I’m finally back to reading regularly, and I’ve realized that these weekly posts are not only good to let you guys know what I’ve been reading (and therefore which reviews may soon be coming your way), but also to remind me what I’ve read and when. I’ve read about 10 books since I started really reading again, but that was back in May and the weeks have started to run together a little bit! So here’s my first My Week On Wednesday in a couple of years, and it feels really good to be getting through books fast enough to earn one!
Just shelved:
It’s been a really good reading week! I finally finished Americanah after over a month of working on it, and a few years of having it on my shelves! I really enjoyed it, and am so glad I’ve finally read one of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s full length novels. I’ve read and loved both We Should All Be Feminists and, very recently, Dear Ijeawele, Or A Feminist Manifesto In Fifteen Suggestions. In both I loved her concise writing style and felt that warming sense of kinship at her perspectives – so similar to my own. I think absolutely everyone should read both, and they won me over firmly to being a fan.
Very Good Lives was as very short book, which is an illustrated transcription of the speech J.K. Rowling gave to a class of Harvard graduates. It has been aptly compared to Neil Gaiman’s speech, Make Good Art, and both bring wonderful perspectives on the value, challenge and work required to succeed in a creative profession, as well as how to be good humans. Very quick, but will stay with you.
The Hate U Give. Man. I am unable yet to adequately convey my thoughts on this book, so until my review, I’m going to keep it simple. This book is important, timely, and you should read it. Whoever you are.
Currently reading:
I’ve been slogging away for what feels like years at The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I was originally saving it, because I expected it to be fantastic. It was compared to the film Amélie, which is one of my absolute favourites, and it was supposedly quirky and whimsical. But so far I’ve found the characters unlikeable and self-satisfied, the plot is limping along without ever really seeming to get anywhere, and each chapter that switches between one of the two voices somehow doesn’t make me any more excited than the last. I’m a good chunk of the way through it, so I keep picking it up and reading until it makes me feel like I can’t take anymore, then putting it down. I’m still hoping it might improve. If you’ve read it, does it?
Now, on a more positive note, my lovely friend Martha sent me Lola, and I picked it up this morning and have had a lot of trouble putting it down to do important things like, you know, change the baby’s diaper or feed her. I’m only about 30 pages into it, but I’m already hooked.
Up next:
I’ve heard nothing but good things about Girls Will Be Girls, and I read the first chapter when it first arrived. I’m on the fence. I think it probably is a great feminist book, but it is bringing up some of the feelings I started to have part way through college when I was taking Women’s Studies courses and just couldn’t anymore. I know all about the injustices loaded onto young people based on gender, I know how women’s bodies are the canvas onto which society paints its most restrictive gender rules, and I know how important it is to free ourselves of the pressures to be a kind of perfect that rarely, if ever, exists. Reading more about it at this point in my life often serves just to make me feel angry and frustrated and enjoy my life less. So I’m not sure if I’m going to find enough new ideas in this book to make it worth putting myself back there right now, or if it’ll be too much like all the anger-inducing gender studies I’ve already read. We shall see.
I’m excited for this book, because I absolutely loved Hearts and Minds, which I read a few years back and that still comes to mind quite frequently. I’m torn between letting myself devour it and saving it for a rainy day, but I’m trying to get used to the idea of not saving things – after all, you never know if you’re going to get hit by a bus. Might as well enjoy life as much as possible, yeah? So I’ll probably read this one next.
I have heard nothing but praise for this book. I’ve also heard that it’s a really hard book to read, and brutal.
What about you guys? What have you been reading? Have you read any of the books on my list this week? What did you think? Share in the comments!
My Week On Wednesday is a weekly post in which I share with you what I’ve been reading, what I’m reading next, and any other bookish stuff I enjoyed in the past week! If you’d like to write your own My Week On Wednesday post, or if you’d just like to share your recent reads, feel free to link or chat in the comments! (Click on cover image to visit Goodreads page and learn more about the book.)