The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

30 pages in: This isn't literary, so I couldn't enjoy it in that particular way.

250ish pages in: I enjoy genre fiction, but as genre fiction, it wasn't sufficiently enjoyable. I don't even grasp the concept of painful genre fiction really. The characters were insufficiently developed for me to care about very deeply, which is surprising considering how long this book was. Likewise, important relationships like Vianne and Rachel weren't sufficiently developed even though they're important lifelong friends. Isabelle falls in love with a guy she barely knows and I couldn't care less. Okay so maybe it's like an action book? With action and nothing else?

About 300 pages in: But the thing that bothered me the most was the concept of the "Nazi with the heart of gold." We're not even talking about Hitler youth, we're talking about a grown man who seems fully cognizant of the Nazi plans. Who does in fact personally send Jewish people off to concentration camps. But he "doesn't like it" so somehow that's okay? But Vianne still thinks he's a really nice guy. Maybe that sort of thing seemed cute in 2015 before the 2016 election? Well, it wasn't, and F that. Evil nonsense like that is why the planet is burning right now. I get that people that are initially good can be corralled into doing evil things. That's part of the horror of the Third Reich! However, once a person gets to a certain point and doesn't turn back in any way-- let's not pretend that person is "good" anymore. If an active Nazi - no matter how he got to that point- isn't evil, then evil has no meaning.

301 pages in: Oh no, seriously, there's another 140 pages to go? Then the really bad stuff happens... I have other complaints about this section that I will skip because they're spoilers.

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The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the 8th Murakami book I've read and definitely in the top three for me along with Norwegian Wood and After Dark. The short of it is that Toru Okada is having some angst after leaving his legal job (I relate to that!) when things get very magically weird and his wife leaves him in mysterious circumstances. Interwoven with that is a bunch of truly horrific World War II stories from the perspective of Japanese soldiers in Mongolia, China, and Russia.

Beyond that, it's really difficult to explain what I think the book's deeper meaning is about. It's pretty complex; to give you a rough idea, it's very long and I can't actually think of any scenes that could have been cut. I pretty much always think editors should have slashed down long books. Unlike many Murakami novels, it actually mostly made sense even though it was full of literal magic. I wasn't prepared for such an in-depth exploration of violence, and I think this fantasy book also deserves a horror classification.


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The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende

The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This novel could have been titled, "Everyone Has Secrets," as it appears to be more about that than "The Japanese Lover," who, by the way, to my mind, is American. This was very readable, and I was always glad to return to the story, and the characters were interesting. I didn't precisely become attached to the characters the way I do with some characters (I even get attached to unlikable characters sometimes). I would recommend this book in general.

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The Houseguest by Kim Brooks

The Houseguest by Kim Brooks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This novel is full of beautiful writing. I'm looking forward to whatever Brooks writes next.

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The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazing. Phillip Roth's plot-writing is unequaled. Also, this terrifying alternate history doesn't feel so very alternate these days that American democratic values are under siege, numerous groups are openly the targets of hate speech (sometimes by the President himself) and violence, and there are domestic calamities like little children being held in detention centers without their parents, soap, or sufficient diapers.

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A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is not the sexy Buddhist nun story it promises to be on the first few pages. That was a disappointment. It is also not the realistic story it promises to be for the first 60% of the book as it descends into magical realism madness. But I fell in love with the characters and any book that weaves mindfulness and physics into a narrative about time is likely to win me over.

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All My Sons by Arthur Miller

All My Sons by Arthur Miller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Woah, super intense and very powerful denunciation of greed. Basically an essay on our responsibility for each other in this world. It was extremely dramatic, as in, very sensational.

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The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson

The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World by Niall Ferguson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Fergeson tried to present a history of currency and monetary policy but he got mired in the history of it, and it seemed to lose focus. Some sort of point or thesis would have given this shape. He ended up tackling a lot of topics and I learned a few things here and there but not as much as if he'd given some direction to his sometimes conservative and sometimes liberal points.

Also, because he was focusing on the "history" aspect of his book it was organized at first in a chronological order by category of "innovation" but then the chronology fell apart with Chapter 6. This was just a little disorientating in an already thesisless tome.

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Atonement by Ian McEwan

Atonement by Ian McEwan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed reading this book, especially the beginning. The characters were deliciously flawed (like real people you love). The plot was both compelling and I liked the differences in perspective from the different character about the same events. The love story was unique and well-executed. I flew through the early pages of the novel. However, I didn't appreciate the gimmicky aspects of the book which only became apparent towards the end.

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Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Meh. Maybe I would have liked it better if it weren't so unrewardingly long. In a strange way, it reminds me of Gravity's Rainbow, if GR were readable and even a tiny but enjoyable- which it is not.

I enjoyed the fun little math sketches in the book and the characters were good. The plot veered between boring and stressful with only small sections in the beginning and middle that I really enjoyed. I'm sad I didn't like it more. I see a lot of enthusiasm for the book in the other reviews and I want to share in that. I loved Anathem, and I'm not giving up on Stephenson. I might need to try for a shorter Stephenson novel next time though.

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My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout

My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very short, beautiful, and somewhat sad book. It's about a protagonist Lucy, her family, and a few people that make an impression on her. It's about love-and-hurt. It's about poverty. War. Psychological trauma in the lower case.

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41: A Portrait of My Father by George W. Bush

41: A Portrait of My Father by George W. Bush
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book. Former President George W. Bush writes a biography of his father former President George H. W. Bush. I'm a liberal and so I don't think all the interpretations of events are precisely accurate, but I moved by the way George H. W. Bush lived his life in public and in private. I am also impressed by his accomplishments. This is both a celebration of George H. W. Bush specifically and American values and democracy generally. Over and over again, W talks about H.W.'s efforts to reach out to political opponents at home and abroad. As a result, he developed some of the surprising friendships, including with the Clintons and Obamas.

This is also an amazing palate cleanser for everyone suffering through the current election.

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Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Why did I force myself to read this book when I hated nearly every minute of it? It was my dad's favorite book. Quitting just wasn't an option. This does however raise a number of questions about my dad's psyche.

Reading this book is like being inside the brain of a sadistic genius who has completely lost his sanity. Also it takes place during the bombings of World War II so there's good cause to lose one's sanity.

I liked the way the end of the book came back to many of the things at the beginning, especially the dodos, haha. I appreciated Pynchon's contemplation of death. Still, I wish the entire "Part 3: In the Zone" section of the book were just cut. Reading the book was painful enough with the unnecessary meanderings of Part 3.

I am giving three stars, but in this one case it does not mean that I liked the book. If I were adhering to the star system suggested by Goodreads I would give it 1 star. I can't give it one star because obviously Pynchon is a genius. He might be an evil genius though. Would that I could un-read certain sections of the book, I think I would.


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Maus II : And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman

Maus II : And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This one was better than the first. It was an interesting combination of an exploration of the relationship between the father and son (the author) and the father's memories in the concentration camps and after. It made me feel: angry, sad, interested, and inspired.

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Maus I: A Survivor's Tale by Art Spiegelman

Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A father and son (the author, Art Spiegelman) discuss the father's experience as a Jewish Polish citizen during the Holocaust. The first book deals with the father and mother successfully avoiding the concentration camps until 1944. This part is really stressful and upsetting, and we haven't even gotten to the concentration camp yet (Part II).

It also deals with the father and son's current day relationship as the Spiegelman interviews his father for the book. It's meta.

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The Third Man by Graham Greene

The Third Man by Graham Greene
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The End of the Affair is one of my favorite books, but this doesn't move me as that did. As a mystery or moral tale, it's a good read.

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Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one of the best nonfiction books I've read. A huge part of why this book is so good is the because the source of the book is an author who has gone through and seen so much suffering. The same message wouldn't seem as valid coming from someone else. It's full of observations that anyone who has suffered can relate to- but that many who have not yet suffered have no familiarity with. And yet, the suffering Frankl experienced and witnessed is so extreme, that it's difficult to pity yourself-- or even doubt yourself-- in the face of it.

The first half of the book describes Frankl's experience in four concentration camps during WWII and the second part of the describes his particular brand of psychotherapy called "logotherapy." This therapy seeks to help people find meaning in their lives and even in their suffering.

Frankl doesn't try to tell you what is meaningful (though there is a strong bias towards helping others in the examples he gives that seems correct to me) but rather that person should pursue whatever is meaningful to them in the particular situation that they're in.


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A Separate Peace by John Knowles

A Separate Peace by John Knowles
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

We had to read this in high school and I hated it then. I recently reread it to see if I still hate it and I do. First of all, the main character has no sense of the significance of World War II. The only good part of the entire book is how well the author captures that sense of anger that those we love the most can inspire-- but nothing is ultimately made of it. The main character regrets his feelings and actions and even tries in a limited way to take responsibility but the whole literary exercise feels pointless, boring, and despicable all at once.

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Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"How nice—to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive."

I love this book. I love the idea of getting unstuck in time- and it's definitely a thing that can happen to a person, psychologically speaking. (Though possibly there's some physics to suggest it could happen in reality as well.)

I love the protest of "So it goes." It's like a prayer after the death of each individual in the novel.

I love all the discontinuous moments of Billy Pilgrim's life.

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Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed

Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The topic is interesting and the writing is great, and if someone had cut this book in half it would have been 5 stars. As it is, it is nearly unreadable. The first time I tried I quit 50% of the way, but I own a copy so I tried again. The only way I made it through is by powering through the audiobook, meaning that when I zoned out I just rewound a bit a kept going. Every sentence definitely didn't get in my brain.

On the other hand, if you love monetary policy, this is the book for you.

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