The Reading Room

Mistakes Were Made

Sometimes we have to do things that make us uncomfortable for people we love.

Summary - When Cassie Klein goes to an off-campus bar to escape her schools Family Weekend, she isnt looking for a hookupit just happens. Buying a drink for a stranger turns into what should be an uncomplicated, amazing one-night stand. But then the next morning rolls around and her friend drags her along to meet her momthe hot, older woman Cassie slept with.

Book Notes

“Each of us narrates our life as it suits us.”

These are words spoken by Lila to her Brilliant Friend, Elena. These two girls turned women have built a friendship that is both touching and toxic. In the third book we pick up right where we left off in book 2 and it is just as much of a roller coaster as the first two. I won’t offer a summary since it’ll give away what has happened in the previous book but let me just tell you that this series has been both enthralling and memorizing.

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

I never learn anything from listening to myself.

Are there wiser words?

Summary - Flight Behavior addresses global warming and the failings of public education through the story of a Tennessee woman whose thus-far disappointing life changes when 15 million monarch butterflies alight in the woods near her home.

While this book follows Dellarobia, my favorite character was the African-American entomologist, Ovid Byron. His take on climate change and what is (and isn’t) being done about this global issue were my favorite parts of the book. Kingsolver does what she does best – she weaves a fictional story with a real-world problem, much like she did in Demon Copperhead.

I Was Told to Come Alone

If I’ve learned anything, it’s this: a mother’s screams over the bo of her murdered child sound the same, no matter if she is black, brown, or white; Muslim, Jewish, or Christian; Shia or Sunni. We will all be buried in the same ground.

Summary - In this compelling and evocative memoir, we accompany Mekhennet as she journeys behind the lines of jihad, starting in the German neighborhoods where the 9/11 plotters were radicalized and the Iraqi neighborhoods where Sunnis and Shia turned against one another, and culminating on the Turkish/Syrian border region where ISIS is a daily presence.

The Swans of Fifth Avenue

““Totally,” I say. “I totally get that.”

What I totally get is that my father loves James best and James loves my father best and Isabel loved Yuto and Ben best and everyone I know has someone they love best. I’m no one’s best.”

Super Brief Summary A luminous chronicle of betrayal, sacrifice and creative ambition, framed by New Yorks Aids crisis in the 1980s and some seriously complex family cs.

Crossroads

I failed…

Crossroads has been on my list for forever so when I decided to jump on the 12 Recommended challenge and @ka recommend it, I was pumped.

Summary - Crossroads follows Russ and Marion Hildebrandt, whose marriage is close to collapse, and their four children, Clem, Becky, Perry, and Judson. Each chapter is told from the perspective of one of the Hildebrandts, and most are set in the fictional New Prospect Township of suburban Chicago.

A fine balance

…you have to use your failures as stepping stones to success. You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair. In the end its all a question of balance.

Summary - The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city by the sea. The government has just declared a State of Emergency, in whose upheavals four strangers–a spirited widow, a young student uprooted from his i hill station, and two tailors who have fled the caste violence of their native village–will be thrust together, forced to share one cramped apartment and an uncertain future.

Reality is broken

Starting another #hubb

These bud reads with my husband have been really fun! Here’s what we’ve done so far:

11/22/63 - both really enjoyed Matterhorn - both pretty meh but John enjoyed it more Rea Player One - both loved, fun experience too The Storyteller - both enjoyed, husband is a huge fan so he enjoyed it a little more

Now we’ve started Recursion and it is super promising. Often what is lacking in scifi is a female perspective/voice and Recursion alternates between a male cop and a female scientist so that is a plus!

The Strangers

“Margaret used to think this was normal, that all families were made up of so many sad stories. But as she got older, it seemed only Indians, Mtis, who had sorrow built into their bones, who exchanged despair as ordinarily as recipes, who had devastation after devastation after dismissal after denial woven into their skin. As if sad stories were the only heirloom they had to pass on.”

Summary - Cedar has nearly forgotten what her family looks like. Phoenix has nearly forgotten how freedom feels. And Elsie has nearly given up hope. Nearly. These are the Strangers, each haunted in her own way. The Strangers is a searing exploration of race, class, inherited trauma, and matrilineal bonds thatdespite everythingrefuse to be broken.

The Family Tree

So many anticipated books this month…

The way I choose books for the #read groups is by vote! I pick out three or four books and have the current group choose the next month’s book. Sometimes it’s a landslide and sometimes it’s neck and neck (voting day is one of my favorite days of the month ). I often put books back on the vote that were close seconds. The Family Tree was a book that kept coming in second, so close each time. I had a feeling it would make a great book to discuss. The desire to read it won so I finally read this much anticipated book!