It's been another good reading month! Not only am I back to my regular reading cadence, but I also read a number of excellent and thought-provoking books, both fiction and nonfiction. Here's what I've been reading!
The Feather Thief by Kirk W. Johnson: This was a well-constructed work of nonfiction about a topic I knew nothing about. Johnson does a masterful job of concisely laying out the history leading up to the theft; since the thief had already been identified and confessed at the time he learned about the theft, the suspense comes from his efforts to find and recover the stolen feathers.
I'll Have What He's Having by Adib Khorram: This was my September Best of the Bunch. I really enjoyed this adult romance with two men trying to navigate real-life challenges and figure out what they each want and deserve.
The Mandalorian: The Rescue by the Walt Disney Company: This book my 9-year-old and I read was basically one story line from The Mandalorian told through freeze frames of the show with some sound effects and speech bubbles. Whole pages just had closeup shots of people's faces or various details in the scene, and you were apparently supposed to be able to figure out what was happening just from that. I wasn't impressed.
Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty: This was undoubtedly longer than it needed to be, but I enjoyed it. Moriarty uses the stories of multiple passengers (and one flight attendant) receiving predictions of their age and cause of death to explore a range of ideas, from the credibility of fortune tellers to the ways that single events can change one's life trajectory. I liked this much better than Moriarty's last couple books and am very glad I picked this up.
Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference by Cordelia Fine: Fine is thorough in showing the issues with just about every type of research purportedly finding differences between women and men in skills, abilities, interests, and even brain structure. You don't have to know how to read academic research; she's compiled work from a variety of sources and made it accessible with the clearest examples and analogies. Published in 2010, it does feel a bit outdated and is not inclusive of trans and non-binary individuals, though it's well done within its narrow focus.
Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson: This was an exhaustive look at the many areas of life — work, relationships, politics, and more — where the impulse for self-justification has major effects. Their plentiful examples were a good balance of research studies, real-life events, and imagined scenarios that clearly demonstrated their points. I only wish the chapter on psychology (and its sarcastic jabs at clinical psychologists who aren't researchers) hadn't so clearly revealed the authors' own self-justification bias.
Monster by Walter Dean Myers: I can definitely see why this is a modern classic and an award winner, though personally I found the reading experience just OK. The same formatting choices and ambiguity that makes this perfect for a young adult classroom kept me feeling distant from the protagonist and his story.
Jessica by Bryce Courtenay: The writing kept me engaged in this long story of a young Australian woman's life, though the bleakness got to be too much. I don't regret reading this, but it was a bit too much of a soap opera for me to recommend widely.
Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Project Hail Mary, A Place to Hang the Moon, The Bad Guys in the Baddest Day Ever, and The Residue Years
Five years ago I was reading: Possession, An Untamed State, More Than Two, and Whistling Vivaldi
Ten years ago I was reading: Sister Outsider and Walk Two Moons
