I am back from vacation, and what a wonderful break it was! Since the Fourth of July was in the middle of a week, my sister and I decided to take the entire week off work to hang out at my parents’ house in Wisconsin. The week involved campfires, boozy drinks, swimming, boat rides, and a ton of reading. I brought a pretty huge pile of books, and managed to finish six of them! Here’s what I enjoyed on vacation:
The Ensemble by Aja Gabel — I very much enjoyed this story of a high-level string quartet, which followed their individual and collective journey from young musicians to middle-aged partners, parents, and ensemble members. There’s a lot of music content in the book, everything from what it’s like to play as a group, to what it feels like to play or listen to specific pieces of chamber music, that I really adored. It was great!
Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis — Thanks to an upcoming episode of For Real (spoilers, I guess?), I finally got around to reading this book about the men who influenced the direction of the United States in the decade after the Constitutional Convention in 1787. I liked this one because it wasn’t a straight history book — Joseph Ellis looks at specific incidents and relationships like Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr’s duel, the collaborations between John/Abigail Adams and James Madison/Thomas Jefferson, to explore bigger issues. It’s a short, readable, personality-driven history that I’d recommend.
Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl — I’m not entirely sure how to sum up the premise of this book in just a couple of sentences, so I’m just not going to bother. Marisha Pessl is one of my favorite writers, and her first foray into young adult (or maybe new adult?) fiction was so great — totally weird, but I loved it. It’s one of those books that straddles the line between realistic and genre fiction almost perfectly, which is my favorite literary intersection. The characters were great, the mystery was intriguing, and the fantastical elements were just weird enough to work.
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones — I wanted forever to read this book because I was nervous it wouldn’t live up to all of the hype. I don’t think I adored it as much as many readers, but it was still very, very good. The book is a portrait of a young marriage, and what happens after the man, Ray, is sent to prison for 12 years for a crime he didn’t commit. I thought the story was excellent, and Tayari Jones did an amazing job creating characters with depth who you could root for even while they were making really questionable choices. I was really impressed with how she brought the story to a close, as well, though I won’t say more to not spoil the book.
Don’t You Ever by Mary Carter Bishop — This book is a memoir by a woman who discovers in her 20s that her mother had a secret baby at age 18. She writes about what that discovery meant for her family, both when she was a child and as an adult when she starts to develop a relationship with her half-brother. Although this wasn’t a life-changing, world-view altering memoir, I thought it was a really interesting story that was well written and page-turning. It’s the kind of interesting, thoughtful-but-not-challenging memoir you’d want to read on vacation.
Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan — The event that kicks off this mystery is a difficult one — a young bookstore clerk discovers a young patron has committed suicide in her bookstore, and that he had a photo of her as a child in his pocket. As Lydia tries to understand why Joey killed himself, her entire carefully-constructed life starts to come unglued, as his suicide has some strange connections to her own childhood tragedy. This one was a page-turning mystery that I figured out just a few chapters ahead of the protagonist. I liked it a lot.
I also started two more books I’m hoping to finish in the next few days — Stalking God by Anjali Kumar (memoir about finding a religion to believe in) and The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan (young adult fiction about a girl who goes to Taiwan trying to understand her mother’s suicide). Even without endless reading time, I think I’ll finish those this week.
Happy Sunday, everyone! What are you reading today?
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You got a lot of great reading done! Several of these are on my TBR – maybe I will push them up my list! Sounds like you had a fantastic vacation!
It was really excellent! I needed some time off to relax after a really busy season at work.
I’ve been pushing off An American Marriage for the very same reason you did. And after reading your review of the Pessl book, I may have to read that one first.
Neverworld Wake was really delightful, the perfect level of fantasy weirdness I like.
Yeah I liked An American Marriage even if I didn’t overly like the characters, but still was impressed with the story. I’d like to read Founding Fathers too.
All of the characters are difficult, but it’s still a very well-told story.