Every month I read so many amazing books, but sometimes the hamster wheel of life spins too quickly and I forget to take time to appreciate them. It’s so easy to get lost in the shuffle and the endless piles of books I’ve read or want to read. So I’ve decided to slow down a bit and ruminate on the 5 best books I read this month.
And what are the best books you read recently? Email us. We can’t wait to hear what you’re reading.
Arundhati Roy’s first novel has been universally praised as a masterpiece and a modern classic. I’m embarrassed it took me so long to finally read THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS—the story of an affluent Indian family forever changed by a fateful day involving seven-year-old twins, their beautiful English cousin, and a caste-blind affair. This novel is immaculately written and offers a morsel of everything: a powerful family saga with fully realized characters, a forbidden love story, a vibrant setting, and a piercing political drama.
Arundhati Roy’s debut novel has become a modern classic. Equal parts family saga, forbidden love story, and political drama, it chronicles in exquisite, atmospheric detail an affluent Indian family forever changed by one fateful day in 1969.
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I have to confess, this wasn’t the first time I read THE TROUBLE WITH GOATS AND SHEEP. I was having a rough week and wanted a sure pick-me-up so I decided to treat myself again to this quirky coming-of-age story with unmistakable warmth. I was just as charmed by precocious ten-year-old protagonists Grace and Tilly as they try to locate a missing neighbor and learn what it means to belong to a community as I was the first time I read this glorious debut novel.
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A gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU follows a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio as the body of their favorite child is found in a lake and they struggle to understand not only what went wrong, but each other. This emotionally precise novel expertly explores family dynamics as well as issues of race and gender.
“Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” So begins this dark but exquisite novel about a Chinese-American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, but when her body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, and the family is forced to come to terms with their struggles and secrets.
After 12-year-old Elvis Babbitt’s mother drowns while sleepwalking, Elvis prepares to grieve for the 18 months advised by her guidance counselor. But grief doesn’t always play by the rules, and Elvis is distracted from the process by trying to keep her sleepwalking sister from suffering the same fate as their mother. Desperate to protect her family and come to terms with her grief, Elvis is an endearing narrator who captures readers’ hearts.
I decided to read OUTLINE after one of my colleagues highly recommended it. Best. Recommendation. Ever. A novel in ten conversations, OUTLINE follows a novelist teaching creative writing during an oppressively hot Athens summer. Through the stories of the people she encounters, the novelist learns how to face her own loss. It is a mesmerizing and cerebral novel full of beautiful life observations.
