This was one of my reading spots for the past week. We were at a cabin in Ontario's Near North, with essentially no internet or phone connections to the outside world. I spent a lot of time on the lake, and a lot of time reading on rocks. 6 books down for the week, all great reads, tagged was one of the best. Reviews to come!
pickWritten from the perspective of a van driver, this books tells the manifold stories of Sri Lanka‘s people: returning exiles, aid workers, entrepreneurs, tourists and many more. The novel beamed me right back to 2012 when I first visited. I could see the places in front of me, smell the smells and remember all the great conversations I had with people about the war, the tsunami, the Chinese and the future. What a perceptive and fantastic read.
Tag you‘re it, @Tamra
You posted a review of this book that‘s on my shelf.
Find a book and a post and play along.
@Chrissyreadit
pickI loved this book. Meet Bud, an obituary writer with a wry sense of humor and an amazing circle of friends. He‘s all about life and death, living and dying. I even wrote down this quote “We do not know where death awaits us: so let us wait for it everywhere. To practice death is to practice freedom.” Did I mention that I loved this book? I cried through the last 50 pages. I even loved the author‘s note and the acknowledgments!
Birthday hall plus the tagged book which just so happened to arrive on my birthday from the Harvard first editions signed book subscription. My daughter and I are playing hooky from school and work to spa, eat fancy foods, and read 🥳
pickI saved the last hour of the audiobook for my walk home and end up crying so hard that I had to stop walking until I could blink all the tears clear. So - 5 stars, no notes!
Tbh, I wasn‘t sure about Bud in the beginning, if he was a character I wanted to spend time with - but then he hit submit on his own obituary and well, I was hooked.
I keep stumbling into books that explore grief in its many manifestations ⬇️
pick“Astha was brought up properly, as befits a woman, with large supplements of fear. One slip might find her alone, vulnerable and unprotected. The infinite ways in which she could be harmed were not specified, but Astha absorbed them through her skin, and ever after was drawn to the safe and secure.”This excellent opening paragraph just gets more excellent.Can't recommend enough.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7083955636
pickI See You‘ve Called in Dead, by John Kenney (2025)
Premise: After a drunkenly posting his own mock death notice, a New York obituary writer looks for the meaning of life and death.
Review: This is a fun, moving, and insightful book. I particularly appreciated how it held certain truths out for us without laying it on too thick; death is after all a mystery that‘s really impossible to write about well. It‘s also a really great New York book. Cont
I read three bangers in a row but The Antidote was the best book this year, absolutely incredible. I personally did not enjoy The Long Island Compromise.
so-soThis was interesting but not engaging. The characters resembled game pieces. If there was a plot, it was vague enough to escape notice. The author‘s descriptions of the dust storms were the most visceral and true of anything in the novel.
