Contemporary Fiction

Told in a simplistic and understated tone, What You Are Looking For Is in the Library is a collection of short stories that focus on self-reflection, perceived happiness, and purpose. Consisting of five largely self-contained stories that average around 60-70 pages each, each story focuses on characters of a variety of ages and backgrounds whose only commonality are feeling unfulfilled with their current life. There’s a young retail worker fresh out of university, an office worker with a dream to open an antique shop, a young mother torn between her editorial work and her child, a NEET unable to find where he belongs, and a recent retiree left without a purpose. Each story follows the focal character through their usually monotonous days, finding the local library, and receiving an unusual book recommendation from the librarian Ms. Komachi. Through this seemingly random book recommendation and a few open-ended questions from Ms. Komachi, each character goes on a quiet journey of self-discovery as they seek what they’re subconsciously looking for; happiness and fulfillment. “For fans of The Midnight Library and Before the Coffee gets cold”, I curiously picked this up as I loved The Midnight Library and largely disliked Before the Coffee…

With only a few days left before the end of the year, I can confidently say I found my top book of 2023. I don’t even know where to start with this one, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a love letter novel to every gamer out there who once had a dream about creating their own game but that’s only half of the novel’s contents. The other half is a perfectly pitched, nuanced story of two 10 yr old kids (eventually three friends) who meet playing Super Mario and the way their friendship, work partnership, and lives intertwine up to their late 30’s. Admittedly I generally have a hard time reading novels that span a wide range of a character’s life mainly due to the difficulty of writing and portraying the maturity and emotions. However, Gabrielle Zevin has made me a believer by the sheer consistency and quality throughout this 400 page story. Starting with the two main leads Sam Masur and Sadie Green, both are incredibly well-developed characters who both compliment and clash with each other a variety of different areas. Character backstories are well-developed and incredibly varied heavily addressing the identify crisis that often comes with being…

Remarkably Bright Creatures is a rather remarkable novel that was unfortunately not for me, my rating does not represent the quality of this book. Very similar in concept Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen which I had recently read last month, Remarkably Bright Creatures is a shifting perspective narrative focusing on several characters whose only connection at first is living/arriving in Sowell Bay. A quiet, small town nestled on the Puget sound, the most notable attraction in the area is the Sowell Bay Aquarium. Tova Sullivan is a 70-something year old senior who works part time at the aquarium in the evenings as a cleaning lady busying herself with moping floors, wiping fingerprints off aquarium glass, and keeping herself busy. She has a group of fellow senior ladies affectionately called the “knit-wits” (I found this hilarious) she often has lunch with, her evening job making sure the aquarium is clean and orderly, and frankly not much else. After losing her husband to cancer a few years ago and her only son Erik when he was 18 (a mysterious disappearance and suspected drowning in the bay), her life has little meaning or direction apart from an unexpected friendship with Mercellus, a senior giant…

If a book is billed as a romance novel but the romance isn’t the most memorable part of the novel, either the romance sucks or the story is so well developed that it punches much higher than typical for its genre. For me Beach Read falls into the latter category with such strong characterization and plot development that the romance sits comfortably in the backseat for most of the ride. There’s certainly a lot of romantic beats and some spicy scenes, but I found myself far more engrossed with both characters’ narratives and how they play off and almost heal from their broken pasts together. The plot is genius pairing off two authors with polar opposite styles and reversing them both in their professional work and in their personal lives. While there’s plenty of hilarious hijinks, Emily Henry’s sarcastic and snappy character banter elevates the material while still keeping the dialogue smart and witty (which I’m learning is the norm after also reading Book Lovers last month). I also thought the leads are both well-developed with elaborate backstories and upbringing and have great chemistry. I often find romance leads to either be too emotionally volatile and dramatic or stereotypically too…

This is one of my first forays into the magical realism genre compared to my past reads that are solidly fantasy adventure or straight fiction which is a group of character leading seemingly unrelated lives and stories whose only surface level connection is their shared residence at the Dellawisp Manor/condo. New to the island and fresh out of high school Zoey moves into her late mom’s condo and spends the whole novel discovering parts of herself and finding her place in life through learning about her other neighbors on Mallow Island. The magical realism contributes the presence of certain characters as ghosts who have their memories and stories in-tact but really only exist to connect with those who are actually alive. The story jumps between different characters perspectives in the present tense as well as slowly introducing their backstories which surprise, isn’t as unrelated as things appear. I found the characters backstories and arcs to be quite varied but there’s common themes of broken or flawed familial life, rough upbringings, and a sense of abandonment. The story focuses on the concept of found family and although there are dark elements of child abuse and substance abuse, Other Birds still feels…