Best of the Bunch (June 2024)

Today I'm sharing the best book I read in June.

Of the four books I read this month, I had one 5-star read, which is my Best of the Bunch!

I'd heard the author of Setting Boundaries that Stick on several podcasts before picking up her book so I already knew I liked her approach, but I greatly appreciated this book. As the subtitle says, this goes beyond giving you the words to set boundaries with other people or within yourself; Shore uses neurobiology to help you develop practices that will engage with the "lower" parts of the brain so that you can feel safe and grounded enough to keep your prefrontal cortex online in order to be able to ask for what you want and protect yourself emotionally regardless of other people's decisions or emotions. I listened to this on audio but I'd like to get it in print so I can more easily go through the many exercises Shore lays out in this book. I believe a lot more communication would be productive if everyone read this book!

What is the best book you read this month? Let me know in comments, or write your own post and link up below!

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Magpie Murders, Mistakes Were Made, The Bad Guys in Attack of the Zittens, and McDonald's
Five years ago I was reading: Jellicoe Road and Water for Elephants
Ten years ago I was reading: A Suitable Boy, The Namesake, and Love in the Time of Cholera

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Top Ten Books on My Summer TBR

I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.

It's time for planning another season of reading! I read everything on my Spring TBR list except for Tiny Beautiful Things, which I'm currently reading. Here are ten books I plan to read this summer. In honor of Pride month I went hard on the "queer" tag on my Goodreads list of books to read!

1. Ace Voices by Eris Young
I love that this collection uses interviews to attempt to showcase the diversity within the ace community.

2. Bi by Julia Shaw
I love a good nonfiction deep dive, and this one came recommended from a bi friend at work.

3. Crooked House by Agatha Christie
I'm still chugging along on my goal to read Agatha Christie's complete works!

4. The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar
A queer YA romance by a Bangladeshi author set in Ireland? Yes please!

5. How You Get the Girl by Anita Kelly
I am an Anita Kelly completionist at this point, and I was very excited to see they had a new book out!

6. Queer: A Graphic History by Meg-John Barker and Jules Scheele
I'm interested to read this short, illustrated guide to "the histories of queer thought and LGBTQ+ action."

7. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
This book has been on my priority read list for quite a while, and with a lot of transition happening in my life right now, having a book about slowing down and diving deep into a moment seems like a good dea.

8. The Times I Knew I Was Gay by Eleanor Crewes
I've read several great graphic memoirs, and this one looks especially fun and relatable.

9. We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
I can't believe I haven't read any more Nina LaCour since I adored Everything Leads to You. This one is her most well known, and I'm excited to give it a shot.

10. You Don't Have a Shot by Racquel Marie
I really loved Marie's Ophelia After All last year, and I've been meaning to pick up another one of her books. This one came out last year and looks great!

What do you plan to read this summer?

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: The Harlequin Tea Set and Other Stories, Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve, The Bad Guys in the Furball Strikes Back, and McDonald's
Five years ago I was reading: The Warmth of Other Suns and Water for Elephants
Ten years ago I was reading: A Suitable Boy and Island Beneath the Sea

What I've Been Reading Lately (Quick Lit)

Today I'm linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy's Quick Lit to bring you some short and sweet reviews of what I've read in the past month. For longer reviews, you can always find me on Goodreads.

Y'all, my life has been bananas in the last month with traveling, working, parenting, and trying to sell my house and buy a new one. So my list of completed books is pretty low again this month. Not that quantity matters, it's just a clear reflection that my reading time has been very limited as of late, plus my 3rd grader hasn't read through a full chapter book with me in a while. Here are the four books I've finished in the past month.

Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix by Anna-Marie McLemore: This was a creative, queer reimagining of The Great Gatsby that I liked only slightly more than the original (which, to be clear, I don't like very much). I enjoyed the various plot twists, not all of which I caught ahead of time, but thought some of the story threads didn't quite hang together as much as I would have liked.

Love by Design: 6 Ingredients to Build a Lifetime of Love by Sara Nasserzadeh, PhD: This is one of the better relationship self-help books I've read. For each of the factors that Nasserzadeh cites as research-based "ingredients" for satisfying romantic relationships, she includes detailed explanations, example stories, and exercises to help you self-reflect or put these principles into practice in your relationship. What I found especially unique was that it's not just about how to maintain trust or navigate conflict or have a fulfilling sex life, but actually how to continue to feel deep love for your partner, informed by but not reliant on whatever initially drew you together.

Setting Boundaries that Stick: How Neurobiology Can Help You Rewire Your Brain to Feel Safe, Connected, and Empowered by Juliane Taylor Shore: As the subtitle says, this goes beyond giving you the words to set boundaries with other people or within yourself; Shore uses neurobiology to help you develop practices that will engage with the "lower" parts of the brain so that you can feel safe and grounded enough to keep your prefrontal cortex online in order to be able to ask for what you want and protect yourself emotionally regardless of other people's decisions or emotions. I believe a lot more communication would be productive if everyone read this book!

When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chödrön: I'm glad this book has been helpful to so many people; it didn't do a whole lot for me. There were definitely lines and passages that I found intriguing or captivating, but on the whole, it seemed more like a guide to deeply understanding Buddhist philosophy and living more than anything more universal than that.

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: The Harlequin Tea Set and Other Stories, Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve, The Bad Guys in the Furball Strikes Back, and McDonald's
Five years ago I was reading: The Warmth of Other Suns and Educated
Ten years ago I was reading: A Suitable Boy and Island Beneath the Sea

Ten Books I Had VERY Strong Emotions About

I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.

It's been a while since I had time to do a Top Ten Tuesday post! This week we're talking about books we had strong emotions about — any kind of emotion! My list includes books that induced a variety of strong emotions in me.

1. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
This book emotionally wrecked me. I'm glad it was so emphatically recommended by so many people because the first half was hard to get through, but the second half was brilliant and devastating.

2. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
In my memory I gave this book 2 stars, but apparently I actually gave it 3.5 stars. However, there was one plot point that made me incredibly angry, and I'm especially frustrated that I have yet to see anyone else mention it but continue to see people raving about this book. It's not OK! Why are we all acting like it's OK??

3. Every Day by David Levithan
I'm not sure if "emotions" is the right word, but this book completely took over my brain for days after I finished it. Maybe "disturbed" is the closest descriptor of how I felt afterwards? I think what was most unsettling was that it had the tone of a YA romance but the protagonist didn't actually get a happy ending, and in fact one was never really possible for them, which is why it messed me up so much.

4. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
I remember being in complete shock at the end of this book. I couldn't believe what had happened, and I definitely went through the stages of grief in coming to terms with the events of this book before we got more context in the final volume.

5. The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
This memoir of ten Boom's experience living through the Holocaust took me on a rollercoaster of emotions, both laughing out loud and sobbing. The books that can do that are few and far between, and hers was probably the most intense that I've experienced.

6. Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli
I felt so incredibly seen by this book that I haven't been able to stop recommending it since reading it. I will talk at length about how well this book showcases the experience of "passionate 'ally' struggles with exploring her own identity." I am thrilled by the fact that so many people have now read this book on my recommendation and then come back to tell me how much they loved it.

7. The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
This book has yet to be unseated as my favorite book of all time since I first read it in 2012. It's already a rare feat for a book to make me cry real tears; it's an even more incredible one when a book can do that again, even though I already know what happens. Even now, thinking of the line about moss and motherhood can make me tear up.

8. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
What pisses me off so much about this book is that 90% of it is a wonderful depiction of grief and the complicated aftermath of an untimely death, and then the author took the story completely off the rails for no good reason. There is so much about the last 10% of this book that is unnecessary, problematic, unrealistic, and incoherent that it's almost like a completely different book. I can and have ranted about the issues with this book at length and would gladly do so again!

9. None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio
This book had possibly the longest list of critiques that I've ever put in a Goodreads review. It was an absolute mess for a multitude of reasons, but first and foremost the fact that it's an offensive representation of the very experience it's intended to draw attention to. I probably wouldn't be so upset about what a dumpster fire this book is if it weren't one of the few books out there depicting an intersex experience and thus frequently recommended as a way to learn more about that. The fact that the author is a founding member of We Need Diverse Books really bothers me, given that she thought this transphobic and intersexphobic work was OK to put out into the world.

10. Snapdragon by Kat Leyh
Ending on a positive note, I adore this graphic novel with the fire of a thousand suns. This holds the record for the shortest span of time between me reading and then re-reading a book. My heart may as well have been beating outside my chest for the intensity of the emotional journey that this little book took me on.

Which books have you had strong emotions about?

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: The 57 Bus, Diary of a Misfit, The Bad Guys in Mission Unpluckable, and McDonald's
Five years ago I was reading: The Trespasser and The Blue Castle
Ten years ago I was reading: The Remains of the Day and Predictably Irrational