Books I Learn in February 2025

Present Don’t Inform by Curtis Sittenfeld is a set of 12 brief tales by the creator of American Spouse, Rodham and Romantic Comedy. White Girls LOL is a stand-out satire about cancel tradition, whereas Misplaced However Not Forgotten, the final story within the assortment, sees the primary character from Sittenfeld’s debut novel Prep, getting ready to attend her 30 yr boarding faculty reunion. The Richest Babysitter within the World is a memorable story a few lady who works for a pair who later turn out to be tech billionaires. Sittenfeld tends to give attention to the home preoccupations of middle-aged ladies from the Midwest, so whereas Present Don’t Inform isn’t notably experimental or numerous by way of material or themes, Sittenfeld deploys her sharp wit and commentary simply as successfully briefly type as she does in her novels, leading to a satisfying and constant assortment of tales. Many because of Random Home UK for sending me a overview copy through NetGalley.

I used to be midway via studying Woman Oracle by Margaret Atwood when it was introduced that the Canadian creator will probably be publishing her memoir E book of Lives in November. Woman Oracle is one in every of Atwood’s early novels first revealed in 1976 and tells the story of Joan Foster, a Gothic romance novelist with an eventful previous which ultimately catches up together with her. As with Cat’s Eye, Atwood writes brilliantly about painful childhood experiences, whereas Joan’s adventures with the Polish rely are very humorous, as is Atwood’s skewering of the literary world when Joan unexpectedly turns into an acclaimed feminist poet. Joan is adept at weaving a number of identities for herself which results in a barely over-the-top conclusion, however demonstrates Atwood’s sophistication as a novelist even in her early work. This glorious novel jogged my memory that it’s properly value exploring extra of Atwood’s in depth again catalogue past her most well-known books.

Superb Exploits by Ferdia Lennon appears to have been shortlisted for just about each literary prize going this yr (aside from the Booker Prize regardless of my prediction). It’s set within the Sicilian metropolis of Syracuse through the Peloponnesian Battle in 412BC when unemployed potters, Lampo and Gelon, determine to stage a manufacturing of Medea and forged captured Athenian prisoners. The Irish vernacular within the dialogue rapidly blends in regardless of the classical setting. Though the pacing is a bit far and wide for a comparatively brief novel, Superb Exploits is a extremely unique debut with a daring idea, and undoubtedly really helpful for individuals who take pleasure in historic fiction with a streak of absurdity.

Non-public Revolutions by Yuan Yang has been longlisted for the Girls’s Prize for Non-Fiction this yr. Elected as a Labour MP final July shortly after this ebook was revealed, Yang was born in China and moved to the UK on the age of 4, and was a journalist for the Monetary Instances based mostly in Beijing. Her ebook is concerning the experiences of 4 ladies, Siyue, June, Leiya and Sam, who have been all born in rural areas of China within the Nineteen Eighties and Nineties. Yang stories on how their lives as younger adults have been impacted by tensions between custom and reform and the divide between rural and metropolis life, notably the challenges confronted by migrant staff and the limitations to monetary stability as a result of hukou system which determines entry to advantages comparable to schooling relying on the place individuals dwell. The ladies’s backgrounds have been largely fairly related which made their particular person tales much less distinctive, however this ebook may be very informative about more moderen developments in modern China comparable to post-COVID life and the expansion of the edutech sector in such a aggressive system.