The Books of Jacob By Olga Tokarczuk

 

The Books of Jacob

By Olga Tokarczuk

 4 stars.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

Image
  Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg If you're sensitive about racist language in books, this one is not for you. Taking place in Alabama through various points in time from the Depression era into the mid-1980s, Fried Green Tomatoes is rife with the 'n' word. That aside, I enjoyed the book very much. The story follows two story lines that are connected by Mrs. Virginia "Ninny" Threadgoode who, as a young woman, lived in Whistle Stop, Alabama, but comes to reside in a nursing home in Birmingham as an older woman where she meets Evelyn Couch, a sad middle-aged woman who is intent on eating herself into the grave. Evelyn is going through menopause and is dissatisfied with her life, questioning all of her choices and what kind of a person she is and wants to be. She fantasizes about being tougher, more confident. During Evelyn's visits to the Rose Terrace Nursing Home where her husband's mother lives, she encounters Mrs. Threadgood...
Read more

Infinite Country by Patricia Engel

Image
  Infinite Country by Patricia Engel Fifteen-year-old Talia escapes from the prison school she's confined to after having harmed a man who committed a horrible act in Bogotá, Colombia. She fleas to go back home to her father, Mauro, who intends to get her on a plane back to the United States where she was born to reunite with her undocumented mother (Elena), sister (Karina), and US-born brother (Nando). Along her journey she is helped by two men, one who hopes to get something from her and one who just wants to see her safely to her destination. Alongside this storyline is a retelling of how Mauro and Elena met, started a family, moved to the US, overstayed their visas, and how Mauro got arrested and deported after a fight. Talia was sent to live with him. Those left behind in the states lived in various cities, always wary of detection with the threat of separation and deportation for Elena and Karina. Elena longs for Bogotá, where things were familiar, she understood the language...
Read more

In the Woods by Tana French

Image
 In the Woods by Tana French In the Woods is a solid crime procedural novel about a Detective on the murder squad investigating a case of a murdered little girl and the personal stake he has in solving the crime. The characters are incredibly well fleshed out, with likeable personalities, even when they are being awful to one another. I was totally invested in the main mystery and liked how the investigation unfolded. I have to say, I knew who the killer was the second they hit the page, but I didn't know why they had done it. It was satisfying to learn the answers; the underhanded and manipulating psychopath involved was a delicious addition and really pushed the characters to their limits, which I liked. One thing I have to knock points off for for In the Woods is that the Detective Ryan past plot line wasn't resolved in a satisfying way for me. I would like to have seen some real answers to that case of his two missing friends. I was invested in his backstory and was disap...
Read more