2023 Book List

A list of books I read in 2023. Most summaries are from Goodreads.

1. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Summary: Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last—inexorably—into evil.

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions:

A strange, dark book. The decision to put a murder right in the beginning is a great one, allowing the reader to then focus on the descent of all of the characters into the states from which they commit it. A very unusual balance of the typical college campus life novel and a dark sort of murder mystery. The theme of striving for beauty despite horrific consequences is followed magnificently - it is in the background of every decision and plot point. I’d only say that the book felt repetitive at times, with some identical beats being hit several times, and the ending was a little underwhelming. The novel is told looking back on the events, so I wish in the “present” the narrative took a step back to show the narrator’s current situation a bit more, or develop it more. These two things aside, this was a very cool read and stuck with me for a while after finishing it.

2. Безбожный Переулок (Ungodly Alley) by Marina Stepnova

Summary: Ivan Ogarev has always tried to build his life against - against his parents, the typical way of life, and circumstances that befell him: school, army, work. A tragic incident compels him to become a doctor. But, once again, his life is like so many others’ - med school, a private practice, a loyal wife. Ogarev decides to play by the rules of life, but, suddenly, falls in love with an unusual woman, for whom the most important thing is freedom.

Rating: 7.5/10

Impressions:

This book really picks up its pace and intrigue toward the end, when the character of Malya is introduced. This happens about 3 quarters of the way in, which makes the book feel unbalanced. I think it would be stronger if less time was dedicated to the character of Anya and even the main character Ogarev, so that all of the parts felt more balanced. Though the writing is clearly very strong, I was not sure what the point of the book was. The personal relationships get linked to the theme of breaking free of the mundane, which also gets linked to breaking free of Russia in general, but the three get sort of tangled up, so the point isn’t entirely clear, as though the main theme was not clearly decided on. Perhaps because of this, the narrative feels like a stream of consciousness, so that the ending feels rushed and sort of forced. Nevertheless, Ogarev and Malya’s relationship was written exquisitely, and the writing was definitely powerful.

3. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

Summary: We are in the center of Paris, in an elegant apartment building inhabited by bourgeois families. Renée, the concierge, is witness to the lavish but vacuous lives of her numerous employers. Outwardly she conforms to every stereotype of the concierge: fat, cantankerous, addicted to television. Yet, unbeknownst to her employers, Renée is a cultured autodidact who adores art, philosophy, music, and Japanese culture. With humor and intelligence she scrutinizes the lives of the building's tenants, who for their part are barely aware of her existence. Then there's Paloma, a twelve-year-old genius. She is the daughter of a tedious parliamentarian, a talented and startlingly lucid child who has decided to end her life on the sixteenth of June, her thirteenth birthday. Until then she will continue behaving as everyone expects her to behave: a mediocre pre-teen high on adolescent subculture, a good but not an outstanding student, an obedient if obstinate daughter. Paloma and Renée hide both their true talents and their finest qualities from a world they suspect cannot or will not appreciate them. They discover their kindred souls when a wealthy Japanese man named Ozu arrives in the building. Only he is able to gain Paloma's trust and to see through Renée's timeworn disguise to the secret that haunts her. This is a moving, funny, triumphant novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us.

Rating: 6/10

Impressions:

This novel was a bit underwhelming. The philosophical tangents felt a kind of on the surface and the plot was really lacking. The characters are satisfyingly snarky, but the slow pace and the repetitiveness did not allow them to exhibit their full potential. I was really craving and expecting more interactions between the two main characters, which, it seems, the novel would have had space for if it cut some of its repetitive beats.

4. Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Summary: Convenience Store Woman is the heartwarming and surprising story of thirty-six-year-old Tokyo resident Keiko Furukura. Keiko has never fit in, neither in her family, nor in school, but when at the age of eighteen she begins working at the Hiiromachi branch of “Smile Mart,” she finds peace and purpose in her life. In the store, unlike anywhere else, she understands the rules of social interaction ― many are laid out line by line in the store’s manual ― and she does her best to copy the dress, mannerisms, and speech of her colleagues, playing the part of a “normal” person excellently, more or less. Managers come and go, but Keiko stays at the store for eighteen years. It’s almost hard to tell where the store ends and she begins. Keiko is very happy, but the people close to her, from her family to her coworkers, increasingly pressure her to find a husband, and to start a proper career, prompting her to take desperate action… A brilliant depiction of an unusual psyche and a world hidden from view, Convenience Store Woman is an ironic and sharp-eyed look at contemporary work culture and the pressures to conform, as well as a charming and completely fresh portrait of an unforgettable heroine.

Rating: 6/10

Impressions:

A cool way to address the discourse of essential workers (especially as they were discussed so much during the pandemic) and of emotional and embodied labour that has become mechanised. The main character seems to be on the autism spectrum, which adds depth to these topics, but, at the same time, ends up doubling down on them a little too hard. All in all, the book’s ideas felt sort of too definitive, not really allowing for a wide breadth of conversation. It did feel like a succinct and useful summary of these discourses, though. One of its thoughts was really memorable: “She's far happier thinking her sister is normal, even if she has a lot of problems, than she is having an abnormal sister for whom everything is fine.”

5. Лето в Пионерском Галстуке by Катерина Сильванова и Елена Малисова / Summer in a Pioneer Tie by Katerina Silvanova and Elena Malisova

Summary: Юра возвращается в пионерский лагерь своей юности спустя двадцать лет. В руинах прошлого он надеется отыскать путь в настоящее, к человеку, которого когда-то любил. Эта история о том, что в СССР не все было гладко, правильно и безлико. Что были переживания, страсти, влечения и чувства, которые не вписывались в рамки морали на пути к «светлому будущему». И что это будущее оказалось не таким уж и светлым.

After twenty years, Yura returns to the summer pioneer camp he attended as a young boy. In the ruins of the past he hopes to find a path to the present, and to the person he once loved.

Rating: 9/10

Impressions:

Absolutely could not put this down, stayed up late, missed bus stops… This book really had a hold on me. Overall I’d say it’s a little overly dramatic at times and the characters are a little too poetic, and there are some pretty typical manoeuvres to keep the reader engaged like someone walking into a room as two people are about to kiss. But regardless, this book was unputdownable and a very beautiful depiction of first love. It also conveyed the atmosphere of youth very very well, really establishing the setting and relationships of a summer camp, making the reader just want to live in the book along with the characters. Beyond that, it definitely has big cultural significance in today’s Russia, amidst the ongoing discrimination and persecution of the LGBTQ+ community.

6. Five by Fitzgerald by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Summary: Five brilliant stories from one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Includes the following stories: Head and Shoulders, Bernice Bobs Her Hair, Dalyrimple Goes Wrong, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and The Diamond as Big as the Ritz.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions:

Super engaging, visual, and unique. There is a ton of depth across all the stories, with some, like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button employing elements of magic and spanning many decades, while others, like Bernice Bobs Her Hair, being much more contained, focusing on only a few days and exploring identity. Most have at least some element of class and status discussions, and all are very well-written and engaging.

7. Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence

Summary: Lawrence’s frank portrayal of an extramarital affair and the explicit sexual explorations of its central characters caused this controversial book, now considered a masterpiece, to be banned as pornography until 1960.

Rating: 7.5/10

Impressions:

A very compelling exploration of morality, sexuality, and identity. Really satisfyingly carried many themes throughout the entire storyline. The characters felt simultaneously quite symbolic - serving clear functions for dissecting British society for example - and also very human and realistic. A bit repetitive maybe, with some parts kind of repeating, which created a sort of monotone pace. This definitely highlighted the sense of Lady Chatterley’s isolation, but from a narrative point of view became a bit tiring. Very cool piece of literature though, and seems to be essential reading for understanding the trajectory of talking about explicit sexual encounters and extramarital affairs in fiction.

8. Perfume by Patrick Suskind

Summary: An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind’s classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man’s indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of smell—leads to murder. In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift—an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille’s genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the “ultimate perfume”—the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brilliance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity. Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions:

A very cool combination of charm and quite dark subject matter. The narrative often takes really dark and bizarre turns out of nowhere, but does it very effortlessly and naturally, so that the flow doesn’t feel interrupted and then all of a sudden you catch yourself reading something incredibly unexpected. The language in this really serves as a sort of ode to the power of scents, and the plot is what happens when that is taken to the extremes. One issue with the plot is that a pretty big chunk of it in the middle feels wasted in that it doesn’t drive the narrative forward or develop the character in ways that merit spending many pages on. The narrative is at its most exciting in the first third and the last third, and the middle part dragged a bit. As well, though the story was very quirky, gritty, and amusing, the way it’s told somehow doesn’t penetrate the surface level of storytelling, perhaps due to the point of view from which it’s told. Whatever the reason, the story somehow felt a bit cold and distant, but overall it was very well-written and definitely worth reading for the plot and the tribute to the power of scents.

9. A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut

Summary: A Man Without a Country is an essay collection published in 2005 by the author Kurt Vonnegut. The essays deal with topics ranging from the importance of humor, to problems with modern technology, to Vonnegut's opinions on the differences between men and women. Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions:

A really funny compilation of Vonnegut’s musings on all kinds of topics with the central message being that one has to maintain awareness of the world’s injustices while simultaneously being kind to others and aware of the good in the world. His entire voice is of a wise grandfather to an entire generation that is demonstrating to this generation that it’s okay to feel lost and angry, but that it has more power than it might think, and can activate this power through kindness, daring, and curiosity.

“If you want to really hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts”

10. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Summary: The year is 1969. In the state of Kerala, on the southernmost tip of India, a skyblue Plymouth with chrome tailfins is stranded on the highway amid a Marxist workers' demonstration. Inside the car sit two-egg twins Rahel and Esthappen, and so begins their tale… Armed only with the invincible innocence of children, they fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family. When their English cousin, Sophie Mol, and her mother, Margaret Kochamma, arrive on a Christmas visit, Esthappen and Rahel learn that Things Can Change in a Day. The brilliantly plotted story uncoils with an agonizing sense of foreboding and inevitability. Yet nothing prepares you for what lies at the heart of it.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions:

A beautifully written book. The metaphors are exquisite and really contribute to the atmosphere. There is a sense of inevitability and foreboding throughout the entire story that is very masterfully crafted and for which the non-linear storytelling style was an excellent choice. The various snapshots also worked well together - they didn’t fully morph into one continuous story, but somehow that made the story more realistic, kind of like we only really remember distinct stories from our lives instead of remembering everything in detail. What didn’t work for me was that the characters didn’t feel fully developed and that the historical background of it didn’t come into the plot as much as it could have. It almost felt like the author was undecided about how much of it to bring in, and then, at the end, really brought it, but it felt underdeveloped as a result. Nevertheless, this is definitely worth reading, even just for the writing alone, but there were many other strong points as well.

11. Moscow to the End of the Line (Москва-Петушки) by Venedikt Yerofeev

Summary: In this classic of Russian humor and social commentary, a fired cable fitter goes on a binge and hops a train to Petushki (where his "most beloved of trollops" awaits). On the way he bestows upon angels, fellow passengers, and the world at large a magnificent monologue on alcohol, politics, society, alcohol, philosophy, the pains of love, and, of course, alcohol. Rating: 8/10

Impressions:

A bizarre tale of a train journey taken by a man brought to complete despair by Brezhnev’s Russia. This journey is full of reflections on culture, society, philosophy, and identity, all the while plotting out elaborate graphs and recipes for drinking that allow for some amount of function. Incredibly meta, paradoxical, and gritty, it’s a deep dive into the mind of a man on the outskirts of society, perpetually on his way somewhere better, with all his efforts thwarted by combined efforts of reality and imagination.

12. Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley

Summary: Kiara and her brother, Marcus, are scraping by in an East Oakland apartment complex optimistically called the Regal-Hi. Both have dropped out of high school, their family fractured by death and prison. But while Marcus clings to his dream of rap stardom, Kiara hunts for work to pay their rent--which has more than doubled--and to keep the nine-year-old boy next door, abandoned by his mother, safe and fed. Rating: 8/10

Impressions:

This novel is an unbelievable achievement. It is a beautifully-written cry of the impoverished Black experience, struggling to survive. The writing style is incredibly rich and visual, with some sharp cuts from scene to scene and beautiful descriptions having a cinematic quality to them. The characters are fully developed and the story is captivating. It is consistently unyielding, which has a very powerful effect, but is perhaps my one issue with this book. The narrative does not allow many moments “to breathe”. It is instead consistently infuriating, shocking, and saddening, as things only get worse and worse for the characters, which is interrupted by increasingly sad flashbacks. Though this feels intentional and purposeful, causing a powerful “trapped” effect which echoes the main character’s experience, the reader inevitably becomes somewhat desensitized to the awful events of the story if they are not punctuated by moments of true humanity and connection. Every instance that could be considered that was still punctuated with a sense of foreboding and struggle. I think the gut-punching moments of the book would be all the more powerful if the story allowed for breaks and moments of hope, which don’t even necessarily need to come from the plot. Regardless, this feels like an incredibly valuable addition to literature written by Black authors about the Black experience in America and was very beautifully written.

13. The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

Summary: In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the work farm where he has just served a year for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett’s intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother and head west where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden’s car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett’s future. Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles’s third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes.

Rating: 7/10

Impressions:

The characters are really rich and compelling, but the constant switching between perspectives slowed the story a lot, so that large periods of time were spent without moving the story along. For a story that centered around a journey, this was a big detriment and made everything feel really sluggish. Character exploration and plot felt really unbalanced, but the writing was very visual and intriguing.

14. Mary by Vladimir Nabokov

Summary: Mary is a gripping tale of youth, first love, and nostalgia--Nabokov's first novel.  In a Berlin rooming house filled with an assortment of seriocomic Russian émigrés, Lev Ganin, a vigorous young officer poised between his past and his future, relives his first love affair.  His memories of Mary are suffused with the freshness of youth and the idyllic ambience of pre-revolutionary Russia.  In stark contrast is the decidedly unappealing boarder living in the room next to Ganin's, who, he discovers, is Mary's husband, temporarily separated from her by the Revolution but expecting her imminent arrival from Russia.

Rating: 7/10

Impressions:

The second half of the book was amazing - the atmosphere of love was conveyed brilliantly. The entire first half felt like it was just building up to the second half without much use in terms of plot and even character exploration. This unbalance was strange, but the second part of the book was beautifully-written.

15. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

Summary: On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one's own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.

Rating: 7/10

Impressions:

This read as a book of poetry way more than as a novel. The writing was incredibly dense and rich, with many beautiful moments, but, as a novel, was overwhelming. It felt like it gave too much without allowing for breaks in the flow of the storytelling to digest everything. Nevertheless, the writing was beautiful and piercing.

16. Blindness by Jose Saramago

Summary: A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" that spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations, and assaulting women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides her charges—among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears—through the barren streets, and their procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing. As Blindness reclaims the age-old story of a plague, it evokes the vivid and trembling horrors of the twentieth century, leaving readers with a powerful vision of the human spirit that's bound both by weakness and exhilarating strength.

Rating: 5/10

Impressions:

I really hated this book, but it felt like that was the point. It had a strange claustrophobia-inducing quality, and left a mental aftertaste for many months, which is unlike any other book I’ve ever read. There are some truly horrific scenes and events that are described, but they felt like they were being employed for the author only to force the reader to confront the worst parts of humanity. The plot felt numbingly static and the horrific events were over-described without any nuance, like sticking the reader directly into them with no way out. In the end, I think the book didn’t quite make the point it intended to make, specifically because of this lack of nuance and for the heavy-handedness.

17. True Grit by Charles Portis

Summary: In the 1870s, young Mattie Ross learns that her beloved father was gunned down by his former handyman. But even though this gutsy 14-year-old is seeking vengeance, she is smart enough to figure out she can't go alone after a desperado who's holed up in Indian territory. With some fast-talking, she convinces mean, one-eyed US Marshal "Rooster" Cogburn into going after the despicable outlaw with her.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions:

A really well-written story of revenge and journey. There are really cinematic scenes paired with more lulled aspects. As a result, the pace sometimes felt a bit off, but this weird contrasting balance was really intriguing and the writing itself was great.

18. Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov

Summary: In Time Shelter, an enigmatic flâneur named Gaustine opens a “clinic for the past” that offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer’s sufferers: each floor reproduces a decade in minute detail, transporting patients back in time. As Gaustine’s assistant, the unnamed narrator is tasked with collecting the flotsam and jetsam of the past, from 1960s furniture and 1940s shirt buttons to scents and even afternoon light. But as the rooms become more convincing, an increasing number of healthy people seek out the clinic as a “time shelter”—a development that results in an unexpected conundrum when the past begins to invade the present. Intricately crafted, and eloquently translated by Angela Rodel, Time Shelter announces Gospodinov to American readers as an essential voice in international literature.

Rating: 7.5/10

Impressions:

A brilliant idea that feels timeless. The details in the book are enthralling and showcase an incredible depth of thought. However, the writing style felt oddly removed and impersonal. There were scarcely any whole scenes or reflections of the characters. The narration was simply telling the reader what had happened, almost like a newspaper article. So, the ideas were brilliant, but the writing style was unfortunately not effective enough to convey them as well as they could have been conveyed.

19. Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams

Summary: It is the 1870s, and Will Andrews, fired up by Emerson to seek “an original relation to nature,” drops out of Harvard and heads west. He washes up in Butcher’s Crossing, a small Kansas town on the outskirts of nowhere. Butcher’s Crossing is full of restless men looking for ways to make money and ways to waste it. Before long Andrews strikes up a friendship with one of them, a man who regales Andrews with tales of immense herds of buffalo, ready for the taking, hidden away in a beautiful valley deep in the Colorado Rockies. He convinces Andrews to join in an expedition to track the animals down. The journey out is grueling, but at the end is a place of paradisal richness. Once there, however, the three men abandon themselves to an orgy of slaughter, so caught up in killing buffalo that they lose all sense of time. Winter soon overtakes them: they are snowed in. Next spring, half-insane with cabin fever, cold, and hunger, they stagger back to Butcher’s Crossing to find a world as irremediably changed as they have been.

Rating: 9.5/10

Impressions:

Without a doubt, my favourite book of the year. The writing has an incredibly clear quality that draws you in and makes the book impossible to put down. The plot is quite simple, but the writing makes it totally engaging and intriguing. Absolutely incredible.

20. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Summary: Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities. Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions: Overall, a really effective story and a deeply compelling main character. The writing makes the reader really root for him, and the story ends up really magnetic. Some parts felt a bit too drawn out and repetitive, but generally the book was really well done and touching.

21. Дом, в Котором… by Мариам Петросян

Summary: На окраине города, среди стандартных новостроек, стоит Се­рый Дом, в котором живут Сфинкс, Слепой, Лорд, Табаки, Македонский, Чёрный и многие другие. Неизвестно, действительно ли Лорд происходит из благородного рода драконов, но вот Слепой действительно слеп, а Сфинкс - мудр. Табаки, конечно, не шакал, хотя и любит поживиться чужим добром. Для каждого в Доме есть своя кличка, и один день в нём порой вмещает столько, сколько нам, в Наружности, не прожить и за целую жизнь. Каждого Дом прини­мает или отвергает. Дом хранит уйму тайн, и банальные "скелеты в шкафах" - лишь самый понятный угол того незримого мира, куда нет хода из Наружности, где перестают действовать привычные законы пространства-времени. Дом - это нечто гораздо большее, чем интернат для детей, от которых отказались родители. Дом - это их отдельная вселенная.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions: 

An incredibly atmospheric and engaging balance of reality and mysticism. The characters are really unique and the world they inhabit is rich, dark, and detailed. The third book was the least intriguing, it was probably the most straight-forward and mundane, despite still having mystical elements. The mysticism there felt kind of heavy-handed, whereas in the first two books it emerged more organically from the plot, the characters, and the world. But overall, the whole read was incredible, and bouncing around the various characters gave the whole trilogy lots of depth.

22. The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch

Summary: This is not your mother's memoir. In The Chronology of Water, Lidia Yuknavitch expertly moves the reader through issues of gender, sexuality, violence, and the family from the point of view of a lifelong swimmer turned artist. In writing that explores the nature of memoir itself, her story traces the effect of extreme grief on a young woman's developing sexuality that some define as untraditional because of her attraction to both men and women. Her emergence as a writer evolves at the same time and takes the narrator on a journey of addiction, self-destruction, and ultimately survival that finally comes in the shape of love and motherhood.

Rating: 5/10

Impressions: 

It’s hard to critique the plot and structure of this book, since it is a memoir, but it was very difficult to get through. At times grotesque, it felt like it piled on gruesome stories of abuse and neglect with grotesque sexual encounters. The plot sort of evaporated behind these overly-descriptive occurrences, and, as a result, gave the impression of wanting to shock the reader. The narrator was not portrayed as very deep or likeable, so it was difficult to sympathize with her through these stories. The writing was actually well-done, but overall this was not an enjoyable read.

23. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

Summary: Hemingway's memories of his life as an unknown writer living in Paris in the twenties are deeply personal, warmly affectionate, and full of wit. Looking back not only at his own much younger self, but also at the other writers who shared Paris with him - James Joyce, Wyndham Lewis, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald - he recalls the time when, poor, happy, and writing in cafes, he discovered his vocation. Written during the last years of Hemingway's life, his memoir is a lively and powerful reflection of his genius that scintillates with the romance of the city.

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions: A really enjoyable read! Because of the memoir style, the writing style feels more relaxed than in Hemingway’s novels. Feels like an insight into his world, and the encounters he describes with other authors are really special. At times really funny and moving, this feels like an essential Hemingway read.

24. Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

Summary: Set in the contemporary Paris of American expatraites, liasons, and violence, a young man finds  himself caught between desire and conventional  morality. James Baldwin's brilliant narrative delves  into the mystery of loving with a sharp, probing imagination, and he creates a moving, highly  controversial story of death and passion that reveals the  unspoken complexities of the heart.

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions:

The writing feels piercing and the story is heart-breaking. The story feels like a very typical one for Baldwin, but feels unique among his other novels due to its purposefulness. Everything feels really succinct and relevant and comes together beautifully. A dark and howling portrayal of love and despair.

25. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Summary: A searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy’s masterpiece. A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other. The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, “each the other’s world entire,” are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation. Rating: 9.5/10

Impressions: Really really loved this book. The writing is incredibly clear and pulls you in, almost hypnotic, it was really hard to put down. Very unlike other apocalyptic stories, it feels more like a look inward at the self rather than outward at the world. At the same time, what we learn of the world is enough and tells us everything we need to know. Beautifully constructed.

26. Death and the Maiden by Ariel Dorfman

Summary: The explosively provocative, award-winning drama set in a country that has just emerged from a totalitarian dictatorship Gerardo Escobar has just been chosen to head the commission that will investigate the crimes of the old regime when his car breaks down and he is picked up by the humane doctor Roberto Miranda. But in the voice of this good Samaritan, Gerardo's wife, Paulina Salas, thinks she recognizes another man—the one who raped and tortured her as she lay blindfolded in a military detention center years before. Relentlessly paced and filled with lethal surprises, Death and the Maiden is an inquest into the darker side of humanity—one in which everyone is implicated and justice itself comes to seem like a fragile, perhaps ambiguous invention.

Rating: 7.5/10

Impressions: 

The suspense and uncertainty is definitely the strongest part of this play. Everything spins further out of control as we deepen into the intrigue of whether or not the man is who Paulina suspects. There is a constant tension throughout the play, which really propels it forward. The bottleneck style really suits it, but maybe is also a weak point - it feels like it could have been developed a bit more.

27. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Summary: It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capital, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute. The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined -- every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.

Rating: 6/10

Impressions:

Overall, this didn’t work for me. The characters felt flat and the narrative really unbalanced and predictable. The games were so central to the plot, but took up so little of the book, and after them the story sort of started over. The world-building was nice but sort of unsatisfying, like the author didn’t let her imagination roam as far as she did in the other books. Even the political aspects of the book felt much less dystopian than in the other books, and way too on-the-nose, which made the stakes feel lower, and like this book was for children, as opposed to young adults and adults. Compared to the others, this book was much more boring and tame.

28. The Anatomy Lesson by Philip Roth

Summary: At forty, the writer Nathan Zuckerman comes down with a mysterious affliction--pure pain, beginning in his neck and shoulders, invading his torso, and taking possession of his spirit. Zuckerman, whose work was his life, is unable to write a line. Now his work is trekking from one doctor to another, but none can find a cause for the pain and nobody can assuage it. Zuckerman himself wonders if the pain can have been caused by his own books. And while he is wondering, his dependence on painkillers grows into an addiction to vodka, marijuana, and Percodan. The Anatomy Lesson is a great comedy of illness written in what the English critic Hermione Lee has described as a manner at once ... brash and thoughtful ... lyrical and wry, which projects through comic expostulations and confessions...a knowing, humane authority. The third volume of the trilogy and epilogue Zuckerman Bound, The Anatomy Lesson provides some of the funniest scenes in all of Roth's fiction as well as some of the fiercest.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions:

The writing is super gritty and sharp, and really packed with meaning. This feels like a conversation of a man with his own body, while still being rich in plot and historical details. There is a lot of dark humour, and everything comes together really well.