What I Didin’t Like About Amazon’s Best Books of the Year So Far
Amazon has listed twenty books on its “best of the year” list to date. Of these, I have read seven and, of those seven, I would recommend two: David Grann’s The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder and Abraham Verghese’s The Covenant of Water. You don’t need to know my thoughts, just try them. Here’s why you should avoid the remaining five.
Hello Beautiful by Anne Napolitano was an Oprah’s Book Club selection and sits at #1 on the Amazon chart. Are you kidding me? Maybe it’s because I don’t have sisters or maybe it’s because I don’t like basketball, but this tale of the four Padavano girls and injured athlete/quiet guy with baggage, William, left me cold. Why, Oprah, why? I enjoyed Napolitano’s Dear Edward but found this book plodding and repetitive. It is also incredibly depressing, even though it does paint a good picture of someone suffering from depression (ironic?). I went from page 100 to page 200 and the characters were still discussing and mulling over the same issues. Gaaah! I did not find the ending satisfying.
Speaking of depressing, Age of Vice: A Novel by Deepti Kapoor fills the bill. If you ever wanted to visit India this book will cure you of that fancy. The story reads as kind of an Indian “The Godfather,” but without the charm. It is told from multiple points of view so you can see just how unhappy and messed up everyone really is. The violence and misfortune are unrelenting. Even better news, this book is the first novel in a planned to be a trilogy so in case you have any glimmer of hope for these characters after book one, rest assured it will be snuffed out in the remaining two installments.
Emily Henry’s Happy Place is anything but happy, IMO. The story follows three couples, most of whom have been friends since college, reuniting at a family vacation spot in Maine. Only the real world has crept in. Lawyer/heiress Sabrina and her fiancé, Parth are rushing to a wedding at the Maine house before her family sells it. Cleo and Kimmy are exhausted from running their organic farm in upstate New York. Harriet and Wynn have broken up months before but haven’t told anyone for various flimsy reasons. The friends clash, truths are told, Harriet and Wyn steam things up, and lobster is eaten. It’s not all bad, though. One thing Henry does well is painting the portrait of twenty-somethings letting go of their college lives and embarking on adulthood. I just don’t think this is one of the best books of the year. Ever.
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang raises questions of race identity while giving a glimpse inside the competitive world of publishing. College buddies June Hayward and Athena Liu are both published authors but only Athena is a literary superstar. June struggles with her career, writing college essays on the side. I wish I could have hired her last year when my son was applying. Alone together one night, Athena dies in a freak accident at her apartment. While waiting for the EMTs, June impulsively steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers to the British and French war efforts during World War I. June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work. A new publisher rebrands June as Juniper Song–complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo. June/Juniper is now famous as the last, best friend of a famous dead author and an author in her own right, until the ghost of Athena threatens to bring the entire charade to a halt. I enjoyed the setting as the action takes place in the DC area, and there is a pivotal scene at Georgetown’s famous “Exorcist” stairs, which were close to my high school. Just for the record, I never personally witnessed anything strange happening there. However the cat-and-mouse game of mysterious people trying to discredit June and her retaliations – yes, that’s plural – get exhausting and there is no resolution.
Aaah, Curtis Sittenfeld. With the completion of your latest book, Romantic Comedy, I have read all three of your novels and disliked them all. You will not draw me in again with the lure of an interesting plot. I know I will dislike your prose, the crude characters, and your life outlook. Reader Beware: this is neither romantic nor a comedy. All I can say is, if you are under 35 and like Curtis Sittenfeld, you may like this book.
Note: The opinions in this article are solely those of the author, who has not received anything for her reviews. Not an ARC. Not a free copy of a book. Nothing. These opinions are just opinions. You should check out all 20 books on Amazon and see what you think.
