What I Read: October 2021
Here's the five books I made it through this last month.
October is my favorite month and yes, please throw all the Anne Shirley-shade my way—I can take it.
But this October? What a doozie. We’ve made it through another all-family cold, a full week of my dad visiting (wonderful, but about three days too long—love you, Dad!), and some hard behind-the-scenes decisions. We filled that deck with firewood and built an entire above-ground garden from scratch. I accidentally finished a poem out of frustration and it may have gotten more attention on Instagram than either of the births of my two babies. Scott and I bonded over making a last-minute costume for Tennyson so she could be the parrot to her big brother’s pirate, reminding both of us that we really do like to sew, even if it’s been 15+ years. And, as always, I read a few books.
Here’s what I’ve been reading:
Cloud Cuckoo Land
by Anthony Doerr
I finished this book a few days into October and my official opinion is that Doerr is a genius. This book won’t be for everyone — if you don’t like long books, lots of storylines, or Greek literature & mythology, I’d say it’s a pass for you. But if you liked the quiet, expansive storytelling of Doerr’s All The Light We Cannot See, you’ll likely be delighted with this new release. I was hooked immediately because I trusted Doerr to take me somewhere, but the first handful of chapters are a bit disjointed and don’t really “go” anywhere, but I’d encourage you to keep on because the payoff is well worth it.
I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley. I will be buying a hard copy to read again.
Tender Hooks: Poems
by Beth Ann Fennelly
I read Fennelly’s Unmentionables last month and was pretty “meh” about it, but I enjoyed Tender Hooks. This is a collection of poems that discuss new motherhood—all the joys, the heartaches, and the bodily fluids it encompasses—and I’m so glad I accidentally picked this one for our Exhale Book Club instead of Unmentionables because it will be a collection that the group enjoys far more. Fennelly is witty and smart and wholly aware of how absorbing motherhood is and how inclined we are to write about it, and she tackles the topic with the eyes of a poet, delivering both long-winded musings and brief, heart-spearing lines throughout the book.
***Content Warning: This book discusses miscarriage in detail in a good portion of the collection.***
Dear Committee Members
by Julie Schumacher
This was a pick for my neighborhood book club, and though I’d never heard of it, it turned out to be a quick and entertaining read. The premise is quite inventive: the book is composed entirely of Letters of Recommendation (or LORs as the narrator begins to call them) that a professor must write for colleagues, students, and co-workers over the span of a year. Through these LORs we discover the personal details of this professor’s divorce and subsequent love interest, his loyalties toward the humanities and certain students, and his scathing opinions of certain colleagues, other colleges, and the underfunded-hamster wheel of academia in general. The book’s humor is pointed and sarcastic, but underneath the wit and caustic asides emerges a portrait of a man who cares deeply and is doing what he can with the cards he’s been dealt—even if it means he has to correspond with the heads of academic department more than he would like.
No Cure For Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear)
by Kate Bowler
Kate Bowler does it again. Really, this book needs no description other than for me to tell you to get a copy and clear your schedule. Bowler is honest, heartfelt, and truly hilarious as she talks about death, cancer, and learning to live when we’ve discovered just how fragile we really are.
The Joy Luck Club
by Amy Tan
I first read this book in a “Women in American Literature” course in college and was happy to revisit it for the Exhale Book Club. In case this one missed you sometime between when it was published in 1989 and now, the story follows four women and the different ways in which they find themselves migrating from China to America, as well as the effect it has on their American-born daughters. The stories are often hard, detailing how few choices women had in the 1920s, ‘30s & ‘40s in China, how much depended on a good marriage and how few marriages turned out to be good. But there’s also this line of hope that flows through the narrative, that mothers and daughters will learn from each other, even when neither side seems to be listening.
What I’ve been reading with the kids…
Completely by chance I picked up this series of picture books at the library a few weeks ago and I’d wager that Arthur has read them nearly every day since. The illustrations are gorgeous, and there are no words—at all. Which at first was weird but then felt genius because he can “read” himself the story and never get it wrong. We’ll be buying copies of these to keep in our own collection soon.
We’re also loving everything by Christian Robinson these days. I picked up Rain!, written by Linda Ashman and illustrated by Robinson at the library, which is a simple story of how changing your perspective can change your whole day. The story is really sparse, but with Robinson’s trademark colorful illustrations. We’ve also been reading Last Stop on Market Street for at least a year now, and have enjoyed Carmela Full of Wishes, both of which are illustrated by Robinson and written by Matt de la Peña.
What I’m reading next…
Eat Joy: Stories & Comfort Food from 31 Celebrated Writers
edited by Natalie Eve Garrett
Scott gifted me this for Christmas last year and I shamefully haven’t read it yet. It felt like a cold-weather book, and I didn’t get to it last winter, so I’ve got it first on my list as the temps are dropping here and I can curl up next to a fire with it.
That’s a wrap for October 2021. What are you reading lately?