As I mentioned in my recap of everything I read in 2019, as I moved into the new year I wanted to start sharing my reads and reviews on a monthly basis instead of just a year-end round up! Because of when I came up with this idea (inspired by the Stripe) my first post will encompass my reads for both January and February 2020, but I’ll switch to single month recaps after this.
Without further adieu, here is everything I read in January and February:
Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self Delusion by Jia Tolentino
Wow, I LOVED this book! Jia is such a phenomenal writer and is so incredibly intelligent. Each of her essays forced me to think deeper about institutions and values and constructs in our generation and society that we sometimes take at face value and don’t grapple with enough.
I underlined so many thought-provoking sentences and added tons of books to my “Want to Read” list that she references in her essays. This book is very well researched and offers the reader so much to think about. I love that this book challenged me to challenge myself about some really important topics. Highly recommend!
Overall Score: A+
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
I was thrilled at the revival of this classic novel and that it was selected by my book club as our first read of 2020. It coincided with the release of the new Greta Gerwig film adaptation (which got so much hype so I was dying to see it) but I decided to hold off and finish the book before I saw the movie and I’m glad I did! (I adored both the film and the book - but that’s a different story.)
What I love most about this story is how enduring it is over 150 years after it was originally published. Of course there are plenty of things that aren't the same nowadays, but the human struggles it portrays, paricularly those of women finding their place a world that often wants them to be a certain type of way, are relevant to today's readers. In the four March sisters, the book shows four very different ways of existing in the world as a girl, and offers the value and allure of each, while not ultimately saying that one is better than the other; ultimately, a very feminist idea.
As one of four siblings who are all rather close, I related a lot with the sister's sibling dynamics and their relationship with Marmee, who was nearly always the deliverer of life lessons that tied up the chapters quite neatly.
My biggest qualm with the book is Jo's ending, because it just felt too neat and inconsistent with the rest of her story line. I spent a lot of time wondering if Alcott wanted to leave leave Jo unmarried, but had pressure by her publisher to add that ending for her. Hard to say whether I think that was an intentional choice of Alcott's or if it was "just how books of that time ended." She pushed the envelope in several ways with her novel, that maybe that was one area where she had to concede for it to be published. Who's to say!
All in all, I highly recommend this classic for all readers!
Overall Score: A
Sober Curious: The Blissful Sleep, Greater Focus, Limitless Presence, and Deep Connection Awaiting Us All on the Other Side of Alcohol by Ruby Warrington
At the start of the new year, as I embarked on yet another "Dry January," I began thinking a lot about the role of alcohol in my life and the lives of my loved ones. That led me to pick up Sober Curious by Ruby Warrington, a book I heard heard about and a title I felt resonated with my current feelings on the topic. I was curious to learn more about others' experience limiting or eliminating alcohol, or at the very least, taking a long, hard, and honest look at my habits and the affect they have on my life. Warrington posits questions like, "Could it be possible that it’s harder not to become alcohol dependent, to develop the habit of drinking, than it is to maintain a perfectly 'healthy' relationship with booze?" I think that's totally possible.
Warrington says, "When it comes to learning to trust in your own power over your own life, more awareness—meaning less pretending, less hiding, less shame—is always the aim." More awareness is what I was in search of with this book and, as such, I used this book as an opportunity to be critical (but gentle) with myself about this area of life. My relationship with drinking is still continually evolving, but I appreciated the "check in" that Sober Curious offered.
The book is truly not "anti-alcohol" in my opinion. Warrington simply shares her experiences and allows readers to take from it what they may. I did find it perhaps a little repetitive and didn't absolutely love the writing, but overall I would recommend it to others for the same reasons that I enjoyed it.
Overall Score: C
We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby
My Goodreads review when I finished this one simply read, "Samantha Irby is seriously hysterical. She is so authentically herself and I adore it," and honestly, that kinda sums it up for me. I won't lie, I was partly drawn to the book because of it's cover (#catlady), but I hung around for the often self-depracating, brutually honest and smart laughs. This one's probably not for the faint of heart, but I enjoyed it as a short, spicy read in between my usual novels. I’m excited to read her next books of essays, Wow, No Thank You, which is coming out at the end of this month!
Overall Score: B
Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow
Okay, so…to begin, this story is a really important story to be told about a horrific, serial rapist and how systems of power enabled him to continue hurting women for decades. That said, it was a little hard for me to get through this book. A few things I think that contributed to this: I had previously listened to Farrow's podcast of the same name, and I feel that a lot of the content was essentially the same. That kind of took the "thriller" aspect that a lot love about this away for me. Second, I listened to it on audio book and found it a little droning as he recounts "and then this happened, and then this happened, and then this meeting was held..." I realize that all of the detail is part of the story, showing how many times certain things had to be raised or pressed to make any progress or how the story almost died so many times. It all adds up to a great story that NEEDED to be told, I think I just kind of got lost in the details at times. Based on how it was received by literally everyone else, though, I think I need to re-read (and actually read, not listen) to this one.
Overall Score: B+
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
I have been wanting to get to this one for a while, and now, several weeks after finishing it, feel like I'm still grappling with it. The writing and imagery was illuminating and the story shed light on tough topics like loss, abuse, racism, and addiction. I can’t say I loved Sing, Unburied, Sing, but I appreciated it for what it was: a story of hope, family, and redemption despite all of the hardships.
Overall Score: B-
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Exit West was gifted to me and came highly recommended to me by several friends, but ultimately, this book just didn’t work for me.
It is a quick read, written in a unique style comprised of paragraph long sentences and vivid descriptors. However, I was unaware of the mystic aspect of the book prior to reading and was really thrown off by it. I felt like Hamid took a shortcut by creating these magic doors, because I think that the characters’ transitioning between countries could actually be a really powerful and complex part of this refugee story.
Overall Score: B-
Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener
I will start by saying that based on the types of books I typically gravitate towards, this isn’t one that I would probably have sought to read had it not been my book club’s book this month. Overall, I finished Uncanny Valley feeling rather “meh” about it. What I enjoyed most about the book was continued contemplation on the idea of “optimization” that I began pondering earlier this year reading Jia Tolentino’s essays in Trick Mirror. The idea that, “A world improved by companies improved by data… A world freed of decision-making, the unnecessary friction of human behavior, where everything — whittled down to the fastest, simplest, sleekest version of itself — could be optimized, prioritized, monetized, and controlled.”
Even more than that description, I related with her rebuff of that optimization mindset where she lists all the reasons why she enjoys her “inefficient life,” saying:
“I liked listening to the radio and cooking with excessive utensils;…Folding the laundry. Copying keys. Filling out forms… I even liked the post office, the predictable discontent of bureaucracy… I could sometimes get frustrated, overextended, overwhelmed, uncomfortable. Sometimes I ran late. But these banal inefficiencies— I thought they were luxuries, the mark of the unencumbered. Time to do nothing, to let my mind run anywhere, to be in the world. At the very least, they made me feel human. The fetishized life without friction: What was it like? An unending shuttle between meetings and bodily needs? A continuous, productive loop? Charts and data sets. It wasn’t, to me, an aspiration. It was not a prize.”
Apologies for the long quoted excerpt, but I, personally, thought this part of the book was written excellent and so relatable. I also valued her perspective as a woman working in the predominantly male dominated world of tech. Regardless of if the book blew me away or not, I will always appreciate first hand accounts of other’s experiences navigating different parts of the world that I may or may not ever see for myself. I am have never been particularly enamored by the tech scene/Silicon Valley/startup culture, so I found this to be an interesting way to learn a little more about it. I also thought her choice to use generalized descriptions for proper nouns (i.e. “the online superstore” instead of Amazon) was interesting. Would like to know why exactly that choice was made because it was a bit distracting. Overall, not my favorite, but also didn’t hate it. Weiner is a great writer, but I wanted a bit more feeling from her.
Overall Score: C