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#BookerLonglist #5

Very elegantly written, I became engaged in the book immediately I enjoyed following the narrator‘s struggle to live in NYC while she‘s still strongly rooted in the Albania she left behind. Het empathy for other refugees jeopardizes her mental wellbeing as well as her closest relationships. She moves between this empathy and self-preservation and there seems no closure. An impressive read.

#ReadTheWorld2025 #27 #Albania

Catching up on reviews! #BookerLonglist edition

While this one has some pacing issues, I'm glad I stuck with it to discover its many, murky layers. A story of family disconnection and buried trauma, I appreciated the thematic ideas of a flashlight's focused beam obscuring more than it illuminates, and how difficult it can be to see the full picture of those closest to us.

Cont'd in comments...

Yes! A #bookerlonglist title that I loved! It starts off focusing on three women in the Ukraine, a scientist trying desperately to save rare snails from extinction and two sisters taking part in tours that match foreign men with potential Ukrainian brides. As the three characters become entangled in a scheme Russia invades and everything changes. I don‘t want to spoil anything but this book has so much to say and is so smart and darkly funny.

#WeeklyForecast 36/25

I am reading a short Japanese novel (Someone to Watch Over You) ad then am ready for another #Bookerlonglist book, the tagged. I also want to read the new Sarah Moss, that I bought because of @TrishB ‘s review.

A Chinese family in Malaysia spends the summer at their small family farm. There is a lot of tension about the farm and within the family. Amidst all of this two teenage boys forge a relationship. This is one of my favorites from the #bookerlonglist so far but the fact that it is the first in a four part series makes sense to me because it felt like it was building towards something that it never became.

Overall I enjoyed spending an evening with this book, but it did feel rather unresolved. It's hard to discuss this book without giving spoilers, so suffice to say that I enjoyed what I thought was a mildly satirical piece full of stereotypes, but from there it moved on to a sequence of unlikeable characters and several truths about the media that are no revelation. I'm not entirely sure what the author wanted me to take away from this story.

I think I might want to see how this saga about an ethnic Chinese family in Malaysia continues in the next book, but I'll be avoiding the audiobook. I kept zoning out during some landscape description and then realising I didn't know whose POV the narrator had switched to. He read everyone the same way, and occasionally there's a 1st person comment from the future self of the teenage son who is otherwise in 3rd person like the others. ⤵️

I wasn't sure about the first part of this book, but the second won me over with the sheer creepy discomfort I felt when I read it. I think I might have to let it percolate for a few days before I decide exactly how I feel about it, but it was really cleverly done and a good choice by the #Booker judges. I suspect this might make my personal shortlist.
#BookerLonglist

I went into this book about a Trinidadian woman who gave up her daughter for adoption when she was 16 expecting to really like it, even with all the middling reviews. But instead, after a solid opening, I found the book tedious. Not sure how this made the #bookerlonglist

Aaand…. I‘ve finished the #bookerlonglist!

Above is my list, in approximate order. I‘m disappointed that, while I enjoyed a lot of these, none will make my best of the year as I‘d always hope to find 1 or 2 absolute gems on a prize list.

The first 4 were all at the same level, but I just don‘t think the Markovits is a Booker book. Oddly, I‘d substitute in Misinterpretation, despite it being lower down the list than others. ⬇️