Read 20 in 2020!

I'm doing the Read 20 in 2020 Challenge!  Check back to this post to see what I read for each category.

1. Science fiction - American War by Omal El Akkad
2. Pulitzer Prize/National Book Award winner - All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
3. History - Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell
4. Biography/Memoir - What You Have Heard is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance by Carolyn Forché
5. Book by an author from Long Island - Shirley by Susan Scarf Merrell
6. Graphic Novel/Non-Fiction - Moonbound: Apollo 11 and the Dream of Spaceflight by Jonathan Fetter Vorn
7. Mystery/True Crime - The King's Justice by Susan Elia MacNeal
8. Young Adult - The Ballad of Songbirds and Snake by Suzanne Collins
9. Book with a color in the title - Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel
10. Book about or taking place during a holiday - The Dinner Party by Brenda Janowitz
11. Learn something new - Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel by Carl Safina
12. Audiobook - The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman
13. Book by an author from Asia, Africa, or Oceania - Supernova Era by Cixin Liu
14. Book with an animal on the cover - My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman
15. Book that was published in 2000 - Alice's Tulips by Sandra Dallas
16. Your choice - The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
17. Your choice - The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
18. Your choice - The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis
19. Your choice - The Philosopher's Flight by Tom Miller
20. Your choice - City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

Want to join?  Visit https://westhamptonlibrary.net/read20in2020/ to sign up and submit your books.  One local winner will get a $100 gift card to a local merchant of their choice, and a non-local winner will get a $50 Amazon gift card.
#read20in2020wfl

Miri

Supernova Era by Cixin Liu, translated by Joel Martinsen
Rating: 2 stars (out of 5)
Genre: science fiction
Read 20 in 2020 Challenge category: book by an author from Africa, Asia, or Oceania
Review: The premise behind this book is really interesting.  Essentially, it posits that a supernova gives everyone over the age of 13 radiation poisoning, and they all die.  Only children 13 and under are left in the world.  It's like Miri, a Star Trek episode from 1966, except on a global scale, and with a full-length novel to flesh out the idea.  Unfortunately, the execution doesn't fulfill the promise of the idea.  We can argue whether a children's world would really turn into a "Candytown" free-for-all, or if children would really start massive war games over Antarctica, with actual casualties.  I didn't find either very likely, but I respect the imaginative process that went into creating those scenarios.  My problem was that the writing/translation is very clunky, making the children's world hard to read about, even if I could get behind the ideas.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

the spirit of the original

Meg & Jo by Virigina Kantra
Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: fiction
Review: I suspect many Louisa May Alcott aficionados get nervous every time they hear about a remake of Little Women, or a "contemporary retelling," like Virginia Kantra's Meg & Jo.  I know I do, and I almost didn't pick up this book because I was concerned about the damage it would do to my favorite book.  I need not have worried.  On the contrary, Kantra got it just right.  I can easily imagine that this is the book Louisa May Alcott would have written if she lived in the 21st century.

Which means, of course, that it's a really good book, in addition to preserving the spirit of Little Women.  The characters, their struggles and triumphs, and their family bond (since this is still the March family) spring off the page.  I felt so connected to the characters that I was a little bereft when the book ended, and I was thrilled to see that Kantra has a sequel, Beth & Amy, coming soon.

I would recommend Meg & Jo to anyone who was looking for a good story, whether or not they've read Little Women.  Many kudos to Kantra for this wonderful book.  Jo March (the original) would be proud.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

triumph and adversity

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
Genre: historical fiction
Review: Alice doesn't fit in at home in England, for reasons that aren't entirely made clear, but also aren't terribly important.  So when Bennett Van Cleve and his father come through her town on their European tour, she's more than ready to be swept off her feet and taken away from her boring life and hyper-critical parents.  Unfortunately, she didn't look at a map to understand that Kentucky mining country is a far cry from cosmopolitan New York.  Nor did she have enough to have any sense of her husband's character, and things quickly go downhill for her in America.

Fortunately, the WPA's packhorse library's need for librarians comes along to save her.  The only things that anchors this book in the 20th century, the packhorse library really existed.  "Librarians" took books into the hills and remote areas of Kentucky (and other places), and, at least in this book, brought the light of literature out to the boonies.  Alice must contend with mistrust (not only is she not from the nearest small-town, she has an accent all the way from England), hazardous weather, and a bonehead husband.  Fortunately, the promise of new friendships and happier times is on the horizon, if Alice can tough it out.

This may sound like a lightweight book, but it's actually not.  Swirling around Alice are issues of poverty, illiteracy, prejudice, class injustice, and the unionization of coal miners.  On a personal level, she must also deal with the nature of marriage and her obligations to her family.  Moyes does an elegant job of illuminating all these issues while also writing realistic and relatable characters and situations.  As a librarian, I was, of course, particularly taken with her discussions of the packhorse librarians and their goals of spreading literacy throughout the countryside.  Her descriptions of how books changed the lives of the families in the hills serves as a timeless reminder of the importance of books and libraries to everyone.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

story magic

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
Genre: fantasy
Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)
Review: This is a book about the power and magic of stories.  It is best read in print, and possibly by candlelight, for all the magic to come through, but even reading the e-book was very magical.

There's no meaningful way to sum up this book or to adequately capture the beauty of the language except to say that the story is wonderful and the language more than does it justice.  But here's a taste (and definitely not the best taste, but the easiest one to take out of context): "I don't know if I believe that [endings are what give stories meaning].  I think the whole story has meaning but I also think to have a whole story-shaped story it needs some sort of resolution.  Not even a resolution, some appropriate place to leave it.  A goodbye.  I think the best stories feel like they're still going, somewhere, out in story space."  And later, "...no story ever truly ends as long as it is told."

Morgenstern is true to her word here.  In and around all this magic and fancy, there's an actual plot, which is brought to something sort of like a resolution by the end.  But this story definitely keeps going.  Not in the sense of needing a sequel (although I wouldn't complain), but in the sense that it will live in my head for a long time to come.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

unclear

Trinity Sight by Jennifer Givhan
Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)
Genre: apocalyptic fiction
Review: What happens when Pueblo and Zuni myths meet The Stand (and a little bit of Outlander)?  You get Trinity Sight, where there's been some kind of cataclysmic event and suddenly almost all the people are gone.  Some of those who remain band together and try to make their way to safety, where, hopefully, they will also find their lost families.  What do these survivors have in common, so that they stuck around?  Unclear.  What happened to cause the upheaval?  Unclear.

Maybe it's just me, but overall this whole book was just very unclear.  By the end, I felt like I had a sense of what was going on, but I never felt like I had a clear picture.  Likewise, many of the characters felt hazy.  Perhaps this is appropriate for a book that is based in myths, but it makes reading somewhat challenging.  A little more clarity would have gone a long way toward helping me to understand what Givhan's ultimate message is.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.

like velvet

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Genre: historical fiction
Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)
Review: Before I got more than a page or two into this book, I said to myself, Wow, this is going to be a good book!  Myself replied, Of course it is, it's by Ann Patchett.  And indeed, this is one of Patchett's best books.  The biggest criticism I can level is that it's a little self-indulgent at times, but the characters leap off the page, and are so true to themselves, that any self-indulgence was just a natural part of the progression of the story.  I could go on and on about the language and the descriptions and everything else.  I could even make a bad metaphor about how picking up this book was like rubbing velvet: it just felt perfect.  But I won't.  If you like Ann Patchett, you've already read this book.  If you've never been introduced to her, this one is a great one to start with.

Actually, my biggest criticism of this book is the cover.  I hate the cover.

FTC Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for this review.