The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for this ARC. The book was released April 23, 2024.

Ruth Reichl is one of my favourite food writers. I adore her memoirs. This was my first time reading her fiction. The novel was set in Paris in 1983 and featured a woman’s adventures in Paris after her estranged mother’s passing. I enjoyed most of the food moments and grew to appreciate the characters. I found the novel slow to start and did not warm to the characters until at least half way. Content Warning as there is a brief but intense traumatic event in chapter 2 which I am not sure added much to the character or story. If it was necessary to the character’s background, it happened very suddenly and is not dealt with much later. All in all, a nice little novel. I heartily recommend Reichl’s nonfiction writing.

Setting: Paris, France.

Read April 14-16, 2024 on Kobo Libra 2.

The Baker and the Bard by Fern Haught

A cozy fantasy graphic novel. It was cute and very similar to The Tea Dragon series. I do prefer the art and story telling in Tea Dragon though. Cute.

April 16, 2024.

The Lord God Made Them All (All Creatures Great and Small) by James Herriot

Read by Nicolas Ralph. I adore this series. This was the penultimate book. It included adventures of Jim abroad as a vet for an export company so it was a bit of a travel memoir. I enjoyed that more than the cow stories. I think cows are fine but they have become my least favourite of the stories. I much prefer the dog and cat ones.

Setting: Great Britain, Turkey, Germany.

1.25x. April 6-18, 2024.

Julie Andrews’ Collection of Poems, Songs, and Lullabies by Julie Andrews Edwards and Emma Walton Hamilton

Read by the authors. This was lovely. It was Julie Andrews and her daughter reading poems. I should have listened to it more slowly. I could listen to it again and maybe I will in the future.

1.25x. April 13-19, 2024.

The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt

This novella was a recommendation from Ann Patchett via her bookstore Parnussus Books’s Instagram. She has great backlist book recommendations. I want to read more shorter literary stories. This one was interesting as a character work and commentary on the publishing industry. The protagonist and narrator was a bit of cipher to the reader. She is seventeen and raised with very old world and upper class standards. It’s a darkly funny and the character develops in such a short amount of time. I want to know more about this character. The author really knew how to use the format.

This was my 60th book of the year which met my reading goal.

Setting: Mostly NYC with a bit of London and Marrakech.

April 9, 2024.

Almost American Girl by Robin Ha

This was the debut and graphic novel memoir from one of my new favourite graphic novelists. It recounts Ha and her mother’s immigrant experience to America and their origin story in South Korea. It was emotional and hard for both women. I enjoyed that there is a theme of motherhood in a lot of these Asian-American immigrant memoirs, but maybe I am projecting because it was the same with me growing up. Another great graphic memoir.

Setting: USA.

April 10, 2024.

Green Eggs and Ham and Other Servings of Dr. Seuss by Dr Seuss

Narrated by Jason Alexander, David Hyde Pearce and Michael McKean. This reminded me that Jason Alexander is such a versatile actor other than George from Seinfeld. Still David Hyde Pearce remains one of my favourite sitcom actors ever so I enjoyed his retelling the most.

1x. April 8-10, 2024.

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

Narrated by Bernadette Dunne. I listened to about 60% on audiobook then finished on a hardcover I had found in a Little Library. The narration was fine. This was another grief book which I did not know until I started it. I was moved and empathetic by the grief expressed. The naturalistic parts of the book were interesting too. I liked that this is now historical nonfiction since the book was set in 1995. It made me contemplate how things may have changed on the trail mostly interns of communication and the network. I liked reading about the various good people she met and being in nature.

1.25-1.5x March 29-April 4, 2024.

The Cat in the Hat and Other Dr. Seuss Favorites by Dr Seuss

Narrated by various authors. This was a short audiobook and it went by quickly. My favourite was the Walter Mathau’s When the Grinch Stole Christmas.

1.0x. April 4-6, 2024.

The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary

Narrated by Josh Dylan and Eleanor Tomlinson. I listened to 50% of it on audiobook then sped through the rest on paperback. I was on the verge of dumping the book early. I am not a big contemporary romance reader but I liked The Flatshare and some aspects of The Switch. I knew this one had mixed reviews. I wanted to be open minded. This is one of my rare negative reviews.

Most of the characters were boring and not engaging. A number of the supporting cast were posh people who were unrelateable. The main characters Dylan and Addie were seemingly nice people but they were unremarkable. I found their relationship troubles believable since they were both so young but neither of them had the emotional weight of the other O’Leary characters. I kept reading for the climactic event. It was sad but the book did not address the bigger issue of the toxic friendship. The characters had developed a bit in the second timeline and were more forgiving, but all of it felt rushed and superficial at the end. The book did not seem serious about reflecting on how destructive it had been for all of them. I’ll still read O’Leary as I have one more on my shelves left but I will likely dump her books earlier if necessary.

On the good side, this was the tenth book I read from my shelves which mean I get a donut or pastry.

1.75x-2.0x. April 7-8, 2024.

Hidden Systems: Water, Electricity, the Internet and the Secrets Behind Systems We Use Everyday by Dan Nott

This was an interesting nonfiction graphic novel. It was ambitious since it tried to explain some very big topics. It was good but my attention wavered with how complicated some things were. I was most engrossed with the water chapters. I admire that the author did years of research and I did learn a few things.

March 20-23, 2024.

Crying in H-Mart by Michelle Zauner

This was a tough and great read. This is about the author’s experience with losing her mother to cancer and the grief afterwards. Throughout it, she looked back at her upbringing and identity as a biracial Korean-American. There was enticing references to Korean food. I listened to about one third of the book on audiobook. It was good narration but I wanted to finish on the copy that I had. It also made it less difficult since I did cry. While I did not lose my mother the same way, Zauner and I had similar experiences in grieving including the anger and the dreams that followed. It was affecting for me. For me, while this was a great read, I will not reread or keep it. I hope my copy finds its way to someone else who can appreciate it too.

Setting: USA and South Korea.

1.25x. March 20-25, 2024.

All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot

Read by Nicolas Ralph. I adore these books so much. It feels like the last couple books have focussed more on dogs and cats than on larger livestock. I have two more to go and I am cherishing them. I don’t know what other cozy audio series I can start after this. Ralph is a fantastic narrator too.

Setting: England.

1.25x. March 17-28, 2024.

Rainbow Shopping by Qing Zhuang

A children’s picture about a Chinese girl and her mother shopping in NYC’s Chinatown. Very close to my heart so loved this. Lovely drawings and reminded me of my own upbringing.

Setting: NYC, USA.

March 29, 2024.