Saturday, January 9, 2021

Recommended Books of 2020, Part II

Recommended books of 2020, continued:

*** = Highly Recommended

The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead

Amazing fiction, turning the symbolic underground railroad into an actual one.  Story follows Cora, who runs away from her brutal master in Georgia, taking the underground railroad and having many harrowing adventures as she seeks her freedom.  FYI:  Contains vivid descriptions of the brutality of slavery.

The Giver of Stars, by Jojo Moyes:

Young English woman marries a rich guy from Kentucky, thinking she is going to be living in Lexington or some other cosmopolitan city.  She ends up in a coal town in Eastern Kentucky living with autocratic father-in-law. Her husband is unable or unwilling to have sex with her.  She ends up taking a job with a WPA project, delivering books by horseback throughout the mountain area.  Through this enterprise, she makes wonderful friends and achieves independence.  Much more happens.  Good book; I enjoyed it. Thanks to Rosemary for recommending it.

The Trespasser, by Tana French:

Good detective story, which takes place in Ireland.  Lots of Irish slang, but otherwise a standard whodunit.  Beautiful 20 something woman is found dead in her home, which is all set up for a romantic dinner for two.  New boyfriend who was supposed to be the dinner guest is major suspect, but our detectives uncover a much more interesting set of circumstances. I enjoyed it a lot, doing nothing but read for a couple of days because I wanted to find out what happened. Not great literature, but a diverting read.  Good for pandemic escape. 

***Warlight, by Michael Ondaatje

It is at the end of WWII in London.  Two teenage children are left in the care of a man they call The Moth when their parents go off to Singapore for a year.  The children have many strange adventures, since The Moth and his friends are not the parenting type, although they try in their own way. Finding out why the parents left and following their saga becomes the focus of the boy’s life once he is grown.  Fascinating story, with many wild twists and turns, as the children maneuver through their lives in war-torn London.  Highly recommended: Nominated for the Man Booker Prize

Educated, by Tara Westover

Celebrated autobiography of a woman who grew up in an excessively conservative Mormon household.  Father is anti-government, anti-conventional medicine, anti-education, survivalist, storing up supplies for the end times, which he is continually prophesying. All the children work for the father in his junk business, doing terrifying, dangerous things because that is what the father demands.  Her ability to get away from the home, receive advanced degrees, and make a new life, despite having had no formal education before college is an astonishing story.  Not for the faint of heart.  Bad things happen.  

Becoming:  by Michelle Obama

Fascinating memoir of Michelle Obama's life, starting with her wonderful, stable, loving family life growing up on the south side of Chicago, going all the way to the inauguration of Donald Trump.  She was able to capture the events and her feelings beautifully. No rancor, although many things happened that she could have complained bitterly about. Even in this autobiography, she “went high,” while still telling the truth.  I enjoyed it a lot. 

***Island of the Sea Women, by Lisa See

The story takes place on an island off the coast of Korea, where many women make their living diving for seafood, such as abalone and octopus.  It is dangerous and takes years of training.  Because the women are the primary “breadwinners,” the society is matriarchal, with the men staying home to care for the children and cook.  The book follows the life of one woman, a chief diver, through childhood and old age.  Central to the book is her friendship with another woman and how their lives are affected by the horrific experiences they experience during Japanese occupation, the Korean War, and the American occupation before independence.  The internecine warfare that actually happened is woven into this fictional story. I was unaware of these events.  So many of the brutal pages of history in other countries are unknown to us.  So I find out through reading this outstanding book.  Highly recommended.

If you want to see Part I of 2020 recommended books, look here: 

Part I of recommended books

2 comments:

Rhoda B. said...

Richard sent these suggestions:

The Winter Fortress

Neal Bascomb

The most dramatic commando raid of the war. The British Special Operations Executive combined a brilliant scientist and eleven refugee Norwegian commandos to destroy heavy water supplies and Hitler’s nuclear ambitions, and help end the reign of the Third Reich.

The Smart Swarm

Peter Miller

Veteran National Geographic editor Peter Miller explains the basic principles of smart swarms- self-organization, diversity of knowledge, indirect collaboration, and adaptive mimicking-to show how swarm species such as ants, bees, and fish can teach us to tackle some of the most complex conundrums in business, politics, and technology.

Churchill, Roosevelt & Company

Lewis E. Lehrman

Explains how the Anglo-American alliance worked—and occasionally did not work—by presenting portraits and case studies of the men who worked the back channels and back rooms, the generals and the admirals, the secretaries and under secretaries, ambassadors and ministers, responsible for carrying out Roosevelt’s and Churchill’s agendas while also pursuing their own.

Rhoda B. said...

Dan sent these suggestions:

"The Secret History of Wonder Woman," by Jill Lepore

"Ninth Street Women," by Mary Gabriel

"Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution ," by Mary Gabriel

"Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity," by Carlo Rovelli

"The Order of Time," by Carlo Rovelli