Recent Net Galley Reads

 Title: Five Tuesdays in Winter. Stories
Author: Lily King
Pages: 240
Publisher: Grove Atlantic
Publishing Date: 9the November 2021
Genre: short stories
Format: ebook
Rating: 3.5*

Five Tuesdays in Winter was my first Lily King book. For some reason I was expecting a novel, but this was a good read for me. I don't usually gravitate towards short stories as it's sometimes difficult to keep them apart. I always feel they subtly interconnect, and it's up to me, the reader, to figure out how. I basically ruin short story collections for myself.

I liked most of the short stories in this collection. There are ten stories, each focusing on different characters. Some are told in the third person, others in the first person. The characters are of different ages, both men and women. Some of the stories are closer to the present day feel, while others are set decades ago. I found that to be a factor that helps differentiate between them, not get them all confused. The theme that connects them all is love, in its different aspects: love for a partner or a crush, the love needed from parents, love for children. Some are full of sadness, while others are more hopeful.

My favourite was the one that also gave the title of the collection, Five Tuesdays in Winter. It's the story of a single father who falls in love with the employee at his small bookshop. It reminded me of the LoveActually movie, for some reason. I also liked the story When in Dordogne about a teenage boy who, along with the house he and his parents live in, is babysat by two college boys while the teenager's parents are in France. The last one, The Man at the Door, is a fitting end for the collection. A young mother of three fights her self-doubts about publishing her writing. She finds the inner strength and the value of her writing as she faces the man's cruel scrutinizing.

I mostly liked the first part of the collection, namely the first four-five stories. I am proud of myself for taking notes about each one. This helped me remember what each story is about; just seeing "who" was in the story will be helpful if/ when I want to refer back to it. Having read this collection and since it's my first immersion into the Lily King world, now I'm curious to read more from her. I do want to read Writers and Lovers at some point.

It reads pretty fast, but it's perfect for when you don't have that much time to read. Lovers of short stories will enjoy this one as well, as it offers a plethora of characters and issues.

I received a free e-book copy of the book from the publisher via Net Galley. All thoughts expressed here are my own.

 

  ***

 Title: A Terrible, Horrible, No Good Year: Hundreds of Stories on the Pandemic
Author: Six-Word Memoirs
Pages: 168
Publishing Date: 15th October 2021
Genre: Non-fiction
Format: ebook
Rating: 3*

I like reading about education and about how other people make school better. Well, the spring of 2020 was something else for everyone, whether they had to do with education or not. Reading A Terrible, Horrible, No Good Year, a collection of short memoirs reminded me that it's never just us.

Some of the poems/ stories/ memoirs are relatable, some are gut-punchingly true, others are funny, others very sad. The entire collection captures what school has been like since the pandemic started. Although the entries are from people in US, I can vouch it's been the same for educators in many other countries. I personally saw myself in many of them, as well as my students.

This idea is also wonderful to implement in the classroom atany level, in any subject. It gave me something to think about and I can't wait to get my students writing. After all, six words can tell a story.

I received a free e-book copy of the book from the publisher via Net Galley. All thoughts expressed here are my own.

 

Elsewhere, Home - by Leila Aboulela: Book Review

Title: Elsewhere Home
Author: Leila Aboulela
Pages: 224
Publisher: Grove Atlantic
Release Date: 22nd February 2019
Genre: Short stories, Sudanese culture
Format: Kindle

{GoodReads Synopsis}

From one of our finest contemporary writers whose work has been praised by J.M. Coetzee, Ali Smith and Aminatta Forna, Leila Aboulela's Elsewhere, Home offers us a rich tableau of life as an immigrant abroad, attempting to navigate the conflicts of assimilation and difference in an unfamiliar world.

Shuttling between the dusty, sun-baked streets of Khartoum and the university halls and cramped apartments of Aberdeen and London, Elsewhere, Home explores, with subtlety and restraint, the profound feelings of yearning, loss and alienation that come with leaving one's homeland in pursuit of a different life.

{My thoughts} 

I could see little happiness. A lot of resignation, the longing for the roots home, but also the pull of a better, modern life. There is no better place or better choice. No character can be judged, but as a reader you can just accept them and feel for them. The characters are from different backgrounds so this gives a more inclusive perspective on the Sudanese culture. 

What surprised me was that despite having no knowledge of the Sudanese culture and literature, these stories read in a universal language - literally and figuratively. If it were any other country from the East, the feelings the characters would be similar to those in this collection. The life of an immigrant is never easy nor black and white and you can see this clearly in these stories. The unlikely connections and graspings for belonging in Scotland are endearing and makes you wish all the best for these characters. The characters are never just people on paper; not few times did I think about the people who maybe inspired each story: the unlikely, the sad, the unexpected. At times I feared that the clash of cultures will lead couples, spouses or parents and children apart. The tapestry is rich in colour, and each story brings something new. 

I must confess that some stories read a bit slower as they are not easy to get into. However, it was fun to see how each person got to Sudan or Scotland and read along to see where the story led. The plan is to read more from this author.

I received a free e-book copy from the publisher via Net Galley. All thoughts expressed here are my own.

Traveling Left of Center by Nancy Christie -- BookReview

When I received this book for review I mostly accepted it because I don’t like to refuse people. I was very skeptical and I was so sure I wasn’t going to like one.bit.! Boy, was I wrong. 

This short-story collection, Traveling Left of Center by NancyChristie releases today. I finished reading it last night and these are my hot off the press thoughts. (This review was actually written last night as well, so hot off the press is actually pretty hot! And subjective.)

Now, let me gather my thoughts and the pieces of paper I scribbled some ideas on so I can say this:

Nancy Christie takes the English language on such an endearing trip! She offers the readers the possibility to look at words and phrases from new angles. Words have new dimensions, really, as pretentious that must sound right now. Toying with words and phrases, the titles of her stories are at time dead-on literal or, on the contrary, unexpected with unsuspecting turn of events. 

What am I saying? Events? There’s no such thing as events in here. At most, the small beginning of something but it soon reaches a some sort of peak and leaves you bewildered and in need for more asking yourself what exactly happened. You find yourself playing the role of the cruel reader. You want to know more of the depth of the human misery – the human existence. You soon learn there is no turn for the best; it’s either downhill from where the story begins or a perpetual state of painful stagnation. She describes in well picked words the wounds of the man, open for all to see, and what is more, to find pieces of themselves in the said wounds, but not necessarily to learn more from them. How could you? What could you learn? The vivid depiction of many a man, but yet alone in their dealing with their reality. Surely many can find themselves in at least one story.

People dependent on other people. People physically sick of other people. The power of stories in creating new identities and new worlds to escape in. The longing for restoration in relationships. The longing for love stories that grow into more than just buds of a story. The power of a random thing that breaks the personal mundane, with unexpected and exaggerated consequences. The power of the inner voices and the mind created friends over-towering the power of reality. Man’s ability to destroy other humans. Man’s ability to withdraw from reality for a moment of respite, fresh like a long day of care-free existence. 

This collection is a wide range of emotions (though I don’t like the word), each story leaving me wanting to learn more of this world where this kind of characters dwell, but in the same time wanting to stop it from spilling over. Somehow you expect the inevitable to happen, but in the same time you hope it won’t. There is no happy ending here. It is a nice break from the overly-praised fairy-tales. 

I am still too immersed in each story’s realm to be fully objective, but I can surely say that so far this is one of the most engaging short story collections I’ve ever read. One needs the time to process them individually and also collectively. As one who thinks all things happen for a reason, I am sure the order of the stories within this collection couldn’t have been better and somehow you go gradually and layer-ly to new stories of life. Right was he who said the fault of this collection was the lack of yet another story, and another. 

**“Who on this earth gets what they ask for every time they ask for it? No one does. Anyone who says they do is a liar and anyone who thinks they will is a fool.”

**Her trips must be all pleasure, all joy, an escape from the life she lived, not a continuation of it.

**Gentleness, even when it is a substitute for love, is not a thing one can refuse—not in this world, where mindless cruelty is so common, where random failures can destroy unsuspecting lives.

**Tonight there was another dream: the ringing of the phone and when I answered, a single question—“What do you want?” Then nothing more, and I awaken, the question echoing in my mind. What do I want? I look around me—at fifteen years of furniture and wall coverings, at fifteen years of marriage and family life, at fifteen years of connections. “I don’t know,” and I turn, hugging my husband’s body for warmth.

**He used canvas and oils the way God had used clay, creating life from inanimate objects.

I received an ebook version of Traveling Left of Center by NancyChristie through BookBloggersList. All thoughts expressed in this review are mine. However, I recommend reading this in paperback version rather than an ebook version.