My Recent Reads: January-April 2023
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Happy Spring, friends! I hope the longer days with their lingering light have helped shake off some of that winter languidness by now. I myself have been slow on the uptake still, but I hear we have weather in the consistent 20s incoming, so ask me again on the other side of that. I feel a bit like a molting caterpillar right now, like the sunshine will have me emerging into a warm world quite invigorated and alive. It strikes me anew and takes me aback at the turn of every season when the change in climate triggers an evolution in my mood, personality and demeanor- how ever did I manage to live 21 years of my life blissfully unaware of weather and climes and microclimates and forecasts living in India?! Ah, how I miss those years of taking the weather for granted! It isn’t the reality anymore for my family that lives there amidst increasing heat, but even still, my personal preference continues to be to shed layers than to add them on.
As you’ll see from the short reading list below, it’s been an atypically slow year of reading for me thus far. The slow season is to blame, yes, but mostly, it’s the dichotomy of our faster paced life recently that seems to be accompanying these slower seasonal transitions that leaves little time for little luxuries such as reading. This season of life has been about professional power moves and nurturing our home & relationships, and I have no doubt that nearly every one of these authors would likely understand my reshuffled priorities for a bit.❤️
1. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
I was chugging along with a steady stream of complaints like it’s too long, it’s too slow and then I cried a little bit at the end, so I guess it snuck up on me? 🥲 Marcellus is pure heart in fictional octopus farm, and the human characters aren’t half-bad either. Just a fun feel-good read. Just give yourself permission to skip some pages if needed.😬
2. Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Waited only a year for this hold.🫠 Definitely my favorite read of ‘23 so far- a poignantly articulated memoir that often felt like reading my own thoughts on family and food, perhaps because Asian cultures share similar themes. Loved deepening my K-drama-piqued knowledge in all things South Korean, and the more emotional observations that have stayed with me since.❤️
3. The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty
I have so much respect for Tess Gunty’s specific voice (in a debut novel nonetheless!) and do agree with the National Book Award win, but for me personally, this was a classic case of liking parts more than the whole. So many intelligent, perceptive thoughts! Inserted though, into hyper-articulate, stream of consciousness text that felt unnecessarily intense. I tried, but maybe there will never be a critically acclaimed book that also makes my heart happy.😅
4. Incense and Sensibility by Sonali Dev
Made it to no. 3 in the Rajes’ rom-com escapades! I’ve featured the first two books in the series in earlier editions of Recent Reads, and it’s consistently stayed enjoyable as an easy, fun read between heavier titles. Bollywood-meets-Jane Austen, Bay Area-based, solidly first-gen immigrant South Asian - what’s not to love and relate to?? The fourth and final installment in the series is on my TBR list, and then onto her (& some more South Asian authors’) other titles!
5. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
It’s an A+ on the entertainment factor, but the hype squad online needs to change their description of the book from lessons on friendship to lessons on what not to do in friendships! It seemed to me that the main characters can’t communicate to save their lives. 😅 Loved the gaming parts though, and revisiting LA! I just learned in the last minute that it’s getting made into a movie, which I’m hoping will redeem some of the more frustrating book scenarios.🤞🏽
6. Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez
Is it me, because I couldn’t fully get into this book in the ways I was hoping to! The conversation around Puerto Rican statehood and independence is SUCH an important one, and I appreciate that the POVs in this storyline come at it from all sides in authentic ways. I fell in love with the island and its people during a 2016 trip there, and cannot wait for the day when they’re given their dues. Even more so since Hurricanes Irma and Maria. 💔
7. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
This was fun even if it made me a little sad along the way! Strong, quirky characters (cast perfectly btw in the on-screen adaptation, from what I’ve seen so far!) and a plot that got increasingly layered.👌🏾 My only gripe is that the girl power feminist angle felt a bit forced at times, but that’s my cynical 2023 brain talking. As a final note, six-thirty is my favorite byeeeee.
8. Solito by Javier Zamora
Possibly another contender for this year’s favorites so far. Zamora’s memoir recounts the grueling solo journey of emigrating from El Salvador to the US at… wait for it… nine years of age. Captured to prose in a directly honest way, the account swings between pure-hearted optimism to being reunited with his parents, to naked fear in the unimaginably challenging conditions that refugees and immigrants invariably face. Everyone should read this book.❤️
9. Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley
Oof, this was hard to read. Kiara is a hard-hitting protagonist- an East Oakland-raised teenager whose honest ambitions are siderailed following her family’s fracture, survival forces her into sex work with subsequent dire ramifications. As much as Mottley has succeeded at portraying burdened BIPOC communities, it shows sometimes that she wrote this as a teenager. I’ve heard great reviews of the audiobook format though, if you’re open to it!
What’s in the running for your favorite book of 2023? 😃 Leave a comment below so we can all update our TBR lists with it!
Thank you for reading and have a great week ahead!
XO Sushmitha :)
