We’ve had massive snow, 70 degree days, and everything in between during this tumultuous February, but I’ve been trying to squeeze in reading when and where I can! Here’s what I’ve logged lately…
–Marissa
Two Women Living Together by Kim Hana and Hwang Sunwoo is a Korean memoir written by these two accomplished ladies. Both in their 40s, they decide to buy a house together and live as a chosen family (they are not lovers and not just roommates). They share their cats, their mortgage, and the challenges of cohabitating – think of this as a slightly younger Golden Girls situation. I thought this was a powerful story (since so much is just written about MARRIAGE), though I did stumble occasionally on the cultural differences. Thought provoking!
The Irish Goodbye by Beth Ann Fennelly was an auto read for me, considering how much I loved her micro-memoir Heating and Cooling. Fennelly follows the same structure, with some longer and some incredibly short chapters about her life, the loss of her sister, her marriage, and life in Mississippi. I love the vibes, the relatability to some of it, the structure, the writing, all of it!
Her Last Breath by Taylor Adams is another bananapants thriller from the king of bananapants thrillers! This time, we’ve got two best friends (Tess and Allie), who decide to go caving together when things go HELLA wrong. This is claustrophobic, fast-paced, dual timelines, tests of friendship, twists and turns and MORE twists and turns, and I could NOT PUT IT DOWN. A winner!
Witness 8 by Steve Cavanaugh was an audiobook listen, and is the 8th book in the Eddie Flynn series… which I’ve never read. 🤣 Nonetheless, I got sucked into this scammy-murdery-lawyery tricks story right away. There were several plot lines (a mad who witnessed a murder, a scam artist, and Flynn, a former con man turned attorney), but I went with the flow and really enjoyed it!
London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth by Patrick Radden Keefe was going to be my “dip in and out nonfiction book on my Kindle” (I usually have one on the go), but I started this work and could NOT PUT IT DOWN. 19-year-old Zac Brettler fell to his death from a luxury apartment building into the Thames, and his parents, while grieving his loss, discover Zac was living a shadow life as the “son of a Russian oligarch”. Keefe then unpacks the shady characters Zac interacted with, the family’s grappling with the truth, and looks at London as a whole as a land of the rich, the oligarchs, and the underbelly. I found this just addictive and couldn’t put it down – highly recommend! (It comes out April 7)
You & Me and You & Me and You & Me by Emlyn Rees and Josie Lloyd features Adam and Jules, a 25-year-married couple who have drifted apart. When Adam discovers old mixtapes from the 1990s and their courtship, things take a turn. This is a romance, a time travel story, an examination of a long marriage, and a love letter to a time of mixtapes and analog life. I liked it, but didn’t *love* it.
Seventy-Two Seasons by M.A.C. Farrant is a nonfiction work whereas Marian decides to follow the Japanese “microseason” calendar and really notice one feature of nature every five days. She talks about birds, trees, seasons, and more. This is just a cozy, dip-in-and-out read that I found soothing.
The Page Turner by Violet Shipman was an audiobook listen about the “black sheep” of a small press publishing family, since she likes to read and write romance novels. This must have been wrong book, wrong time, because I just didn’t get into it.
How to Be Okay When Nothing is Okay by Jenny Lawson is her newest collection of very personal essays whereas she grapples with depression, anxiety, ADHD and just… being a human sometimes. She offers practical tips to finding small moments of joy with her signature humor. A good one to dip in and out of.
The Accidental Favorite by Fran Littlewood was another audiobook listen, centering on three adult sisters who are thrown into chaos when their father – in a moment of crsis – reveals his favorite. The rest of the novel is all about the sisters, their lives, their dynamics with each other, and of course, their aging parents. I enjoyed this while listening, but sense I won’t remember it much in a week or two.
In Her Defense by Phillipa Malicka was a Reese pick for February, so I bumped it to the top of my list, but man, I got BOGGED DOWN in this novel. We’ve got a court case where a therapist is accused of being a cult leader, two girls who are studying art in Rome when one develops a massive crush on the other, a mother sure that her daughter has been brainwashed, we have two toggling timelines (Rome and the court case), there’s just… a lot. All the reviews have called it stunning and riveting, but I just… didn’t. It was a slog that took me WAY too long to read. Bummer. 😦
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