{"id":144060,"date":"2021-11-11T10:00:33","date_gmt":"2021-11-11T15:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.danverslibrary.org\/readthis\/?p=144060"},"modified":"2021-11-03T16:29:34","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T20:29:34","slug":"rachel-reads-massachusetts-book-awards-nominees-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danverslibrary.org\/readthis\/?p=144060","title":{"rendered":"Rachel Reads: Massachusetts Book Awards Nominees"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Massachusetts Book Awards<\/a> recognize significant works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children\u2019s\/young adult literature published by current Commonwealth residents. As a judge for the 21st Annual Awards, I\u2019ve been tasked with reading all fourteen fiction nominees. Read more reviews here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An interwoven set of linked chapters, Inheritors<\/a> is also a generational saga of a Japanese family before, during, and after World War II. The book includes a table of contents as well as a family tree, which visualizes the connections between characters and across timelines. I don\u2019t particularly gravitate toward historical fiction (least of all fiction set during World War II) but Inheritors brought a new perspective to war fiction. In connecting all of the characters familially and structuring her novel non-chronologically, Serizawa asks her readers to examine what it means to inherit. Just as genes can pass from one generation to the next, so too can grief and trauma.<\/p>\n

Impersonation<\/a> follows single-mother Allie as she ghostwrites a \u2018motherhood memoir\u2019 for a prominent feminist during the 2016 US presidential election, continually blurring the line between her subject\u2019s life and her own as she\u2019s given less and less material with which to work. I could have easily seen this as a thriller \u00e0 la Single White Female<\/a> or The Talented Mr. Ripley<\/a>\u2014which, without reading the summary first, is where I thought the book was going\u2014but it\u2019s mainly about Allie\u2019s life and all that encompasses: a fraught relationship with her mother, a casual fling with a man who\u2019s \u201cfinding himself,\u201d and, most importantly, taking care of her four-year-old son without much help. While I enjoyed the time I spent reading, the book was mostly just\u2026 okay, a solid three-star read that could have been worse but also better. (To be swayed by an eye-catching cover\u2026)<\/p>\n

A gorgeously illustrated retelling of the Mayan myth of creation, Popol Vuh<\/a> was read in one sitting. Although I wished this had been available in audio (if for no other reason than the pronunciations), I still got to spend an evening enjoying art and getting more cultured. Stavans\u2019s adaptation in the fiction category specifically subverts and questions what it means to call something a myth\u2014what, in essence, a library or individual might think of as fiction versus fact.<\/p>\n

Still on my list:<\/p>\n