How is everyone?
This was a strange and terrifying month, one that seems to have lasted forever. Which is scary in itself, because we have at least a couple of months of this ahead. There are things I’m liking about staying home. In some ways I’m actually connecting more with friends and family than I did before. I’m fortunate to be really busy with work, so I don’t have tons of extra time.
At first I really struggled with reading, but as I’m getting used to the situation, I seem to have gotten my reading mojo back. I’m relying more on audiobooks than usual, since walking outdoors is now my only recreational activity.
I didn’t post much this month but I’m starting to feel like blogging again – I don’t know about you, but when life is stressful, writing about books seems a whole lot less important.
The books I read at the beginning of the month seem years away!
Here’s what I read:
- The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang
- The Yellow House by Sarah Broom
- The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren (audio)
- Shrill by Lindy West (audio)
- Hunted by Meagan Spooner (audio)
- The Herd by Andrea Bartz
- The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo
- The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman (audio)
My favorite read? In nonfiction, I loved Shrill, which I found funny but also spot-on clever, and it’s a book I think about often. In fiction, The Most Fun We Ever Had was excellent, a really thoughtful and in-depth family saga.
Also good was The World That We Knew, a book that combines, in true Alice Hoffman fashion, Jewish mysticism and the Holocaust. It won’t be for everyone, but it’s written beautifully and well-narrated by Judith Light.
Most disappointing read: I feel like a bad person for admitting this, but I struggled with The Yellow House. I made myself finish it, but I just didn’t find it as interesting or as moving as I expected to. So many people raved about it, but it felt very disjointed and despite a LOT of detail I never felt I connected with the narrator.
Books for challenges:
- Nonfiction: The Yellow House, Shrill
- Read Harder Challenge: The Yellow House, The Most Fun We Ever Had
- Mount TBR: The Dragon Republic
What I’m reading now: I’m loving Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert – this book is laugh-out-loud funny and pretty steamy. If you like romances, this one is shaping up to be one of the best I’ve read lately. And interestingly, it’s one of two books I’m reading right now that features a main character with a disability/chronic medical condition.
On the much heavier side is Rachel Louise Snyder’s No Visible Bruises. It’s such an important topic to understand, and it’s written in a really compelling way, since it focuses on a true story rather than just statistics.
What’s coming up: As usual I have way too much from the library. I have Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo, The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, and The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff. And I have a book from NetGalley called The Beauty of Your Face by Sahar Mustafah, which publishes April 7.
In bookish news:
- Check out Ann Patchett’s book recommendations (she’s a bookseller as well as an author) on PBS NewsHour.
- In library news, Macmillan got rid of its lousy embargo on new release e-books to libraries. And my local library just reported receiving $50,000 to buy extra audiobooks to supply more people with free reading while we’re at home (we’re a small city so that’s quite nice).
- Looking for a way to give during this time of crisis? First Book is sending free books to the homes of children who need them. I know education isn’t everyone’s priority right now, but more affluent kids will continue at home, while learning at home, while some kids will fall even farther behind because they lack the same resources.
Some non-bookish things that made me happy this month:
- I love the Birds of Prey soundtrack – it’s a decent movie but the music really makes me happy, and I can use that right now.
- Looking forward to the new Miss Fisher movie which dropped last week. We’re waiting till we have two good hours to give, which has been surprisingly hard to come by.
- Zoom! We had drinks with friends and last Friday I talked to all three of my sisters at the same time, which hasn’t happened in many years.
Honestly, I’m feeling really grateful for what I have right now, and especially for the health of my husband and my family. Nothing else really matters.
I hope you’re all doing well, finding ways to cope, and maybe even seeing some positives. Thanks for spending a little of your time here, and happy reading.
