read Books, Not Minds

Penelope is a deeply restrained Chinese-American woman in her mid-20s. We meet her as she begins to examine how she can create a meaningful life. Throughout the novel, she grapples with creating an identity for herself, finding value in honesty, and a fledgling romantic relationship. This is a quiet novel with small but important moments of self-discovery and introspection through first-person narration and concise writing.

I love the way this book handles when and how honesty plays a role in different types of relationships. We see this on display immediately when Penelope meets her love interest, Hoang, who has a much firmer opinion on the benefit of honesty. Penelope's struggle with honesty and having personal convictions changes during interactions at her job as a museum cataloger, her relationship with her distant father and neglectful, mentally unstable mother, and with her friends, who some might perceive as self-centered but are readily available to help Penelope when she needs it most. Penelope's character arc is mild, but we do see her find her footing when she realizes she has a passion for an important cause. We're left with the feeling that this new conviction will positively impact other parts of Penelope's life and relationships.

I appreciated that the relationships and conversations were both realistic and mixed with some of the common stereotypes we see for unreliable ex-boyfriends, artists, and people passionate about politics. This resulted in dynamic characters with full personalities.

I do wish that we saw some kind of resolution with Penelope's mother, I would have loved a deeper exploration of the rare big emotional moments that Penelope has. She spends a lot of time thinking and defining, but when these moments occur, she doesn't really dig into them.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, and I would recommend it to other lovers of literary fiction who enjoy peeking into the full and complex lives of characters.

The audiobook narration was easy to understand and follow. I appreciated that the narrator used the inflection I would expect at specific moments. The pacing was good, and each character was vocally distinct.

Thank you to NetGalley for the audiobook ARC. Thank you to Tantor Media, RBMedia, and W.W. Norton & Company.

#GingkoSeason #NetGalley 

I am incredibly happy that this book has been translated and published in English.

Oromay is a beautifully written, poetic and political novel about a journalist who joins a campaign to drive back the Eritrean insurgency. He soon finds himself entrenched in danger, corruption and conspiracy-driven political drama where violence and death are a common means to an end.

In the midst of all of this is an intense love story of a man with a fiancé at home and a mistress who could put his life in danger.

The writing in this novel is at once concise and elegant. Detailed when necessary and purple on the topic of love and passion. Even in the most bureaucratic sections, I was fully engaged.

I could not pull myself away from the last section of the book.

I read the audiobook. I appreciated that the narrator had an accent that fit the culture of the novel. His speech is clear and articulate. In instances where Italian or Amharic were used, he switched easily. I never felt distracted by any of the narrators choices.

I found his vocalizations between characters not to be distinctive. There is a mild softening of his voice with female characters. This was not a significant problem for comprehension and following the story.

The narrator did a great job of adding emphasis where needed while never being over the top. The sound quality is great - no background noises, breaks or noticeable inconsistencies. I would listen to more audiobooks by this narrator.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of the audiobook. It will be available on May 27th.