This year so far has mostly been one giant reading slump. I'm not reading as much as I used to, I'm currently not making book videos, and I've been striking out with a lot of the books I've been picking up. But we still have almost 3/4 of the year to go, so hopefully I'll find myself falling back in love with reading in the upcoming months. Here's what I've read so far this year; despite my slump, there ARE a few gems in there!
The Unspeakable by Meghan Daum
The Unspeakable is a collection of autobiographical essays that center around the thoughts and topics of conversation that many people avoid speaking about—things like fraught relationships, illness, death, and the choice to have children or not. Not surprisingly, the collection was candid and insightful in a way that I really enjoyed, and I could find something relatable (or at least understandable) in a majority of the essays. There was only one essay that was a complete miss for me, called "Honorary Dyke." While I see no issue with Daum exploring her sexuality, this essay veered into problematic cliches and stereotypes, and I found it severely lacked the self-awareness that gave the rest of the collection its strength.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
And Again by Jessica Chiarella
And Again is a literary science fiction novel that focuses on four terminally ill/disabled patients—an artist, a Congressman, a mother, and an actress—who take part in an experimental medical program that grants them a perfect and disease-free clone of their body—and therefore a second chance at life. Through multiple points of view, we get to see how each of them adjusts to their new bodies and the issues that arise along the way. It was an extremely thought-provoking book, raising questions about the mind/body connection and how our identities are shaped and expressed through our bodies. It's much more of a character study than a plot-driven novel, but I quite enjoyed it. While I thought that each of the characters had a well-developed and unique voice, there is somewhat of an imbalance among the four characters and I was left wishing for clearer resolution for two of them.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆ 1/2
Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson
My first book of the year was
Fourth of July Creek, which is a grit lit novel set in Montana in the late 1980's. It focuses on a social worker trying to help children and families in the rural Northwest while also facing his own problems of alcoholism, a crumbling family, and a teen daughter that runs away from home. I found the flawed characters and the rural setting to be the best parts of the book, but the plot really dragged—it took me until I was about 70% through the book to have any idea where it was going, and that felt like far too long. Smith Henderson has been championed as a new writer to watch, and he is sometimes compared to Cormac McCarthy, but I found his style to swing between overly verbose and short and choppy. I would only check it out if you're curious about the grit lit genre or if the premise sounds interesting because otherwise it'd probably be a drag.
Rating: ☆☆☆
The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
The Light Between Oceans is a historical fiction novel in which a lighthouse keeper and his wife live on a remote island off the coast of Australia in the 1920s. After suffering through a number of miscarriages, the couple finds a boat washed ashore with a living baby inside, and the wife convinces her husband to keep the baby and raise her as their own under the assumption that the baby's parents died at sea. Unpopular opinion: I hated this book. It's Jodi Piccoult meets historical fiction. I thought the moral dilemma was far too obvious and handled very explicitly instead of letting the reader grapple with the issues presented. Instead of sympathizing with the characters' struggles, I found them insufferable and thought that they each made their situations infinitely more complicated. Additionally, the oceanic setting was beautifully depicted, but it was conveniently and intentionally constructed to isolate the characters and incite the drama. To me it is lazy writing to create a world in which only the main characters exist; the main conflict literally would not have occurred if even ONE OTHER person was present besides the husband and wife. But people seem to love this book, and I suppose it makes for good book club discussions. MEH.
Rating: ☆☆
Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes
Year of Yes is Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes' half-memoir, half-self-help book about how she transformed herself from a person who said "no" out of fear to someone who embraces life and says "yes" wholeheartedly, particularly to the things that scare her. In some tangental ways it reminded me a bit of both
My Year with Eleanor by Noelle Hancock and
Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, but Year of Yes felt more self-reflective and honest. (I go into more detail comparing these books in
this review video if you'd like to hear more.) I enjoyed the anecdotes about Shonda's life and could relate to a lot of her fears, and I was inspired by her desire to engage with her life more fully. If anything, I wish that she would have dug further into some parts of her story instead of glossing over them with humor. I also felt she too easily flipped from "Old Shonda" to "New Shonda," which suggests that the process of change is as easy as flipping a switch. Perhaps I'm overly stubborn, but change is much harder for me. But I also don't have the eyes of Hollywood on me, expecting me to step up! ;)
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park
In Order to Live is a powerful book about a part of the world that remains a mystery to most of us. Yeonmi describes what it was like to grow up in North Korea, how she escaped to China and was sold into a slave marriage at 13, and finally how she became a refugee in South Korea and was eventually able to access the education and opportunities she so desired while making a name for herself as an activist. It was a difficult read, but Yeonmi tells her tale in an almost detached tone that doesn't elaborate on explicit details, so I would recommend it to even those people who are sensitive to human rights abuses. It's one of those books that feels like required reading, both to be awed by Yeonmi's remarkable strength as well as appreciating our own freedoms.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆
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I'd love to hear about the best book you've read lately! I'm definitely looking for recommendations—I have yet to read a 5-star book this year and I want to be blown away!
