january reads

i guess i had a lot of time to read with all of our flights, downtime at home, and girls going back to school? pretty sure 10 books in a month is a personal record (at least since i started tracking with Goodreads - as a kid, it was probably more like 10 books a week! ha). i've also been reading while i eat my lunch pretty much every day, which is of course frowned upon from an intuitive eating standpoint, but... whatever.

1) Belong to Me, by Marisa de los Santos. the second book in the series, preceded by Love Walked In. i liked this even more than the first one. de los Santos draws such realistic characters. you start out thinking that there are some real jerks in this novel. slowly, inevitably, you start to see more of everyone's inner lives and their behavior, how their version of love may look warped from the outside but has a kernel of true goodness inside. her vivid prose is a pleasure to read. the ultimate twist at the end is a bit of a stretch, but so satisfying that i didn't even care. 5/5.

I lost track of where I ended and the city began, and after a few blocks, I’d have stretched to include the flower stand, the guy selling “designer” handbags on the corner, the skyscrapers’ shining geometry, the scent of roasting nuts, the café with its bowl of green apples in the window, and the two gorgeous shopgirls on break, flamingolike and sucking on cigarettes outside their fancy boutique, eyes closed, rapturous, as though to smoke were very heaven.

2) Ninth House, by Leigh Bardugo. thanks to James for gifting me this book for Christmas, especially because it's one i probably wouldn't have picked up on my own -- but i loved it. the book combines fantasy with literature and mystery, grounded in just enough of the actual history of Yale University to make you wonder. 5/5.

3) The Valedictorian of Being Dead: The True Story of Dying Ten Times to Live, by Heather B. Armstrong. i really wasn't sure what to expect from this book. years and years ago, i read Heather's blog, dooce, but became more and more put off by her writing style. i was intrigued by the experimental treatment she received for severe clinical depression, however -- ten sessions of ketamine administration. the book paints such a vivid picture of life in the absolute depths of depression and, thankfully, her emergence from it. i still found the sentence fragments and general style a bit off-putting, but i'm glad i read it. 4/5.

4) A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole. this book is pure satire and so it took me a while to get through it; it's more of a collection of character sketches than a plot-driven story. still, it's a pretty hilarious account of a completely self-absorbed man living with his mother in New Orleans, who fancies himself a philosopher while mostly indulging in life's more tangible pleasures. 4/5.

"I am at the moment writing a lengthy indictment against our century. When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip."

5) Southern Lady Code, by Helen Ellis. this is a collection of hilarious essays on womanhood in the South, told with a wry self-awareness that strikes exactly the right note. she now lives in New York City, which makes for some interesting comparisons between Southern Lady Code and City Lady Code. since most of the essays are only four or five pages long, it's a quick and lighthearted read. 5/5.

6) The Secrets of Happy Families: Improve Your Mornings, Rethink Family Dinner, Fight Smarter, Go Out and Play, and Much More, by Bruce Feiler. this book provided fascinating insights into family life. the author interviews experts in various fields, from the military to psychology to business management, and adapts their techniques and strategies for family life. it's helped to reframe how i think about some of the logistics of family life. 5/5. 

7) The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett. oh. my. goodness. i think Auntie Kris recommended this book to me, and i absolutely loved it. it's an epic tome about the men who built the fictional Kingsbridge Cathedral (based on Wells Cathedral and Salisbury Cathedral in England). Follett weaves so much into the story -- history, culture, religion, architecture, and even geography. i'm so glad this is only the first book out of a trilogy! 5/5.

8) Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed, by Lori Gottlieb. another incredible book with so many facets that i enjoyed. first, the author's writing style is vulnerable but not self-pitying. the chapters of the book alternate between her own therapy sessions that she seeks after a devastating breakup, as well as her sessions with two clients seeing her for very different reasons. even though the book skips around a bit as she slowly reveals more of her own story, it never feels disjointed or confusing, and it gave me a new appreciation for the role therapy can play in our lives. 5/5.

"We tend to think that the future happens later, but we're creating it in our minds every day. When the present falls apart, so does the future we had associated with it. And having the future taken away is the mother of all plot twists."

and another quote, because it's so good:

"Therapists don’t perform personality transplants; they just help to take the sharp edges off. A patient may become less reactive or critical, more open and able to let people in. In other words, therapy is about understanding the self that you are. But part of getting to know yourself is to unknow yourself—to let go of the limiting stories you’ve told yourself about who you are so that you aren’t trapped by them, so you can live your life and not the story you’ve been telling yourself about your life."

 and another one. okay, just go read the book yourself!

"She hadn’t expected to experience this pleasure in her grief, to find it invigorating, in a way. But even as she’s dying, she’s realized, life goes on—even as the cancer invades her body, she still checks Twitter. At first she thought, Why would I waste even ten minutes of the time I have left checking Twitter? And then she thought, Why wouldn’t I? I like Twitter!"

 

9) The Farm, by Joanne Ramos. this book was... meh? the premise was fascinating and horrifying: a community of "Hosts", i.e. surrogates, who are carrying the babies of the world's richest and most powerful. of course, nothing can be too good for these clients, so the surrogates are housed in a ritzy facility with nutritious meals, mandatory exercise, and prenatal classes. the dark truth about this business is hinted at throughout the book: the Hosts are predominantly women of Filipina or Asian descent, prized for their "docile, rule-abiding" behavior. however, that's about as far as it goes. all of the Hosts are there voluntarily, they receive their promised stipend upon delivery of a healthy baby, and several of the Hosts are Caucasian so it's not even like it's completely a race thing. i kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it just never did. i feel like this book skimmed over the surface of what absolutely can be a sticky ethical issue. the ending in particular felt very unbelievable and unsatisfying -- not a great combination. the only redeeming factor about it was that it taught me some interesting tidbits of Filipino language and culture. 3/5. 

10) The Gifted School, by Bruce Holsinger. this book follows a group of friends over a period of a year or so, when a magnet school opens in their already affluent community. most (but not all) of their children have a good shot at making it into the school. it's an incisive look at modern parenting, education, marriage and friendship. pretty much all of the characters do some pretty atrocious things over the course of the novel, so it's definitely not a feel-good story, but rather a critical look at what can happen when people who have everything they want have to compete for a little bit more. 5/5.