Stephanie @that_bookish_life

Book Review: Anthem by Noah Hawley

The absurdity of Vonnegut meets the dark fantasy of Stephen King’s The Stand in this speculative tale filled with fantastical creatures that is decidedly not a fairy tale because it’s too close to current reality.

In Noah Hawley’s Anthem a new plague is spreading – teen suicide. Young people are systematically ending their lives in droves with only the symbol “A11” left for explanation. The apocalypse has arrived in an eerily familiar world and it’s up to one ragtag group of teens to save us all.

I’m not sure whether Hawley has contributed anything new to the “legitimate political discourse” as humanity hurtles full throttle into the End Times, but he has written an incredibly provoking and horrifically entertaining modern classic quest of good vs evil.

Pairs well with Netflix’s Don’t Look Up.

Be sure to check content warnings if you like a head’s up on sensitive content before reading this one.

Book Review: Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Nguyen

After Saigon fell to communist forces in 1975 hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese people became refugees. More than 100,000 of these refugees immigrated to the U.S. with thousands settling in New Orleans through Catholic church sponsorship and purportedly drawn by a climate similar to their native country. I knew about the influx of Vietnamese refugees in general, but was previously unaware of New Orleans being a specific destination.

Things We Lost to the Water is the story of a Vietnamese refugee family who settled in New Orleans in 1978. A mother arrives with her 5 year old and infant sons, her husband chose to remain in Vietnam at the very last minute, unexpectedly leaving her to make the journey alone. The story follows the family of three from 1978 to 2005, their displacement, sacrifice, assimilation, the impact to them as individuals and as a family as they navigate forging a life for themselves in a new country (or as life in a new country forges them) all told in gorgeous prose.

This book is on the Aspen Words 2022 Longlist and Barack Obama’s 2021 summer reading list!

Book Review: I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkins

When people birth a baby it’s not just the baby who is born, but the mother as well. Our society largely ignores this transformation wrought as new life is brought forth. Birth is viewed as a thing which must be done, as quickly and efficiently as possible, so one can hop off the delivery table, bounce back to bikinis and stilettos as if the baby never existed, returning as quickly as possible to feeding the capitalist machine, apologetically hiding away in a coat closet on break, compelled by an inconvenient biological function we would ignore if we could, to pump milk for the baby.

Rarely, if ever, are we to acknowledge who we were, who we are, who we will become, let alone exist in an undefined state of metamorphosis, because that diminishes who we are prescribed to be.

I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness is a work of autofiction in which a new mother in the haze of postpartum depression turns a work trip into something of a postpartum Rumspringa, leaving her responsible, intellectual life behind, returning to her desert roots to poke at unhealed wounds of childhood trauma. The stripping away of expectations and shortcomings allows her to reconcile past and present grief, examining all her selves, evolving into someone wholly new.

I really enjoyed this book in a way similar to Animal and Nightbitch, though Darkness is something of a slightly more palatable story trodding similar themes.

Wild, darkly funny, terribly relatable, an unapologetically transgressive #WeirdLittleBook

Book Review: Passing by Nella Larsen

Published in 1929 Passing is a brilliantly layered story set in 1920s Harlem of two light skinned Black women, childhood friends who are estranged then reunite after taking two very different paths: one living comfortably as the wife of a dark skinned Black doctor in Harlem society, the other “passing” as white, married to a white man. The book is short – just over 100 pages – the writing sparse, yet author Nella Larsen manages to convey so much nuance about race, class, identity, sexuality, and freedom, with an unexpected horror undertone to boot.

A perfect classic companion read for Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half.

Passing was adapted into a film by Netflix in 2021.

Book Review: 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

84, Charing Cross Road is the letter correspondence between Helene, a bohemian freelance writer in New York City and (primarily) Frank, an antiquarian bookseller in England (but also other people affiliated with Frank and the bookshop get in on the chats.) Their relationship is entirely contained within letters sent over two decades time beginning in 1949. It’s a story of books and friendship and slow correspondence; an entirely charming read that can be enjoyed in a single sitting.

A book about books and the way they can connect us perfect for book lovers everywhere.

Book Review: One Night on the Island by Josie Silver

Cleo and Mack unexpectedly and reluctantly find themselves sharing a small cabin on a remote island in Ireland. Cleo is a burned out Londoner columnist who writes about the pitfalls of searching for true love. She’s on the island on assignment for a schticky “self-coupling” ceremony where she’ll pledge to forever love and cherish herself. Mack is an American photographer seeking a return to his ancestral roots on the island, reeling from his wife dissolving their marriage. Mack and Cleo will have unexpected impacts on one another’s lives.

One Night on the Island is not just about Mack and Cleo as a couple, but also as individuals at crossroads finding their way forward on their own paths. I love how Josie Silver’s stories are always something a little outside the norm, featuring imperfect people and complicated situations. I found myself wholly invested in Mack and Cleo and loved the charming island setting.

A sweet, steamy, and satisfying escape from the author of One Day in December and The Two Lives of Lydia Bird.

Pub Date: 2/15/22

Thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for an ARC in exchange for honest review.

Book Review: With Love from London by Sarah Jio

Recently divorced librarian/bookstagrammer Valentina receives word her estranged mother has left her a struggling bookshop in London. Wanting to know more about the mother who abandoned her as a teen Valentina travels to London finding a new home, purpose, and understanding.

With Love from London is a sweet book with a touch of mystery, heartbreak, romance, second chances, and the magic of books woven throughout.

Pub Date: 2/8/22

Thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for an eARC in exchange for honest review.