Rebooked

Here’s what I read in March:

My re-read of The History of Sound was my favorite of the month: Excellent, excellent, excellent. Short stories loosely linked in setting, theme and tone. If possible, I enjoyed it even more than the first time. The writing immediately draws you in and puts your mind at rest and every story in the collection is extraordinary: profound and moving.

Also really loved Departures by Julian Barnes. I wasn’t sure at first but once the story settled in I found it graceful and poignant.

Troubles, an under the radar Irish historical novel set during the first round of troubles in 1920, was a great read!

Exit Lane and Something Borrowed were fun, escapist rom-coms set in NYC. Can’t resist those!

The oh so French Swimming in Paris left me a bit cold but I loved our book club discussion.

And I appear to be the rare person for whom Mother Mary Comes to Me did not work at all. This memoir has been receiving accolades right and left but I found it choppy and the cerebral style kept me at too much of a distance.

What did you read in March?

I read 95 books this year and here are my favorites

TOP TEN
1. The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck
2. My Friends by Hisham Matar
3. The Hopkins Manuscript by R.C. Sherriff
4. Heart the Lover by Lily King
5. Among Friends by Hal Ebbott
6. Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Cespedes
7. Who Will Run The Frog Hospital by Lorrie Moore
8. Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood
9. The Details by Ia Genberg
10. The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller/Buckeye by Patrick Ryan

I read these six books in September and here’s what I thought:

Jeff Hiller’s memoir, Actress of a Certain Age, was perfect on audio, warm and witty and absolutely hysterically funny.

The Best of Everything is a big soap opera of a novel written in the 1950s which follows four young women as they navigate their early 20s in NYC. Really entertaining!

Mercy by Joan Silber is a series of interconnected stories each about a different character somehow related to the others. It reminded me of Elizabeth Strout and I liked it a lot.

I loved Hisham Matar’s My Friends and his backlist Anatomy of a Disappearance had lovely writing and similar themes but it was just so sad.

A Reason to See You Again was a well- written family story but I found the characters somewhat annoying. I really liked Attenberg’s previous book All Grown Up. Give that one a try instead.

Flight was not for me. I finished it but found it extremely grating.

What have you been reading?

This weekend in Brighton is looking fantastic! I’ll be set up inside. Come on by to pick up some new reads or a Morher’s Day gift.