This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission of any sale made at no extra cost to you.
#34. THE BOUNDLESS by Kenneth Oppel // ★★★☆☆
(amazon // bookshop // better world books)
This middle grade novel was a recommendation from my 11 year old son. It takes place on a train and is action packed and just a little bit scary!
#35. THE FILTER BUBBLE: WHAT THE INTERNET IS HIDING FROM YOU by Eli Pariser // ★★★☆☆
(amazon // better world books)
Even though this book was written over 10 years ago, I found it very relevant and thought-provoking. There were quite a few, but one of the biggest takeaways for me was that “over-personalization” of your online experience greatly decreases the ability to think creatively. As an example, he talks about serendipity, the process of stumbling across the unintended. I recently experienced this as I used Pinterest to find a recipe. Years ago, I would be able to see a wide variety of things on my home page, especially what all of my friends were pinning…now all I see as I scroll is more of the same topics I have searched for in the past. It’s becoming harder to discover something fresh and new, something that excites me and raises my curiosity. Like Pariser says in the book, “Google is great at helping us find what we know we want, but not at finding what we don’t know we want.” (p.104) It takes intentional effort to pull yourself from the bubble the Internet creates for you, but I’m inspired to try. (I chose this book as part of my non-fiction Alphabet Reading Challenge.)
#36. THE GOOD DAUGHTER: A MEMOIR OF MY MOTHER’S HIDDEN LIFE by Jasmin Darzink // ★★★★☆
(amazon // bookshop // better world books)
This memoir was so good. The author is an Iranian immigrant who moved to the US when she was young. In her early twenties, she was helping her mother move when a photograph fell from a stack of old letters. The photograph showed her mother wearing a wedding veil, but the man at her side was not her father. When Jasmin inquired, her mother refused to speak about the photograph. Months later, however, she received from her mother a handful of recorded cassette tapes that would bring to light the story of her family’s time in Iran. I flew through this book and found it both fascinating and utterly heartbreaking. The writing was beautiful.
#37. THE FOUR WINDS by Kristin Hannah // ★★★☆☆
(amazon // bookshop // better world books)
Elsa had never thought of land that way, as something that anchored a person, gave one a life. The idea of it, of staying here and finding a good life and a place to belong, seduced her as nothing ever had. (p.52)
This may be an unpopular opinion, but I’m on the fence about whether Kristin Hannah’s books are a good fit for me. I loved The Nightingale but had issues with The Great Alone…where would this one fall? I’m fascinated by the Great Depression and thought the book was good, but it felt like a hundred pages too long.
#38. THE NEW NEIGHBOR by Karen Cleveland // ★★★★☆
(amazon // bookshop)
Karen Cleveland wrote one of my favorite thrillers, so I was excited to get my hands on her latest book! Super fast read and I didn’t guess the twist at the end. Need to Know is still my favorite, but this was fun. (The New Neighbor will be released on July 26, 2022. Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book!)
#39. THE END OF THE PRESENT WORLD AND THE MYSTERIES OF THE FUTURE LIFE by Father Charles Arminjon // ★★★☆☆
(amazon // bookshop // better world books)
This is a beautiful book, but for whatever reason, it took me forever to get through! I would definitely like to read it again sometime in the future.
#40. ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH by Alexander Solzhenitsyn // ★★★☆☆
(amazon // bookshop // better world books)
This one is about a grueling day in the life of a prisoner serving time in a Siberian labor camp. So brutal. (This was also my 1962 pick for the 20th Century in Literature Challenge.)
#41. NOTHING TO HIDE by J. Mark Bertrand // ★★★☆☆
(amazon // bookshop // better world books)
This is the third and last book in the Roland March Mystery series. Fast paced with plenty of twists and turns.
I read The Good Daughter when i saw your first mention of it as i love a good memoir, and though i grew up in Dearborn, MI, which has the largest concentration of Middle Eastern immigrants outside the Middle East, i know very little about the culture and background of my neighbors. However, what stood out to me was how dysfunctional this gal’s family history was. Basically every father had abandoned that family for generations. So those girls had no protector. Ok so marriage at 14 is probably gone out of fashion now, but seriously! How messed up to give your daughter willingly into an abusive situation. Muslim culture doesn’t seem to have a healthy view at all of women, but i surely hope that particular family are not common. My parents still live in Dearborn in and they have super kind and wonderful Iranian and Iraqi neighbors who check on them all the time and bring them food and shovel their snow. The girls all go to school and college, the husbands are loving normal dads. One summer i taught basic Math to immigrant women who were almost all from Mid East countries. One sweet 19 year old had 5 kids! Her husband wanted her to be able to continue her education now they had come to America and even though he had a lowly job. Anyway, i have no idea if my experiences tell something about wider Iranian culture, or if this book speaks to some kind of history that is thankfully gone. I just found it so sad and interesting and horrifying all together. And I’ve wanted to talk about it, so here i am. Thanks for sharing such a variety of books.
Ellen, thanks so much for sharing your thoughts! I too was fascinated and heartbroken by the dysfunction in her family. I wonder if the dynamic between men and women was unique to her family or if it was indicative of a greater cultural view. I’d love to learn more about Iranian culture (both then and now, as I’m sure things have evolved with time) so if you run into another good book, please let me know!
I read ‘ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH’ last year and found it really compelling, interesting, and also reflective. I suppose I think that about most Russian novels, though this one didn’t take months to get through, just weeks 😉
I really enjoyed the section where he described his work as a brick mason. The pride he took in doing a good job, how he challenged himself to go faster…I found it touching that he almost unconsciously found goodness and beauty in the midst of such a miserable existence.
I read The Four Winds last summer and I had hoped to love it so much more than I did.
I don’t think anything will ever beat The Nightingale for me though! Her best book for sure!
Yes! I think she’s a good author, but maybe a little too over-hyped?