Happy December! I am so bad about posting on here because I just spend all of my free time reading, but I read several excellent books in November, so I want to talk about them!
November: 12 books | Average Rating: 4.21
5 Star Reads
Love by Toni Morrison
After a prominent community member's death, the town he helped support and the women who knew him reflect on class, power, and, of course, love.
Toni Morrison is a literary genius. There’s a whole lot else to say, but that sums it up. No one but her could write about the hardest, most heartbreaking stuff that humanity has to offer alongside the most beautiful, and all of it in the most stunning prose you’ll ever read. This is a deeply nuanced book that I’m sure has something new for every read, yet it doesn’t feel like it has to be an English class book. Whether you just want to read a good story or you want to parse and analyze, Toni Morrison’s writing is the best you can find for either purpose.
Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
Gwen and Art Are Not In Love | NetGalley advance copy
4-4.75 Star Reads
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak | 4.75 stars
Ada Kazantzakis knows very little about her family's history on the island of Cyprus, but now that she's mourning her mother, she has questions. Told in multiple timelines and perspectives, this beautiful novel chronicles the romance between Ada's parents, one Greek and the other Turkish, in a time of turmoil on the island.
I finished this book with tears in my eyes, and that wasn’t the first time it brought me to tears. This story is as heartbreaking as it is heartwarming. The characters go through so much and their stories are told with such reverence. I loved the multi-timeline, multi-narrator style of storytelling, and the writing itself was stunning — I highlighted so many passages! The unique perspective of the tree and the attention paid to the natural world throughout made this book absolutely fascinating to read.
Independence by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni | 4.5 stars
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich | 4.25 stars
Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America by Mayukh Sen | 4 stars
What Would Velma Do? Life Lessons from the Brains (and Heart) of Mystery, Inc. by Shaenon K. Garrity | 4 stars
Reads Under 4 Stars
Do Your Worst by Rosie Danan (NetGalley advance copy) | 3.75 stars — A curse breaker and a disgraced archaeologist go head to head against each other and a cursed(?) castle that just wants to push them together. Fun premise, decent execution.
Four Aunties and a Wedding by Jesse Q. Sutanto | 3.75 stars — The second book in Sutanto's Aunties series sees main character Meddy getting married while trying to manage her aunties' antics... and the mafia. Funny and a good story, but plotting felt repetitive at times.
Today Tonight Forever by Madeline Kay Snead (NetGalley advance copy) | 3.5 stars — Two families reunite over one member's wedding weekend, and all of the emotions come out. This read more of a character study than a novel with a plot, but it had some good things to say about grief, love, and family.
A Holly Jolly Diwali by Sonya Lalli | 3 stars — A recently unemployed woman makes an uncharacteristic spontaneous decision to fly to India for Diwali and her friend's wedding — and ends up in a whirlwind romance. The holiday vibe of this book was great, and I loved the adventure of going to a wedding in another country last minute. However, as a romance novel and a story in general, this book did not grab/keep my attention.
That's all for November — I can't wait to see what November brings!
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