Labor Day is officially upon us, and summer may be drawing to a close, but reading season certainly is not (that was a test – there’s no such thing as reading season, it’s always reading season)! I’ve been hard at work, nose deep in books, reading up a storm this summer to bring you some of my most interesting pics for your dog days of summer book consumption. I also threw a few in here that I have yet to read, but look forward to reading in the coming weeks myself. Read on for my end of summer book list!
A small but mighty book, this debut novel tells the story of a Nigerian couple coming to terms with polygamy and infertility, in a culture that is caught between the old ways and new thinking.
Have you ever been in an incredibly happy and balanced time of your life, only to have the rug ripped out from under you? That’s what happened to Allison Pataki when her new husband had a life-altering stroke on the airplane en route to their honeymoon. This true story details their rocky yet redemptive road to recovery.
Recommended to me by a bookstore clerk, this book tells the story of a Turkish American undergrad entering her first year at Harvard. What ensues as the year unfolds is a charming cast of characters, unexpected wit, an unusual love story, and a narrative that spans countries and cultures.
I’ll admit, even 200 pages into this book, I abhorred it. I had to absolutely force myself to keep reading. It wasn’t until I had significantly surpassed the halfway point that I realized “this isn’t so bad,” which turned into “I so enjoyed this book.” It’s dark, depressing, and the characters feel like lost causes at times, but I found the second half of the book to be both laugh-out-loud funny, unexpectedly poignant, and ultimately redemptive.
This collection of short stories tells the tale of a diaspora of Jamaican immigrants, and what their experiences are in our country, from NYC to the midwest. This one I have not yet read, but am excited to dig into on the beach in Nantucket 🙂
Even though I (nerdily) know every word to the opening of David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water” speech, I realized this summer that I had never read Infinite Jest, one of his quintessential works. I’m fixing that this month.
When I read the following description about questions asked in this book, I knew that I absolutely had to read it:
“Why do we remember the past and not the future? What does it mean for time to “flow”? Do we exist in time, or does time exist in us?”
A very wise friend recommended The Order of Time to me as a must-read, and I cannot wait to delve into this short yet sweet work about our assumptions about time, and what they really mean.
Caro's City 