Be prepared for luck
By Ina Garden
The lounge chair next to the Florida pool where I was on vacation with my family last winter was the perfect place to celebrate luxury, food and unity in Garten. This memoir is a record of prioritizing adventure over prudent, indulging and modest life. Garten bought a shop in a small town she had never been to, bought a beautiful house that she could barely afford, and wished her husband all the best while he was staying in Hong Kong for work. Of course, her Brio paid off: that food store was successful, she went on to write over a dozen recipes, became a food network star, and made Pavlova with Taylor Swift. This book is escapist, just like the good, breeze reading way. To me, it is also encouraging: Be prepared for luck If I were the kind of Garten like I would do something, I allowed me to imagine what I should do. When I bask in the pleasant winter sun, I find myself thinking, What if we move to Florida or Southern California or elsewhere warm in January? I haven't followed - getting out of fantasy will fade away immediately after you return to reality. But imagine I might be excited for me. - Eleanor Barkhorn
Be prepared for luck
By Ina Garden
Hole
Hye-Young Pyun translated by Sora Kim-Russell
You know the less you want Holethe better; even don't even read a coat. I promise, from the opening scene of the narrator Oghi, you still look up from the fluorescent ceiling, to the end, you will still be attracted by every revelation in this story as he stares into the dark sky. Somewhere in between is a slow accumulation of a quiet disturbance, as the unsafe middle-aged scholar Oghi moves from one physical location to another, and then goes from memory to memory to deeper memory. He reexamines his relationship with his wife and mother-in-law, who are the other two pillars of the novel (although never solved by name). Cozy setting - bedroom, garden, backyard barbecue with friends - transform it into a place of distress. Mediocre scenes later became rampant. Hole Use simple prose to reach the edge of Oghi's trapped thoughts, throwing away the wrong clues about the characters and the red herring. What did Aoji do to his life? What's Oghi completeexactly? When you feel the most free and temporarily unrestrained, you might explore this claustrophobic book, perhaps looking at the infinite horizon. You will feel the contrast of the bones. - Shan Wang
Hole
Hye-Young Pyun translated by Sora Kim-Russell
Great Black Hope
Rob Franklin
At first, the premise of Franklin's debut novel sounds like a typical Labor Day weekend in Southampton: David Smith was arrested for possessing cocaine, his father (also known as David, former university president), who was a local lawyer to help clear his records. But as David Smiths starts his mission, the bets are escalating. Three weeks ago, the body of young David social roommate Elle was found near the East River, and the investigation into her death has stalled. His best friend Carolyn is busy juggling drugs, sober plans and unwise affairs. Most players, including David, are members of the Black American elite, whose privileges feel unstable, and his child, Franklin, observes "adopting two good spirits of a parent's generation, or two spirits of rebellion, and his own rebellious sacrifice." The author bakes the party's satire, tabloid program, and black adult subcategories into rich inquiry about how to live a good life. If Tom Wolfe, Jay McInerney and Margo Jefferson collaborated in some way, this could be a pleasant result. - bk
Great Black Hope
Rob Franklin
If you hear this, please stop me
Kristen Arnett
Cherry Hendricks wants to be a clown — OK, a successful clown: She dreams of a reliable, full-time job who can take her craft seriously, rather than piece together in a pet store shift and birthday party in a wealthy neighborhood in Orlando, Florida. Unfortunately, she hasn't hit it in large quantities, so her days are defined by the troubles of her mother who is far away from money and emotionally distant, only making the problem worse by the death of her brother. Between the shots of the clown star, Cherry makes an impressive chain of wrong decisions, most of which are illegal links to older women. But no matter what new chaos she puts herself in, her passion for art is unwavering and is the key to the charm of the novel. Cherry's serious treatment of the clown transformed shiny and greasy pants from punched threads into a tool of respect for her trade. It enables Arnett to develop ideas about identity, performance, and comedy, and the feeling of loving something (or someone or somewhere) doesn't necessarily fall in love with you. - Elise Hannum
If you hear this, please stop me
Kristen Arnett