My Recent Reads: September-December 2020
/The last compilation of My Recent Reads for the year? My, how time flies even when you’re not doing the most. 😅 You may agree, but reading books has definitely been a highlight of 2020 for me. Working from home has allowed for reading breaks aplenty, and for that, I will always look back on this period of time fondly. In this last week of the year, I am blissfully doing more of this favorite activity, along with some *gleefully claps hands* curation of reading wishlists for 2021 based on all of the Best of 2020 book lists that have come out. My kind of party planning.😄 I hope this last installment of book reviews provides some additions to your own wishlist!
Five Years by Rebecca Serle
A page-turner of a read! A premonition defines a five-year period of romance and friendship, but somehow, it reads like an edgy thriller? I may have binge read it in three nights, and raved about it to K for three nights after. 🙈
2. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Definitely one of my favorite books of the year! Brit Bennett does an artful job of telling the multigenerational story of a pair of sisters from the Deep South, whose racially-based decisions chart vastly different courses for their lives. Despite being centered around the themes of race and class, it elaborates on much more- love, family, forgiveness being a few. Read it. ❤️
3. Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow
Read at your own risk (of enragement). After breaking Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting on Harvey Weinstein’s horrendous criminal behaviors, Ronan Farrow did us the favor of writing a book on the before, after and the truly despicable during of the entire thing. As distasteful as the topic at hand is, I appreciated getting to know the BTS of a major news story being covered, especially when it’s as explosive as this one was. Perhaps my fascination came from having journalistic dreams growing up, but this was an A+ read.🙌🏽
4. Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane
I first caught wind of this title when Eva Chen raved about it on a podcast and finally got around to it’s lengthy self in September. So glad I did, because it is beautiful. I love family dramas with intimate portraits of characters and relationships, and this book draws story arcs that are truly masterful. Keane also has a very arresting style of prose that held power over me from start to finish. Highly recommend!💕
5. The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver
It may have been wrong timing, but this narration of a widow’s journey to finding love was simultaneously too dark and too glib for me in the year of a pandemic. I skimmed through most of the book. 😶
6. The Topeka School by Ben Lerner
This was a book that captivated and confused at the same time, as high-brow literary fiction sometimes does for me. It’s got a fascinating story of white male rage at the center of it, but is written in a very introspective, stream-of-consciousness style that’s hard to follow. Oh, well.
7. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Did you devour Daisy Jones & The Six with relish as I did? If so, this title comes well-recommended from TJR fans. A ‘50s Hollywood star tasks a nondescript writer to interview her for a biography, but why? The ensuing pages are a dramatic recap of her eventful life and oh, there’s a twist in the tale. Entertaining and fun, if that’s what you’re looking for!
8. Euphoria by Lily King
Writers & Lovers made me into a Lily King fan earlier this year, but Euphoria fully solidified my love for her wordsmith-ing! In this book, she so artfully brings to life the turbulent dynamics between anthropologists working with New Guinea’s Sepik river tribes in the 1930s. I was transported there while reading and only hesitantly left when the book finished. Part romance, part anthropology- SO good.💯
9. The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin
I’m a complete sucker for a good sibling saga and there’s no lack of truly amazing ones- The Vanishing Half, Long Bright River and Hidden Valley Road from this list alone, but also The Dutch House, Commonwealth, The Immortalists and The Glass Castle jump out from recent memory. This title doesn’t make the hall of fame for me with the rest, but it’s a moving and affectionately written read nevertheless. 😊
10. Long Bright River by Liz Moore
I’m realizing as I type this that a theme is emerging from this list - a suspenseful writing style that lends an edge-of-your-seat quality to any genre. In Five Years, Ask Again Yes, Long Bright River, White Ivy and The Glass Hotel are ALL written this way. You know… the prose is so good that you want to slow down & absorb, but your heart’s beating so fast that you devour the pages? Liz Moore does a particularly chilling but empathetic job of portraying sisterhood during the opioid epidemic. It’s heavy but expanded my mind in a way that was worth the discomfort. This one’s a 2020 favorite.
11. Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
I had mistakenly assumed that this was a sequel to an earlier 2020 fave by Gyasi, Homegoing, but I can tell you now that it is not.😅It’s the very introspective reflections on science and religion of Gifty, a neuroscience PhD candidate prompted to research the basis of addiction after the disease wreaks havoc on her own family. Being a neuroscientist with a PhD myself, I have never felt so seen in literary fiction. I later discovered that the fictional protagonist’s work is based on the real-life research of a postdoc that I’m very familiar with in my own career- how COOL! 🤩
12. White Ivy by Susie Yang
I’m so disappointed that I don’t love this book because it started off so great! Ivy’s a first gen Asian American child with a few MAJOR character flaws and the first half of the book progresses like a classic coming-of-age story with a suspenseful edge. Halfway through, though, it fell flat for me on all fronts- the mystery abrubtly fizzles out and Ivy’s character went so far down on the likeability scale that there was eventually nobody to root for. Like I said, disappointing.
13. The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
This book is so SMART. Converging plotlines concerning a remote Canadian luxury hotel, a Manhattan-based Ponzi scheme and a container ship in un-owned waters fit together like the expertly crafted pieces of a puzzle. I found myself slightly underwhelmed with the ending, but I thoroughly enjoyed the ride with it’s eerie build-up anyhow.👌🏽
14. Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker
Currently reading! As you can tell, I’m selective with my non-fiction picks 😅and this one made the cut straight out of Obama’s 2020 book recommendations. It’s been an incredibly interesting read so far, describing the Galvin family and its singular misfortunes when 6 of the family’s 12 children become diagnosed with schizophrenia and consequently, the focus of the biomedical community in their search for the disease’s cure. The neuroscientist in me is fascinated, but I can tell that the empath in me is in for a rough time.
As always, let’s discuss! I’d love to know what you are reading, and if you’ve read any of the above titles, your thoughts on them.😊
Thank you for reading, have a good last week of 2020 ahead and please stay safe & well! Happy (almost) new year!!
XO Sushmitha :)
