Reading Lately

Little Nothing by Marisa Silver
This is an unusual and intriguing story that is both a novel and a fairytale of sorts.  An older couple in an unnamed Eastern European village prays for a child. However, when their daughter Pavla is born, they are shocked and dismayed because she is a dwarf.  They grow to love her, of course, but still take her from one "doctor" to the next hoping for a "cure".  Along the way, she meets Danilo, who falls in love with her.  But this is not your ordinary story, because the treatment actually transforms Pavla, in multiple ways.  Danilo never stops loving Pavla; when they part ways, he never gives up searching for her. Parts of this book are dark and disturbing, but that's how most fairy tales are, after all. I don't want to give anything away. The ending was surprising and satisfying as things came full circle. I really enjoyed this book and was eager to return to it each evening.

Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday
This book is very popular right now and has won many book awards.  The novel has three distinct sections.  In Part 1, Mary Alice, a young editor and would-be writer becomes involved with Ezra, a world famous Nobel-prize winning author. Theirs is a May-December romance as Ezra is well into his 70's and obsessed with his health.  Part 2 is the story of Amar, a young American of Iraqi descent who is detained at Heathrow Airport for several days en route to visiting his brother. While reading, I had absolutely no idea of why or how these stories were connected. I was expecting Mary Alice to show up at Heathrow. Part 3 is a return to Ezra, and takes the form of him being interviewed for a radio program.  After I read Part 3 I was still confused and had to look online to figure out what the connection was between the three parts of the book.  I liked Part 1, did not like Part 2 and was confused after Part 3. I am the type of person who never hesitates to stop reading a book I don't like, and something about this kept me reading. It was like I wanted to understand the connection by myself, but couldn't.

Inheritance by Dani Shapiro
This was the only non-fiction book of the bunch.  Dani Shapiro was 54 when she casually did an ancestry.com DNA test and discovered that the man who raised her was not her biological father. She recalled a conversation decades earlier where her mother mentioned that she was conceived in Philadelphia.  It took only a few days to find out that her mother had sought the help of the long closed Farris Institute on the UPenn campus.  Her biological dad was a medical student who donated sperm (now a retired doctor).  This revelation was shocking and of course life-changing. It also answered many questions that Dani had fielded her whole life, especially being told that she didn't look Jewish in her Orthodox family.  This is an excellent book that unfolded like a detective novel. Since her parents have both passed away, she cannot turn to them.  Instead, she goes on a personal quest interviewing family members, medical experts and religious leaders, looking for and finding answers.