A Year of Reading
It’s been a good year of reading. I’m on track to read fifty-eight books, just short of my sixty-book goal. It’s okay. I’m going to set a less aggressive goal this year--not because I don’t plan to read all the time, but because I plan on reading things that may not “count” toward a reading goal. Teen lit from the eighties, tarot card guidebooks (card reading is, appealingly, very much just storytelling), select poetry--I want to fully enjoy these without feeling like I should instead be pushing toward a number. And so: lower goal, same amount of reading. It’s a win-win. I post a lot of books on Instagram; follow me there, if you haven't already: @margolittellThis year I read some great books, and I’m excited to share my Top 10. Happy reading, everyone.My Favorite Reads of 2018(In No Particular Order) (Except the First. That’s Really First.)Eventide (and the Plainsong trilogy)Kent Haruf
I read Kent Haruf’s entire body of work this year, and I adored all of it. The Plainsong trilogy affected me deeply. Eventide, in particular, was one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking books I've ever read. Haruf's depiction of small-town community sets the standard. If I had to choose a desert-island book, this might just be it. Perfect in every way.InheritanceDani Shapiro
This is cheating, in a way, since I read this as an ARC and its actual release is in 2019. Nonetheless, I loved it, so it goes on the list.Inheritance is as lyrical and deeply moving as Shapiro’s other memoirs, but it also brings a new urgency to her well-honed personal storytelling. From the moment Shapiro accidentally discovers the secret at the heart of her very existence, her quest for answers unfolds starkly and sometimes heartbreakingly, and she brings her readers along with characteristic perceptiveness and generosity of spirit. There is hard beauty in hewing this close to the bone, and Inheritance is both luminous and courageous. For readers familiar with Shapiro’s other works, the new truths cast an achingly melancholic clarity over the others--rendering them somehow even more true and lovely than before.The Museum of Modern LoveHeather Rose
Arky Levin is struggling. His work as a film-score composer is less than he’d dreamed, and his longtime collaborator has selected a younger composer for his latest film. Arky’s wife has succumbed to a debilitating illness and, through her lawyer, has cut off contact with him. He regrets his distant relationship with his daughter. Unexpectedly, he finds solace and community at the Museum of Modern Art, where the performance artist Marina Abramovic has embarked on a seventy-five-day event where audience members wait in line--sometimes overnight--for the chance to silently gaze at her across a table. Arky is riveted by the spectacle, compelled for reasons he can’t articulate. Somehow, his daily pilgrimage to the MoMA is the thing he’s been waiting for, and his life slowly begins taking on new shape.Arky isn’t the only character moved by Abramovic’s performance, and its impact on a web of others gives rise to the beauty and heft of this novel. Of course, Marina Abramovic is an actual artist, and the exhibition called The Artist Is Present was staged at MoMA in 2010. With these, Heather Rose has woven an ambitious and moving fiction that pays homage to this artist specifically and to art generally--its power to lift, to answer, to console, to inspire. Little Fires EverywhereCeleste Ng
Loved the story, the characters, the seamless switching in point of view. This is one of those books that I heard about and saw absolutely everywhere, but it took me a while to get to. Well worth it. I read Everything I Never Told You as well, and loved that too.The EnsembleAja Gabel
Though their personalities are very different, string players Jana, Brit, Daniel, and Henry share extraordinary talent and the ambition to make a name in the world of chamber ensembles. They came together at the beginning of their careers, with first violinist Jana as their leader, and they have seen many highs and many lows as they compete, perform, and push themselves to ever-greater levels of technical skill and musicality. They are a family of sorts, tied to one another even as they form lives outside of the group--lives that often conflict with the intense demands of the ensemble. As years--decades--pass, the musicians deepen their commitment; but the threat of someone choosing to leave the group is always present.Gabel spends time with each member of the ensemble as the novel skips over years and milestones. There is some suspense as the group prepares for career-defining competitions, but the propulsive force of the story lies in the approach and retreat of four people who know one another better than anyone else in the world--but who are also aware that they can never know one another fully. Gabel, a former cellist, deftly describes the music and the physically taxing practice of playing it, and The Ensemble is as much a story about musicians as it is a tribute to the music that defines their lives.
The Woman in the WindowA. J. FinnAnna is severely agoraphobic, unable to leave her townhouse, but she isn’t totally isolated. She talks regularly with her husband, David, and daughter, Olivia, who are living elsewhere; she draws on her former life as a psychotherapist to help others in her online agoraphobia community; and she has her neighbors, whom she watches steadily from her own home’s windows, observing their lives without getting involved. When she witnesses a shocking act of violence, however, she’s forced to act--but finds that the secrets she’s been harboring leave her more alone than ever. Only Anna knows what danger she’s in. But can she believe what she saw? How much can she trust herself?Many thrillers promise to be page-turners; this one is the real deal. Though it’s explicitly influenced by masterworks of the genre, such as Rear Window, Finn’s novel is wholly original. Intelligently woven clues, suspicions, misbeliefs, and misdirections are coupled with genuine emotional depth and complex character development. Saying more would ruin the fun of this ideal beach read. Set aside a long spell to read this one--putting it down will be impossible.Secrets We KeptKrystal A. Sital
A wrenching story of secrets, loyalty, cultural expectations, and love--and how all of these come to bind three generations of women in Sital's family. Sital writes beautifully of Trinidad, her birthplace, and shows remarkable compassion and restraint even as she probes the most violent episodes in her family's past. The secrets nudged into the world here are devastating--but there is relief in the telling, and freedom. This is a gripping work of family history.TangerineChristine Mangan
Lucy and Alice are best friends at Bennington, their relationship intense and exclusive, until a tragedy wrenches them apart. Alice, emotionally delicate since the death of her parents when she was a child, hastily marries after graduation and flees to Tangier with her new husband, John. Only Alice suspects that Lucy was responsible for what happened at Bennington, and she never wants to see Lucy again. A year later, however, in 1956, Lucy arrives in Tangier, with no reason but to reconnect with Alice. Hints of the old friendship reappear, but Alice can never shake her mistrust--even fear--of Lucy. As Lucy’s determination to win Alice for herself deepens, she pursues more and more desperate measures to ensure that Alice must choose her over John. And Alice suspects--correctly--that no one will believe her when Lucy takes things too far.In alternating viewpoints, Alice and Lucy detail the history of their friendship and the murky emotional landscape in which it’s rooted. Lucy’s scheming is insidious and brilliant, Alice’s unstable helplessness enraging. Tangier is the perfect setting for this story, teetering on the cusp of independence and inhospitable to a timid woman like Alice. This is a top-notch, page-turning literary mystery.A River of StarsVanessa Hua
When Scarlett Chen finds out she is pregnant and that her baby is a boy, her married lover, Boss Yeung, sends her to Los Angeles, where his friend Mama Lang oversees a maternity home for Chinese women. Securing a green card for their babies is the ultimate goal--especially for a baby like Scarlett’s, who Boss Yeung sees as his heir. Another ultrasound reveals a surprise: Scarlett’s baby isn’t a boy after all, but a girl. If anyone finds out, she risks having the baby taken away. Intent on protecting her child, and fearing the wrath of Boss Yeung, she flees from the home with a defiant teenager named Daisy. They settle in San Francisco’s Chinatown, where, together with their babies, they must forge an unexpected family as their dreams of the future wobble in the everyday struggle for survival.Hua writes beautifully about the life that simmers beyond the touristy face of Chinatown, and the heartbreak women face in China as their maternal instincts clash with political realities. Abstract horrors become specific, and personal. Scarlett and Daisy are shaped by community, self-reliance, ingenuity, and ambition, and when their destinies finally emerge, they feel wholly and justly earned.Love and RuinPaula McLain
When Martha Gellhorn vacations in Key West with her mother and brother, she hopes to overcome some of the grief she feels over her father’s recent death. What she finds is a relief of sorts--a fortuitous meeting with Ernest Hemingway, her literary idol, who flatters her by revealing he read and enjoyed her first novel. Always seeking new adventures, Martha follows Hemingway to Spain with the goal of writing about the Spanish Civil War. Their reporting work leads to a love affair as intense, and destructive, as the war that unfolds around them over the next few years. While Hemingway writes the best novel of his life while they’re together, Martha finds her own place as a respected war correspondent--but her frequent absences strain her new marriage. Volatile, needy, and petulant as a child, Hemingway seems hell-bent on killing the independence she prizes. As World War II rages, Martha must decide how much she’s willing to sacrifice to hold on to the man she once adored.Gellhorn, Hemingway’s third wife, is a literary force in her own right, and her courage, brazenness, and constant thirst for adventure make her a true heroine. McClain gives fresh, vibrant life to this historical figure, and she imbues the novel with a palpable sense of dread. Hemingway is a myth; but he is also a man, a difficult one besides, and it’s impossible to read very far into Love and Ruin without wanting to scream at Martha--Run, fast and far, and don’t look back.
I read Kent Haruf’s entire body of work this year, and I adored all of it. The Plainsong trilogy affected me deeply. Eventide, in particular, was one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking books I've ever read. Haruf's depiction of small-town community sets the standard. If I had to choose a desert-island book, this might just be it. Perfect in every way.InheritanceDani ShapiroThis is cheating, in a way, since I read this as an ARC and its actual release is in 2019. Nonetheless, I loved it, so it goes on the list.Inheritance is as lyrical and deeply moving as Shapiro’s other memoirs, but it also brings a new urgency to her well-honed personal storytelling. From the moment Shapiro accidentally discovers the secret at the heart of her very existence, her quest for answers unfolds starkly and sometimes heartbreakingly, and she brings her readers along with characteristic perceptiveness and generosity of spirit. There is hard beauty in hewing this close to the bone, and Inheritance is both luminous and courageous. For readers familiar with Shapiro’s other works, the new truths cast an achingly melancholic clarity over the others--rendering them somehow even more true and lovely than before.The Museum of Modern LoveHeather RoseArky Levin is struggling. His work as a film-score composer is less than he’d dreamed, and his longtime collaborator has selected a younger composer for his latest film. Arky’s wife has succumbed to a debilitating illness and, through her lawyer, has cut off contact with him. He regrets his distant relationship with his daughter. Unexpectedly, he finds solace and community at the Museum of Modern Art, where the performance artist Marina Abramovic has embarked on a seventy-five-day event where audience members wait in line--sometimes overnight--for the chance to silently gaze at her across a table. Arky is riveted by the spectacle, compelled for reasons he can’t articulate. Somehow, his daily pilgrimage to the MoMA is the thing he’s been waiting for, and his life slowly begins taking on new shape.Arky isn’t the only character moved by Abramovic’s performance, and its impact on a web of others gives rise to the beauty and heft of this novel. Of course, Marina Abramovic is an actual artist, and the exhibition called The Artist Is Present was staged at MoMA in 2010. With these, Heather Rose has woven an ambitious and moving fiction that pays homage to this artist specifically and to art generally--its power to lift, to answer, to console, to inspire. Little Fires EverywhereCeleste NgLoved the story, the characters, the seamless switching in point of view. This is one of those books that I heard about and saw absolutely everywhere, but it took me a while to get to. Well worth it. I read Everything I Never Told You as well, and loved that too.The EnsembleAja GabelThough their personalities are very different, string players Jana, Brit, Daniel, and Henry share extraordinary talent and the ambition to make a name in the world of chamber ensembles. They came together at the beginning of their careers, with first violinist Jana as their leader, and they have seen many highs and many lows as they compete, perform, and push themselves to ever-greater levels of technical skill and musicality. They are a family of sorts, tied to one another even as they form lives outside of the group--lives that often conflict with the intense demands of the ensemble. As years--decades--pass, the musicians deepen their commitment; but the threat of someone choosing to leave the group is always present.Gabel spends time with each member of the ensemble as the novel skips over years and milestones. There is some suspense as the group prepares for career-defining competitions, but the propulsive force of the story lies in the approach and retreat of four people who know one another better than anyone else in the world--but who are also aware that they can never know one another fully. Gabel, a former cellist, deftly describes the music and the physically taxing practice of playing it, and The Ensemble is as much a story about musicians as it is a tribute to the music that defines their lives.The Woman in the WindowA. J. FinnAnna is severely agoraphobic, unable to leave her townhouse, but she isn’t totally isolated. She talks regularly with her husband, David, and daughter, Olivia, who are living elsewhere; she draws on her former life as a psychotherapist to help others in her online agoraphobia community; and she has her neighbors, whom she watches steadily from her own home’s windows, observing their lives without getting involved. When she witnesses a shocking act of violence, however, she’s forced to act--but finds that the secrets she’s been harboring leave her more alone than ever. Only Anna knows what danger she’s in. But can she believe what she saw? How much can she trust herself?Many thrillers promise to be page-turners; this one is the real deal. Though it’s explicitly influenced by masterworks of the genre, such as Rear Window, Finn’s novel is wholly original. Intelligently woven clues, suspicions, misbeliefs, and misdirections are coupled with genuine emotional depth and complex character development. Saying more would ruin the fun of this ideal beach read. Set aside a long spell to read this one--putting it down will be impossible.Secrets We KeptKrystal A. SitalA wrenching story of secrets, loyalty, cultural expectations, and love--and how all of these come to bind three generations of women in Sital's family. Sital writes beautifully of Trinidad, her birthplace, and shows remarkable compassion and restraint even as she probes the most violent episodes in her family's past. The secrets nudged into the world here are devastating--but there is relief in the telling, and freedom. This is a gripping work of family history.TangerineChristine ManganLucy and Alice are best friends at Bennington, their relationship intense and exclusive, until a tragedy wrenches them apart. Alice, emotionally delicate since the death of her parents when she was a child, hastily marries after graduation and flees to Tangier with her new husband, John. Only Alice suspects that Lucy was responsible for what happened at Bennington, and she never wants to see Lucy again. A year later, however, in 1956, Lucy arrives in Tangier, with no reason but to reconnect with Alice. Hints of the old friendship reappear, but Alice can never shake her mistrust--even fear--of Lucy. As Lucy’s determination to win Alice for herself deepens, she pursues more and more desperate measures to ensure that Alice must choose her over John. And Alice suspects--correctly--that no one will believe her when Lucy takes things too far.In alternating viewpoints, Alice and Lucy detail the history of their friendship and the murky emotional landscape in which it’s rooted. Lucy’s scheming is insidious and brilliant, Alice’s unstable helplessness enraging. Tangier is the perfect setting for this story, teetering on the cusp of independence and inhospitable to a timid woman like Alice. This is a top-notch, page-turning literary mystery.A River of StarsVanessa HuaWhen Scarlett Chen finds out she is pregnant and that her baby is a boy, her married lover, Boss Yeung, sends her to Los Angeles, where his friend Mama Lang oversees a maternity home for Chinese women. Securing a green card for their babies is the ultimate goal--especially for a baby like Scarlett’s, who Boss Yeung sees as his heir. Another ultrasound reveals a surprise: Scarlett’s baby isn’t a boy after all, but a girl. If anyone finds out, she risks having the baby taken away. Intent on protecting her child, and fearing the wrath of Boss Yeung, she flees from the home with a defiant teenager named Daisy. They settle in San Francisco’s Chinatown, where, together with their babies, they must forge an unexpected family as their dreams of the future wobble in the everyday struggle for survival.Hua writes beautifully about the life that simmers beyond the touristy face of Chinatown, and the heartbreak women face in China as their maternal instincts clash with political realities. Abstract horrors become specific, and personal. Scarlett and Daisy are shaped by community, self-reliance, ingenuity, and ambition, and when their destinies finally emerge, they feel wholly and justly earned.Love and RuinPaula McLainWhen Martha Gellhorn vacations in Key West with her mother and brother, she hopes to overcome some of the grief she feels over her father’s recent death. What she finds is a relief of sorts--a fortuitous meeting with Ernest Hemingway, her literary idol, who flatters her by revealing he read and enjoyed her first novel. Always seeking new adventures, Martha follows Hemingway to Spain with the goal of writing about the Spanish Civil War. Their reporting work leads to a love affair as intense, and destructive, as the war that unfolds around them over the next few years. While Hemingway writes the best novel of his life while they’re together, Martha finds her own place as a respected war correspondent--but her frequent absences strain her new marriage. Volatile, needy, and petulant as a child, Hemingway seems hell-bent on killing the independence she prizes. As World War II rages, Martha must decide how much she’s willing to sacrifice to hold on to the man she once adored.Gellhorn, Hemingway’s third wife, is a literary force in her own right, and her courage, brazenness, and constant thirst for adventure make her a true heroine. McClain gives fresh, vibrant life to this historical figure, and she imbues the novel with a palpable sense of dread. Hemingway is a myth; but he is also a man, a difficult one besides, and it’s impossible to read very far into Love and Ruin without wanting to scream at Martha--Run, fast and far, and don’t look back.
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