I hope you are enjoying this cozy time between Christmas and New Year’s. I always love continuing to celebrate the holiday, taking good walks, and spending time simply reading. I have the perfect book to read right now: Sipsworth.
Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy
Sipsworth is the most charming, lovely book. It’s about Helen Cartwright, who at age 80 has returned home after losing her husband and son and living abroad for decades. As she prepares for a solitary remainder of her days, a surprise encounter with a mouse changes everything and opens her up to new friendships and possibilities. I highly recommend this sweet and quick read, especially now at Christmastime. It is so heartwarming and reminds us that it’s never too late for a new beginning.
I have two other recommendations as well that I read this fall…
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
I loved Intermezzo. This novel is about Peter and Ivan, two brothers living in Ireland who are about a decade apart, and whose father has recently passed away. Peter works as a lawyer while Ivan is a competitive chess player, and the brothers’ differences drive them further apart in their grief. Throughout the story, Peter feels torn between two women — his first love Sylvia and the younger carefree Naomi. Meanwhile, Ivan and an older woman, Margaret, fall for one another. These characters must figure out their romantic and familial relationships, and how everyone fits within their lives. It’s a book about relationships, expectations and desires, grief, possibility, life, and love. Although the prose took me a bit to get used to (Peter’s narrative is told in fragments), I enjoyed reading it and found it moving and beautiful.
Real Americans by Rachel Khong
I enjoyed reading Real Americans, though it came at a busy time work-wise, and I was pretty slow moving through it. It takes place across three generations and begins in 1999 where the young Lily Chen, whose parents escaped from Mao’s Cultural Revolution, lives in New York City and by chance falls in love with Matthew, heir to a pharmaceutical fortune. In 2021, Nick Chen lives with his single mother Lily. Although he has mostly been content with their quiet life, he has always felt alone and different, and ends up going in search of his biological father. The book ends with May, Lily’s mother. The whole story was beautifully told, exploring family, class, race, trust, mistakes, and forgiveness. I highly recommend this intriguing and expansive novel.
I read another book before Sipsworth – The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins – but unfortunately, I did not care for it. I’m currently reading A December to Remember by Jenny Bayliss and enjoying it, and I plan to read Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory over the next week, which was a gift. What are you reading currently? I hope you are staying warm and well!
P.S. More books to read.
Leave a Reply