Medical Apartheid, by Harriet A. Washington: A highly important book whose subject matter was extremely compelling, but whose writing veered didactic and dissertation-like.
The Writing Retreat, by Julia Bartz: This was…very silly.
Normal Family, by Chrysta Bilton: Totally wild – a story by a prolific sperm donor’s first child, whose relationship with him was a cross between parent-child and donor-child and whose mother seems to have known half of Hollywood and politics in the 1980s.
Don’t Think, Dear, by Alice Robb: I always want to read about ballet, but found myself wishing this was a little less survey-like. At one point it seemed like each chapter might follow a specific former ballet classmate of the author, but it didn’t really adhere to that. I think I would have preferred a more straight-up memoir than this pastiche of memoir and history, but I’m probably in the minority on that.
Brotherless Night, by V. V. Ganeshananthan: This is stunning. Set during the start of the Sri Lankan civil war, it’s nuanced, fascinating, and heartbreaking.
