Maybe a month ago, I was walking and wondering what the specific low of this very difficult year was. I’ve adjusted to wearing masks in grocery stores and not being able to visit friends’ homes. While I suffered the usual loneliness of this pandemic, no one I know died of COVID or even fell ill. And in some (privileged) ways, the pandemic allowed me to focus on the things that matter to me. I had always wanted to have dinner as a family every night, which was easy to do working from home with no social obligations. Spending five months without enough daycare was lucky in a way: Bryon and I were able to watch ZZ come into his own. The strain of working full time without full-time care came down equally on us, which unfortunately wasn’t the case for many working moms. The good news of 2020 was that I picked the right friend for the end of the world. Somehow this year, my family and I found quite a bit of joy. The high was realizing I had what Albert Camus would call “an invincible summer” within me.
Then I recalled that on August 5, our dog Rex attacked ZZ. ZZ was ultimately fine, but he got his first scar, a not small mark under his hairline, and we had to rehome Rex. Our fallen puppy angel ended up with the custodian of an Episcopal church who had lost his dog a week before. I met this man through the woman who had been giving Rex Milk-Bones in Cheesman Park since 2014. I had forgotten about this minor tragedy. Instead of learning how to bake, during COVID, I learned how to compartmentalize.
Anyway, I didn't do much masked reading, but I still did quite a bit of reading, a lot about South Korea and adoption, as I’m trying to write a novel about those topics.
Here’s my list.
KEY:
®: Raronauer recommend
L: Listened
Olive, Again, Elizabeth Strout®
I so enjoyed spending more time with Olive Kitteridge that I briefly fantasized about moving to Maine.
Exhalation, Ted Chiang®, L
Is this sci-fi or absurdist existentialism? Either way, Ted Chiang is one of the most lucid and interesting writers out there.
The Primal Wound, Nancy Verrier
The Dutch House, Ann Patchett®
This book was one of my most pleasurable reading experiences of 2020. I fear we don’t talk about pleasure enough with reading, but this book, which I read in before times, was such a lovely escape.
Life with Picasso, Françoise Gilot
Deep Work, Cal Newport®, L
What can I say? I love self-help and hate distraction.
Silk, Alessandro Baricco (DNF)
This is the only book I’ve read that Ann Goldstein translated that I didn’t love, or even finish.
Snow, Orhan Pamuk (DNF)
I got close to finishing this book, but never really enjoyed it. I feel a certain pride in quitting it. Life’s too short for brunch and bad books.
Topics of Conversation, Miranda Popkey
Perfect Tunes, Emily Gould
Kim JiYoung, Born 1982, Cho Nam-joo®
Anyone who is interested in the psychological effects of structural misogyny (everyone?) could get something out of this book.
Minor Feelings, Cathy Park Hong
Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng
The Odyssey, Homer (Emily Wilson translation)®
Trail of Crumbs, Kim Sunee
The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander
Korea: The Impossible Country, Daniel Tudor
Rodham, Curtis Sittenfeld®
This is pure escapism, in the best possible way.
Pizza Girl, Jean Kyoung Frazier (DNF)
Negroland: A Memoir, Margo Jefferson
Johnson V. Johnson, Barbara Goldsmith (DNF)
The Lying Life of Adults, Elena Ferrante®
The Neapolitan quartet is a tough sale, and honestly, I found the first 100 pages hard to get through. But The Lying Life of Adults, along with Days of Abandonment, is a good gateway Ferrante book.
Korean Art from 1953: Collision, Innovation, Interaction, Yeon Shim Chung, Sunjung Kim, Kimberly Chung, Keith B. Wagner
The Ongoingness: The End of a Diary, Sarah Manguso
JewAsian: Race, Religion, and Identity for America's Newest Jews, Helen Kiyong Kim and Noah Samuel Leavitt
Eat a Peach, David Chang
A Heart So White, Javier Marias®
Words of Farewell: Stories by Korean Women Writers
A Girl Returned, Donatella Di Pietrantonio
Another Ann Goldstein translated gem, filled with surprising yet inevitable twists.
The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories, Jay Rubin (editor)
Previously read: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006