This month had a very different reading pace than last month. Between holiday travel and one very long (but excellent!) audiobook, I only finished half as many books as last month. Here's what I read this past month!
Tell Me More: Stories about the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say by Kelly Corrigan: I went into this wanting life lessons I could take away for myself but quickly got frustrated with how challenging I felt it was to relate to the author. But when I reset and approached it as a memoir of someone different from myself who is still dealing with many of the same Big Life Things that I am — loss and grief, parenthood and partnership — I could enjoy the read.
A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas: I quite enjoyed seeing how Thomas adapted the original Sherlock Holmes universe to a story in which women were the key players. Unfortunately, the plot of the central mystery fell a bit short for me.
The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson: This trilogy was phenomenal. I have great appreciation for an author who does their homework, and Sanderson is absolutely one of those — so many aspects of the first book were clearly well crafted to fit into a larger story arc that culminates in this third book.
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad: Don't let this book's slim size fool you — it packs a punch on every single page. It's not just about the way that so many American liberals have intentionally downplayed the genocide in Gaza for their own interests (though it is absolutely about that), it's about the entire system — capitalism, politics, self-interest, xenophobia, and so on — that El Akkad lays bare through his words.
The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins: This had a solid core, with a lot of trappings I could have done without: the traditional self-help all-or-nothing language, dismissal of structural privileges, and assumptions about the reader. I appreciated Robbins' reminder that you can't control other people's choices, you can only ever choose your response to them; I just wish she was aware how limited her own imagination was about experiences different from her own.
When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed: Based on the true life story of co-author Omar Mohamed, Victoria Jamieson has created a graphic novel that is accessible to young readers and threads the needle between sharing the painful challenges of living in a refugee camp and avoiding gratuitous details of violence. Your heart will ache as Omar and his brother Hassan spend years and years in the camp, holding on to what hope they can. The celebration of community care is a beautiful thread throughout the story.
Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Only Love Today and The Uncommon Reader
Five years ago I was reading: Strangers from a Different Shore and The Flatshare
Ten years ago I was reading: Jesus Calling, A Snicker of Magic, Lonesome Dove, The Unthinkable, and Middlemarch
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