so-soI liked learning more about the Ethiopian immigration experience but otherwise the sprawling, disconnected narrative and bland main character put this near the bottom of my #ToB25 list.
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so-soI liked learning more about the Ethiopian immigration experience but otherwise the sprawling, disconnected narrative and bland main character put this near the bottom of my #ToB25 list.
pickThis novel covers a lot of ground: grief, family dynamics, generational trauma, illness, addiction, income inequality, immigration, racism. I appreciate the writing and the characters, but like others, I found following the story to be a challenge. The format and timeline feel true to life and therefore a little unsettling to me. I wonder if I go to fiction because a tidy narrative helps life seem more manageable. (This isn't a tidy narrative.)
so-soI‘m not at all sure that I understood this book at all. My take away is that African immigrants to the USA (and their children) have a strong sense of dislocation and not belonging and they are always on edge, waiting to be arrested. I kept waiting for a story beyond this. If it existed, I lost it in the constantly shifting timelines.
pickLiked but didn‘t love this one. The protagonist‘s relationship with Samuel was really well written as were the real/not real elements. The way his relationship with his wife and son was described felt a little shallow and unfinished to me, I couldn‘t quite get a hold on it. Definitely a unique story overall and I‘m glad I read it. #tob25
Now on to beach reads!
pickThis was my most anticipated #TOB2025 title. I live in a city in Virginia with a large Ethiopian population so I thought I would learn more about my new neighbors. Haha no. That‘s not at all what this was. This was a fever dream that jumped all over the place and I‘m not even sure what happened to be honest. I‘m not mad. Just confused. Still a pick, but don‘t ask me any questions 😂
This ebook is on sale right now and it‘s a marvelous read. It‘s the best #letterQ book I‘ve read since doing the #LitsyAtoZ challenge. I highly recommend it and I hope to read it again someday. Definitely an action-packed historical thriller.
Fiction is the great lie telling the truth…
Spot on articulation for why writing & reading “fiction” is important. 👌🏾 I could listen to Verghese all day - so insightful & relaxing. Bet his medical students like him.
https://youtu.be/-zBo7Fl-iL8?si=NnX_laxXa1ScN5zb
so-soThis was a book that absolutely did not grab my attention, I sensed an unreliable narrator who does things that make no sense; I went into it thinking it might be a devastating immigrant story, but once I put it down and then a few days go by, and then when I do open it back up with low motivation and hit a snag (drawn curtains are closed! Not open), WHAT DO I Do? I find many of my friends loved it. #sigh A case of “it‘s me, not the book.”
so-soThere are lines and moments that this book that made me want to love it but overall this #tob25 title left me cold. An incredibly unreliable narrator reflects on his upbringing by his immigrant Ethiopian mother and her life long friend who may be his father . There is a lot about the immigrant experience that was well conveyed but everything else was too much of a jumble to make me care. This wouldn‘t have made my shortlist.
