Sadie Stein

It's things that remind me of when I was five years old.

It's random books my grandparents gave me.

There's no rhyme or reason to my reading.

I think I can break an algorithm.

I do, although surprisingly, I think not a great favorite of yours.

This is Perfection by Vincenzo Letronico.

And this is, in fact, his reimagination of another book originally written in French, a book by Georges Perrec from the 60s called Things, which I also recommend.

Basically, this is about...

an expat, youthful couple, millennial couple, living in Berlin and then Lisbon.

They are trying to sell their apartment on Airbnb, sell it as a desirable property.

And essentially it goes through their lives object by object, signifier by signifier.

And it is a novel, which although a rewrite of the 60s novel could only have been written this year, that's depressing for some, too close for some.

For others, I think it's incredibly well observed and interesting.

Every commuter on the F train.

It's an easy read, and it's very much about appearances, ironically, and...

signaling and what things mean to young people today, what materialism means.

I should think so, but the joke would be on them.

Yes.

I did at Jumanas Urging and I'm very glad for it.

All right, Gilbert, what is a book that you enjoyed this year?