NYT -- Readers' Picks -- 100 Best Books

NYT Readers Pick
Their 100 Best Books
of the 21st Century

When The New York Times Book Review published a list of the 100 best books of the century a few weeks ago, they knew they’d hear from readers who were incensed or sad their favorite books didn't make the list. After giving these readers a chance to vote on their favorites, the NYT published a list of the Readers Picks: The 100 Best Books of the Century this week. The Book Review voters (list 1) and the Readers (list 2) overlap on 39 choices, noted in the comment column below. "As for the 61 new entries here, what stands out most is that they’re the books that captured cultural moments and sparked lively literary conversations."

No.	Title / Author	Comments	Read?
1	Demon Copperhead / Kingsolver	#61 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
2	All the Light We Cannot See / Doerr		Yes
3	A Gentleman in Moscow / Towles		Yes
4	The Goldfinch / Tartt	#46 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
5	Pachinko / Lee	#15 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
6	Educated / Westover		Yes
7	Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow / Zevin		Yes
8	My Brilliant Friend / Ferrante	#1 on NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
9	Never Let Me Go / Ishiguro	#9 on NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
10	Station Eleven / St. John Mandel	#93 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
11	A Little Life / Yanagihara		No
12	The Overstory / Powers	#24 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
13	The Underground Railroad / Whitehead	#7 on NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
14	Wolf Hall / Mantel	#3 on NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
15	The Road / McCarthy	#13 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
16	Lincoln in the Bardo / Saunders	#18 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
17	Atonement / McEwan	#26 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
18	Middlesex / Eugenides	#59 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
19	Americanah / Adichie	#27 NYT Book Review’s list	No
20	Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay / Chabon	#16 on NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
21	Homegoing / Gyasi		Yes
22	Hamnet / O’Farrell		Yes
23	The Warmth of Other Suns / Wilkerson	#2 on NYT Book Review’s list	No
24	Bel Canto / Patchett	#98 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
25	Gilead / Robinson	#10 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes

No.	Title / Author	Comments	Read?
26	The Corrections / Franzen	#5 NYT Book Review’s list	No
27	Normal People / Rooney		Yes
28	Cutting for Stone / Verghese		Yes
29	Say Nothing / Keefe	#19 NYT Book Review’s list	No
30	A Visit from the Goon Squad / Egan	#39 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
31	Circe / Miller		Yes
32	Cloud Cuckoo Land / Doerr		Yes
33	The Book Thief / Zusak		Yes
34	Cloud Atlas / Mitchell	#28 NYT Book Review’s list	No
35	The Covenant of Water / Verghese		Yes
36	The Year of Magical Thinking	#12 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
37	The Nickel Boys / Whitehead		Yes
38	The Great Believers / Makkai	#64 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
39	Olive Kitteridge / Strout	#74 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
40	The Kite Runner / Hosseini		Yes
41	Life After Life / Atkinson	#51 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
42	The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao /Junot	#11 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
43	Between the World and Me / Coates	#36 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
44	The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store / McBride		Yes
45	There There / Orange		Yes
46	The Song of Achilles / Miller		Yes
47	Lessons in Chemistry / Garmus		Yes
48	On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous / Vuong		Yes
49	Gone Girl / Flynn		Yes
50	James / Everett		Yes

No.	Title / Author	Comments	Read?
51	Caste / Wilkerson		No
52	The Nightingale / Hannah		Yes
53	Trust / Diaz	#50 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
54	11/22/63 / King		No
55	Braiding Sweetgrass / Kimmerer		Yes
56	The Hunger Games / Collins		Yes
57	Small Things Like These / Keegan	#41 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
58	White Teeth / Smith	#31 NYT Book Review’s list	DNF
59	Where the Crawdads Sing / Owens		Yes
60	The Dutch House / Patchett		Yes
61	North Woods / Mason		Yes
62	The Sympathizer / Nguyen	#90 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
63	The Fifth Season / Jemisin	#44 NYT Book Review’s list	No
64	2666 / Bolano	#6 on NYT Book Review’s list	No
65	Evicted / Desmond	#21 NYT Book Review’s list	No
66	Just Kids / Smith		Yes
67	Piranesi / Clarke		Yes
68	The Devil in the White City / Larson		Yes
69	Killers of the Flower Moon / Grann		Yes
70	Know My Name / Miller		No
71	Sing, Unburied, Sing / Ward	#30 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
72	Crying in the H Mart		Yes
73	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows		Yes
74	Klara and the Sun / Ishiguro		Yes
75	The Lincoln Highway / Towles		Yes

No.	Title / Author	Comments	Read?
76	Just Mercy / Stevenson		Yes
77	Sapiens / Harari		No
78	Kafka on the Shore / Murakami		No
79	1Q84 / Murakami		No
80	Deacon King Kong / McBride		Yes
81	The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks / Skloot		Yes
82	Tom Lake / Patchett		Yes
83	Let the Great World Spin / McCann		Yes
84	Tenth of December / Saunders	#54 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
85	When Breath Becomes Air / Kalanithi		Yes
86	Life of Pi / Martel		Yes
87	Girl, Woman, Other / Evaristo		No
88	The Plot Against America / Roth	#65 NYT Book Review’s list	Yes
89	The Glass Castle / Walls		Yes
90	In the Dream House / Machado		No
91	Project Hail Mary / Weir		Yes
92	Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead / Tokarczuk		No
93	Remarkably Bright Creatures / Van Pelt		Yes
94	The Bee Sting / Murray		DNF
95	A Thousand Splendid Suns / Hosseini		Yes
96	The Vanishing Half / Bennett		Yes
97	My Year of Rest and Relaxation / Moshfegh		No
98	Shuggie Bain / Stuart		No
99	Empire of Pain / Keefe		No
100	A Man Called Ove / Backman		Yes

My analysis and commentary:

     After the Best Books of the 21st Century Book Review List was published in mid-July, I wrote a quick post highlighting the top 20 books . I also included images of the 36 books I've read from their top 100 list and another image of the books I'd like to read. At the time I was was pretty shocked by how many books on the list I'd never even heard of before, 29, since I am the kind of gal who pays attention to books and book lists. To my mind the best books of the century shouldn't be made up of books no one has read, even if they are well written. If you can't get through the paywall at the NYT to see their list, Deb Nance at Reader Buzz created a google doc of all 100 books. Find it here.

     In my post I also identified a few book titles which I thought were shockingly absent in the Book Review list: The Lincoln Highway or A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles; All the Light We Cannot See or Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr; Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann; There There by Tommy Orange or La Rose by Louise Erdrich. Those were just a few titles I quickly thought of as I was typing up the post. All of them are fiction. I didn't even give pause at the time to reflect on nonfiction titles. I wish I had continued to pay attention to the NYT days following the publication of their Book Review list. If I had I would have noticed that they created a space for their readers to share their ten favorites. The list above is the product of the synthesis of readers suggestions. 39 titles are on both lists. 

      I thought the readers' picks are skewed a bit too heavy toward recent books, ignoring excellent books published at the beginning of the century, but after analyzing publication dates I found that both lists weren't that different. The Book Review list averaged a publication date in 2011 and the Readers' Picks in 2013. So both averages demonstrate that selections were made over the spectrum of the century so far. I am still skeptical about books which were published this year or last and questions their staying power. It seems to me readers may have just finished a book like James, which was published this year, liked it and so added it to their list of ten favorites. Only time will tell if a book has staying power.

      So what did I like about the Readers' picks? Many of my favorite books published in this century made the list. In fact, I've read 78 81 of them and had another ten on my TBR. I was especially happy to see books by Amor Towles, Anthony Doerr, and Tommy Orange among the 100 favorites. I smiled to see three middle grade/YA titles: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Hunger Games, and The Book Thief. Leaving YA lit off the initial list was a big error. Think of what Harry Potter did for publishing in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries. The Hunger Games spawned a whole new genre of futuristic dystopian YA novels. And The Book Thief is just wonderful, great literature. I like it that nonfiction books made both lists -- twenty-one on the first and seventeen on the second.

      So what did I NOT like about the Readers' picks? For one thing, I think there were too many popular books without a lot of literary merit. Don't get me wrong. I love Lessons in Chemistry, Normal People, and Where the Crawdads Sing, I'm just not sure they are the best the century has to offer. Popular, yes. Literary umph, no. I was really glad to see some of my favorite authors made the list: Ann Patchett (3 books?!); Barbara Kingsolver (in the #1 spot, but what about her other books?); James McBride; and Abraham Verghese. But I still notice voids like no Louise Erdrich, Arundhati Roy, and Salman Rushdie. Also missing were works by these nonfiction writers: Timothy Egan (The Worst Hard Times); Laura Hillenbrand (Unbroken); Elizabeth Kolbert (The Sixth Extinction); and Daniel James Brown (The Boys in the Boat.) These books are so excellent it is hard to imagine how they could possibly be left off both lists. I bet readers like me when I was jotting off my last post on the subject, thought about their favorite novels, forgetting about the excellent examples of 21st century nonfiction titles.

      Because I am nerd about book awards I thought I'd analyze the two lists for major award winners/finalists. Let's see how they match up:

Award	Book Review List	Readers’ Picks
Pulitzer Prize or finalist	24	17
National Book Award or on short list	14	11
Women’s Prize (Orange Prize)	9	9
Booker Prize or finalist	11	6
Nobel	3	0

Note: since there are 39 books in common on the two lists, these numbers aren't as dramatically different as I first suspected. Awards have changed names over the years and I may have inadvertently missed one or two, not knowing the previous name of an awards.  I realized, as I was making this chart, how few fantasy/sci-fi/mystery titles are on the lists, but there was was one Hugo Award winner, and several Edgar Award winners or finalists. There were also a ton of other book awards represented, among them Goodreads Awards, which are purely based on popularity.

So what about you? What do you think of the various between the two lists? What books do you think are missing? How do you feel about book lists in general? Let's discuss. Leave your comments below and I will reply to your thoughts.

Hosts: Feed My Fiction Addiction // It Starts at Midnight

    

-Anne

Top Ten Tuesday: Weird Reading Habits and Practices

Top Ten Tuesday: 

I'm off the board today.

Today I'm sharing some of my weird reading habits and practices. 

"Weird" definition -- (Adj.) Of strange or extraordinary character. Synonyms: odd, fantastical.

1. I almost exclusively get books/audiobooks from the public library. This is good and bad. When I place holds on books they often become available all at the same time. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Everything.
2. As I am reading I am obsessed with figuring out how many pages I've read, even for audiobooks. I often do the math to convert percentages into pages.
3. After I've figured out the "page" I'm on for non-print books, I keep track of my progress on Goodreads.
4. I usually divide books up into tenths in my mind. If a book has 350 pages, for example, I will tell myself I have to read 35 pages before I can stop reading.
5. I have a really hard time starting a book over 400 pages long. I am not sure why I shy away from long books but I really have to psyche up to read them.
6. Often I feel bogged down by a book until there are only 100 pages to go, then I think I'm almost finished. There is something magical about 100-pages-to-go for me.
7. I listen to audiobooks when I drive. If I am stuck in traffic, no problem, more time to listen to the book.  
8. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns I rarely did not finish (DNF) a book even if I didn't care for it. Since 2020 the DNF floodgates were opened up for me and now I am much more likely to set aside a book I don't like. Last DNF, Bee Sting by Paul Murray.
9. Weeks before I travel anywhere I always make sure I have plenty of reading material queued up ready to go. I spend more time thinking about reading material than what I will pack to wear.
10. I enjoy reading, ranking, and keeping track of the award books I read: Pulitzer, National Book Award, Women's Prize, and Printz. I also like to total up the books I've read from lists like the Best Books of the 21st Century that was published on New York Times last week.

How about you? What weird reading practices or habits do you have.

-Anne

Sunday Salon -- Concerts, Vacation, Politics, oh my!

Don and I drinking wine as we wait for the John Legend concert.

Weather: Overcast skies, but warm temperatures. Last night the moon was pink due to smoke in the air from forest fires.

Pictured (clockwise from top left): John Legend at his concert last Saturday in Woodinville, WA; my mom at a favorite spot in Central Oregon; Don and I at Chris Stapleton's All-American Road Show concert at the baseball stadium in Seattle; a clever use of the ballpark scoreboard with the artist's name and concert date.

Vacation bookended by concerts: Whew! What a week! Beginning with a John Legend concert at the Chateau Ste. Michelle winery on Saturday, July 20th. Followed by vacation/family reunion in Central Oregon from which we returned on Friday so we could attend the Chris Stapleton's All-American Road Show last night at T-Mobile Park in Seattle. Sheryl Crow led off the concert lineup at 6:15, followed by Willie Nelson and Family. Chris Stapleton and his band didn't come on until after 9:15 and he played non-stop until 11:45. What a show! Willie Nelson is 91 years old now and neither of us had ever seen him perform live in-person. It hit us both that this will likely be our first and last chance to see him since his age will certainly reduce the probability of catching another of his concerts.

Willie Nelson is concert last night. His guitar, Trigger, is falling apart but he doesn't care! He's been using the same guitar since 1969. In contrast, Chris Stapleton probably used eight different guitars last night.

We celebrated my sister Kathy's birthday during our family reunion. Here you see my grandsons helping her blow out the candles. We were joined one afternoon and evening by my high school friend, Rita. The previous week we had attended her mother's graveside memorial service and ate dinner with Rita, her husband, and daughter the evening beforehand. I'm sure Rita was overwhelmed at times as all sixteen of my family members swirled around, talking, laughing, and even dancing. I'm so glad she could join us for a visit.

Kamala: While we were traveling to our family reunion last Sunday we learned that President Biden had announced he would not run for president again and endorsed his V.P. Kamala Harris. A wild week of political news about her campaign kick-off burst onto the scene. I thought I'd share a few highlights that caught my attention:

• Kamala hit the ground running and had a whirlwind week, gaining more than 170,000 new volunteers and over $200 million in donations, 66% of those coming from first time contributors. 
• A series of Zoom calls broke records for attendance in this format and have energized dormant supporters. It started with 'Win with Black Women' with 43,000+ participants, followed by a similar call with Black men the next night. 'White Women for Harris' soon followed with 164,000+ women joining the call. Other groups have jumped in: South Asian Men, LGBTQ+, Hispanics, etc. 'White Dudes for Harris' will host their call on Monday. Enthusiasm abounds!
• Trump's VP choice JD Vance's negative comments from 2021 about single, childless, cat ladies have resurfaced and received push back to hilarious results. Taylor Swift jumped in on this and her fans followed. 
• 
  
  
  
  
• Voter registration is up this week, especially among Gen Z. Since registration is by states one has to look at each state but here are some stats from Voter.org. This past week the organization has helped over 100,000 new voters register, most are under 35-years old.
• The Villages, a senior living community in Florida, hosted a Harris for President parade of golf carts this week. This wouldn't be newsworthy if not for the fact that this community was a Trump bastian in 2020. (See "Senior Power.")
• There has been an energy shift this past week. Now Trump is the old, out-of-touch candidate. Kamala is bringing attention to his perilous Project 2025 plan, her surrogates have started calling out Trump and MAGA beliefs as WEIRD; and Harris is making the case that she is the prosecutor while Trump is the felon. Trump has not been able to dictate the newscycle all week and this is an unfamiliar position for him to be in.
• 100 days until the election and the world of politics is a different place than it was a week ago! WOW!
• In case you are still struggling to pronounce Ms. Harris' first name, here is some help: comma-la, Clever, huh?
  
  
  

Books: I didn't finish as many books as I thought during our trip to Central Oregon but Don and I did manage to listen to all 20+ hours of Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. It was my One Big Book 2024 Reading Challenge book for the year. Watch for my review this week.

Currently reading/listening to:

• Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange. A prequel/sequel to There, There. 50% complete. Audio.
• My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. Identified as the #1 book of the century so far by NYT. 51% complete. Print.
• The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters. A book club selection. 50% complete. Audio.
• Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn. Another book club selection. I just started this one. 4% complete. Print.
• A Bell for Adano by John Hersey is my Classic Clubs Spin book selection. I haven't started it up yet.

Funnies:

I saw this flow chart this week on Twitter. It made me laugh since I always take more books than I can possibly read on holidays and I always go through these same types of deliberations.

An old audio clip of a George Carlin routine resurrected last week after the RNC when delegates donned bandages to emulate the one Trump wore on his ear. I warn you George Carlin uses crass language. But this is so funny.

Mom, age 95, with two of her grandsons. Photo credit: G. Ruddy.

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK. 

 

-Anne

Review: THE IN-BETWEEN: UNFORGETTABLE ENCOUNTERS DURING LIFE'S FINAL MOMENTS

Title: The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life's Final Moments by Hadley Vlahos, R.N.

Book Beginning quote: 

People are often startled when I tell them I'm a hospice nurse.

Friday56 quote:

I have cared for enough end-of-life patients with varying religious backgrounds to believe that how you live your life is more important than what you believe in.

Summary:

Talking about death and dying is considered taboo in polite company, and even in the medical field. Our ideas about dying are confusing at Will our memories flash before our eyes? Regrets consume our thoughts? Does a bright light appear at the end of a tunnel? For most people, it will be a slower process, one eased with preparedness, good humor, and a bit of faith. At the forefront of changing attitudes around palliative care is hospice nurse Hadley Vlahos, who shows that end-of-life care can teach us just as much about how to live as it does about how we die.

In The In-Between, Vlahos recounts the most impactful experiences she’s had with the people she’s worked with—from the woman who never once questioned her faith until she was close to death, to the older man seeing visions of his late daughter, to the young patient who laments that she spent too much of her short life worrying about what others thought of her—while also sharing her own fascinating journey. Written with profound insight, humility, and respect, The In-Between is a heartrending memoir that shows how caring for others can transform a life while also offering wisdom and comfort for those dealing with loss and providing inspiration for how to live now. (Publisher)

Review: The timing was impeccable. Right after I finished this excellent memoir I had two different encounters with death and with hospice care. I was grateful for what I learned from Hadley Vlahos. She read her own book for the audio version, which was a bit distracting -- sometimes people should leave the voice acting to professionals -- but other than that I highly recommend this book.

2024 Twenty Books of Summer Challenge

14 / 20 books. 70% done!

-Anne

TTT: Favorite Debut Novels

Top Ten Tuesday: My Favorite Debut Novels with opening lines

(listed in chronological order)

Sense and Sensibility by Jan Austen (1818)
"The family of Dashwood had long been settled in Sussex."

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (1847)
"There was no possibility of taking a walk that day."

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (1937)
"In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit."

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)
"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow."

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (1970)
"Here is the house."

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (1979)
"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral Arm of the galaxy lies an unregarded yellow sun."

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (1980)
"A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head."

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling (1997)
"Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say they were perfectly normal, thank you very much."

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (2003)
"It was 7 minutes after midnight."

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (2005)
"First the colors."

Looking for Alaska by John Green (2005)
"The week before I left my family and Florida and the rest of my minor life to go to boarding school in Alabama, my mother insisted on throwing me a going-away party."

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (2022)
"Back in 1961, when women wore shirtwaist dresses and joined garden clubs and drove legions of children around in seatbeltless cars without giving it a second though; back before anyone knew there'd even be a sixties movement, much less one that its participants would spend the next sixty years chronicling; back when the big wars were over and the secret wars had just begun and people were starting to think fresh and believe everything was possible, the thirty-year-old mother of Madeline Zott rose before dawn every morning and felt certain of just one thing: her life was over."

I am stopping. I had no idea how many debut novels I love when I started this list.

-Anne

Sunday Salon --- A time of grief and saying goodbye

Weather: Lovely. Sunny. Not too hot.

Family Reunion: Tomorrow (Sunday) we start a family reunion which has become a family tradition. one of my daughters and her family, my mom, all my siblings and their spouses, and some of nieces and nephews will join Don and I for a week long reunion in the warm climes of Central Oregon for swimming, hiking, golfing, game-playing, eating, gabbing, more eating, and just plain fun. Since we are leaving tomorrow, I am posting this Sunday update one day early.

Saying goodbye: This week a friend and Christian brother died after a very fast growing cancer tumor was discovered. Dave was just about the kindest guy one could ever meet. He was always so thoughtful and helpful. As a deacon at our church he often took on tasks requiring much patience and tact. He had both in spades. The week before his death, our church was poised ready to bring in meals and to have members sit with him so his family could get some rest and do other things, but he passed so quickly that never happened. Tomorrow the church will honor him and his family with a memorial service. Unfortunately we will have to miss it since the family reunion was already planned. Both Don and I were profoundly touched by Dave's life and now by his peaceful death. R.I.P. Dave.

Saying goodbye (2): My best friend's mother passed away last Friday and we drove down to Oregon this week to help the family say goodbye to Donna on a warm day, in a peaceful old cemetery overlooking the small village where she grew up. The service/gathering was a beautiful tribute to her life. Donna was a remarkably kind and thoughtful person. Of all the mothers of my friends from high school, she was my favorite. In fact, over the years, I'd say she became my friend, not just my friend's mother. I learned, as I listened to others reminisce about her life, that others felt the same way. R.I.P. Donna.

Life goes on: Even in the midst of our grief, life goes on. It always does. On the way home from the service we got tangled up in a huge traffic jam; a friend and I went out for lunch and had boba tea for the first time; the grandkids came over and played -- first in the hot tub and then with the sprinkler in the yard; tonight Don and I are attending a John Legend concert at an outdoor venue where we can sip wine as we sing along. Joy!

Books I recently finished and those for the trip:

• What I plan/hope to read/listen to:
• Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. Don and I listened to half of this LONG book on our trip to Oregon and back. Now we hope to finish it on this second trip to our neighboring state. Not sure I care that much about Thomas Cromwell, but I do have a fascination with the Henry VIII court. When finished I will knock off another big book for the summer challenge,. It is over 600 pages long. It is also my One Big Book of the Year challenge book. (48%, audio)
• My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. The NYT named this book as the best fiction book of the 21st Century. I had a copy sitting around the house so I decided to read it. No time like NOW!. (16%, print)
• The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters. This is a book club selection for a future meeting (October?). It came in from the library so I thought I'd better try to cram it in between all the information on Cromwell. (22%, audio)
• North Woods by Daniel Mason. Another library book I've been waiting for. If, by miracle, we finish Wolf Hall, this may be what we listen to on the way home from Oregon. (Audio)
• Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn. Another book club selection. If I finish My Brilliant Friend with much poolside reading time, I'll start this book.
• Recently completed:
• Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler. A very weird story set in Washington Territory in the 1800s. It was such a strange book few book club members finished it. I found it quite intriguing. 3.75 stars.
• The Women by Kristin Hannah. A story about women who serves as nurses during the Vietnam conflict. Audio. 4.25 stars.
• Summer reading challenges update:
• 20 Books of Summer Challenge: After completing The Women, I've finished 15 out of 20 books so far this summer.
• Big Book Summer Challenge: My goal to finish four books over 400 pages long. So far, I've finished two long books, Wolf Hall makes three.
• Women's Prize Challenge: I've read two of the five winners and past winners with the completion of Brotherless Night.
• Reading the classics: This time for the Classics Club #38 Spin event I will read one of the past Pulitzer Prize winners I haven't read yet. See my post about the Spin here. I will learn what decade/half decade I'll be reading from tomorrow!

Politics: I don't know what to make of it. The little I watched of the RNC convention makes me even more amazed that anyone in their right mind could vote for Trump. And so it also amazes me that Democrats are so quick to want to jump off the Biden ship. Eek!

Jimmy Carter vs Donald Trump

Dog watching horse racing: This is the funniest thing this week --- Enjoy! Anyone who thinks dogs don't watch TV, needs to see this. Pure joy!

-Anne

It’s time for another Classics Club spin.

This is the Classics Club’s 38th CC Spin. 

What is a CC Spin?

• Simply pick twenty books that you’ve got left to read from your Classics Club List.
• Post that list, numbered 1-20, on your blog before Sunday, 21st July.
• A number from 1-20 will be announced. 
• Read that book by 22nd September.

For full details on how to play along, or to join the classics club, click on the link at the beginning of this post.

My CC Spin #38

This Spin I am choosing past Pulitzer Prize winners by decades or half decades and will decide on which book based on library availability once the spin decides the decade or title. (See my Pulitzer List for options.)

1. Some book from 1918-19
2. Some book from 1920-29
3. Some book from 1930-39
4. Some book from 1940-44
5. Some book from 1945-49
6. Some book from 1950-54
7. Some book from 1955-59
8. Some book from 1960-64
9. Some book from 1965-69
10. Some book from 1970-74
11. Some book from 1975-79
12. Some book from 1980-84
13. Some book from 1985-89
14. Some book from 1990-95
15. The Magnificent Ambersons 1919
16. All the King's Men 1947
17. A Bell for Adano 1945
18. A Death in the Family 1958
19. House Made of Dawn 1969
20. The Optimist's Daughter 1973

Clearly I am trying to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. I want to continue reading past Pulitzer Prize winners, and I think reaching back at least thirty years should qualify the books as "classics". 

...........................................................................................................

The winning number is 17. Now to see if I can find a copy of this 1945 Pulitzer Prize winner, A Bell for Adano by John Hersey.

-Anne

Review: SARAH CANARY

Title: Sarah Canary by Karen Joy Fowler

Book Beginnings quote: 

The years after the American Civil War were characterized by excess, ornamented by cults and corruptions.

Friday56:

Dr. Carr grew tired of waiting. He transferred the peppermint to his left hand and gripped her jaw with his right. His thumb drove directly into the bruise at her mouth. Sarah Canary winced. "Give me the watch," Dr. Carr said loudly. He applied pressure on the jaw at the hinge. Slowly, painfully, Sarah Canary allowed her mouth to be pried open. As soon as a gap appeared between the upper and lower teeth, B.J. began to reel in the watch chain. The gap widened. The watch slipped into sight at the back of her throat, slid over her tongue, and dangled wetly in front of her face at the end of its chain.

Summary: 

Fowler's remarkable debut recounts the 19-century adventures of a mysterious wild woman—and of the Chinese railway worker, insane-asylum escapee, suffragette, and exhibiter of circus freaks who pursue her through the Washington Territory—in this baroque tale of mystery, cruelty, and wonder as bombastically excessive as Barnum and Bailey itself. 

When a strange-looking, white woman enters Chin's half-hidden campsite in Washington Territory, the Chinese rail workers don't want anything to do with her. But when the woman begins warbling, singing, and babbling loudly, Chin's uncle orders him to escort the woman back to the nearby insane asylum. Chin obeys, and so begins a wild-goose chase that leads the dutiful Chinaman through terrifying forests, into confinement at the asylum, into jail, and through countless other escapades he never would have imagined or wished for. 

Who is the mysterious Sarah Canary, so called because of her disturbing, nonsensical warbling? Each new encounter brings a fresh invention of Sarah's past: an exhibiter of freaks claims that Sarah was raised by wolves in Alaska. Adelaide Dixon, solitary and opinionated suffragette, claims that she's on the lam after murdering her abusive husband. To Chin, Sarah is an ever-elusive mystery, captivating in her very unresponsiveness to other mortals and in her determination to remain free. 

A fascinating romp, in which actual events are so cleverly intertwined with the author's fanciful inventions that the reader grows unsure which to disbelieve. (Kirkus Reviews)

Review: Sarah Canary is possibly the weirdest book I've read in years. No one knows who Sarah Canary is or where she comes from but everyone thinks she is very odd looking. And she never talks, but makes bird-warbles. So why does she attract such a weird cast of characters, all of them want her for something to advance their own concerns, whether those concerns were altruistic (Suffrage) or voyeuristic (freak show).

Fowler interspersed the story of Sarah Canary with actual historical events which were all odd or cultish in nature. It dawned on me, at some point, that Sarah Canary is Fowler's first novel and she was forty when it was published in 1991 and so she was likely collecting stories about odd historical events throughout history especially during the years after the Civil War. She my have been collecting these stories for forty years and then tried to see if she could cram them all into her book. These odd snippets of information made for a rather zany, character-driven novel. It was hard to know where the story would go next, and next, and next. But wherever it went the story was odd and often very funny.

Sarah Canary was a book club selection. No one in the club could figure out why the library placed this book in a book club kit, except maybe it was selected because it was set in Washington, where we live. Few of the women finished the book. I think only four people did finish it. Those of us who did, liked the book, or at least thought the book was fun. Those who didn't, scratched their head and gave up. I will never tell anyone to read the book, but I am glad I did. The discussion actually enhanced what I thought of the book. Sarah Joy Fowler was interviewed in the early 2000s and asked about this book and about the title character. She made a comment which made the interviewer think that Fowler's answer was Sarah was so weird because she was an alien. Whoa! What? THe interviewer is guessing and Fowler never said so. But, well, that just turned the whole book on its head and it gave me a whole new way of looking at things. One never knows what they will find when they open up a book. And I certainly wasn't expecting an alien, if indeed Sarah Canary came from another planet. Ha!

Here is a link to the discussion guide questions: Reading Group Guides: Sarah Canary All of the questions are really great and helped open up the discussion.

2024 Twenty Books of Summer Challenge

13 / 20 books. 65% done!

 

 

Review and ten things I really like about BROTHERLESS NIGHT

Today's Top Ten Tuesday prompt is to list ten things I like about a book. I decided to choose Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan, a book I recently finished and haven't reviewed yet. I hope TTT readers will be patient with me as I review the book and follow along to the ten things I really like about it at the bottom of the page.

I became aware of Brotherless Night when it was selected for the 2024 Women's Prize shortlist and then ultimately won the prize. The story is set in Jaffna during the long, bloody Sri Lankan civil war. It is a heartbreaking story about a country and family coming undone by war and its consequences. The narrator is Sashi, a young aspiring doctor with four brothers. When her eldest brother is killed, two other brothers join the militant Tamil Tigers. Suddenly these brothers pull away from their family bonds toward another type of "family". This devotion to a cause further breaks the grieving, fragile family apart even more. 

Sasha herself seem to be conflicted in her devotion also. Shouldn't she support the Tamil Tigers who are fighting for the rights of her people? Yet she sees in them many cruelties and inconsistencies as the war progresses. At one point Sasha links up with a medical school professor and her husband to help document, in writing, all the atrocities occurring on both (all) sides which they have witnessed. 

I confess to being nearly completely unaware of the Sri Lankan Civil War, which lasted for over thirty years, ending in 2009 when the Tamil Tigers were finally defeated by the government forces, leaving thousands of victims in its wake. I am ashamed to confess this but I suspect I am not alone. It is so easy when one lives in the U.S. to become quite focused only on local or national news and to not focus one's attention on conflicts abroad unless they impact us in some tangible way, like economics. This is not something I am proud of. The Tamil Tigers were sure at least India was paying attention and indeed India did eventually send in a peace-keeping force to assist. These soldiers then became another bigger, more terrifying problem instead of bringing peace, they raped and pillaged. Ugh.

Brotherless Night was a brilliantly written and researched book. It draws on sixteen years of research by the author. One reviewer said it was brimming with "outrage and compassion." AYỌ̀BÁMI ADÉBÁYỌ, a 2024 Women's Prize judge, said Brotherless Night is "a powerful book that has the intimacy of a memoir, the range and ambition of an epic, and tells a truly unforgettable story of the Sri Lankan civil war."

Ten things I really liked about Brotherless Night:

1. This book was brilliantly researched historical fiction which made me feel like I was there in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, or at least the author was there, witnessing it all in person.
2. It drives home a point about loyalty and how being loyal to a cause can cause people to lose sight of other important aspects of their lives like family, neighbors community and schooling.
3. On a similar vein, the book shows us the horrors of war on all sides and questions the idea that there are good guys and bad guys. War is always bad for the people caught in the middle.
4. Sasha is a very complex character. She volunteers for the Tamil Tigers as a doctor because in a small way it may help protect her brothers, yet she also works in secret to collect evidence of the atrocities conducted by the Tigers on civilians. She is multifaceted. Readers see her grow and change as the story progresses.
5. It has the intimacy of a memoir yet the urgency of a news story. I felt called to lend support to the people Sri Lanka who still struggle today with inequality issues for the Tamil people.
6. Ganeshananthan's writing! Her prose are rich and descriptive. 
7. Here are a few examples:
• “But then the lights winked out across the peninsula, as boy after boy I had known and loved was extinguished or gone.”
• “You must understand: There is no single day on which a war begins. The conflict will collect around you gradually, the way carrion birds assemble around the vulnerable, until there are so many predators that the object of their hunger is not even visible. You will not even be able to see yourself in the gathering crowd of those who would kill you.”
• “I want you to understand: it does not matter if you cannot imagine the future. Still, relentless, it comes.”
8. The story was intense but I couldn't stop listening to the audiobook. To stop would mean I didn't care. And I do care, very much, because of this story.
9. About the audiobook, the narrator, Nirmala Rajasingam, did a brilliant job. Audible says this book is meant to be heard. I agree.
10. It won the 2024 Women's Prize for fiction. I have challenged myself to read two Women's Prize finalists every year going forward. I've completed that small challenged by reading Wren, Wren by Enright earlier this year and now the winner, Brotherless Night.

2024 Twenty Books of Summer Challenge

12 / 20 books. 60% done!

 

 

-Anne