Category: Books

Books Read – September 2021

The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins, read by Emily Shaffer, Kirby Heyborne, and Lauren Forgang– Jane Eyre is one of my all time favorite books, so this thriller, a contemporary take on the Bronte Classis was kind of my catnip. Mr. Rochester has always been one of my literary crushes and I sort of loved seeing a take on him that was not the Byronic hero. It actually made me see how the original Mr. Rochester could be seen as quite a toxic character. I listened on audiobook and it was gripping – I’ve decided that thrillers/mysteries are one of my favorite audiobook genres.

Severance by Ling Ma – I think I actually read this this summer. I read a hard copy borrowed from the library, so it’s a little hard to tell. This novel tells the story of Candace Chen, an office worker bee. When a global pandemic hits the world, she finds herself joining up group of people who are travelling to a mysterious destination, trying to stay healthy and alive and not dissolve into anarchy. Certainly a timely book to read during COVID times, the book made me think about themes of family and permanence and what we cling to when the world shuts down.

The Hopefuls by Jennifer Close, read by Jorjeana Marie– This novel is about a couple, Beth and Matt, who move to DC when the husband gets a job in the Obama administration. They meet another political couple, Jimmy and Ashleigh, and the two couples’ personal and political lives become entangled. A deliciously soap opera of a book. I really liked the glimpses of DC, and all the familiar landmarks and restaurants that were mentioned. It made me long for my youthful twenties and indoor dining.

The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow -(6h, 30m) – Hadlow’s novel tells the story of Mary Bennet, the oft ignored middle sister from Pride and Prejudice. Hadlow manages to write a book that feels very much of the same family as Austen, with the same dry wit and insightful observations of humans learning to live in society. I especially loved getting to see Lizzy and Darcy from an outsider’s point of view.

Four Hundred Souls ed. Ibram X. Kendi and Keish N Blain, written and read by various people– This book is a collection of writings that tell the history of Black people in America. Each writer takes on a five year span starting from 1619 – when the ship the White Lion brings “some 20-and-odd Negros” to Virginia – to the present day. I would hesitate to call it a collective history because so many of the chapters are about and individual experience, and I don’t think that any one individual can tell the history of the whole. The majority of the stories in this book are events or people that I’ve never heard about, and that makes me realize that the idea of “history is written by the victors” is incredibly problematic. Stories of oppression and injustice need to be told and not just a casualty of the dominant culture writing the history books.

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson – (4h 25m) This novel combines two obscure bits of Kentucky history – the Pack Horse Library Project of the 1930s and the blue people of Kentucky. Cussy Mary Carter is one of the blue people- people with a genetic condition that makes their skin blue. She works delivering books to people in rural Kentucky who do not have access to them.

Hench by by Natalie Zina Walschots – (7h, 3m) This satirical novel is about Anna, an office worker who happens to work in the office of a Super Villain. As Anna rises professionally, she dismantles the mythology of Super Heroes. It’s a perceptive look at work place dynamics and how everything has a flip side and that flip side is very flawed and human. I enjoyed this book immensely.

Madeline’s World: A Biography of a Three Year Old by Brian Hall – This is a very detailed account of the first three years in the life of Hall’s daughter Madeline, beginning with her birth. It was fascinating and tedious… much like young children. Hall’s careful observation of Madeline’s every move, sound, gesture, and development certainly made me feel like I was missing out on a lot of my child’s life. But then again, if someone paid me to write a book about the minutia of a baby/toddler, I might be more observant. I’m somewhat kidding on that. My favorite observation in the book, in reference to his daughter’s preference for an image in a book over the real thing: “… it did unsettle me that she was thus learning, so early, to value the representation over the real.” I do think about this a lot… how to have children live in a world of real things. And who gets to define that?

Invisible Women:Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez – (8h 1m) Criado Perez is a journalist and advocate who focusses on women’s rights and issues. In her book, she details the many ways that women are left to a disadvantage because of a failure to account for them when data is collected using a male default. Reading this book made me so angry because by not accounting for the data of women, it creates a world that is unsafe, unhealthy and unfair for women. From crash test dummies to signs of heart attacks, from not valuing the unpaid work of women in GDP to not realizing the value of a diverse leadership, women are at a disadvantage and in many cases it is literally killing them. One of the most findings I found most upsetting was how the lack of gendered bathroom facilities in places with communal restrooms – ie. refugee camps, third world countries, etc. – creates an environment where women don’t feel safe going to the bathroom alone or at night because of the real possibility of being assaulted. “When planners fail to account for gender,” she writes, “public spaces become male spaces by default.” Such an eye opening read.

Summer Reading

I haven’t kept up with my reading journal, so here is the quick and dirty of my summer reading:

The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue by V.W. Schwab – Time bending novel about a woman who makes a deal with the devil to live forever. Or, rather, she asks for more time in life and is then given the dubious gift of eternal life, only she also does not remain in people’s memories. Absorbing, but the story didn’t quite go where I wanted it to go.

You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar. Audio book read by the authors – Ruffin and Lamar, who are both Black, recount stories of some of the racist incidents they’ve had to live through. Their experiences run the gamut from ignorantly well meaning to malicious and unkind. It’s a mix of funny, sad, and infuriating. It really made me wonder if it was possible to live more colour consciously in a way that is sensitive to everyone.

Hamilton the Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter – These are the annotated lyrics for Hamilton interspersed with essays on the creative process of the musical. Hamilton fever continues in our house – except for the Husband who calls it “insidious” – and the theater geek in me loved reading about the journey of getting Hamilton to stage.

Midlife: A Philosophical Guide by Kieran Setiya – This book was recommended to me after I lamented the dearth of books about being middle aged. As I progress firmly into my 40s, I find I’m having a somewhat existential crisis about aging and life, and it’s just not something that the media likes to talk about. Setiya doesn’t really say anything new, but he does present his thoughts on fulfilment in life through the prism of philosophical thought. The takeaway – savour the journey, not the destination.

Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker – Kolker’s book tells about a family where six of the twelve children were diagnosed with schizophrenia. It’s an absolutely engrossing history. Sad, but ultimately hopeful.

Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Beverly Daniel Tatum, PhD. – Classic book about race in America. I really appreciated that Tatum has, since the original publication, added an entire section in the book devoted to other underrepresented groups and the struggles that are unique to each of them. For as false a construct as race is, it certainly is a powerful one. The other mind blowing idea for me was Tatum’s discussion about hiring practices – she writes that when hiring employers need to re-examine what they mean by a “best” or “most qualified” candidate. Often the things that tip the scale are the result of privilege and opportunity. She challenges the idea that there can be a “most qualified” candidate. Because any candidate that meets your job requirements are qualified. Having additional experience does not make someone moreso.

The Glass Kingdom by Lawrence Osborne – novel about a woman who is stuck in Bangkok after swindling a large amount of money. There was something meandering in the post-apocalyptic tone and style that really lacked momentum for me.

Murder on Cold Street by Sherry Thomas – the next in Thomas’ Lady Sherlock series. I always enjoy her writing, even if I find the plotting a little obtuse.

Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo read by Adjoa Andoh – Novel set in Nigeria about a couple, Yejide and Akin, whose marriage is challenged by traditional expectations, pride, and their inability to have a child.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee – Novel about a poor Korean family in the early 1900s who emigrates to Japan and the story about their lives and the lives of their children. I had often heard this book touted as a “epic saga” yet the book didn’t have that kind sweep that I would have expected. It has a much quieter power to it, in it’s story of humble hard work and perseverance. But then again, who says that “epic” stories are reserved for people who die in glory on battlefields? I’m realizing that the story of the every day struggle it takes to put food on one’s table, to resist when rich men come calling, to just do the right thing… these stories are as much the backbone of history as any battle.

The Duke That Didn’t by Courtney Milan – Romance novel set in a small English town where a half Chinese duke tries to win the hand of the woman he loves. I love how Milan can write a totally absorbing romance set in England where the characters are Chinese, and this bit of diversity is a casual and important detail, but not a THING.

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson – In this autobiographical novel in verse, Woodson recounts her childhood bouncing from Ohio to South Carolina to New York. I was really drawn in by her story and the story of her family, and how even the smallest things from childhood can be indelible.

The House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune – I loved this book so much. This novel tells about Linus, a case worker who inspects government run orphanages for magical children. He is sent on a mysterious assignment to an orphanage on the shore and there meets the predictable assortment of “more than meets the eye” children. Yes, the story is a little familiar, but Klune has written it with so much wit and heart.

She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, read by Rebecca Lowman – The New York Times journalists who broke the Harvey Weinstein story recount the story behind the story. So utterly fascinating and repulsive. The drama behind getting the story was nail-biting. Between this book and Bad Blood (about the Theranos scandal), I am beginning to feel like the lawyers behind the scenes in many of these cases are just as abhorrent.

Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan – Charming romance about two elderly ladies who work together to exact revenge on a very disreputable young man and fall in love along the way. One very rarely sees romance novels featuring older couples, and I loved that aspect of this book.

Parenting Outside the Lines by Meaghan Leahy – I’m a big fan of Meg Leahy’s parenting column in the Washington Post. In this book, she encapsulates many of the principles that form the backbone of the advice that she gives. My big takeaway from this book is that parenting is hard, but I, as the grown up, have to be the bigger person. “Never ever, ever wait for your child to be more mature than you,” she writes. So the best way to parent, she says, is to lead by example, be flexible, be open, and be kind.

Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey– Trethewey’s memoir tells the heartbreaking account of how her mother came to be murdered by an ex-husband.

White Tears/ Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad – Hamad argues that white women perpetuate the oppression and dehumanization of underrepresented people while asserting themselves in a male dominated world often by playing the “damsel in distress”. Hamad’s point is that white feminists don’t necessarily want a more equal society for everyone, just one where they have the same amount of power as men. Her ideas are certainly incendiary and rather unforgiving, but the idea of one oppressed group rising in society at the expense of another does resonate with me. I’m not sure that I buy everything she says, to be honest.

Big Cotton: How a humble fiber created fortunes, wrecked civilizations, and put American on the Map by Stephen Yafa – a survey of the history of cotton, primarily focused on America and Europe. A little meandering and lacking in first hand research, but nonetheless fascinating. The environmental and social toll of producing cotton has made me rethink denim.

And With The Kids:

Eye by Eye: Comparing how Animals See by Sarah Levine – picture book that explained how eyes worked and how different animals’ eyes are adapted to best serve them. This was a great informative and engaging picture book – I felt like I really learned a lot from it. There are several books in the series, and they are all excellent.

Baker’s Magic by Diane Zahler- This was our read aloud Chapter book this summer. Charming and full of fun details. About an orphan who bakes magical creations and a quest to save a Princess and bring back the trees.

One Crazy Summer (audiobook) by Rita Williams Garcia, read by Sisi Aisha Johnson – read with a lot of wit and character. Book about three Black sisters who are sent to Oakland to spend the summer with their mother. The spend the summer navigating the Bay Area, their mother’s lack of affection and the Black Panthers.

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (audiobook) by Joan Aiken, read by Lizza Aiken – adventure story of an orphan and her cousin as they flee an evil guardian and try to restore order and good to their lives.

Books Read in April 2021

A lot of audiobooks this month. Some really fun and fluffy reads and some reads that made me think about economic inequities and how does one get ahead in life.

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou, read by Will Damron – Engrossing and fascinating story of Elizabeth Holmes and her fraudulent biotech startup Therenos. The whole story of how Holmes became a Silicon Valley darling through brazen lies, cover ups and threats had me riveted. Then the book gets into how Carreyrou, a Wall Street Journal reporter, pursued the story, and the book ratcheted up to a whole other level of suspense and intrigue. I read this shortly after I read Rutger Bregman’s Utopia for Realists, and I found really compelling the contrast between Bregman’s advocacy for a 15 hour work week, and the intense and unhealthy pressure of Silicon Valley.

Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore – 5h 14m. Fun romance novel about suffragette and scholar Annabelle Archer and the Duke that she targets in order to further the women’s movement. The plot was forgettable, but the characters were really fun and well written. The Duke of Montgomery is my romance hero catnip – the stiff do-gooder who is desperately trying to do the right thing when the “right thing” is to not fall in love. A la Mr. Darcy.

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, read by Tom Hanks – This book was vaguely on my To Be Read list, but then I saw that Tom Hanks performs the audiobook and I immediately put it on my Read/Listen Now list. The novel, about the children who are left behind when their mother leaves them, thoughtfully explores what we call home and the people we let into our lives. Hanks’ narration is breezy and casual and curious – his approach is more of reading the book aloud and discovering it with the listener, rather than trying to dramatically bring the story to life.

How to Eat a Peach by David Chang with Gabe Ulla – 6h 8m. Memoir by the chef behind Momofuku. I put this book on hold after hearing an interview with Chang on Fresh Air. In his memoir, Chang talks about his rise to the top of the food world and the sense of urgency and drive that kept him there. He is also really honest about the racism and classism in the food industry – how pasta, for example, is expensive and “fancy”, but noodles are expected to be cheap.

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle – 3h, 26m. A “what if” novel about a young lawyer Danni who gets a glimpse of her future – literally she wakes up five years in the future and after a few hours returns to her present – and then spends the rest of the novel wondering how she gets there. This book was a little unexpected for me. But, of course, the future often is.

Block Chain Chicken Farm by Xiaowei Wang – 5 h, 39m. I can’t remember how this book ended up in my holds list, but it was a fascinating read. In a series of essays, Wang explores how technology, globalization, and capitalism has affected rural China. In doing so she really makes a case that the idea that rural culture is backwards and urban living, specifically Western urban living, is the ideal is quite dehumanizing for much of China’s population.
“Metronormativity fuels the notion that the internet, technology, and media literacy will somehow “save” or “educate” rural people, either by allowing the to experience the broader world, offering other livelihoods, or reducing misinformation.”
Technology must be adapted to the people that it should serve, not the other way around. But a lot of technology these days is designed around a very homogeneous user – for example, if someone in rural China doesn’t know pin yin (a method of transliterating Chinese characters) a lot of technology is unavailable to them. A very thought provoking read. (Also – can someone explain blockchain to me? I feel like there was a whole section of the book I didn’t quite understand.)

Nomadland by Jessica Bruder, read by Karen White – Bruder follows the lives of RV and van dwellers – modern day nomads, many of whom were forced into the wandering life in their middle ages (and later) because of life circumstances. Picking up jobs where they can – at Amazon factories, at campsites, farms – these migrants have learned to build a life for themselves as fewer and fewer Americans can afford to retire. Bruder’s book really challenges the idea that we are sold whereby if you work hard you can save up to retire comfortably. The people that Bruder meet meet life with creativity and resilience and surprising hope. It’s a sympathetic, yet unsentimental look at life on the road.

Reading with the Kids:
Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park. Read aloud with the nine year old. When Park, who is Korean-American, was little, she often would imagine that she was Laura Ingalls best friend, even while recognizing the racism of the Little House books. Prairie Lotus was her attempt to reconcile that conflict. The book tells the story of Hanna, a half Chinese girl who travels to the Dakota Territory with her father to start a new life in a new town. Park’s writing was filled with a lot of great details about frontier life and the people of that time and doesn’t shy away from issues of racism.

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins, read by Paul Boehmer – While watching his two year old sister one day, Gregor falls down a chute in the laundry room and finds himself in the Underland, a world full of giant bats, snakes, rats as well as humans. Realizing this world might be the clue to finding his missing father, Gregor goes on a quest to find him. We listened to this audiobook on our way to and from school this month. While the plot was certainly engaging, I had a lot of anxiety over the idea of a twelve year old questing with a his baby sister strapped to his back. Also it’s one of those books where the point of the quest seems to be to kill off as many questers as possible… which is not really my jam.

Stargazing by Jennifer Wang – graphic novel. I’ve been trying to borrow more diverse books for my kids and this was one that check out for the nine year old. I decided to read it myself before returning. When Moon and her mother move in to the in law unit belonging to Christine’s family, the two Chinese American girls become friends despite their differences. A warm story about both having good friends and being a good friend, and the complicated feelings that friends can bring. I thought this was a lovely book.

Picture Books: Some that’s we’ve been enjoying this month
Toro Gomi’s simple picture books.
Brian Biggs Tinyville Town Gets to Work, about a town that builds a new bridge to solve a traffic problem.
Joyce Wan’s The Whale in My Swimming Pool, and The Bear in My Bed, two books about a little boy who finds large animals in inconvenient places. Sophie’s Squash by Pat Zietlow Miller, about a little girl who adopts a squash.

Books Read in March 2021

The Stationary Shop by Marjan Kamali read by Mozan Marno – Lovely lovely book about two teenagers who meet in a stationary shop in Tehran and fall in love. They are separated on the eve of their marriage and the novel tells about how their lives play out – the choices and non-choices that shape how our paths unfold. Sometimes I find coincidences in books elegant and sometimes predictable and clumsy. This book was somewhere in between – predictable yet elegant.

The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee by David Treuer – 16h, 15m. Treuer writes about the history of Indians in America after Wounded Knee, basically taking up where Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee ended, but also trying to break down the mythology of that book. He details the difficulties of integrating cultures and how crushing a dominating group can be. At the same time he wants people to understand Indians not merely by their history, but also by their present. “Less and less,” he writes, “do we define ourselves by what we have lost, what we have suffered, what we have endured.”

One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London – 5h 10m. Contemporary romance novel about a plus sized blogger who writes a scathing post about a Bachelor-type tv program and then gets picked to be their next star. Although it is marketed as a romance novel, I find the whole reality tv Bachelor star idea inherently unromantic. Also, the book is not really about her finding love, but about her finding herself. I know a lot of people loved this book, and I really liked the premise, but ultimately I was pretty lukewarm about it.

Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown – 4h 23m. This novel is about Alice Hale, an aspiring writer, who moves with her husband from Manhattan to a house in the suburbs. There is a parallel story of the previous owner, a 1950s housewife. Both women are struggling with achieving an ideal domesticity, something that is both appealing and suffocating to them.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig – 4h, 8m. The main character in this book tries to commit suicide and ends up in this purgatory-like library where the books are alternate versions of her life. I think I preferred Haig’s How to Stop Time over this book – while both books grapple with existential questions about one’s life choices, How to Stop Time was better plotted. This book felt a little too wrapped up in the idea of exploring alternative lives, and there was very little momentum to the story.

Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes by Dana Thomas – hard copy. Thomas looks at the impact of the clothing industry on the economy, the environment, and the people who make our clothes. While the effects of keeping up with our insatiable appetite for clothing are pretty damaging, Thomas also explores how people and companies are coming up with kinder, more sustainable ways to keep ourselves clothed. Even looking at my closet, I can absolutely see how the fashion industry is so huge and pervasive. I wish that the solutions that Thomas highlights weren’t so high end. It seems that sustainable fashion – like so many other sustainable choices before us (Tesla, anyone?) – are only within the reach of those with money. The wasteful and poor quality clothes, the cheap stuff that doesn’t last – there is a market for it, and that isn’t something that can be solved with $400 eco-friendly jeans.

Holes by Louis Sacher – read aloud with the nine year old. I really enjoyed this book – it was clever, engaging and poignant. A hugely satisfactory read.

Books read in February 2020

A good month for reading – lots of audio books!

Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce, read by Anna Popplewell – Light hearted novel set in London during WWII, about a young lady who aspires to be a journalist, but ends up writing for a women’s magazine and secretly answering letters from readers. It was a light story, in that stiff upperlip British way where tragedy comes and goes but everyone manages to keep going with their lives.

Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube by Blair Braverman – 6h 39mins. Braverman is a dogsledder and journalist and in this memoir, she recounts her personal journey as a young adult as she moves from cold environment to cold environments. There was something really immediate about reading this book as we went through a cold, snowy snap – I kept thinking, “Well at least it’s not so cold here that the dog food freezes before you can get it from the boiling pot to the dog bowl.” I envy her bold sense of adventure and her fearless impulses, but at the same time, there were moments when I seriously questioned her judgement and some of her recollections it made me nervous for young women trying to assert themselves in a world that still wants to make them victims in so many ways.

Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Anker – (hard copy). I enjoyed this book more than an other I’ve read in a long time. One day Toby Fleishman’s ex-wife just drops their two kids off with him and then goes AWOL. The novel follows Toby as he tries to juggle family, work, and love life while trying to figure out what happened to his ex-wife. I first hear about it on the Everything is Fine podcast, on an episode when they talked about how wonderful it was to read a book where middle aged women were seen as having an advantage over younger women. Books about midlife crises and suburban moms sometimes really grate on me; I often find them full of privilege and self indulgence. But for some reason this one really resonated with me. I felt so understood from the moment in the first chapter that the main character says:
“I was now what was a called a stay-at-home mother, a temporary occupation with no prospect of promotion that worked so hard to differentiate itself from job-working that it confined me to semantic house arrest, though certainly I was allowed to carpool and go to the store.”
I think this book perfectly captures the ridiculous yet heartfelt angst of trying to get through life as an adult, the confusion of waking up one day in a life that you don’t quite understand, even though you feel like you did all the right things. This book was one of those “neglect your children for an afternoon so you can finish it” experiences for me.

A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny – 7h 49m Book four of the Inspector Gamache series. I wasn’t entirely convinced about how the mystery itself played out, but I really enjoyed the way Penny gradually reveals characters and their backstories. I’ve been working my way through this mystery series. There is a certain laconic pacing that makes for slow reading, but that is part of the reason I find these books such a comfort read.

The Good Neighbor:The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King read by Levar Burton – I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook. Growing up, we didn’t have a television until I was seven years old, but I do remember watching some of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. I remember actually being quite unnerved by the puppets. Hearing about how Fred Rogers came to create his famous television program and the philosophies behind his work, made me think about the choices I myself make with my children, particularly this pandemic year where we are re-thinking what we want as an educational experience for our children. Rogers’ insistence that a child’s emotional well being should be prioritized above learning numbers and letters, helped me tamp down any anxiety I might have over a “missing year” with the schools being closed.

Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman, read by Peter Noble – I tend to be left leaning, no surprise there, so a lot of the ideas presented in this book by the Dutch historian and writer are kind of my catnip. Universal basic income, open borders, fifteen hour work week, etc. I mean this book is pretty much preaching to the choir here, though I do appreciate knowing that Bregman presents research to show that such things are actually beneficial and not just pipe dreams. He also attributes the left’s inability to bring about change to their lack of radicalism, pointing out that Trump found a lot of support in the far right wing because his rhetoric was so outlandish. Bregman urges the left to be just as outlandish and crazy as the right – the anemic, polite posturing will not shift any needles. Food for thought.

Books Read January 2021

More books read than normal, but I think most of the were leftover from last month; the first three books I finished in the first ten days of the new year.

Disoriental by Negar Djavodi – 9h 51 m. The story of an Iranian family who flees to Paris and the journey of the youngest daughter to self discovery – finding her way as an immigrant and as a gay woman. This is one of those books that I started without reading the back cover – it had been on a list of recommended books in translation – and as a result I wasn’t quite sure where the book was going for a while. The book jumps back and forth in time and was a little slow to get started for me, but once the threads came together it coalesced into a really touching story of family and immigration and identity. I was really drawn to the idea the narrator struggles with how to find a place in a new country without losing her heritage: “Because to really integrate into a culture, I can tell you that you have to disintegrate first, at least partially, from you own”

The Mothers by Britt Bennett – 5h 18m. I picked this one up after reading the Vanishing Half, Bennett’s bestseller from last year. This novel is about three friends and the ebb and flow of their relationship and how friendships can unravel even while being intertwined. Absorbing story.

How to Eat by Mark Bittman and David L. Katz, M.D. -(hard copy, so no time tracking) I’ve long been a fan of Mark Bittman’s super simple and accessible approach to feeding ourselves. This book, taken from a New York Times column that he and Katz wrote, cuts through a lot of the buzzy food research to distill what we do truly know about healthy food choices. The takeaway: eat a diet primarily of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, beans and nuts. I liked how they really talked about the flaws in scientific research; most food news is so sensationalist and there are no magic foods. They also make the point that the standard American diet is so detrimental to begin with that even minor changes to replace processed food in one’s diet would be a marked improvement. Reading this book really simplified healthy eating for me.

On Being 40(ish) edited by Lindsey Mead – a collection of essays about… being 40 (ish). Some of the essays spoke to me more than others. The existential angst of privileged people (of which I am sometimes guilty) gets a little tedious to read sometimes. But some standouts: Catherine Newman’s essay of friendship told through clothing was a beautiful tribute to her friend. Sophronia Scotts piece “I don’t have time for this” was just the anti-wallowing slap in the face that I needed. Jessica Lahey’s writing about mentoring at risk youth had some good lessons about connecting and the importance of a moment. “If I’m present enough,” she writes of her students, “and empathetic enough, an attosecond can expand to contain multitudes, to encompass their painful past and shape our possible future together. ”

The State of Affairs by Esther Perel – audio book narrated by the author. In this book the famous sex therapist examines cheating in an attempt to understand why people cheat, and perhaps lay out some lessons to be found in infidelity. She examines the motives and emotions behind people who cheat and people who have been cheated on and people who have been cheated with. One thing she says, that really struck me, was that people these days don’t usually cheat because they are unhappy, but rather because they think the could be happier. Of course there was something a little titillating about reading a book that gets into the weeds of infidelity, but ultimately for me, it made cheating just seem like something that took a lot of mental and emotional work.

Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn – 6h 27m. Contemporary romance about Meg, an in demand hand-letterer and the uptight financier Reid who helps her get over her creative block. Sweet and funny. I thought Reid was a perfectly lovely hero in the Mr. Darcy mold. Actually I found him more interesting than Meg and at times I wish the novel weren’t in first person narrative so I could be hin his head more. (side note: why are so many fiction written in first person? It’s on my list to find some non-first person novels to read). The details about hand lettered signs and the stationary business were a fun deep dive.

Books Read December 2020 + 2020 media diet favorites

Blame it on Christmas stress, blame it on endless scrolling of news… I don’t know, for whatever reason I didn’t get a whole lot of reading done in December. I did get most of the way through Braiding Sweetgrass, which was an amazing read, but then had to return it to the library, so it didn’t make the December list. But hopefully soon.

Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya – 6h 15 m. I can’t remember why I had put this book on my holds list, but I didn’t read the “back” before I started, so it was a little slow to start for me, as I tried to figure out what story was being told. It ostensibly tells the story of Ultima, a mystical elderly lady who comes to live with the family of Tony Marez, a six year old boy. I really liked how this book explored how Catholicism and a more pagan spiritualism can be so divisive yet also can coexist. One of my favorite passages:
“But from my father and Ultima I had learned that the greater immortality is in the freedom of man, and that freedom is best nourished by the noble expanse of land and air and pure, white sky.”

How to Stop Losing your Sh*t with Your Kids by Carla Naumburg – 3h, 26m. I think I had higher hopes for this book, but it turns out it was not so much about how you relate to your children, but how you manage your own moods and frustrations. Basically the take away is: stop being so distracted, put down your phone, and get more sleep. And while these are definitely things I am working on and it’s a worthwhile message, I was hoping for a book with magical solution for getting my kids to pay attention to what I say. I’m not sure that book actually exists.

American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson – Audiobook read by Bahni Turpin. This was an engrossing novel about Marie Mitchell, a young black intelligence officer who is sent to an African country to assist with a covert plan of American interference. Part spy novel, part romance, part family drama I was utterly absorbed. I almost wished I had read the book rather than listened to it.

The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana by Maryse Conde, Translated by Ricahrd Philcox – 6h 54m. We’ve been getting The Week magazine and I alway like reading the book recommendations. This title came to me off a list of recommended works in translation. The book tells the story of twins Ivan and Ivana as they travel from their home in Guadalupe to Africa to France, their lives diverging and converging yet always intertwined as they try to figure out how to live a good life. The language is very spare, but elegant and descriptive. The characters lack introspection, which sometimes annoys me in books, but I didn’t mind it here. It’s as if these characters were inadvertently caught up in a hurricane of human events and never had time to process them. Wondrous and tragic, indeed.

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger – audio book read by Scott Brick – The Depression era story of four orphans who escape a Native American reform school and set off on an epic journey to find home. The main character had an almost cliched inability to trust other people which was a huge plot motivator, but also somewhat frustrating for me. But aside from that, this was a good story, well told – spun with enough tension to draw the listener/reader along, and peopled with complex, flawed, but surprisingly sympathetic characters.

2020 Media Recap

I probably read more last year than ever before: 50 books, and 18 audiobook. I think this was partly the pandemic, but I also tried really hard to read more rather than scroll. Around the summer, I put some time limits on my phone so that if I picked up my phone after 10pm, the easiest thing to do was read. I also liked tracking how much time it really takes to finish a book – usually 6-10 hours. Realizing the actual time commitment of a book, helped me realize that it is absolutely something that I can fit in and finish. Maybe in 2021 I will pick a truly lengthy tome.

Anyhow, some highlights of media consumed in 2020:

Books:
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai – deeply touching story which makes you think about what we have time for and what we don’t in this life.
And Now We Have Everything by Meaghan O’Connell and A Life’s Work by Rachel Cusk- essays on motherhood that really resonated with me
Shrill by Lindy West – dissecting what is funny and how to stand up when things aren’t.
No Visible Bruises by Rachel Louise Snyder- eye-opening book about domestic violence as told through many lenses.

Some delightful picture books we read this year:
A Big Bed for Little Snow by Grace Lin – a little boy and the joy of jumping on beds.
King Arthur’s Very Great Grandson by Kenneth Kraegel- a six year old descendant of King Arthur goes in search of adventure and finds surprising things.
Green Pants by Kenneth Kraegel – the joy of doing our own thing, but also the hard choices of doing things for others.
So many more, but I didn’t keep track….. Maybe I should start doing that….

Theatre:
Jane Eyre from The National Theatre – my favorite book, brought to stage in such a dynamic, brilliant, and passionate production.
The Metropolitan Opera nightly streams. So many great operas and their At Home Gala was particularly fun and insightful.
Opera Lafayette’s The Blacksmith filmed on a ranch in Colorado. Whimsical, inventive and a does of happiness.

Podcasts:
On Being with Krista Tippett – such contemplative, exploratory and wise convresations – particularly this episode with Jane Goodall and this one with Bryan Stevenson.
Elaine Paige on Sunday for the unabashedly sentimental music of musical theatre.
Chompers – brilliant idea: a two minute tooth brushing podcast for kids.

Books read in November 2020

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig – 6 h 7 mins. Lovely, light read about a man who ages so slowly that he has been alive for centuries. The book explores the ideas of family and history and time and perspective. I enjoyed the speculative history parts, particularly meeting Shakespeare.

Burial at Thebes by Seamus Heaney. Hard copy. Heaney’s adaptation of Euripides’ Antigone. I had wanted to read some of Heaney’s poetry, being unfamiliar with it. This play was the first thing available at the library. It read surprisingly modern, almost jarringly so. Perhaps that is because in my head the story of Antigone is an ancient one. I have vague memories of reading Anouilh’s version in high school French class. Heaney’s version focuses not so much on Antigone’s story, but rather that of Creon and his megalomania.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid – 6h 36m. Engrossing story of an aging Hollywood film star and the journalist who is helping her write her memoirs. I’m not sure if I really connected with any of the characters, but this book was really well constructed and deftly plotted. I was mesmerized and stayed up until 3am to finish it.

Poser by Claire Dederer – audiobook read by Christine Williams. I had heard an interview with Dederer on the podcast Everything Is Fine, and I thought she had a lot of very sensible thoughts about being a woman over 40. This book is a memoir told through yoga poses. She took up yoga to help with back pain that developed while breastfeeding and writes about how her yoga journey mirrored her own life’s journey. There were a lot of really thoughtful ideas about identity and how we search for identity even as it changes. I do think, though, I am getting a little fatigued with the genre of new mother personal essays. Whereas personal essays about new motherhood used to make me really feel seen and not so alone, they now feel a little cliched, and the domain of a certain demographic. Maybe I need to read about more diverse motherhood experiences?

Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen – 6h 48m. When I was a high school student in Southern California, people in the Taiwanese community talked about Loveboat all the time. It was a cultural exchange program in Taiwan for teenagers – not officially called Love Boat, but referred to as such for all the matchmaking that resulted in its pressure cooker of newfound independence. I never went – it sounded really intense to me. Wen’s book is a YA novel about Ever Wong, whose parents ship her off to Loveboat. There she does the requisite self discovery and flirting with romance and bonding with girlfriends. I must say this book really did make me a little nervous to have a teenager. s

Also in November, two audiobooks we listened to on our trips to the Shenandoahs, both given high approval ratings from the eight year old:
Nim’s Island by Wendy Orr, narrated by Kate Reading – I loved this adventure story featuring the resourceful Nim.
The Wild Robot by Peter Brown, narrated by Kate Atwater – Such a great story about a robot finding her way and herself with the help of a colourful cast of animal friends.

Books Read October 2020

River of Fire: On Becoming an Activist by Sister Helen Prejean – Audio book read by the author.
I had read Dead Man Walking the year the company I was working for presented the opera based on the book. What struck me about the book Dead Man Walking was how Sister Helen’s arguments against the death penalty were in large part very logical assertions grounded in the socio-economic injustices of the criminal justice system. River of Fire, however, is a more personal book; it details her childhood and how she came to enter the novitiate and the events that led up to the start of her work with death row inmates. Indeed the last line of the book is the first line of Dead Man Walking. Sister Helen is so smart, articulate, and charismatic, but also self-aware, humble and hilarious. I really enjoyed reading about how her work and life played out against the backdrop of Vatican II.

A Life’s Work by Rachel Cusk – 4h 20m. A very raw and honest account of new motherhood and how can tear you apart and then force you to rebuild yourself. I read these essays feeling as if Cusk really understood a lot of what I struggle with when I consider being a mother, particularly the sense of panic that there will never again be enough time in life. Her writing is dry to the point of being somber, but then when I read it outloud to my husband, it was actually quite funny because she captures so many of the ridiculous moments of being a parent – her account of a weekend with kids is priceless.

The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom – 10h 22m.
“I did not yet understand the psychic cost of defining oneself by the place where you are from.”
Broom’s memoir about growing up in New Orleans East and how where you are from informs who you are. It is somewhat a misnomer to call this a memoir because it is also the story about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – who is able to recover and who isn’t, recovery vs. abandonment. I read this while the California wildfires were raging. I was struck by how the two incidents are so much the same in terms of devastation, but so different in terms of response and recovery. It seems like we are at a point when hurricane season is barely a blip in the news cycle, even though the road to recovery for the affected areas is so much more difficult economically, socially, and politically.

A Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds – Audiobook read by the author.
This YA book is written in verse, which was one of the reasons Reynolds wanted to read the audio book himself. It is lyrical, breathless, tragic, and angry. The book takes place within the seconds that the elevator takes to travel to the ground floor as the teenage main character is on his way to avenge his brother’s death. At each floor, someone gets on, that makes him question the narrative of his life as a young black man.

The Art of Theft by Sherry Thomas – 6h 46m.
The latest installment of Thomas’ Lady Sherlock series that reimagines Sherlock Holmes as a woman. I really enjoy Thomas’ writing. Her characters are never easy to get to know or to like, which often turns me off when I’m reading fiction. Somehow, however, these characters fascinate me, and I wante to read on. This book was not as twisty as the previous ones in the series – it was actually pretty straight forward for a Sherry Thomas book.

Yes Please by Amy Poehler – Audiobook ready by the author and friends.
I like audiobooks that have a twist, and this one, with guest narrators, certainly did. I’ve never watched Parks and Rec, but this book often shows up on lists next to Tina Fey’s Bossypants. Bossypants was one of the first audiobooks that I loved – it made me laugh and laugh, and I was hoping Yes Please would be in the same vein. I didn’t love it as much as Bossypants, but I did enjoy the backstage stories and Poehler’s insights into how entertainment is made.

The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani (translated from the French by Sam Taylor) – 3h 50m. Unsettling novel about the relationship between two women – a nanny and the lady who hires her. I kept seeing this book pop up on “best ” lists, but I don’t think it was entirely to my taste. All the characters were really self absorbed and unpleasant, and ultimately the plot left one with more questions than answers. Perhaps that the feeling of instability is the point of the novel.

Books Read – September 2020

Not as many books read in September, mostly because one of my reads was quite intense and lengthy. I also probably did more random internet surfing this month than usual – probably a result of COVID fatigue starting to wear on me.

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson – 4h 35m. Funny, touching read. Lillian, the main character, is asked by her wealthy childhood friend to come care for her stepchildren who have a strange behavioral quirk. TBeneath this seemingly satirical story, is a contemplation of class, wealth, and how we create and maintain connections while figuring out what you really want in your life. One of my favorite quotes:
“Maybe raising children was just giving them the things you loved most in the world and hoping that they loved them too.”

Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan – Audiobook narrated by Mark Bramhall, David de Vries, MacLeod Andrews, and Rebecca Soler. This was actually a middle grade book, something I didn’t realize until I was a couple chapters in. It’s a magical, musical, and engrossing story that tells three different stories which somehow intertwine. It is a story about music, specifically a harmonica, and the people who find joy and solace in owning it. Part of the charm of the audiobook is that musical excerpts that are prominent in the story are incorporated into the audio experience.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown – 15h 45m. This classic recounts the bloody, brutal, and heart-breaking story of the conflict between Native Americans and the White people who settled the American West, taking ownership of land that, to the Native Americans, didn’t really belong to anyone. In the opposition between the drive for growth and “progress” on the one hand, and peaceful earth-conscious living on the other, bloody, cruel, and desperate conflicts seemed inevitable. This was a hard book to read for me because it is hard to imagine how reparations can be made when the country that we are now is so different from the country that was taken from the Native Americans.

Limelight by Amy Poeppel – 6h 49m. Light, fun, fluffy novel about a woman who befriends a trainwreck of a pop star about to make his Broadway debut. She attempts to help him get his life on track, while trying to keep her own life together. The scenes that took the reader into the rehearsal process made me miss work and the excitement and energy of creating theatre.