Crazy Rich Asians
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan details the exploits of a not just rich or filthy rich, but crazy rich* Chinese family when the a member of the family’s girlfriend, Rachel Chu, a smart Chinese-American girl from Cupertino, comes to meet the family in Singapore. I actively avoided reading this when it came out, expecting …
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
Robin Sloan’s Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore is a nerdy dude’s ode to everything nerdy dudes love: technology, coding, tabletop RPGs, startup culture, smart people, boobs (not a typo), books, typefaces, and everything else in that vein, including the dorky guys that get the beautiful girls. It’s set in San Francisco, in an old-school bookstore with …
The Sense of an Ending
Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending opens with a list of memories and an almost ominous warning, “But what you end up remembering isn’t always the same as what you have witnessed.” It is a deceptively simple book — in that it’s not simple at all and to get it, you have to think …
The Imperfectionists
If you didn’t already, take a look at the subtitle. I did not like this book and was, in fact, offended by it. Tom Rachman’s The Imperfectionists takes us into the inner workings and private lives of a cadre of professionals at an English-language newspaper based in Rome. The novel is told in a series …
Love and Houses
I recently re-read this book, which I picked up randomly from the shelves of the public library almost 15 years ago. I think I probably thought the cover was cute. But I remembered it and bought it a while back off Amazon since I’d really enjoyed it the first time around. It’s hard to explain …