Accelerated Reader: Winter 2022 Reads
Wow. It’s been…awhile. The last time I posted a book review (…October, WHOOPS), I had a different job and a different apartment. Needless to say, it’s been a crazy few months. I think it’s valuable to occasionally take time off from the Internet; I’m not sure the constant scrolling is beneficial to anyone’s brains. While I wasn’t fully offline (I work in digital marketing…), it was helpful to take a step back from the self-imposed demands of this book review blog and just enjoy reading for awhile.
That said, without further ado, below are some of my favorite reads from the past few months! Mini reviews, if you will:
“56 Days” by Catherine Ryan Howard (Bookshop | Kindle)
This is a well-paced thriller that, fair warning, takes place during “shelter in place” times in 2020, so fully understand if it’s not for you. A man and a woman go on a few dates right before the lockdown laws hit in Ireland, and they decide to quarantine together. 56 days later, we know one of them is dead, but we don’t know who. The book flip flops back and forth between the POVs of each of our unreliable narrators. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. 4.75/5
“The Other Me” by Sarah Zachrich Jeng (Bookshop | Kindle)
I loved the concept of this book. Loved. Elevator pitch: a free-spirited, single artist in Chicago walks through a door at her friend’s art gallery opening and walks into another life in which she lives in Michigan and is married to a guy she knew in high school. She still remembers her other life perfectly, but it’s as if it doesn’t exist. This book got more sci-fi-y than I expected, but I love a “two roads diverged in a wood” story in which we learn what would have happened had we taken the other path. (…what if I still lived in Kennesaw, Georgia?!) 4.25/5
“Early Morning Riser” by Katherine Heiny (Bookshop | Kindle)
A well-written piece of literary fiction that follows demonstrates the power of unconventional families. Heiny’s writing is lovely, and she adds dimension to the main character via her affectations (such as only dressing in vintage clothes). After moving to a small town in Northern Michigan, Jane becomes embedded in the local community in ways both expected (falling in love with the town playboy) and unexpected. It’s slower-paced, but I still somehow sped through it. 4/5
“The Magic of Found Objects” by Maddie Dawson (Bookshop | Kindle)
Another lovely novel that explores the idea of family. Phronsie, our protagonist, and her twin brother were conceived at Woodstock. Flash forward 30-some-odd years and she is continuing to grapple with her relationship with her flightly, free-spirited hippie mother, her straight-laced father, and steadfast stepmother. And, her best guy friend whom she’s known all her life proposes to her (not a spoiler). The novel flips back and forth between “present day” and key moments in Phronsie’s childhood which help shed light on…why she is the way that she is. I found the ending somewhat predictable, but the journey to get there was utterly charming. 4/5
“A Slow Fire Burning” by Paula Hawkins (Bookshop | Kindle)
This thriller had a lot of characters that I struggled to keep straight at times, but it had plenty of twists and turns to keep me engaged. It opens with a murder (again, not a spoiler), and of course the cast of characters involved all have somewhat of a motive. We get to know the deceased’s aunt and uncle, the woman with whom he most recently went on a date, and his nosy neighbor. I felt sympathetic toward many of the characters (except one in particular, ugh), and this was definitely a page-turner. 3.75/5
“Everybody (Else) is Perfect: How I Survived Hypocrisy, Beauty, Clicks, and Likes” by Gabrielle Korn (Bookshop | Kindle)
A thought-provoking memoir from one of the most notable editors in recent years. After working her way through the ranks at Refinery29 and Nylon Magazine, Gabrielle Korn became the youngest editor-in-chief of the latter, and guided Nylon through its transition from print to fully digital. Her debut collection of essays runs the gamut, with topics ranging from being a queer lesbian woman in media, commercialized body positivity (tw: eating disorders), modern feminism (tw: sexual assault), beauty standards, career burnout, and relationships. She’s got a lot to say, and it’s a credit to her writing that the essays remain engaging without becoming too dense. 3.75/5
“Just One Look” by Lindsay Cameron (Bookshop | Kindle)
Think “You,” but at a law firm and the gender roles are flipped. Lawyer Cassie Woodson had some sort of career meltdown (we don’t know what) and begins temping at (what I think is supposed to be) a white shoe law firm, reading emails for discovery on a case. Tons of emails from a partner at the firm begin to get filtered to her inbox for review, and she slowly finds herself becoming obsessed with him. This obsession escalates (of course), and while Cassie is not the most reliable narrator, there are some great twists that I didn’t always see coming. 3.5/5
“Good Rich People” by Eliza Jane Brazier (Bookshop | Kindle)
This book was…so weird. Fair warning, there is a lot of body shaming and classism (as well as a brutal animal death), in the context of how horrible one of the main characters is. For some reason, I thought this was a more traditional thriller, but it’s very satirical—these people are awful. I definitely wasn’t rooting for anyone, and frankly, I don’t think the satirical elements went far enough. But, I enjoyed how the book flip-flopped between the POVs of a few characters (notably, the rich wife and their new tenant) and we got alternate perspectives on each event. This book isn’t for everyone, but if you do pick it up, you will likely want to see how it ends. 3.25/5
