Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor

Every action in a small town issues ripples that reverberate farther and longer than one might imagine; in this book, the disappearance of a teenage girl affects the next 13 years of the village's seasonal cycles.

We've become accustomed to every event in a book leading to the next big reveal, which gives this book a strange, eerie electricity because nothing ever happens. Chapters are years, and paragraphs are generally months. It's a stream-of-conscious retelling of things, with no real emphasis put on more or less important events: the birds migrate, trees bud, the well gets decorated, kids go to school (or not), dogs are walked, marriages begin and end, and sex is had.

Which isn't to say it it's boring - I really enjoyed the ebb and flow of life in this small English village. It's a peaceful read, and I found it a relaxing wind-down at the end of my day.

This book was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2017 (which eventually went to Lincoln in the Bardo).

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Tidal debris deposits a baggie containing a heck of a story, right at the feet of a beach-combing stymied writer.

The bag's contents include artifacts and journals: an early-2000's Japanese schoolgirl's troubles, her 104-year-old great-grandmother's zen teachings, her depressed father's woe, and a dramatic WWII kamikazi story told two ways. Those many, many stories are layered and twisted into the threads of the novelist's life and longing in a small Canadian outlier island as she explores her find.

Many times while I was listening to this book, I suspected I'm not deep enough to really get all that was going on in subtext and philosophy. But none-the-less, I enjoyed the story immensely.

This audiobook is read by the author - and there's an interesting note at the end. Ozeki explains that the book includes graphs, footnotes and other marginalia that doesn't translate well to the audio format, so you may wish to find a copy of the book to see what you missed. Additionally, though, she explains that audio listeners get a richer, deeper portrayal of the book's characters as she gets to add inflection, tone, and characterization through her dramatic reading. Much like the book itself, many different interpretations of the same text. Up is down - down is up.