Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
This was the perfect book to read in one weekend. I took this one on a camping trip because I wanted something that I knew would immediately draw me in, wasn’t super long, and ideally was a paperback that I could easily slip into my bag– check, check and check! The book is set in Atlanta in the 1980s and follows a set of sisters, where only one knows that the other exists. Their father James Witherspoon has two wives and two daughters, and because they live so close to each other the secret gets harder and harder to keep. I loved the switch in perspective halfway through from one sister to the other because it really made me question the assumptions I had about everyone involved. The writing is beautiful and I will definitely read another Tayari Jones in the future. Highly recommend.
Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey
I loved The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey, so I was so pumped to snag a library copy of Just Like Home when it first came out, but it ending up falling a little flat for me. Our narrator, Vera, is going back to her childhood home for the first time in years because her mother is dying. She struggles with her past and the memories of this house so the trip takes on a very ominous feel. You know from the jacket cover summary that her father was a serial killer, but as the book progresses it is her mother who seems to be the source of a lot of her childhood traumas. Since her father’s arrest, the house has turned into a sort of museum and artist residency, where people come to gawk at the remains of a serial killers house and draw inspiration from his life for their own work. As Vera tries to get things in order before her mothers passing, she must deal with the ways the notorious Crowder House takes on a life of its own.
The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid 🎧
This is a tiny book that packs a punch! The premise is this: one by one, white people across the country find that their skin has turned dark. It causes a sort of upheaval as conspiracy theories spread and some white people believe a reckoning of sorts is coming. The story is told through the perspective of Anders, a young man in his twenties, and Oona, an old friend who he is now sleeping with. On a sentence level I didn’t always love the way the book came through on Audio, but I think it would have worked better for me on the page. Still, I found the themes really powerful, particularly at the end when there is a discussion about the urge to hold on to the narrative of whiteness with future generations. It was such a fascinating book that will stick with me.
Bonus: Check out this spoiler-free episode of The Stacks podcast with the author Moshin Hamid.
Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda, Translated by Polly Barton
I picked this one up because it was the August pick for the Fiction Matters Book Club and I really enjoyed it! It’s a set of interconnected short stories, all based on different Japanese folk tales. I’m really curious to find out how others in the group approached this book, as there was a section in the back of the text that explained the folk tale that inspired each story. I went back and forth between reading the inspiration before or after and I’m not sure which approach I preferred. Either way, the book was feminist and funny and quite easy to read. I think its a book that will benefit from being chatted about because I’m sure there’s something I missed!
Let’s Talk About Hard Things by Anna Sale 🎧
I downloaded this one for free from LibroFM — I believe they were doing a promotion?– and it was a great listen. This book is written by the creator of the podcast Death, Sex and Money, which was ” born out of a desire for open and honest conversations about the things that we ‘think about a lot, and need to talk about more.’” I haven’t listened before, but I’m definitely interested in checking it out now! The book is broken up into five conversation topics: death, sex, money, family and identity, and the author intersperses each with a mix of interviews, personal stories and research. I found that this structure made it really easy to listen to because it didn’t ask you to pause and write down or reflect on something. But I think the fact that there were no specific chapter takeaways or ‘to-do’s’ might make it something that doesn’t stick with me. We’ll see, because I literally just finished it. Still, I genuinely enjoyed this book, and getting comfortable talking about hard things is something I want to work on. I think this book is a great start and I’m grateful it exists.
Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor 🎧
I found this book through one of Tar Mar’s YouTube videos where she talks about mouth-tapping. Now, I did some Googling and mouth-tapping (literally putting a small piece of tape over your mouth while you sleep) is a fairly contentious topic. Some doctors, dentists and other health professionals think it is completely safe and can help with sleep apnea and teeth grinding, while others are like dear god do not go to sleep with tape over your mouth because you saw it on TikTok!!! (fair…). Anyway, she mentions this book and I was immediately fascinated by this idea of breath effecting our health so deeply, and I needed to know more. I honestly found the book really interesting and compelling. As someone who deals with anxiety and has noticed the benefits of deep breathing or alternating nostril breathing on my mental health, it was really cool to hear some of the science behind why these methods are so impactful. He definitely goes to more extremes than I ever would and signs up to be a bit of a guinea pig in an effort to explore the different effects of nostril breathing vs mouth breathing, but the general premise of the book was effective. Lastly, theres an authors note in the end about how not all illnesses or health issues can or should be solved through nostril breathing (which if you’re reading this now sounds like duh…but there are moments throughout the book where I think people could get a different impression) and I appreciated that note a lot, I just think it would have been more appropriate at the beginning of the book, so people aren’t halfway through thinking that they shouldn’t be on anti-anxiety medications, they should just be working on their nostril breathing. Overall, I recommend!
The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka
This book was so powerful. It starts off with this very interesting narrative voice, third person plural I believe, and you get the perspective of this group of people who all use a public swimming pool. You learn about all of their different quirks and their obsessions, the way they have come to depend on the pool and the way it makes them feel, and then finally the fear they have when a crack is discovered. The second half of the book though, focuses on one person from the pool who has dementia. The book is so well written, and the tone change from the first half to the second is jarring and emotional in all of the right ways. I don’t have experience of someone close to me going through dementia, so I don’t know if I would find a book like this comforting to read or really challenging to get through, so just be aware of that. I think this will be one of my top books of the year ❤
Heartstopper vol. 4 by Alice Oseman
I’m now up to date on this amazing graphic novel series (book 5 comes out February 2023!) and this one was so so lovely! There’s so many sweet moments that made me audibly gasp, but what I really appreciated was the discussion of Charlie’s eating disorder and mental health struggles. I loved the discussions his boyfriend, Nick, has with his mom about being there for Charlie, but also realizing he cannot be everything for Charlie. WE LOVE HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS. Ah, I just thought it was so well done while also still being fun and cute and heartfelt. Highly recommend the whole series.
Current Read: True Biz by Sara Nović
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