1. Dr. BB is home from the hospital. Thanks for all your kind thoughts and words. He's supposed to "take it easy" for a while, so he's Couch Husband for the time being.
2. Hannah and I tried for about five minutes to take a selfie the other night when she refused to go for a walk. I swear this is the best I could come up with. Look at the vein on my forehead! Look straight up poor Hannah's nostrils. Also, note the ominous cloud in the sky. It stormed LIKE CRAZY on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights and I could tell both the girls were relieved when Dr. BB came on Tuesday because they were all like the girl human cannot control the weather, kind sir, and we are depending on you to make sure that it doesn't thunder and lightning and frighten us tonight. And then it didn't storm on Tuesday because all was right with the world.
3. My comments section has been talking about the list that the New York Times recently put out about The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. My Brilliant Friend was #1 and I was so touched that everyone wanted to run to my blog to tell me I'm right about what a great book it is/complain that it's a terrible book and doesn't belong on the list at all.
That's the take home point. I think it's an okay list, to be honest. I see a lot of criticisms of it - some are fair, like how come the Copenhagen Trilogy just counts as one and the Neapolitan Quartet is split up? - but I am a basic bitch of reading and I like a lot of these books. I have also DNFed three (two were Zadie Smith books which makes me feel a bit like a terrible feminist - absolute tangent, but did you know Doc Brown and Zadie Smith are brother and sister?).
If I ever finish my Top Fantasy Books by Women list, maybe I'll make it a goal to read the rest on this list.
How to Be Both, Ali Smith 2014 - Fine, but I wish it had spoken to me more. 3/5 stars
Bel Canto, Ann Patchett 2001 - Befuddling. I don't think I'm smart enough for Patchett. 3.5/5 stars
On Beauty, Zadie Smith 2005 - DNF August 2023 at 11%. Maybe I should try again?
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel 2014 - So good. A rare book where I wished there was more of it. 5/5 stars
The Story of the Lost Child, Elena Ferrante; translated by Ann Goldstein 2015 - I love these books unabashedly. No notes. 5/5 stars
An American Marriage, Tayari Jones 2018 - Great observational writing. Huge thumbs up. 5/5 stars
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin 2022 - Incredibly skippable. 2/5 stars
The Friend, Sigrid Nunez 2018 - A loving meditation on writing and taking care of pets. Lovely. 4.5/5 stars
Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver 2022 - Gorgeous writing. Not a perfect book, but incredibly well done 4/5 stars
Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich 2001 - I read this a long time ago and remember a few powerful scenes. Maybe I'm due for a reread to see its star rating.
Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi 2003 - An important book, but not one I feel like I have to revisit. 3.5/5 stars
The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt 2013 - This book made me anxious. 3/5 stars
The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin 2015 - Brilliant. 5/5 stars
H Is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald 2015 - Complicated grief memoir. I feel like falconry is bad, though? But the writing was evocative. I have a lot of competing feelings. 3.5/5 stars
Fun Home, Alison Bechdel 2006 - I thought this graphic novel based on Bechdel's childhood and her relationship with her father to be simultaneously too honest and forthright and too chilly. I think it's brave of her to put out the good and the bad, but I also found it hard to care. 2.5/5 stars
Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward 2011 - Too dogfight-y for me. DNFed in August 2012.
White Teeth, Zadie Smith 2000 - DNF August 2023
Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2013 - Powerful and important. 4.5/5 stars
The Overstory, Richard Powers 2018 - The first 150 pages are some of the best writing I've ever read. It was less effective for me after that, but was a lovely book overall. 4/5 stars (5+/5 for the first 150 pages)
Evicted, Matthew Desmond 2016 - Thoughtful, well-researched, and I still think about a lot of the scenes, particularly from when he went to eviction court. 4.5/5 stars
Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders 2017 - I am haunted (no pun intended) by this book. I think about it all the time. I think I like it more than I did at the time of reading it. 5/5 stars
The Sellout, Paul Beatty 2015 - Mixed feelings having read this, but I'm probably a better person for having read it. 3.5/5 stars
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon 2000 - Slow to start, but eventually turned into something. I liked Moonglow a lot more. 3/5 stars
Pachinko, Min Jin Lee 2017 - Unrelentingly bleak, but I'm glad I read this. 4/5 stars
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro 2005 - I did not care for this book at all. 1.5/5 stars
The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead 2016 - Innovative and interesting, but I didn't love it. 3/5 stars
My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante; translated by Ann Goldstein 2012 - I don't need to tell you that I love this book, do I? 5/5 stars
********************Do you have a giant vein in your forehead that sticks out? Have you read any of the "Best Books of the 21st Century"?
I am SO GLAD Dr. BB is home from the hospital and has resumed his weather modification activities.
ReplyDeleteThat is an adorable photo of you and Hannah, although Hannah's giving a bit of an obstinate vibe.
The NYT list seemed... fine, to me. I have only read 13 on that list (and only marked 10 others as Want to Read). Like you, I loved Station Eleven, and The Friend is one of my top books of all time. Unlike you, Tomorrowx3, Goldfinch, and Bel Canto are some of my favorites as well. Loved Salvage the Bones. I really liked Never Let Me Go, but am not sure I would have put it on a Best Of list??? Maybe I need to reread it.
Hannah's stubbornness is hysterical. Sometimes in training I'll ask her to do something and I'll literally see her thinking about it, decide not to, and just lay down. LOLOLOL. So funny.
DeleteAm I the only one who read Salvage the Bones and got to the dogfighting scene and just noped out? People say it's such a good book, but...not for the likes of me.
I have a giant forehead vein AND ALSO I have read 35. I have read Zadie Smith all the way through in a dutiful, not joyful, way. Also, I do love Jessamyn Ward, but all of her books? I guess we're only almost a quarter in-- the list will change LOL. Glad your couch husband is home.
ReplyDeleteWhew. I don't feel so badly about how Zadie Smith's writing style lulls me into sleep. I want to like her writing, but, sadly, I am too basic for her, I think.
DeleteYou are a reading machine.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to add that to the top of my resume as a real selling point of my character.
DeleteYay, he's home!!! I am so glad.
ReplyDeleteI find lists like that, well, the books I agree with I really agree with, but most of them I think *shrug* I have read 18 of the books and not all of them I loved, I'll put it that way. I briefly thought of writing about my own 100 best books but let's face it, I'm sure to forget something!
I do think they way they compiled this list was interesting. I'd like to know how many votes each book got, though. If only two people voted for Pulphead, a book I've never even heard of, maybe that would give me more information about whether or not I'd like to read it. On the other hand, maybe it's good for me to read material I otherwise wouldn't have come across.
DeleteSo happy he is home. I treated a young person with the same thing and same type of exercise routine, absolutely no reason why it could have happened - so he's not the first unusual one! hope he recuperates well at home. We have opposite book tastes I'm afraid. Loved Bel Canto and TTT, did not care for station II or lincoln in the bardo. Agree with your assessment of Overstory - gah! The first chapter was amazing, but then the last bits were so unsatisfying and I ended up not finishing it. Fun fact - my husband and Colson were summer roommates one year at U of Seattle who were each pining over (different) girls down the hall who were roommates with each other. But the two girls were not thinking about boys, they were in love with each other. Also, my husband called him "Chip" as he was known back then.
ReplyDeleteYeah, we were talking to my SIL who is a hospitalist at a big state university-affiliated hospital (I'm trying not to dox her here) and she said that with his numbers, they would have given him two bags of IV fluids in the ER and sent him home, not kept him for four nights. I think it's crazy how different we would have assumed the severity was if that had been his treatment. I think because they kept him so long and kept talking about kidney and liver damage, we were starting to think he was life-threateningly sick.
DeleteI did not enjoy Lincoln in the Bardo at first, but then I relaxed into realizing that I didn't have to follow each storyline precisely and now I think about it all time. I imagine it as I am walking down the street. I think about how everyone grieves differently. I imagine a different sort of afterlife than is usually portrayed. I think I would probably have said it was a meh book at first, but it has really stuck with me and I think it's a powerful book.
I love that detail about Whitehead. I just looked it up and his full name is Arch Colson Chipp Whitehead, so that explains why they called him that!! So interesting!!! It's such a small world and it has to feel good when someone you know does so well.
Hooray! You have your husband home with you again. Things are getting back to Normal now. What a relief (for everyone). Isn't it remarkable how his mere presence makes you able to breathe more deeply?
ReplyDeleteI, too, didn't care much about Never Let Me Go. I found it very irritating and almost stupid. I do think that Franzen's The Corrections has a rightful place on this list. His writing is incredibly dense and turgid, but not in a bad way. Every single sentence has meaning toward the theme and whole of the story. The Corrections is truly a tour de force. I just reread it this summer, as a matter of fact, and still got something more out of it.
Hmmm....someday I'm going to try to read all these books. I must admit that your defense of The Corrections is making me very nervous that it's not a book for the likes of me (dense and turgid sounds bad...). Oh, well, maybe someday I'll get to it, if only to be a completionist.
DeleteI am so glad Dr. BB is home. I completely understand how everything now feels so much better in the whole world. Having your beloved away for even a few days unexpectedly is HARD.
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't know how single people do it. Especially single parents. I just had to deal with two (admittedly neurotic) pets and it was tough. Props to people keeping entire households running by themselves.
DeleteYAY for Dr. BB being back home. Why did you fall behind on your weather-related responsibilities, Engie? lol
ReplyDeleteI'm excited to try Lydia Davis from the NYT list--I love good microfiction. That said, a list is only as good as its generators, and the people they've named are quite unexciting, IMO.
_Never Let Me Go_ might be my favorite Ishiguro. One of my kids loved it, too. The movie is not bad, but the book's reveal was amazing.
I can't believe I didn't figure out how to change weather patterns. I think we can all agree I'm not as powerful as Dr. BB.
DeleteI think a list like this would be interesting if you just surveyed people who are regular readers, not authors or critics or whatever. Also, not just people who read narrowly, like only one genre or author, but survey normal readers. (There have to be dozens of us.) I wonder if the list would be that different?
Yay! Glad Dr. BB is okay and home now. What does this all mean moving forward? I know he has to take it easy now, but can he eventually resume his normal activities? Any idea as to why this happened, or how it could be prevented in the future? Or is it just a big mystery.
ReplyDeleteI haven't looked at that whole list, but I did see that MBF was on it. My husband just finished the fourth book and he LOVED all of them. Now he's a little lost. He wants to read something else by Ferrante, but I think you said her other books aren't as good?
We don't know what it means really moving forward because there isn't really an explanation. He didn't do anything WRONG (we're supposed to exercise!) and he wasn't doing anything crazy. He's been told to take it easy until a doctor's appointment next week and they'll come up with a plan for him to resume his normal activities.
DeleteHe did talk to his sister (a hospitalist at a large state university-affiliated hospital) and she said that his was not a bad case and he should focus on functional fitness and maybe cut back to lifting three times a week with rest days in between and do other things like cycling, golf, or tennis in between. I think it's heartbreaking for him because he's a man who it would not be unheard of for him to go for a long bike ride in the morning and do weights in the afternoon and I just don't know if that's in the cards for him ever again.
Once you get rhabdo you're more likely to get it again in the future, so he has to be careful. It's all very hard.
Hmmm...has your husband read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn? That's what I usually recommend for MBF lovers? Or Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, which is another translated book about a challenging woman? OOOOHHH!!! Does he like mysteries? Smilla's Sense of Snow is a translated Nordic noir about another complicated female character. Those would be my recommendations, but he may not be interested in what I have to say about these things!
Yay for Dr. BB being home! Now the weather will behave better.
ReplyDeleteIn all of the years that we took daily selfies with our old dog we didn't get great photos on most days. It was just every once in a while the magic would strike. Doggo is too young and excited to sit still so we barely have any selfies with her.
The 100 books list was mostly a list of books that I haven't read, but I was delighted to see Station Eleven on it. I'm with you on Zadie Smith. I know that I'm *supposed* to like her, but I just haven't been able to get into any of her books.
Station Eleven is book perfection! I am glad we are in agreement on this. I feel like I should give Zadie Smith another try. She's so well-regarded. What's wrong with us?
DeleteI'm so happy to hear that Dr. BB is home! I was just catching up on your posts, and it's nice to find out that he's home and OK. I hope that never happens again!
ReplyDeleteI 100% hope that never happens again, too!
DeleteI'm so glad Dr. BB is recovering at home! Staying in the hospital is so tough with all the vital checks and such, not to mention how hard it must have been for you to shuttle food that is safe for him to eat back and forth, etc etc. I hope he is back to full health soon and because I am noisy, I am curious if they felt his level of activity warranted that kind of reaction? It seemed like a pretty normal amount of activity for an active, healthy adult!
ReplyDeleteI kind of gave the best books so far some side eye, especially when I saw that MBF was #1. I was surprised that Homegoing didn't make the list. I had read 27 of the books on the list and many of them were pretty meh to books I loathed (Like The Road - I hated that book so much. All the dialogue with no identification of who was talking drove me crazy.) I read Bel Canto many years ago and I hated it! I have thought about going back to reread it as my tastes have changed but I disliked it so much that I can't bring myself to do it. I find that many of the award books like Booker or Pulitzer prize do not work for me so I also feel like maybe I am just not smart enough to enjoy them.
I thought the exact same thing about Homegoing. As much as I liked Americanah, I feel like Homegoing is a lot better of a book! I'm glad I wasn't alone in thinking that Homegoing should have made that list.
DeleteI mean, basically the doctors told him that he needs rest days. There was lots of handwaving about how he's "getting older," but he's 45, not 75, you know? But he's done that same workout schedule many times before, so what caused it this time?! It's really puzzling and worrisome.
Homegoing was on the list of Readers' 100 novels!
Deletehttps://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/books/reader-best-books-21st-century.html
YAY that Dr. BB is home! Here's to couch potato relaxation.
ReplyDeleteI had your #3 idea exactly, to post the books I'd read, with links to my reviews. I think I'll do it. :)
I <3 Hannah's sweet face.
I want everyone to link to the books they've read because I am a Nosy Nellie and I want to know!!
DeleteOK, it will post tomorrow! Interesting, we have a few books in common, but a lot NOT in common. We could shop each other's lists. ;)
DeleteI can't wait to read it!
DeleteI feel like this week is the reward we get for putting up with all the crazy weekend weather!
ReplyDeleteIt has been a pretty perfect summer week.
DeleteOh, what a relief that he's home! I haven't looked at the list, but I've heard enough about it from you and others that I can tell it's not full of books that will click for me. Which is fine, I'm happy with my reading these days, hope this streak lasts.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely not very much genre, which I guess it to be expected, but is disappointing. There is some N.K. Jemisin, but what about Binti? Or any Robin Hobb? Or the Expanse? Obviously my own list would be quite different.
DeleteI am so glad Dr. BB is home! Yay! Hope he's feeling better!
ReplyDeleteHe's feeling so much better and now that he's out of the hospital and not connected to an IV pole, he can move around more and that's super helpful, too.
DeleteI'm so glad your husband is home and recovering!
ReplyDeleteOur entire family has COVID, so this weather has been perfect for airing out the house and laying on the patio to get some sun love.❤️
Oh, no! I hope you all have an easy time with COVID! Feel better!
DeleteSo good to hear that Dr. BB is home! I hope you guys are having a very boring weekend together :)
ReplyDelete"...the girl human cannot control the weather, kind sir" You're apparently married to a magical man.
I've read 12 of the books on the list. Of those 12, the only ones I loved were Pachinko, Evicted, The Great Believers (one of my favorite books ever), and Middlesex. I like Ishiguro a lot, but Never Let Me Go was kind of frustrating for me - I just felt like everyone was being stupid and I wasn't interested in the big secret. And I like other Colson Whitehead books I've read, but I haven't read Underground Railroad.
I read that other Makkai book about the podcaster and didn't love it, but everyone is so enthusiastic about The Great Believers that I should probably read it.
DeleteI like Colson Whitehead books and he always has really interesting premises, but I don't really love them. I think that says more about me than about his writing.
Hooray! So glad Dr. BB is home and resting up.
ReplyDeleteI have tried not to fall prey to this book talk, but alas, your reviews of the books you've read from this list is what finally got me interested in looking into it. I will report back with my own blog post! Hard same on Tomorrowx3, Pachinko, and Station Eleven!
I love that we have sucked you into this list!! Bring it on, Stephany. I want to know everyone's thoughts on all the books.
DeleteGlad to hear Dr BB is back.
ReplyDeleteThis list is coming up more and more... I may have to check it out and make an assessment. However I feel it is very American/english speaking centric so not sure about it.
I think I only read Pachinko. A couple other ones are on my TBR. And as you know A brilliant friend was a DNF for me. So no I do not get it how that made it to the top...
It absolutely is very US-centric. There are a handful of translated works on there, but not a ton. What I'm really loving is everyone else creating lists based off the original list to improve it. Not everyone agrees that My Brilliant Friend should be #1, but I love that it's there!
DeleteSorry I am behind/out of order in my reading. I did not know your husband was in the hospital. It sounds scary. A mom I babysit for had rhabdo (sp?) I don't think she was hospitalized. I laughed at the pets convinced that he controls the weather. Too cute.
ReplyDeleteStation Eleven. Might need to add that to my TBR. I do not read nearly as much as you, or most of your readers for that matter, but I appreciate your reviews. I have not read My Brilliant Friend either. With swim team and travel bball behind us, maybe I will score more hours at the pool reading and relaxing. Fingers crossed.
I think the photo is cute. I do not have a vein that runs down my forehead but my thin hair can turn any photo into an unfortunate memory that I prefer not to save.
It's so funny because in our rural hospital they kept my husband for four nights, but my SIL works for a larger hospital and said they would have given him a couple of bags of IV fluids and sent him home. I can't tell what that says about medicine, to be be honest. That it's more of an art than an actual science, I guess.
DeleteNot everyone has time for reading like I do. It's because I literally don't do anything else. Station Eleven is pretty short though and definitely worth a read. My Brilliant Friend is more polarizing.
So glad he's home! When Eve stays home with Lucy it is never a restful night, because Lucy loves Eve but doesn't trust her to keep the house safe, so is up and down being wary and watchful.
ReplyDeleteI have to run through the list too - I've read a lot of them, and definitely disagreed with some, as is always the case with a list like this. I liked My Brilliant Friend but would definitely not have rated it number one. It's like the artistic mark for figure skating - how? So much of it is so subjective!
I don't think it's that Hannah and Zelda don't trust me - I think they're just unsettled because their pack is incomplete. At least that's what I tell myself.
DeleteI don't know that I'd put My Brilliant Friend at #1, either. I might actually put Homegoing at number one and it didn't even make the list!
I would be completely on board with that!
DeleteI love your micro-reviews! Incredibly skippable, dogfight-y, and befuddling...I want to use adjectives as vividly and effectively as you. Did you see the NYTimes had a "Reader's Pick" 100 Best of list? [https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/books/reader-best-books-21st-century.html] I read 71 books on the Reader's List and 37 on the NYTimes list. On both lists, I felt there were some perfect selections and some real head-scratchers.
ReplyDeleteI did see the Reader's Picks - I read 48 of those and DNFed 4. I don't think they're terrible lists, to be honest! There were some real puzzles, but I'm not too mad about any of the choices. I mean, I'd definitely like to see more genre on there - where's The Expanse? - but I LOVE all the discussion that's popped up over these lists. I'm adding so many books to my TBR!
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