Those of you who have been around for a while might remember that I used to do monthly reading wrap-ups, but they fell by the way-side when I stopped reading (the last one I did was November 2015). I’ve decided that I’d like to bring the idea back, because it was a good way to show you what I’ve been reading and briefly mention some of the books I might not go on to fully review. Problem is that my reading is still somewhat sporadic and inconsistent, and I don’t always have time to sit down and write even my weekly posts. So I decided to tweak the idea to bring you quarterly wrap-ups that will probably cover about the same number of books the monthly ones used to! For the inaugural post I’ll be going back over everything I’ve read so far in 2019. For this first one I’m just going to run through the books I’ve read – I’m not sure if this format will stick, I might move to short one- or two-sentence summaries or just a roundup of my favourites. But let’s start with more detail and see how it goes. Feedback welcome!
January
I only finished one book in January, and it wasn’t my usual type of read. I was in the mood for something easy and a bit fluffly, and I liked the idea of this book – the protagonist is an autistic woman who hires an escort to help her learn how to interact with a boyfriend. I enjoyed it well enough. It’s still not my preferred genre, but if you do enjoy romance (borderline erotica) or are looking for something that’s a bit predictable but sweet, then check this out. I listened to it on Audible, and enjoyed the audiobook. 6/10.
February
An American Marriage is an amazing book, and the Audible production is fantastic. This is the story of Celestial and Roy, young black newlyweds in Atlanta. Roy is arrested for a crime he didn’t commit, and sentenced to jail. The book is about all the relationships between the characters and how his incarceration shifts and changes them. It brought the characters to life, and I felt their anguish and anger as I was reading. I also loved the audiobook for the accents – that really helped to create the sense of atmosphere already so well-depicted through Jones’ writing. I’d highly recommend this book, and was thrilled to see it on this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist.I have already published my review, so you can read my full thoughts here. 10/10.
The Wife Between Us was an enjoyable thriller in which we meet a divorced woman and slowly learn about her marriage and history. There are some good twists in it – I didn’t see the main one coming – but the writing felt calculated and self-conscious, it dragged in places, and I had trouble emotionally engaging with the characters. If you’re a fan of the genre there’s enough here that you’ll probably find it entertaining, but if you’re one to only pick up the best of the genre, I don’t think this one makes the cut. 5/10.
On the Come Up is Angie Thomas’ follow-up to her massive hit, The Hate U Give. I adored THUG, and have so much respect for Angie Thomas – not only as an author, but for the voice she is giving to young black women in the current American climate. I think her work is vital and important and just a damn good read. This is the story of Bri, a young aspiring rapper dealing with some very difficult issues in her personal life. Her dad was killed in a gang shooting when she was a toddler, her mom is a former addict and single mother struggling to find a job and feed her kids, the security guards at her school target her, her aunt is a gang member constantly at risk of arrest or worse, and she has some complicated feelings about one of her friends. Bri is a challenging character, but I loved that about her. I will forever read anything Angie Thomas writes, and I suggest you do the same. 8/10.
It was actually great to read Locking Up Our Own right after An American Marriage, because it talks a lot about the prison-industrial system in the US, particularly in relation to race. It has been widely praised and won the Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction in 2018. Deservedly. It’s not a long book and is structured with lots of personal accounts that really connect the reader to the subject and heighten the emotional impact. But at the same time, James Forman Jr. knows his stuff. He presents a lot of history concisely which serves the purpose of contextualizing the points he is making. It is not only one of the best books I’ve read in recent memory, but one of the most important, and needs to be read by as many people as possible. I really enjoyed going back and forth between text and audio, so I’d recommend either format. 10/10
March
I listened to Bedsit Disco Queen and Naked at the Albert Hall on audiobook because they are read by the author and I love her reading voice nearly as much as her singing. For those of you who aren’t familiar, Tracey Thorn is half of the musical duo Everything But the Girl, as well as having a successful solo singing career and having done one of my favourite collaborations on the song “Protection” with Massive Attack. Her voice is haunting and emotive and that song was pretty much the sound track to my late adolescence. But Tracey Thorn can also write. She is an incredibly intelligent and witty woman, she knows how to draw in her audience and these two books, though I never would have thought so, gripped me. The first is an autobiography of her suburban British childhood and her life as a singer and, later, mother. It is written with insight, humour and tenderness. Naked at the Albert Hall is the book she wrote in response to people asking why she didn’t talk more about singing in her autobiography. It’s a wonderfully thought-provoking read, and she manages to balance out technical information about what it means to be a professional singer with interviews with some of her favourite singers, references to literary singers, and some discussion of the philosophical and emotional side of the craft. I’m not a singer, nor do I have much interest in the nuts and bolts of it, but I loved this book. At this point, I’m fairly sure I’ll enjoy anything Tracey Thorn writes. Highly recommend the audiobooks, particularly for Bedsit Disco Queen as it features some of the music she discusses. 9/10 and 8/10 respectively.
My Sister the Serial Killer had been on my radar, in passing, since the end of last year, but nothing I heard pushed me to pick it up. Until it was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. That put boot to pants. It’s actually a pretty short book, and it’s a thriller so it’s easy to get through. I am still not quite sure how I feel about its inclusion on the longlist, purely because I have a hard time comparing thrillers with literary fiction. This is definitely more literary than a lot of thrillers I’ve read, and I loved that it’s set in Nigeria and that cultural and geographic context really came through on the page. I don’t know if it quite stacks up to something like An American Marriage, though. It seems a little unfair to place them next to one another on the same longlist. I loved the premise of the book – Korede’s younger sister has killed three men, and she is starting to question whether her sister is being entirely honest about how these deaths occurred. It looks at loyalty, family, abuse and love, and it also makes you question what it would take to make you betray someone you would do almost anything to protect. While I’m not sure about it as a Women’s Prize contender, as a thriller I’d definitely recommend it. 7/10.
Small Animals is, on the surface, the story of what happened when the author left her young son alone in her car to run into a store to pick up a couple of things. This incident led to a police report, arrest warrant, and a lot of trauma and upset. But the book goes beyond that to look at modern parenting – how it has changed for parents and kids, the pressures it brings, the judgement that is constantly being passed, the freedom lost and how all of this affects mental health of both kids and their parents. She also looks at the legal system in relation to these types of cases and talks to other parents and parenting experts to get their input. I liked that its subject matter is so varied, and I felt like it was well-researched. There were times when she was talking about her own situation where she goes on too much and gets too into justifying and excusing her behaviour, and while I’m sympathetic, I wish it had been toned down a bit. But overall I think it’s a great conversation-starter, and I think most modern parents (stay-at-home moms who are struggling in particular) will find a lot to relate to. 7/10
And, finally, Ordinary People. This book has been on my shelf since last year and I felt very drawn to it but just hadn’t gotten around to picking it up yet. Then it also turned up on the Women’s Prize longlist, and that got me to finally give it a try. It’s a hard book to describe. It’s a quiet, character-focused book that centres around a couple who are struggling. They have two young children and are finding it harder and harder to connect to one another. The book takes place in London, 2008, just after Obama’s election. Though it’s an ocean away, for young black people his election as President of the most powerful country in the world meant something, something groundbreaking and full of hope. But that entrance is quickly overtaken by the reality of their day-to-day lives, their individual struggles and how those translate to an inability to see the person they used to be – or the person they used to be with. It’s a premise that appeals to me as a relatively new mom, because I know the struggle of being a full-time parent to a small kid and how your sense of self slowly disappears, and the distance between who you are and who you used to be is underlined when your partner still has their world outside the home and doesn’t see or understand the things you’re struggling with, because they’re largely internal. 9/10.
Faves
Ordinary People and On the Come Up were close seconds for fiction, though!
Bedsit Disco Queen is probably going to be my favourite memoir of the year, because it came out of left field and surprised me as well as being wonderful!
I had to separate memoir and non-fiction this month because I couldn’t decide between the two – I loved them for such different reasons that it really was pineapples and strawberries. Locking Up Our Own needs a shout out because it is the most important book I’ll read this year, probably for several years. I want everyone to read it because it will either open your eyes to injustices you might not know are going on, or it will help you to see how various issues are interconnected. Either way, you need to read this book.
That’s it for the first quarter of 2019! I’m currently reading Suzanne by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, one of the contenders for Canada Reads and a beautiful piece of prose. I’m also working on Daisy Jones and the Six which is living up to the extreme hype and I’m having trouble not abandoning everything else in my life to devour it whole!
I’d love to hear from you guys. Which books have you read so far this year? Which were your favourites? Have you read any of these? Share your thoughts in the comments – I’d love to discuss all of these books with you guys!