Hi friends,
I know I was supposed to find a better title, but the only other idea I had was ‘Read-y in December’. Yup. It’s too cringe even for me, so here we are.
Am I the only one who finds it odd to write a monthly round-up in the middle of a month though? Or am I just putting some arbitrary limits on my idea of time? Oh well, I’m sticking to the middle of the month1 either way.
Non-Fiction: Memoir Lane
I’ve been trying to hit my GoodReads goal of 52 books this year, and the easiest thing to read at night, when I have the most time, is a memoir. They’re interesting, not likely to bother my sleep schedule, and not often very long.
The Audacity by Katherine Ryan
A comedian I’m really interested in, for the persona and the vibes. I watched both of her specials on Netflix a few years back and thoroughly enjoyed them. Unsurprisingly, her memoir is hilarious; I’ve always thought her relationship with her daughter (described in one of the specials) was unique in its chill-ness as compared to, well, a lot of people, and really liked hearing about how she got there. Also, she has been around the damn block in terms of her life and career so far, and it was funny as hell hearing about it. One last thing: she’s pretty open about all the dumb shit she’s said, which I found refreshing!
Unreliable Narrator by Aparna Nancherla
Another comedian I love, but with completely different vibes. She also voices one of my favourite animated characters (Moon on The Great North), so I wanted to see what she would talk about here. Is it odd that it was too good? I was unfortunately a bit sleep-deprived when I read this, so I couldn’t take in all the greatness properly, but I have never highlighted so many paragraphs in a book. She could be a journalist/psychologist with how she manages to break down her feelings, situate them within the larger societal context (and provide sources!!), and then end with a point I’ve never been able to articulate. Damn. I’ll probably read it again when my brain is working.
The Storyteller by Dave Grohl
We all know who this is. Yeah, the Foo Fighters (and Nirvana) guy. I’m not really a fan of either band (sorry, just a lack of knowledge/interest here), but he’s always been a bit weird, no? I heard that his memoir was interesting, so I decided to just try reading it. Man, this guy? He’s like that fun uncle who has stories in spades and will corner you about them. I felt like I needed to enjoy music a lot more to properly get the book, but I was still taken in by the way he wrote it. He is a huge huge huge music fan, and his enthusiasm for it is catching. I’m trying to get my husband (another music fan) to read this.
The World’s Worst Assistant by Sona Movsesian
Conan O’Brien’s assistant wrote this! I gotta say, I don’t know who she is at all, but the title? It really got me. And she sticks to the premise the whole time! Incredible work. Also great for all of us who are looking to move away from productivity culture.
Foreverland: On the Divine Tedium of Marriage by Heather Havrilesky
I put this last in this section because I don’t know how to feel about this book. If you google it, you’ll see that a lot of people have taken it extremely literally, thinking that she just hates her husband, full stop. Of course, the writer of the advice column Ask Polly2 doesn’t deal in reductive takes like this. It is generally pessimistic, and the front half is a bit of a downer, but just as she manages to give incredible advice to strangers on the advice column, she manages to completely nail all the nitty gritty, day-to-day slog that can sometimes hit when you’ve chosen one person for the rest of your life. By the end, I felt rewarded for making it to the end, I felt my heart expand for both happy and angry feelings, and I was kinda messed up. Not gonna lie, it only worked for me because my relationship is generally great. If you’re in a bad marriage, you might want to take some drastic measures after reading this.
Fiction
If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura
I’ve been weak to the “Japanese authors + cats” genre ever since I read The Travelling Cat Chronicles last year. It made me cry like a goddamn baby but I loved it lol. This book caught my eye because it’s written in a more humorous tone, which I found charming. The protagonist essentially meets Death, and stuff happens. The ending was a bit abrupt for me but I sorta get it. Would recommend!
The Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman
This series has been all over the bookstore circuit3, so I finally took the leap during a recent trip to Kinokuniya. I’ve finished 2 out of the 4 books currently available and I like them! It’s a sweet premise with a bunch of elderly seniors solving crimes, and I really enjoy how the author manages to write from multiple points of views while still keeping some fun and jokes that will appeal to readers of different ages.
to avoid writing this AND the monthly consumption together
funny story: my partner and both, indepedently of each other, bought the Ask Polly book in our first year of dating, and when we got married we had to get rid of one.
maybe BookTok too? I don’t know, I don’t have TikTok.