Everything I read last month
a mixed bag in the best way
Coming at you from a cruising altitude of 40,000 feet, and this newsletter is the only thing standing between me and all three episodes of White Lotus — so let’s look back on February.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the books I gravitate toward during late winter. This past month, my reading picks were a mix of solo journeys (accompanied by lots of introspection), and books that prompted discussion and frantically texting friends “have you read this??” I guess this is apt as we prepare to come out of hibernation and join the land of the living for spring … someone please check me on this metaphor.
Deep Cuts is next up for me — I’m going to a book talk with the author later this week, and I’ll report back! Now onto the Feb recap:
Listen to this via audiobook on long solitary walks, but get ready to share your thoughts with a family member
This is one of the best memoirs I’ve read. It’s about a woman in her mid-fifties who finds out that her beloved father is not actually her biological father. It leads to an identity crisis, while the narrator searches for answers and contends with who she really is if her lineage isn’t what she thought it was. (TY Aliza Sir for the rec!)
Rating: 4/5 (a recap of my rating system ICYMI)
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Best read alone on your couch with a blanket, a hot beverage, and nowhere to be
Sweet, unpretentious and felt like a short story — it drops you into the circumstances of the characters, you inhabit your lives for a bit, and then it’s done. The book is about four young nuns who move to Rhode Island to run a halfway house for former addicts. Amid this change and a new job teaching geometry at a local all-girls school, the main character Agatha begins to re-examine her life and religious calling. I loved getting to know Agatha, and as a product of an all-girls catholic high school (where I was taught by several nuns), I found her musings on religion to be relatable and insightful.
Rating: 3/5
⭐⭐⭐
This was written in 1990 and takes place in the 1950s, and there is something so pure about a plot that doesn’t revolve around technology or other trappings of modern life. It’s about two best friends who grow up in a small town in Ireland and then try to break away from their country roots when they head to the big city for university. It’s one of those books where nothing really happens but it still feels really rich. You just follow along as the characters mess up, make up, fall in love, find themselves etc etc.
Rating: 4/5
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Read with a friend (or multiple) because you’ll have lots to process and discuss. You might like both of these books even more after talking it out.
This was intense. It’s about a girl who is desperate to escape her life as the daughter of Afghan refugees in Berlin, but gets sucked back in by a toxic relationship with a semi-famous American writer. The author is a poet so the writing is very lyrical (a bit over the top for me) and I’ve heard a lot of people compare the book to Martyr. It felt a bit like a fever dream — much of the book takes place in a drug-induced haze in a massive night club in Berlin — but there were also really clear-headed observations about identity, belonging and racism.
Rating: 3/5
⭐⭐⭐
As the last person on the internet to weigh on this book, I enjoyed it and would file it under “bad girls doing weird sh*t” (other books in this category - Big Swiss, The Guest). Miranda July’s writing is exceptional, which is the main thing that kept me in this, but you have to accept at the outset that the main character makes questionable decisions and many parts of the book feel bizarre and far-fetched. In an interview with Esther Perel (highly recommend), July said that for women, “the way you feel inside has no place in life, even if you have a good life.” I thought that was so powerful, since the crux of the book is about desire, how we explore it and act on it, and how it plays out in relation to marriage and motherhood.
Rating: 4/5
⭐⭐⭐⭐
See you next week!
I still haven't read All Fours! So you are not the last person on the internet 😂