This is what I read at the end of 2019. Not surprisingly, the list is a bit light during the holiday season. I do plan to pick up the reading as the year progresses. I read a lot in 2019 and plan to read more in 2020.
In 2019, I was able to read more because I would listen to a book, read one on an e-reader and then also read a physical book. Using these 3 mediums allowed me to read more and not get confused!
This is what I read (or almost finished):
Please Look After Mom by Kyung Sook Shin
SYNOPSIS: When sixty-nine-year-old So-nyo is separated from her husband among the crowds of the Seoul subway station, her family begins a desperate search to find her. Yet as long-held secrets and private sorrows begin to reveal themselves, they are forced to wonder: how well did they actually know the woman they called Mom?
Told through the piercing voices and urgent perspectives of a daughter, son, husband, and mother, Please Look After Mom is at once an authentic picture of contemporary life in Korea and a universal story of family love.
MY THOUGHTS-this is the book that I did not finish. It is written in the 2nd person which makes it difficult to follow. If you listen to it as I did, it makes it even more difficult to follow. Mostly, it’s hard to tell who the narrator actually is because it changes.
There are some interesting elements though that make the book worth reading. The book was written by a Korean author and it includes elements of mysticism, themes about death, ones place in the family, and gender expectations. These concepts are all approached from a Korean perspective which I found interesting. I would recommend this book if you read it as opposed to listening. I read this book as part of one of my book clubs and those that read vs listening enjoyed the book and were less confused.
Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson
SYNOPSIS: Amy Whey is proud of her ordinary life and the simple pleasures that come with it—teaching diving lessons, baking cookies for new neighbors, helping her best friend, Charlotte, run their local book club. Her greatest joy is her family: her devoted professor husband, her spirited fifteen-year-old stepdaughter, her adorable infant son. And, of course, the steadfast and supportive Charlotte. But Amy’s sweet, uncomplicated life begins to unravel when the mysterious and alluring Angelica Roux arrives on her doorstep one book club night. Sultry and magnetic, Roux beguiles the group with her feral charm. She keeps the wine flowing and lures them into a game of spilling secrets. Everyone thinks it’s naughty, harmless fun. Only Amy knows better. Something wicked has come her way—a she-devil in a pricey red sports car who seems to know the terrible truth about who she is and what she once did.When they’re alone, Roux tells her that if she doesn’t give her what she asks for, what she deserves, she’s going to make Amy pay for her sins. One way or another. To protect herself and her family and save the life she’s built, Amy must beat the devil at her own clever game, matching wits with Roux in an escalating war of hidden pasts and unearthed secrets. Amy knows the consequences if she can’t beat Roux. What terrifies her is everything she could lose if she wins.
MY THOUGHTS-This book is your typical suburban mystery/thriller. This is not a bad thing; I enjoy these types of books. They’re easy to read but also hold your attention with the suspense. This book is average. It starts out really slow then comes to its shocking conclusion really fast. There are parts that are really promising and then it gets bogged down. I think I was a bit annoyed at the end because it felt like the author wanted to be a shocking as possible. I don’t want to give away any spoilers but part of the shocking part was unnecessary. This book is very female centric and I’ve noticed recently that these female centrci thrillers don’t have clearly delineated good vs bad. Even the “bad” characters have redeeming qualities and the “good” characters usually have some “secret” that they are trying to hide.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb
SYNOPSIS: One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose office she suddenly lands. With his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but. As Gottlieb explores the inner chambers of her patients’ lives – a self-absorbed Hollywood producer, a young newlywed diagnosed with a terminal illness, a senior citizen threatening to end her life on her birthday if nothing gets better, and a 20-something who can’t stop hooking up with the wrong guys – she finds that the questions they are struggling with are the very ones she is now bringing to Wendell. With startling wisdom and humor, Gottlieb invites us into her world as both clinician and patient, examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love and desire, meaning and mortality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is revolutionary in its candor, offering a deeply personal yet universal tour of our hearts and minds and providing the rarest of gifts: a boldly revealing portrait of what it means to be human and a disarmingly funny and illuminating account of our own mysterious lives and our power to transform them.
MY THOUGHTS-This book is non-fiction but reads very much like a novel. It is a very intimate look at the therapy experience from the therapist point of view and also from a therapist who goes to therapy. Because therapy is my educational background, I was fascinated. The book dispels quite a few myths about therapy and what it’s like to be in therapy as well as the therapist. It is not just written for therapists or those interested in therapy though. The book is being adapted into a television show!
In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende
SYNOPSIS: In the Midst of Winter begins with a minor traffic accident – which becomes the catalyst for an unexpected and moving love story between two people who thought they were deep into the winter of their lives. Richard Bowmaster – a 60-year-old human rights scholar – hits the car of Evelyn Ortega – a young undocumented immigrant from Guatemala – in the middle of a snowstorm in Brooklyn. What at first seems just a small inconvenience takes an unforeseen and far more serious turn when Evelyn turns up at the professor’s house seeking help. At a loss, the professor asks his tenant Lucia Maraz – a 62-year-old lecturer from Chile – for her advice. These three very different people are brought together in a mesmerizing story that moves from present-day Brooklyn to Guatemala in the recent past to 1970s Chile and Brazil, sparking the beginning of a long overdue love story between Richard and Lucia.Exploring the timely issues of human rights and the plight of immigrants and refugees, the book recalls Allende’s landmark novel The House of the Spirits in the way it embraces the cause of “humanity, and it does so with passion, humor, and wisdom that transcend politics” (Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post). In the Midst of Winter will stay with you long after you listen to the last minute.
MY THOUGHTS-This is an author that I usually really enjoy. This book is so light weight-it reads much like a romance novel and I don’t really like romance novels. Allende is a beautiful writer whose words can really paint a picture. This book though just doesn’t cut it. Allende’s work is known for dealing with international human interest stories and this book is no different. However, it feels like she couldn’t decide what she wanted this book to be and just touched on lots of different points. I’ll keep reading her though because her overall body of work is phenomenal.
