Hi Bookworms. I hope all is well and that if you’re in the U.S. you got your taxes done this past week, argh. It marked the second year since my mother’s passing, which still feels sad along with my dad’s a year later. I plan to visit the cemetery when I go to California this coming week.
I will also see my sister and niece who is running in her second Boston marathon this Monday! Just last year she had her first baby, so it is exciting she is back racing and that her baby daughter, husband, and her parents will all be there cheering her on. I’m pumped that she’s running. It reminds me back in 1991 when I ran the Marine Corps Marathon in D.C., so I can relate to the excitement. It’s quite an experience in those big races. I once was an avid runner in my teens through my thirties, but later in life switched to cycling, which is a bit easier on the body, lol.
Meanwhile this week we had a surprisingly big snowstorm on Wednesday night into Thursday and got like six to eight inches of snow. It was crazy. Above is a photo of our front poplar trees after it was over. The wind was blowing and there were actually snowdrifts piled up in places. But now the forecast is expected to be in the 60s F this week, so it’ll be a big melt-athon. Instead of a marathon here it’ll be a melt-athon, ha. See how the times have changed.
In book news, I’m a bit bummed to be missing the L.A. Festival of Books this weekend, which I’ve always wanted to go to. I never seem to plan my SoCal visits right. But be on the lookout this coming Wednesday as the shortlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction will be announced. The longlist of 16 books will be paired down to just 6 books. Some of the authors I’ve read whose books are on the longlist include: Charlotte McConaghy, Megha Majumdar, Katie Kitamura, Virginia Evans, Lily King, and Susan Choi (though not that title). And I still want to read Addie E. Citchens’s debut Dominion, which is on the longlist too. So we will see which books make the shortlist. Then there will be time to read more before the winner is announced on June 11. So we will see.
And now here are a couple of reviews of what I finished lately.
Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson / Ballantine / 368 pages / 2025
3.5 stars. Synopsis: This follows the daughter of a prominent African American New England family whose trauma over a violent home invasion when she was 10 years old still affects her life many years later.
Near the novel’s beginning, Ebby Freeman, an editor, is around 30 when she’s jilted at the altar by her white fiancé, who’s unsure if he can continue to contend with her inner trauma. Later, Ebby flees to a rural place in France to find solace only to run into her ex there and his new girlfriend. Yikes, talk about an unfortunate coincidence. There, her thoughts meander to issues surrounding the long ago unsolved home invasion tragedy and a prized heirloom that was broken then, which was made by an enslaved ancestor.
The narrative alternates between Ebby’s present dealing with her recent wedding heartbreak and long ago trauma … and the past about her enslaved ancestors’ lives who made the stonework jar and passed it along. The antique jar means a lot to Ebby’s family … but after the home invasion in 2000 they put it away so as not to be reminded. But now Ebby is trying to write something about those who had the jar. Soon more information comes to light in the midst of her being jilted, surrounding the jar and the home invasion. And as Ebby returns home there are some resolutions that come about within her family.
My Thoughts: I liked some of the storytelling and issues that this novel touches on … about legacy and an enslaved ancestor’s stonework passed down among generations of their family … and trying to overcome the harsh trauma of a past violent attack. There is some good soul-searching … although somehow I found the plot didn’t fully come together in its execution. It seemed at times repetitive and the pacing slow. It needed some action or a bit more of something to propel things forward. Still I think I’d like to go back and read the author’s first novel Black Cake, which was more popular and well-regarded.
107 Days by Kamala Harris / Simon & Schuster 320 pages / 2025
4+ stars. One would think this would be too painful to read and re-live … those scramble of days when President Biden dropped out of the presidential election after his disastrous debate performance, and Vice President Harris tried her best to assemble a campaign that would win the election in the 107 days left.
I thought it would be too hard for me to revisit, but instead her book was worthwhile knowing … perhaps even for my own continued attempted recovery after the election loss. And though the end election result was the opposite of what I wanted for the country, there are some takeaways from reading her book (even a few good ones) to glean from it. For one, it’s a pretty good behind-the-scenes look at what happened during the presidential campaign … the mistakes and obstacles along the way … the people and strategy … and what was going through the VP’s mind during various turns.
And though Harris is critical of the Biden circle for various reasons and also castigates her opponent, it’s not exactly a blame others kind of book. I know people will think she’s just making excuses for her loss, but it seems mainly she lays it on the line of what went down in a pretty down to earth way. It’s not all PR glossy kind of junk of what she accomplished or thought she could do. I usually hate political books for that reason. But this felt a bit more real and personal … in what she was trying to do and in looking back trying to come to grips about such a huge fateful chance and turn in history.
The structure of the book … in which it briefly counts down day by day what happened and the days left till the election works well. It even gives the narrative a bit of suspense even though our minds well know and dread what happened. If only we could change it. What a terrible blow to the country … which will likely never recover or be the same ever again.
Perhaps we can blame the election result on the nearly 90 million Americans, roughly 36 percent of the eligible voting age population, who did not vote. Which is a greater number of people than who voted for either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris. Did the non-voters think it wouldn’t affect their lives and concerns? Did they think they could just sit it out? How crazy.
Kamala writes at the end: “One hundred and seven days were not, in the end, long enough to accomplish the task of winning the presidency. But we accomplished other things, as I learn every day.” Such as inspiring young people and others.
That’s all for now. What about you — have you read these and if so, what did you think? Happy reading.
