nut free nerd

It’s been a while since I did a round of mini reviews. Here are some brief thoughts about some fiction I’ve been reading lately.

The Wilderness by Angela Fluornoy. This novel mainly follows a group of friends from their twenties in the 2000s to 2027, through relationships, careers, marriages, kids, loss, and everything in between. It’s told from all of their different perspectives, and it is a rollercoaster. I don’t want to say too much and spoil where the story ultimately ends up, but let’s just say that it was not at all what I was expecting. Not in a horrible way, but definitely in a jarring, think-about-this-books-for-weeks-after-you’ve-finished-it kind of way. I am glad I read it, though.

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout. I couldn’t stop reading this book. It is a tragic, beautiful, seamlessly told story of a mother and daughter, a dysfunctional family upbringing, childhood trauma, and memory. The dialogue felt so real, like conversations you could actually imagine overhearing on the other side of a hospital room. After I finished this book I immediately borrowed the second book in the series from my local library–and thank goodness this is a series!

Collected Stories by Willa Cather. I have loved Willa Cather’s writing for years, ever since I first read her work in college. (Throwback to the time I visited Willa Cather’s grave…) Reading this chronologically structured collection of some of her short stories gave me a rush of nostalgia and awe for her incredible writing. Her characters and landscapes are so vivid. It was fascinating to see how her writing and focus changed over time. Some of my favorite stories were “The Garden Lodge,” “Coming, Aphrodite!,” “The Best Years,” and “The Enchanted Bluff.”

Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri. “Because when all is said and done the setting doesn’t matter: the space, the walls, the light.” Lahiri is a masterful, brilliant writer. Told in brief snapshots of the unnamed narrator’s life, Whereabouts is a novel focused on themes of location and place, loneliness and solitude, belonging, memory, and coming to know yourself. Lahiri first wrote this book in Italian and then translated it into English herself (!!). I’d highly recommend this to anyone who loves a character-driven novel.

What have you been reading lately? I’d love to know.

Take care xx