Hi friends, I’m about to embark on a nine day work trip, followed immediately by a fun vacation with friends, and I have admittedly never felt so ready for a couple weeks of travel and the opportunity to break out of my routine. While my work trip is going to be action-packed and lacking in downtime, I am holding out hope that I will sneak in a few moments of reading each day and explore some bookstores in Chicago.
It’s likely to be a couple weeks before I’m back at my post writing. Before I log off, though, I’m excited to share another review. My last two reads have been outside of my usual mold, highly enjoyable, and tricky to fully capture, and I am loving that challenge. It truly sparks such joy to discuss books with such nuance and care, and I’m deeply grateful to connect with you all on what you’re reading. Wherever you are, I hope you’re taking good care and enjoying these last fleeting moments of summer.
Currently Reading
CARRIE SOTO IS BACK by Taylor Jenkins Reid. A long work trip is the perfect time for my annual re-read of one of my very favorite TJR novels. This marks my third time reading Carrie Soto, and what I love about rereading books is I gather something new from them each and every single time. Today, only a few chapters in, the word that comes to mind for this novel is visceral. Carrie’s passion, impatience, ambition, agitation, and independence jumps off the page, and I love this palpable energy. If you haven’t read this one yet - and you are perhaps lamenting the end of the Olympics - I cannot recommend this tennis love story highly enough.
Recent Recommendation
INTIMACIES by Katie Kitamura (4.5 stars). As promised, this is another tricky book review and one that requires a lot of thoughtful nuance - which I love! I received Intimacies as a gift from a friend, and she really knocked it out of the park. It made both the New York Times “Best Books” and Obama’s favorite books lists in 2021 (his 2024 list dropped this week), and was also longlisted for the National Book Award, and I now fully understand why.
Intimacies tells the story of a young, unnamed interpreter, on assignment in The Hague, serving within the International Court of Justice that prosecutes those accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. While on assignment and living in the Netherlands, our narrator both starts dating (perhaps a strong word) a man who is (maybe) going through a divorce and becomes all consumed with a violent crime that occurs in a friend’s neighborhood. Our narrator is challenged professionally with the contents of the case she is assigned to; she is excited and then unmoored by her romantic relationship; and she is unsettled by how affected and intrinsically connected she feels to the neighborhood victim’s friends and family. From this introduction alone, you can likely determine that this is a darker, moodier read. There’s an eeriness to this story: I felt like there was always something I just couldn’t quite put my finger on, which I imagine mirrors the narrator’s own experience navigating both the personal and professional dynamics of her life.
What stood out to me most about Intimacies is the way in which language is both deployed and described. Kitamura chooses each word with intention, and then language itself functions as a character as we see the interpreters working through the case on trial. The narrator disassociates with the words she is saying and the meaning they carry because her role is to ensure the closest interpretation to the original spoken meaning. The content can almost wash over her completely, and then she snaps back and realizes what it is she is saying and the power behind her interpreted words. This felt in many ways heartbreaking - as a lover of words who doesn’t want them to ever lose their meaning - and also like the most understandable consequence for the monumental task at hand.
When discussing this book with a friend, she made the incredible point that this book was a beautiful and intriguing way to learn about a job and a place that we perhaps don’t know much about without needing to delve into a dense historical telling of The Hague Court. I cannot think of a better way to describe why I would recommend this book (though perhaps not for those looking for a cheerier, lighthearted read). Though we never learn the narrator’s name, and we collect so few details about her life, we do get a front row seat to what it means to be an interpreter, and particularly what it means in such a high-stakes environment. What’s more, I felt connected to this narrator and invested in her journey of adjusting to a new home - determining if it would be a permanent or temporary location - and grappling with what it means to be immensely talented at a job and still question if its the right path.
It took me a few chapters to fall into this story, and I’m glad I did. It’s a short, compelling, mysterious read, and one I foresee coming back to for an even richer understanding.
Recommend for… fans of Emily St. John Mandel’s The Glass Hotel and Sea of Tranquility
Up Next
MEN HAVE CALLED HER CRAZY by Anna Marie Tendler. I preordered this book months and months ago, and I am so eager to dive in. Tendler is a deeply talented visual artist, and I imagine her writing is going to be beautiful, dark, and deeply relatable. This feels like the right summer-to-fall transition book, and I look forward to sharing a review in the coming weeks!
Three Words
And we’re off!