Volume 1, Issue 8: 2019 Wrap-up. Best fiction & non-fiction books of 2019. New Murakami and Hosseini Reviews
It was nearly one full year ago that we published our first book review. When we kicked this off we wanted to make book reviews accessible, fun, and honest. We feel that the best way to find your next book is to ask someone you trust for ideas. And so, our hope this past year is that we have gained your trust with our reviews and have helped you seek out the next book to pull off a shelf and put in your lap.
We reviewed 33 books this past year (including the two in today’s issue)
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This newsletter includes my top 3 fiction and non-fiction reads from 2019, along with two new reviews for The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami and And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini.
Top 3 Fiction Books of 2019
The Labyrinth of the Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (reviewed in Vol. 1, Iss. 1)
One of my favorite fiction writers of all-time. This was the fourth in his series called the “Cemetery of Forgotten Books”. If you are looking for a great series to jump into I recommend going in order from Shadow of the Wind, to The Angel’s Game, to The Prisoners of Heaven, and ending with The Labyrinth of the Spirits. You won’t regret it.
Music for Chameleons by Truman Capote (reviewed in Vol. 1, Iss. 6)
I can count many years that stood between Chameleons and the last book of short stories I picked up. That medium had been lost on me for whatever reason. But after Chameleons, not only did I love these short, powerfully vivid fictional/non-fictional stories, but I really appreciated the format of the short story. Capote’s fascinating life journey and is impeccable ability to bring events to life made this one of the most enjoyable reads of 2019.
Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi (reviewed in Vol. 1, Iss. 5)
Alharthi grabbed me with a unique literary style and a unique, underrepresented authorial voice. I found myself invested into each individual storyline — each character burdened with distinct societal, physical, or mental inhibitors. Set in Oman across three generations, I think Alharthi pulls off a raw and beautiful story.
Top 3 Non-Fiction Books of 2019
River of Doubt by Candice Mallard (reviewed in Vol. 1, Iss. 2)
River of Doubt is one of those stories that are nearly impossible to believe and yet are backed up with rigorous historical detail and first-hand accounts. After losing his presidential re-election bid, Theodore Roosevelt sets out with assorted crew of adventures to discover a new tributary of the Amazon River. Chaos, death, and discovery unfolded throughout. A wonderfully engaging read.
Educated by Tara Westover (reviewed in Vol. 1, Iss. 3)
Educated is a memoir nonfiction. So in a sense it is a similar category to Capote’s Chameleons. I split them because Capote’s short stories have an explicit intention to demonstrate literary flair and blurring the edges of reality. In Educated, Westover focuses on her truth and one that intends to be as accurate to reality as possible. The story is powerful, uncomfortable, and often overwhelming. She struggles in a fully contrived society void of facts and science and after 18 years confronts how shattering and transformative it can be to transition to an educated world. I was gripped. You will be too.
Destiny Disrupted by Tamim Ansary (reviewed in Vol. 1, Iss. 4)
His recounting of clashes of empires and the evolution of cultures and societies across Eurasia, is some of the best historical storytelling I’ve ever read. Even though each page feels like it unveils 20 new facts and it’s impossible to recall even a large proportion, everyone can walk away from this book with kernels of knowledge that feel immensely enriching. I highly recommend this book.
Latest Reviews
The Gist: Hosseini is the mastermind behind two bestsellers, Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. This is his third book, published in 2013. The book shows similarity as its set in Afghanistan and the storyline is weaved through a family centered theme. Stylistically, Hosseini follows several different characters, up to 9, during a roughly 60-year time span. It begins in a small, remote Afghan farming village. Once a tragically difficult decision is made by Saboor, the farmer and father of two young children Pari and Abdullah, the book follows the ripple effect of that decision. Hosseini follows the lives of Pari and the surrounding characters who envelop her life, from the small farming village to Kabul, Paris, and California. The pivotal event related to Pari early on in this novel is the heart of the narrative, but each of the surrounding characters are brought into the story lines as tributary narratives, and with each one you dive deep into these characters’ personal stories. It will be hard to write too much about the plot here without giving away some events that I believe are better left as a surprise. And The Mountains Echoed is filled with heartbreak and micro-victories. The underlying motif is both the strength and debilitation of love and family.
My Take: Hosseini has a mastery over words. The opening few chapters suck you into his storytelling vortex and spit you out in an emotional fit. His opening is so rich and deeply sad that he compels you to read on to try and grasp the cause and effects for what happens in the first 80 or so pages. What I found distinctly powerful about this story was his heightened attention on how much people mean to one another. There are stories of abject poverty, of soaring wealth, and of commonplace status. But the importance of material value pales when weighed against the impact love, loss, and absence have on these characters. It drills down to the purest of existential questions of ambition and family. They so often compromise one another. We so often follow ambition yet we so often regret its cost. Hosseini makes a point to prick the reader every few pages to wake up to the importance of humanity.
You’ll find that the book begins and ends with Hosseini’s best writing. If you enjoyed his first two books, I would be foolish to not recommend this book.
The Gist: Bird Chronicle lands practically right in the middle of his published novels, coming out in 1994–5. The Bird Chronicle is mostly written in the first person of Toru Okada, a 30-year old plain, rote, and unexceptional man who lives in Tokyo with his wife Kumiko. The book begins shortly after he decided to quit his job as a lawyer’s assistant. The novel takes shape once Toru and Kumiko lose their cat, Noburu Wataya (an ironically given name as it is also the name of Kumiko’s brother, whom they both despise). With time on his hands, Toru begins a lackluster hunt for Noburu. Eventually Kumiko introduces Toru to Malta Kano, a soothsayer/fortune-teller, to help with finding the cat. The short and curt interactions with Malta leave Toru (and the reader) wanting more. During his own search, Toru befriends a 16-year old neighbor (May Kasahara) who is no longer going to school for an unclear reason (until it is revealed later in the book). After an abrupt departure by Toru’s wife Kumiko — who leaves no explanation and no trace other than to make it clear she left him and wanted a divorce — the book transitions from a hopeless search for Noburu into Toru’s mystical, mind-bending soul-search for his estranged wife. There are four primary themes: Toru’s detective adventures, a marriage disintegrating precipitously, a scouring of Japan’s World War II and post-war tragedies, and inexplicably surreal encounters and experiences. Although the book culminates with somewhat of a linear outcome, the road the reader is taken on is anything but linear.
To give a portal into this books eccentricity here is a quick snapshot i’ve summarized of one subplot: Toru finds significance in empty water wells after beginning a correspondence with a lonely Japanese vet, who had been left in a well during the Manchurian conflict with Soviet Russia. There was an empty well in his neighborhood that was on a property known as the ‘Hanging House’ as it had a string of haunted endings for previous owners. Toru believes that he may be able to find the answer to why his wife left him if he sat in the bottom of this well for days. After his first attempt that led him close to death but not to revelation, he continued this exercise throughout the rest of the book. Each time he found he would be drawn through the side of the well and sucked into this alternate reality, in which he always landed in a mysterious hotel room with a unidentifiable woman and a bottle of Cutty Sark whisky. Each time, the farther he makes it into this alternate universe, the closer he is to finding answers about his wife’s abrupt departure.
My Take: I’ve read 4 of Murakami’s books and every single one of them fits the Murakami style of magical realism, mysticism, and mystery. Murakami is famous for warping the reader’s mind to stretch the meaning of reality, pushing the reader into moments of obscurity where it is difficult to discern an experience from an illusion. He manages to always take the reader on an exciting, arcane, and exceptional journey through the eyes of generally unexceptional narrator. The Bird Chronicle is the most extreme of the four that I have read. In most books, events that transpire are included to advance the plot; they are there to serve a purpose. Yet in Bird Chronicle, Toru’s platonic yet slightly inappropriate relationship with May Kasahara is an example of something that on the surface seems tangential. You could also argue that it was Murakami’s use of a confidant to demonstrate symmetry in their rapid unraveling mental states. This book is so eccentric and checks in at an intimidating 605 pages. If you are a reader of Murakami, you really should read this book — if only to find at which end of the polarized debate you sit on, is it one of his best or is it too far off the plot? If you are new to Murakami, do not start with this one! But please please give Murakami a go. A great one to start with is Norwegian Wood. It was the book that got me hooked to his magical realism. It is a gripping and beautiful book.
