I’m truly shocked at how well I’ve kept up with my reading so far. I suppose having quiet time at home from essentially 8 PM onwards helps. I think I did the bulk of my reading after our son’s bedtime and during naptimes. It’s a good routine for all of us.
We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida, translated by E. Madison Shimoda • ★★★★☆
I hate to say it, but I always thought of pet-focused books as being kind of hokey. I think Marley and Me is to thank (and, nope, I’ve never even read it!). But We’ll Prescribe You a Cat availed me of that misconception.
Within a few pages, I felt like I was snuggling up with a comfy blanket, a cup of tea and, of course, a cat on sunny morning.
In We’ll Prescribe You a Cat, a handful of patients visit the unusual Kokoro Clinic for the Soul. The doctor there is odd and has one treatment: cats. Chapter after chapter, patients take home pets to cure what ails them: work struggles, dealing with cliques at school, coping with loss, and so on.
It sounds so simple, but that’s part of the joy. Sometimes all you need to set you right is a cat (and a good book).
Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle •🎧• ★★★★☆
Wolf in White Van pulls you backward through time. It begins with Sean who runs a mail-in role-play game. Two high schoolers who subscribed to this fantasy world began to blur the lines between imagination and reality. As Sean deal with these ramifications, you go back in time with him. How did this game begin? Who is Sean? How did he come to be?
Darnielle leaves you to connect a lot of the dots which makes Wolf in White Van (and his other novels) an exceedingly interesting read.
Enjoying the audio versions of these is almost essential. Darnielle has a unique voice in the literary and literal senses, and they both augment his work.
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich • ★★★★☆
I’ve never read a Louise Erdrich book set in the present era. I wondered for a split second if this could match The Master Butchers Singing Club or Four Winds. Because she is Erdrich, all she does is incredible.
The first chapter of The Sentence was not what I expected; it kicks off with Tookie unknowingly committing a crime and going to prison. That wasn’t what I was interested in. However, the book quickly flashes forward to Tookie’s life after prison. She’s married, works at a bookshop (run by a fictional Erdrich!) and deals with sometimes irritating customers.
After her most aggravating customer dies, Tookie believes she’s being haunted. And somehow, Erdrich weaves this ghost story into what the world was like in 2020, from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to the death of George Floyd and beyond. It’s masterful and heartwarming. Maybe I should nudge this one to five stars?
The Witches of Santo Stefano by Wendy Webb • ★★★☆☆
I’ll say this: I don’t think that Wendy Webb is the best writer in the world. Despite having gothic themes, her books are filled with Hallmark movie-esque characters (and some plot holes). But I still find her books irresistible.
All are set in the Midwest, several in Wharton, a fictionalized version of Bayfield, Wisconsin (one of my favorite places); that’s certainly a major part of the appeal.
The Witches of Santo Stefano starts in Wharton where soon-to-be-divorced Cassie discovers in family records that her great-grandmother’s cause of death was witchcraft. Cassie feels the need to get to the bottom of the witchcraft mystery (and to get away from her spouse) for a while, so she travels to her family’s ancestral home: Santo Stafano, Italy.
From the jump, Cassie is in an Italian Hallmark movie: She befriends the owner of a cafe and her Airbnb host, gets a crush on a local, and gets all up in the family business of her new friends. It’s cute. It’s very cozy. It’s also not as scary as Webb’s other outings. I’ll also say that I found the family tree portion of this book a little confusing. I think the story went back one generation too far if you ask me!
See you next month! And remember, I’ll be over on The StoryGraph this year!
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