Well, they say a good battle plan never survives first contact with the enemy, and so it was with June’s reading list. During the last month, I packed up our things from our 6-month rental, moved them down to our new home, unpacked all the things from our two storage pods, and began trying to put our family’s life back together. I front-loaded a lot of audiobooks because I knew I wouldn’t have a lot of energy for physical reading this month, but even so I didn’t make it through all the physical books I wanted to read. Plus I got sidetracked by two unplanned reads. I guess that’s #writinglife. Expect me to double up on my writing-related books next month, as those are the ones I’m still working through.
Speculative Fiction
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir – This book is a return to the formula that made The Martian work so well: an ultra-competent protagonist solving problems with scientific reasoning and clever quips. This time, the premise is a bit more science fictional than the exploration of Mars. I loved the companion character so much (can’t say more without spoilers), and the eventual resolution involves a much stronger character arc than The Martian. A really solid SF book for those who love realism and smart characters being smart
Leviathan Wakes by James S A Corey – Not sure I’ll continue with the series, but it was good to see what the hype was about. Like many people had told me, the Mormon presence is really just a minor side-note with no depth. This is your basic scifi/mystery plot mash up on a galactic scale. The nuances between the various factions were well-thought out. Solid SF world Building. The ending is not entirely unpredictable, but satisfying.
However, this book takes the “fridged girlfriend” trope to another level: she’s not even the main character’s girlfriend, just his imaginary in-his-head girlfriend whose case he was assigned Given that she’s only one of two female characters and doesn’t ever appear on screen conscious (and the other female is a love interest for the other main male character and nothing else), this book earns a very low feminist reading score indeed.
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig – At the beginning, I was not at all sure I was going to like this book. The premise was depressing, as in “we’re counting down to when the protagonist in going to commit suicide” depressing. The twist (that she ends up instead in a library of all the quantum possibilities of what her life could have been) seemed a little cliche to me at first. Too much “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” for my taste. I liked best the parts where the book acknowledged its sci-fi premise with some interesting worldbuilding. (I would have liked more of that, but I know the author wasn’t writing that genre.) The ending has a good twist that is ultimately satisfying. I am surprised that several people I know with depression liked this, as to me, it seemed to conclude that depression was a matter of attitude, but apparently it resonates with people. For me, it was a fine book, but not really a love.
Other Fiction
The Field is White by Claire Akebrand – A novel by a friend from my England & Lit study abroad whose poetic skills forever amaze me. A blend of poetry and prose, told in fragmented bits of narrative you have to put together like a puzzle. I think it would be best if you could read the whole thing over a day or two. Trying to read it in little bits at bedtime while moving made it very confusing to me. Poetry is not really my jam, but this seemed fine to me. DNF’d at 60% ish because I wasn’t getting much out of it, but would be willing to try again.
Anne of Green Gables by L M Montgomery – It’s basically heresy that I’ve never read this book, given that my sister and her best friend were both obsessed with it in our shared childhood. (Sorry, Jones.) Listening to this as an adult, I am astounded with how well Montgomery catches the voice of a certain type of child, one whose ideas are constantly overflowing and never has enough people to talk to. Most chapters seem to be at least half composed of Anne spewing stream-of-consciousness thoughts at people, but in a charming way. Having a child like that of my own, I felt a lot of empathy for Marilla, whose more practical character makes her more relatable to me. My kids loved the audiobook and were constantly wondering what would happen to Anne next. Even with the denser writing style and vocabulary of an earlier age, this book translates well to the next generation.
Non-Fiction
We Need to Talk: A Memoir About Wealth by Jennifer Risher – Let me start by clarifying that I am not even in the same ballpark of wealth as the author. Though my husband worked for both Microsoft and Amazon, it was much later and at a lower level than Risher and her husband. Even still, as our net worth recently passed into 7-figures, many of the same feelings and questions the author notes in the book have happened to me. My dad went through several periods of unemployment when I was a kid; as a result, I’ve always felt a little anxious and hyper-frugal about money. It’s been odd to let that go without judging myself for it. And there’s the guilt about wondering if we should be saving for early retirement versus saving the world by giving it all away. Though this book isn’t going to give you any conclusions about these or other dilemmas, it is a good way to get started thinking about why you behave the way you do about money and why others might behave differently around you if you have more of it.
How to Raise the Perfect Dog: Through Puppyhood and Beyond by Cesar Millan and Melissa Jo Peltier – I am a totally newbie to dogs and not at all a dog person. But part of the deal my husband and I made with our latest move was that he could get a dog. So I went to this book with no experience, looking to get my head around what it looks like to raise a week behaved dog. (Nothing annoys non-dog people like me more than an ill-behaved dog whose owners excuse its behavior. That and unleashed dogs in an on-leash area.) This book gave me some ideas on how this whole dog thing works. Other things I will ignore (ie the rant about expensive, small brand, organic food being better, which is total nonsense to a chemist). I am not really qualified to say whether these techniques work or not. I suppose we’ll see soon, as our puppy comes home July 20.
