Yesteryear

Hi. Happy Memorial Day weekend … for those in the States. Are you at the beach or a lake? How are you celebrating? We had Canadian long weekend last weekend, which essentially means we are safe now from frost and can plant the garden, yay. The temps went from 30s to 80s in a week’s time (quite a whiplash), and I have been doing much lawn mowing, weeding, and planting. I’m trying to get this place into shape after a lengthy winter.

Also this week I might get in a bit of tennis, golf, and a bike ride … if my new knee permits. Such is retired life when the weather warms up. Above is a photo taken on my way to the golf course, which is about 20 minutes away. Among other things, I need to practice getting my ball out of sand traps, which looks easy on TV but never seems to be in reality, lol. 

In book news, I see that Taiwan Travelogue written by Taiwanese author Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and translated by Lin King won the 2026 International Booker Prize this past week. Apparently it is the first work translated from Mandarin Chinese to win the award, which celebrates translated works of fiction into English that are published in the UK and Ireland. Set in 1930s Japanese-occupied Taiwan, Taiwan Travelogue is said to follow “the relationship between a well-meaning Japanese novelist touring Taiwan and her secretive Taiwanese interpreter that navigates issues of power, identity, colonialism, and desire through a culinary tour.” It sounds good and I’ve put my name on the library wait list for it.

Among the award’s other short-listed nominees, I tried Daniel Kehlmann’s novel The Director but didn’t get too far before becoming distracted and putting it aside. It sounds like a good premise though and I might return to it … about a filmmaker who in the 1930s returns to Europe from Hollywood and finds himself forced into directing propaganda films under the Nazi regime. Have you read this one or any of the other short-listed nominees? I hope to check out Taiwan Travelogue sometime later this year. 

And now I’ll leave you with a review of what I finished lately.

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke / Knopf / 400 pages / 2026

4.3 stars. This novel only came out in April but has sprung up everywhere since. It’s safe to say it’s taken off like gang-busters and seems to be the most popular novel this spring … which will likely continue into summer. The author has been fielding many interviews and appeared on Seth Meyers’ Late Show on May 7 where the host said as of then the book had 742 holds at the N.Y. Public Library with a wait time of 10,402 days, Whoa!

I feel lucky to have gotten a copy of both the audiobook and ebook from the L.A. Public Library. I think I put in my hold for them in early April and got them by May. Tina at Turn the Page was kind enough to do a read-along with me of this topical read. 

Make no mistake: Yesteryear is a doozy … provocative and scathing in a darkly satirical way. It’s something like a train wreck that I had trouble turning away from. At the heart of it is Natalie, in her early 30s, with five kids and a sixth on the way with her handsome husband Caleb. She’s a tradwife “influencer” on social media espousing her rustic large family life on a farm near the mountains in Idaho. At one point she reaches millions of followers with her posts … about the joys of baking bread and raising kids the wholesome Christian way. Online Natalie is a wonder (and a success in making money from Instagram), but offline Natalie has secret help from two live-in nannies raising the kids and a producer named Shannon who gets the best shots to post of the images Natalie’s trying to project. But Natalie’s followers don’t need to know that about the help. 

This is the last day of the life I imagined for myself, Natalie says at the beginning. 

Then one day Natalie wakes up and it’s 1855 … and her family and husband don’t seem the same. They’re different and her farmhouse has changed too. What’s going on?  Is this some time travel event or Natalie’s new reality? One thing is for certain … real pioneer life in 1855 is way more than what Natalie bargained for. It’s not some acting performance for Instagram in today’s world. Natalie soon finds being a pioneer woman is very hard, boring, and at times scary for a woman too, and she’s unsure of the people around her. And “For what it’s worth: I do not recommend giving birth in the pioneer days,” Natalie says. Oh my, is this the life she’s been touting on Insta?

The reader is left toggling between two timelines: the present with Natalie and her family’s farm life on Instagram and how she came to live that idyllic life after her student days at Harvard and her early wedding … and the other time in 1855 with her doing chores and submitting to how pioneer life is like back then. The perspective in both is from Natalie and she is one unlikable protagonist! Be forewarned to spend time with her. She’s portrays herself as a good Christian woman but she’s all about herself and her morals are mean and skewed. She’s not nice to her kids, her husband (“a nice dumb rich guy”), her sister, parents, in-laws, or those who work for her. She’s a piece of work, and is so negative and over-the-top she’s also a bit funny in a darkly comical, cynical way. I found myself laughing at times about her thoughts and dialogue. 

Of course I can’t say too much more … because the story takes some turns especially at the end. I liked the whole topsy-turvy-ness of it, but it won’t be for everyone since the characters are quite unlikable and the plot includes one negative bombshell after another … but man I admired how the novel’s put together and the issues it raises about today’s online culture, consumerism, and fundamentalism. It’s sort of a page-turner which I had to see through. Now done, I can try to put Natalie, her biting voice, and her family behind me and take a breather, but it might be a bit hard to forget her anytime soon.

That’s all for now. What about you have you read Yesteryear — and if so, what did you think? Next post I’ll be looking at June releases and hopefully post my summer reading list.