Finished Jess Walter's The Angel of Rome and Other Stories. He's one of those writers that makes beautiful writing look effortless.
Next up was Scattered All Over the Earth, by Yoko Tawada. In the near future, Japan is gone, fallen (sunken?) to climate change, along with most of its citizens. Hiruko now lives in Denmark, seeking anyone who speaks her first language, while she communicates in Panska, a pidgin Scandinavian language she created. She gathers a motley crew and travels around Europe. As she weaves stories for immigrant children out of her memories of Japanese fairy tales, she pulls from universal folklore to fill in the blanks of her memories. Really creative, and I look forward to the next two books in the trilogy.
I followed this up with a binge read of Denise Mina's Garnethill trilogy. Set in the underbelly of Glasgow, I found myself rooting for Maureen, even though I usually hate characters that constantly get in their own way. Very satisfying ending for me!
A nonfiction break with 52 Ways to Walk by Annabel Streets. A nice supplement to The Age Well Project, and a few good ideas for future walks (once it cools off!)
A memoir by Raynor Winn, The Salt Path left me wanting to shake the author at times. A couple loses their family farm just as the husband is diagnosed with a terminal disease. Somehow she decides walking the the South West Coast Path in England is the best way to stretch their dole payment. I kept thinking there should have been someone they could have stayed with, but then there would have been no book. An interesting if disquieting cautionary tale.
The Marlow Murder Club, by Robert Thorogood. A variation on Strangers on a Train, set in a Thames-side village. Very little character development and not a series I'll continue.
Another first in a series English mystery, The Body in the Garden, by Katherine Schellman, was a bit better. Schellman left room for her main characters to grow, and the London setting was a plus.
I downloaded The Christie Affair, by Nina de Gramont on audio for my visits to Jean, thinking I'd finish it in five days of driving. Instead, Jean got Covid, and I listened around the house. Great narrator, and I figured I knew what was coming, so I wasn't too upset when my loan ended while I still had an hour or so left in the book. Because it was a 7 day hold, I got an instant notification that I could borrow it again, so I finished, and I'm glad it did, because de Gramont added a great plot twist that tied some things up most satisfactorily!
The Doylestown Library purchased two gardening books I'd requested based on reviews in The New York Times: You Grow, Gurl, by Christoper Griffin and Becoming a Gardener, by Catie Marron. The former was an introduction to houseplants, covering what and where to buy plants, how to place them in your home, and how to pot and care for them. The author is a self-described Plant Kween, and the book is a chatty version of his Instagram, and was a quick and fun read. I'd love to see Griffin and Marron have cocktails together! Marron worked in finance, as an editor at Vogue, and is the widow of a very, very rich man. Her book is gorgeous, sprinkled with watercolor illustrations, paintings (some from their art collection) and photography of her garden. It reads more like a long essay, and reminded me of Dominque Browning, who oddly doesn't get mentioned in the extensive bibliography (and I just went down a Google rabbit hole to be reminded that it was Browning who wrote the reviews of these gardening books!)
And this morning, I finished Nuclear Family, by Joseph Han, about a Korean family living in Honolulu. I was so close to DNFing this in the middle and am very glad I didn't. The family runs a few Korean lunch plate restaurants, with sporadic help from their two children. Jacob, who knows his family won't accept him being gay, travels to Seoul to teach English. His grandfather, who wanders Seoul as a ghost, trying to return to the north to reunite with his first family, finds Jacob and possesses him. Jacob then attempts to cross the DMZ, failing and bringing massive negative attention to his family in Hawaii. His sister is self medicating her depression with pot, and is never without a bong, a vape pen, or edibles. It was unremittingly bleak, but Han pulls out a hopeful ending. Another reminder that telling a hyper-specific story well always tells the universal story, too: Always connect.
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