Call Me American: A Memoir by Abdi Nor Iftin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Really interesting and educational memoir. Abdi is a likable, trustworthy narrator, and his story widened my understanding of decades of Somalian conflict and the experiences of American refugees and immigrants. I haven't yet listened to the This American Life that sparked the buzz around Abdi Nor Iftin, but I will. It will be interesting to compare the way producers tell his story to how he tells it himself.

Perhaps most notably, Abdi's take on the election of 2016 is a powerful reminder that no matter how great my own fear of authoritarian leadership, the real victims of the the rich asshole administration will be Americans who are not white.

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Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Such a fun age is smart and complicated without being overly intellectual. It's written with empathy at the same time that it punches freely at the assumptions, embarrassments, and mistakes that we stumble between when grappling with race.

Emira's a deeply likable character who is flawed but also just instantly recognizable. Equally recognizable are the book's two white characters who care about her- Alix and Kelly. The novel examines several truths that are painful to dig into, among them that Emira is very content as a babysitter- care-giving is where she feels good about herself, and it's the rest of the world that wants more ambition from her. It's complicated and the novel asks readers to ask questions, and that is just the most fabulous reading experience. A quck and engrossing read, it's timed well and deals with the fascinating landscape of America in 2016.



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The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sometimes you just realize you entirely missed an author who became culturally important, and it seems like you should figure out why. In Neil Gaiman's case, I'm still a little unsure. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is an imaginary tale that takes a wistful look at childhood, evil, and memory. The story ushers readers through very satisfying emotional registers, and things oscillate from very good to to very scary to very bad and then back to mostly okay.

I don't read a lot of fantasy, and in recent years, as I've tried to read more, I've been pleasantly surprised. Here, the story is good, the writing is excellent, and while it was completely fine, this is not the book to hand the reader who likes their realist fiction in an effort to convert them. It's a story. Parts of it are original, all of it is well done, none of it is leaving much of a resounding impression on this particular reader.

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