During the pandemic of 2021, after spending so many months worried about what was going on in the world and all the sad news about the many lives that were lost, being stuck at home, and trying to comfort family and friends, I felt that I needed something to help keep my sanity. I needed something to ground me a little and give me a sense of hope. Reading was definitely one of the things that helped.

A few years ago, I read this incredible book that had me hooked right from the start—City of Thieves by David Benioff, and what really spoke to me was its focus on friendship—friendship between two people who couldn’t be more different from each other. Set during the siege of Leningrad in World War II, the story revolves around two main characters: Lev Beniov, a young Russian teenager, and Kolya, a deserter from the Red Army.

My journey with "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Díaz began with a recommendation from my wife, who had been exploring a series of books written by authors from Spanish-speaking countries. I started reading it with some reluctance, as my past experiences with books where characters mix languages—using words from their mother tongue and the language of their adopted country—had often made me cringe. These narratives felt exaggerated and fake, much like Sofía Vergara’s accent in Modern Family.

Every now and then, my wife and I inadvertently catch ourselves reminiscing about the time when we first met and started dating, our decision to get married, and the choice to have a daughter “right away.” These and many other decisions from our past have shaped our destiny and influenced our growth as partners, parents, professionals, and decent human beings. We often find ourselves grappling with the quintessential question: given the chance to go back in time, would either one of us change any of those decisions?