Finished:

Lit: A Memoir, By Mary Karr

Traces her descent into the depths of alcoholism, and her ultimate rise above it. Alternating hilarious and heartbreaking. Worth the read.

Started and finished:

Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng

This was extraordinary. I couldn't put it down. Ng traces the story of a married couple whose regrets about their own lives and choices lead them to live vicariously through their oldest daughter. She literally drowns under the pressure.

Started

Mayflower, by Nathaniel Philbrick

I hadn't actually heard of this one before. I picked it up at a library used boo sale. It's really good so far. Nonfiction books like that can be dry, but this one is really fresh. I'm enjoying it.

Finished Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng. I love the amount of heart and empathy that she puts into her characters. They feel like humans haunted by their own shortcomings and worries. You can feel how much they wish they were their best self.

Then I've started in on Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons. So far not the best writing I've ever come across, but Jack Parsons is such a wild figure that I'm willing to set aside the shortcomings in the author's skills.

Finished:

War, by Laura Thalassa - This book was embarrassingly bad and I’m mad at myself for wasting time on it

Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng - Spectacular writing with some of the most unsympathetic characters I’ve read in a long time. I’ve got her next book,Little Fires Everywhere, on audiobook that I might start this week.

Started:

The Girl in the Tower, by Katherine Arden

I finally finished Sula, by Toni Morrison after putting it down for a while. It was interesting small town drama, but I feel like if there was a larger point to it then I'm missing it.

I am continuing Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng. None of the plot so far has been as unique as all that, but the interest lies more in the characters and setting of the story and the impact of race on the situation. I would have already gobbled this down if it weren't for a class, but since it is I have to read slooow.

I've started The Souls of Black Folk, by W.E.B. DuBois, a read long overdue for me. It has a lot of historical and political commentary on the Reconstruction that is interesting to me. So far the most interesting chapter has been "Of the Black Belt." For a nonfiction book, it's full of captivating descriptive prose.

I read The Souls of Black Folk, by W.E.B. DuBois, which I liked a lot. It's interesting to read what is essentially the first sociological survey of American black people. The descriptive prose and the level organization was very good, especially for a nonfiction book. I can already see some of the influence it has had on later authors, and I have a feeling that I will only discover more as time passes.

I also read Understanding Comics: the Invisible Art, by Scott McCloud, which is functional enough as a reference text, but fails to hold up as its own entity, I think. The author injects a lot of speculation and opinion where it isn't needed, and the narrative style is a bit too "cute" for me. Still, I respect that it lays out the techniques used in comic creation clearly and concisely-- that's what I needed the book for, so I don't mind so much that it's not entertaining.

This week I will finally finish Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng, which I'm enjoying a lot. I would have finished it a lot sooner if it weren't for a class. I've also started Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, which looks promising so far.

I finished Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng and Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates. I enjoyed both of them.

For the former, I thought that the characters had many facets and were written with attention to detail. The plot came together nicely, but was a bit tropey in places. I have bunches more to say about this book, but since I read it for a class, I've already exhausted myself in class discussions.

For the latter, it was a quick, easy-to-swallow read, more like an extended essay than a book in feeling. As someone in more or less the same generation as Coates's son, I felt connected to what he had to say. A lot of it felt like a retread of contemporary American racial politics to me, but that's good in a way, because I don't think I've seen anyone else capture the climate as it was in 2015 quite so exactly. A few years down the line, I would recommend this to someone looking to broaden their perspective on the US around 2010-2015, or even right now to someone from another country. It does assume you know the basic facts, but the commentary is insightful & connects to historical context.

I started to read Vietnamerica: A Family's Journey, by G. B. Tran, and I am enjoying it so far. I think that the combination of a busy art style and the overlapping stories makes it a bit hard to keep track of the characters and their relationships to one another, but I guess that's why there's a family tree on the inside cover. What I appreciate is the clear dedication and attention to detail in the making of this book. A fully illustrated graphic novel in watercolor and ink, laid out so exactly and with attention to visual storytelling-- it really takes both artistic mastery and a love for the story being told to make something like this.

Just finished Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng. It was a good read but I have mixed feelings about the book overall.

Starting Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor. Excited to get back into the Binti universe!

Finished:

Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood

Started:

Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng

Enjoying Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng. I'd read Little Fires Everywhere around this time last year, so when my partner brought this home from the library, it became my next book. I love the seamless transitions between time and character that Ng pulls off, and the feels, oh the feels. Not even halfway through and it's gotten some tears happening.

Finished: I'll Be Gone In the Dark, by Michelle McNamara and Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng

Started: The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, by Arundhati Roy

Just started Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng. Seems interesting so far, although if the dad ends up having an affair with his TA, my eyes are going to roll back into my skull.

In the last few weeks:

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

This was not what I thought it was! I thought it was Hidden Figures but fiction. No! It’s about a natural disaster that happens in the 50s that requires humans to do more space exploration, and this one scientist wants to be an astronaut... but she’s a woman. I’ll pick up the sequels soon.

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Meh. I liked it enough to finish it, but didn’t feel emotionally invested or anything. Plus the science bit sort of stopped midway.

Recursion by Blake Crouch

Way better than Dark Matter. The science (fiction) kept coming and I actually cared about the outcome. I also couldn’t see how it would end.

Nine Pints by Rose George

Great nonfiction book about blood.

There Are Little Kingdoms by Kevin Barry

Book of short stories by an Irish guy. They were very well-written, and a couple of them are new favorites.

The Best American Short Stories 2018 by Roxane Gay

Diverse set of excellent short stories, I love this series a lot.

Heft by Liz Moore

Liz Moore wrote one of my favorite books, The Unseen World. This wasn’t quite as good, but I liked the main character, a 6-700 pound agoraphobic man, and the young woman he befriends. It wasn’t all Oprah and not everyone got a happy ending. Not sure how fat-phobic it actually was; the protagonist hates himself and his weight, but the book seemed really gentle with him. Wish the author had spent less time on the other main character.

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

On par with Little Fires Everywhere. Meandering story about a mixed-race family before and after the death of one of the daughters in the 1970s (not a spoiler, she dies in the first sentence). I can’t wait for the author to write another book.

Working on:

• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (for /r/bookclub)
• Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (for /r/infinitesummer)
• The Migration by Helen Marshall
• A Train in Winter by Caroline Moorehead

I'm currently about 200 pages into The Nix, by Nathan Hill. I like it so far, though Hill's writing took a little getting used to.

I just finished Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng. I think it certainly deserves all the praise it received but it's the most depressing thing I've read in a while, which I wasn't expecting.

Finished Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng - soooooo good. Beautiful ending. Even better than her second novel I think.

Now reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot

I finished The Serpent King, by Jeff Zentner and Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng.

I started Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford.

Finished:

Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng
What a let down this was. The writing was decent enough, but every single character was so selfish and unlikable, the family felt like a parody about halfway through. I couldn't bring myself to care about what happened because I disliked everyone so intensely.

Reading:

The Dry, by Jane Harper
About halfway through, and I'm pretty sure I figured out what happened already, but it's a decent read, so I'll stick it out.

Just finished Everything You Never Told Me, by Celeste Ng. Prose is great, story is OK.

Midway through Wodehouse on Crime, by PG Wodehouse. It's your regular Wodehouse: light-hearted and sweet :)