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Annie in the Pages

@annieinthepages

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Leader of the Lunch Book Cult
Book recommendations are my love language
Mood reader, mostly literary fiction, but truly, a little bit of everything

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MISTRANSLATION by Madeleine Moss

Told in present day (2001, upstate New York) and snippet’s from Violet’s auto fiction “work in progress” (early 1980s France), Mistranslation is the story of Violet and her twin daughters, Camilla and Sabina, born when Violet was 19. As someone without a sister, I sometimes feel alienated by sister stories, but the family dynamics of this triad was the glue for this entire book. It’s been a long time since I’ve been as intrigued by a character as I was by Sabina S.

Moss tells this story from reserved but compelling distance. As middle schoolers, we see Camilla and Sabina meet Khalil, who moves to their neighborhood from France, and Sabina is immediately intrigued by him and his Arab French family. As they grow into teens, the trio evolve into a shifting triangle where connections never seem quite right between charismatic and idealistic Khalil, popular and bubbly Camilla, and quiet and introspective Sabina.

The book slowed some for me after high school graduation and the trio disbursed from their smaller town into the world, but I was still invested, especially in Sabina and her drive to discover the identity of her and Camilla’s father, which leads her to work as an au pair in France. Like my intrigue with Sabina’s story line, the ending of Mistranslation was quite fitting - simultaneously definitive and ambiguous.

Mistranslation leaves a lot on the table, but in a way that still delivers satisfaction. I’m still wondering about these characters and where their lives went next after the novel ended. Highly recommend for anyone who enjoys quiet novels about sibling dynamics, the push and pull of a group of three people, and very realistic characters. Huge thanks to @madeleinemosswrites and @uiowapress for the gifted copy - I enjoyed reading this one alongside @barbbookedup! by @annieinthepages

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16 hours ago

I was visiting my family in my childhood home this past weekend and just could not stop looking at these paperbacks from my parents’ shelves. They’ve been there for as long as I can remember, but I’ve recently spent a lot of time reflecting in my gratitude for my parents (a writer/teacher and librarian by trades) for surrounding me with books and value for intellectual and human pursuits. Some of my favorite childhood memories are being in libraries with my mom and bookstores with my dad - I am certain the Faulkner book was nabbed at a long gone used bookstore a couple miles from our house that I used to frequent with my dad.

What book memories do you have from your childhood? Also, this cover of The Trial is far better than my more recently published copy. No notes. by @annieinthepages

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2 days ago

ALL MY RAGE by Sabaa Tahir

All My Rage has been on my TBR for a couple of years, thanks to Bookstagram. I historically do not like YA - I find most of what I have read to be narrow and predictable and I’m just not in the market for reading to this audience. However, this one was just too tempting to pass on.

Like its genre calls for, All My Rage covers all of the themes usually found in young adult novels - identity, young love, rebellion, mental health. The music references are constant. However, because of Noor’s forced maturity and circumstances, I wasn’t sure what direction her story would go and how the cast of characters would intersect. It took a bit, maybe the first third, but once I was invested, I did not want to put this story down.

I did get a liiiittle tired of the music references, but I loved Noor and her conflicted feelings of gratefulness to have been rescued from the earthquake that killed her family juxtaposed with feeling trapped by her unwell uncle and his foreclosure on the idea that Noor will run his liquor store. I appreciated all of her relationships and the depiction of just how complicated a seemingly “easy” decision can be.

Have you read All My Rage? If not, I highly recommend it - the storytelling is great and Noor is a character you want to root for from the first page.

What’s the last book you read and enjoyed from a genre you usually pass on? by @annieinthepages

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4 days ago

My current three reads vs these nine books that I also want to be reading all at once, even while enjoying my current reads. A great problem to have, but also, what’s a girl to do?! How do you pick your next book? by @annieinthepages

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6 days ago

LINCOLN IN THE BARDO by George Saunders

Way back when I was a baby undergrad, in a Comedy and Satire class, I was introduced to George Saunders via Pastoralia and Civilwarland in Bad Decline. I liked the stories but as a nineteen year old, I think most of the humor and nuance went over my head. I read Vigil earlier this year and had fun with it but also still felt like maybe I was missing something. I really wanted to get to Lincoln though.

I started this book with my physical copy but ended up switching to audio because I was having a hard time balancing two physical books at once. I’m not sure which variable played the larger part but after a slower start, around the 30% mark or so, I really settled into this story and grew to love it. I do think I missed some nuance by going with audio but the audio was such a performance - huge cast of characters and actors narrating them, I was truly excited to get listening time in.

I can see how this book is divisive - I don’t know if I would have settled into the story the same way I did had I not switched to audio, but regardless, I enjoyed this odd, spectacularly creative meditation on life, love, and grief, and ultimately, the realization that to live is to experience pain and our pain is not unique.

After having been fascinated by the grain of truth that inspired O’Farrell’s Hamnet, I was interested to read that Saunders was inspired by the report that Lincoln would return to the crypt to hold his son’s body and that nugget of real information inspired this whole book. Fascinating!

Have you read Lincoln in the Bardo? Are you fascinated by the origin stories of novels?

Some favorite quotes:

“All gifts are temporary.”

“All were in sorrow, or had been, or will be.” by @annieinthepages

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11 days ago

I tell you what, I have about 20 books I want to be reading right now, but just in case someone is out there wondering what to read this fall while they’re still 87th on the John for John library hold list, here are some backlist favorites that I feel like fit with the season!

Do any of these feel like fall books to you? What would you add? by @annieinthepages

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12 days ago

PLY by Hernan Diaz

I was so confident in the first few chapters of my e-ARC that I pre-ordered Ply - we meet our unnamed narrator in present day, where she is a pincher, someone who steals power from what is left of the outrageously expensive power grid, several hundred years from today. There is promise of immense story, questions, and character.

But then little of that ended up developing for me. We get some of the pincher’s background which helps with understanding the pincher, but ultimately, the mundanity of her first person point of view left me feeling disconnected from the story. Could this have been intentional? Absolutely, yes, but it left me feeling detached. We meet Pola in the back half of the book, which led me to more existential questions and another perspective of this imagining of future life, but ultimately, I’m not sure it was enough for me. I still felt like I’d skated across the surface of the story.

I do think this book has its readers - anyone who enjoys future dystopian, as long as they are content without many details, should consider Ply, plus readers who enjoy the intersection of theoretical science and every day life, or maybe the continuum between these two things. These aspects, along with the grappling of power and control in the new society kept me reading.

Is Ply on your radar? Are you a Diaz fan? I loved Trust and plan to read In the Distance at some point. by @annieinthepages

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14 days ago

Did September both feel like the shortest and longest month of the year for anyone else? While I thought August would be light, it ended up being September. Family is busy, work is busy, reading gets a back seat and that’s okay.

I only physically read two full books this month - How to Read a Book and Fellowship Point. I started my e-ARC of Ply last month and finished early in September. I started Lincoln in the Brando in physical form but switched to audio (a great move for me - review coming later!). Wellness was 40% finished 2.5 years ago but I finally got back to it in September. Strangers was audio.

Not my best month, but definitely not the worst! Fellowship Point, Wellness, and Lincoln in the Bardo were my highlights. Reviews for Lincoln and Ply coming soon.

What was your favorite read of September? by @annieinthepages

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16 days ago

The perfect end of summer book doesn’t exi-

Oh yes it does! FELLOWSHIP POINT by Alice Elliott Dark is an example of the right book at the right time, but I enjoyed this one immensely. Agnes and Polly are octogenarian Philadelphians and current owners of two of the houses on Fellowship Point, Maine, having spent significant parts of their lives together as close friends and confidants on the cape their entire lives. Now, as they face the reality of what will happen to their beloved Fellowship Point when their time is over, they must decide how to protect the land from development.

Agnes and Polly are two totally different women. Agnes, never married and no children, but with a successful career as a children’s author, to Polly’s life long marriage to Dick and with four children and a life dedicated to serving them, Agnes has been living with a secret bigger than the fact she has a pen name and an adult series of books. Enter Maud, a young editor who grew up on Agnes’ children’s books and is desperate to get her to write a memoir about the origin of her writings.

This book has two things that I usually struggle with - it’s a multi-decade story and a degree of it is about writing/writers, but there’s was restraint with both of these aspects that kept the book balanced and me reading along. It also has something I’m always wishing I could find more of - platonic love. Agnes and Polly for life! This book is funny, tender, and a bit heavy, a combination that worked well for me. This book felt seasonal - both on the page and metaphorically across a life. I always looked forward to picking it back up and enjoyed the extended cast of characters and Maine setting so very much.

If you loved The Correspondent, I’d highly recommend Fellowship Point. While not an epistolary novel, Fellowship Point has a few journal entries and letters, but mostly it has the clarity and insight of a strong woman who has lived her life for herself and full of love, despite what others may see on the surface. (Continued in comments) by @annieinthepages

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18 days ago

This year, Lunch Book Club’s theme for October’s read is Latin & Hispanic Heritage month. I wanted multiple countries, stories I thought would spark conversation and be enjoyable, and that aren’t too long - we are still in a hyper busy time at work! I also like to limit choices so people aren’t in decision overload, so I usually keep the voting to 8-10 books max.

Here are the books we voted for. Each voter gets to vote for three books - which three are getting your vote?!

Are you reading anything to celebrate this month? by @annieinthepages

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19 days ago

HOW TO READ A BOOK by Monica Wood

For every September, Lunch Book Club votes on members’ submissions for a favorite book they read over the summer. On Monday, we met and discussed Monica Wood’s How to Read a Book.

Violet is in her early twenties and fresh out of prison, serving a sentence for vehicular manslaughter and leaving the scene of a crime. Harriet is bracing for her niece, who is more like a third daughter, to leave town and be an empty nester. Frank is starting a new life as a retiree and widow, his wife having been killed in a car accident. Their lives intersect and braid together for this novel.

This is a book in the family with Remarkably Bright Creatures and Lessons in Chemistry - heavy subjects, heartwarming approach. I don’t like these books because I know exactly how I am meant to feel. They feel manipulative in a way - with each move of a character, I know exactly how the author wants me to feel. But at the identical time, I like them for this reason too. Books like this require the exact right reading time for me - in between heavier books and when I need a story I can let lead me to it’s own conclusions instead of the other way around.

This was a great book for discussion - overall, people enjoyed this read, though most people agreed we did not need Dr Petrov’s storyline, which felt overly clichéd. There are a lot of things to discuss - agency, regret, grief, the American justice system. Ironically, books played very little of a role in this one, though they are present.

Have you read How to Read a Book? I’d love to hear your thoughts! by @annieinthepages

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21 days ago

Happy Autumn! There’s no way I’ll read all these books from my shelves, not when I’ve got library books to pick up! But hey, a girl can dream. What are you reading this fall? What do I absolutely need to get to in the next three months? by @annieinthepages

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24 days ago