Read With Us: The Summer 2023 Announcement
Hello Read With Us-ers! Today is the day you’ve been anticipating . . . the day that Bonny and Kym and I announce our summer read. And so, without further delay, the book is The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka.
It’s a book that has been highly praised and is the 2022 winner of the Booker Prize. I read it back in May, right after we chose it for RWU, and this is the review I wrote:
It is not Good vs Evil out here. It is varying degrees of bad, squabbling with conglomerates of the wicked.
I had mixed reactions to this book. At the onset, I loved it and found it reminiscent of Lincoln in the Bardo. And then I was bored and distracted by trying to understand a political climate and time in history of Sri Lanka that I knew nothing about. And then I became caught up in the story and theme yet again. I’ve thought about it many times since finishing it and think it may have been the case of a great book at the wrong time for me. I will say this: the writing is gorgeous and captures an incredible range of emotions. It’s tragic and raw, and the humanity of it all is heartbreaking.
Looking back now, that review sort of surprises me because my recollection is that I really enjoyed the book and that review makes it seem like I didn’t. I think a re-read is in order before our discussion. Which, by the way, will be on Tuesday, September 19th at 7pm on Zoom.
Be sure and visit Bonny and Kym today as they will be sharing this announcement and giving you more (and probably better) reasons to read it. Announcement day is always so exciting for me and I hope you are looking forward to another great season off reading with us!
(And with this post I am now taking the rest of the week off to enjoy our time in Maine!)
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I’m looking forward to this one! Planning to read closer to our discussion date. Enjoy your vacation!
I read just the first few pages yesterday and it’s off to an interesting start! Hope you enjoy a terrific vacation!
I also plan to re-read this before our discussion. I hope you have a nice vacation !
I’m really looking forward to discussing this book with all of you and to rereading it. I plan to do a little more research into the political situation this time around, because I knew nothing the first time I read it (before the Booker announcement), and though I didn’t really need to know specifics, I think I’ll get more out of it on a reread if I know the context. I think it’s a really amazing book, though, and I know I will get a much greater appreciation of it from our discussion!
It’s very true that Seven Moons is full of gray areas and evil abounds, but it also about war and the horrors of warm, and dare I say, maybe even redemption. This was my very, very favorite book of last year and I hope to hear more people loved it as much as I did.