WHAT I'M READING V.34

1. You Think It, I'll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld 

I read her book, "Prep" a while ago, liked it okay, but I like this collection of short stories so much better! The stories are delectable, because she has a way of getting inside the character's mind to reveal all the inner thoughts of a person, including the embarrassing and vulnerable, and couch it in observations that are humorous and comment on topics like motherhood, women friendship, and politics. 

2.  The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead 

We read this one in our book club last month, and it was a difficult read because of the subject matter, but I appreciated the sharp and skillful writing and the conversation we were able to have about it.  Whitehead writes in a way that is reminiscent of trauma - swift and descriptive, almost emotion, but in a way that is powerful exactly because of the delivery.  I wondered what additional stories there were to tell about the Underground Railroad, but Whitehead as a specific agenda. Underneath the stories of the horrors of slavery, he writes about the ways in which black history has been taken over by white narrators and about how the power belongs to the one who is able to tell the story, on their terms. 

3. The Girl Who Never Read Noam Chomsky.

 I loved this one. I was instantly captivated by the sharp turns her writing to describe the most ordinary and mundane. It was refreshing. I was deeply intrigued about a quarter through the book, I couldn’t put it down after the halfway mark, and I cried reading the chapter called "The end of forever."  It is sort of a self-absorbed book, almost like a journal turned novel - if you know what I mean by that, but I didn't tire of it, and was deeply satisfied by the whole thing. It takes you through the adult life of a woman, through her relationships, doubts, career, etc. and one of those books that make me want to journal more.  A sample of the writing: "What she loved most about sitting at the coffee shop was not the coffee or the shop but the brief, listless feeling it gave her of having her life together. She could sit beside the richness and warmth and see herself as something so divinely competent. This is what it is to be an independent person, and she’d take a sip. This is what it is to be a cosmopolitan person, and she’d take a sip. So easily could she lose herself in the sense." 

4. A Gentleman of Moscow by Amor Towles

Another book club read ! It was a delicious read - I recommend this book if you love food, drink, and historical fiction. It tells the story of a man - Count Rostov - who is sentenced to house arrest in 1922 (for writing a poem!) in The Metropol Hotel in Moscow, Russia.  It's a lovely, sweeping read, and I underlined so many passages because of the lovely writing that described the pleasures of life. Count Rostov, although imprisoned in the hotel, enjoys the finer things and makes a whole world for himself within that hotel, making lifelong friendships and even a career as a waiter.  The descriptions are elegant and clear, and the sentences are not overworked. Towles wrote another book called, "Rules of Civility" that I'm looking forward to reading because of how much I liked this one.