Book Chatter

Seek Immediate Shelter
By Vincent Yu
Flatiron Books, May 2026, 304 pp.

The Short of It:

In a life or death situation, a lot comes to light.

The Rest of It:

Imagine going about your day and receiving a ballistic missile threat notification that sends you into a panic to seek immediate shelter.

BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

The people in this small town have only a few moments to make a decision. What will they do? One father pushes his family into a bathtub to ride it out. Another runs around his house with his wife and baby, only to leave her standing in the garage with a baby in her arms. A woman sends an unforgivable text to her daughter.

Chaos. Panic. Hurt feelings and disappointment. Emergencies can bring out the best or worst in a relationship. When you have a critical need and it’s not being met, plus the possibility of losing your life, you make rash decisions.

Then, they receive another message. It was all a mistake. A. FALSE. ALARM.

Your wife is standing in the garage holding a baby you forgot as you sped off. How do you recover from that? Innocent mistake or a shift in priorities? How do you take back a horrific text you sent to your daughter? You can’t.

These inadequacies and insecurities existed long before the emergency notification, but none of these people were at a point in their lives where they wanted to admit it. I gotta tell ya, these characters are not likable. Still, there’s something about their desperation and the way the story is told that holds you there, rapt, unable to let go.

Flawed. Imperfect. Recommend.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

How Beautiful We Were
By Imbolo Mbue
Random House, February 2022, 384pp.

The Short of It:

This wasn’t a book I fell in love with, but it’s one I’ll remember.

The Rest of It:

How Beautiful We Were tells the story of the fictional village of Kosawa, where an American oil company’s greed destroys the land, the water, and the lives of its people. It’s an exploration of environmental injustice, corruption, and the cost of standing up to power.

While I never fully connected with the story as a whole, I was completely taken with Thula. Seeing the atrocities through her eyes softened their harshness, as her thoughtful nature and concern for the village’s well-being guided every decision she made.

Watching her grow from a young girl into a fearless revolutionary gave the novel its emotional center for me. Her determination was fierce.

This isn’t an easy read, but I appreciate what Mbue accomplished. The themes are timely, the message is powerful, and the story serves as a sobering reminder of the human cost when profit is valued over people.

Profit over people’s lives is still an issue we are battling today.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Bookshop.org affiliate links.

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