Room by Emma Donoghue
This was such a good read. Stimulating, emotional, thought-provoking. Room is about a young woman who gets kidnapped for seven years. During her time in Room (which is really a garden shed in this guy’s backyard), she has a son, Jack.
Like I said, I thought this book was so great. My only critique is that I thought their time in Room was cut too short. About half the book is about Ma and Jack’s time in Room and half the book is about their time in the world after they escape. In my opinion, Donoghue should have dedicated more of the book to describing Jack and his mom in Room. Because their time in Room felt short to me, their escape felt rushed too.
Other than that, I thought this book was riveting, even though parts of it are extremely sad and shocking. But what I liked so much about this book was the perspective — it’s told from Jack’s five-year-old point of view. To him, Room is all he ever knew because he was born there, so when he gets out of Room and sees the world, everything is new to him. It was incredibly interesting to read his take on normal, mundane things that all humans too. At times, Jack misses Room, which makes sense, but is also perverse in a sense because the world is supposed to be better than where he came from. I also loved the relationship between Jack and his mom. They were very close, obviously, but they also had a friendship as they helped each other through things that they struggled with. It wasn’t all “mom provides for her son” — Jack is also there for his mom a lot, which I liked. I think this relationship makes sense, since he is an extremely smart kid. I also wonder why Jack’s mother’s name isn’t ever revealed. Her name throughout the story was “Ma” — her real name was never mentioned. I guess Donoghue did this to keep the book in Jack’s perspective, but still, this strikes me as strange.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this story and it’s honestly one of the most jarring books I’ve read this year. Definitely recommend it.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens was one of the best books I read this year. The story follows this girl named Kya and her life in Barkley Cove, a quiet town off the coast of North Carolina. It also follows the story of Chase Andrews, one of the boys who lives in the town who is found dead one night. I was a bit skeptical about reading this book with so much hype surrounding it but that hype is there for good reason.
First of all, the writing in this book is amazing. It’s so descriptive and vivid. I really liked the characters, especially our main character, Kya. She is smart and cunning, she has a big character arc, and her struggles are realistic based on her circumstances. I also liked how this book is a celebration of nature. I don’t feel like books I read emphasize nature a lot but this one did and that was such a nice change, especially with our world’s current climate situation. Lastly, this book had an interesting trial intertwined in the end that I thought was done very well.
I don’t have many complaints about this book because it was such a good story. It made me feel all the emotions and it made me in awe of the beauty of a marsh, which I never thought would happen. If you can’t already tell, I really recommend this book — do pick it up if you haven’t yet.
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
Well, Ruda Sepetys did it again with Salt to the Sea — I am an emotional wreck right now. I liked “Between Shades of Gray” a lot and honestly, this one is just as good. The writing is *okay* but I really liked the split perspectives we follow, the plot and the historical backdrop.
The year is 1945 and we follow 4 characters who are fleeing for safety as Russia attacks and it seems that Hitler will soon be overthrown. All evacuees are boarding the Wilhelm Gustloff which they hope will bring them to safety from the advancing Red Army. Little do they know, this ship is doomed to sink because of a Soviet submarine waiting in the sea for them.
At first I didn’t really like the split perspectives because I found them hard to follow but I eventually liked them at the end of the book because the characters started revealing more information about themselves and their storylines became more distinct. Another part of this book that I wasn’t a fan of was that I thought it took too much time for the characters to board the ship and then the sinking happened so quickly. I guess this was how it really happened but these 2 parts definitely caught me off guard in how they are described in the book.
Overall, this book is evocative and poignant as it recounts a really dark period in human history. I didn’t know about the Wilhelm Gustloff before reading this story and it’s not taught about it in school. However, I think it should be because there are more victims that died on this maritime tragedy than on the Titanic and Lusitania. This story is brutal and harrowing, yet a necessary read. It is definitely something that’s going to stay with me for a long time.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad is a book I’ve been wanting to read since last summer, when it got recommended to me. I follows Cora, the main character, who works on a plantation in Georgia as a slave. With the help of another character, Caesar, Cora escapes the plantation via the Underground Railroad. However, this is no ordinary Underground Railroad — it is a true, bustling subway built through the rock of the United States.
This book was a quick read for me because I liked Whitehead’s prose a lot — he’s a wonderful writer and he has a great command of language. He knows how to craft sentences in a technical and astute way that is unlike the writing in a lot of other books I’ve read. Moreover, Whitehead does not shy away from writing about the horrors of slavery. Have you ever seen the movie 12 Years A Slave? Think that, but worse. Some scenes in this book were so hard to read and it just showed how horrendous the whole operation of slavery was. Another important aspect of this book was the theme of community of coming together. “It takes a village to raise a child” rang true in this book as it showed that every single action that someone takes, no matter big or small, contributes to the success of the Underground Railroad. The genre of this book is also worth noting — it is a mix between historical fiction, as it references oppression of African Americans and Black people from the transatlantic slave trade all the way to the Black Lives Matter movement, and fantasy, because it chronicles a real Underground Railroad, which didn’t actually happen. I found this genre to be unique and I liked how it showed Cora learning more about herself and the world too.
In general, I liked this book, but I do think it got a little overhyped for me. I think I was also a bit detached from the story as it was told through multiple POVs (not just Cora’s), with some also in third person. The real-life Underground Railroad element was very imaginative, and I liked how this also connected to the theme of community. Lastly, I really liked how the book presented each state as a parallel universe — it reminded me of the Inferno a little bit. Instead of Dante going through the levels of Hell, it was Cora. And I also liked the part where Cora was kept in the attic in North Carolina to keep from getting killed because it reminded me of Anne Frank.
In general, I enjoyed this book, but I do think I was a bit underwhelmed. Despite this feeling, I can appreciate it for all of its different themes it presents and for the “call to action” it seems to have to help the Native Americans and African Americans in this country. Definitely read this one.
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles is a wonderful story to curl up to any day. The book is about a man, Count Alexander Rostov, who is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol hotel in Moscow, Russia.
Certainly categorized as historical fiction, “A Gentleman in Moscow” takes place in Moscow in 1922 after the Russian Revolution when the Bolsheviks take control. I loved learning about all the Russian history, politics, economics and its differences from America, but I didn’t necessarily like how Towles tells it to you. The book very much educates the reader directly, by going out of its way to tell you the history in whole paragraphs at a time. Instead, I would have preferred if the history was interspersed within the dialogue of the characters, so as to be more in the background of the story. This is just a personal preference, so it doesn’t cast any negative light upon the book for me at all.
Besides that, I loved our main protagonist, Count Alexander. He is smart, sophisticated, charming and full of ruses and antics. I also liked his daughter, Sofia, and how their paths align. In fact, all the characters are so well described that they came to life for me in this book. The writing is exquisite and the humor never stops. The book is also so quotable, and is stock full of good themes applicable to any reader. It was such a fun read that I was able to sit down and gobble it up for big chunks at a time, as I was so enamored in the adventures at the Metropol Hotel. I can’t wait until the TV series comes out!
The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter and How to Make the Most of Them by Dr. Meg Jay
Dr. Meg Jay’s The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter and How to Make the Most of Them is her book that talks of the needed tools to make the most of your twenties with the stories of twentysomethings themselves to prove it. I liked this book, and I didn’t. I think it is pertinent to read up on the importance of one’s twenties, but sometimes I thought that the author was too sobering.
Let’s start with what I liked. I liked how Jay incorporates valuable information about building identity capital, the importance of weak ties and networking, why thinking about relationships and marriage earlier matters, calming yourself and managing your anxiety, why living by yourself before marrying is not a great idea (the cohabitation effect), women’s fertility statistics, forward and intentional thinking, the importance of doing the math, and managing your time wisely. I appreciated all the anecdotes from Jay’s twentysomething clients about their transparent and life-changing moments which is why they think they should have used the time in their twenties more wisely. I think their stories are very relatable. One of the anecdotes that hit home for me was Danielle’s job crisis. Danielle had started a high-profile job in film production but her boss was a monster and he was giving her so much anxiety. Danielle wanted to quit everyday, she cried relentlessly, and she lost sleep over this job. She would often call her family and friends during her lunch break so they could calm her down. The reason I connected so much to this story was that I too suffer from a lot of anxiety and stress. Dr. Jay says that it is extremely important to control one’s emotions and build confidence by looking at the facts. Danielle needed to realize that not excelling didn’t mean failing, it meant she was trying to do better. Danielle was also calling her parents and friends on her lunch breaks so they would reason with her, but she needed to reason with herself — she needed to know how to calm herself down because she kept letting others do it for her. Like I said, I thought this story was really impactful, as it taught me about managing my own anxiety and doubts. I also want to take the Big 5 test now.
On to what I didn’t like. Mainly, I thought that Dr. Jay was too blunt and too condescending with some of her clients. This may be the sensitive side in me kicking in, but I truly think that if she was going to include others’ honest stories in her book, she needed to be a bit nicer about dealing with them. She often says she is annoyed or impatient at her clients for saying something. While I appreciate Jay’s transparency, she needs to realize that these people’s stories are in public view now and she needs to be charismatic about them, which I thought Jay lacked at times. I also think Jay makes blanket statements about individuals who think their twenties are for fun and for one-time flings are wasting these years. These statements conveyed to me that if you aren’t busy and aren’t productive in your twenties, you aren’t doing your twenties right. Which, in my opinion, is not the case. I think everyone’s journey is different, and it may take more people to zig zag around than others to get to the right direction. Lastly, I don’t like how Dr. Jay handles the fertility section. I get that she wants to stress that women’s peak fertility is in the twenties, yet she goes on to say that if a woman has a baby in her late thirties and fortifies, the grandparents may only be able to spend a few years with their grandchildren because they’ll be octogenarian at that point. I thought this was overboard. Quite frankly, anytime a parent has a child, the grandparent will most likely be happy and make a point to spend time with them.
If you are twenty or older, I would give this book a shot. Yes, I did have some problems with it, but I liked the overarching theme of being intentional with your goals and time. Like the writer John Irving says, start with the end and work backwards. This way, when you’re older, you like what you wake up to every day. The key is to be happy in your twenties, (don’t squander it but have fun), and have that happy ending too.
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth tells the story of how a cathedral is build at a monastery set in the 12th century of England. However, this is only the backdrop of the story; there are a lot of little plots intertwined throughout the book while this cathedral is being built.
The things that stood out to me about this book the most were the characters and the amazing piece of historical fiction that this book is. Follett writes a masterpiece of details from the 12th century England and throughout the story, you can get a really great grasp of how life was back then — the clothes people wore, the food they eat, how they travelled, how their battles were fought, and their politics. Essentially, Follett did his homework on his time period and that was really cool to see.
As I said, the characters were the main attraction of this book for me. Yes, the building of the cathedral, as well as the politics and the civil war going on at the time were interesting, but it was the characters who kept me going throughout this story. Our main cast consists of Tom Builder, who is the master builder of the cathedral; his first wife Agnes; his second new wife Ellen; Tom’s son Alfred; Ellen’s son Jack; Prior Philip, the head monk of the monastery; William Hamleigh; and the Bishop Waleran. All of these characters are flawed in their own way — they range from good, to evil, from sympathetic to mean, and everything in between. One of the worst characters in this book is William Hamleigh, yet I didn’t think Follett convinced me of his twisted intentions because of the writing. However, William is still very evil, and just thinks about himself for the entirely of the text. He is the absolutist monarch in this story who does everything for his own benefit, which always leads to detriments of the other characters. On the other hand, my two favorite characters are definitely Aliena and Ellen, because they are so forthright and they keep on getting up when life knocks them down. In particular, Aliena has so much spirit and resilience in her, and it was so cool for Ken Follett to make her this powerful because that’s the exact opposite of how women were viewed back then. Essentially, women were treated like dirt in this time period and it was empowering that Ken Follett writes a female character who is so motivated, ambitious and strong-willed.
One aspect of this book that caught me by surprise was the brutality. Follett does not shy away from showing the graphicness of violence between people, animals and nation states, as there are intense scenes that show rapes, hangings, stabbings and animals being abused. But what was so striking about these scenes was that I think this was actually how it was back then in the 1100s of England. People just didn’t deal with conflict as smoothly as we do today, which was really interesting to read about and which made me appreciate our world we live in currently.
I also liked the religious undertones threaded throughout the book. The setting of the book is a monastery, so there’s obviously going to be a lot of talk about God, sinning, humility, going to Hell or Heaven, and redemption. What also took me by surprise was how much power the church had in this time period. Today we live in a world that is separated by church and state, and back then, society was mostly dominated by the church. I also had to read The Divine Comedy in my Italian class this semester, and that illuminated so many more things for me in Follett’s text. One of the main struggles that the characters in this book go through, particularly with Philip and Jonathan, is the question of being humble to look good in the eyes of God. As you read about this struggle between trying to be humble but trying to keep a town afloat by attempting to be successful to defeat the enemy forces, I couldn’t help but think about the souls Dante meets in the Inferno and how they were there for similar reasons. In the Inferno, many people get sent to hell because power, greed and excess took the best of them and it’s this very struggle that many of the characters face in Follett’s text. The book also talks about rushes (plants found in Purgatory) and The Day of Judgement (a common topic discussed in The Divine Comedy), so it was interesting to make those connections across the two texts.
Lastly, I want to talk about Ken Follett’s writing, as the words that make a story come to life are important to touch on. I would say that Follett is quite literal with his writing. I appreciated this, and I didn’t. I liked his style because I don’t know the time period, nor how to build a cathedral very well, so his writing explained some historical and construction terms that I would have had to look up otherwise. On the other hand, this writing wasn’t my favorite when it came to character description and dialogue. Follett would really spell it out for the reader in terms of every single emotion a character is feeling and what their motivations were for their actions. It wasn’t the most “elegant” style I would say, and I would have loved to find this information out by more concise and powerful storytelling that says less, and conveys more. As a consequence, this style of writing might have made me less invested in this story because I was told everything so candidly.
In short, Ken Follett’s “The Pillars of the Earth” is a wonderful piece of historical fiction that takes place in the 1100s of England and essentially tells the story of a town. This town of Kingsbridge is no normal town, as it becomes a symbol for all the characters, who are constantly getting let down yet rise again because of their resilience. The ending is such a powerful moment too, as one can finally see the signs of democracy shining out of the absolutist monarchy that plagued this town for years. In this book, you get to see a raw look at human flaws, and what someone takes to repent for their mistakes. You get to see the birth, growth and death of characters and Follett makes it seem like no time has passed at all in the 400 pages in which this development happens. You get to see the beauty of two people falling in love because of the power of stories. You get to see one of the worst villains, who is just evil for the sake of it. You get to see and learn about the highs and lows of constructing a cathedral, which you never would have given a second thought about unless you read this book. You get to see the people who are supposed to be “good” doing things to satisfy their own agendas. As you can see, I could go on. Despite some of the flaws this book had, it is just a really cool story about a struggling family, and about doing the right thing. It’s about rising up when you’re shot down, again and again. I appreciated the characters, the themes, and the wonderful historical backdrop of this novel, and I couldn’t recommend it enough.
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Twelfth Night by Shakespeare is a really funny comedy. It’s a play I’ve always wanted to read (especially after watching the movie, She’s the Man) and it did not disappoint.
In this play, we have Viola, who is disguised as Cesario (a servant) for the Duke Orsino; Olivia, who is mourning her dead husband; the Duke, who is in love with Olivia; and Antonio and Sebastian. Because of the disguises and the love triangle that happens between the Duke, Olivia and Viola/Cesario, things get pretty complicated when Sebastian and Antonio come into the picture. I also loved Feste and Malvolio and I thought these characters were really funny, especially when Feste speaks his “double talk.”
I can see why this play isn’t taught in school as I don’t think anything about is that “groundbreaking.” It’s really just a fun time and has awesome characters and plot. However, there were some deeper themes, like chaos/disorder, love and the folly of grief. I also liked how the main moral of the play was that despite the hardships of grief and the problems that people have, life will always go on and more complications will arise that you will have to deal with. As Feste says, “For the rain it raineth every day.”
Those are my main thoughts about this one. I recommend it to all as a Shakespeare comedy you should read!
The Hilarious World of Depression by John Moe
I wasn’t sure to expect from John Moe’s The Hilarious World of Depression but I was pleasantly surprised. John Moe talks about his journey with depression and shines light on mental health struggles that many people go through but don’t talk about. Through his anecdotes, humor and honest insight, John Moe’s story is brilliant. I just know so many people who resonate with what he said in this book and I can better understand their struggles now. I liked how Moe broke depression down for “normies” and how he brought in thoughts and opinions from other comedians, writers and radio/talk show hosts too. I honestly think everyone should read this book and I want to check out his podcast now, The Hilarious World of Depression.