Touch

Touch by Courtney Maum is a timely and modern novel addressing life in our high tech, digital era where we often touch our iphones more than we touch each other. Sloane is a trend forecaster and anti-breeder. When hired by a huge tech company, she begins to sense that old-fashioned values and physical intimacy might be making a come back, along with the flip phones and postage stamps.

I found this book at turns hilarious and terrifying, thinking of the implications of where we might be going and what is being lost. An intelligent and witty book, well worth reading.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

The Lone Ranger and Tonto fistfight in Heaven is Sherman Alexie's first collection  of stories, some written when he was only 19. The movie Smoke Signals, which I loved, is based on this collection of stories. Here, Alexie gives us a rather bleak depiction of reservation life near Spokane Washington for modern day Indians. Almost every story features very drunk Indians, often getting in fights. But there is so much more here. His writing is beautiful, poetic, sparse, lyrical, funny. There is hope in these pages and they hint at something deeper; family, tradition, storytelling, love and joy.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian remains my favorite book by Alexie, but this collection is worth a read as well.

Hum if You Don't Know the Words

Hum if You Don't Know the Words is the excellent debut novel by South African writer Bianca Marais. Set in the 70's in Johannesburg, it tells the story of a privileged young white girl and Xhosa woman, who under normal circumstances would never have met, but end up changing each others lives forever.

Told from alternating perspectives, it is a brilliant portrait of racism set in apartheid-era South Africa, yet sadly still relevant today. A great read.

I'll Be Your Blue Sky

I'll Be Your Blue Sky is the new novel by Marisa De Los Santos. Although this isn't my favorite of hers, I love all her books. Twenty-something Clare is engaged to the seemingly perfect man, but has cold feet on her wedding day, when she meets Edith, an older woman, who with her gentle wisdom shows Clare she doesn't have to go through with the wedding if it doesn't feel right. Three weeks later, Edith is dead and has left Clare her house.

What unfolds from there is a mystery with many layers that doesn't fully reveal itself until the end of the novel. Although some parts were predictable, it was filled with De Los Santos' usual, charm wit and intelligence. A lovely read.

A Man Called Ove

A Man Called Ove is the debut novel by Fredrik Backman. I decided to go back and read this after reading My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry. Although not as good as his later novels, I still found this to be a worthwhile read. Ove is a very grumpy older man whose wife has just died, and with nothing left to live for he's decided to take his own life. However, things like nosy neighbors keep getting in his way.

It took me a while to warm up to Ove, but in the end it was impossible not to laugh and cry with him. A great character and a great book.

the Immortalists

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin is a novel about four siblings in NYC who go to a fortune teller her when they are all very young and she tells them each the day of their death. What enfolds is each one's life story and the creepy end predicted by the fortune teller. Is it fate? Self fulfilling prophecy?

This story was so far fetched I had a hard time finishing the book, I found it ridiculous, depressing and pointless. A great disappointment as Benjamin is clearly a good writer and there was potential here for a great book, however, this is one to skip.