A Word About Awards

DARK AT THE CROSSING by Elliot Ackerman   Nomination: National Book Finalist 2017   Date Read: November 30, 2021   A plethora of books have been written about men fighting in wars and their attempts to escape the horror and violence. Dark At The Crossing follows Haris Abadi, an Iraqi soldier turned American citizen and his attempts to break into a war. He gained citizenship through his service as a translator in Iraq, however, he is unable to forgive himself for aiding the wrong side and for killing an American soldier.   Haris has left his entire life behind, including his devotion to his sister, to fly to Turkey near the Syrian border. Haris has been in touch with a fixer who has promised to Sherpa him across the border, however, once he is at the border with other refugees, he cannot find his contact. What he does find instead is misery and violence and a group of thieves who rob him blind.   After being taken in by some children into their makeshift shelter, Haris meets Amir, a man

ALL THE LIVING by C.E. Morgan   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2011, PEN/Hemingway Finalist 2010   Date Read: November 26, 2021   All The Living is essentially a love story about two very flawed people (who isn’t?), trying to identify love amidst pain and uncertainty. Orren meeting Aloma while she’s living at a boarding school, having lost her parents at a very young age. Orren, young and cocksure, looks at her as if he is going to have her and have her he does.   Their affair continues for quite a while, he traveling across three counties on the weekends to be with her. Suddenly, his entire family is killed in a car accident (mother, father, brother) and he is left the family farm and his love for Aloma. She moves onto the farm with him in short order. But is what they share really love? Does Orren love the land more than her?   Just as Orren loves his farm, Aloma loves the piano. A gifted player, she seeks to play, her fingers aching to make music. She is finally able to land a gig pla

LAST NIGHT AT THE LOBSTER by Stewart O’Nan   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2009, LA Times Finalist 2007   Date Read: November 22, 2021   I loved this novella about a team’s last day working at Red Lobster. Readers get an inside look at working for a chain restaurant and one that’s going to shut down the following day. What makes this even more interesting are the characters who show up to work this final shift.   Manny, the manager, is a man of integrity through-and-through. Even though it’s the last day, he performs all his duties by the book. He doesn’t slack in the slightest, doesn’t deface any property or steal anything. A lot of low-paid workers would probably contemplate all three. Then again, he has a new position at Olive Garden and doesn’t want to ruin his chances.    A bitter employee, Eddie, does make things difficult however. In a fit of rage he slashes Manny and chef Ty’s leather coats. He also takes a potato masher to both of their windshields,  particularly destructive be

THE BURNING GIRL by Claire Messud   Nomination: LA Times Finalist 2017   Date Read: November 21, 2021   The Burning Girl is a novel about adolescent friendship and the inevitable growing apart that happens during that most delicate and fraught period of growing up. Cassie and Julia have been best friends since nursery school. They know everything there is to know about each other until, that is, they reach middle school. As their social world begins to change, so too do Cassie and Julia.   Cassie begins a friendship with another girl that propels and mirrors the changes in Cassie’s world. Her eternally single mother, Bev, begins dating the doctor that treated Cassie’s dog bite. Not only does he move in quickly, but he takes both Bev and Cassie in hand, ruling with an iron and religious will. He demands everyone bend to that will. His expectations become increasingly difficult to abide by and Cassie moves further and further from his grasp.   Cassie’s life becomes so unbearable that she

ALL SOULS by Christine Schutt   Nomination: Pulitzer Finalist 2009   Date Read: November 20, 2021   All Souls provides a glimpse into the privileged world of a Manhattan all girls private school. The fictitious Siddons School is an elite experience for Kinders through 12 th  grade, however, all the advantages the Siddons School provides still cannot shelter these girls from the problems all teenage girls face.   The biggest gossip throughout the halls is about Astra Dell, a somewhat popular girl, gifted in dance who has been struck with a rare cancer and spends her entire senior year in the hospital. While she eventually grows strong enough to be discharged towards the end of the year, this experience has laid bare who her true friends are. Marlene, who wasn’t really friends with Astra prior to her illness visits nearly every day and brings her her homework. Car was a dear friend before her illness and has taken to writing to her stark letters about dying.   As for the rest of the girl

EXIT WEST by Mohsin Hamid   Awards: Aspen Words Winner 2018, LA Times Winner 2017   Nominations: Booker Finalist 2017, Carnegie Longlist 2018, Dayton Literary Peace Finalist 2018, Dublin Finalist 2019, Kirkus Finalist 2017, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 2017, NY Times Finalist 2017, Rathbones Folio Finalist 2018   Date Read: November 19, 2021   Exit West is an interesting take on immigration and a relationship expedited by the pressures of war. In Hamid’s version of earth, literal doors allow people to migrate to different countries, bypassing paperwork, visas and passports, to simply arrive unannounced in a new country.   This is what happens for Saeed and Nadia, a couple in Syria who had just started dating and were finding the delights in each other’s company. The collapse of their city and Nadia’s vulnerability as a single woman living alone causes Saeed to invite her to come live with his father and him. Saeed’s mother had just recently been killed. Only a short time after

LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND by Rumaan Alam   Nominations: Aspen Words Finalist 2021, National Book Finalist 2020   Date Read: November 18, 2021   Leave The World Behind is more science fiction than plain fiction. Or is it? While I found some of the plot devices difficult to swallow, by the end I found myself feeling like I need to go to the grocery store and check my emergency supplies.   The premise is relatively simple. A family from New York heads to a AirB&B for a little R&R. Out of the blue, the owners show up because there’s a black-out in New York and they want to hole up in their own vacation house. This is point number one where I scratched my head. The owners wouldn’t go to their place knowing they have a rental agreement already in place. Not knowing there’s anything else amiss in the world aside from the power outage, wouldn’t they head to a hotel? Why did they assume the renters would let them in?   But let them in they, in fact, do. After questioning if they are actual

GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING by Tracy Chevalier   Nomination: Women's Prize Longlist 2000   Date Read: November 16, 2021   The Girl With A Pearl Earring is based on the famous painting by Dutch artist Vermeer. An entire world is created about who the woman was, what her life was like and what became of her. Chevalier masterfully tells her story based on the times and how Vermeer crossed paths with this mystery woman.   According to Chevalier, her name is Griet, a 16 year-old maid in Vermeer’s household. Prior to this, Griet lived with her parents, her father a famous tile maker until a tragic accident rendered him blind. With no income, Griet is turned out as a maid and becomes the most troublesome maid in the household’s history.   Almost immediately, Vermeer, a man of little words and even littler emotion, recognizes something in Griet, her precision and aptitude for color in a plate of vegetables she’s arranging. Griet becomes the only maid entrusted with cleaning the Master’s stud

HALF OF A YELLOW SUN by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie   Award: PEN/Open Book Winner 2007, Women's Prize Winner 2007   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2008, James Tait Black Finalist 2006, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 2006   Date Read: November 14, 2021   Half Of A Yellow Sun isn’t a novel as much as it is a saga that will twist you up and wring you out. I am in awe of the detail, the heart, the honesty and the intensity that went into writing this. In a word, I am left speechless.   I never knew of the Nigerian-Biafra War and I once again marvel at human stupidity. I marvel at the waste of life and opportunity and humanity. I continue to be dumbfounded by the pettiness, cruelty and indifference humans can have for one another. Yet, I can’t imagine a world where these things do not exist. For there is no people, no country where this darkness is absent.   Olanna and Kainene come from a privileged background and already begin the war at the top of the pyramid. How far they have to f

BRICK LANE by Monica Ali   Nominations: Booker Finalist 2003, Dublin Longlist 2005, LA Times Finalist 2003, National Book Critics Circle Finalist 2003, NY Times Finalist 2003, Women's Prize Longlist 2004   Date Read: November 12, 2021   Brick Lane tells the story of two sisters from Bangladesh who travel down very different paths in life. Nazneen follows through on her arranged marriage to Chanu and is swept away to England, while Hasina eloped with the man she loves, eschewing any arrangement her parents would make. Both of these choices are a crap-shoot in my opinion. You have no idea how either will turn out.   Nazneen, over time, is able to regard her husband with compassion, although I don’t think she ever truly falls in love with him. He is opinionated, self-centered, trapped in his own head and has grandiose ideas that never pan out. I wondered throughout if he was also a hoarder with his affinity for bringing home discarded furniture or if, as a poor Bangladeshi, he couldn’

HARBOR by Lorraine Adams   Award: LA Times Winner 2004   Nomination: Women's Prize Longlist 2006   Date Read: November 6, 2021   There’s a lot to unpack in this novel that focuses on one aspect of the immigrant experience in America. Coming from Algeria, the men depicted here are desperate to start a new life in America that they risk everything to come – surviving in inhuman conditions as stow-aways on ships at sea for over 50 days. This was the experience of Aziz, Ghazi, Rafik and the three brothers. Others among them were luckier, winning the lottery, such as Mourad, Aziz’s brother.   Regardless of how they get there, the U.S. does not open her arms to receive them but they have to claw and fight for their survival. The one thing they have going for them is each other and at times, they don’t even have that. Yet, the U.S. is a blank slate in which they can begin a new story and imagine a better future.   Almost before he has a chance to do anything, Aziz racks up tremendous debt

JEFFERSON SELLECK by Carl Jonas   Nomination: National Book Finalist 1953   Date Read: November 3, 2021   Jefferson Selleck, in diary form, is the self-chronicle of a man recovering from a heart-attack. This attack finds him in middle age, 55 to be exact, and with a doctor’s demand that he be bed-ridden for at least 6 months. A doer, this bed rest is quite a blow and his memoirs are a way for Selleck to occupy his time while he recovers. Speaking into a tape recorder, he begins to examine the life he has lived to this point.   Selleck’s life spans some very interesting times, including Prohibition and its subsequent end, fighting in WWI, requesting to serve during WWII but denied, starting his own company, marrying and raising two children and the general business of day-to-day living.   Of course, this character, facing historic events during the 20’s and 30’s rendered many issues with which to disagree. He believes in top-down economics, which has resulted in the majority of wealth b