A Few Good Books

                                     

I’m on a reading kick of late.  I find that if I’m reading, I’m reading and if I’m not, I’m really not.  Which is to say, when I’ve got a good book going or a stack of good books going, I’ll fly through them and keep looking for more.  But if I’m in the middle of something that is not holding my attention, or I don’t have anything on my book plate I stop reading (or looking for good books) all together until something sparks my interest enough to try.  It’s feast or famine around here and right now I’m feasting.

I’ve finished a few in the last month or so that I feel like are worth recommending- some purely selfishly because I need someone to talk about them with!  Special thanks to Modern Mrs. Darcy who has kept me afloat with book recs of late.

How it Went Down by Kekla Magoon

This is technically YA, and I really loved it.  A black teen is shot dead by a white man who is claiming self defense.  It’s unclear whether the boy was robbing a convenient store and holding a gun or if it was a misunderstanding and a snickers bar.  Either way his killer is quickly released and the young boy’s community is left reeling.  This book is told through a number of different perspectives, friends of the boy, members of the community, and outsiders looking in.  It is certainly relevant for our times; you can’t help but think of Trayvon Martin while you read it.  I thought the author did a brilliant job incorporating a number of different voices.  You the reader can to see the full picture of “how it went down,” while those who lived it cannot.  

Out of Sorts by Sarah Bessey

This one was finished piece by piece during the hour of 6-7am.  I’ve enjoyed Bessey’s blog over the years and have started, but not finished her other book Jesus Feminist, but this one was the right book at the right time.  My soul needed her words and the promise that the uncertain time out in the wilderness of faith is exactly where you need to be sometimes.  I had the chance to hear Sarah speak when I was about 2/3 of the way through and I stayed afterwards, waiting in line to meet her.  Once it was finally my turn I sobbed ugly tears and thanked her for making my time out in the wilderness a little less lonely.  And then, when I got to the end I copied about 3/4ths of her benediction in my journal because I needed to be able to take those words with me wherever I went.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

This book man.  I hesitate to recommend it on one hand because it’s content matter is not for the faint of heart.  But on the other hand I haven’t been so engrossed and engaged in a book in a while.  It’s long (800 some pages- which is why I listened to it on audible) but it is some of the most captivating and beautiful prose I’ve read.  The book revolves around the friendships of four college roommates, young men that turn to older men through the course of the story.  It highlights the life of one in particular and his story is not easy.  I had to stop reading (or listening, I guess) more than once because I couldn’t bear the weight of his story (and then I had to go back and face it again because, though this is fiction, his story is true for too many children).  And while there is so much heavy sadness in this book there is also so much beauty.  I can’t explain it, other than to say it is, in the words of Glennon, “brutiful.”

The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

This one was entertaining, interesting and delightful.  Reminiscent of This is Where I Leave You (in that it's a book about adult sibling relationships) The Nest is about four dysfunctional siblings.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  It came together incredibly satisfyingly in the end and it’s a great “beach” read.  Not too heavy, but still thought provoking.

Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes

Oh man, this was my surprise hit of the year.  I don’t know what I expected when I requested this book from the library.  I’m not a huge Shondaland TV fan, though I’ve held on to Grey’s Anatomy all these years (watching when it hits Netflix).  I’d heard good things, and I love a good “woman writer memoir” (see Tina Fey’s Bossypants and Amy Poehler’s Yes Please) so I figured it would be an entertaining peek behind the TV world curtain that would also be a quick read.  I did not expect it to rock my world as much as it did.  I quite literally could not put it down, finishing it in a little over 24 hours.  It was the entertaining peek into Shondaland that I expected, but it was so much more.  Spurred on by her sister’s observation that she “always says no to everything” Rimes decides to spend a year (and then more) saying yes to all the things that scared her.  She started this challenge at the height of her “Shondaland power”: Grey’s and Scandal were huge successes and she was developing How To Get Away With Murder.  But she realized she was living this small, scared life where she was unhappy and not truly alive.  It was fascinating and inspiring to watch what happens when you start saying yes to the things that scare you.  And man, can Shonda Rimes write.  I mean seriously, couldn’t put it down.  I am still thinking about some of the things that she wrote about and contemplating buying the book so I can read it yearly as a little inspirational kick in the pants.  It was so good.

That’s just a taste of what I’m reading.  I just picked up Modern Lovers and I’ve got a request in for the next Liane Moriarty book that’s coming this month.  When it rains it pours I guess.  I’ll take it.

(Edited to add- I just finished Modern Lovers- solid B.  Interesting story but not the most captivating thing I’ve read recently.)