Tag Archives: Short Stories

Review: The Answer Is No

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The Answer Is No by Fredrik Backman
Publisher: Amazon
Pub Date: 12/1/2024

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lucas enjoys his quiet and solitary life, but everything changes when his apartment board insists on investigating a misplaced frying pan. Their relentless meddling turns his peaceful existence upside down in this witty, laugh-out-loud short story.

Overall, I really liked The Answer Is No! It’s a bit silly, but I love how Backman weaves heartfelt and resonant quotes about finding happiness, the importance of community, and protecting your inner peace. I truly felt for Lucas as he was dragged into a situation he never asked for and that had nothing to do with him. That said, I loved his interactions with everyone. I was amazed at how Backman managed to infuse so much depth into his characters in such a short story.

Review: Roman Stories

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Roman Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri
Publisher: Knopf
Pub Date: 10/10/2023

Thank you to Knopf for the free advanced paperback copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Roman Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri is a collection of nine short stories that dive into the complexities of life in Rome, where the city itself becomes a central character. Lahiri explores themes of immigration, cultural clashes, and the search for belonging through vivid narratives set in the heart of the Italian capital which is translated from Italian by the author and Todd Portnowitz.

I went into Roman Stories not really knowing what it was about, but I was glad to see it was collection of short stories much like much like Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth (my all-time favorite) and Interpreter of Malladies. I had mixed feelings about this one. I always admired the depth of emotion that Jhumpa captures in her writing as she did in her previous works. However, I found that couldn’t connect with this boo the way I did with her previous works. P’s Parties was my favorite and resonated with me the most. The others were a bit unmemorable to me. I found the audiobook to be great because there was a cast of narrators. If you decide to read it, it’s more similar to Whereabouts.

Best 9 Books I Read In 2017

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This year I decided to pick up my old hobby of reading. I couldn’t remember the last time I read a novel for leisure. I used to read a lot back in middle school and high school and dropped it off after I went to college. After that, I made up excuses of work, lack of time or that I didn’t have the attention span for it anymore. But then something in me changed for the better this year. Getting back into the habit of reading was difficult at first, but I slowly gained momentum and finally realized what I’ve been missing out on these past few years.

When I started to read again this year, I didn’t set up any goals on how many books I would read in a month or how many I wanted to read by the end of this year. I didn’t want to set too high expectations so then I could easily get discouraged.

I don’t think I’ll do a reading goal for next year either. For me, it’s not about the quantity of books. It’s about the quality that I read and finding ones that resonate with me.

Without further ado, here are the best 9 books I read in 2017 in no particular order: Continue reading →