None of this True, by Lisa Jewell
None of this True, by Lisa Jewell. What a creepy, dark, terrifying psychological thriller! Who do you believe? What is the truth? Is there ever really an objective truth to anything? Read this in one day while my family had Covid, which worked out better for them since I would have ignored them anyway to finish this book 😅 Four out of five bocks for this thriller!!
The Interestings, by Meg Wolitzer
The Interestings, by Meg Wolitzer. I absolutely loved and crushed this book!! Wolitzer’s writing is so fluid and dynamic; her characters are so knowable. Reminded me of Ann Patchett’s style, for all you Tom Lake aficionados out there. Cannot wait to read more of her work. Five out of five bocks!!!
Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway
A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway 🌟 Revisit the classics!! I’m a big proponent of rereading your high school cannon because I mean really 😣 is any teenager really capable of understand and appreciating these great works when they’re preoccupied with all the high school things 🤦♀️ I think not. SO- A Moveable Feast counts as one of these older pieces of great literature that I’m not sure anyone revisits anymore!! Don’t discount the classics my friends. Cherished this read about Paris, the Roaring 20s, and life abroad in this magical time filled with booze (holy cow those folks drank), literature, art, and creativity ❤️ Enjoy!! 😊
Summer reading list
Readers and friends ✨ I have been soooo behind on my book reviews, and they’ve really piled up. Here’s me sifting through the pile, and sharing some short snippets of wonderful things I’ve read recently:
(Not pictured) Knife, by Salman Rushdie salman.rushdie - OMG! Memoir of his survival from an attempted murder in 2022. Incredible and compelling. Made me want to read The Satanic Verses, which started all this nonsense and the “fatwa” on his life. Salman survived being stabbed 15 times at a public event in 2022 and lived to tell the tale. If that doesn’t make you want to read, I don’t know what will.
Master Slave Husband Wife, by Ilyon Woo - I’ve been into nonfiction recently (see above); this delivered. A true account of a husband and wife couple, both slaves, who escaped slavery by disguising as a wealthy white male (the wife) and her slave (her husband.) Ilyon leaves no detail unturned. A wealth of information on this historical tragedy, the Civil War, and its social and cultural underpinnings.
There There, by Tommy Orange - Dark but beautiful and poignant; important. Conflates Native Americana with American gun culture like the old movie “Crash”, where everyone is connected. Stellar debut and complicated read; take note of characters. Worthy of another reading, to be honest.
I Who Have Never Known Men, by Jacqueline Harpman - Holy smokes, this book is mind blowing, disturbing, and incredible. Very dark and otherworldly, but also a huge commentary on humanity. Reads well but you can tell it’s an older book, translated from French. Don’t read seeking answers; just focus on the page you’re on, and enjoy the ambiguity.
Carrie Soto is Back, by Taylor Jenkins Reid - Fun! Good beach read (unlike all above😆) Truly enjoyed reading this fun book about playing tennis (my obsession), and specifically playing tennis as an older person (which also really hits home, haha!)
On The Road, by Jack Kerouac - Every year I challenge myself to read one or two literary classics; hence, this gem from 1957. A wild ride. If you think society was all prim and proper in the “Days of Yore”, you should consider the reading of this manuscript, which I am pretty sure was typed on a scroll while doing immense amounts of cocaine. 😂
The Paris Wife, by Paula McLain - LOVE! Ya’ll know I love novels about France, Paris, French food, culture, etc etc. This inspiring historical fiction was just the fix in the absence of Emily in Paris (which, btw, is coming back on in August!!!) Details the life of Ernest Hemingway’s first wife and the dissolution of their marriage against the backdrop of the excesses of European living in the 1920s: writing in cafes and bullfighting, and heavy drinking, and “summering” in the south of France, and affairs, and all the things.
The Medicine Woman of Galveston, by Amanda Skenandore - Again, loved this historical fiction novel that beautifully intertwines the history of traveling medicine shows (who knew this was a thing?!) and the Galveston hurricane of 1900, which was the largest natural disaster in American history.
The Tortilla Curtain, by T.C. Boyle
Have you read T.C. Boyle?? You should. A prolific writer, he’s published 16 novels - this one is from 1995, yet still so relevant. Boyle’s writing is beautiful and readable; a fantastic storyteller, in this novel he intertwines the lives of migrant families with the Los Angeleno families that they encounter. Slightly eviscerating in its tone, it highlights the prejudices and ignorance of both sides of this story, until a beautiful, poignant, and forgiving end. I could not put it down! 5 out of 5 bocks.
Dirt: Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French Cooking, by Bill Buford
Bill Buford delivers in this beautiful and humorous memoir of his adventure moving his family to Lyon, France to learn the art of French cooking. Evocative and funny, Buford’s story will make you crave baguettes and want to up and move to France yourself. I love food writing, and books about France and French culture- Bill aces on both counts! 5 out of 5 bocks. Just don’t tell Lady about “Chicken La Mere Brazier”
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - made me appreciate gaming and the video game industry! I had no idea what this looked like, as I am not a gamer. But maybe I could be one?! Also love the complexity of the relationship between the two characters and how the author does not automatically settle on romantic interest in the book.
It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War, by Lynsey Addario
“It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War.” This Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist is brilliant, candid, brave, and also human. An absolutely remarkable story and remarkable life, I am in awe of this true hero. 5 out of 5 bocks!!! 🐓🐓🐓🐓🐓
Click here for a full video review.
The School for Good Mothers, by Jessamine Chan
I’m not going to write much- but you must pick up Jessamine Chan’s debut novel, The School for Good Mothers!!! Holy s***, I was absolutely gutted at the end. A fantastic, deep, dark novel about surveillance and parenting. Hits hard about things related to The Mom Project, which you know I’m also exploring. Grab a tissue and give yourself an hour for the last chapter to process and cry.Keep on reading and challenging yourself, my friends.
Click here for a full video review.
Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner
“Lovely was an adjective my mother adored … She felt it encompassed an ideal beauty and ardor. It felt a fitting epitaph. To be a loving mother was to be known for a service, but to be a lovely mother was to possess a charm all her your own.” Such is the sublime insight and beauty of Michelle Zauner’s writing, in her memoir “Crying in H Mart”, which explores her Korean heritage and the fallout from her mother’s death. As someone who sometimes feels similarly straddled between cultures, loves food writing, and enjoys exploring the identity and conflict and challenges that mothers face, this book checked many boxes for me. (Am I Ukrainian? Am I American? I often feel not wholly one or the other, but something of a blend, which has taken me nearly four decades to realize and embrace.) Michelle, who is the creative genius and singer for Japanese Breakfast, has a writing talent all her own, and her wonderful descriptions of her mother, traveling to Korea, and the meals her and her mother shared is wondrous, and poignant.
On another note, friends, as the weather warms, I am shifting my focus to being back in the studio, so this is my last book review for a while!! Thank you for your recommendations, shares, and positive feedback. Keep reading! Stay tuned for more lit + art + all the good things.
Click here for a full video review.
Bad Fruit, by Ella King
Bad Fruit, by Ella King ✨ A great psychological novel and a wonderful debut for an author, Bad Fruit explores so much about mothers and daughters but also generational trauma, the fallibility of memory, and the healing power of community. King’s style packs a punch; in just a few sentences, she can reveal key parts of the story, so pay attention. It is also disturbing and dark, but resolves well. There is so much more to explore in terms of psychology- it would be worth a deep dive from a psych perspective, because this material is rich and compelling. Ella promised me an interview in the spring, so stay tuned!
Click here for a full video review.
The President’s Hat, by Antoine Laurain
The President’s Hat, by Antoine Laurain
A wonderful ode to France ❤️ I love, love, love any books that take me to Paris or France- I studied abroad there in my 20s. (Other great reads include My Life in France, by Julia Child and Alex Proud’homme, All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr [despite it being a war novel], and Bringing Up Bebe, by Pamela Druckerman [despite it being guised as a parenting book.]) You may also know I am obsessed with the show Emily in Paris (!!! The outfits! The music! Sylvie!) Since I’ve watched all the seasons of EIP twice 😅, it’s time to relish in a Parisian read. I recommend The President’s Hat to get your Francophile fix. I also love how the book demonstrates that objects can carry a special place in our hearts, but we never truly “own” anything- we just pass it along it to the next person. 5 out of 5 bocks! 🐓🐓🐓🐓🐓
Click here for a full video review.
Top books about France
I just wrapped reading “The Nightingale” by the wonderful and prolific Kristin Hannah, and while it’s a tragic, beautiful, heavy, immense read set in France during World War II, it also made me long for the beauty and wonder of all things French. (I think it’s time to book an adventure out of the country!) I studied abroad in Paris, and simply j’adore all things French. The style, the architecture, the history, the food, the concept of flaneur …. that is, the aimless wandering around a beautiful city …. It’s all a delight. In honor of my Francophile obsession, I compiled some of my other favorite French books, here noted: The President’s Hat, by Antoine Laurain (previously reviewed!); My Life in France, by Julia Child (a food book + French book = double awesome); All the Light We Cannot See- *yes*, it’s also a war book, but oh so beautiful, by Anthony Doerr (also just reviewed: Cloud Cuckoo Land, and these two books are v different and showcase his immense breadth of knowledge and style); and a celebration of The Seine: The River that Made Paris, by Elaine Sciolino. I’ll take my baguette and wine now, s’il vous plait. What other books about France do you love? Share below and rec ‘em!
Trevor Noah, Born A Crime
Trevor Noah, Born A Crime ✨ “Love is a creative act.” ❤️ Trevor Noah’s brilliant and beautiful novel of resiliency and racism while growing up under apartheid in South Africa was the most genuine, moving, thoughtful, and important book I’ve read this year. Admittedly, I knew little about South Africa, or apartheid, or even Mr. Noah himself before reading this. I knew he had major comedic chops but didn’t know about his upbringing or his story. And what a remarkable story it is! To bring humor and light to some incredibly dark and complicated material was illuminating, and absorbing. Also moving was the complexity of love between mother and son. Reader hint: Don’t read the last chapter if you’re rushed or off to bed; be sure to savor chapter 18, “My Mother’s Life”. I stayed up way past my bedtime engrossed in the book; you will not put it down. 5 out of 5 bocks!
Click here for a full video review.
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Kristin Hannah book makes for a great read anywhere and everywhere you go. I just finished The Nightingale, her epic novel of World War II France. (Big thanks to dear friend Marisa for the rec!) What an epic, terrible, beautiful novel that captures the breadth and depth of the human spirit. I cried quietly as I read in bed, and the novel has stuck with me since. I can imagine that writing this for the author was challenging, and exhausting; it's not everyday you are writing or reading about concentration camps. Despite its grim setting, I found some profound and beautiful work in the book: "Love has to be stronger than hate, or there is no future for us." Truth indeed. You'll fly through the 560+ pages of the novel and wish there was more. 5 out of 5 bocks! 🐓🐓🐓🐓🐓
he Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Ann Patchett has quickly become one of my favorite authors. Her prose is just that- poetry; her dialogue and her descriptions are so vivid, believable. Her work is both easy to read and also thoughtful and intelligent. I was recommended State of Wonder a few months ago, and promptly bought The Dutch House and Bel Canto immediately. I cannot recommend her enough.
The Dutch House was no disappointment. In fact, this book spoke to me in quite a special way, because it is about losing a house (technically, literally- it’s also about families, and love, and everything else in life.) In 2021, I lost my grandmother- who was in every intent and purpose, my ride or die in life- and had to go back home to Chicago several times to clean out my childhood home. My heart was- and a part of it still is- broken.
I grew up in Ukrainian Village just west of Downtown, and only when I moved away in my 20s did I realize how special and extraordinary the way I grew up was. My first words were not necessarily in English. I didn’t know what “pasta” was in English until I was in, like, 3rd grade. We had a neighborhood filled with Ukrainian immigrants who stubbornly clung to their language, beliefs, customs, and food. We shopped at Ukrainian markets, went to Ukrainian school on Saturday, and Ukrainian Byzantine church on Sunday. (Despite my atheism-lean, I will say the Byzantine church is beautiful and ornate, gold-filled and history-rich, laden with mystery, and smelling like incense, and I prefer and enjoy all of this to other forms of organized religion I have experienced.) My childhood wasn’t particularly magical or wonderful in any way, but I still feel tied to this house I grew up in, where I spent both my childhood years and also several years way-finding my way in my 20s. It was in our family for generations, 60 years, and was filled with Ukrainian things, and books and photos and piles of magical things that were fun to sift through when you were a kid. The selling of the house, and the cleaning of it, was a minor tragedy. We gathered as many treasured things as we could, and then sold it as it was, for there were too many things in there to remove in a short amount of time. So much history and time, just gone in a snap, in a sale.
Two years later, I still have extremely vivid and reoccurring dreams about the house. In them, I am in the house, looking for lost things, looking through boxes, for jewelry, books, paintings. I feel a part of me may actually be in the house when I’m dreaming this. Sometimes, I dream I have snuck in, and I can see the new owner coming up through the glass front door, and I have to hide. I clearly have a lot of regret over leaving the house, and whatever we left inside it.
The Dutch House, which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, feels out this loss in vivid and profound ways, and explores what it means to live in a house, and grow up somewhere, and move away, and lose your family possessions, and experience the fracturing of a family. Oddly enough, one of the possessions so left in the house was a portrait of the sister, Maeve. (I, too, left paintings in the house, which I wish I could go back and get.) And in a totally believable and intimate tidbit of living in a house, Patchett describes a secret cache of quarters hidden underneath the lip of the dining room table. Our family, too, had a secret cash stash in just this place, and when cleaning out the house I swiped underneath the table to make sure, at least, that anything wasn’t left there. I almost cried when I read that part in her book. That’s the beauty of Patchett’s writing. How could she have known this? And yet, I’m sure, families have secret stashes underneath the lips of dining room tables all over the world.
One more thing about Patchett’s writing. Her dialogue is extraordinary, so fluid and real it’s hard to understand it is imaginary. (Is it? I would ask her this, in an author interview, if she would be so kind!!) Most everyone will relate to The Dutch House because most everyone, if you were lucky enough, grew up in homes as children and then moved away as adults. In the end (spoiler alert!), fortunate has it that the house comes back to the original family, in a way. I wonder if my own story has such a similar ending. Read this now.
Click here for a full video review.
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett 🌞 Ladies, would you want to have a kid at *any* age? 40? 50? 75? The book’s premise rests on the concept of the power of infinite fertility as harvested by a pharmaceutical company, coupled with an adventure to get one of the scientists from said pharma company back home. The end is surprising and heartbreaking all at once. Thought provoking, beautiful, epic, dangerous, totally compelling read. An incredible story by an amazing author with beautiful storytelling ability. I picked up her other two books after this reading this one- hooked. Lady and I give it 5 out of 5 bocks!! 🐓🐓🐓🐓🐓
Click here for a full video review.
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Elizabeth Strout’s Lucy by the Sea was a wonderful, smart, incisive look at the last two years of the pandemic, and the havoc it wreaked upon personal lives, families, and society. Strout, who also authored the Olive Kitteridge books, has a way of making storytelling through the eyes of older women somehow extremely compelling- older women not being the voice of most protagonists I can think of. I mean this in the most generous way! And as a noted deficit to society, that we do not honor those voices enough. And yet, her insight into age, and aging, bears so much truth. We are all, after all, going to end up this way- if we are lucky. And for my age cohort, aging has suddenly arrived, with the realization that we are no longer twenty-somethings; but also oddly distant, in that we still most likely identify with our twenty-something selves. I do not yet feel like Lucy Barton, in her home by the sea, but I can sense that one day, I may very well be her, and this day may arrive sooner than I think.
I also enjoy Strout’s affirmation that despite one’s years, we are all still learning, we are all still processing- never is a character so ego-centric as to demand respect or honor from some faux age-derived wisdom. For the best, none of the characters are obviously wise. Every character, even those in their 70s, are still muddling through life’s decisions with the best of us. Rather, wisdom comes from acknowledging that there is much to be learned, up to the very end.
Specifically, Lucy by the Sea will resonate with a large audience because everyone has stories, trauma (oft-overused word, but I will use it here nonetheless), and sadness surrounding the pandemic. It touched everyone, in many ways, and so despite Lucy Barton being an older and wealth(ier) white woman, I would warrant that you’ll identify with Lucy in more ways than you’ll realize. Strout’s stark portraits of intimate life inside the pandemic against the backdrop of coastal Maine are sharp. Her writing is clean, and clear- deceptively so. A wonderful read from one of my favorite authors. 5 out of 5 bocks!
Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater
Quick review of sweet little children’s book, Mr. Popper’s Penguins. (I’ve just been informed it’s also a movie starring Jim Carrey, from 2011!) You know how some children’s books are a total drag to read? Like you’re falling asleep reading them. (This is actually an identified form of torture. Forget waterboarding- all you have to do to torture someone is make them live on 6 hours of sleep for years and then spend their time trying to stay awake reading terrible children’s books.) Mr. Popper’s Penguins is *not* one of those books. The chapters are perfect length for evening reading, the story is sweet and funny, quirky but also intelligent. Uni the Unicorn this is not. (Sorry, Uni fans.) Also crazy: this book was published in 1938, but largely reads as fresh and relevant as if it was written last year. 5 out of 5 bocks!! A great addition to your children’s library. (P.S. The girls have been rained out the last few reviews! Lady will be back soon to join me.)
Click here for a full video review.
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
My review of Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr ✨ An incredible, grand, meandering read through centuries of humanity, Cloud Cuckoo Land bites and doesn’t let go until the last hundred pages or so. You may ask, “Where is this going?”, but be compelled to continue reading. Trust, this immense story spanning past, present, and future and linked by literature is a wonder. I admit, I finished the last page, and then immediately turned back to the first page in an attempt to recapture what just happened- I wanted to reread the book to catch all the small, subtle details that wrap together beautifully at the end. Doerr’s creativity is extensive. I truly wonder how someone can create this; the imaginative capacity overwhelms. I have no talent for writing myself, but I can appreciate the brain that creates the masterpiece. 5 out of 5 bocks! 🐓🐓🐓🐓🐓 Big thanks to @aebehncke for the continued recommendations and supply of wonderful and current books! @anthonydoerrwriter
Click here for a full video review.