My Reading Month: February
Hello!
I “slowed down” this month in terms of reading, mostly meaning I listened to a few more audiobooks, and made it through fewer actual books. This was because I hit a slump with a few books that were tough to get through, and because it has just been a busy month.
I have also been struggling because the political events of the past few months have left me feeling very raw, particularly as I look at who the media and the powers that be seem to want to tell stories about, and how blatant that can be and still be considered to be acceptable. I will likely have more to say about that as I contemplate it more, but right now I feel raw, and that is a tough place to be.
This month I want to talk about a number of great books, so I am going to try and keep things short. Overall, it was a good reading month, and I definitely found some great new reads!
Surprisingly honest and wrenching celebrity memoirs
I have a soft spot for celebrity memoirs by funny women, especially when they are narrated by the women themselves like Bossypants by Tina Fey, Yes Please by Amy Poehler or Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer, and I picked up This Will Only Hurt A Little by Busy Phillips, of Instagram and Freaks and Geeks fame, thinking it would be similar.
I was wrong.
This Will Only Hurt A Little, while giving great gossipy tidbits about celebrities is far more honest and far more heartbreaking than any of the books I mentioned above, and it was an exceptional work of vulnerability that had me close to tears on numerous occasions. I feel the need to give trigger warnings here, as Phillips talks about rape, teen pregnancy and abortion, substance abuse and sexual harassment, but I also want to make sure folks know that she touches on these issues with an incredible amount of heart and warmth, and deals with them very well.
Another lovely memoir I read was Just Kids by Patti Smith, which is a wonderful ode to the bohemian world of New York City in the late 60s and early 70s and to Smith’s relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Wrenching it is not, but Smith’s distance from the time period and clear nostalgia for her young self made this book feel slightly magical and wonderful.
Brutal and necessary nonfiction
While it was a book that took me a LONG time to finish, mostly because the subject matter, I also highly recommend Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. This book, which looks at the severe economic repercussions of rising income inequality and failing social safety nets was, quite honestly, horrifying.
However, it made me mad, and it made me mad in a way that surpasses political boundaries and rhetoric, which I think is something we need right now.
This book is very simply written and the writing style can be a little clumsy at times, but the stories Kristof and WuDunn are telling about the way we are failing American citizens every day need to be heard. As they travel throughout the country, they look at issues of poverty and inequality across racial and rural/urban lines, and what they find is both awful and sometimes heartening.
I honestly can’t say too much more, but I do encourage others to pick it up, as it is a book i really want to be having conversations about!
Oddly idyllic fiction
I am usually not a “feel good” book reader, but this month, I picked up a few interesting books that fit that description, and found them highly enjoyable, perhaps because I needed an escape so badly!
The first was The Plover, by Brian Doyle. This wasn’t a typical feel-good book, and the writing style is poetic to the extreme, but the story of this odd group of people who find themselves sharing a very small boat in the Pacific Ocean was a fun read.
Secondly, I read what I think is a feel-good classic, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin, which I knew nothing about. I don’t want to tell you too much, because the story itself unfolded beautifully, but it was essentially a wonderfully sweet and bookish story of love and belonging, and had me reading way to late in the night.
One more
If I can try your patience with one more book, I want to plug a book that I really enjoyed. Such A Fun Age but Kiley Reid is a glossy contemporary novel that is an entertaining and fast paced read that explores issues of millennialism, racism and white privilege through an interesting lens, without being academic in the least.
This is a book where mother get together and drink too much wine while their kids have sleepovers, and also a book where young black women deal with very real and sometimes scary microaggressions, but it hangs together into a fun read that also has something to say.
It is also a book that should make you slightly uncomfortable, and a book where you may not like the characters, but you will stay to watch the impending clash anyway. Enjoy!
Sorry for the overload this month, and stay tuned for my thoughts about the way stories are told in this culture, a round up of some fun recent book awards, and a quick note about some super fun book-related march madness things to follow for those who are not as interested in the NCAA!
