May Reading Recap
Hello, fellow book lovers! I hope your summer reading is off to a great start. My May reading included a pretty good collection of books. I was lucky enough to snag a few ARCs, and overall, I was pretty happy with them. There are a few books that I highly recommend and think you should check out—maybe even add to your summer reading list.
P.S. Stay tuned for another post this week entailing a summer reading challenge I’ll be embarking on.
Looking for Andy Griffith: A Father’s Journey by Evan Dalton Smith
Quick Synopsis: Growing up an hour south of Andy Griffith’s hometown in North Carolina, Evan Dalton Smith grew up watching The Andy Griffith Show and looking up to Griffith. Through researching Griffith’s life, he finds that they have more in common than just their home state.
Strong Points: I bet when you think of The Andy Griffith Show, the catchy whistling theme song plays in your head. The show's comfy themes and happy endings made me a huge fan. That was also true for Smith, who found comfort and relaxation in his otherwise chaotic childhood. Throughout the book, it’s clear that Griffith has touched the author’s life in a prolific way, and it comes through in his passionate writing.
Weak Points: However, this felt very much like a first draft. The organization was very, very strange. At times, it was hard to follow the author’s train of thought. This, paired with the clunky transitions between the author’s life and Griffith's, left me disoriented. I get what the author was trying to do with this story—a half memoir and half Griffith biography—but unfortunately, I think this needs some serious editing before its publication date.
Writing Style: 2/5
Plot: 2.5/5
Flow/Pacing: 2/5
Overall Rating: 2/5
Not Recommend
For Fans of: Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey, Andy & Don by Daniel de Visé, and The Great Santini by Pat Conroy
Thank you, NetGalley, and University of North Carolina Press for providing me with a free, electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Quick Synopsis: At the end of the road where the narrator grew up, there is a farm with a mysterious pond that the neighborhood girl, Lettie, called an ocean. The narrator returns to his hometown for a funeral and is drawn to the farm house and the memories that took place there.
Strong Points: Gaiman perfectly captures childhood in this complex, multi-layered story, murkying the waters between reality and dream-like fantasy. By following this story through the child narrator, it allows the reader to experience the story in a more naïve and imaginative way than by following an adult narrator. Making everything throughout the story seem so much bigger and more adventurous, just like how it is when you’re a child. His ability to create a setting that evokes comfort, coziness, and safety brings a whole other level to his stories. By the time the narrator is grown, he starts to forget moments from his childhood. Gaiman encapsulates how childhood memories fade with the years, but they're still something to be treasured and can be revisited for comfort when the world gets to be too much.
Weak Points: When reading the descriptions of some of the creatures, it became a little hard for me to visualize them. While it didn’t take me out of the story, I wish the descriptions would have been a little clearer.
Writing Style: 4.5/5
Characters: 4.5/5
Plot: 4/5
Flow/Pacing: 4/5
Overall Rating: 4.5/5
Highly Recommend
For Fans of: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
Quick Synopsis: A family has been plagued for generations by a strange condition that has caused several family members to drown. This book follows three generations in Kerala, India, as their understanding of this condition changes as medicine advances.
Strong Points: I put Verghese’s writing up there with Hanya Yanagihara and Donna Tartt. Verghese excels at character development. Each character is flushed out very well, allowing the reader to easily understand each of their motives while providing the characters with stories to grow. He masterfully sprinkles little things throughout that affect the characters’ lives without taking over the whole plot. This results in a beautiful, rich story.
For this book, he relied on stories from his mother and father, drawing on his family’s experiences to write an authentic story about life in South India through the early and late 1900s. Being a doctor himself, there’s a genuineness that comes through in his writing when talking about medical terminology and experiences, unlike an author who relies on Google. If you can get past the taunting 724-page count and give it a chance, I’m sure you’ll like it.
Weak Points: While I did feel like it could have been edited down to say 600 pages, I enjoyed reading his writing, so I was okay with it.
Writing Style: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Flow/Pacing: 4.5/5
Overall Rating: 4.75/5
Highly Recommend
For fans of: Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, and Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
Women in the Valley of Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age by Kathleen Sheppard
Quick Synopsis: Successful discoveries in the Valley of Kings have always been attributed to wealthy men, and the women behind the scenes were left in the shadows. This book brings their stories to life, laying the groundwork for women who came after them in the field of Egyptology.
Strong Points: This was a page-turner, especially when retelling the famous digs that took place in the Valley of Kings. The author relies on the women’s journals and letters, which add a more personal touch to their stories. It was interesting to see how each woman’s contributions paved the way for the next generation of female Egyptologists, whether it was financial support for historic digs, copying hieroglyphics on site, educating others in the field and gaining support, or curating Egyptian exhibits to ensure the artifacts found were preserved for many generations to come. It was also great to see the author give credit to those who were actually doing the backbreaking work of physically digging up the tombs themselves. The diggers weren’t given any credit throughout history, even though they were the ones sweating their butts off.
If you’re interested in Egyptology at all, I couldn’t recommend this book more.
Weak Points: The order in which the women were introduced was a little confusing. In one woman’s story, there would be other women mentioned, but the reader wouldn’t know anything about them for another 40 pages. I did have to do some googling to understand where the digs took place and background on the pharaohs. If you don’t have a strong background in Egyptology like myself, then you might be a little confused at times. But it could also spark an interest in you to read more books on it, like it also did for me.
Writing Style: 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Flow/Pacing: 4/5
Overall Rating: 4/5
Recommend
For fans of: They Were Here Before Us by Eyal Halfon, Silk: A World History by Aarathi Prasad, and If An Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga
Thank you, NetGalley, and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a free, electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Quick Synopsis: A boy floats down the Mississippi River with a runaway slave.
Strong Points: I’m a little ashamed to say that I’ve never read Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer. After James by Percival Everett was getting so much buzz, I felt I should do my due diligence and read Huckleberry Finn since James is a reimaging of it. I was not disappointed. The adventures were entertaining, and there was never a dull moment in the book. It made me want to keep reading to find out how Huck was going to get out of the trouble that he found himself in.
I really liked the character of Huck. He’s at the age of still being naïve about society. He doesn’t quite understand why racism and owning other humans are allowed, yet it’s been drilled into him since he was born white that he’s superior to people who were born black and that this is the "right way." He loves Jim as a friend and as a person and doesn’t understand how he can be the property of someone else.
Weak Points: The southern dialect was distracting. Once I settled into it, it wasn’t too bad, and I could get into the flow of the book. However, the ending was a letdown. All of the character development for such a wash of an ending. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t read it, but I was left feeling unsatisfied. Apparently, Twain had a hard time writing the ending, which led to him writing it awhile after he finished the other parts of the book. Well, maybe he should have waited some more for a better ending to hit him.
Writing Style: 3/5
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Flow/Pacing: 4/5
Overall Rating: 4/5
Recommend
For Fans of: James by Percival Everett, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthor, and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
James by Percival Everett
Quick Synopsis: A re-imagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn told through the perspective of Jim.
Strong Points: Reimaginations of books are a fine line to walk. You want to stay as close to the story and feeling of the original as possible while also bringing something fresh to it. This novel did that perfectly. Although Huckleberry Finn wasn’t exactly lighthearted, James takes an even darker turn by giving a voice to James, the lovable runaway slave in Huckleberry, allowing him to speak properly, be able to read and write, and, overall, just have human feelings instead of the dopey slave narrative in Huckleberry. The prose is excellent, and the story is rich. I love an ending where the last sentence packs the punch, leaving the reader so satisfied. I will definitely be reading more from Everett. His novel Erasure was adapted for the Oscar-winning American Fiction. He’s obviously very talented.
Side note: In an interview with the BBC, Everett said he hopes they ban his book like they did Huckleberry because he likes “irritating those people who do not think and read.” I like this guy!
Weak Points: Really, there weren’t any.
Writing Style: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Flow/Pacing: 5/5
Overall Rating: 5/5
Highly Recommend
For fans of: Martyr! By Kaveh Akbar, Table for Two by Amor Towles, and North Woods by Daniel Mason
A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet
Quick Synopsis: When old friends and their families from college meet up for a vacation at a rented estate, a storm hits, and the parents crumble while the mature children flee to escape the chaos of the estate.
Strong Points: The tone was eerie and effective. It brought an extra layer of mystery and sinisterness to the story. The first half of the book captured my attention. I kept wanting to read more to figure out what the heck was going on.
Weak Points: I’m sorry to say, the second half of the book fell flat. It had so much potential, and then it went off the rails in a way that lacked cohesiveness to the first half. The biggest problem with this book was that some themes were spoon-fed to the reader, while others were so vague that it was hard to tell if that’s what the author was going for. The author either needed to lean into the biblical theme or just write a fun, dystopian book. It can’t be vague in some ways and forced in others.
The characters weren’t great either. They felt silly, ridiculous, and unrealistic at times. I didn’t feel a connection to any of them, which made for a flat story. With more than a dozen novels under her belt, I don’t know if I would be eager to read more from Millet.
Writing Style: 3/5
Plot: 2/5
Flow/Pacing: 2/5
Overall Rating: 3/5
Not Recommend
For fans of: Trust by Hernan Diaz, The Guest by Emma Cline, and Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
Wonderland: A Tale of Hustling Hard and Breaking Even by Nicole Treska
Quick Synopsis: Treska grew up in the Boston area with a family that was affiliated with the Winter Hill Gang. With her family members addicted to drugs and a father who was in jail and absent from her childhood, she always felt like she was taking care of everyone around her. After returning to Boston for her aunt’s funeral, Treska comes to terms with her childhood and just how special her hometown and family really are.
Strong Points: The plot wasn’t anything new or exciting, but the writing kept me reading. She gave the perfect amount of description, leaving the reader feeling as if they knew the family and where she grew up. Also, I loved the cover!
Weak Points: I would have liked for the author to delve more into her family’s mob connections. The synopsis promised a little more mob talk. It felt like a little bit of a basic memoir, but the writing was great.
Writing Style: 5/5
Plot: 3/5
Flow/Pacing: 3/5
Overall Rating: 3/5
Recommend
For fans of: The Guide by Peter Heller, True Crime Philadelphia by Kathryn Canavan, and Castle on Sunset by Shawn Levy
Thank you, NetGalley, and Simon & Schuster for providing me with a free, electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.
“I’m going to tell you something important. Grown-ups don’t look like grown-ups on the inside either.” - The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
