I'm not sure if I'm just getting more discerning in my old age, or if I'm just selecting more mediocre books than usual this year! Still, the winners make it all worth it!
Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting by Claire Pooley I've decided to start with the ultimate winner for my February reading! I read Pooley's The Authenticity Project late last year and was so excited to read something else she penned. Actually, I listened to this one - so glad I did, who can resist a beautiful clipped English accent? I truly enjoyed every single moment. Pooley likes to throw random characters together and let them form unlikely friendships and I just lap it up. Parts of this novel were a smidge predictable but no complaints here. Love! The Hypnotist's Love Story by Liane Moriarty This fun romance featured a couple and the guys' stalker ex-girlfriend. Moriarty put the most love into developing this character and I ended up liking her better than anyone else. I was alarmed at how much relatable her point of view actually was. This author isn't always the most incredible writer and yet many of her stories and characters have really stuck with me. French Braid by Anne Tyler It seems like Anne Tyler's thing is to write family sagas where everyone is introduced, nothing huge really happens, then it's 20 years later and more stuff happens - nothing major - and then one more time we gather characters 10 or 20 years on and then the book is over. Aside from how weird and disjointed that seems, French Braid wasn't a bad book. It was just a deep dive into the various characters that made up this Baltimore-area family. Interesting, introspective, but certainly skippable. Family Family by Laurie Frankel Wow, this novel about a famous actress, the two babies she gave up for adoption, the two baby daddies, the new adoptive parents, her own two adopted twins, and...and...paparazzi...and...my goodness, all of the things. Fascinating, fun, fast-paced, and also so unlikely that the reader can't help but occasionally suspend their suspension of disbelief. A more realistic version of this novel would've received an easy five stars from me. News of the World by Paulette Jiles I read a western! It's been a minute since I've done that. I really enjoyed this short novel about an older gentleman traveling through Texas in 1870, reading newspapers to the locals and tasked with delivering a young girl to her family after she had been captured by an Indian tribe. It was fun to read about their sweet relationship and how they faced challenges together on their journey. I would definitely recommend this quick read - it was a nice change of pace for me. One in a Millennial by Kate Kennedy I have big feelings about this book. I could write a whole blog post on this book!! I'll keep it concise and diplomatic. This seemed like it would be a fun and lighthearted collection of essays about the millennial experience, complete with fun wordplay. It started off that way, and I was super into it. I loved her sidebar on the American Girl dolls & books! However, it swerved into umm, well, our lives suck because of the patriarchy? A quote, "...part of me thinks that as a young woman, I forewent developing a worldview because the male-centric media's surveillance of women taught me to prioritize how the world viewed me." Well then! But then a sentence or two later, she thoughtfully connects the dots on how the Spice Girls dealt with some of the weird stuff thrown at them by saying, "...maybe it was the embodiment of doing the best you can despite your circumstances. Choosing what you accept, what you laugh at, what you capitalize on, and what you leave behind..." Well, right. I mean, this is my whole actual worldview (I developed one!) that makes me resent reading an entire book like this: I have (and she has, and probably you have) been dealt various blows by men, women, media, etc. and have learned to take from it what I can and leave the rest behind! For example, the "male-centric media" also leaned pretty hard into the clueless dad stereotype back in the day (less so now, but it's not extinct). Dads could choose to write a book about it (I'd argue that there's definitely enough content to unpack there) or they could say, "That's not accurate and it has nothing to do with me!" and move on with real life. Anyway. It's okay that Kate Kennedy didn't do what *I* wanted her to do and write a lighthearted collection of essays about the millennial experience. I'm sure this book totally hit the mark for many readers. Not this elder millennial.
1 Comment
Ramona Walker
3/1/2024 08:21:28 pm
You certainly make my "to be read" list both interesting and shorter as I know which ones to skip. Always it makes me go pick up a book!!
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorMom of four, wife of one. By day I fund-raise with coffee, by night I read with wine and chocolate. Archives
June 2023
Categories |