“All these matters absorbed his mind, drawing the world inside, into the large, chaotic space that each of us carries within like an invisible piece of luggage that we drag after us all our lives, without knowing why. Our true self.”

by Olga Tokarczuk

What did I just read? The subtitle is “A Health Resort Horror Story”. There is some horror here and there (particularly at the end) but it’s a slow build. I don’t think I fully understand what happened.

I picked this up because I loved DRIVE YOUR PLOW so much, but perhaps I loved that one mainly for the protagonist. I was sympathetic with the protagonist here as well, which kept me slogging through, even when it felt too much like THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN, which was also about a sanitarium of the same era, with similar grotesque descriptions of the clientele. MAGIC MOUNTAIN I abandoned – it was too unpleasant, slow, and thick. This one at least is a pretty quick read.

by Olga Tokarczuk

Was hooked on this book right away and was totally enthralled. Fantastic narrator. Five stars and five thumbs up.

Many quotable quotables, but here’s one to share. “We have this body of ours, a troublesome piece of luggage, we don’t really know anything about it and we need all sorts of Tools to find out about its most natural processes. Isn’t it scandalous that last time a doctor wanted to check what was happening in my stomach he made me have a gastroscopy? I had to swallow a thick tube, and it took a camera to reveal the inside of my stomach to us. The only course and primitive Tool gifted us for consolation is pain. The angels, if they really do exist, must be splitting their sides laughing at us. Fancy being given a body and not knowing anything about it. There’s no instruction manual.”

by Scott O’Dell

A “juvenile fiction” novel and famous Newbery Award winner. The heroine is the last of her tribe left on a remote California channel island. She lives alone from age 12 for 18 years before a ship finally comes to take her to civilization. I was prepped for a tale of survival, stoicism, and can-do-ism with a young female protagonist. But it was a heartbreaker. So much loss. I cried when her dog died. Beautiful illustrations by Ted Lewin.

by Haruki Murakami

Just no.

by Charles Portis

I LOVED this! I never tired of hearing Mattie Ross tell her story.

by Barbara Pym

Takes place in 1970s England and features four 60-something office workers on the verge of retirement.

My main takeaway is how much aging has changed since the 1970s. These people are presumably in their 60s, and they seem OLD. They act and think like my mother-in-law, who is 85.

For much the book I honestly struggled to keep track of who was who, because the two men spoke so much in the same voice, as did the two women.

I felt very glad that things ended on a hopeful note for at least two of the characters. Go out and LIVE, people!

by Sayaka Murata

One more data point proving I really don’t like Japanese fiction. A promising conceit: a look into the mind of a neurodivergent woman who only feels comfortable at her convenience store job, where she understands all the rules. Things take a bizarre turn.

by Jan Dutkiewicz & Gabriel Rosenberg

https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/feed-the-people-review-in-praise-of-the-supermarket-be2d9d10

A food book with a twist, geared towards improvements to the food system that can scale and actually make a difference. There’s a guilt-inducing chapter about going vegan. There’s a chapter about school lunches and SNAP programs. There’s a chapter about unionizing food workers that I mostly skipped through. There’s a chapter about ditching the demonization of “ultraprocessed” food. The vegan half of the two-writer team really wants us to embrace meat substitutes, which of course are “ultraprocessed.” I’m just not sold on that.