BOOKS! Gobble gobble! My humble opinions about the books I've read since embarking on my Peace Corps Response Panama adventure in October 2015. You'll find title, my rating and a short synopsis!
1) Serena by Ron Rash (3.5/5) - a wonderful novel (terrible terrible missed opportunity to create a spectacular movie with a cast like J.Law and Bradley Cooper) about a timber baroness in the south and her desire to control her husband and their timber operations
2) Room by Emma Donahue (4.5/5) - brilliantly told story of abduction from the perspective of Jack and his mother during captivity
3) Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart (3.5/5 - set in the near future, it's a meh story about two insanely boring people trying to make a failed romance work
4) The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (4/5) - poignant WWII story about two sisters doing their part to support the Resistance
5) Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Marukami (4.7/5) - beautifully exploration of sub-consciousness
6) The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling) (3.5/5) - murder mystery that gets too caught up in small details to create a compelling story
7) Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff (4.8/5) - Apparently it's Obama's favorite book of 2015 and already ranks in my top 3 of 2016! Unique story-telling narrative similar to others like Gone Girl and Serena (other favorites of mine). Lots of big vocabulary, too, perfect for studying for the GRE!
8) Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick (4.5/5) - A easy-to-understand history of North Korea told through the stories of six brave defectors. Easy entry book to understand what is North Korea! Highly recommend.
9) Euphoria by Lily King (5/5) - By far my favorite book of the past year, it was on plenty of official "Best of 2014" lists and I'm just getting around to it a few years later. About an anthropologist couple spending time in a tribal community in New Guinea. Speaks to the complexity of living in another culture and the beauty of learning from other people - helpful for PCVs and non-PCVs alike.
10) Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari (4/5) - A hilarious book about dating in the modern era of technology. Makes me want to throw my iPhone in the ocean and never download the Tinder app, however, dating apps now account for more than 30% of marriages, so get swiping!
11) Redeployment by Phil Kaye (4/5) - A fictional compilation of short stories form Iraq/Afghan veterans and their experiences on deployment.
12) This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral-Plus, Plenty of Valet Parking!-in America's Gilded Capital by Mark Leibovich (4.5/5)
13) Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (5/5) - Should be required reading. It tells the tale of being black in America through a letter Coates writes to his son.
14) Father of the Rain by Lily King (4.5/5) - A wonderfully told tale about a girl-then-teenager-then-woman's relationship with her alcoholic father. I wanted to simultaneously strangle and hug the narrator the entire time and she took me through the gambit of emotions and strange family relationships.
15) The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende (4.5/5) - Wonderful! Read it now.
16) A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra (4/5) - It took a while for me to get into this book because off the complexity of all the characters involved in the story but as I got used to the storyline and used to Marra's prose, I feel deeply in love. Set in Chechnya during wartime, it's a beautiful story of the complexities of life and love.
17) Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (4.8/5) - I love the way she writes and brings you into the harsh reality that is the Nigeria-Biafra War in 1960s Nigeria. Told from the vantage point of three characters, it elegantly expresses the beauty and tragedy of themes like close relationships, war, peace, and education.
18) No One Every Has Sex on a Tuesday by Tracy Bloom (1/5) - This book is so mind-numbingly dull that I have nothing to say about it other than "meh." It's about a woman who is eight months pregnant and doesn't have a supportive partner or know which of two men the father is, so basically it's 221 pages of my worst nightmare.
19) The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen (4/5) - 2016 Pullizter Prize winner and the third on my war novel streak, this book is a complicated, intense, dynamic and poetic account of a "sympathizer" from Vietnam's confession of supporting his native country. Anyone want to have a book club and discuss? This one deserves a lot of unpacking!
20) Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein (4/5) - I was over the tragic war novel stories and took my stab at this non-fiction book. I'd heard Sunstein explaining many concepts brought up in Nudge on a favorite podcast, Freakonomics, and thought I'd give it a go. An approachable way to understand the way humans make decisions and the ways in which we can nudge humans to make better decisions in all areas. Plus, it feels like I'm getting some really good economic tips too.
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