My Month of Reading: July 2021

For some reason, I was reading at a pretty steady clip this month.  I finished up 8 books - let me tell you about them (briefly)!

​Writers and Lovers by Lily King
In some ways, this was great.  I really loved so many of the observations within this novel and the author really brings you right into each scene with her beautiful writing.  The content, though, was eh.  What was with the weird love triangle?  

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12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan Peterson
Don't confuse this with the fluffed out listicle type book so popular on bookstore shelves today.  In fact, Peterson deep dives into the thought behind each rule, with examples ranging from Biblical stories to modern scenarios and back to the beginning of time.  He's blunt and interesting and I suppose fairly controversial at this point.  His chapter on not raising kids to become people you would hate was especially interesting to me.  I would recommend, but clear distractions before jumping in.

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Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
As loyal readers know, I think everything Reid touches turns to gold.  I would agree with that in this case, especially because it was more or less marketed as a beach read and has that fun 1980's glamourous rich-and-famous in Malibu feel.  It won't change your life, but it's fun family drama drenched in alcohol and dusted with cocaine.

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Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
This was our book club book, as suggested by me, and I feel good about having suggested it - hopefully everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.  My favorite part?  Strong female characters AND strong male characters!  This novel jumps back and forth between a daring woman pilot a couple of generations ago and to an actress playing her in the present day.  Fascinating, and not the sappy mess you might be envisioning, I promise.

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The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
The Four Winds is about the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, the migration to California, little work and poor wages, families suffering together, and what it means to be a strong person in the face of obstacles.  I do usually like Kristin Hannah, but I feel like she was reading the book alongside of me and constantly tapping me on the shoulder to remind me of the points she was trying to drive home.  "Don't forget, we should all work together for the betterment of society" and "Sometimes you have to be strong even when you're scared!"  So the story took a backseat and I think I like it better when I can enjoy a story and then sit back and think I'm really clever to have unearthed the theme that ran along under the surface of the story.  

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South of Broad by Pat Conroy
I started this book while in Charleston, as I had heard it described as Conroy's love letter to Charleston - which it was!  But, like Prince of Tides, it was packed full of drama centered around a group of friends, jumping forward and back in time.  The main character could've been the same main character from Prince of Tides and certainly several other components of the plot had some similarities.  I'll have to read a few more, but so far in my reading of Conroy it seems like he loves to make you laugh, make you cry a few lines later, and then make you laugh again, maybe with some WTF thrown in among the paragraphs as well.  It's a strange reading experience and I kind of love it.

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Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford
This memoir was a fast read, and certainly Ford has been through some stuff, but nothing so crazy or interesting that I thought about anything any differently or felt compelled to recommend this to a friend.  She's a good writer and seems like a good person, but I was glad that this only took a couple of days to get through.  I'd suggest a pass on this one, unless you're in the mood for a speedy read about family dynamics, fathers in prison, and sexual assault.

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Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It by Gary Taubes
Spoiler alert:  Flour and sugar make us fat.  I really loved how Taubes argues his case and now I feel like I need to be reading his book at all times so I can be encouraged to lay off the danishes.  I highly recommend this book, which is really a pretty quick read and probably skimmable if need be, to anyone struggling with extra pounds.  The implementation, though.... that's the hard part!

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How did your July reading shape up?  Did you read anything you would recommend?