Mimi

I put off reading this book for a long time because I was afraid, despite its good reviews, that it would be a cringe-inducing portrait of a middle-aged woman. It's not. It's a series of stories, some that focus on Olive Kitteridge and some that just happen around her, that creates a community of characters. I read it in one afternoon because I couldn't wait to see what happened next.

Reread this for the Book Riot Challenge category of “a book with a cover you hate.” In this case, the publisher seems to argue that the cover was made intentionally vulgar to make a point (https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/07/elena-ferrante-covers-bad-no-good/488732/). Maybe, but still, I hate it. I also noticed that the blurb on the cover refers to the book as being “amiably peopled.” “Amiable” is about the last thing any of these characters are.

Still one of my favorite books ever, and 2018 challenge complete.

For the Read Harder Challenge–A romance novel by or about a person of color. Very readable, although it dragged a bit in the middle. The two main characters get together fairly early in the book, so there's not a lot of suspense about that. Mostly I liked Maggie's ability to take care of herself and the section at the end where the author discusses her historical research about people of color in the 1880s.

Listened to this one, and got teary-eyed when he talked about his wife dying; even more so when he described how he still has conversations with her. Seems like a decent guy.

I would like to give this book 11 stars, but will settle for 5.