Recent Reads

I haven't done a recap of what I've been reading since the spring started, so here are my recent reads.

Birds of Paradise - Diana Abu Jaber has become one of my favorite authors for her lyrical descriptions of food in her novels. This story revolves around Felice Muir who runs away at age thirteen and how doing this impacts the family she left behind.  Her reason for running away becomes apparent as the novel unfolds.  The story is told from the points of views of her parents and brother.  As much as I like Abu Jaber's writing, it took me a while to get into this book. But toward the end of the book the pieces of the plot came together for me and by the end, I enjoyed the book.  If you are new to Diana Abu Jaber's writing, I suggest you start with her memoir, The Language of Baklava or novel, Cresent before reading Birds of Paradise.

It's Complicated But It Doesn't Have to Be - I've never seen Paul C. Brunson's, OWN TV show, but I do follow him on Twitter and decided that the sound advice bites he doles out on social media outlets would probably lend itself to a good book. So I reserved It's Complicated from the library and read it last month. The relationship advice in this book is not necessarily new info, but I liked the presentation and thought it was a good read.

Sweet Tooth - This was another book I struggled to finish and honestly my main motivation was returning the book to the library by its due-date. I guess I was expecting more of an action driven, intrigued filled the plot when I read on the book flap that the protagonist was an MI5 agent (the UK version of a CIA agent). The James Bond prototype of a secret agent must have colored my views.  This story revolves around Serena Frome, reflecting decades later on a life changing project she worked on in the 1970s as a young M15 agent referred to as Sweet Tooth. Serena, a lover of novels, was chosen to infiltrate the literary circle of a young writer named Tom Haley.  But falling in love with Tom Haley starts to complicate things for Serena.

This is How You Lose Her - I'd never read a book by Pulitzer prize winning author, Junot Diaz so when his latest book became available at the library, I decided to read it.  I didn't think I'd get into this book, but I read the entire book over one weekend (it's not very long). These short stores revolve around the romances and life of Yunior, a Dominican-born, New Jersey raised man as he deals with love, family expectations, loss, and his propensity to cheat on his girlfriends.  This is How You Lose Her reminded me of how much I love reading short stories that are so descriptive that you don't feel that their length short-change the plot.

Next up on my to-read list is The Law of Divine Compensation.

What have you read (or are planning to read) lately?