I'm on Readcation Monday through Wednesday of this week. I hope to do a lot of reading, but I'm in the process of a huge decluttering project, and that has kind of taken over my life lately. Even when I set aside time to read, I find myself gravitating toward a closet or bookshelf that needs going through instead. I'm also doing a bit of online shopping for pieces to replace what needs replacing around the house (lamps, etc.) and a fair bit of daydreaming. Getting rid of so much really refreshes one's mind.
Last week I finished:
Months before it was released, I ran unto Fatima Farheen Mirza's A Place for Us on Amazon, and I put it on my TBR. Since then, chatter about it got louder and louder, and none of it has been bad. Every now and then an author's first novel just hits it out of the park, and this one did. It blew me away. It's one of those quiet, contemplative novels where there isn't much plot but the plot is so expertly true to real life that your toes curl. Telling you too much about the plot would be to spoil the experience, I think, so I'll simply say that it's the story of a Muslim Indian-American family in present-day America (though I don't think the words "Muslim" or "Islam" were used even once). The parents are traditional Muslims who adhere to the commands of their religion. Their children, first generation Americans, find themselves navigating their parents' and religion's traditions and also secular American society. The daughters, Hadia and Huda, adhere pretty closely to their faith while making meaningful choices about what to keep and what to disregard, but their brother Amar finds himself adrift. There is an honesty and tenderness to the story that is remarkable, and the author does a beautiful job of presenting the family's story from all sides. Events are told throughout the book by different characters, giving us various perspectives and voices. It was expertly written. There were, though, two things that bothered me just a little. I was puzzled as to why Huda was not as central to the story as the other members of the family. She appeared seldom and generally little more than anecdotally. Also, I was a little disappointed when Muslim terms weren't explained in the story. Context was not always enough to tell me what was being discussed, so I often felt like an outsider. It never felt like a big deal, and I have read enough books about Muslim religion and culture to remember some of them, but it did bother me that the author nor editor thought this was important. At the same time, knowing this must be an intentional choice, I felt that the book/author was making a point that you cannot know everything about another's life. You will always feel a little bit like an outsider no matter how close you are or how much you know. At any rate, it was an interesting decision that I continue to ponder. Any quibbles I have with the book are dwarfed by the magnitude of my appreciation for it. It was a wonderful read, sure to be in my top ten this year. My rating: 5 stars.
I've been meaning to try an Anne Tyler book for awhile now, but I've always been afraid they were too "fluffy" for me, and while I don't detest fluffy books, I tend to avoid them because most of them annoy me. But I was taken by the description of Back When We Were Grownups, so I decided to begin there. This is the story of Rebecca Davitch, the widowed stepmother of three daughters and mother of one, grandmother to six. She's a party planner and lives with her quirky, 99-year-old uncle through marriage. Rebecca begins to wonder if she is living the life she was meant to live. Did she marry the right man? Why did she give up her intellectual curiosity? What can she do about how taken for granted she is? So she sets about making small experiments to determine what needs to change to become who she always intended to be. I listened to this on audio, and I recommend it. I'm not sure I would have liked it as quite as much in paper form. It may have fallen a bit flat. It's a light book (I think that's a Tyler trait?) with some quirky characters and family dynamics, but there was something endearing about Rebecca and her position in the family. I think she's having thoughts we all do at some point, and I liked how she grew just a little. There was something kind of refreshing about the book, and I'm glad I read it. I think I'll try other Anne Tyler novels, too. My rating: 3.5 stars.
What I'll be reading this week:
I saved My Plain Jane specifically for Readcation, and I'm so excited to start! It's the reimagining of Jane Eyre.
Last week I abandoned:
I thought I've Been Thinking... would be a good "advice" book, but it's very simple and impersonal. Very little depth. There's a hold list for this at the library, so I decided to give it up for someone else's enjoyment.
My Kindle mix-up:
I don't know what happened, but while I thought I was re-reading Happier at Home on Kindle, I was actually re-reading The Happiness Project for the third time. Now I'm a third of the way in, so there's no point in switching. I must have opened one on my computer and the other on my Kindle and gotten the two confused? I still hope to re-read Happier at Home someday...
Last week I began:
My poetry read right now is Kevin Young's Brown. Very good so far.
I began Vern Yip's Design Wise, too, and I'm reminded of how rigidly he adheres to design rules.
And when I put down the Maria Shriver book, I picked up Jonathan and Drew Scott's It Takes Two. They have several design shows on HGTV.
My audiobook:
I've heard Lauren Graham's Talking As Fast As I Can was fun on audio, so I'm listening to it, even though I've only recently seen a few episodes of Gilmore Girls and I've never watched Parenthood.
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