Book Review: The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman

The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: May 2, 2017
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Lilian Girvan has been a single mother for three years—ever since her husband died in a car accident. One mental breakdown and some random suicidal thoughts later, she’s just starting to get the hang of this widow thing. She can now get her two girls to school, show up to work, and watch TV like a pro. The only problem is she’s becoming overwhelmed with being underwhelmed.
 
At least her textbook illustrating job has some perks—like actually being called upon to draw whale genitalia. Oh, and there’s that vegetable-gardening class her boss signed her up for. Apparently, being the chosen illustrator for a series of boutique vegetable guides means getting your hands dirty, literally. Wallowing around in compost on a Saturday morning can’t be much worse than wallowing around in pajamas and self-pity.
 
After recruiting her kids and insanely supportive sister to join her, Lilian shows up at the Los Angeles botanical garden feeling out of her element. But what she’ll soon discover—with the help of a patient instructor and a quirky group of gardeners—is that into every life a little sun must shine, whether you want it to or not…

2020 was the year of Abbi Waxman for me – I read three out of her four books! She was new to me and now she’s made the list of my favorite authors. The Garden of Small Beginnings is her debut novel.

Lilian Girvan is a single mother to two young girls. Her husband was killed three years ago in a car accident. She works as a textbook illustrator and when she’s chosen to illustrate a series of gardening books, her boss signs her up for gardening classes. She takes her daughters and sister with her to the first one. The other students in the class are a diverse bunch of characters. They all become close as the classes go on and end up helping each other with more than just gardening.

Even though Lilian’s husband died a tragic death and she is still grieving, this book was not a gloomy, depressing book. There is humor and lightness – especially among everyone in the gardening class. I liked that Lilian’s journey of working through her grief was realistic and not glossed over. She even spent some time in a psychiatric treatment facility right after her husband’s accident. Her sister had to take care of her children, which is something Lilian still feels guilty about.

I appreciate books that are about the power of community and The Garden of Small Beginnings is one of those books. I enjoyed all of the characters and getting to know them as they get to know each other. I really enjoyed this book and Waxman’s subsequent books just get better and better! Recommended.

Other books by Abbi Waxman I’ve reviewed:

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill
I Was Told It Would Get Easier

Book Review: When Life Gives You Pears: The Healing Power of Family, Faith, and Funny People by Jeannie Gaffigan

aWhen Life Gives You Pears: The Healing Power of Family, Faith, and Funny People by Jeannie Gaffigan
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: October 1, 2019
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

In 2017, Jeannie’s life came to a crashing halt when she was diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumor. As the mother of 5 kids — 6 if you include her husband — sat in the neurosurgery department in star-covered sweats too whimsical for the seriousness of the situation, all she could think was “Am I going to die?”

Thankfully, Jeannie and her family were able to survive their time of crisis, and now she is sharing her deeply personal journey through this miraculous story: the challenging conversations she had with her children; how she came to terms with feeling powerless and ferociously crabby while bedridden and unable to eat for a month; and how she ultimately learned, re-learned and re re-learned to be more present in life.

With sincerity and hilarity, Jeannie invites you into her heart (and brain) during this trying time, emphasizing the importance of family, faith and humor as keys to her recovery and leading a more fulfilling life.

When Jeannie Gaffigan noticed that she was having trouble hearing, she did what most busy moms would do – she ignored it. Her children’s pediatrician happened to notice she was having trouble when she was in her office with her kids and wrote her a referral to a specialist. Long story short – Jeannie had a pear-sized benign brain tumor. She went from a mother of five living life at breakneck speed to being bedridden after brain surgery completely dependent on others.

Before her tumor, Jeannie had been somewhat of a control freak, insisting on doing a lot of things herself because it seemed easier to just do everything herself, even if it left her tired and stressed. Can any other moms relate?? During her recovery, she was forced to let other people take over and she found other people were capable of helping her – even her bumbling husband, comedian Jim Gaffigan. (Not surprisingly, he’s not nearly as inept as he makes himself seem in his act.) It also turned out that her children were capable of doing more things for themselves than she thought.

Jeanne’s sense of humor and strong faith got her through her tough journey. She is what her husband jokingly refers to as a “Shiite Catholic” so there is God-talk in this book, but she’s never preachy. I had surgery a few years ago and experienced complications and a recovery process very similar to Jeanne’s and I so wish I had this book back then. It would have helped me a lot to know that I wasn’t alone in what I was feeling.

Even if you haven’t been through a major medical issue, this book has a lot to offer. Busy moms will totally relate. When Life Gives You Pears is inspirational without being hokey. It’s also really funny. She’s Jim’s writing partner so she has street cred in the laughs department. Recommended.

Book Review: Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, from Birth to Preschool

Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, from Birth to Preschool by Emily Oster
Publisher: Penguin Press
Publication Date: April 23, 2019
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

With Expecting Better, award-winning economist Emily Oster spotted a need in the pregnancy market for advice that gave women the information they needed to make the best decision for their own pregnancies. By digging into the data, Oster found that much of the conventional pregnancy wisdom was wrong. In Cribsheet, she now tackles an even greater challenge: decision-making in the early years of parenting. 

As any new parent knows, there is an abundance of often-conflicting advice hurled at you from doctors, family, friends, and strangers on the internet. From the earliest days, parents get the message that they must make certain choices around feeding, sleep, and schedule or all will be lost. There’s a rule—or three—for everything. But the benefits of these choices can be overstated, and the trade-offs can be profound. How do you make your own best decision? 

Armed with the data, Oster finds that the conventional wisdom doesn’t always hold up. She debunks myths around breastfeeding (not a panacea), sleep training (not so bad!), potty training (wait until they’re ready or possibly bribe with M&Ms), language acquisition (early talkers aren’t necessarily geniuses), and many other topics. She also shows parents how to think through freighted questions like if and how to go back to work, how to think about toddler discipline, and how to have a relationship and parent at the same time. 

Economics is the science of decision-making, and Cribsheet is a thinking parent’s guide to the chaos and frequent misinformation of the early years. Emily Oster is a trained expert—and mom of two—who can empower us to make better, less fraught decisions—and stay sane in the years before preschool.

Emily Oster uses the same data-centered approach in Cribsheet that she did in Expecting Better. (You can read my review of that here.) That’s why I loved Expecting Better so I knew I’d love Cribsheet too. Oster wrote Expecting Better after she had her first child and drew on her own experience of pregnancy for that book. She would present the data and explain why she made the choice she did but was never judgmental about it. The choice was ultimately left up to the reader. Cribsheet is the same, only Oster wrote it after the birth of her second child. She knows from personal experience that all children are different and what works for one may not work for another – even if they have the same parents.

Cribsheet covers the most heated topics related to a baby’s first year – sleep training, breast vs. bottle, vaccinations, working vs. staying home, etc. The section on toddlers includes walking, talking, potty training, discipline, education and more. Like in Expecting Better, she presents the various approaches to each topic and then her analysis of the available data, without judgment. My oldest child is 16 years old and my youngest is 18 months old. A lot has changed in 16 years. One example is that it’s now recommended that children sleep in the parents’ bedroom for their first year. This blew me away! My older kids were in their own room within weeks of birth and this was pretty much standard at the time. After reading Oster’s section on sleep, I understood why the recommendation had been put into place and was able to decide how long I thought it was appropriate for my new baby to sleep in my bedroom given the available data.

I hope that Oster continues to write books as her children grow. I’ll be first in line for all of them!

Happy Inauguration Day!

Inauguration Day is finally here! In honor of my good friend Joe Biden, I’m rerunning my review of his audiobook Promise Me, Dad. Check out what I wrote towards the end:

Something about the way he touts his achievements makes me think he may be talking himself up in preparation to run for president in 2020. Do it Joe!

Am I like a psychic or what? Maybe Joe read my review when it first posted and said to himself, “What the heck, I’ll do it!” You are welcome America.

Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose by Joe Biden
Publisher: Audible Studios
Narrator: Joe Biden
Release Date: November 14, 2017
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

A deeply moving memoir about the year that would forever change both a family and a country.

In November 2014, 13 members of the Biden family gathered on Nantucket for Thanksgiving, a tradition they had been celebrating for the past 40 years; it was the one constant in what had become a hectic, scrutinized, and overscheduled life. The Thanksgiving holiday was a much-needed respite, a time to connect, a time to reflect on what the year had brought and what the future might hold. But this year felt different from all those that had come before. Joe and Jill Biden’s eldest son, Beau, had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor 15 months earlier, and his survival was uncertain. “Promise me, Dad,” Beau had told his father. “Give me your word that no matter what happens, you’re going to be all right.” Joe Biden gave him his word.

Promise Me, Dad chronicles the year that followed, which would be the most momentous and challenging in Joe Biden’s extraordinary life and career. Vice President Biden traveled more than a hundred thousand miles that year, across the world, dealing with crises in Ukraine, Central America, and Iraq. When a call came from New York, or Capitol Hill, or Kyiv, or Baghdad – “Joe, I need your help” – he responded. For 12 months, while Beau fought for and then lost his life, the vice president balanced the twin imperatives of living up to his responsibilities to his country and his responsibilities to his family. And never far away was the insistent and urgent question of whether he should seek the presidency in 2016. The year brought real triumph and accomplishment, and wrenching pain. But even in the worst times, Biden was able to lean on the strength of his long, deep bonds with his family, on his faith, and on his deepening friendship with the man in the Oval Office, Barack Obama.

Writing with poignancy and immediacy, Joe Biden allows listeners to feel the urgency of each moment, to experience the days when he felt unable to move forward as well as the days when he felt like he could not afford to stop. This is a book written not just by the vice president but by a father, grandfather, friend, and husband. Promise Me, Dad is a story of how family and friendships sustain us and how hope, purpose, and action can guide us through the pain of personal loss into the light of a new future.

Note: this Audible Exclusive includes a powerful interview – only available here – between Joe Biden and award-winning journalist, Mike Barnicle. Their discussion contextualizes the memoir’s wide-ranging themes, while also touching upon the presidential election, current events, and what it means to grapple with profound grief.

Promise Me, Dad is Joe Biden’s memoir about his son Beau’s struggle with and ultimately death from glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. Biden also interlaces what is happening with his job as Vice President of the United States during that time period. Most of that work was dealing with foreign policy issues, including Russia and the Ukraine.

Biden’s family is extremely close, which makes their journey with Beau that much more heartbreaking. Beau was beloved and admired by pretty much everyone he came into contact with during his life. The title comes from what Beau said repeatedly to Joe, “Promise me, Dad that you’ll be okay. Promise me, Dad.” Beau was the one dying yet he was more worried about his dad his own well-being. Biden narrates the book himself and you can hear the love and emotion in his voice throughout the book when he talks about Beau.

Biden discusses his dilemma of whether or not to run for president in the 2016 election and why it took him so long to decide not to run. When he talks about his interactions with Vladimir Putin and his other accomplishments, it’s clear that he’s proud of his work as Vice President – as he should be. He says that he had much more responsibility than most of the previous vice presidents. Something about the way he touts his achievements makes me think he may be talking himself up in preparation to run for president in 2020. Do it Joe!

I thought Promise Me, Dad was an excellent combination of both a personal and a political memoir. The Biden family dynamic is inspiring – now I want to do everything I can to make sure my kids stay close to each other and my husband and me as adults. Even though it’s probably clear that I’m a Biden fan, I think people of all political persuasions will enjoy this book, because at its heart, it’s about love and family.

(I received a complimentary copy of this audiobook for review.)

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Publisher: Knopf
Publication Date: May 14, 2013
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

From the award-winning author of Half of a Yellow Sun, a dazzling new novel: a story of love and race centered around a young man and woman from Nigeria who face difficult choices and challenges in the countries they come to call home.

As teenagers in a Lagos secondary school, Ifemelu and Obinze fall in love. Their Nigeria is under military dictatorship, and people are leaving the country if they can. Ifemelu—beautiful, self-assured—departs for America to study. She suffers defeats and triumphs, finds and loses relationships and friendships, all the while feeling the weight of something she never thought of back home: race. Obinze—the quiet, thoughtful son of a professor—had hoped to join her, but post-9/11 America will not let him in, and he plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.

Years later, Obinze is a wealthy man in a newly democratic Nigeria, while Ifemelu has achieved success as a writer of an eye-opening blog about race in America. But when Ifemelu returns to Nigeria, and she and Obinze reignite their shared passion—for their homeland and for each other—they will face the toughest decisions of their lives.
Fearless, gripping, at once darkly funny and tender, spanning three continents and numerous lives, Americanah is a richly told story set in today’s globalized world: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s most powerful and astonishing novel yet.

Ifemelu and her boyfriend Obinze grew up in Nigeria. She immigrates to America for college. Obinze is not able to follow her and instead goes to England on a tourist visa that he overstays and winds up deported back to Nigeria.

Ifemelu becomes a successful blogger while she’s living in America – her blog is called Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negroes) by a Non-American Black. Her blog entries, which are interspersed throughout the book offer biting, darkly humorous takes on race in America from Ifemelu’s point of view as an outsider looking in. At the same time, back in Nigeria, Obinze becomes wealthy, marries and has a child. After living in America for fifteen years, Ifemelu moves back to Nigeria and reunites with Obinze. They find that they must make some tough choices.

Americanah is about many things – love, immigration and race. Its Ifemelu’s observations on race in America really struck me and have stayed with me. She says, “”I came from a country where race was not an issue. I did not think of myself as black and I only became black when I came to America.” Throughout her time in America, she finds that she has certain expectations placed on her, good and bad, because she is Black. Like, when in one of her college classes all eyes were on her when the topic was slavery. When Ifemelu returns to Nigeria, she finds that America has changed her and she can’t easily integrate back into her old life. She is forever changed and now inhabits an in-between state – what her Nigerian friends call Americanah. Highly recommended.

Book Review: On Immunity: An Inoculation by Eula Biss

On Immunity: An Inoculation by Eula Biss
Publisher: Graywolf Press
Publication Date: September 30, 2014
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

In this bold, fascinating book, Eula Biss addresses our fear of the government, the medical establishment, and what may be in our children’s air, food, mattresses, medicines, and vaccines. Reflecting on her own experience as a new mother, she suggests that we cannot immunize our children, or ourselves, against the world. As she explores the metaphors surrounding immunity, Biss extends her conversations with other mothers to meditations on the myth of Achilles, Voltaire’s Candide, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Susan Sontag’s AIDS and Its Metaphors, and beyond. On Immunity is an inoculation against our fear and a moving account of how we are all interconnected-our bodies and our fates.

A book about vaccines is certainly timely. On Immunity was actually published in 2014 but resonates even more today. I’ve never read a non-fiction book like it. It felt deeply personal to me, like I was having a conversation with Biss over coffee. She writes about the fear that all mothers have, that no matter the care they take, they will do something that will inadvertently harm their child. She delves into this fear without coming across as condescending, recognizing the fear in herself. But then she writes about community and our obligation to one another as human beings, despite our fears:

“Donations of blood and organs move between us, exiting one body and entering another, and so too with immunity, which is a common trust as much as it is a private account. Those who draw on collective immunity owe our health to our neighbors.”

I learned a lot about the history of vaccines from this book. I was surprised to learn that they have been around for hundreds of years. We like to credit individuals with developing vaccines but in truth, they are the result of decades of collective knowledge. At times, it may seem like Biss is getting off-track but then bam, what seemed like a tangent about Dracula or Coca-Cola, ends up coming back to immunity and vaccines and makes total sense. My copy of the book is highlighted throughout and filled with Post-Its marking ah-ha moments I had while reading. One that particularly resonated with me was:

“Wealthier countries have the luxury of entertaining fears that the rest of the world cannot afford.”

Biss takes great care with her words. It’s amazing how much information is packed into On Immunity’s 160 pages. It’s hard to describe what a brilliant, original book this is. Please read it and see for yourself. Highly, highly recommended.

Book Review: Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper

Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: March 9, 2010
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:
Eleven-year-old Melody is not like most people. She can’t walk. She can’t talk. She can’t write. All because she has cerebral palsy. But she also has a photographic memory; she can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She’s the smartest kid in her whole school, but NO ONE knows it. Most people—her teachers, her doctors, her classmates—dismiss her as mentally challenged because she can’t tell them otherwise. But Melody refuses to be defined by her disability. And she’s determined to let everyone know it…somehow.

I decided to read Out of My Mind when my 5th-grade daughter was assigned to read it for school. It’s the story of Melody, a 5th-grade girl with severe cerebral palsy. She’s in a wheelchair and can’t talk at all. However, she’s extremely intelligent. One day, she gets a computer that can talk for her, similar to what Stephen Hawking uses, and that changes everything. Almost. Even though Melody can speak, she is still vastly underestimated by both children and teachers at school. Some of the students are downright mean. Almost no one has any faith in her when she decides to try out for the school’s quiz bowl team.

I have seen some adult reviewers who thought it was unrealistic that Melody learned to use the speaking computer so quickly without the help of a speech pathologist. I’m sure it is. It’s also unrealistic that she never had any doctor’s appointments or physical therapy. However, I don’t think the point of the story was to teach 5th graders the specific medical details of a person with CP’s life. I think the simplified version accomplishes what the author set out to do. If a reader is interested in learning more about the medical side of having CP, I’m sure there are other books for that.

Out of My Mind is a great story for kids around Melody’s age to show them that you can’t always tell what’s inside a person by just looking at them. Melody is in a special education classroom with kids that not only have physical disabilities but intellectual disabilities as well. Children reading this book will see that all types of kids with disabilities have feelings and young readers will empathize with them. Actually, any age reader will emphasize with them – this book made me cry! My daughter and I both give Out of My Mind our recommendation, especially for middle-grade readers.

Another book by Sharon M. Draper I’ve reviewed:

Copper Sun

Book Review: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics (2006)
First published in 1943
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

From the moment she entered the world, Francie Nolan needed to be made of stern stuff, for growing up in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn, New York demanded fortitude, precocity, and strength of spirit. Often scorned by neighbors for her family’s erratic and eccentric behavior―such as her father Johnny’s taste for alcohol and Aunt Sissy’s habit of marrying serially without the formality of divorce―no one, least of all Francie, could say that the Nolans’ life lacked drama. By turns overwhelming, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the Nolans’ daily experiences are raw with honestly and tenderly threaded with family connectedness. Betty Smith has captured the joys of humble Williamsburg life―from “junk day” on Saturdays, when the children traded their weekly take for pennies, to the special excitement of holidays, bringing cause for celebration and revelry. Smith has created a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as deeply resonant moments of universal experience.

I actually read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn way back in 2019. I finished it a few days after my son was born and since I was walking around in a total mommy brain fog, I forgot to enter it into Good Reads! I realized that when I came across the book while reorganizing my bookshelves. So while the details of the book are hazy in my mind, I do remember that I loved it.

The main character is Francie Nolan, who is eleven years old when the book starts. She lives in an impoverished area of Brooklyn. This is Francie’s coming of age story but it’s also a lot more than that. It’s about immigration, the American dream, resiliency, family and love. Francie’s mother works long, hard hours as an apartment building cleaner. Her father is an alcoholic who works as a singing waiter when he’s not drunk. There are other members of Francie’s family that are prominently featured as well, like her aunts and younger brother.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a novel that you can completely immerse yourself in. Even though there are many characters, they all have great depth. Smith takes her time and the story is told with great attention to detail. It’s semi-autobiographical – Smith grew up in the same part of Brooklyn in the same time period – which I’m sure is why the novel feels so authentic. Highly, highly recommended.

Book Review: Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult That Bound My Life by Sarah Edmondson

Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult That Bound My Life by Sarah Edmondson
Publisher: Chronicle Prism
Publication Date: September 17, 2019
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Scarred is Sarah Edmondson’s compelling memoir of her recruitment into the NXIVM cult, the 12 years she spent within the organization (during which she enrolled over 2,000 members and entered DOS—NXIVM’s “secret sisterhood”), her breaking point, and her harrowing fight to get out, to expose Keith Raniere and the leadership, to help others, and to heal. Complete with personal photographs, Scarred is also an eye-opening story about abuses of power, female trust and friendship, and how sometimes the search to be “better” can override everything else.

If you haven’t heard of the NXIVM cult, it started out as a self-help type organization with expensive personal and professional development seminars that were supposed to help you realize your full potential as a human. It was structured as an MLM – the more people a member brought in and got to sign up for the seminars, the more money the member made. Of course, most of the money went back into the company as there were always more seminars and workshops for members to pay for and attend.

Edmondson was in NXIVM for years, slowly working her way up the ranks when one day her best friend, who was one of the highest-ranking people in the organization, asked her to be in a secret club where Sarah would be the slave and she would be the master. She sold it to her as a group of women helping other women grow and develop. However, it soon became clear that wasn’t the case. The “slaves” were actually being groomed to be sex slaves for NXIVM’s leader.

You may recall when actress Allison Mack was arrested for sex trafficking. I was shocked that the fresh-faced blond could have been involved in something so sinister. I was hoping that Scarred would give me some background on Mack and how she became involved and ended up the head sex slave master but it didn’t. Edmondson was based in Canada and ran what could be described as a branch office of NXIVM, while Mack, her slaves, and the organization’s headquarters were based in Albany. This turned out to be very lucky for Edmondson. She was able to remain on the periphery of the sex cult. However, that means that her book doesn’t have many details about what the lives of the woman having to interact with Mack in person was like. There are two documentary series about the cult that I’m told have a lot more information about the nitty-gritty than this book does. I’m afraid to say that this book was a bit of a snooze. It piqued my interest in NXIVM but I was left wanting more.

2020 Year-End Wrap-Up

Another year of reading has come to an end. This year has been different, that’s for sure! At the beginning of the pandemic, I had a lot of trouble calming my mind enough to concentrate on reading. I stayed up way too late every night working on puzzles and then always felt like a tired zombie the next day. Add to that a baby and distance learning for my three older kids and I’m surprised I read a single book! I got my mojo at least part of the way back over the summer – just in time for the baby to get mobile and into everything. I was able to read a bit, although I still spend way too much time doom scrolling. Cutting that out will be a New Year’s Resolution for sure.

All right – let’s get to the wrap-up!

How many books read in 2020?
I read 37 books.

How many fiction and non-fiction?
I read 14 non-fiction and 23 fiction books in 2020. Of the 14 non-fiction books, 9 were memoirs. I’d like to read more non-memoir non-fiction in 2o21.

Male/Female author ratio?
I read 28 female authors compared to 9 male authors. It’s usually a more even split for me but I’m fine with reading more women authors!

Favorite book of 2020?
I read a lot of really good books this year but if I had to choose one favorite it would be Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.

Least favorite?
I didn’t hate it but I definitely had mixed feelings about The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach.

Any that you simply couldn’t finish and why?
I didn’t finish Flights by Olga Tokarczuk and Apeirogon by Colum McCann. They are both award-winning books but neither one clicked for me. I gave each about 100 pages before throwing in the towel. I feel like that was a decent try. Neither is included in my total read for the year.

Oldest book read?
I didn’t read any classics this year – which I will remedy in 2021. One of my book club’s February 2021 pick is The Age of Innocence. I’m the host that month so I’ll read and finish it for sure. Back to 2020 – the oldest book I read was Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie which was published in May of 2013.

Newest?
I read a lot of books that were published in 2020. I’m not sure which one was the absolute latest.

Longest and shortest book titles?
The longest title was Scarred: The True Story of How I Escaped NXIVM, the Cult That Bound My Life. The shortest was Luster by Raven Leilani.