Hello there dear readers. Today, I thought I'd catch you up on a few of the latest books to cozy up to my nightstand, since I know many of you might be looking for some sweet summer reads.
1. Sweetness in the Belly, Camilla Gibb
The second book I've read this month to be set in Ethiopia, SITB was a slow starter, but after hanging tough for the first 75 pages or so I finally got hooked. While the plot revolves around an orphaned Irish girl who grows up Muslim in Morocco and Ethiopia, escaping to London when civil unrest breaks out in northern Africa, I think what this book is really about is belonging. What are the metrics we choose to define ourselves, and what happens when those metrics are complicated or challenged or even overthrown? And what does it mean to call a place "home?"
2. Room, by Emma Donoghue
Absolutely incredible! I read the whole book on a flight from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, so utterly consumed that even the snoring man seated directly to my right could not stop me from racing through Donoghue's disturbing portrayal of a mother and child being held captive in a 121 square foot room. Wisely, Donoghue decided to have five-year-old Jack narrate the whole story, and his brilliant innocence allows us to probe horrific circumstances without losing hope--and even a little bit of levity (think Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, both of which I also highly recommend).
3. Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese
This is the other Ethiopia-based book I've read in July, and it was an utterly fantastic read, one of those books that just reaches its arms out and envelops you, so that when you turn the last page you're sad, so very sad, it's over. It is an epic tale of twin brothers that mixes medicine and magic to explore the power of fate and the unbreakable bonds of family. Read it! Now!
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