January 2018 Reading Wrap-Up
The new year started out with a mix of so-so reading and a little heavier on the fiction than I intended for my 2018 reading goals. I’ll have to remedy that going into next month with some more nonfiction, as well as refocusing on my goal of picking up books from more international authors.
The Blinds by Adam Sternbergh * *
I was expecting this book to be better than it was because it was one of my Book of the Month selections and those are usually pretty solid. I found it very disappointing, I think mainly because the premise is so promising. Caesura aka “The Blinds” is a small middle-of-nowhere town where every resident has had their memory wiped, either to protect them from their own sins or the sins of someone else — no one knows for sure. Eight years into this social experiment and everything is running smoothly. Then a suicide and a murder in quick succession threaten the secretive balance of this community. There are so many interesting places this could go! Instead, the characters never come to life and the plot moves in a random direction that fails to explore any of the compelling elements of the set-up. I found a lot of plot holes as the book continued and ultimately it just became rather boring.
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan * * *
2.5 stars. Jennifer Egan is so famous (Pulitzer winner) and this book got a lot of praise last year, ending up on a lot of “best-of” lists. While it’s solidly written and there are some beautiful passages about the sea, similar to The Blinds, this novel went off the rails for me plot-wise. I think Egan was too enamored with the background research — diving, WWII Naval Yards, merchant marines — and fell short of creating a cohesive story. I was expecting this to be more of a page-turner, a historical fiction novel centered around one girl’s search for her missing father. It’s not that. Around the middle-end there is a scene that is just way too implausible and coincidental, and that’s when the book really fell apart for me. The credit I will give to this book is in the beauty of the writing, especially in describing the war-time energy of 1940s NYC. If you love Egan for A Visit from the Goon Squad, this novel is very different in every way.
The Bear and The Nightingale by Katherine Arden * * * *
This is the first book in The Winternight Trilogy, a fantasy series set in ancient Russia (or Rus’). I picked this up for a book club and I’m glad I decided to go for it. I really enjoyed the setting and the way Arden plays with the moment in history when Christianity was clashing with Slavic pagan traditions. It makes for a unique plot and world. The heroine, Vasilisa Petrovna, is a great character as well, a girl with charisma and personality stuck in a time when women are meant to be docile and invisible. Also, for a fantasy book, the plot is fast-paced and there isn’t the incredibly long list of characters that can often make novels in this genre a bit unwieldy.
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle * * *
The Time Quintet was one of my favorite series as a child and I decided to reread it in preparation for the movie coming out in March. I would still rate this as a 5-star book for kids because the plot is so imaginative and Meg is a fantastic character for young girls, but it isn’t one of those “for all ages” books (like Harry Potter). It is way shorter than I remember and also a lot more religious. All of the God references went right past me as a kid, so it was a surprise for me in this reread. I was aware of the religious themes in The Chronicles of Narnia, but I hadn’t picked up on it so much in this series. I wonder how much those undertones will be addressed in the film. I don’t think I’ll finish rereading the entire series in adulthood, but I would pass these books along to my hypothetical future children.
The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden * * * *
3.5 stars. The second book in The Winternight Trilogy recently came out, and so I decided to rent it from the library to continue the trilogy. I hate leaving loose ends with a series of books (like how I need to get back into The Remembrance of Earth’s Past books!) so it was nice to just go right into this one. The book continues to follow Vasilisa Petrovna as she navigates the space between the worlds of rigid traditionalism and mystical wonder in ancient Rus’. There is more fighting action in this book (which I actually don’t like as much) and less character development, but I still found the plot and setting fascinating. For me, this one leans a little heavier into the fantasy genre than the first book but it’s still not approaching Game of Thrones or Wheel of Time levels. I’ll be excited for the third and final (?) installment — whenever that comes.
Any recs from your January reading? To stay up-to-date on all my current reads, follow me on Instagram @tinaisreading.
