Mysterious worldwide gatherings devolve into the end of times in this short-story horrorfest.
No One Goes Alone – Erik Larson
Expectation: A good old fashioned ghost story told in radio serial style.
Reality: An intellectual ghost story that’s heavy on talking and light on action.
The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead
Expectation: Adventure story with a speculative fiction slant.
Reality: At times both horrific and hopeful, the cross-state settings help broaden the view from other, similar stories.
Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer
Krakauer kept my attention from the first page to the last, and I found myself wishing that there was more to the story. I know that many people have a love/hate relationship with this book - mainly because they either love or hate McCandless - but there is no denying that Krakauer is a gifted writer.
Apartment – Teddy Wayne
Expectation: An LGBTQIA+ story about unrequited love and finding yourself.
Reality: An engrossing character study that gives you a front row seat to how easily it is destroy yourself in the name of saving others.
The Comfort Book – Matt Haig
This is probably best suited for individuals that have had their own struggles with depression and are looking for additional suggestions on how to survive and thrive. I appreciate the stigma breaking Haig does here – especially for men – but I think his fiction, which also covers similar themes, is more for me.
The Only Plane in the Sky: The Oral History of 9/11 – Garrett M. Graff
The stories are raw, painful and incredibly difficult. Only a few have happy endings. I had to pause the book several times to collect my thoughts. I cried frequently. That’s a testament to how Graff structured the book, its phenomenal narration, and the fact that it is an oral history.
Pachinko – Min Jin Lee
Expectation: A richly drawn, multi-generational story about love, loss and finding purpose.
Reality: A sometimes melodramatic, but ultimately effective snapshot of life in Asia during one of the most tumultuous time periods in history.
The Stranger – Albert Camus
Expectation: An overrated classic.
Reality: Not every aspect of the story worked for me, but our collective experience during the pandemic gave new understanding – and perhaps compassion - to Meursault’s personality.
The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt
Expectation: A modern “Great American Novel.”
Reality: A captivating and gorgeously written novel that, at times, asks too much of the reader.
Who Is Maud Dixon? – Alexandra Andrews
Expectation: A twisty, wicked story of ambition with shades of Stephen King’s “Misery.”
Reality: A slow burn page turner that mostly delivers with implausible originality.
The Bridges of Madison County – Robert James Waller
Expectation: A heartbreaking and memorable story of forbidden love.
Reality: A well-written but incredibly male-centric romance with laugh out loud dialogue that detract from the novel’s stronger elements.
A Children’s Bible – Lydia Millet
Expectation: A moody, intelligent apocalyptic tale for modern times.
Reality: A mess.
Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman
While I’m glad to have read a small portion of this very American collection, I wouldn’t recommend most readers start with this unabridged version of “Leaves” unless you’re prepared to seek out the must-read poems from the often confusing and repetitive filler.
Can You Still Handle Pandemic-Focused Novels?
From the Bible to “World War Z,” humanity has turned to art and literature to help understand pandemics, which, in reality, are a not infrequent occurrences when you look at world history. And part of that healing and processing comes from being entertained.
Station Eleven – Emily St. John Mandel
Expectation: A high-brow thriller set in the post-apocalyptic Midwest.
Reality: A richly drawn character study that expertly balances multiple, intersecting plots and timelines.
The Book of Accidents – Chuck Wendig
Expectation: An Americana-hued ghost story.
Reality: Heavy on ambition, light on originality. You’ve heard variations of this story before – and by stronger authors.
Great Circle – Maggie Shipstead
Expectation: An historical fiction epic focusing on the early days of aviation.
Reality: Heavy on scope and scale, light on focus. It’s mostly enjoyable but also didn’t need to be 600+ pages.
Tin Man – Sarah Winman
Expectation: I honestly thought this was a young adult novel.
Reality: A contender for the shortlist of my favorite adult high-brow gay fiction.
Five Book Adaptations I Actually Want to See
Watching the “Fear Street” trilogy on Netflix got me thinking about the book adaptations I actually want to see.