Another month down, folks! Not quite as many books as usually but most of them were pretty good, and a few were excellent.
NUMBER OF BOOKS READ: 7 + one re-read
NUMBER OF FEMALE AUTHORS VS MALE AUTHORS: 3 females, 4 males. Off my game!
NUMBER OF DIVERSE (non-American) SETTINGS: Well, 2 were set in Europe, 1 in a fantasy world, one throughout time and space, and one on Mars, so, a bit hard to quantify this time around…
RATINGS SPREAD: One 5-star, Four 4-star, Two 3-stars. Good month!
WHAT I READ: History Is All You Left Me (Adam Silvera)
WHY I READ IT: Praised for being a realistic YA LGBT novel.
WHAT I THOUGHT: I was skeptical for most of this book that the characters would do something I didn’t want them to do, but Silvera did a good job at keeping it grounded (and sad).
WHAT I READ: The Year Of Living Danishly (Helen Russell)
WHY I READ IT: I desperately want to live in paradise, aka Denmark.
WHAT I THOUGHT: Mostly it made me depressed to live in the U.S. God bless Denmark, apparently.
WHAT I READ: In The Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin (Erik Larson)
WHY I READ IT: I’m not sure, but I assume it was on one of those “Read this to learn how to live in our new autocracy” listsicles.
WHAT I THOUGHT: Fascinating and well-written narrative nonfiction of a time period I thought I knew about, but this book taught me so much more.
WHAT I READ: Wayfarer (Alexandra Bracken)
WHY I READ IT: As a follow-up to one of my favorites, Passenger.
WHAT I THOUGHT: I definitely should have re-read the first book more recently.
WHAT I READ: Spindle (E.K. Johnston)
WHY I READ IT: Book club book!
WHAT I THOUGHT: Way too much “road trip” narrative and not nearly enough action. The author clearly wanted to make spinning/a spindle the central part of the story, and concocted a fairly weak explanation to make it so.
WHAT I READ: The Martian (Andy Weir)
WHY I READ IT: Well you know, the movie was good.
WHAT I THOUGHT: Absolutely do not get the hype. The math and science seem incredible (I skimmed past a lot of it) but the dialogue was stitled and the characters not nearly layered enough.
WHAT I READ: Hillbilly Elegy (J.D. Vance)
WHY I READ IT: 2016’s “It” book.
WHAT I THOUGHT: This one WAS absolutely worth the hype. Easily read and a compelling topic; I only wished it had slightly more research/stats to back it up (but the author was clear from the start it wouldn’t). Left me wanting much more.
Re-read: Big Little Lies. I first read this book a few years ago and with the HBO mini-series launching, decided to give it another go. Just as good as the first time!