What I Read in May: Mini Reviews

Ugggggh. You guys. It was stupidly hard to make myself finish this post and publish it. It took me weeks! But I DID IT. I DID IT FOR YOU.

Anyway, I read some great books in May and a few blech-y ones and here they are.

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay. Whoa, I read this book a whole month and 1/2 ago?! I can hardly remember it now! Just kidding ... kinda. Anyway, I love Roxane Gay, please read her new novel that just came out called An Untamed State (see: What I Read in April.) The idea behind this collection is that feminism and feminists is/are complicated, multilayered, and contradictory. "I embrace the label of bad feminist because I am human. I am messy." Love it.

Conclusive feelings: Some good essays, a few duds, generally glad I read it and would most likely recommend. (Especially to people who like Cheryl Strayed.)

Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit. Oh hi, another feminist essay collection. Send me your feminist essay collection, I will read it. The title essay was hilarious, and I absolutely swooned over the essay about Virginia Woolf! That essay alone made the entire book worth it. A few of the essays on feminism, though, just felt like reiterations of things I've heard a thousand times and weren't all that interesting.

Conclusive feelings: VIRGINIA WOOLF.

China Dolls by Lisa See. Yeeah, didn't like this one. I read a few of Lisa See's books years ago and loved them, especially Peony in Love. This one, not so much. It's about a Japanese girl and two Chinese girls who dance in clubs in Chinatown in San Francisco during World War II. As you can imagine, tensions ensue. Ultimately the characters were BLAH and I didn't care about the story at all. It was bland.

Conclusive feelings: Blech.


Inside Madeleine by Paula Bomer A collection of semi-related short stories about characters that are the same person but different, which was rather interesting, I guess. The giant "M" on the cover that looks like it was smeared in blood freaks me out a bit.

Conclusive feelings: I mostly remember was there were lots sex toys. Otherwise, not very memorable.

Cheri & The Last of Cheri by Colette. Aww yeah. Loved this one, obviously. It completely captures that mood of Belle Epoque/post-WWI Paris that I crave sometimes. Colette somehow manages to portray the affair between a young man and a woman old enough to be his grandmother in a way that is melancholy and beautiful. Also, there's nothing like reading about fancy rich Parisians and their problems to make you want put on a silk robe and smell something flavored "peach blossom".  

Conclusive feelings: Adoration.

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast OMG I loved this book so much! It's a graphic memoir that reads like one very long, very funny yet also very serious and lovely New Yorker cartoon about Roz Chast's aging parents and it will make you cry. It is a beautiful tribute to complicated family relationships. I loved it dearly and so will you.

Conclusive feelings: Funny/heartwarming.

Paris at the End of the World by John Baxter. This is a book about Paris during WWI. The narrative wanders through empty streets, crowded trains, battlefields and hospitals as Baxter re-imagines his grandfather's experience fighting in France 100 years ago. It's very readable but also has plenty of weird facts and information. I'm pretty sure it's here that I would give you an example of that but my copy of the book is in the other room.

Conclusive feelings: Delightful/interesting.

The Bishop's Wife by Mette Ivie Harrison. This is a sort of thriller, but also a sort of book club-ish book. Let's call it a "soft thriller." I'm not huge into thrillers, but I absolutely adored the narrator - a middle-aged wife of a Mormon bishop who is faithful but also has her own doubts, questions, issues, etc. I am absolutely thrilled that there is finally a book out there that gives voice to this experience. Mo-fem sisters, this is on point for us! The story turned out to be pretty good too. There is no sex and one "d-word" so I hope lots and lots and lots of Mormon women read this in their book clubs and have lots of good discussions.

Conclusive feelings: Fun/important.

Americanah by Chimamandah Ngozi Adichie. My wonderful, hyper-creative and beautiful friend Nicole recommended this book to me ages ago and I hate myself for not reading it sooner. It was on the NYTimes best 10 books of 2013 list and it is ~excellent~. Also, race, well done, and all that.

Conclusive feelings: Long but worth it.


If I Can't Have You by Gregg Olsen and Rebecca Morris. My reading of THIS book was inspired by my reading of The Bishop's Wife, which is loosely based on this case. I did not like this book at all. I don't like the idea of books like this generally. It's basically voyeurism in the form of a book and doesn't have much new information - just a lot of sappy interpretative content about "innocence" and "pure evil." No thanks.

Conclusive feelings: No.

The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai. I saved the best for last! This book reminded me of Possession by A.S. Byatt, one of my faves. It is about an old house in the midwest that was an artist's colony until the 50s. It begins in 1999, then goes to the 50's, then the 20's, and the year 1900 when the house was built. Each decade about a different group of people who lived in the house during that era. Each story fills in gaps and adds depth to the previous story, and let me tell you, it is E X C I T I N G. This is a book you should ABSOLUTELY buy in hardcover and read immediately.

Conclusive feelings: [heart eyes emoji] x 1000000