Rated Six Four 8/10
A sharp and weird police procedural - extremely Japanese, in its focus on customs of deference, loyalty, hierarchy and what you are and aren't supposed to express. Well-constructed but kind of slow going.
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Rated The Essex Serpent 8/10
Delightful. A big sprawly Victorian-era story, focused on a wealthy widow and a minister who strike up an intense, unlikely friendship, but reaching out to encompass their families and communities - Perry does a really impressive job of shifting from perspective to perspective and taking every character's view seriously. Not a lot happens but it's a good ride anyway watching these characters interact and seeing how their idiosyncrasies interweave. Reminiscent of [b:The Luminaries|17333230|The Luminaries|Eleanor Catton|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1410524246s/17333230.jpg|24064531] in its scope, but more reader-friendly and engaging even though there's less plot.
Rated What You Are Getting Wrong about Appalachia 8/10
Very thoughtful and compelling. Designed primarily as a corrective to books like [b:Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis|27161156|Hillbilly Elegy A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis|J.D. Vance|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1463569814s/27161156.jpg|47200486] and the coverage of Appalachia around the 2016 election, but worth reading on its own: a study of how Appalachia has been willfully misunderstood by people looking to extract either coal or political advantage from it, and the historic streak of radical politics that still exists, running counter to Appalachia's conservative electoral shift. Well worth reading and quick.
Rated Marlena 8/10
A dark and moody story of the teenage friendship between two young women and the weight that the loss of one friend casts over the rest of the other friend's life. Reminiscent of [b:The Girls|26893819|The Girls|Emma Cline|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1492065338s/26893819.jpg|42856015] and [b:Eileen|23453099|Eileen|Ottessa Moshfegh|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1479545528s/23453099.jpg|43014905] in tone and structure; like those books, this one is presented as retrospective, and like them it concerns drugs, violence, depression, the families we're stuck with and the families we create, and the incredible intensity of the attachments young women make with one another. Mild spoiler: it sets up as though there's a ~twist~, a mystery or puzzle that gets solved, but really doesn't play out that way (not a bad thing, just don't expect [b:Gone Girl|19288043|Gone Girl|Gillian Flynn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1397056917s/19288043.jpg|13306276] or whatever).
Reviewed Pretotype It: Make sure you are building The Right It before you build It right
<a href="https://smus.com/books/the-right-it-audio">Full review on smus.com</a>
Rated A Field Guide to Getting Lost 8/10
A series of thoughtful, meandering but beautifully-written essays. Recommended if you have to do a lot of traveling alone and want to really lean into it.
Rated The Assistants 8/10
A delightful caper, fast and engaging, about the underpaid assistant to a powerful media CEO who falls into a con scheme.
Rated Olga Dies Dreaming 10/10
<div>I went into this knowing almost nothing about it, other than I liked the cover and had vague recollections of people saying it was really good, and IT IS.</div>
Rated Commonwealth 10/10
Terrific - a lovely read that I tore through in just a few days. It starts with a christening party for a baby and expands from there, bouncing around in time, to tell the interlocking story of two big complicated families. Patchett is always great; this one is a little unusual for her - her prose is usually so stately and heightened, whereas this one is more straightforward stylistically, though it's still really great - she makes it look easy. You get perspectives from almost all the major characters, and Patchett takes their views seriously and compassionately. The book it reminds me of most, in structure and tone, is [b:A God in Ruins|3722183|A God in Ruins|Kate Atkinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1451442002s/3722183.jpg|42652219], which I also love.
Rated Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War 8/10
Very Mary Roach-y, which I mean as a compliment; her writing is very clever and her curiosity is contagious. As she notes in the preface, this is very much not about the science of weapons, but rather a series of essays on how scientists attempt to keep the troops clothed, fed and healthy in both normal and dire circumstances. There are poignant moments and funny ones, but the former are somewhat underplayed relative to the latter given the weight of the subject matter. Not my favorite of her books but a good, quick and thoughtful read.
Wants to read An American Marriage
Rated Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth 8/10
I really enjoyed this and got a lot from it, even as I found it a little glib and over-certain. Based on the scanty evidence in the Gospels and the somewhat more robust political and cultural historical record of Roman-occupied Palestine, Aslan sketches out a plausible scenario of who the historical Jesus might have been. He does it with somewhat more definitiveness than he could actually have, though to his credit he lays out that this is just a theory based on what little evidence he has. It's very challenging to the perspective a lot of people - including but not limited to me! - might have on Jesus, and very arguable, but also lively and well-thought-out. I am pretty familiar with both the Gospels and Roman history and it gave me an interesting new lens on both of these (actually found myself consulting a Bible as I read, because Aslan relies on it pretty heavily!). <br/><br/>Recommended with a grain of salt, but more for the faux-authoritativeness than the bad reasons that most Americans would be skeptical about a biography of Jesus written by a secular Muslim.
Rated The Stone Sky 8/10
Both weirder and grimmer than the first two, and leaning much more into the sci-fi elements of the series: a lot more about the *why* of the world beyond just what's going on in the present. It's elaborate and detailed, in the mechanics of the world and visual description, but also emotionally rich, to the point of being pretty heavy/intense. Overall the trilogy is a masterwork; I probably liked this one the least on its own but it's vital to the whole story.
Rated Dare Me 8/10
Sitting at a weird intersection of teen drama, noir, literary fiction and body horror, this book is dark, trashy-smart and engaging. If you can suspend your skepticism about a story that tales place in high school, you'll be rewarded: Abbott is sharp at constructing plots, building tension and exploring her characters' minds and motivations. She takes the world of her teenage protagonist seriously, depicting cheerleading as something like gladiatorial combat and intra-group friend rivalries as political bloodsport. As clever and mean and claustrophobic as [b:Gone Girl|19288043|Gone Girl|Gillian Flynn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1397056917s/19288043.jpg|13306276], with better prose.
Rated Varieties of Disturbance 8/10
Lydia Davis’ short stories are brief and strange - all the more strange because they’re about extremely mundane subjects, like parenthood, aging, communication between romantic partners. She approaches all of these subjects like an alien naturalist explaining them as though they’re profound and haunting. I didn’t love this book as much as her others but it’s still compelling.
Rated Children of Paradise: The Struggle for the Soul of Iran 10/10
A long, powerful, tremendously well-reported history of the ideological origins of the Iranian revolution and its reformers and dissidents. Chronological but not a straight history - it's seen through the people and especially the ideas that shape the times. If you are into a grim, careful book that takes you inside a country often seen as opaque or monolithically evil, this is precisely for you. In particular, I couldn't help but be struck by the way everyday life and the paranoia of living under a violent autocracy can intersect - and with the parallels between Iran's political scene and our own (I kept highlighting and tweeting photos of excerpts). Not for everybody, but riveting if a long intellectual history appeals to you.
Rated Animals Strike Curious Poses 8/10
Essays on the interactions between animals and humans, each focused on a specific, named animal ranging from a frozen mammoth to Darwin’s pet tortoise to a sign-language-speaking gorilla and the spider that rode on Skylab. Some of the essays are experiments that fail interestingly, some of them are just stunning and insightful.
Rated Mislaid 8/10
Curious and compelling. Zink pulls off something very difficult really well, and though it doesn't always land quite right - and wraps up too neatly - it's really enjoyable, rich with distinctive characters all with their own perspective. As with her last book [b:The Wallcreeper|22237292|The Wallcreeper|Nell Zink|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1400625481s/22237292.jpg|41610859] there were times that I stopped short and sort of squinted at this book, as though in a conversation with somebody with poor social skills who doesn't know it; unlike that book, the rest of the time it's terrific and feels real and lived-in and yet delightfully weird.
Rated Swing Time 8/10
There's so much going on in this story it's hard to do it all justice - it starts with the treacherously close friendship of two biracial girls growing up in London and spirals out into the wider world, taking in Parliament, the Gambia, and pop stardom even as the memory of their friendship has a gravitational pull over the whole story. Really well-done in terms of rich characters, pacing, emotional depth, political insight and vivid detail; there's maybe 10% too much plot but it still all hangs together well. Highly recommend!