january: 1, 2, 3 & 4

one thing i'm going to try to commit to this year is reading one book each month that i already own and that sits on my bookshelf waiting to be read.  i have...a lot of these.  20 or 25 books, maybe?  so i'm trying to chip away at that.  i'll indicate which books fit that category throughout the year!

everyone brave is forgiven, by chris cleave (from my bookshelf.  there are so many WWII in britain books that if i'm going to read a new one it needs to be really good.  this one was fine.  and had some excessive use of the n-word that seems unacceptable by a white author but maybe you could get away with five years ago when this book was written?  it really turned me off, though.  i read a blog post by the author where he talked about wanting his readers to understand that ordinary white brits at the time were racist and by using that word he was able to make his point.  okay...and that presupposes that you have to make that point to a white audience, and thus that all your readers are white.  what about the nonwhite readers, for whom seeing this word all over your pages is going to cause a lot of pain, and not, from my opinion, for your art because i think your art could have survived without the word.  i don't know.  not highly recommending this one, i guess, though i have liked chris cleave books in the past.)

the snow queen, by michael cunningham (from my bookshelf.  besides the fact that i don't think this is the right title for this book (i'd love to know if he picked this title or had it thrust upon him by the publisher), i really liked this book.  it didn't follow any overused tropes - it really felt unique in its plot and in how the characters developed.  new york city, friends, life and death, apartments that feel like another character in the book.  i'd recommend this one!)

hamnet, by maggie o'farrell (this one started off slow for me but i really came to enjoy it.  it's more the (fictionalized) story of shakespeare's wife than his son, hamnet, which is how it was advertised.  but a really interesting look into 16th century england, families, the plague, gender...and i like books that go back and forth in time to tell us some of the past to help us understand the plot in the present.  you don't have to care about shakespeare to like this book!)

hidden valley road, by robert kolker (i was captivated by this from the get go - the story of a family with 12 children, born between 1945 and 1965, of which 6 have schizophrenia.  it's both a story of the family and also the research around the disease and the debate about nature vs. nurture.  it's the very best kind of narrative nonfiction and i would highly recommend it!  i listened to the audiobook, with a great narrator.)