The New Wilderness by Diane Cook was an interesting story and good read, but WAY too long. There was lots of praise for this book and it was short-listed for the Booker Prize. Amazon writes: “Bea’s five-year-old daughter, Agnes, is slowly wasting away, consumed by the smog and pollution of the overdeveloped metropolis that most of the population now calls home. If they stay in the city, Agnes will die. There is only one alternative: the Wilderness State, the last swath of untouched, protected land, where people have always been forbidden. Until now. Bea, Agnes, and eighteen others volunteer to live in the Wilderness State, guinea pigs in an experiment to see if humans can exist in nature without destroying it. Living as nomadic hunter-gatherers, they slowly and painfully learn to survive in an unpredictable, dangerous land, bickering and battling for power and control as they betray and save one another. But as Agnes embraces the wild freedom of this new existence, Bea realizes that saving her daughter’s life means losing her in a different way. The farther they get from civilization, the more their bond is tested in astonishing and heartbreaking ways.” I enjoyed it and the last third was better than the second third. Still, it wasn’t a favorite from this year.

I really like Katherine Center’s books. They are light and entertaining and fluffy, but well-written and the stories are always creative. What You Wish For was no exception, with the added bonus that it centers around a private school. Amazon reports: “Samantha Casey is a school librarian who loves her job, the kids, and her school family with passion and joy for living. But she wasn’t always that way. Duncan Carpenter is the new school principal who lives by rules and regulations, guided by the knowledge that bad things can happen.
But he wasn’t always that way. And Sam knows it. Because she knew him before—at another school, in a different life. Back then, she loved him—but she was invisible. To him. To everyone. Even to herself. She escaped to a new school, a new job, a new chance at living. But when Duncan, of all people, gets hired as the new principal there, it feels like the best thing that could possibly happen to the school—and the worst thing that could possibly happen to Sam. Until the opposite turns out to be true. The lovable Duncan she’d known is now a suit-and-tie wearing, rule-enforcing tough guy so hell-bent on protecting the school that he’s willing to destroy it. As the school community spirals into chaos, and danger from all corners looms large, Sam and Duncan must find their way to who they really are, what it means to be brave, and how to take a chance on love—which is the riskiest move of all.” Other books by Center that I have enjoyed are How to Walk Away and Things You Save in a Fire. While I usually read on the Kindle, her covers are appealing too. I guess I will need to put Happiness for Beginners and Everyone is Beautiful to my list. I really enjoyed this read – a great diversion from the world in which we live.

I am ashamed to admit that I enjoyed the romance Goodbye, Orchid by Carol Van Den Hende. I’m not sure how it made it on my list, but it was a quick, two-hour, annoying, and completely predictable read. Amazon: “One July morning in Manhattan, handsome athlete and entrepreneur Phoenix Walker accompanies his love, half-Asian beauty Orchid, to the airport. Neither believes today is goodbye. But after she leaves, disaster strikes. Phoenix wakes in the hospital, broken, forever changed. He longs for Orchid but remembers the tragedy in her past that makes her panic over images of trauma. Now, he’s faced with the hardest decision of his life. Does he burden the woman whose traumatic childhood makes him feel protective of her? Or does true love mean leaving her without explaining why?” So, if you are looking for an escapist or beachy read and are willing to overlook incredible cliche, pick this one up.

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi was a good story but it was WAY too long. Amazon summarizes: “Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at the Stanford University School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after an ankle injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her. But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family’s loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive. Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief–a novel about faith, science, religion, love.” I didn’t love her first book, Homegoing either, as it turns out, so perhaps she’s not for me.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia was one of the worst books I have read in a long time. I should have abandoned it long before I did, but I needed to find out the ending. Do yourself a favor and skip this one unless you like horror novels. I don’t. I will not even waste another moment writing about this one. SUCH a disappointment

I was so excited to receive Memorial by Bryan Washington from our book fair. And, as a surprise, it was a signed copy. Unfortunately, though, I didn’t love it. Amazon says: “Benson and Mike live together in Houston. Mike is a Japanese American chef at a Mexican restaurant and Benson’s a Black day care teacher, and they’ve been together for a few years—good years—but now they’re not sure why they’re still a couple. But when Mike finds out his estranged father is dying in Osaka just as his mother, Mitsuko, arrives in Texas for a visit, Mike picks up and flies across the world to say goodbye. In Japan he undergoes an extraordinary transformation, discovering the truth about his family and his past. Back home, Mitsuko and Benson are stuck living together as unconventional roommates. Without Mike’s immediate pull, Benson begins to push outwards, realizing he might just know what he wants out of life and have the goods to get it. Both men will change in ways that will either make them stronger together, or fracture everything they’ve ever known. And just maybe they’ll all be okay in the end.” I liked the characters and the story development, but ultimately, it just didn’t win for me.

Monogamy by Sue Miller started slowly, but picked up pace, and became a somewhat enjoyable read. On the whole, however, I didn’t love it. It’s a slow story overall about a marriage and the individuals who surround the main married couple. If you love Sue Miller, I would pick this one up. Otherwise, I would skip it.

The Switch by Beth O’Leary is a delightful quick read about a grandmother and granddaughter who temporarily switch living arrangements to find themselves. Each has suffered loss and the switch became the circumstance they needed to figure things out. This was not deep, nor particularly thought-provoking, but it was a sweet story, nonetheless, and an enjoyable diversionary read.

I had mixed feelings about The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi. On the one hand, I liked the story. It was sad, but interesting. On the other hand, it dragged for me for a long while and I really struggled to finish. Amazon describes it as: “One afternoon, in a town in southeastern Nigeria, a mother opens her front door to discover her son’s body, wrapped in colorful fabric, at her feet. What follows is the tumultuous, heart-wrenching story of one family’s struggle to understand a child whose spirit is both gentle and mysterious. Raised by a distant father and an understanding but overprotective mother, Vivek suffers disorienting blackouts, moments of disconnection between self and surroundings. As adolescence gives way to adulthood, Vivek finds solace in friendships….But Vivek’s closest bond is with Osita, the worldly, high-spirited cousin whose teasing confidence masks a guarded private life. As their relationship deepens—and Osita struggles to understand Vivek’s escalating crisis—the mystery gives way to a heart-stopping act of violence in a moment of exhilarating freedom.” This book got very positive reviews and I think you will need to decide for yourself if it’s up your alley. Overall, it didn’t work for me.