Riding on June‘s momentum, July was another great month for reading. I’ve been frantically cramming in more reads before the school year starts again, as well as catching up on blog posts; with this one up, we’re all caught! Check out my 2021 mid-year reading check-in from this past month if you missed it. The doodles took me way too long but they were very satisfying to make hahh.
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner // ★★★★★
A memoir of grief and growing up Korean American by Michelle Zauner, otherwise known as Japanese Breakfast! Japanese Breakfast has a cult following in Philly (they sold out 5 nights at Union Transfer in August and Union Transfer named their coat check after her!), and not only that but also a cult following at Bryn Mawr College, our shared alma mater. Recently, they’ve had a mainstream breakthrough, and although their music isn’t a genre I listen to, her memoir was one of my most highly anticipated books of the year all the same. Now having read it, I can confidently say that it has made my top reads of 2021!
You know that strange feeling you get when you’ve just experienced something seismic in your life but the world around you keeps spinning on obliviously? This book was Michelle’s call to the world acknowledge her mother, her mother’s death, her mother’s love, and her own grief. And oh man did I hear it.
I really love what Mary HK Choi (author of Emergency Contact) wrote about the book: “If your mother has ever screamed at you for getting hurt. Laughed at you for wanting to go to the doctor. If your mother has sent you hundreds and hundreds of dollars of beauty products all while treating your ‘rough and unsightly complexion’ as a personal insult, this book is for you. If you just miss your mom with an ache that seizes your arms and steals your breath, where you regret every resentment you’ve harbored while still being astounded by how deftly and relentlessly she can hurt you, this book is for you.”
A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott // (gifted eARC)
The Mohawk phrase for depression can be roughly translated to “a mind spread out on the ground.” In her memoir, Canadian Haudenosaunee author Alicia Elliott writes on personal, generational, and colonial trauma, including themes such as mental illness and poverty. The legacy of injustices against Indigenous people is not a thing of the past but ongoing. Most vividly, I recall Elliott’s childhood battle with head lice in “Scratch,” which became a metaphor for the shame of poverty. I’m still processing this book, so for now I’ll just say that it’s an important one. Next on my Indigenous tbr is fiction: Five Little Indians by Michelle Good.
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado // ★★★★
An innovative memoir of queer domestic abuse, written almost like fiction, utilizing classic horror themes. Rarely do I ever find myself thinking about the form of a book, but this one was so unique! This quote sums up the book for me perfectly:
You feel like you can jump from one idea to the next, searching for a kind of aggregate meaning. You know that if you break them and reposition them and unravel them and remove their gears you will able to access their truths in a way you couldn’t before. There is so much to be gained form inverting the gestalt. Back up, cross your eyes. Something is there… You can’t bring yourself to say what you really think: I broke the stories down because I was breaking down and didn’t know what else to do.
Verity by Colleen Hoover // ★★★★
When a struggling writer accepts a job to help a charismatic man complete his injured wife Verity’s successful book series, she discovers Verity’s secret diary of chilling admissions, including Verity’s recollection of what really happened the day her daughter died.
My first Colleen Hoover, believe it or not. People have been recommending this book for years! I finally picked it up on a whim and binged the whole thing in a night. What happened to Verity’s daughter?? What’s Verity’s deal??? Do we trust Verity’s husband???? Why is Verity’s son so creepy????? Nothing creeps me out more than creepy kids AGHH.
Whatever the truth was, pretty much every character made decisions that were questionable to varying extents, and while that would usually take me out of a story, especially a thriller (a peeve of mine is when characters make stupid decisions to advance the plot), I was fully invested. As addicting as everyone told me it would be. Next on my Colleen Hoover tbr is It Ends with Us.
The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes // ★★★★
A billionaire stranger dies and leaves Avery almost his entire fortune–dispossessing his four alluring grandsons and the rest of his family–and a puzzle.
I had fun speculating about the billionaire stranger’s intentions with Avery and his family, dreaming about living in a mansion with hidden bookcase doors and other secret passageways, and frivolously choosing my favourite amongst the four grandsons. As with any mystery, it’s best to go in blind, but you have my blessing to read the blurb hahh. Recommended if you enjoy Knives Out, mysteries, puzzles, escape rooms, and dark academia (it’s not really dark academia but the vibes are similar and what is dark academia if not a vibe). Looking forward to the sequel coming out in September!
One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London // ★★★★
Plus size fashion blogger Bea stars in a dating show, surrounded by men vying for her affection.
At first I was noooot feeling this book. Bea was not interested in falling in love, which is totally fine, I so feel that, but that made the dating show premise a lot less compelling. As for the other contestants, many would frequently break the fourth wall and act like they were above being in a reality dating show (“not like the other girls” vibes, but with guys) but it’s like, dude, you signed up for this show just like everyone else. Furthermore, the book was not subtle in discussing body image at all. In the first half, it felt like the whole book/plot was just about Bea being plus sized, with nothing deeper to identify her personality. Some things people said about Bea were so crass, and while I have no doubt that society is not beyond such baseness, I feel like it’s the subtle aggressions that are much more complex, insidious, and interesting to explore. That said, I’m not plus sized so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I can understand the argument that progress cannot be made unless an issue is acknowledged for all that it is, as plebeian as it may be.
The second half was fun though. Once everyone got over themselves, we were finally able to get to the drama–who should Bea pick? which men had honest motives?–and the theme of body image continued to thread itself throughout the story without feeling so didactic. For anyone who enjoys internet culture and/or reality shows!
Seek You by Kristen Radtke // (gifted)
Truly more of a journey/tour–as declared by the subtitle– through American loneliness than an analysis. More breadth than depth. Historical, scientific. A bit depressing in its dry, clinical approach to such an emotional subject, rather than hopeful. A graphic novel with very literal illustrations. The physical book is quite impressive though; beautifully constructed. Perhaps a good gift for nonfiction readers who appreciate history and/or psychology, and/or even philosophy.
The Poppy War by RF Kuang // ★★★★★
Yes, I started and finished the trilogy in June. Yes, I reread the first book in July. Loved the whole trilogy, but the first book was definitely my favourite!