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Happiest When Reading

A place to read my latest book reviews.

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I listened to this one on audio (thank you, Libro.fm!), and it was one of the heavier memoirs I've read this year. Broome talks about growing up poor, Black, and gay in Ohio. Told through essays, I also loved how Broome incorporated stories from his past with a present-day bus ride where he sees a young Black boy learning the social mores from his father and other passengers on the bus. Subtleties throughout the ride across town spur memories from his childhood and he uses those moments to deeply reflect on a hard and painful childhood. It is extremely powerful and I really enjoyed listening to Broome narrate his own story. He is a talented writer and I would really love to see how he handles more light-hearted material.
After hearing that this memoir talks about New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, I was really interested to read it. I have a dear friend who was also in New Orleans during the Hurricane. She worked at a local news company and the stories she has from that time period sound more like horror stories than real-life events. The amount of mistakes that happened during the storm are bad enough; what's even worse is hearing about the ways the city fails poor communities even before tragedy strikes.
I think the controversy that surrounded this book made me nervous to pick it up, but I’m so sad that I allowed it to keep me away for so long. I absolutely enjoyed this book about The Pack Horse Library. This was a project set up in the 1930s to help promote literacy to rural communities, and female librarians would travel by horseback to deliver these books to the folks.
I really enjoyed Lee’s book, Pachinko, so I wanted to give this, her debut novel, a try as well. It took me awhile to build up my stamina (this book is 680 pages long!), but I reminded myself that tome books usually end up being some of my favorites! That was enough to encourage me to finally dive in.
This incredible debut reads just like a memoir; I had to keep reminding myself that it wasn't Nguyen's personal story about immigrating to the United States. In 1979, a young mother leaves Vietnam with her two youngs sons. They arrive in New Orleans homeless, jobless, and alone. With the same grit and determination that accompanies any immigrant trying to make it in a foreign land, Things We Lost in the Water was a gripping read.
#bookreviewsneedlovetoo ✨I absolutely fell head over heels for this book – the story, the characters, the cover, the writing. All of it blew my expectations out of the water – and I’m thoroughly impressed this is a debut novel. Vijay really takes her readers and sinks them into this deeply layered, deeply complex story. I felt transformed to India and the story Vijay tells weaved itself right into the fibers of my being. I know will think of Shalani many, many times in the future – both with happiness and frustration.

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