My bookish moment of the week is my work book club meeting! There were only four of us on the call, but it was so fun to stop working for an hour to chat about the book. We read The Guest List by Lucy Foley and we all agreed it wasn’t very good, but we still had a really lively discussion about it (mostly about all the ways it sucked, haha).
In other bookish news, reading was a struggle this week. I think it probably had something to do with an anxiety episode I was working through, as I found it hard to focus on reading and couldn’t find a really good book to sink into. I kept starting and stopping books because nothing was grabbing my attention. As such, I only have ONE book review for this week! Crazy, huh? What a weird reading week for me!
Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man’s Education by Mychal Denzel Smith (★★★★☆)
One-sentence review: Mychal muses on the question “How do you learn to be a Black man in America?”
I really liked this memoir, as Mychal is vulnerable and honest about his life, his struggles, and his family. He discusses some of the key Black thinkers, writers, and rappers that helped him define Blackness in America. He also talks about his difficulty in connecting with his father and his anxiety and depression that led him to drop out of college. He’s also not shy about his criticism of Obama, which made me uncomfortable at times. (I just want everyone to love Obama as I did, but that’s not reality and it’s especially not reality for Black people.) All in all, a fantastic BIPOC memoir and one you should definitely add to your antiracism reading list.
What I’m Reading This Week
- The Long Road Home by Louise Penny (audio) – I have a few hours left in this audiobook! I’m enjoying it, although the mystery isn’t as engaging as I wish and I find the discussions about art and muses to be a little mind-numbing, lol.
- Man Down by Kate Meader (e-book) – I’m nearly finished with this hockey romance, but couldn’t get it done in time for this reading recap. It’s really good, though I expect nothing less from Meader!
- Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker (print) – I’m reading this for work book club. It was my suggestion, so I feel obligated to read the whole thing, even if it’s a slog. I’m only about 75 pages in (it’s 400 pages) and it’s fine so far. Nothing outstanding, though, and I’m hoping it starts to pick up.
- What You Wish For by Katherine Center (e-book) – My hold just came in for this book – woohoo! This will be a good book to read alongside Hidden Valley Road. I have loved everything I’ve read from Center, so I’m really looking forward to diving into this one.
What are you reading?
I just finished What You Wish For the other week and quite enjoyed it! I liked that it had a little more depth than a lot of other books that could be classified as “romance,” but I’m super picky like that 🙂 I’ve never read anything else by Center—which other would you most recommend by her?
My friend Kyria is reading “Hidden Valley Road” and she said it gets better but was a bit of a slog initially, too. I hate it when that happens, especially when it’s a book you suggested… I had that on my hold list but I think I will skip it since it was hard for both of you to get into.
I finished “Angle of Repose” in the middle of the night on Sunday night (thanks, insomnia). It’s a modern classic I have wanted to read for awhile but it was not exactly a page turner and it was over 600 pages. So while I am glad I read it, it’s not something I would recommend to others unless they really wanted to read his work. Now I’m reading “Big Friendship” which is our October book club. I think you listen to the author’s podcast – Call Your Girlfriend. It’s an interesting examination of female friendship and the work you need to put into a friendship to sustain it. Female friendships are extremely important to me so I am enjoying it. I have about 8 books from the library right now so I have my work cut out for me after I finish this book! I also am going to read “Raising White Kids” with some other blogger friends so will start that soon but I think I will read that + a fiction book at the same time. I typically don’t read 2 books at the same time but I like to do that when reading a heavier book…
One book for you is nuts! I hope this week is better with your anxiety <3
I really want a group to discuss sucky books with. Anyone out there want to talk about Untamed?! LOLOL JK!!!!
I am still reading that dark memoir. I am at 80% and am going to start Transcendent Kingdom next!\