My reading year started out incredibly strong, and made me very excited for all the books I will get to experience in the upcoming months! I'm happy to have finished five books this month, along with another two books that I started but haven't finished yet. If you're interesting in hearing me talk about these books instead, you can head over to my booktube channel for my monthly wrap-up. Also! I keep forgetting to mention it, but I started a separate Instagram account for my bookish postings, so feel free to follow me there if you like pretty pictures of books.
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Everything I Never Told You is one of those books that I picked up with little knowledge of the story and few expectations, and it BLEW. ME. AWAY. This story is set in 1970’s Ohio, and focuses on the Lee family, an Asian American mixed-race family who discover that their middle and favorite daughter, Lydia, is dead. Through an omniscient narrator, the book follows the family as they come to terms with Lydia’s death, as well as flashing back in time to discover what led the family to this point. The book summary makes it sound a bit like a mystery or crime novel, but it truly was a subtle and heart-wrenching family drama dealing with themes of loss, grief, racism, expectations, family dynamics, gender roles and more. It was basically everything I enjoy in a book perfectly woven together and composed. It was an immediate addition onto my favorites shelf.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
I'd heard several people talking about Brown Girl Dreaming last year, but I was sort of hesitant to pick it up because it is categorized as a middle grade memoir written in verse. Then it won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature (and a bunch of other awards since then), and I also happened to read some articles about the importance of diversity in books—especially for young readers—and was really touched by how some people were connecting with the story in Brown Girl Dreaming. I purchased it and read it quickly, and I am so glad I did! It details Jacqueline Woodson's childhood years and what it was like to grow up in both the South and New York City during the Civil Rights Movement. While I'd been nervous about the verse, the writing is simple, beautiful, and very readable. I also love how it incorporates Jacqueline's love of reading and writing, and depicts how she gained confidence as a writer throughout her early years.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist
Cold Tangerines is a memoir-style short story collection in which Shauna aims to "celebrate the ordinary nature of everyday life." In a quick, digestible style that mimics blog posts, she writes of the simple moments of life that carry much more weight when we pay attention to them, and she weaves together her faith throughout these stories. I am familiar with Shauna's blog and had previously read her book Bittersweet, so I sort of felt like Cold Tangerines didn't provide anything particularly unique, though I did enjoy several passages in the book. I did want to connect to the stories more deeply, but as the reader I felt like I was sort of kept at arm's length in this volume. I personally enjoyed Bittersweet more, which was published after Cold Tangerines; the writing seems to have gotten stronger over time. If you've been considering reading Shauna's books, I'd probably recommend reading them in order of publishing.
Rating: ☆☆☆ 1/2
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Station Eleven is a book that is all over the internet. I saw it mentioned a dozen times in various Best of 2014 lists, and many of my booktube friends have read it recently. In this book, a flu pandemic quickly wipes out 99% of the world's population. The story focuses on a group of musicians and thespians who travel on foot between settlements and performs Shakespeare for survivors. A non-linear story and multiple perspectives give insight into life for different characters before, during, and after the apocalypse. I found the writing and story to be closer to literary fiction than science fiction, which is a plus in my book, and I enjoyed the themes the book explored (celebrity, art, artifacts, memory, etc). However, I don't think I loved the book as much as most other people, and I felt let down at the end. Several important characters fell very flat for me. I think I might enjoy it more if I re-read it sometime, and I still would recommend it overall. My rating wavers somewhere between 3.5 and 4 stars.
Rating: ☆☆☆1/2 - ☆☆☆☆
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
Another book that has been EVERYWHERE is The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I can't seem to go a day on the internet without seeing it mentioned. The book in a nutshell: only keep belongings in your home that truly bring you joy. That's all well and good—though not a unique message to me, as I have read other books on minimalism before—but this book is ridiculous. Why aren't people talking about how ridiculous it is? She anthropomorphizes her belongings and home in a way that, to me, seems bonkers. She describes opening one client's drawer to see a bunch of balled up socks and gasps because she feels the socks are suffocating. To the author, socks must be neatly rolled from toe to top so that they have time to relax after protecting your feet. What? I like the idea of respecting what you own, but I can't get on board with my stuff having feelings. I found many of her methods to be more complicated than necessary (unpacking and storing your purse everyday, putting shampoo away in a cabinet after every shower, etc). I also thought it was problematic that: 1) the environmental cost of throwing stuff away wasn't discussed, and 2) the author didn't address how to examine your purchasing habits to avoid bringing more stuff into your house in the future. However, I did come away from the book inspired to get rid of stuff, and that's the whole point, I guess.
Rating: ☆☆
Did you read anything good in January?
Did this post resonate with you? Email me at rootswingswanderings {at} gmail {dot} com or join me on Twitter @cait_lindsey_ to share your thoughts. I'd love to hear from you!
