Alright, another month has passed. Better than January? Worse? Who's to say? It was a stressful month for me, which may or may not have affected the amount of reading I got done. Not that it was terrible but I feel like I had some fits and starts finding something I felt like reading and then finding the time to do it. But I still actually made it through a lot this month now that I actually look at those stats. This is why I track things instead of just relying on my thoughts.
Let's look at this bullet journal for the month, because I have managed to keep up with this so far!
Total books read
5
The Mothers by Brit Bennet
Klara and the Son by Kazou Ishiguro
Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
The Mothers by Brit Bennet
I had apparently downloaded a copy of this book through a Libro.fm sale and then forgot about it. So when I didn't know what to read, this seemed like a good choice. It's a complicated story following motherless Nadia and Aubrey, the local pastor's son Luke, and the ties to their Oceanside community. The story is complicated, or at least I've spent a good 20 min trying to summarize it in a few lines and have failed. It was a story I couldn't binge but instead would listen to in smaller spurts. I liked the prose and the role of the Mothers (a sort of chorus) when they were more directly involved with the characters.
Rating: 4 stars
Klara and the Sun by Kazou Ishiguro
I actually won one of the Goodreads giveaways and actually started this book back in January but given this is one of the paperback books rather than an audiobook, it took me a bit longer to get through. That and it took a bit of time to get into the story and really figure out what's going on (and tbf, not sure I got all the way there). Taking place in the near future, Klara is an AF (artificial friend). Basically a robot friend but one that you can boss around without feeling bad about it. Klara is bought by a young sick girl Josie to keep her company as she spends time at home studying on her "oblong" (phone, I suppose) and trying to get better. Another story that is difficult to summarize in a few lines as we try to understand Klara's role in this world and Klara tries to understand exactly what will be expected of her with this family.
Rating: 4.5 stars
Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
I like the ways seemingly small things in the modern world had big effects on history. And salt had some big effects on the geopolitics of the world, while I sometimes use salt to clean my cast iron pan. This feels like a comprehensive history and by that I mean Kurlansky goes off on some tangents that are only kind of related to salt, which made for a pretty dry read/listen from time to time. But it always managed to stay on this side of interesting so while I considered putting this down, I never followed through. I suppose that's something.
Rating: 3 stars
Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby
I couldn't find a book I was really excited about that was available from the library so I dug into some audiobooks I had on my phone already and decided Irby's is the way to go and is definitely something different from the difficult lit fic picks and very dry history I had recently finished. A series of deprecating essays about aging, GI issues and actually finding success with her weird blog (and previous books). The stories are very funny and the fact that she narrates the audiobook makes it that much better. I found myself speaking in her cadence a couple times. Good choice, me.
Rating: 4.25 stars
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Another Goodreads giveaway! Pretty sure I was entertaining these things for like 10 years before winning anything and then it was 2 in one month. Anyway, LOVED THIS. Vera Wong wakes up bright and early one morning to find a dead body in her tea shop. And since "nobody sniffs out wrongdoings quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands" she decides to take on the investigation herself. Vera is a force and I loved her. I loved all of the suspects she pulled together as well as she tries to get to the bottom of what happened. OK the mystery isn't perfect and I literally just finished it so it's possible my feelings will cool slightly, but honestly, Vera pulled me through and hopefully there will be more for Vera to tackle in the future
Rating: 4.85 stars
Total Pages Read
1,744
Fiction
60%
Female authors
60%
BIPOC authors
80%
US authors
60%
Book format
audiobook: 60%
paperback: 40%
Where'd I get the book
gift: 40%
indie: 20%
Kindle/Audible: 20%
library: 20%
Reread
20%
Book club
20%
Decade published
2000s: 20%
2010s: 20%
2020s: 60%
Resolution books
80%
The Mothers and Wow, No Thank You are both written by Black authors
Klara and the Sun is written by a Japanese-English author
Very Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers is by an Indonesian-Singaporean author
