I am so pleased you prefaced your newsletter with the grab/did not grab experience - I have been thinking lately I must be the only person on the planet to have not enjoyed All Fours 😆 Mum of 3 littles so unfortunately my fiction reads these days feel few and far between. I have always loved an autobiography (PLEASE read A Lion in the Bedroom by Pat Cavendish, one of the most incredible autobiographies ever) and the one I have read this year that I loved and has stayed with me is, astoundingly, Paloma Faith's MILF (Motherhood, Identity, Love and F*ckery). Read months ago and cannot get some of her musings out of my head. Love your newsletter so much Pandora!
I love history, I love the Tudors but I've tried 4 times to read Wolf Hall and given up every time! There was something about the way it was written that felt so clunky and confusing to me...yet it seems to be universally adored as the definitive historical novel, it makes me feel so dumb!
I did not get the hype behind Orbital (I kept waiting either for something to happen or for the language to make up for nothing happening), I was utterly unchanged by Fierce Attachments and I read two Emily Henrys and started a third before realizing I actually don't enjoy her writing.
In contrast, I'm reading Anna Karenina right after reading it for the first time because I simply couldn't leave it behind. Everything else I have liked recently pales in comparison, but...
I'm finding Sky Daddy really funny, which is great because I just finished All The Other Mothers Hate Me, and it made me laugh out loud multiple times. I also liked "we were the universe", I recommend it for" Margot's got money troubles" vibes. After Anna, though, nothing is hitting.
Oh man, I LOVED We Were The Universe. Like the vaunted All Fours but with the added spectre of grief. Even better imho. Margot's Got Money Troubles is such a gem, I agree. The Other Mothers Hate Me made me lol. Could imagine Billie Piper playing the title role, perhaps bc of the girlband association. Niche thriller twist, too! Looking forward to the telly adaptations of both the latter. (I'm sure All Fours is being adapted, too, I can't imagine otherwise, and I am so totally intrigued who will play the roles bc for me, it has to be July as July, and for some reason I cannot imagine anyone other than Dave Franco and his nasal voice for Davey, I even had him in my mind when reading. I've gone off on one hell of a late night tangent, here.)
I kept picturing James marsden who is kind of a blond version of dave Franco?? I’m not super interested in all fours on tv, I loved the first half/ the motel renovation scenes but I was uninterested in the second half and I found some of the sex scenes hard to get through (guess I’m a bigger prude than I thought)
Very unformed but— being unnamed in a book about immigration and displacement emphasises the notion that people (especially people who aren’t white, people who come from ‘troubled’ countries) are interchangeable/ are not given agency or individuality. Not naming something lends a broader appeal (whatever the chosen name, we ascribe certain characteristics to it), allows the feeling that a narrator is a device, a cipher of sorts, the key to a larger story.
I read Orbital and I wanted to like it so badly because the Philippines featured almost every 4-5 paragraphs, but it didn't do anything for me. I loved your summary of Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga. I am interested in narratives (fiction and non-fiction) at the moment. It reminded me of the non-fiction book Everyone Who Is Here is Gone by Jonathan Blitzer. It covers the real-life story of authoritarian government, conflict with communist and indigenous groups, and migration of El Salvadorans to the US through the lens of a doctor who survived being tortured (when you find out where the title of the book comes from, it will give you goosebumps). It had one of the most excruciating torture scenes I had ever listened to. It was so difficult to comprehend the hatred against targeted minority groups, but I know that governments can also be guilty of this in my own country. I listened to it as an audiobook.
I'd love to hear how you found Misinterpretation! I think something I like about that book, and something I'm drawn to generally in fiction at the moment, is when there's a non-fiction element to it, IE it's not just about character but also history and place. I'm also finding myself drawn to memoir much more than I used to be, and I think it's because that's like the perfect mash up of novelistic writing and non-fiction learning. For example, I'm reading Sarah Aziza's memoir at the moment and learning so much about Palestine and diasporic Palestinians across diff generations.
I can't wait to read it! I'll probably pick it up and Sarah Aziza's memoir now. I really enjoy the book recommendations from your newsletter. As a reader, I mostly prefer fiction. I'm only able to "read" non-fiction now because audiobooks made them accessible to me -otherwise, I find myself craving more emotion from what I read (I think on the Myer-Briggs scale I am a solid "F" as opposed to a "T"). I like what you said about fiction with a non-fiction element. One of the books I read which spoke to the topic of "immigration, refugees, and deportations" was The Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli. I decided to listen to it as an audiobook, because the blurb told me that it featured a character working on a "sound documentary". The author, Valeria Luiselli, has had direct real-life experience assisting children of migrants to the USA, so I was interested to see what she had to say on the topic. The Lost Children Archive is surprisingly personal, and it blurs the lines between fiction and auto-fiction. She never really refers directly to her protagonists' work (similar to her real-life work) but it's there in the background as she navigates her own personal tragedy of a failing relationship with a long-time partner. I loved the book and until now, I still can't quite put my experience of it into words!
I'm trying to DNF more. I read a ton, but I add more to my Storygraph TBR then I can ever cope with and life is too short to slog through something.
I just started Bring the House Down by Charlotte Runcie, and it is so, so good. Edinburgh Fringe, journalism drama, exactly my sweet spot. And in a total weird turn, I've been reading Trollope's Phineas Finn. I started it because I was looking for a little vignette for an article and by the time I found the anecdote I was after, I was hooked. Weirdly readable for a 19th century serialised novel focused on the dramas of the House of Commons.
My son and I just finished Relic Hamilton as a readaloud, and have moved onto Ronja by the author of Pippi Longstocking. I'm not sure he's wholly into it - he likes his books heavy on the dragons - but there's something really and soothing about the language.
Ahhh you see—and this is what I love about this topic—I wasn’t particularly moved by Bring The House Down! (Loved the premise, tho, suspect it will capture the public imagination and do well.) I must read some Trollope, madness that I have not. Just embarking on Maeve Binchy and finding her writing to be sly in a unexpected and delicious way
I read all the Maeve Binchy novels as a teenager and would wait excitedly for the next one to be published. I loved the way she would have an occasional line about a character who had appeared in an earlier novel and was somehow connected to the protagonist in the present one; the tiny snippet felt like I was being given an update on the life of an old friend.
I am finding that the messy 20 something novels don’t appeal as much as they used to. Maybe because I spent my days with early 20s students.
Maeve Binchy sounds like a fun project. I started reading Muriel Spark this spring. I stay on campus 1-2 nights a week during term time, and I appreciate a book that I can finish in a good solid evening or two of reading. I feel kinship for her protagonists with their tea and toast dinners (no good food on campus, and I’m too disorganised to bring lunch and dinner, so sometimes I have peanut butter on bread).
Did not understand the response to God of the Woods by Liz Moore. I finished it but was dragging myself across the finish line.
Most recently read book that I love loved was My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley. Was also very very moved by Small Rain by Garth Greenwell - such a perfect book.
I have been lucky to have much more time than usual for reading this year. The book that has stayed with me (and given me a mega book hangover) is Language of Limbs by Dylin Hardcastle. It’s a beautifully written story about identity, love, powerful friendships and the impact of choices we make on our lives. The setting is 1970s Australia with the AIDS pandemic and the first Mardi Gras. I really cannot recommend it enough ❤️
I also DNF’d Orbital, as well as Creation Lake from the Booker List. They just fell so flat for me. And I tried twice with both!
Thanks as always for the great reccs (and DNFs!) - my partner is Albanian so I'm always on the look out for new-to-me Albanian authors and stories (not always easy to find!). Intrigued by Misinterpretation so will be picking that up, thank you.
If you're interested in more Albanian (recent) non-fiction/ history would recommend Lea Ypi's Free x
I feel I now have permission to DNF my current read which is Babel. It's such a slog and I still don't really understand this silver working business 300 odd pages in. No more time on a book that makes me feel a bit dim! Love in the Time of Cholera is next in the pile. I haven't read much translated fiction for some reason and decided to start with this as it was in my local library.
It took me a couple of gos before I got into Orbital. It's so slow paced that I needed to be in the right frame of mind for it. I was glad I read it, in the end. GBBL meanwhile... I felt like the only person that didn't gel with it (until now). It's not bad and I'm a fan of her writing but it felt like two ideas mushed together to "make" one book and as a result neither felt fleshed out enough.. Table for One sounds great though - adding it to the (ever-growing) list.
These recommendations excite me! I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Table For One, it’s not yet available where I live (Canada) but I’ve just landed in the UK for a visit and I am on the hunt for a copy!
I just finished There Are Rivers in the Sky whilst on holiday which I just adored. I love Elif Shafak’s style and depth of writing. Also read The Island of Missing Trees a year or so ago which I equally loved.
Personally struggled with All Fours. I just found a bit underwhelming and maybe I’m too prudish (lol) but it just made me cringe a bit too much. I followed it with Big Swiss - both of which were recommended by the same friend who I now think I need to check in on 😂
Just came here to be the lone person to stick up for Orbital 🙋🏻♀️I loved it. Now you all can correct me if I’m wrong, but my theory is people who didn’t like it have never been high on marijuana, tripping out about how we covered the world in tar or the bugs that live on our eyelashes. It’s that kind of book.
No corrections here. Reading is utterly subjective, and Orbital is FLYING, critically and commercially. Not sure that people who don't like it haven't necessarily been high, worrying about the world. But I shall not speak for everyone!!
i didn't like margo's got money troubles! i finished it purely so i could go into the tv show knowing what to expect, but it was a MASSIVE slog for me to get through. i loved the plot and appreciated the writing itself, but margo was a very insufferable main character to me. which is sad and a bit frustrating as i was so excited to read it! however i will definitely be watching the tv show - i love comparing/analysing book to screen adaptations.
I am so pleased you prefaced your newsletter with the grab/did not grab experience - I have been thinking lately I must be the only person on the planet to have not enjoyed All Fours 😆 Mum of 3 littles so unfortunately my fiction reads these days feel few and far between. I have always loved an autobiography (PLEASE read A Lion in the Bedroom by Pat Cavendish, one of the most incredible autobiographies ever) and the one I have read this year that I loved and has stayed with me is, astoundingly, Paloma Faith's MILF (Motherhood, Identity, Love and F*ckery). Read months ago and cannot get some of her musings out of my head. Love your newsletter so much Pandora!
totally agree re all fours - it was alright but i haven’t understood the hype at all! and thanks for the memoir recs
I love history, I love the Tudors but I've tried 4 times to read Wolf Hall and given up every time! There was something about the way it was written that felt so clunky and confusing to me...yet it seems to be universally adored as the definitive historical novel, it makes me feel so dumb!
This makes me feel better about not finishing Miranda Hart’s “I Haven’t Been Entirely Honest With You.”
Same. It could have been an article, or a fun listicle!
I did not get the hype behind Orbital (I kept waiting either for something to happen or for the language to make up for nothing happening), I was utterly unchanged by Fierce Attachments and I read two Emily Henrys and started a third before realizing I actually don't enjoy her writing.
In contrast, I'm reading Anna Karenina right after reading it for the first time because I simply couldn't leave it behind. Everything else I have liked recently pales in comparison, but...
I'm finding Sky Daddy really funny, which is great because I just finished All The Other Mothers Hate Me, and it made me laugh out loud multiple times. I also liked "we were the universe", I recommend it for" Margot's got money troubles" vibes. After Anna, though, nothing is hitting.
Oh man, I LOVED We Were The Universe. Like the vaunted All Fours but with the added spectre of grief. Even better imho. Margot's Got Money Troubles is such a gem, I agree. The Other Mothers Hate Me made me lol. Could imagine Billie Piper playing the title role, perhaps bc of the girlband association. Niche thriller twist, too! Looking forward to the telly adaptations of both the latter. (I'm sure All Fours is being adapted, too, I can't imagine otherwise, and I am so totally intrigued who will play the roles bc for me, it has to be July as July, and for some reason I cannot imagine anyone other than Dave Franco and his nasal voice for Davey, I even had him in my mind when reading. I've gone off on one hell of a late night tangent, here.)
I kept picturing James marsden who is kind of a blond version of dave Franco?? I’m not super interested in all fours on tv, I loved the first half/ the motel renovation scenes but I was uninterested in the second half and I found some of the sex scenes hard to get through (guess I’m a bigger prude than I thought)
Hahahha the sex scenes were amazingly creative and agonising
I thought Mike Faist for Davey (sorry to interrupt!) x
just googled and this is an excellent call. I think that Davey needs to be sinewy slim also have some of that 'rat boy' quality
Did you see him in Challengers? I just felt that he communicated longing with every muscle twitched. Total Davey material
I agree! I rarely put a book down but DNF Orbital. And it’s so short! Just nothing drew me in. I thought I would love it…
Yes what’s up with all of the unnamed narrators lately? Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for a great post, I love your summaries!
Very unformed but— being unnamed in a book about immigration and displacement emphasises the notion that people (especially people who aren’t white, people who come from ‘troubled’ countries) are interchangeable/ are not given agency or individuality. Not naming something lends a broader appeal (whatever the chosen name, we ascribe certain characteristics to it), allows the feeling that a narrator is a device, a cipher of sorts, the key to a larger story.
I read Orbital and I wanted to like it so badly because the Philippines featured almost every 4-5 paragraphs, but it didn't do anything for me. I loved your summary of Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga. I am interested in narratives (fiction and non-fiction) at the moment. It reminded me of the non-fiction book Everyone Who Is Here is Gone by Jonathan Blitzer. It covers the real-life story of authoritarian government, conflict with communist and indigenous groups, and migration of El Salvadorans to the US through the lens of a doctor who survived being tortured (when you find out where the title of the book comes from, it will give you goosebumps). It had one of the most excruciating torture scenes I had ever listened to. It was so difficult to comprehend the hatred against targeted minority groups, but I know that governments can also be guilty of this in my own country. I listened to it as an audiobook.
I'd love to hear how you found Misinterpretation! I think something I like about that book, and something I'm drawn to generally in fiction at the moment, is when there's a non-fiction element to it, IE it's not just about character but also history and place. I'm also finding myself drawn to memoir much more than I used to be, and I think it's because that's like the perfect mash up of novelistic writing and non-fiction learning. For example, I'm reading Sarah Aziza's memoir at the moment and learning so much about Palestine and diasporic Palestinians across diff generations.
I can't wait to read it! I'll probably pick it up and Sarah Aziza's memoir now. I really enjoy the book recommendations from your newsletter. As a reader, I mostly prefer fiction. I'm only able to "read" non-fiction now because audiobooks made them accessible to me -otherwise, I find myself craving more emotion from what I read (I think on the Myer-Briggs scale I am a solid "F" as opposed to a "T"). I like what you said about fiction with a non-fiction element. One of the books I read which spoke to the topic of "immigration, refugees, and deportations" was The Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli. I decided to listen to it as an audiobook, because the blurb told me that it featured a character working on a "sound documentary". The author, Valeria Luiselli, has had direct real-life experience assisting children of migrants to the USA, so I was interested to see what she had to say on the topic. The Lost Children Archive is surprisingly personal, and it blurs the lines between fiction and auto-fiction. She never really refers directly to her protagonists' work (similar to her real-life work) but it's there in the background as she navigates her own personal tragedy of a failing relationship with a long-time partner. I loved the book and until now, I still can't quite put my experience of it into words!
I'm trying to DNF more. I read a ton, but I add more to my Storygraph TBR then I can ever cope with and life is too short to slog through something.
I just started Bring the House Down by Charlotte Runcie, and it is so, so good. Edinburgh Fringe, journalism drama, exactly my sweet spot. And in a total weird turn, I've been reading Trollope's Phineas Finn. I started it because I was looking for a little vignette for an article and by the time I found the anecdote I was after, I was hooked. Weirdly readable for a 19th century serialised novel focused on the dramas of the House of Commons.
My son and I just finished Relic Hamilton as a readaloud, and have moved onto Ronja by the author of Pippi Longstocking. I'm not sure he's wholly into it - he likes his books heavy on the dragons - but there's something really and soothing about the language.
Ahhh you see—and this is what I love about this topic—I wasn’t particularly moved by Bring The House Down! (Loved the premise, tho, suspect it will capture the public imagination and do well.) I must read some Trollope, madness that I have not. Just embarking on Maeve Binchy and finding her writing to be sly in a unexpected and delicious way
I read all the Maeve Binchy novels as a teenager and would wait excitedly for the next one to be published. I loved the way she would have an occasional line about a character who had appeared in an earlier novel and was somehow connected to the protagonist in the present one; the tiny snippet felt like I was being given an update on the life of an old friend.
I am finding that the messy 20 something novels don’t appeal as much as they used to. Maybe because I spent my days with early 20s students.
Maeve Binchy sounds like a fun project. I started reading Muriel Spark this spring. I stay on campus 1-2 nights a week during term time, and I appreciate a book that I can finish in a good solid evening or two of reading. I feel kinship for her protagonists with their tea and toast dinners (no good food on campus, and I’m too disorganised to bring lunch and dinner, so sometimes I have peanut butter on bread).
Tea and toast dinners are my favourite
Did not understand the response to God of the Woods by Liz Moore. I finished it but was dragging myself across the finish line.
Most recently read book that I love loved was My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley. Was also very very moved by Small Rain by Garth Greenwell - such a perfect book.
I have been lucky to have much more time than usual for reading this year. The book that has stayed with me (and given me a mega book hangover) is Language of Limbs by Dylin Hardcastle. It’s a beautifully written story about identity, love, powerful friendships and the impact of choices we make on our lives. The setting is 1970s Australia with the AIDS pandemic and the first Mardi Gras. I really cannot recommend it enough ❤️
I also DNF’d Orbital, as well as Creation Lake from the Booker List. They just fell so flat for me. And I tried twice with both!
I didn’t finish Creation Lake either! Got about 30% through and thought “what is the point of this book”
Me too. I just couldn’t connect with the narrator or the places she was travelling through 🤷🏻♀️
Thanks as always for the great reccs (and DNFs!) - my partner is Albanian so I'm always on the look out for new-to-me Albanian authors and stories (not always easy to find!). Intrigued by Misinterpretation so will be picking that up, thank you.
If you're interested in more Albanian (recent) non-fiction/ history would recommend Lea Ypi's Free x
I absolutely am! I’d heard of her - thank you for the nudge :)
Ah you're welcome! She also has a new one coming out later this year :)
I feel I now have permission to DNF my current read which is Babel. It's such a slog and I still don't really understand this silver working business 300 odd pages in. No more time on a book that makes me feel a bit dim! Love in the Time of Cholera is next in the pile. I haven't read much translated fiction for some reason and decided to start with this as it was in my local library.
It took me a couple of gos before I got into Orbital. It's so slow paced that I needed to be in the right frame of mind for it. I was glad I read it, in the end. GBBL meanwhile... I felt like the only person that didn't gel with it (until now). It's not bad and I'm a fan of her writing but it felt like two ideas mushed together to "make" one book and as a result neither felt fleshed out enough.. Table for One sounds great though - adding it to the (ever-growing) list.
These recommendations excite me! I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Table For One, it’s not yet available where I live (Canada) but I’ve just landed in the UK for a visit and I am on the hunt for a copy!
I just finished There Are Rivers in the Sky whilst on holiday which I just adored. I love Elif Shafak’s style and depth of writing. Also read The Island of Missing Trees a year or so ago which I equally loved.
Personally struggled with All Fours. I just found a bit underwhelming and maybe I’m too prudish (lol) but it just made me cringe a bit too much. I followed it with Big Swiss - both of which were recommended by the same friend who I now think I need to check in on 😂
Just came here to be the lone person to stick up for Orbital 🙋🏻♀️I loved it. Now you all can correct me if I’m wrong, but my theory is people who didn’t like it have never been high on marijuana, tripping out about how we covered the world in tar or the bugs that live on our eyelashes. It’s that kind of book.
No corrections here. Reading is utterly subjective, and Orbital is FLYING, critically and commercially. Not sure that people who don't like it haven't necessarily been high, worrying about the world. But I shall not speak for everyone!!
i didn't like margo's got money troubles! i finished it purely so i could go into the tv show knowing what to expect, but it was a MASSIVE slog for me to get through. i loved the plot and appreciated the writing itself, but margo was a very insufferable main character to me. which is sad and a bit frustrating as i was so excited to read it! however i will definitely be watching the tv show - i love comparing/analysing book to screen adaptations.