To the Point Book Reflections: Kate and Ang on Books

May 11, 2021

Book Club Reads (Did you know we have been in a book club since 2014?! We started with 4 friends and now we are up to 7!)

April’s read was Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia. This is a 2020 book written in the gothic style of the early 1900s. Traditionally, these books mix love, horror and death. Some popular ones: Dracula, Rebecca, Haunting of Hill House (all which we suggest). However, Morena-Garcia added another layer to her book while resurrecting the traditional form. We loved it!
This May we are reading Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. This book was written in the early 1990s, and won a Pulitzer for Literature. It takes place over three generations of Greeks and Greek Americans beginning in WWI (we learned a bit of history in the beginning that we probably should have known about the Greeks, Turks and Armenians). The story is told by the grandchild of the first generation of characters. The protagonist and narrator look back through familial history to trace their existence. It’s really interesting.

Ang’s Additional Reads

April’s read was When We Were Orphans by Kazou Ishiguro. It’s rare that I dislike a book and pick up another by the same author. In my early 20s, I read Remains of the Day for a class. I was not a fan, mostly because I really could not identify with the protagonist, like at all. But I was fully aware of how good the writing was. I like When We Were Orphans much more, but still really do not like the protagonist. Ishiguro is just a good storyteller and wonderful writer.
The Children Act by Ian McEwan. I love McEwan, and not because of Atonement. I think the one that got me was Enduring Love. But like Atonement and Enduring Love, The Children Act winds an everyday love story (husband of 35 years asks wife for open marriage) with self reflecting characters who have so much more to manage and deal with.