It’s still safe to read {Summer book reviews}

When I posted at the end of February, a pandemic was looming, but I certainly had no idea it would be so life-altering. My last post was written in a different world, when hugs were given freely, masks were for Halloween, and systemic racism was largely unrecognized or ignored.

Once I got over my “eat everything that isn’t nailed down because I won’t see another soul outside of my family ever again” phase, I wanted to write but struggled to come up with something relevant. Then George Floyd was murdered, and I cringed at how superficial and irrelevant my style of post seemed in light of all the hurt and anger coursing through America.

But I miss writing, and I miss you, people on the Internet who read my posts. And it was ultimately a few friends who prompted me to write again, about the one thing I’ve always written…reading books. When I’m tagged on a Facebook thread to write about new books I’ve read (“WE NEED YOU” was a direct quote from my new favorite person in the world – a hyperbole for sure, but I’ll take the compliment), I feel obliged to get back to business.

I’ve read eighteen books and listened to five audiobooks in the last three and a half months. I hit a wall in April, when nothing was holding my interest and all I could do was bake and eat banana bread. So I pulled out all the stops and finally started reading the Harry Potter series. Over the course of two months (with some breaks in between), I read all seven books, and I completely understand the hype.

So if I’m not the last person in the world to read this series, that is my first recommendation. From the Sorcerer’s Stone to Deathly Hallows, read them all.

For the rest of you, here is the best of what I’ve read or listened to while the world went insane.

If you want contemporary fiction that would be a great book club pick, try…

Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid

This is a timely, smart and honest novel with real characters…the initial conflict is a security guard’s argument with Emira, a Black babysitter, who is in a grocery store with her white toddler charge. The argument is caught on tape, and the toddler’s mother, blogger Alix, tries to right the situation. But the story doesn’t go where you think it’s going to go, and in retrospect, that is what I loved about this book. Reid writes in tight prose, creating a fascinating page turner. What a great debut novel!

Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

New Year’s Eve, 1982. Oona will turn nineteen at midnight, but instead, she faints and wakes up in 2015. She’s still nineteen inside, but she’s in her fifty-one year old body. From each New Year’s forward, she leaps to a random and different year of her life; she’s living it out of order.

Time travel is simply a vehicle for an interesting exploration into living life in the moment. If we are defined in part by our experiences, what does it mean when these experiences are not linear? I found this novel to be absolutely delightful and unique. It could have gone on for hundreds more pages and I would eagerly read, although when I was finished, I closed the book (alright, the Kindle) with a contented sigh.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

I really liked Bennett’s debut novel, The Mothers, but this one was even better. Set from the 1950s to the 1990s, it’s the story of identical twin sisters, born and raised in a small southern community. A decade after leaving their home, one returns with her daughter, and one has chosen to “pass over” and live as a white woman, married to a white man who knows nothing of her secret. This novel is such a thoughtful and wonderfully written exploration of identity – for the sisters and their daughters, whose lives eventually intersect.

If you’re looking for a psychological thriller (and great beach read), try…

Verity by Colleen Hoover

This one was published in 2018, but it was new to me (thanks Ellen!) I read this in two days, and it is the book that ended my reading slump.

After bestselling author Verity Crawford is injured, struggling write Lowen is hired to write the rest of the books. She travels to the Crawford’s home to gather material, and finds Verity’s unfinished autobiography.

Alternating between the present and Verity’s disturbing autobiography, this novel is a hot mess…in the best way possible. Lowen and Verity’s husband, Jeremy, develop feelings for one another…that’s all I will say. Trust me, it’s a wild ride. I challenge you to take more than a few days to read it!

Playing Nice by J.P. Delaney

Publication Date: July 28th. Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this novel.

I’ve enjoyed J.P. Delaney’s psychological thrillers (read reviews here and here), so I was looking forward to this one. It didn’t disappoint. Pete and Maddie find out that their two-year-old son was switched at birth with Miles’ and Lucy’s son. The couples start investigating together, but suspicions, lies, and secrets ensue.

I found myself so disturbed by what was happening that I couldn’t wait to see it resolved, which some may say is the mark of a good thriller. It certainly made for a page turner! Definitely an engrossing, worthwhile read with a fairly original premise.

If you’d like to get educated and begin to understand the REAL history of America, listen to or read…

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You (Remix) by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi (audio)

This book is a condensed, YA geared remix of Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas. It is an accessible, engaging narrative that I believe every American teen and adult should read. I listened, and not only is Reynolds a fantastic writer, he is an amazing storyteller. Yet the story of racist ideas in America is fact, not fiction, and it has been told over and over again. We need to listen.

“We can’t attack a thing we don’t know. That’s dangerous. And…foolish. It would be like trying to chop down a tree from the top of it. If we understand how the tree works, how the trunk and roots are where the power lies, and how gravity is on our side, we can attack it, each of us with small axes, and change the face of the the forest. So let’s learn all there is to know about the tree of racism. The root. The fruit. The sap and trunk. The nests built over time, the changing leaves. That way, your generation can finally, actively chop it down.” 

Jason Reynolds, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

*****

Currently reading: The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
Currently listening to: The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See.
Up next on my to-read list:
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
A Burning by Meghanns Majumdar
Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins.

I’d love to hear what you’ve been reading lately! And as always, thank you for reading Kiss my List.