July books! Okay, and a few books from super-late in June and super-early in August. This month has been a busy one due to work, Camp NaNoWriMo, and working on other assorted writing things. I read a lot of BSC and BSLS books this month in an attempt to finish off all the BSC books by the end of year. I’m down to 51 remaining books.
All the non-BSC books read are also contributing to the adult summer reading challenge at my local library. I’ll find out soon enough if I won any prizes, but with the small number of people participating and my large number of books read, the odds appear to be in my favor.
While I’m ahead of my year-long reading challenge of 250 books, I’m technically behind after taking my lack of October and November books into consideration. Past years have told me that I hardly read anything during those two months, especially in November. So if I’m going to reach 250 total books read by the end of this year, I need to get going. Thank goodness all my BSC books count toward the overall challenge. I will definitely read fewer books in 2017.
The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig: I wanted to like this book. The premise sounded really neat, and then the story fell flat. The main problem with this story was that there was no hook. Most of the characters were dull, the plot was slow and ambling, and there was no one to root for or against. The only character I found myself caring about was the tutor aboard the ship, and the plot didn’t end in a remotely satisfying matter. This could have been so much more, and yet… it wasn’t. (2 out of 5 maps)
Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg: I listened to this book. While this book mostly told me things I already knew and attempted to apply, that in itself doesn’t explain the low rating for this book. The main reason this book is rated so low is because of the way it’s organized. It took me awhile to figure out just how the book was organized, and even then, the book was slow-paced and didn’t tie all its elements together very well in the end. (3 out of 5 mental models)
P.S. Longer Letter Later by Ann M. Martin and Paula Danziger: I loved both authors’ books as a kid and am currently trying to finish the entire Baby-Sitters Club series. I probably would have loved this book as a kid, but now the book is just eh. While I’m sure a lot of my issues have to do with the way the story is told, some of the major plot elements are really sudden, and we hear a lot about Elizabeth’s life but very little about Tara*Starr’s. The character development isn’t equal on both sides, which left me wanting a lot more out of this book. (3 out of 5 letters)
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli: I probably would have liked this book as a kid, but as an adult, it didn’t provide the depth I really wanted in this story. While the story features a kid who runs away from his old life and finds himself in a racially divided town, the plot doesn’t feature enough of how the town was divided and what this kid did to make a difference. That’s not to say it’s a bad book (it’s not!). The narrative is strong with some twists I didn’t see coming. But the depth of the story could have explored so much more while telling the same tale. (3 out of 5 legends)
You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day: I haven’t followed much of Felicia Day’s work, but I know plenty about it through Internet osmosis. Felicia and I are a lot alike in some ways–both anxiety-prone math major geeks who were unhealthily obsessed with getting the best grades. This book makes me wish that I could be a few years older so I could have been a full-blown adult when the whole Internet thing really started to take off, while showing me a story of someone whose go-get-em approach, even with an unexpected background, led her to a fulfilling professional career. While this book is most likely for existing fans of her work, it would also be great for the young person in your life with big dreams as encouragement. Now I want to go make more things. (4 out of 5 awkward encounters)
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: I read this for the library’s book club. This book tells the story of two Nigerian teenagers who fall in love. They wind up separated during a dictatorship when people are trying to leave the country: Ifemelu to the United States, Obinze as an undocumented immigrant in England. The book shows their separate lives and what happens when they meet again in Nigeria years later. Even though the beginning was a little slow and I wanted more out of the end, I really enjoyed this book and its way of taking on a lot: race, identity, natural hair, love, and the intersection of these… and that’s just for starters. (4 out of 5 Americanisms)
The Revenant by Michael Punke: Yes, I read this because of the movie, despite never having seen it. I have to admit that my focus was elsewhere during the first 30 or so pages of the book, making it hard for the characters and their characteristics to stick with me. Fortunately, this improved as the book went on, and I was able to figure out what was going on. While the prose itself isn’t bad, the story lost me in several spots along the way, and the ending disappointed me more than anything else. That’s it? All that buildup was for nothing? (3 out of 5 grizzly bear attacks)
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed: I listened to this book, the tale of a young woman who had lost her mother and her marriage before hiking (part of) the Pacific Crest Trail. I spent half the book amazed at how utterly unprepared she was for the trip: she carried a bag that was way too heavy, didn’t plan enough money for the trip and spent parts of the trail with less than a dollar to her name. I spent another significant chunk of time tuning out all the sexual stuff–maybe I’m just a very private person when it comes to sex, but some things I just don’t want to know. The prose itself is good, but this is no hike account. If you’re looking for a detailed hike report, this isn’t the book for you. But if you’re looking for one person’s personal account of self-discovery, you might like this memoir. (3 out of 5 impulsive decisions)
Asking for It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture and What We Can Do about It: I listened to this book, and holy crap is it unsettling. If you hang around the Internet long enough, you’ll probably hear the term “rape culture” at some point. The short version: survivors are often not believed (or they “asked for it” with their behavior), while the perpetrator gets off scot-free. This book is very well-researched and will make almost anyone angry at some point to hear real stories and how the media and investigators perceive them. I would have appreciated this book even more if I had read it, as I process information better that way, but it is a solid read. (5 out of 5 double standards)
Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor: I love the podcast to bits and pieces. The book took a long time to get going, by which time my interest was waning, but fortunately the book picks up again for the last hundred or so pages. Two of the things I found particularly frustrating was all the rambling and long explanations of things that podcast listeners would already know. While some things certainly need to be explained so this book can be accessible to non-listeners, not everything needs to be explained in so much detail. (3 out of 5 suitcases with flies)
Little Victories: Perfect Rules for Imperfect Living by Jason Gay: I listened to this book. If you have no idea who Jason Gay is, I didn’t either before reading his author bio. (It turns out he’s a sports writer for WSJ.) But no worries, this book isn’t about sports, nor is it–if we’re really being honest–about the little victories. This book is more of a personal memoir, but despite the misleading title, that’s fine. The memoir talks about everything from music at weddings to testicular cancer to being cool to Thanksgiving footballs to in vitro fertilization. Even if he is a little judgemental at times, the writing is funny and insightful, making this a good short read (or listen). Spoiler alert: Go see someone you love right now. Or call them, or text them, or email them. Seriously. (4 out of 5 little victories)
Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks: I read this book (okay, play) for my local library’s book club. This play tells the tale of two black brothers living together, their family and past, and their obsession with the three-card monte card trick. There’s so much subtext in this short play that some of it is easy to miss, especially on a first read, and Parks’s unconventional writing style suits the play perfectly. This play would be wonderful when performed, but reading it and envisioning everything in your head is also a good way to go. (4 out of 5 3-card montes)
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff: This book tells the tale of a couple and their marriage while showing that so many details depend on who’s telling the story. It’s divided into two parts: Lotto tells his story in Part One, and Mathilde tells her story in Part Two. I honestly didn’t care about the first part at all, and I mostly kept going in the hopes that it would get interesting eventually. Mathilde’s section was more interesting with some twists, but by this point I was just trying to get to The End so I could start reading something else. There were also some bits that made no sense to me, such as several elements that seem completely unreasonable to lie about in a relationship. All this is a shame because there were some lovely bits of prose, and I liked how the not-straight characters are mentioned like it’s no big deal (because it’s not). If you like character studies, you might like this, but otherwise, eh. (3 out of 5 plays)
My Southern Journey: True Stories from the Heart of the South by Rick Bragg: I listened to this book. Like the author, I grew up in a small town; unlike the author, I grew up in a different generation and didn’t write multiple essays about life in the South. Many of these essays have been published before, and each previous publication is mentioned at the beginning of the tale itself. While many of the essays were good and showed me a different (past) life in the South, I gotta admit–Bragg lost me with his multiple essays on football; my own family was a Braves family was nowhere near as obsessed as some of these essays made people out to be. Maybe that’s because baseball games are more frequent; I’m not sure. (Also, awkward moment: when the ex of an acquaintance is quoted in a couple of these essays.) (4 out of 5 potluck dishes)
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, & Jack Thorne: EEEEEEEEEEEEEE. (Really, did you expect anything serious out of this review? At least without talking about the plot and spoilers and stuff?) (5 out of 5 fan theories)
Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath by Ted Koppel: I listened to this book. You may recognize the author’s name from Nightline. I, however, did not recognize the name. Fame aside, I did enjoy this book, which provides a good overview of the possibility of a cyberattack and how (not) ready the United States would be in this event. While this book is by no means a complete guide, it still provides enough information to be useful… and to make me want to start preparing. (4 out of 5 attacks)
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara: Damn. I cried myself to sleep after finishing this book last night. It’s more of a character study than anything else, and even though it starts a little slowly with characters I cared about less, this book is beautiful and raw and graphic in its depictions of self-harm and sexual abuse; while I’m not a survivor of these things, it was still hard for me to read. Just be sure to have something light and fluffy to read afterward. (5 out of 5 haunting tales)