As I collect my notes about spring flowers (daffodils are abloom!) and plan a proper post, here is another installment regarding my latest adventures in reading.

Forty Rooms, by Olga Grushin

I wasn’t so sure about this book when I got started, but that happens sometimes. However, as the dreams and tales of the main character took shape, I realized how charming the approach was, to weave a life across the forty rooms it exists in over time. Born and raised in Moscow, the narrator moves to America for college and her life unfolds from there. Though much of the story takes place in the East Coast suburbs, there is something quite Russian about the novel and its layers of love and despair.

Case Histories, by Kate Atkinson

I love me some Kate Atkinson, and this is the first in her mystery series. I stumbled upon this wonderful book a few years ago, and then lost track of the author. When Life After Life became so famous, I sorted out that this was the same genius I had accidentally discovered earlier, and now I am very slowly permitting myself to read her books as a treat (though it appears that when I run out I can watch her show!). Her characters are complicated and interesting, and she delivers a twisty topsy mystery with a clever literary touch.

It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War, by Lynsey Addario

It seems that the world is a beautiful and often troubled place, with more similarities between people than differences. The life that Lynsey Addario has chosen, photographing communities and conflicts in distant corners of the world, is courageous and eye-opening. Creating relationships in the most unlikely of places, she has followed her heart and her instincts and her photojournalism assignments to the most dangerous places at the most dangerous times. This is an astounding tale with a message that settled deep within me.

Eleanor & Park, by Rainbow Rowell

If you were ever a teenager, you can probably connect with this story. From my advanced age of 33, it seems like a much too complex and violent and sexual tale for actual teenagers to read, but apparently that is the intended audience. Much can be said that is trite or foolish about those years when life and love seem so impossible, but this author wrote a surprisingly lovely story about some truly real and troubled teenagers, and I couldn’t recommend it more. Here’s a proper review of it that is lovely in its own right.

Salt to the Sea, by Ruta Sepetys

This is a beautiful and thought provoking piece of historical fiction. It’s 1945 and thousands of people are headed west from Latvia, Lithuania, East Prussia, and Poland, fleeing the advancing Russian forces who are gaining a reputation for violence towards civilians. Unfortunately, unless you carried the correct identification papers, arriving in German territory brought its own complications. The story moves quickly, as the narration shifts easily between four individuals with their own unique perspectives.

Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline

The future looks grim in this dystopian tale about a society that prefers to log into a world of virtual reality than face the despair around them. It’s at once a warning bell to remind us that the real world is where life happens, and a nostalgic look back at the video games and music of the 1980s. We’re following a young man who is tackling the biggest challenge yet presented in their virtual world, a sort of online riddle with real life consequences. Even though I don’t possess a deep catalog of gaming memories, I really enjoyed this cleverly imagined novel.