★★★★★

Trust was one of my top-ranked books for 2022, and I’m republishing this review because it just won a Pulitzer. Congrats to Hernan Diaz!

It’s hard to describe this novel without giving away the thing that makes it so great. But here are a few clues: 1920s, finance, marriage, mental illness, high society, writing, WTF, and seriously WTF. In some ways, this book is straightforward with simple narration—easy to read, even! Yet, all the while, you never know what is real or whom to trust. I loved Trust, and when you read it I would like to discuss, please. This one definitely deserves a book club.

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“While grateful for it, he was suspicious of the American notion of freedom, which he viewed as a strict synonym of conformism, or, even worse, the mere possibility of choosing between different versions of the same product.”

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Book One: A Psalm for the Wild Built

★★★★★

This incredibly tender book is the first in Becky Chambers’s newish sci-fi series, Monk and Robot. It is thick with longing for discernment, purpose, and meaning, and it gently suggests that we hold these desires more lightly. The theme comes to life as a quest in a world where robots are wild and humans have hope of being more than brutal extractors. I cried through the final scene. Just beautiful.

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“You keep asking why your work is not enough, and I don’t know how to answer that, because it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it. You don’t need to justify that, or earn it. You are allowed to just live.”

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Book Two: A Prayer for the Crown-Shy

★★★★½

Book 2 in the Monk and Robot series develops the friendship and adventures of Dex (Monk) and Mosscap (Robot). Like Book One, it uses tender prose and gentle pacing to create a reading experience that feels like sanctuary. I love how Chambers advances slow-burning tension in a peaceful world where nearly all conflict is inner conflict. It’s a interesting narrative challenge, and not many writers could pull it off. This special magic opened me to consider subtler questions of what it means to be alive. Book Three of this series can’t come soon enough for me.

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“The thing about fucking off to the woods is that unless you are a very particular, very rare sort of person, it does not take long to understand why people left said woods in the first place.”

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★★★★

I could never have imagined that a book about gaming and coding would hook me so completely. But it’s a love letter to creative process, collaboration, and story-telling—and I ate it right up. If you’re into creativity, you will enjoy this one. Creative nerd or not, you will find a beautiful story about relationships, chosen family, success, failure, and the many ways people make meaning from their suffering.

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“‘So what do I do?’ she asked. ‘You go back to work. You take advantage of the quiet time that failure allows you. You remind yourself that no one is paying any attention to you and it’s a perfect time for you to sit down in front of your computer and make another game. You try again. You fail better.”

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★★★★½

I tore through this 4-book fantasy series over the holidays. (It’s a trilogy, yes, with a bonus novella #4.) I enjoyed the worldbuilding, characters, mythology, and mystery-soaked plots. And I loved Jemisin’s thematic work on power, especially the delicate necessity of balance and the urgency of laying down long-held privilege. The reading experience was also plain fun and had a strong element of mischief. It had been a while since I embraced a new series, and I’d forgotten how satisfying it can be to become fluent in another person’s imagination. I’m excited to explore more of Jemisin’s writing.

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“I can’t be what everyone wanted me to be. I can’t even be what I want to be. I’m going to have to find a way to live with what I am, I guess.”

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★★★ ½

An entertaining story of old Hollywood, love, ambition, and self-revelation. This was a satisfying vacation read that kept me turning pages and delivered at the end.

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“Do yourself a favor and learn to grab life by the balls, dear.”

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★★★ ½

I liked this Stephen King quest novel, which to me reads like a love child of his Dark Tower series and 11/22/63. It’s longer than it needs to be, and at times the prose is sloppy. But this story and the (wild!, imaginative, flawed but likable) characters kept me on the edge of my seat. A really enjoyable read. 

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“A brave man helps. A coward just gives presents.”

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