- Favorite: Interpreter of Maladies
It’s not quite fair to the other books because this has been a favorite since I first read it in 2004, and this is my fourth time reading it, maybe fifth.
- Second favorite: L’Assommoir
I read this because it’s one of my husband’s favorites, but at one point I threw the book down to go to him and ask, “Why did you have me read this? I’m so depressed for these people!” It’s so well-written, though, and truly transports the reader to another place and time so I kept going.
- Read to my kids, standing between their two rooms at night, which is much better than having them come in and out for an hour:
The Secret Garden
My little boy’s review: “This is sooooo boring.” And I questioned how much my little girl was actually listening when she asked way too far into the book, “Who’s Mary?”
Ollie’s Odyssey
A gift from a dear friend, received when she came to Montreal right before Anna was born and I said, “I will read this to her one day” and that day finally came.
- Ok, ok, I’ll read you: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
I’m in a FB book group and so many people are obsessed with this book that I grew annoyed by it. A friend offered to let me borrow it, and I was like, “Book, are you following me?” Then I was reading my college alumni magazine, and saw an article about someone I went to college with and how she wrote books and was pretty successful. I turned the page, and of course she is the author of this book and many others. So I read it out of support of a fellow college alum…and to see what the big deal was…which wasn’t so big after all. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an entertaining read, just a little overhyped.
- Fooled me once: Daisy Jones & the Six
It’s written like a transcript from interviews of a band and after a couple of chapters, I tried to look up their music. Multiple searches on different music platforms yielded no results to only realize it’s a novel and she made it all up. You got me, Taylor Jenkins Reid.
- Boston Public Library *most borrowed book of 2022*: The Midnight Library
A nice little find in one of those Little Free Library boxes, interesting concept.
- Honorable mentions:
Strangers I Know
The Souvenir Museum
We Should Not Be Afraid of the Sky
coming full circle 