Photo by Paul Schafer on Unsplash
Since I was let go from my full-time job at the end of August 2017, I’ve done a variety of things to stay busy. I’ve cleaned, blogged, decluttered, journaled, meditated, watched a lot of TV shows and movies, done a lot of face masks and read.
I used to be quite the avid reader, but that’s dropped off in recent years due to a busy work schedule and just life in general.
But my friends, oh how times I’ve changed. As of February 20, I’ve read 61 books since September. Because of this, I thought it’d be fun to do a roundup of my favorite books I’ve read recently. I’m purposely not going to include books I’ve mentioned in previous posts just so I’m not repeating a lot of the same content.
So here we go!
Memoirs
— Hunger by Roxane Gay
I’ve read two of Roxane’s other books and really enjoyed them both, and this was no exception. I’d say this is probably the most personal of all of her books so far, and I really enjoyed this vulnerable peek into her life. As someone who’s been overweight nearly all my life, I could relate to several of the struggles and stories she mentioned in this memoir. Regardless of your weight, I think anyone could find something to relate to this book, if for nothing else that we’re all human and we all have struggles.
— Mean by Myriam Gyrba
As I’m sure you know by now, memoirs are my favorite kinds of books to read. I really enjoyed this one, but some parts of it were hard to read because of physical and sexual abuse. I love Myriam’s writing style, and I really connected to her story from the very first page.
— How to Murder Your Life by Cat Marnell
This was one of the first books I read after getting let go, and it still holds a special place in my heart. It’s another memoir, and I didn’t know anything about it before I started reading. For every other book on this list, I’d heard good things from at least one person before reading. This one just caught my eye when I was at the library one day, and I’m so glad it did. This book has very mixed reviews from what I remember, but I really enjoyed it. It’s about someone who worked their way up in the entertainment/magazine industry and had problems with drugs and such. It can get a little high brow and name drop-y at times, but that just added to why I liked it. Sometimes you just need a good juicy read that isn’t super intellectual or full of twists and turns.
— I’m Just a Person by Tig Notaro
Tig Notaro is an amazing comedian, and if you haven’t heard her stuff before, I definitely recommend looking her up on Spotify and/or YouTube immediately. She came to Fargo last summer, and I scored Josh and myself front row tickets. She’s a hilarious and wonderful person, but she’s also been through a lot of shit and she’s been very open about nearly all of it. In one year, her mom got sick and died, Tig was diagnosed with breast cancer, she had a double mastectomy and more. And yet she stayed strong and pushed through and incorporated more of her life into her comedy. My description is definitely not doing the book or her story justice, so if you’re curious at all, I highly recommend this amazing memoir.
Poetry
— Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
I feel like I’d heard about this book for at least a year or so before I finally broke down and read it. I have no idea why I waited so long to read it, but I’m glad I finally did. It was full of great imagery, heartbreaking and heartwarming poems, a very distinct writing style and more. Poetry can be so subjective, but I really enjoyed this book and her second book, The Sun and Her Flowers.
— The Princess Saves Herself In This One by Amanda Lovelace
This was without a question one of my favorite books I’ve ever read, poetry or not. I absolutely loved her writing style, and I took so many pictures of quotes of hers throughout the book. This one also had very mixed reviews, but I personally really enjoyed it.
Young Adult
— We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson
I almost gave up on this book so many times before starting it. I don’t know why, but the description on the book jacket just really didn’t reach out to me. But then I saw on Goodreads that it has a 4.21 with more than 14,000 ratings so I figured I should at least give it a try. On paper, I didn’t think it would like it. I’m usually not big into science fiction books, whether they’re young adult or not. This is definitely a science fiction book, but it was so different than what I was expecting. Like I said, the description didn’t sound very interesting to me but the execution of the story and the subplots was very interesting. It definitely kept my interest right until the end, and I liked it much more than I initially thought I would.
— The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
I’ve seen so many of my friends mark this as read or want-to-read on Goodreads lately, and that makes me so happy. I think this book is so important, now more than ever. If anyone thinks young adult books don’t tackle real issues, they clearly haven’t heard of this book. Not that you can always rely on or believe ratings, but it currently has a 4.58 on Goodreads with more than 100,000 ratings. The writing was fantastic, the topics were difficult but believable, and I think it’s just such an important book given the state of our world currently.
What are some great books you’ve read lately?
