Expectation: A nuanced and authentic portrayal of the early AIDS epidemic in small town America.
Reality: A well-meaning but melodramatic story that felt a bit like young adult fiction.
All in Audiobook
Age of Vice – Deepti Kapoor
Expectation: A sprawling saga about one of India’s crime families.
Reality: Less literary than anticipated, I was mostly entertained while also being annoyed by the repetitive action and predictable tropes.
James – Percival Everett
Expectation: A straight-forward re-imagining of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”
Reality: A dark, engaging story that builds on the source material and delivers a highly entertaining read more attune to our modern sensibilities.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
Expectation: To be wowed by this stalwart of American literature.
Reality: A bit let down, and not just because of the terrible racism. Essentially this is a story of vignettes with a very loose plot.
Dearborn – Ghassan Zeineddine
Expectation: A “city as the sole connection” collection that reads more like a wannabe novel.
Reality: A sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreak collection about the new American experience that succeeds thanks to its subtlety. There are no bad apples in the bunch.
Everything Sad Is Untrue – Daniel Nayeri
While marketed as middle grade, this memoir transcends the young adult genre with its matter-of-fact honesty and subtle lessons about tolerance, faith and perseverance. Just like Scheherazade, Nayeri uses storytelling for survival.
The Overstory – Richard Powers
Expectation: A powerful story about the human/nature connection and how an ever-accelerating eco-calamity will destroy us all.
Reality: Bloated and boring, there was far too much happening and very little of it was interesting. I’m struggling to see how this won the Pulitzer Prize.
Murder Road – Simone St. James
Expectation: Another twisty supernatural thriller from a rather reliable author.
Reality: St. James delivered a lazy, convoluted plot that asked more from the reader than should’ve been allowed.
Good Material – Dolly Alderton
Expectation: A lighthearted break-up story with the usual rom-com tropes.
Reality: A surprisingly affecting exploration of self-discovery and navigating heartbreak from the perspective of a dumped male.
Martyr! – Kaveh Akbar
Expectation: Writers jumping from poetry to fiction often struggle with pacing and characterization, so I expected an ostentatious mess.
Reality: Akbar's poetic prose and captivating characters shine through the non-linear structure, making “Martyr!” an engaging read despite its occasional superfluousness.
I Have Some Questions for You – Rebecca Makkai
Expectation: A straight-forward mystery thriller framed around 90s nostalgia.
Reality: More literary fiction than traditional suspense, Makkai’s use of hindsight evaluation to move the plot forward had me hooked.
Wandering Stars – Tommy Orange
Expectation: A study in modern Indigenous life in California told through interwoven stories.
Reality: A powerful but uneven exploration of Native American identity that falters a bit as both a sequel/prequel to “There There” but shines with a stellar audiobook narration.
Madonna: A Rebel Life – Mary Gabriel
Making my way through this epic often felt like a slog. It was frustratingly repetitive but also enlightening, forcing me to re-examine my own biases against someone who, I think now, is largely misunderstood as an artist and person.
Now Is Not the Time to Panic – Kevin Wilson
Expectation: An offbeat novel with commentary about misplaced outrage.
Reality: Elements that could’ve lifted this out of typical coming of age territory weren’t mined to completion by the author.
Different Seasons – Stephen King
Expectation: The author branching out into different genres during his peak era of the early 1980s.
Reality: Given how famous two of the stories have become thanks to stellar film adaptations, I was left a bit disappointed in the source material.
The Lottery and Other Stories – Shirley Jackson
Expectation: An assortment of psychological thrillers buoyed by the author’s famous short story, “The Lottery.”
Reality: While each story has elements of intrigue, this was a rather boring outing. If you’re interested in “The Lottery,” skip the full collection and seek it out as a standalone.
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry – Mildred D. Taylor
Expectation: A heavy-handed young adult classic that prioritizes hijinks over meaningful character development and scenario exploration.
Reality: Thoughtful and engrossing, the story had me hooked from the first chapter. This is a fantastic historical fiction introduction to America’s racial injustices.
The Wishing Pool and Other Stories – Tananarive Due
Expectation: Stories to chill-the-bones from a noted voice in the Black horror genre.
Reality: Interesting scenarios and characters are largely overshadowed by ancillary details and incomplete endings.
The Taking of Jake Livingston – Ryan Douglass
Expectation: A “Wednesday” meets “The Sixth Sense” gay horror-romance set in suburban Atlanta.
Reality: The subject matter was darker than expected – a plus – but the execution faltered near the end.
The Vanishing Half – Brit Bennett
Expectation: A searing exploration of race and class told from the perspective of twin sisters who live on opposite ends of the color line.
Reality: Structured to be palatable for the masses, it’s entertaining enough but far from the powerful story I expected given the near universal acclaim it has received.