“Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut

This book was not quite as amazing as I expected this classic to be. The main themes were time travel and the fire bombing of Dresden. The writing style is very accessible.

“How to Pronounce Knife” by Souvankham Thammavongsa

 This was a very dreary collection of short stories and I have no idea why it’s being praised so much. For the most part, I found the writing style to be spare and pedestrian. And too often, the stories reminded me of the humiliations of my own immigrant child experiences.

“The Glass Hotel” by Emily St. John Mandel

This was a good book, but I actually enjoyed “Station Eleven” more. This one was too populated with sad sacks, but what do you expect, I guess, when you’re reading a book inspired by Bernie Madoff and his Ponzi scheme. Also, there was less about the Madoff character than I expected, and too much about a half brother and sister pair, with the brother being the loser addict sad sac character. It’s nice that the book has ghosts and hallucinations; I like hints of the otherwordly.

“Piranesi” by Susanna Clarke

 I liked this book very much. Clarke created an amazingly gorgeous atmosphere and she has a very distinctive voice. Thus, I remembered her Jonathan Strange book when I was reading this one. This book is amazing, unique and beautiful. And also, it is quite nicely short.

“Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel

Despite the subject matter, an apocalyptic pandemic, I enjoyed this book very much. It is cleverly structured and the author has a fresh voice.

“The Agency” by William Gibson

 I enjoyed the book for its decent pace and its idea of stubs, which were machine-created alternate timelines. The idea of communicating across stubs digitally in drones etc was amazing. I missed out a bit by not having read the first book in the Jackpot trilogy, but I think I’ve had enough Gibson for awhile. .. His ideas are genius!

“Bel Canto” by Ann Patchett

 A book inspired by a hostage taking incident in Peru hardly sounds like something I would want to read. But I ended up enjoying this book very much. One of the best books I’ve read in awhile. .. one of its messages was, rich or poor, we are so busy living/surviving that we lose sight of/ or never find, our true happy selves.