiences Griffin had due to being invisible, like finding it hard to descend a staircase without seeing his feet. Details like this one were surprisingly nice, but the rest of the book felt really uneven and repetitive.

40. Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin

Summary: "There's no way not to suffer. But you try all kinds of ways to keep from drowning in it." The men and women in these eight short fictions grasp this truth on an elemental level, and their stories, as told by James Baldwin, detail the ingenious and often desperate ways in which they try to keep their head above water. It may be the heroin that a down-and-out jazz pianist uses to face the terror of pouring his life into an inanimate instrument. It may be the brittle piety of a father who can never forgive his son for his illegitimacy. Or it may be the screen of bigotry that a redneck deputy has raised to blunt the awful childhood memory of the day his parents took him to watch a black man being murdered by a gleeful mob. By turns haunting, heartbreaking, and horrifying--and informed throughout by Baldwin's uncanny knowledge of the wounds racism has left in both its victims and its perpetrators--Going to Meet the Man is a major work by one of our most important writers.

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions:

This collection of short stories really feels like an eruption of the Black experience in all its nuances and details. They’re all quite different, allowing for a great scope of perspectives, and each one is loaded with introspection and charged responses to the outside world. The order of the short stories is interesting. Apparently they are more or less arranged in order of when Baldwin wrote them, which allows the reader insight into the development of his writing. There is also a somewhat chronological age progression, as the first three stories center around kids, who witness adult characters, and the rest of the stories are told from the perspective of adults. This choice is interesting because naturally the child characters are less aware and introspective of their experiences, so the reader is able to witness how this introspection grows for Black people as they age and learn more about themselves and the injustices they are subjected to. In that sense, it feels as though, even within the constraints of short stories, we are able to watch the progression of the Black experience through age. In general, this collection just feels like a howl of pain and love and finding one’s place in a world that is structured to exclude it, and it’s very beautifully written and curated.

41. A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman

Summary: A grumpy yet loveable man finds his solitary world turned on its head when a boisterous young family moves in next door. Meet Ove. He's a curmudgeon, the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him the bitter neighbor from hell, but must Ove be bitter just because he doesn't walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time? Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove's mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents' association to their very foundations.

Rating: 4/10

Impressions: Based on this book’s high score on Goodreads, I think I’m somewhat in a minority for not liking it. This book felt like it was written for children. Its characters felt incredibly cartoonish and one-dimensional, and the subject matter somehow felt like a Christmas commercial, with the grumpy main character learning to like life through his uninteresting encounters with disappointing characters. The plot was also very frustrating, much of it just being iterations of the same thing over and over again with slight changes. Ove is depicted as incredibly bitter throughout his whole life, to the point of being rude and failing to grasp basic social cues, which is a gag that also appears over and over, without the narrative actually committing to any sort of definition for Ove. As a result he appears to be a mean, barely functioning man, to whom all other characters are mysteriously attracted and claim that he is actually very kind, with no proof. Then Ove’s rudeness changes because of a few ordinary encounters that coincidentally appear within a short time frame. The narrative thus becomes excruciatingly predictable and plain, with a very clear intended trajectory of making a kind man out of a grumpy one, but none of it feels earned. The only parts that felt engaging were those about Ove’s youth, but really only in contrast to the rest of the book…

42. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Summary: Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel. In a mining town in Germany, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the stunningly beautiful instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

Rating: 7/10

Impressions:

I had some issues with this book, which accumulated to make me dislike it, although overall it wasn’t that bad. Probably my biggest issue with it is its constant switching between the two protagonists, so that each section is very short, as we snap to the other protagonist very quickly. As a result, the narrative doesn’t go very deeply into either of them, and a lot of time is wasted. The first few sentences of each section are inevitably spent on setting the scene, which turns out to be a considerable portion, when so many sections are only a few paragraphs long. The narration style is thus very choppy and hard to get into. My other issue with this book was how its magical realism aspect was handled. It is entirely contained to a priceless jewel that supposedly has healing properties. Its value is intrinsically tied to money, however, which really takes away from its magical aspect. It is also unavoidably mentioned against the background of very technical things like radios, which becomes a strange contrast. The two protagonists also weren’t particularly interesting. Werner is frustratingly complacent about his role among Nazi Germans, and Marie Laure is blind, which makes her storyline unavoidably bland… The decision to make her character blind is an interesting one, but does not feel justified when considered against the major losses it brought to her storyline. Finally, this book just did not feel particularly necessary, as we have so many other well-written books about WWII. Perhaps if it had handled its magical realism aspect differently, made less switches between the two parallel storylines, or made its characters more active, it would have been better. As it stands, neither of these issues is particularly awful on its own, but all together they compound to make this book feel below average, especially as it already doesn’t add much to the large body of books about WWII.

43. Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World by Michael Pollan

Summary: Pollan takes us on a journey through the history of the drug, which was first discovered in a small part of East Africa and within a century became an addiction affecting most of the human species. Caffeine, it turns out, has changed the course of human history - won and lost wars, changed politics, dominated economies. What's more, the author shows that the Industrial Revolution would have been impossible without it. The science of how the drug has evolved to addict us is no less fascinating. Rating: 7.5/10 Impressions:

This was a cool sort of overview of the history of caffeine consumption and how it affects humans, interjected by a personal account of quitting coffee for a month. Realistically, this felt way more like a podcast episode, because it was very short and didn’t go deeply into any of its points. It hints at a very rich history and culture, and makes a lot of intriguing points, but is somewhat unsatisfying because it feels undeveloped.