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What I've been reading: Books No. 15-16
Apr. 11th, 2020 01:36 pmBook No. 15 was "Trust Exercise" by Susan Choi. I've known about Choi well before she began winning book prizes. I first was exposed to her writing in "The Foreign Student," which I thought was beautifully written and made me want to read more by her. I also really enjoyed "A Person of Interest." For some reason, despite her beautiful writing, her novels seem to be 4-star reads rather than 5 star reads, though I can't put my finger on exactly why.
This novel sucked me in right away. It takes place in a performing arts high school in 1982, and though it was set in the south, I could identify with it in a lot of ways since I was in high school in the 1980s (a bit later than '82, though) and was involved in my school drama scene. The story starts with a group of high school students, their charismatic teacher, and a teenage love affair gone wrong. Themes are around memory, who gets to tell the "official" story of what happened, and how adults in a teen's life can shape them for the better or for the worse are strong throughout.
I really liked this, but be prepared to be jarred with a big change about the half-way point in the book. It threw me at first, and that might be part of why this was a 4-star book for me. But overall, a worthwhile read. If it matters to anyone reading this review, Obama named this as one of his favorite reads of 2019!
Book No. 16 was " Signal to Noise" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. My husband read this book and recommended it to me, and I'm glad I read it. It takes place in Mexico City, flipping between a narrative of 1988-89 and 1999. Meche and her friends Daniela and Sebastian are 15-year-old losers in their school, but they "get" each other. They try to change their fate in various ways when Meche discovers she can do magical spells with music, but things don't always go as planned. In the scenes from 1999, you find out how those interactions from the past played out in all their lives many years later.
I really enjoyed that it was a familiar era (I also went to high school in the 1980s) and some of the music from the 70s and 80s was familiar, but life in Mexico City and the pop music of Mexico from that era were not. It's a very sentimental and, ultimately, romantic book. I could see in just a few spots that this was Moreno-Garcia's first book as the prose was sometimes just adequate and nothing special. And sometimes it was hard to like Meche, who is a prickly teenager. But overall, I really enjoyed this book and teared up a bit at its beautiful ending. Recommended.
( The other books I've read so far this year: )
This novel sucked me in right away. It takes place in a performing arts high school in 1982, and though it was set in the south, I could identify with it in a lot of ways since I was in high school in the 1980s (a bit later than '82, though) and was involved in my school drama scene. The story starts with a group of high school students, their charismatic teacher, and a teenage love affair gone wrong. Themes are around memory, who gets to tell the "official" story of what happened, and how adults in a teen's life can shape them for the better or for the worse are strong throughout.
I really liked this, but be prepared to be jarred with a big change about the half-way point in the book. It threw me at first, and that might be part of why this was a 4-star book for me. But overall, a worthwhile read. If it matters to anyone reading this review, Obama named this as one of his favorite reads of 2019!
Book No. 16 was " Signal to Noise" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. My husband read this book and recommended it to me, and I'm glad I read it. It takes place in Mexico City, flipping between a narrative of 1988-89 and 1999. Meche and her friends Daniela and Sebastian are 15-year-old losers in their school, but they "get" each other. They try to change their fate in various ways when Meche discovers she can do magical spells with music, but things don't always go as planned. In the scenes from 1999, you find out how those interactions from the past played out in all their lives many years later.
I really enjoyed that it was a familiar era (I also went to high school in the 1980s) and some of the music from the 70s and 80s was familiar, but life in Mexico City and the pop music of Mexico from that era were not. It's a very sentimental and, ultimately, romantic book. I could see in just a few spots that this was Moreno-Garcia's first book as the prose was sometimes just adequate and nothing special. And sometimes it was hard to like Meche, who is a prickly teenager. But overall, I really enjoyed this book and teared up a bit at its beautiful ending. Recommended.
( The other books I've read so far this year: )
