I’ve spent my summers going on adventures of all kinds. One of the things I was particularly looking forward to this summer was my summer reading oasis. We all try to find time to read during the semester, but I know this all too well: I’m in bed by 9pm, too exhausted to read any more. So as May came to a close, I was keen to get my future reading plans on GoodReads moving forward. Here are a few highlights from my summer reading.
“There There” by Tommy Orange
I will forever be disappointed that I couldn’t bring myself to read this easily digestible 304-page book. Flashback to the fall of my freshman year, when I was sitting in my Native American Studies classroom and my professor was singing the praises of There There. I wrote the title in my notebook, but sadly forgot about it until I spotted the book two summers later at my local bookstore. I just couldn’t resist the urge to grab the book and swipe my credit card. I had saved There There for a three-hour flight and read it almost in one sitting.
The story, or rather stories, is set in Oakland and describes the deep-rooted connection of the Native American community to the city. Orange weaves together 12 Native American stories, all connected to the Big Oakland Powwow. When we look at the different perspectives, we quickly realize that there is much more to these stories than meets the eye and that no one-size-fits-all approach does them justice. Six years after the book was published, I have finally found my way back to There There. Better late than never.
“The Ninth Hour” by Alice McDermott
The story of a suicide that tests “the limits and demands of love and sacrifice, of forgiveness and forgetting, even across multiple generations” – I was instantly captivated when I read that description on the back of a book whose cover also attracted me. After my first errand in Berkeley, I headed to Mrs. Dalloway’s bookstore to find a new book to settle into my new apartment with. I left with The Ninth Hour.
The book opens with a suicide in 20th century Brooklyn that drives a woman, Annie, and child, Sally, into a community of nuns. This is actually the only place in the novel where there is “action” – and where men take an active role in the narrative. Admittedly, this was a bit of a slower read for me due to the less attention-grabbing language, but McDermott seemed to have intended this to fully convey the nature of these women’s lives. Annie is forced to go to work in a convent and Sally grows up in a sheltered environment that shapes her young adult life. One particularly powerful scene is when Sally actually leaves her convent life and moves to Chicago and is bombarded with characters she’s never met before. McDermott shows depression, shame, faith, and sacrifice as her characters successfully navigate these themes while also failing.
These and many other books kept me company during my lovely summer months in Berkeley. Hopefully I can carry my reading routine into the new school year, because it really was a nice way to escape reality for a moment. I have rediscovered my temporarily lost love of reading in the last few months and I fully intend to continue with it, even as obligations increase.
