Two amazing reads this month!! The rest were meh. I finally started the A Court of Thorns and Roses series, which is the perfect way to transition into autumnal reading—my favourite season for reading… and for life in general haha.
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
★★★★★ // Goodreads
Pretend that you have free will. It’s essential that you behave as if your decisions matter, even though you know they don’t. The reality isn’t important; what’s important is your belief, and believing the lie is the only way to avoid a waking coma. Civilization now depends on self-deception. Perhaps it always has.
I loved Chiang’s first collection Stories of Your Life and Others, so this was a highly anticipated read since its publication last year, and it did not disappoint at all! I need to own my own copy in paperback to flip through time and again for, ya know, when I’m feeling philosophical, contemplating life and stuff.
Nothing I say can do justice to describe what this sci-fi collection encompasses. A common theme throughout all nine stories is the idea of free will, i.e. the inevitability of the universe, of humanity. Now, I’m scarily okay with my insignificance in the universe, but what strikes me about this collection is how it can recognise that and still be hopeful.
Perhaps the most commercial comparison I can make is between the last story and Blake Crouch’s Recursion/Dark Matter: all explore parallel realities, but Chiang’s world is more complex and doesn’t fall into the marketable trap of the mushy Hollywood romance.
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas
★★★★★ // Goodreads
Be glad of your human heart, Feyre. Pity those who don’t feel anything at all.
In two phrases: Beauty and the Beast retelling & faerie smut.
I don’t even know if I necessarily loved the book, but it was so much fun to join the fandom and finally understand what everyone’s talking about. Flew through it and dying to get my hands on the second book but still waiting for it to come in for me from the library. I heard that the second book is better, and that’s already more than I want to know haha.
(If you’ve already read the book, Cindy’s commentary on Amarantha killed me: 12:18-15:40.)
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
★★★★ // Goodreads // Reading buddy: Evie
During a late night run to the local market, a black babysitter is accused of kidnapping a white child.
Addicting writing. An interesting look at racial fetishism and performative activism, though at some points I was thrown off by the weird love triangle. I was also surprised that the story focused more on Alix—the mother of the child and a blogger—and Kelley—the man who recorded the event at the market—than Emira—the babysitter.
“The Queen of Spades” by Alexander Pushkin
★★★.5 // Goodreads
I am not in a position to risk the necessary in the hope of acquiring the superfluous.
“But Not as Cute as Pushkin” is my favourite Gilmore Girls episode and is the sole reason I was at all curious about Pushkin. To get a taste of his work, I read just one short story from a collection, so I didn’t count this toward my Goodreads reading challenge, but I still wanted to keep track of it in my monthly reading wrap up.
“The Queen of Spades” is about a guy who becomes obsessed with figuring out the secret to winning a game of cards. A cautionary tale about the obsession of getting ahead of the game. I think the moral is that even the most certain things in life are not. We can all take something from that!
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos
★★★.5 // Goodreads
Because I decided not to read the book by Mr. Cellini. I mean it was quite amuseing in spots because it was really quite riskay but the spots were not so close together and I never seem to like to always be hunting clear through a book for the spots I am looking for, especially when there are really not so many spots that seem to be so amuseing after all.
I loved the film and the original novel was a delightful bonus. This comedic novel takes the format of Lorelai Lee’s diary. It’s filled with spelling and grammatical errors, and every other sentence begins with “So then” or “I mean,” but Lorelai is earnest and endearing. She records her antics traveling with her friend Dorothy, meeting wealthy men. While the film focuses on developing Lorelai’s scheme to win over Piggy on the cruise from New York to Paris, the book moves past him and takes you all the way through London, Vienna, and Budapest too.
A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing by Jessie Tu
★★★.5 // Goodreads
I fill my life, all its gaps, with anxieties; I push in things to worry about until there are no cracks at all.
Jena was a violin prodigy but now she’s a washed-up has-been at 22 and addicted to sex. It was so refreshing to read a self-destructive, messy, unmoored 20-something Asian woman figuring out life. It wasn’t an enlightening read, but it was relatable in more ways than I’d like to admit and I sped through the short chapters.
One thing I wish the book could have tackled with more nuance was the desirability of whiteness. I think that colourism is an especially interesting topic to explore in Asian culture. It’s something that’s internalised for many, and thus often shows itself in subtle ways.
Goodreads reviews are mixed, the book wasn’t a standout for me, but the bookstagrammers I follow who’ve read this book have loved it, so I’m so curious for more people to read this debut Asian-Australian author and hear their opinions. I’m actually planning to mail my copy to a friend so I can hear her thoughts because I know she’s been dying to get her hands on it.
Related: Has self-awareness gone too far in fiction? via New Yorker
Each of Us a Desert by Mark Oshiro
★★★.5 // Goodreads // (Giveaway win)
cuando estoy solo / when I am alone
existo para mi / I exist for myself
As her village’s cuentista, Xochitl listens to the villagers unburden their stories, their secrets, their sins. She returns the stories to the earth in order to rid the village of nightmares, but the ritual takes her memory of the stories and her energy. Until one day she learns a secret she cannot let go of and embarks on a journey across the desert to learn the truth about her destiny.
A YA fantasy about self-discovery and the power of storytelling. It’s like if The Alchemist and The Hazel Wood had a baby. I didn’t love The Alchemist, but I think if you liked it (as it seems most people do), you’ll like this one too. An atmospheric book with more happening internally than externally.
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
★★★ // Goodreads // Reading buddy: Sonia
12 character studies of the black and British modern woman (mostly women). For me, this collection was more breadth than depth, ticking off a list of archetypes, using them as mouthpieces to echo race/gender/sexuality theory. The stars are for what the book stands for.
Didn’t mind the lack of punctuation; in place of periods were line breaks, which you could just read as periods.
Candide by Voltaire
DNF-59% // Goodreads
An outrageous satire following an optimist who encounters misfortune after misfortune.
The absurdism kind of reminded me of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Honestly I think I would have really enjoyed this little book (just over 100 pages) but I was on a reading hangover after A Court of Thorns and Roses. Short chapters, fast paced, wild, witty, philosophical. A little too much going on for someone with a hangover, but I’d like to return to it eventually.
Zoomed into Chanel Miller’s book tour for the paperback release of Know My Name, in conversation with Rebecca Solnit! The paperback comes with a new afterword, which I believe you can read here: Chanel Miller on the experience of coming forward publicly via Time.
- “Fear of retaliation is real. Security is not free… Silence means safety. Openness means retaliation… We suffer from society’s shallow understanding… Openness should be embraced.”
- “If you want to break yourself, to be bigger, to help other women, do that. Pain always gives you more power to go forward. Happiness and comfort don’t. It all depends on who you want to be.”
- It is strong to get by. That’s what surviving is. Honour it. Give yourself credit.
Glad I got to hop in on this virtual book tour since the author events I was scheduled to volunteer for in March were cancelled: Recollections of My Nonexistence by Rebecca Solnit in coversation with Jia Tolentino, Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo, Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong.
What was your favourite read this month?
PS: my favourite secondhand bookstores in philly, 2020 mid-year reading check-in, 2019 reading recap