Books I Read in June

Okay, this is going to be a long one, because I just counted and holy cow, I read 18 books in June! I think that ties my previous record from last July, but I'm still impressed! I mean, I was hoping that my summer schedule would open up some good reading time, but I wasn't quite expecting to make this much headway. This brings my total number of books read this year to 53. My goal for the whole year is 100, so I am now officially ahead of schedule, which feels a bit like a miracle considering how behind I got after losing my commute to quarantine. Anyway, this means there are a lot of books to talk about, and I had a really broad mix of fluff and serious stuff, so let's jump in.

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

After reading The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek last December, I was not excited to jump into *another* book about the packhorse librarian women of Great Depression Kentucky (sometimes themes come in floods). But this one was also getting high recommends from some trusted sources, and I was interested in giving Moyes another shot, so I read it... and honestly this might be my favorite Moyes book (I doubt that's a universal opinion). So yes, I liked it. I don't know if I liked it better than Book Woman, they are similar but different and I generally recommend them both, especially if you enjoy historical fiction with strong female characters.

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee

This was another historical fiction with a strong female lead, but this time about the plight of Chinese-Americans in a still very racist turn of the 19th-Century Atlanta Georgia (I had no idea that Chinese were not legally allowed to live anywhere, crazy!). First, I want to say this is YA, and feels like it. Second, I found the ending (and maybe the story in general) to be far too optimistic and sweet to be realistic. But there were several things I loved, foremost of which were the Miss Sweetey articles (the main character free-lances as an anonymous advice columnist), which I thought were delightful. If you enjoy sweet YA that attempts to address serious themes, this is a general recommend.

Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center

A tough female fire-fighter just trying to make it in a very patriarchal profession, plus deal with the trauma of her past, falls in love with the cute new rookie, which is absolutely the last thing she needs to deal with. Despite the fact that I have almost nothing in common with this main character, I rather enjoyed this fluffy-with-just-a-touch-of-serious romance. Also, learned a bit about fire departments.

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

I absolutely adored Mandel's book Station Eleven, and I've been meaning to read more of her since then... but this one was a complete disappointment. I mean, her writing is still beautiful at the sentence level, but the plot structure here was essentially nonexistent, with no real characters to connect with or root for. The ghost thing was too unexplained for my tastes. Some of the bits about the Ponzi scheme were kind of interesting, the moral dilemmas there, but mostly, this book was utterly forgettable. Don't bother.

Tightrope by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

This book is by the same authors as Half the Sky, a book I found to be a very important read for me about global feminist issues. The topic they tackle here is poverty in America, and it is just as important, if no less pleasant to read about. I highly recommend this to everyone, we need to be educated on these issues, because I feel like poverty in America is often far too invisible (I certainly don't see it). Honestly, the picture they portray here is of an America that is slipping in places backwards into second and even third-world territory, and we need to do something about it. I have several complaints about the book. I don't necessarily agree with every solution they put forward, and I was also disappointed that they didn't address race and poverty as intersectional issues (in that, they didn't acknowledge that poverty affects BIPOC Americans differently than white Americans), so this isn't perfect, but this is important.

The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

Fun new fantasy series recommended by my husband. Reminded me a bit of Brandon Sanderson. If you like epic fantasy, I recommend (though I've only read one book, waiting on the second one, and apparently there are four or five books in the series, so we'll see...).

Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum

A nice little You've Got Mail-vibes YA story about the new girl at an elite private school who starts receiving anonymous emails from a fellow student giving her pointers about how to survive. It was decently clean from what I can remember, and cute, but nothing super special.

Tweet Cute by Emma Lord

In a random coincidence completely unsought by myself, the very next book that happened to come off my holds list was another You've Got Mail YA riff about secret anonymous pen pals at an elite private school. This one also involves a snarky Twitter war and some epically bad parenting, and I quite enjoyed it, probably more than the first? All I know is that "Secret Pen Pals at Elite Private Schools YA RomCom" is now a list I have two titles for.

Dear Martin by Nic Stone

I talk about this one more on the list at the end of this post, but this is a short YA novel that packs a punch and manages to cover a lot of the big issues/arguments around race in America today. Language warning, but it's a general recommend.

Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

Look, there are problems with all of Gladwell's books, and this is no different. There are flaws in his reasoning and arguments. That said, he discusses some really pertinent ideas in this book that have to do with current events and issues. His mapping of the history of police department practices was fascinating in consideration of recent calls to defund the police, and I'm still thinking hard about his chapter on alcohol and rape (especially after reading Know My Name). In essence, lots of good interesting stuff to think about here, and I highly recommend (also, need to throw a plug in for the audio book, which is produced much more like a podcast, with actual sound bytes from interviews and news stories and music, it's fantastic!)

Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles

Despite ticking many of my boxes (beautiful writing, slow character-driven novel, historical fiction), this one didn't quite hit for me. I think other people who value slower literary novels may potentially really like this one, it just wasn't for me at this particular point. Also listened to this one, and I must say the production team on this audio book missed a real opportunity to add clips of all the music mentioned in the book (seriously would've been so fantastic if they had done that). Anyway, I want to try another Jiles book, because I have a feeling a different story from her might really work for me.

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

I've been meaning to read this one for a while, but there's no audio version! (At least, not from any of my library sources.) So I finally got a paper copy, and breezed through it in an evening. It's light and fluffy, but seriously good writing and super enjoyable, my favorite Rowell by far.

Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Another book I've been meaning to read for ages but could not get on audio. But you guys! Five stars! Beautiful! Spoke directly to my inner soul! Essays on motherhood/wifehood, solitude, simplicity, living a balanced life... lovely, impactful writing. I want to own this and reread every year. I can't believe it was written in 1955, it still felt so incredibly relevant. Highly recommend!

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

Look, if you don't like sci-fi/fantasy, stay away from this one, and even if you do, you still might not like this one. Jemisin is just very, very different, but I'm totally intrigued by her creative world-building, even if I can't decide if I actually like her stories (and language warnings galore). This one takes a lot of effort to describe (cities are alive, they have avatars that are people, another dimension is attacking, New York is being "born"... yes, it's weird), but I will say that it was fascinating to read this after teaching H.P. Lovecraft this past semester, because Jemisin basically writes a response/reversal of the Lovecraftian racist mythos, and it was really interesting. I also learned a whole lot about New York. Oh, and major props to the audio book production team, because they went above and beyond to make a unique experience audio book (with sound mixing, etc.) that really fit the story well (though it might bother some people).

A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer

So this is a Beauty and the Beast retelling, and you know how much I enjoy a good fair-tale retelling. I wouldn't say this one is incredible or a must read, but I certainly enjoyed it enough I'll continue on with the series (trilogy, of course). It's YA and fairly clean and full of action, generally recommend.

Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon

Yes, WWII books are so overdone and I was totally turned off by how similar this title is to Code Name Verity, but do you know what got me with this one? It's a true story! I mean, it's written like a novel and takes some licence, but it is heavily researched and based on a real woman's life, Nancy Wake, who was the most highly decorated female spy working for the British SEO in France with the resistance. Her life is incredible! I probably never would've been friends with her in real life, but she is one heck of a character, that's for sure! I really want to read her actual biography now, but it's out of print and available nowhere. In general, I completely recommend, just don't look her up on Wikipedia and spoil the ending for yourself (or do, so you are emotionally prepared). The back-and-forth plot structure in this book is annoying, but otherwise a fascinating read.

The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks

While I'm waiting for Book 2 of the Black Prism series to come off the holds list, I decided to jump into one of Weeks earlier trilogies. It's about an assassin's apprentice (I've seen that trope before) and was quite dark and violent, not quite as good as the other series, but good enough I'll continue with this series too. Love fantasy that does politics too.

The Flat Share by Beth O'Leary

What's summer for if not to read a bunch of fluffy Rom Coms? And if you prefer yours with a touch of substance (in this case, emotional abuse and trauma), then this is the perfect book for you. I enjoyed it.








Okay, whew, that was a lot of books for one month. Typing all that up, I can't believe I fit all of that reading in! Clearly, this is shaping up to be a great summer of reading (although all my social justice/racism books are starting to come in, which means my July reading might look quite a bit less fluffy). How's your summer reading coming?

Books I Read in May

Well, yes, definitely behind here on these updates, but they're more for my personal benefit than yours, right? May started off rough with end of the semester craziness, then I got sick somehow (even after being in quarantine, only trips to the grocery store! So baffling (not to mention frustrating)! I got tested, negative for flu and Covid19, so no idea what it was, but it took me out for almost a week). But the second half of the month we started settling down into a nice summer pattern, which included a lot more time for reading/listening to audio books, and maxing out my library holds now that my local branch opened for pick-up! Anyway, I read some interesting stuff last month, so let's talk about them!

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein

I picked this one up after reading Amy's intriguing review, and found it super interesting. I've been in academia long enough to become incredibly frustrated by the specialization idealized there (seriously, I can't even write about Shakespeare and Austen in the same paper, because they belong to two different literary time periods, ugh!). Epstein manages to walk a fine line of not overly falling into the same trap as other pop psychology authors (like Gladwell) who narrowly focus on their own argument as the end-all be-all to the exclusion of other ideas--Epstein at least acknowledges there are some fields where specialization is preferred (like being a world class chess champion)--but in general I agree that interest across a wide range of fields is a very positive thing. In brief, I enjoyed this and generally recommend.

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

I wanted to like this book so much. I mean, it's about libraries! Book love! Fascinating tidbits of historical detail mixed in with the overall narrative of the Los Angeles Public Library system! It seems right up my ally! Alas, Orlean didn't quite deliver. I feel like in the hands of a different author, this could've been so much better. As it was, the most interesting part of the book was learning about the inaccurate science of arson investigation. In general, I suppose I still recommend to all my bibliophiles and library lovers out there, there are plenty of interesting details in here. Just don't expect to be wowed.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

I loved this book. It wasn't exactly perfect (I think if this book could get together and have a love child with The Starless Sea, then I might find the magic book-lover story of my dreams), but still, if you like historical fantasy with a magic system that involves doors leading to other worlds, a world where writing has the power to make words come to life, sweet romances, and evil secret societies bent on destroying everything, then this is the book for you. The writing could be stronger, and it's not a story for everyone, but I thoroughly enjoyed this.

A Court of Thorns of Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury, and A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

Lumping my review of this trilogy all together. I saw this trilogy recommended repeatedly by some of my go-to fantasy review sources, but then I started seeing it pop up in some of my more literary review sources, and so I thought, well, everyone seems to love it? Maybe I should give it a try? And... eh. It's still very much a typical "special girl" kind of series, just with fairies and far more sex scenes than I cared for (I skimmed heavily to get through to the end). It was like a better Twilight. It was compelling enough I wanted to finish the series, and there were  a few things/characters I quite liked, but I was definitely bored by the third book, and ready to be done. Not a strong recommend from me, although the fan base is pretty rabid.

The Secrets of Happy Families by Bruce Feiler

I picked this up because Janssen picked it for her May book club book and some of her reviews intrigued me. Lots of it was good, some interesting stuff to think about, but mostly not very life-changing for me personally. I maybe want to start having more family meetings and come up with a good family motto, and other people may get other useful insights out of this, but it was all stuff I've heard before or already with my family. Good stuff, but not a must read.



Well, clumping three books into one review makes this list look shorter than it should, but seven books isn't bad considering how my reading life's been going this year. June is already looking way, way up, which is so fun. Anyway, if you've read any of these, I'd love to hear your thoughts on them!

Books I Read in April

Well, hello there! Happy May! How was April for you? I know everyone made jokes about March lasting an eternity because every day in quarantine felt ridiculously long, but let me tell you what, April seems to have just blazed by for me. Something about the sameness of each day blending in to each other made it feel like a blink, at least for me. Also, as predicted, it was a stressful and busy month work-wise (there's a joke in academia that April is the cruelest month, and that was as true in quarantine as in any other year). I just had a ton of deadlines and grading and online course production work. It was busy.

Then I went and tweaked my back stretching after yoga one morning, and it flared up my old neck and shoulder issues, and I ended up in the chiropractor by the end of the month. But that's a story for another post (or, maybe not, because who cares to read a post about minor back and shoulder issues?).

Anyway, all that preamble is to explain that, as predicted, April was another pretty off reading month for me. I got six books in, which honestly, without my commute, is surprisingly high. I've got a couple more weeks of the grading grind before I'm off for the summer, and I'm hoping my reading numbers improve drastically then. We shall see.

But for now, what I did read covered everything from the super fluff puff to the profoundly serious and important, and I can't wait to talk about some of these books with you. Let's dive in.

The Inquisitor's Tale by Adam Gidwitz

This one was recommended to me by my dissertation advisor, of all people. He said it was patterned after Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and he had read it to his kids and they loved it. Recommendation enough for me! And yes, while the narrative structure has many similarities to Canterbury Tales, it is thankfully a much more complete story (which actually stretched the narrative point-of-view to the unbelievable, but just embrace it). This story takes place in medieval France, and deals with all sorts of interesting questions about miracles, religion, diversity, and book love. It follows the tale of three misfit children who seem to be able to perform miracles... or is it witchcraft? The ending surprised me, and I found the religious discussion surprisingly deep and beautiful. The book had all sorts of very accurate historical detail in it, and so I was not surprised to learn that Gidwitz's wife is actually a professor of Medieval history with a PhD from Yale. Legit. In short, I loved it, and I highly recommend it. As a content warning, there is a recurring joke employing Biblical swear words (ass), which I might feel slightly uncomfortable with my own young children reading, but if I ever do this as a read aloud (and it would make a great read aloud), I could just edit those parts.

Emma by Jane Austen

This was my book club's pick for the month (because we can't check books out from the library here right now, we had to pick something everyone could access for cheap or free elsewhere). Despite being my least favorite Austen heroine, I love reading this book so much. The way the plot unfolds is just so clever and so fun. It took everything in me not to immediately dive into the rest of Austen's books, as they would've made the perfect comfort reads during quarantine, but I didn't want to upset my tradition of re-reading these in the fall (and I have a feeling I'll be just as in need of comfort reads come fall). So I restrained. But goodness, I could just reread Austen for ever and never get tired of her.

Would Like to Meet by Rachel Winters

So instead, I dove into the comfort of super fluffy romcom reads. This one was rather adorable. There were a lot of homages to all the classic romcom movies of the 90s and early 2000s, which was fun, and it managed to remain fairly clean (especially in comparison to other contemporary romances of this genre). In short, if you like fluffy romances, this one is a recommend. Nothing earth shattering, but cute.

The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West

This one was quite a bit fluffier and less smart than the one above. I found it on a list somewhere comparing it to To All The Boys I've Loved Before because there is a fake dating story-line. It's not nearly as good, but it was cute enough to satisfy. And it was quite a bit cleaner, which was honestly surprising. Anyway, still not particularly memorable for me.

Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez

This one was recommended to me by a trusted friend a few months ago, and I've had it on hold since then (it took forever to come in). But what a book! This book made me feel so angry. Like, seething frustration. The premise of this book is that there is gender bias against women in some of the most fundamental ways that our society is designed, some ways that are obvious, but other ways that we don't even realize because we've all been taught for so long that the male body is the standard so we don't even think about these things. I'll try to give a few brief examples. One thing she brings up is that there are fewer female concert pianists than male concert pianists, not because females are inherently less good at the piano, but because the standard piano keyboard width was designed for male hands that have on average a bigger reach. If piano keys were less wide, women could have better reach and more could be better pianists. Or the one that infuriated me, seats in cars are designed for male bodies and tested with male crash dummies, which means that women tend to die at a higher rate in car crashes because seat belts and cars are not designed for female bodies (and this seat design might also contribute to why women suffer more from car sickness!!!). Now, one or two of these types of facts might be dismissable. But Perez just keeps bringing up example after example after example in this flood of evidence that just felt overwhelming... the world is designed for men and not women. I won't say here that I agreed with absolutely everything Perez says, or with all of her data, or assumptions, or even goals of what gender equality should be, but I absolutely appreciated her overall argument that women's bodies are different and should not be ignored. Women are not men, and women are just as deserving of having tools, jobs, cities, cars, medications, and schedules designed for them as men. I also agree that women should be part of governing bodies making decisions. I could go on and on about this book (and maybe I will some day), but for now, I'll leave it with a high, high recommend. Everyone should read this and talk about it.

Know My Name by Chanel Miller

Okay, so when I read really good books, I usually talk my husband's ear off about them. So when I started telling him about this one immediately after the last one, his comment was, "What, are you one some kind of men-are-evil reading streak right now?" I've had both these books on hold for a while and did not intend to read them concurrently, but yes, by the end of both these books, I really did feel depressed about the work feminism still has left to do. Okay, if you haven't heard of this one, you need to read it. Required. Absolutely. Except, it is a hard, hard read. If you don't know yet, Chanel Miller was previously known as Emily Doe, or the Stanford Rape Victim. She was sexually assaulted by Stanford swimmer Brock Turner back in 2015. While her name was kept anonymous throughout the trial, her victim impact statement went viral in 2016, and I remember reading it then and being super impressed with it. Chanel eventually decided that her story needed to be told in full, and that people needed to know her name, instead of just knowing her as "Brock Turner's victim" (thus the title of the book). Here's the thing, Chanel is a beautiful writer. I mean, stunningly beautiful writer, and it is absolutely a shame that this is the book we have to get to know her through. I wish with all my heart her story, her book, could be a different story, but this is the one she gets to tell now, and I think everyone needs to read it. I want to push this book into the hands of every freshman on my campus, I want everyone to read it. It is incredible, and heartbreaking, and super powerful. It's not just a tragedy about what Brock did to her, but a tragedy about what the justice system did to her, how hard she had to work to be the "perfect victim." I don't have answers, but I know that people need to read this book and we need to keep talking about this. Absolutely, 100% recommend.

Alright, that was my reading month. A little bit of everything in there, from super fluff to heartbreaking serious, from classic to middle grade. It was a good month, and I'd love, love, love to talk more about these books to anyone willing to chat!

Books I Read in March

Well, hello there! It's been a minute, and since the last time I wrote, the world has fallen apart.

So here's a bit of a brief update. I've been hesitant to post this kind of an update, because it seems incredibly insensitive to everyone out there who is experiencing any mental, emotional, economic, or physical health problems right now, but honestly? Quarantine is my dream life come true. I was built for quarantine. Never leave the house? Be in charge of my own schedule? Spend 24/7 with only my most favorite people ever? Yes! Yes! and Yes!

I definitely want to acknowledge that part of my joy in this situation is due to our definite privilege. My husband's job is very secure and he has no problems working from home (considering his boss lives in a different state, 90% of his job was already phone calls, emails, and virtual meetings). It's honestly been a harder adjustment for me to work from home (figuring out how to teach my courses online has been disheartening and disappointing), but my job is also very secure for the time being. Considering how much less we are spending on gas, childcare, and other things right now, we'll probably come out of this situation in a better financial place than otherwise, and that is something that makes me feel incredibly guilty.

But also, it's my favorite part of the day when I get the kids going on quiet time in the afternoons and amble down to the office and sit across from my husband and we get a few quiet hours together just working and occasionally chatting. He's my favorite office mate by far (he's just so nice to look at, even with the quarantine beard he's growing out of laziness...). It feels so perfect, like exactly the life I would design if I could design a life (except with a live-in Mary Poppins nanny, probably, and a cook, and a housekeeper, but that would feel too aristocracy, no?).

This is not to say that everything has been peaches and cream. I mean, I'm trying to work full time from home with three kids around who need constant attention (my 3-year-old in particular is in that difficult stage of, well, being 3, and she wants to be attached at my hip and wants me to do nothing but give her my undivided attention and is also trying to drop her nap and I'm just like, sweetheart, I love you, but you must nap until you are 22, because I need that break from your overwhelming strong little personality!). But we have a loose structured routine in place that means I'm getting between three and four hours of work in a day (which is not enough, but with Saturdays I'm barely keeping my head above water), and the kids are keeping relatively entertained with only a slight increase in screen time (2 hours a day, instead of the 1.5 they used to get, but I can swallow that, desperate times and all).

And while my oldest is bummed his second grade year ended so abruptly, one amazing upside of quarantine is that NOBODY IS SICK! Apparently quarantining and social distancing and not spending six hours a day in the germ swamp of daycare takes care of more than just the Corona virus! For the first time since October nobody has a cough or a runny nose or a random unexplainable fever, and I'm not dealing with the major curse of my life, which is that constant panic feeling of trying to figure out if I can afford to stay home with the sick kid, or if I need to find a babysitter, or if with a little baby Tylenol they can squeak through a school day (awful choices, all of them). I just have to say I am so relieved to get a reprieve from that constant stress cycle.

So yes, I am worried about vulnerable family who might get sick, and vulnerable friends who are struggling with job insecurity, and I'm really feeling for all the mental health issues this quarantine is causing (some of my students are particularly struggling, it's hard). But personally, I'm living my dream, and I don't know if it's going to make anyone else feel better to hear that, but I always like to look for the good, and right now there is so much good in my life.

The one major downside of this new routine (aside from feeling frantically behind in my work all the time) is that I've lost my commute! Which means I've lost my audio book listening time! And considering every spare moment not dedicated to childcare is dedicated to work, my reading life has really, really struggled. I'm hoping once this semester is over and summer break comes along I'll have more time for pleasure reading (and blogging a bit more here), but right now my numbers are really taking a hit. I finished only five books in March, and only one of those has been since the quarantine started, so that's discouraging. Still, they were all fantastic, so let's dive in already and talk about them!

 Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

This was a recommend from my little sister, and I must say, I'm surprised I'd never heard of her before. It was a National Book Award finalist, and it was beautiful. It was sweeping, epic, and completely fascinating. It follows a family of Koreans through about five generations, starting in Korea, then through a move to Japan before WWII, then through the war and into the 80s. There was so much I didn't know about Japanese-Korean relations (I had no idea the Japanese were that discriminatory!), and after the war these Koreans were in the very strange position of not being welcome in Japan, but not being able to return to their own country that was being ravaged by war. Anyway, there were a few "parts" I didn't love about this book (the casually sexist way women's bodies were talked about, a few scenes that I felt were tangential and unnecessary, etc.), but in general if you like literary fiction, this is a really strong recommend.

Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns

This is a classic that had never been on my radar, but when my friend Amy gives a glowing review, I move things to the top of my "MUST READ NOW" list. And this was fantastic, such a fun and beautiful book to immerse myself in. The writing is just lovely, the voice of the narrator (a fourteen year old boy) in early 1900s Georgia was just pitch perfect. Being set in the south during this time, there are things that don't age well (they've only just started celebrating the 4th of July for the first time since the Civil War!!!), and I could see people taking offense. And honestly, I have my own issues with the main story line (a romance between the grandfather and his new wife, whom he scandalously married a mere three weeks after his first wife dies). But all in all, this is a strong recommend. Why is it that the greatest American writers of the early twentieth century came out of the south? I don't know, but this book is a classic for sure.

The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates

This is less a memoir (though there are biographical tidbits), and more a discussion of Melinda Gates philanthropic work with her and Bill Gate's foundation, and it is fantastic. I highly recommend it. The main message is that societies that oppress women tend to languish in poverty and have all sorts of problems, whereas societies that begin to educate, respect, and protect the rights of women begin to flourish. The pattern is remarkable, and the Gates' work has just been phenomenal. I've read some about this topic before (Half the Sky has a very similar message), but this book gave me some new stuff to think about (I've not spend a lot of time thinking about birth control before, but the research on the positive impact of birth control was super thought-provoking). I have to admit my favorite part was the glimpse into the Gates family life (Bill Gates drove his kids to school, and participated in dinner clean up by washing the dishes every night!!!). Anyway, this is a strong recommend!

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett

Last month I read Patchett's Commonwealth, and my friend Torrie commented that she thought Patchett would make a better essayist than novelist. So, here I stumbled into a collection of her essays (or articles published in various magazines)! And yes, she is a fantastic essayist! But reading them collected altogether like this felt like reading Commonwealth, like trying to piece together the coherent narrative of her biography, except all you get are these little snippets, and then it doesn't build to any sort of meaningful ending. So anyway, I still enjoyed it very much (some essays more than others), but I would not call this one a must read, especially if you aren't already a die hard Patchett fan.

The Smartest Kids in the World by Amanda Ripley

I used to be a teacher (seventh grade English for one year), my mom has been a teacher for 30 years, both my sisters have teaching degrees, and I have a lot of contacts in the education world. I have opinions. I have strong opinions about education and the right way to do things. And I always felt like I had the inside knowledge to justify those opinions. But this book honestly managed to make me reconsider my opinions, and changed my mind on several things. Basically, I felt like it was mind-blowing. The American education system has a lot of problems, and this book offers some pretty concrete things we could do to fix them. I'm not saying we should be Korea (because no, that system is very broken in its own way), but we should definitely be more like Finland. Definitely. Highly, highly recommend this book to everyone.

Okay, that was it. Not a fantastic month numbers-wise, but a really strong month quality-wise. If you've read any of these, I'd love to hear your thoughts! And I hope your quarantine reading is going better than mine! April will probably be another rough month for me (honestly, I shouldn't be taking the time to write this blog post, I'm so behind on grading and my dissertation proposal right now), but I hope I can make up for it in the summer!

Books I Read in February

Hi Guys! Clearly, I'm not getting as much time to write this semester as I wanted (having a two prep semester is killing me, well, that and the fact that my kids keep getting sick), but this week I'm on Spring Break!!! We're going on a mini road-trip later this week, but I'm hoping to sneak in some writing time before we leave. We'll see, I also need to catch up on laundry and housework and all the other things, so this may be the only post that actually gets posted. But still, happy Spring Break!

February was a fairly decent month for reading (especially for being a day or two shorter than the other months), and I'm excited to talk about some of these titles, so let's jump in!

Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb

I started this trilogy in January, and continued on with this second book in the series at the start of February. It did not disappoint.

Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb

I immediately continued on to the third book, and this one was long. Way too long in my opinion (757 pages, according to Goodreads). I think many parts of this should've been cut, but regardless, I stuck with it and found it a mostly satisfying conclusion. I still highly recommend the series to all fans of high fantasy (I'm going to make my husband read it once he finishes Wheel of Time, because I know he'll love it).

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

This was my seasonal read. I was looking for something light and fun to get me in the mood for Valentine's Day, and this delivered. Sweet and cute, a little unique high school romance (the girl decides to go out for the football team), but I wasn't invested enough to keep going with the series.

The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

This book was so good, and so fascinating, but is by no means an easy read, as it is mostly about childhood trauma, and there are definitely a few really disturbing stories of incest and abuse. Van der Kolk is a therapist who started off working with veterans when PTSD was just beginning to be recognized as a thing, and then he moved to a civilian clinic and started noticing the same symptoms in his patients who had suffered abuse as children. While I could never be a therapist, I am super fascinated by how the brain works and how mental illness works, and the more and more I learn about trauma (and about how almost all of us suffer from trauma to varying degrees) the more convinced I am that this is one of the most important things we as a society can work on to fix many of our biggest social problems. Van der Kolk's work is very hopeful, and he discusses a range of therapies from Prozac to the more woo-woo (yoga, theater, and some other kind of out there stuff). This is not an easy book to read (hello, it discusses really awful child abuse), but it is definitely one I recommend.

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

This was a serendipitously perfect book to follow The Body Keeps the Score, because it is a book about generational trauma, and it seemed fairly accurate to see how these characters responded to abuse and neglect. This makes it sound like a super depressing book, and yes, it is difficult, but I think it ends in a rather hopeful place. It was beautifully written, and is probably a general recommend.

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

(Side note, look at the cover of these two very different books... strangely similar, no?) Oh man, I have such conflicted feelings about this one. On one hand, I found it tackled really complex race issues (and issues of inter-racial nanny/employee stuff that I've had to deal with myself), and I think it would make a fantastic book club book. On the other hand, it was also kind of fluffy, and had a lot of swearing, and I don't know that I loved it. It gave me stuff to think about, that's for sure.

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

This was my second Patchett novel (I read The Dutch House back in December), and my favorite so far, but the pattern seems to be that I'm incredibly in love with her writing at the sentence level, but don't "get" the point of her stories. Is there a point? All I know is that I need to read more of her words, because I just love being in the middle of her stories. The ends leave me a little empty and confused, though. This one had a really interesting story that jumped back and forth in time and it was like piecing together a giant puzzle, but in the end some of the pieces still seemed to be missing... but I still liked it? But what was the "point" of the story? I don't know... Still a general recommend!

Lovely War by Julie Berry

Okay, I'd read some super rave reviews of this one before I picked it up, so I went in with sky high expectations, and then felt like it didn't "quite" live up to what I was expecting. It was like just another (really good) war story romance (which I've already read a million of). But the more and more I think about it, and the more and more I consider the genius of the framing element (Greek gods in a New York hotel room, totally weird for some people, but trust me, it's genius), the more and more I like it. I think I'm going to want to re-read this one some day. It's YA, but it's fantastic. Highly, highly recommend (and pro-tip, listen to the audio book, music plays a big role in the story and the audio does a great job with that).

So there we go, eight books. A pretty good month, with some rather good books. Have you read any of these? What were your thoughts?

Books I Read in January

Well, everyone complained and complained about how interminably long January was, but for me it slipped by way too quickly, without leaving any time for me to get around to any of the things I wanted to get around to. Like writing up a post all about my goals for the New Year, or reviews of all the fabulous books I've read but haven't had time to write about here like I really want to!

So, what have I been doing with all my time instead? Well, let me tell it this way:

Have you ever known anyone who has gotten a PhD? Did you witness them go through the process of preparing for and taking their exams? Comps? Orals? Whatever they're called (each program is different), exams are usually the pinnacle of stress and anxiety for the PhD student. Most PhD candidates, when preparing for their exams, completely clear their schedules, break off all social ties, and hibernate in dark caves reading like mad and taking furious notes trying to master everything that can possibly be known about anything. Many programs even offer reduced or cancelled teaching loads while preparing for exams. I, on the other hand, spent the month leading up to my exams: hosting most of my family for Christmas, celebrating three family birthdays, planning and hosting a baptism for my oldest, traveling for New Years, going on a week-long Disney cruise (oh yeah, I really want to post some pictures of that some time, maybe, if you care), and prepping for two courses (one of them brand new). Oh, and let's not forget the three children I had to feed, clothe (i.e. do their laundry), clean up after, and care for all day long, meaning I only had a few hours in the evening to actually work on my exam prep.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that going into my exams, I did not feel prepared. In fact, I felt downright panicky. My attention had been so consumed by family obligations throughout the holidays and time leading up the exams that I figured there was simply no way I could measure up to all those other students, the ones with no children or outside responsibilities, who could devote 100% of their energy to studying.

To make a long story short: I passed. But remind me to tell you the longer version of this story some time, because it is a story of spiritual blessings and tender mercies and the visible hand of the Lord guiding my life once again. It's a story that needs to be recorded.

I celebrated passing my exams by catching the flu, along with the rest of my family, and that brutal illness took us through the end of January and the first week of February. So here I am now, crawling my way back from survival mode and finally getting around to all those things I put off for the last six months while I devoted all my spare time to exam prep. Like writing for this blog. Oh, how I long to get back to writing in this space!

And there is so much to write about! Because despite all the busy busy things, there was still plenty of time for listening to books (hello car-ride down to Florida!), and I actually managed to finish eight books last month. Let's get into them!

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

When I read The Night Circus almost seven years ago (fun fact, it was the first book I reviewed on this blog!), I fell forever in love with Morgenstern's writing style. This book, her second, completely confirmed that Morgenstern is my kindred spirit, but only in certain ways. In other ways, we are very, very different people (I'm not into video games). This whole book is a story that is a love letter to stories. I loved that so much. But other parts of this book almost broke down because of that, as in, it was so in love with stories that it forgot to be a good story itself. Or, it became some kind of messed up mishmash of Alice in Wonderland and Inception and didn't feel super coherent. But that also just made me feel like I was in some medieval allegory, and I just need to read it again to fully understand it. All this is to say that I can't decide how I feel about this book: some parts are deep love, and other parts are more like loathing. Not really in the middle. It's certainly not for everyone and not a general recommend, but I will be rereading it again, and probably writing a whole post with my favorite quotes (hopefully).

The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity  by Julia Cameron

I picked this one up because some people I follow on Instagram talk about it a lot and religiously write their morning pages, and it sounded interesting. It's a little bit more of a program (ten weeks, or something like that), so it didn't make for a great audio book listen. I think this summer I'll try revisiting it and actually follow the program outline a little bit more, but the gist is that all people are creative, and you need to do certain things to nurture your creativity. One of her biggest pieces for doing that is called morning pages, or three pages of brain dumping you're supposed to write every morning. I love the idea of a daily writing practice, and I'm trying to figure out my schedule now to make that happen, so we'll see how I feel about this when/if I give the program an actual try.

Mindset by Carol Dweck

I've heard so much about Carol Dweck and her fixed mindset vs. growth mindset theory that I figured I didn't need to read the actual book, I had it figured out. But I'm so glad I read it (for book club) because it was totally worth it. I'd kind of assumed that growth mindset applied mostly to education and a love of learning (which is clearly something I already have), but I cam to realize that it's so much more than that. It's believing you can grow in any area of life, social, emotional, physical, mental, spiritual, etc. So I came to realize that I have a growth mindset in some areas, but a fixed mindset in others. And it definitely gave me some things to think about with raising kids. All very good stuff, and I highly recommend.

Joyful by Ingrid Fetell Lee

This is another one that really deserves it's own post, because I have lots to say about it. What a delightful book this was! I just felt happy every time I picked it up to keep reading. Here's how I would describe this book: If you're familiar with Carol Tuttle's energy profiling system, I would describe this as a Type 1's manifesto. The vast majority of the things Lee described as bringing joy and happiness (bright colors, light, round bubbles, rainbows, etc.) almost point for point fit with Tuttle's Type 1 profile. I am not a Type 1 myself, and therefore disagreed with the way Lee characterized these things as universal. For instance, Lee recommends that everyone should paint their houses bright beautiful colors because it will make us all happier that the neutrals whites and creams and grays we all seem to live in. However, from personal experience I can say that bright paint colors don't work for everyone. This one time in high school, my mom let my younger sister pick out the colors for our shared bedroom makeover, and she decided to paint over our lavender colored walls with a bright yellow, and buy a lime green bedspread. I had trouble falling asleep for weeks after that because the room was just so bright and high energy. Give me those gray walls, I'll sleep like a baby. I'm just not that energy type. So while I won't be following all of Lee's advice for bringing joy into my life, there were tons of other interesting and thought-provoking tidbits that I want to write some more about. It was an extremely happy book, and I highly recommend it.

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

I was looking for a nice meaty fantasy to sink my teeth into, and accidentally stumbled on this, but it sure fit the bill! Really fun world, really fun magic system, interesting politics, well written... I'm just surprised I had heard of it before. It's a trilogy, and I've already read the second and am in the middle of the third. I highly recommend!

Jackpot by Nic Stone

I was looking for escapist YA romance, saw this one get recommended somewhere, and immediately found it on my library app. And it actually ended up having quite a bit more meat to it than I expected: lots of thought-provoking questions about class and money, poverty and wealth. It was good for what it was, and I may even pick up Dear Martin some time (that one seems much more focused on race issues, which were much less center stage in this one). I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending, but if you like contemporary YA with a dose of meaty issues, this one is pretty good.

Ayesha at Last by Usma Jalaluddin

So this was a contemporary Canadian Muslim Pride and Prejudice retelling that's been getting just a bit of buzz recently. Obviously, I had to read it. How is it that Jane Austen's story fits so universally into so many cultures? I guess because every culture puts so much pressure on young women to get married. Anyway, I'm not going to say that this book was amazing (I actually forgot I read it until pulling up my records to write this post), but it was very good for what it was, and I learned quite a few interesting details about Muslim communities and customs. I would still love to talk to an actual Muslim about this, because it was quite down on arranged marriage (obviously I am too, I just wondered if that was a fair portrayal of faithful Muslim beliefs). Anyway, I think it's a recommend, generally speaking.

Alex and Eliza by Melissa de la Cruz

Not sure I ever would've picked this one up on my own, but my book club picked it as our February read (seasonal). I kind of had to disassociate it from the actual historical reality of Hamilton and Eliza (and the musical), and think of it as just a cheesy fictional historical love story, and then it wasn't so bad. A little ridiculous at times, but nice fun fluff. However, now I'm itching to pick up My Dear Hamilton to learn about the real couple's love story, as I understand that one is based quite a bit more on actual historical sources.



And there you go. That was my January reading month. Not too shabby for such a busy month, but I am going to have to pick up my pace a bit to hit my goal of 100 books this year. I'm not worried. Have you read any of these? What are your thoughts?