Tag: 5 stars

Books I loved! Highly recommended, usually great writing style, incredible characters, plot, and/or setting. Generally reserved for books that absolutely knocked my socks off.

The Summer War by Naomi Novik

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Title: The Summer War
Author: Naomi Novik
Format: eBook
Genre(s): Fantasy, Fairy Tales
Rating: ★★★★★

Novik’s latest novella is a fairy tale about a young witch, Celia, and her family’s connection to the Summer War, a seemingly unending conflict with the immortal summerlings. It is a story of conflict, but more than anything it’s a story about family and how we care for each other.

This story is especially focused on the theme of caring: Who we care for and why, how caring can develop over time, how that care can be one-sided or reciprocal, what happens when caring and principles come into conflict, and how it effects people’s decisions and actions. As you might imagine from the title, it also includes some enjoyable commentary about war (and the different people it benefits and harms) as well as the leaders trying to prolong or end it. It isn’t a perfect story — as with many novellas, it is more of a story about themes than characters, and some of the plot has an unrealistic flavor common to fairy tales — but it’s incredibly enjoyable for what it is.

The Housekeepers by Alex Hay

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Title: The Housekeepers
Author: Alex Hay
Format: ebook (ARC)
Genre(s): Historical, Heist
Rating: ★★★★★

This is a brilliant debut novel with all the excitement of a heist story combined with a turn-of-the-century historical setting — and a peek at the darker side of life in service.

The story has an ensemble cast of strong women who contribute their own perspectives, but at the center is Mrs. King, former housekeeper to Ms. de Vries and mastermind behind the heist. The book keeps a fast pace and the intrigue remains high throughout as pieces are revealed about each woman’s backstory and the de Vries family history. Although we’re privy to the plans behind the heist, we’re left to piece together why each woman joined in and make sense of the tensions involved as it plays out.

If you enjoy these genres along with non-linear narratives, large casts of characters, and women taking justice into their own hands, I’d recommend this as a very enjoyable read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for providing an advanced reader copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. The Housekeepers comes out on July 6, 2023.

The Racial Code by Nicola Rollock

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Title: The Racial Code: Tales of Resistance and Survival
Author: Nicola Rollock
Format: ebook
Genre(s): Nonfiction
Rating: ★★★★★

As someone who knows more about the history and dynamics of race in the US, I originally picked up The Racial Code to further my education (and personal growth) about racism in the UK, and I was blown away by how much it had to offer.

The book covers numerous topics including microaggressions, racialization, intersectionality, and the work needed to be an ally and an anti-racist. Each chapter combines academic research with fictionalized accounts of the subject matter, illustrating its points and providing an opportunity to reflect: Where do I see myself in this story? Where do I feel discomfort, and why? When have I seen something like this play out in my own life? How could I be an ally if I were in the room? (Rollock explicitly invites you to ask these and other questions as you read.)

My sibling and I read it together and had weekly discussions about each chapter over the course of several months, and I highly recommend giving yourself that kind of time (and, if possible, one or more thoughtful reading partners) for careful reading and reflection.

Babel by R.F. Kuang

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Title: Babel
Author: R.F. Kuang
Format: ebook
Genre(s): Fantasy, Historical
Rating: ★★★★★

This book feels like it was tailor-made for me: It tells the story of Robin Swift, a polyglot who is plucked from a cholera epidemic in Canton and eventually brought to the Babel Translation Institute in Oxford, to become a translator — a profession that, in this fantasy version of historical Britain, plays a critical role in facilitating the industrial revolution and colonial rule.

It’s a powerful story that explores an alternate history of the British empire as well as a young man’s coming of age. Both aspects of the story deal with the challenges of identity, privilege, and resistance movements, especially among those who walk the line between the haves and have-nots. Interwoven with the plot, we also see in-depth discussions of linguistic and translation theory — something that I would enjoy in any case, but that also comes to bear on the events of the book.

It’s hard to talk about the specifics of what moved me without giving anything away, so I’ll just note that this is probably the best book I read in 2022 and if you’re at all interested in language, colonialism, or resistance movements you should definitely give it a try.

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

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Title: Nettle & Bone
Author: T. Kingfisher
Format: ebook
Genre(s): Fantasy, Fairy Tales
Rating: ★★★★★

This gorgeous, haunting story has the feel of a dark fairy tale, with the princess Marra, a witch (called the dust-wife), the fairy godmother Agnes, and the former knight Fenris coming together as Marra tries to save her sister from a terrible fate.

Instead of being at court, where she struggles with politics and her family relationships, Marra lives at a convent and cultivates somewhat mundane skills like embroidery and spinning wool. But those skills turn out to benefit her as the dust-wife (in exchange for her help) sets her impossible tasks, which Marra works at with diligence — demonstrating the spirit of just putting one foot in front of the other and doing what’s right even when it’s terribly hard.

Every character seems to subvert our expectations from fairy tales, and I enjoyed seeing the different kinds of power and kindness exhibited by both the dust-wife and Agnes, as well as the quiet, gentle strength and support that Fenris provides. This is a beautifully woven story less about grand heroics and more about simply not giving up in the face of adversity.

The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman

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Title: The Bullet That Missed
Author: Richard Osman
Format: Book
Genre(s): Mystery
Rating: ★★★★★

This is the third book in the Thursday Murder Club series, and once again we join Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim as they investigate a murder: this time, a cold case involving a local reporter whose body was never found.

If you aren’t familiar with the series, you should know that the main characters are all retired, come from a variety of backgrounds, and form a group of friends so delightful and mischievous I can only hope to replicate it when I reach that stage of life. Osman does a wonderful job bringing each character to life, and he makes the most of each of their skills and personalities as they tackle this latest mystery while making new friends and meeting old ones.

I especially appreciate the moments (both funny and poignant) that bring up the importance of friendship in one’s life, and the ways that we leave an imprint on those around us. The story is clever, hilarious, and keeps the mystery going long enough to hold my attention — enjoyable even if you aren’t normally a fan of mysteries!

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

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Title: The Dictionary of Lost Words
Author: Pip Williams
Format: Audiobook
Genre(s): Historical, Literary
Rating: ★★★★★

This is a beautiful and heartbreaking story that pulls no punches, delivering the hardest news matter-of-factly and then moving on, just as life demands. It tells the story of Esme, who grew up watching her father work on the first Oxford English Dictionary, and whose life revolves around language and particularly the words used by the women around her.

It is a powerful story of women’s rights — explicitly portraying parts of the women’s suffrage movement but also the daily lives of many different women and the challenges they face. It’s also a story about the power of words and the people who shape them, and if you’re at all a language or word lover you’ll enjoy watching how the dictionary is created over the years and Esme’s part in it. I love the smooth writing style (and audiobook narration) that drew me in to this one woman’s life, and how deeply it has touched me and made me think.

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

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Title: Writers & Lovers
Author: Lily King
Format: eBook
Genre(s): Literary fiction
Rating: ★★★★★

After reading Five Tuesdays in Winter I vowed to read more of Lily King’s works, starting with Writers & Lovers — a novel narrated by Casey Peabody, who is struggling to get by as a waitress while she writes her first novel. The story begins with Casey grieving the loss of her mother and continues as she tries to sort out her writing, her job, and her relationships.

I devoured this book and loved following along with Casey’s journey, including the very real moments of uncertainty and the painful moments that validated my own experiences (casual misogyny, anyone?). The ending felt a little too good to be true, but Casey’s voice swept me up and carried me through it. This is a beautifully written story portraying the internal conflicts that hit us at that time in our lives when we feel like we should have it all figured out but we’re still just muddling through.

Intimacies by Lucy Caldwell

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Title: Intimacies
Author: Lucy Caldwell
Format: eBook
Genre(s): Short stories, Fiction
Rating: ★★★★★

Intimacies is a collection of fiction short stories about young women, mostly young mothers, unveiling the many layers of the women’s experiences as they go about more or less mundane parts of life. Despite not relating personally to many of the women’s lives (I’m childless by choice) I was captivated by their stories.

I love how Caldwell often uses settings or moments that seem relatively unremarkable — driving on the motorway, sitting on a plane, getting a drink with a coworker, sitting on the terrace in the evening — to reveal more significant aspects of the women’s lives or the human experience. For example, “All the People Were Mean and Bad” tells the story of a mother connecting with her neighbor on a plane, but it left me thinking about whether people are inherently good or bad, the impact of small acts of kindness on strangers, and how we decide which relationships to nurture and which to let go of. It’s no wonder that story won the BBC National Short Story Award, or that I enjoyed almost all the other stories in the collection — each of them felt easy to read and yet full of ideas that I pondered well after I closed the book.

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore

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Title: The Radium Girls
Author: Kate Moore
Genre(s): Non-fiction
Rating: ★★★★★

This was one of the most captivating non-fiction books I have ever read, with the women and their stories coming to life (including in their own words) in a way that I rarely feel outside of fiction. Not surprising, then, to find out that Moore’s mission was to focus on the women at the center of this radium controversy.

It was deeply disturbing to read what happened to these women — women who contracted radiation poisoning while working with radium-infused paint — and how their suffering was minimized, ignored, or outright lied about in the name of profit. And it was incredibly moving to hear what they were willing to go through to get justice for themselves and for everyone coming afterwards. All in all, this was an enlightening read about an important part of the history of labor rights in the United States, told in a way that is sure to stay with me.