august 2018 book club
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August was a bit of a slow reading month for me. I thought I would get more in – my mom’s surgery was this month, which meant some time hanging out and “relaxing” in the hospital, and I was also spending some quality solo time while I was back up north. It didn’t work out quite that way, which is okay – some of the library books came and went without even being cracked open. Whoops.
My boyfriend got me a Kindle last fall, and turns out that has been the key to unlocking voracious reading. Dani and I also created our own reading challenge this year to increase our reading: 51 categories to prompt us to pick up books we wouldn’t typically read (or books that have languished in TBR-land for too long.) Here’s what I read this month, including what you should pick up and what you should let lay!
Tangerine: I have some mixed feelings about this book, in the same way I had mixed feelings about The Wife Between Us. Maybe these types of psychological mysteries aren’t for me. I did like it, but I got more and more frustrated at the gaslighting of the main character (which she’d been victim to for years) and there were a few holes in the story, but overall, I’d recommend it. Especially if you’re okay with the “hero” not having the happiest ending.
The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: Is it weird to say that I really enjoyed this book? Is it weirder to say that I read the bulk of it in the hospital during my mom’s surgery? The author writes gently, includes cute illustrations, and talks about her own reconciliation with her advancing age. It really helped me get focused on my own purge and wardrobe clean, and I definitely recommend this.
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Fury: True Tales of a Good Girl Gone Ballistic: I love Koren’s first novel Smashed because it resonates so much with me and the way I drank in college… and for a bit after. This book was… fine. I didn’t relate to this one the way I did Smashed, nor did I expect to, but she did raise some points that resonated: fury and anger, both my own and of others, has always been portrayed as “bad” to me. I did really enjoy how this story was essentially a catalog of a broken relationship – told under the influence of anger. It’s a nice study of who and what can cause extreme emotions in us and others.
As I Lay Dying: This took me a long time to get through, and to be honest – I didn’t get it. I found it hard to get into the dialect, and then ended up missing out on a lot of the humor. It’s one of Evan’s favorite books, though, so I read it on his recommendation for our reading challenge “A Classic” prompt. I’m glad I read it, but it wasn’t for me.
Sisterhood of the Squared Circle: Spoiler alert, I’m really into wrestling. I don’t actually have a lot of backstory about how it originated beyond the carnivals, and even less about the history of women’s wrestling in particular. This book explores the history, some of the more problematic figures and how they essentially controlled entire generations of female wrestlers, and mostly stays away from the condescending language around the ~evolution~ of women’s wrestling… mostly. I enjoyed it, and if you like wrestling, it’s a good, engaging read.
Wondering how I read so much? My libraries use Libby – see if your library has a partnership, and check out the mobile app!
The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer: I loved this book. I’m late on the Twin Peaks train and though we haven’t finished season two yet, I knew this book came out between seasons so it was safe to read. I thought it was really well written from Laura’s perspective – you see and understand the things that happened that made her become who she became, and get even more backstory on her relationship with the town’s other residents. (Spoiler alert – there’s another main character that she slept with that’s never addressed in the show.) If you like Twin Peaks and haven’t read this yet, I highly, highly recommend!