Holly_Batsell

Elizabeth Zhang, Chinese-American overachiever, is the only Chinese person in her high school class. She suffers the usual racist micro aggressions and ignorant questions, then sets her sights on Colombian University to get out of town. She is accepted to Columbia and feels vindicated.

In her freshman year at Columbia, Elizabeth sets her eyes on Harvard Law School after graduation and then plots every step to ensure she is accepted, including a near perfect score on her LSAT.

However, her world is shattered when she is rejected, and she assumes another Asian student has taken her spot. Thus begins her slow psychological unraveling and jealous obsession with Laura.

It took me about 1/2 way through the book to realize it is a parody. Elizabeth proves an unreliable narrator as she loses grip on objectivity and becomes a caricature of a delusional Harvard wannabe. She hatches unhinged plan after plan to sabotage her competitor and get a second look from Harvard's team.

Indeed, it is a parody also of the lengths that young people go to in order to fit into a narrow category of external self worth, leading to mental illness.

What starts as Elizabeth's frustrating downward spiral turns into a story of redemption and wisdom gained through a crucible: when we let go of something and stop chasing it, it comes back to us.

For those of us who fell in love with George Saunders’ writing via Lincoln in the Bardo: a new ghostly adventure. Jill “Doll” Blaine, deceased in the 1970s, at age 22, is an angelic comforter of souls who need to cross over.

Her charge this time is K. J. Boone, a stubborn oil tycoon on his deathbed, who refuses to go.
Many souls who were negatively affected by Boone’s actions in life come to help him along. And take their pound of flesh. But the tyrant resists. “We are delicate. And exist at the whim of the moment.”

Equal parts indictment of self-serving decisions that produced our current climate crisis and forgiveness of our human nature, Vigil is a complex reckoning of inevitability balanced with redemption.

This is one of the best translations I've read. Oklap's Italian to English is nuanced and seamless. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy the story itself as much as the translation.

In the story, twenty-eight year old Cristina longs for solitude and silence. After quitting social media, she is still tired of sharing information about herself with others, even verbally, so she decides to stop talking for good. She carefully plans her silence by explaining to her best friend, making up a story about laryngitis to her boss at work, scaring off her boyfriend, and preparing her parents.

It's an interesting premise, but unfortunately, I found it mostly dull and depressing. I was never truly clear on Cristina's why. Maybe if I could relate more to that I would have connected more. Told through Christina's POV, long passages of banal narration of her actions, thoughts as she putters around her apartment, and observations of those around her create a flat narrative arc. She accomplishes her goal of displeasing others, becoming invisible and silent. To those who care about her, she seems to be self annihilating.

I would add Silent Period to a growing list of books about women who self-destruct, who transform into weaker versions of themselves. I would recommend it to those who enjoyed My Year of Rest and Relaxation and The Coin.

Margaret Finch, dubbed "Big Bird" by her fellow lab workers because of her large stature, is having a rough 54th birthday. Her schedule is off by 300 seconds, she oversees a lab with two messy colleagues, there is no cake, and her beloved leader, Dr. Deaver, is found dead in his office. Everyone else seems to think the cause of his death is a heart condition, but Margaret knows it was a poisoning. In fact, it was a poison from of a very specific plant that only a dedicated botanist would recognize. With the help of an unlikely partner, she is determined to find out who poisoned him.

This cozy who-done-it with a neurodivergent protagonist is an enjoyable read and includes some interesting facts from the plant world. Despite some abrupt transitions and unanswered questions about the deceased professor (did he really steal his research ideas?) I found this book to be well-written and paced. For fans of Lessons in Chemistry and the Findlay Donovan series

The year is approximately 2060, the place, San Francisco. Climate crisis has caused water levels in the city to rise two floors high, making only third floor and up livable.

Bo, an artist, lives on an upper floor in a high rise and has stalled in her painting. Her grief for her mother who disappeared when the flooding happened paralyzes her. Bo gives up opportunities to leave and go to higher ground with other family as she cannot bear to leave in case her mother returns.

But then she answers a call to care for Mia, a 130 year old with bad knees and fascinating life stories. As Bo cares for Mia, she transfers some of her grief and need for a mother figure into Mia, which culminates in a work of art that breaks her out of her ennui.

This is a quietly interesting look at history, trauma, and human connection in a time unfathomable but possible.

Aubrey Merritt makes detective work look easy. In fact, she's so good at her work that that she's in demand and needs to take on an assistant to help her get everything done. Enter Emily Blunt, a young news fact-checker who is tying to make her rent and prepare for a wedding to her equally poor fiancée. She thinks she has no chance at working with Aubrey Merritt, but applies anyway. Not only is she hired, but Emily manages to outlast Merritt's prior two assistants by a month when the famous detective invites her on a detecting trip to the Wild Goose resort on Lake Champlain.

The death of matriarch Victoria Summersworth casts a shadow on her stepchildren, workers in the resort, accountant, and recent romantic interest. Olivia knows that she must prove herself to the brilliant detective, but her instincts need some honing. After several botched detecting moves, Olivia finds herself in over her head.

This who-done-it is a slow burn with many characters and suspects, twists, and confounding storylines. The action is believable with only one cliched instance of a hiding character accidentally making a noise that gives them away—a pet peeve of mine. Aside from that, I enjoyed the narrative and character development of the family, but I wished for more relationship building between Olivia and Merritt. Aubrey Merritt is a tough nut and while she does have a soft spot for her protege, she is a critical parent figure to Olivia where she could be more of a mentor.

Still, there is some redemption at the end of the book that is worth the wait and the possibility of another book with the pair continuing to strengthen their working relationship. I would read a sequel to follow their adventures.

How do others help us heal ourselves? The four strangers who meet weekly at seven o'clock have each suffered a loss they cannot heal on their own. Genevieve, their capable group facilitator, tries a new approach with them. Through rotating points of view, each member tells pieces of their stories as well as takes turns narrating their group sessions. The narration is heavy on the telling, lighter on the showing.

This storyline was a slow burn for me. I found the first 3/5ths a little uneventful. But reader patience pays off with the reveal of Genevieve's special strategy. The twist—that I did not see coming!—redeems the slow first half of the book and gives the last chapters new energy.