Sadie Reads Again does ATY again!

[SadieReadsAgain]

This will be my 3rd ATY - completed in 2019, on track to complete for 2020, and now I've planned my 2021!

I will be sharing my reads (ATY and others) on my YouTube channel, if anyone would like to join me - https://www.youtube.com/c/sadiereadsa...

Like 2020, I'm going to be reading in order, but the books wont be set in stone until PS and Reading Women release their challenges. I want to double/triple-up as much as I can across the challenges, to leave more space for mood reading then I usually manage. So I'll post my provisional list below (probably tomorrow, just realised the time!), and my final one in this post as I go through each month.


January
✓ 01. A book related to “In the Beginning...” :: The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
02. A book by an author whose name doesn't contain the letters A, T or Y :: Little Gods by Meng Jin
03. A book related to the lyrics for the song "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music :: The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
04. A book with a monochromatic cover :: Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

[SadieReadsAgain]

Provisional List


January
01. A book related to “In the Beginning...” :: The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
02. A book by an author whose name doesn't contain the letters A, T or Y :: Little Gods by Meng Jin
03. A book related to the lyrics for the song "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music :: The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
04. A book with a monochromatic cover :: Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

February
05. A book by an author on USA Today's list of 100 Black Novelists You Should Read :: The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
06. A love story :: Split by Suzanne Finnamore
07. A book that fits a prompt suggestion that didn't make the final list - a book with a major life altering event in the plot :: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
08. A book set in a state, province, or country you have never visited :: Chernobyl Strawberries: A Memoir by Vesna Goldsworthy

March
09. A book you associate with a specific season or time of year :: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
10. A book with a female villain or criminal :: The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins
11. A book to celebrate The Grand Egyptian Museum :: The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult
12. A book eligible for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation :: Will and Testament by Vigdis Hjorth
13. A book written by an author of one of your best reads of 2020 :: Night Waking by Sarah Moss

April
14. A book set in a made-up place :: Our Doris by Charles Heathcote
15. A book that features siblings as the main characters :: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
16. A book with a building in the title :: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
17. A book with a Muslim character or author :: The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

May
18. 3 books related to "Past, Present, Future" - Book 1 :: A People's History of Scotland by Chris Bambery
19. 3 books related to "Past, Present, Future" - Book 2 :: Two Closes and a Referendum by Mary McCabe
20. 3 books related to "Past, Present, Future" - Book 3 :: "State of Emergency" by Richard Drysdale
21. A book whose title and author both contain the letter "u" :: The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
22. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads :: My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

June
23. A cross genre novel :: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
24. A book about racism or race relations :: Superior: The Return of Race Science by Angela Saini
25. A book set on an island :: Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
26. A short book (<210 pages) by a new-to-you author :: The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

July
27. A book with a character who can be found in a deck of cards :: Tangerine by Christine Mangan
28. A book connected to ice :: Wintering: A Novel of Sylvia Plath by Kate Moses
29. A book that you consider comfort reading :: Carry On, Warrior: Thoughts on Life Unarmed by Glennon Doyle Melton What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
30. A long book :: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

August
31. A book by an author whose career spanned more than 21 years :: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou The Dinner by Herman Koch
32. A book whose cover shows more than 2 people :: You, Me and Other People by Fionnuala Kearney
33. A collection of short stories, essays, or poetry :: Read Hard: Five Years of Great Writing from the Believer by Heidi Julavits
34. A book with a travel theme :: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
35. A book set in a country on or below the Tropic of Cancer :: Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

September
36. A book with six or more words in the title :: I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O'Farrell
37. A book from the Are You Well Read in World Literature list :: The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht
38. A book related to a word given by a random word generator :: Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton
39. A book involving an immigrant :: Black and British: A Forgotten History by David Olusoga

October
40. A book with flowers or greenery on the cover :: Small Fry: A Memoir by Lisa Brennan-Jobs Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
41. A book by a new-to-you BIPOC author :: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
42. A mystery or thriller :: The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
43. A book with elements of magic :: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

November
44. A book whose title contains a negative :: Everything I Never Wanted to Be by Dina Kucera
45. A book related to a codeword from the NATO Phonetic Alphabet :: Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
46. A winner or nominee from the 2020 Goodreads Choice Awards :: Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
47. A non-fiction book other than biography, autobiography or memoir :: Sex Power Money by Sara Pascoe
48. A book that might cause someone to react “You read what?!?” :: The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman

December
49. A book with an ensemble cast :: The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld
50. A book published in 2021 ::
51. A book whose title refers to person(s) without giving their name :: My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
52. A book related to "the end" :: When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

[SadieReadsAgain]

01 :: A book related to “In the Beginning...”

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri ★★★★☆


How it fits the prompt naming is part of being born, which is a pretty big beginning!


I've been meaning to get to this for a while, after reading Interpreter of Maladies last year and it going right to the top of my favourite short story collections ever. After seeing how good Lahiri is in short form, I really hoped she was able to keep that up in a novel.

This is the story of a Bangladeshi couple - Ashoke and Ashima - who emigrate to the US after their arranged marriage. We join them in their years establishing a life and community for themselves, as they become parents. The story then switches focus more to their son, Gogol - named after a Russian writer who meant a lot to his father. We follow him into adulthood and into his identity struggles - not only as a first generation Indian-American, but also on a more personal level as he tries to reinvent himself and free himself from what he sees as the shackles of his name.

This is the kind of book that I feel that whilst nothing really happens, everything happens. By that I mean that whilst there is no dramatic climax, no plot twists, no definitive end to the story; we are watching an entire existence (of a family, of a man) unfold. I think this may be one of my favourite tropes in fiction. I'm fascinated by people, by families, by the immigrant experience and by people who live different lives to me, and this is such a natural story that you truly feel like a fly on the wall.

For me, what I found most interesting was the view this gave me into Bangladeshi lives. Set mainly in the US around Massachusetts and New York, there are sections set in Calcutta too, and I always find learning about other cultures fascinating. The courage to uproot and leave your family, friends and lives behind to start over somewhere completely unknown (and in this case, with another person who is still completely unknown) is something I will never tire of reading about either. But what elevated these elements is Lahiri's writing. She's like a river that carries you along, and considering the span of lives this book covered it did not feel like a climb. She's incredibly good at picking out the pivotal moments or reckonings, particularly in Gogol's experience of the intersections of his cultural identities.

I have seen some other reviewers - importantly, including Bangladeshi people - complain that there are too many stereotypes in this book. And in some ways I would agree - the engineer father, the housewife mother, the new generation fighting against traditional norms. However, as a reader who isn't from this background, in some ways those stereotypes were useful in really seeing the characters, and I think each of them have enough in their stories to set them apart from their stereotypes. And given the time in which the story begins, I feel Ashoke and Ashima are typical of their time and were probably the sort of people from where those stereotypes originated - they would have been some of the first Indian immigrants many American people would have encountered, and in turn their children would have been the first first-generation Bangladeshi people their contemporaries encountered. It would have been nice to see them break out of those stereotypes, but I think the characters were doing what they could to find their feet and break the mould in their world as it was.