February Reads

This month, I read two books. You can find my reads for January here if you're so inclined. So yes, two books for the 2nd month of the year. Clever! Maybe I'll get through 3 in the third month of March? Of course, I realize that for some of the speed readers out there this is a rather paltry showing, but hey, even with the extra day February is a shorter month. I'm afraid I might jinx myself by admitting this, but thus far, with a minor exception, 2012 has been a rather good year reading wise. My little world might be stressful and falling down in other areas of my life but hey at least the books are good!

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

I picked up The Imperfectionists on a bit of a lark. I'd seen the book listed on a few end of 2011 best reads lists but knew almost nothing else about the book. At the center of the book is an international newspaper based in Rome. With each chapter Rachman focuses on one particular person that's connected to the paper - i.e. the copy editor, the obituary writer, etc. and shares their story.

In between these chapters, there are a few pages written in italics, telling us the back story of the paper itself, who founded it, how it came to be, and all the rest. The end result is a novel that feels a bit like a collection of short stories, with the newspaper acting as the compelling main character that ties each individual character and their stories together. For not knowing what I was getting into when I picked up this book, I got very lucky because I simply adored this book. I found every "section of the paper" fascinating, each character utterly believable, and found myself wishing I wasn't flying through the book quite as fast as I was, wanting to savor each line and detail. I was also left wishing I'd come up with this plot line first - what a genius idea to give us a glimpse into the lives of those that bring a paper to life day in and day out!

The Imperfectionists had a tinge of melancholy running throughout, and with newspapers being forced to shut down routinely these days, one can understand why. It is no secret that I feel important things are being lost as we rush toward a "technological society" and I emphasized with the struggle of a daily paper immensely. In short, I loved this book. And felt compelled to rush out and buy a newspaper the minute I read the satisfying, heartbreaking and bittersweet final pages.

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

Let's start by saying that I am a huge fan of Ms. Lahiri's. I read The Namesake and her earlier collection of short stories, Interpreter of the Maladies a few years ago. Seeing as I'd had Unaccustomed Earth sitting patiently on my bookshelf for a few years, it seemed only fitting I turn to Lahiri while looking for something to fill the void after I'd finished The Imperfectionists.

Lahiri's writing is inspiring, captivating, and a few of her short stories left me breathless, they were that good. You know that moment, when you read something - be it a line, a paragraph, a page - where something resonates so deeply that you find you must close the book for a second and let is all sink in before reading further? I find Lahiri's writing often lends itself to those types of moments, and there were a few stories in particular that echoed themes I'm currently dealing with in my own life, making them all the more impactful. To be sure, Unaccustomed Earth is not a particularly happy or uplifting book. Yet the stories are honest and true and they will stay with me long after I've placed this book back upon its proper place on my bookshelf. Unaccustomed Earth is one of the most satisfying collection of short stories I have ever read.