My Friends by Fredrik Backman

 genre: contemporary fiction

The painting Louisa finds at the museum, the one of the sea, isn't just a painting.  It's a encapsulation of one perfect day - and artist knows this because he was there.  But for Louisa to meet the artist would take the kind of twist of fate that can only happen when your eyes know beauty when they see it and your heart has been broken enough to know that life is pain.  But the story of Louisa and the painting is only one thread in this story where past and present are so mixed together that we as readers realize it't not really the order in which life happened that's important - it's who we lived it with.  This is a story of finding your people and how your people save you.  In all the ways.  

During the last fourth of this book I had tears in my eyes twice, I was so touched by the tenderness of it.  What is so painfully beautiful about this book is that the heartbreak and the trauma and the actual horror that some of these characters live through somehow manages to stay just off center stage enough that instead of absolutely hating how horrible life can be, the bright light of how people can surprise you makes the story almost glow.  This is a story about how there are people who want to break people and there are people who want to keep people put together and that people can actually shift from one to the other if only there is enough safe space to allow it.  It's a well written, powerful and funny story, even with the desperate pain you feel for children that deserve better than what they get.  I also loved how it is an homage to art and the way that creative pursuits have a value beyond the product - that making something beautiful or SEEING something beautiful can literally change everything.

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood (audiobook)

genre: contemporary fiction

When the narrator of our story visits a small religious commune in the Australian Outback, she doesn't anticipate that one day she will choose to make it her home.  With losses both personal and existential weighing on her, the women she serves with will become a kind of family. When tragedy comes to the door in more than one form, can the peace she finds within these secluded walls be enough to help her forgive herself?

I decided to read (listen) to this because it recently won the Booker Prize.  For me it was slow-going and I always felt like I was watching the story through a dusty window instead of being present.  Like our narrator's issues clouded my own viewing of what's happening.  I haven't read much about rural Australia or about small religous communities, so it wasn't like I was disinterested, I just didn't find myself connected enough to be eager to keep returning.  There are beautiful (and upsetting) parts, I just left it feeling blah.

The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner

 genre: historical/contemporary fiction

Off the coast of Italy lies the little town of Positano.  The women who live here have a secret that has kept Positano safe from all kinds of dangers - they can control the sea.  With their spells, ships can sink and the ocean temperature can rise or fall.  Their magic can't keep away tragedy, though, and more than a century later, when Hazel arrives as part of an archeological crew to study shipwrecks, something is afoot in Positano.  

This is my second book in a row with two different time periods that are connected and I genuinely like this device in general.  The magical world building here is fairly basic - the only magic that exists is that there are these red-haired Italian women who can do sea spells.  It's an intriguing idea and I think that the historical portions of the book were done well enough - it kept me interested and the main character isn't completely one dimensional.  The modern storyline just didn't work as well for me.  It jumped around a bit and it felt like I just had to believe the author that things were happening without the story itself ringing true to me - I don't know how much sense that makes but it's hard to describe.  

I'm not sorry I read it but I can't heartily recommend it.  If you adore Italy you might appreciate it just for the vibes, which were not bad at all.

Happy Land by Dolen Perkins-Valdez (audiobook)

 genre: historical fiction

Nikki‘s relationship with her grandmother isn’t just complicated, it is more like nonexistent. So when she gets a call that Grandma Rita needs her down in North Carolina Nikki decides to take a leap and visit her. It is on this visit that Nikki learns the history of her family and its connection to a remarkable group of formerly enslaved folks who walked to a land that they could not just call Home, but rule for themselves.

This story is told in two timelines as we learn both about Nikki and her experiences with her grandmother as well as the life of their ancestor, the Queen of the kingdom that these tenacious and innovative settlers created. It is a story about land and how your life can get tied to it, about the beauty of working land that is your own and the wealth it can spread to your descendants. It is about strong women and the way that they are always required to sacrifice so much to survive. It is about connections between generations and the power of knowing where we come from.

The dual narration from the audiobook is quite good and more than once a turn of phrase struck me as particularly beautiful. Some of the real estate legal thread felt a little too simple to me but the discussion about land being stolen from Black owners and given over to white families is so important to modern conversations about privilege. I was sometimes a little bored by each timeline but I’m glad I stuck with it.

The Mother Next Door: Medicine, Deception, and Munchausen by Proxy by Andrea Dunlop and Mike Weber (audiobook)

genre: non-fiction, true crime

This non-fiction book centers around three different families and the trauma caused by Munchausen by Proxy. In all of these cases, mothers have convinced the world that their child is ill to such an extent that fiction has blurred reality and these children are in true danger. The authors of this book have personal and professional experience with this horrific child abuse and there is a lot of compassion here for the children and families involved. It’s a very upsetting and yet interesting topic and I found myself really engaged. It has a podcast feel and I learned so much - it’s more like a true crime novel than your average non-fiction.

If you have any interest in this topic or in true crime in general and can handle thinking about child abuse, I do really recommend the book. Kids who have suffered like this deserve for us to think about MBP and what can be done to better protect them.

Citizen 13660 by Mine Okubo

 genre: graphic memoir

This documentary style graphic-type novel is based on the experiences of one young woman who was incarcerated in an internment camp by the American government. As an artist, she actually made the drawings while living IN the camp and there is an immediacy to the artwork that catches the eye. It’s not particularly captivating art - I found it stark and flat but it fits. The captions under each drawing tell, in an emotionally removed way, the context about what we are seeing. It’s a common story if you've read about Japanese interment but it is no less moving for the fact. People are living normal, productive lives, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, and all of a sudden everyone of Japanese descent is removed from their families and jobs and possessions and forced to live in degrading conditions. I appreciated the small details the author shared, the bits of humanity and creativity. That this was published the year after the war ended made it even more real to me. Mine Okubo was literally sharing her own memories right after the fact, and so this book is truly a treasure of a memoir.

We Lived on the Horizon by Erika Swyler

genre: speculative fiction

When the climate forced people to leave their homes and build a walled city, those who made the most sacrifices to ensure humanity continued were named Sainted.  Their houses and families deserbe the best that their new city, Bulwark, has to offer.  In Bulwark, a complex network of systems ensures that everyone will eventually pay their life debt to society - except the Sainted. For Enita, also known as Skin Stitch, she still wants to contribute despite her being Sainted.  Enita can grow any part a human might need to have repaired or replaced and this ability has only come about with the help of the the AI that runs her home and, eventually, will become so much more to her.  As Bulwark's seams between to show its wear, Enita and the small family-she-chooses, will have to make some devastating choices about whether staying is possible.

Honestly, I really got in to this.  I saw some other reviewers say that it feel repetitive, I see a tiny bit of that. For me, the whole meta idea of this novel as well as the super intricate details of how this kind of world could happen and exist - I just was completely interested.  Enita is a frustrating character sometimes but empathetic at others.  This book REALLY made me think about AI in a way that felt almost spicy to my brain, I believed that it could happen this way and that made this such an intriguing read.  The end was gorgeous and powerful to me.  If you enjoy books by Ursula K. Le Guin or Margaret Atwood or Octavia Butler, this might appeal to you too!

It's a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan (audiobook)

genre: contemporary romance

Jane Jackson loves the movies.  Not all movies, mind you, she's got strong opinions, but sitting in a theater watching a film has been a comforting place since she was a little girl with a single mom.  This led to her teenage years spent on a popular teen tv show and a job in the industry.  Now, Jane has a movie she wants to make.  It's a movie about the kind of love she wants to believe is possible but can't bring herself to.  But to get this movie greenlighted, she's going to have to deal with her past in a very present way and involves telling one tiny lie that rolls into a big lie.  

This was such a fast listen for me.  I didn't even talk about the romance in my little summary up there, I don't know why. Because this is definitely a romance and it was so well done.  The love interest is complicated and also dreamy.  Jane is so complicated, in ways that felt believable.  The dialogue feels so natural and I liked the conversations about the ways we can mess with ourselves in our minds.  The only reason I'm giving it 4.5 instead of 5 is that it felt a little predictable for me at the end, like, I guessed what would happen.  Which I KNOW is just the fact that I have read many contemporary romance novels but for some reason, here, I wanted to be wrong. It is NOT a reason to not read this book.  If you liked her other books, I think for sure you'll like this.

Houses With a Story by Seiji Yoshida, Jan Mitsuko Cash (Translator)

 genre: fantasy/architecture

Are you a person, like myself, who has always loved to see the cross sections of houses?  Who loves floorplans and miniatures?  If so, this is truly the book for you.  Each spread (or two) is a story about a person/creature who lives in a specific place and time.  Sometimes fanciful, sometimes more authentic and historical, always intriguing, this book takes you to places you didn't even know to imagine.  

It's delightful. The drawings all have a vague Manga feel, which I loved.  My adult self loved it and the little girl inside me was so content.  My 12 year old son is INSISTING I give it five stars (he read it twice) and my 20 year old son who is home from college read it and came up to me to tell me how interesting it was. I think I might buy actually a copy to keep in the house, it's such a crowd pleaser.

Walking with Sam by Andrew McCarthy

genre: memoir

As much as I love traveling, I do not tend to pick up travel memoirs.  I'd rather DO the traveling than read about someone else doing it.  But a friend recommended this and I'm glad I picked it up - because as much as it's about a father and son walking across Spain on the Camino de Santiago, it's also about being a parent to a young adult and the long process of growing up.

There is a certain amount of repetition, just because what they really do, every day, is get up and walk a super long time and then stop somewhere for the night.  I mean, that's the book, in some ways.  But it's also about what Andrew and Sam talk about, how they struggle and stretch, the friends they make and the things they see on the miles they pass.  A lot of what Andrew processes is his own stuff and how that stuff impacts how he sees Sam.  Is Sam a pill a lot of the time?  He is.  But he rings true and by the end, even I'm proud of how he's showing up.  There are some beautiful depictions of this celebrated trail - add to that a sometimes blunt depiction of the reality of this kind of travel and it made for an interesting read.