May Book Review
Welcome to my Monthly Reading Wrap-Up, May 2023 edition!
(Catch up with last month’s reading wrap-up here first!)
These reviews are going to have a more organic structure and will include basically anything I am thinking or want to say about the book. Some will be lengthier, more opinion heavy, while others will be more concise.
But that is exactly why I wanted to start a book review blog in the first place! I love reading and wanted a place where I could freely talk about my thoughts and feelings and say exactly what I want about a book.
I read seven books this month. They are listed in the order I read them. As always, there is a mix of fiction and non-fiction.
A recurring theme you will often see throughout my reviews is me choosing what books to read solely based on the title alone. No consideration for the genre or topic or subject matter just simply does the title sound intriguing? Then I’ll read.
I Await the Devil’s Coming are you kidding me?? Instant read. No brainer.
I can honestly say I have never read anything like this book. It is considered the first confessional memoir and told through diary entries. Are you ready for the publishing year?
1902!!!
That's right. Nineteen year old (!) Mary MacLane wrote the blueprint for feminist, confessional memoirs from the great plains of Montana in 1902.
And it is one of the most quotable books I have ever read. The main theme she writes about is her anguish and discontent for her life.
If Emo Kylo Ren had an early 20th century counterpart, she would have blown him out of the water with her lamenting.
She constantly talks about how she is a “genius”, an outcast, and incredibly misunderstood by everyone around her. The topics she covers range from minute daily life to the absurd.
She describes her deep love of a good steak and baby green onions, her infatuation with Napoleon Bonaparte, romantic feelings for her ‘one friend’—a woman 10+ years her senior–and, of course, her overwhelming desire for the Devil to finally appear and bring her the happiness she desperately craves.
It sounds wild and possibly ridiculous, but in the hands of Mary MacLane it was enthralling, poetic, and dare I say, “genius”.
I was slightly concerned with my ability to comprehend a book written in 1902. You know that feeling when you are trying to read Shakespeare and it is just words on a page? Absolutely zero reading comprehension is taking place in your brain because the sentences are simply not constructed the way people talk nowadays? Sometimes it is like that for me with pre-modern texts. But I had no problems whatsoever with this. And at 162 pages, it was delightfully compact without sacrificing nuance or feeling rushed.
Highly original, it's a good one to try if you are looking to branch out and try something new. 5 stars.
I don't mean to sound dramatic but this book was phenomenal.
It is not technically a memoir, but rather an autobiographical novel detailing the author's experience immigrating from Iran to Oklahoma as a child. Even though the experiences are authentic and the content true, it reads like a work of fiction with the narrator being the 12-year-old author.
The organization and flow could have been chaotic but Nayeri handled it expertly. He weaves multiple story lines and multiple narratives almost simultaneously and jumps from story to story and back again.
He tells a few pages of family lore, for example his great grandmother growing up an orphan, then switches to a page or two of the background leading up to why his family had to flee Iran, before giving a page about his present-day struggles trying to navigate the unfamiliar culture at his school, and then going back and picking up right where the story left off about his great-grandmother.
Sounds like it would be disorganized and confusing to do so much bouncing around, but it was the complete opposite. It felt refreshing, innovative, and created a deep, consuming atmosphere where I felt like I was part of the story, part of the world.
I got to say, for a book claiming that everything sad is untrue, it was at times… quite sad. Or if not exactly sad, definitely a bummer. The life of an immigrant is not an easy one and the resilience and perseverance—of his mother specifically—was heartrending and touching.
It was such an incredibly written story. Definitely deserving of the numerous awards it has won. Nayeri’s storytelling is unparalleled. 5 stars.
My hat goes off to David Boyd and Lucy North; this was one of the best translations I have ever read.
I am not even going to pretend to understand all the work that goes into translating a book, I just know it has to be insanely difficult. That being said, I have read a few translated works and usually there is something about them that falls flat or obviously feels like a translation.
Not this book.
Originally written in Japanese, it is set in Japan and follows a woman as she fakes her pregnancy to get out of menial tasks at work. It's a comment on a woman's place in the workplace and society, and how to grapple with the universal feelings of loneliness and unfulfilled desires.
Short and sweet, yet absurdist and surreal, I had to google “diary of a void ending explained” and I'm STILL not sure what exactly happened. I believe that is the point though. It is meant to be absurd and open to interpretation.
At just over 200 pages, it was a quick read. The perfect ‘palate cleanser’ in between meatier novels and, as I've said before, I love adding short books into my rotation to bump up my book count!
Not topping any must read lists but I'm glad I read it. 4 stars.
(If you are Martin Puchner do not read this.)
I feel bad writing negative reviews, but here goes; I was sorely disappointed in this book.
I had such high hopes and was genuinely excited about it. I won't shut up about my love of non-fiction and my latest obsession with cultural history. But this unfortunately did not do it for me.
I thought it was going to be something completely different from what it actually was. I was expecting a philosophical, thought-provoking exploration on the sociological implications of cultural sharing and integration. Truthfully, I was expecting it to feel like “white man arguing why white people should be allowed to wear dreads” because culture can never truly “belong” to a group of people.
But no. I was so wrong. It was nothing like that.
Which I might have preferred, though, because at least that would have been interesting and engaging. Instead, it read like an Intro to World Civ 101 text.
He details hyper-specific moments in history when one aspect of a civilizations culture was borrowed/transmitted/blended with another. His argument is that for all of history we have had to rediscover, reinterpret, and pass down knowledge from generation to generation in order to progress and learn from one another.
Unfortunately, it is bogged down with facts and details and falls short on nuanced personal commentary. The random moments in history felt too random, disjointed, and resulted in poor flow. One chapter discussed Nefertiti’s failed attempt to invent a new religion in a new city, then the next chapter talked about ancient Greek theater.
Each topic would be interesting on its own, but when crammed back-to-back it felt like dumping information from an intro textbook and it was incredibly difficult to focus. The last 1/3rd of the book I had to force myself to get through 10 pages a day just so I could finish it in 3 weeks.
Yeah, that is how bad it was :/
I don’t know if this is the book Puchner was trying to write or if something got lost along the way. If you are looking for a book that is just fact after fact after fact (after fact) then perhaps you are the target audience. But I certainly am not. 3 stars.
Obama read this book, so I did too. King of influencing. Thanks for the rec, I enjoyed!
It is giving slight dystopian, 1984 vibes, but I would categorize it more as a drama. I’m giving it 4 stars instead of 5 for a couple reasons.
This book gave me the ol’ razzle dazzle where after I finished it, I initially thought I liked it more than I actually did upon further contemplation.
Reasons why I was razzle dazzled include:
1) I was intrigued to find out where the plot could possibly go.
2) I cried at the end and my heightened emotions duped me into thinking I liked it more.
Reasons why after further contemplation I realized I hadn't liked it as much as I originally assumed:
1) The narration felt like a play-by-play, flat description of someone stating what was happening rather than the reader actually being there and part of the action.
2) As previously stated, I simply do not vibe with female characters exclusively driven by the struggles with motherhood.
That being said though, I totally ~Get It~ and understand the deeper social themes the author was trying to make about expectations put on mothers.
I genuinely felt for the main character. I was disappointed when she was disappointed, fed up when she was fed up, and cried when she was heartbroken.
I just wish the writing style would have been livelier and more urgent to match the severity of the plot. The almost subdued, muted narration paired well with the eerie dystopian atmosphere, which would have been great if the dystopian vibes were more at the forefront. Since it read like a drama, a complementary dramatic writing style would have been preferred. Still, it gets 4 stars.
Paris if you are reading this, first I want to say thank you.
Thank you for inventing being hot. Inventing being dumb and caring only about fashion, looks, and money. Thank you for putting bimbo culture on the map and being the inspiration and blue print for the greatest character in television history. (Of course, I’m talking about London Tipton from Suite Life of Zach and Cody. The (hilarous) airhead heiress? Iconic.)
Second, I want to say I'm sorry. Or maybe I want to say sorry first. Yeah, let’s start there. A collective apology from us all.
I haven’t been shy about my obsession with celebrity memoirs and fascination with celebrity culture in general. Our relationship with celebrities tends to fall into one of two camps– hate that we love them or love to hate them. In Paris’s case, we as a society too often loved to hate her.
The landscape of media and the portrayal of women has shifted in the past two decades and while it is still far from perfect, 20 years ago it was even worse. And Paris is a great example of a celebrity we all loved to hate.
Back to my apology: I’m sorry we mocked you as a dumb, rich party girl. I’m sorry the media fabricated feuds to make you seem rude. I’m sorry you were taken advantage of, violated, and inappropriately sexualized as a teenager.
And all while battling the most ferocious inner demons and trying to cope with childhood trauma.
For those who don’t know, when Paris was a teenager, she was kidnapped and forced to attend an “emotional rehabilitation school” for troubled youth. Her well-meaning parents, who genuinely thought they were doing what was best for their daughter, were some of the thousands of parents who were duped, lied to, and sold a phony promise of a tranquil, professional rehabilitation school.
In reality, these kids endured psychological, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse in a grueling, physical labor bootcamp.
Today, Paris is an advocate for youth still trapped in this system and regularly petitions congress to put an end to the fraudulent, billion-dollar troubled youth program.
I had seen her YouTube documentary a few years ago when she first publicly spoke about the horrors she went through as a teenager, so I was already familiar with this story. However, the details were even more shocking and revealing than I had imagined.
At times, it felt like I was reading a thriller novel, complete with torture, escape attempts, and fleeing barefoot through the woods. All the twists, turns, and suspense felt straight from an action movie. It was insane to think it was happening not to a fictional character, but instead to one of the richest, most famous, beautiful celebrities of all time.
The dumb, party girl persona with a fake baby voice we associate Paris with was really just that– a persona, a fake character she created and pretended to be in order to psychologically protect herself and cope with her trauma.
I’m glad Paris has found the confidence and power to show her true self and is now getting the recognition and respect she deserves. Her voice throughout the memoir is so honest and undeniably her. The Paris-ness shown through on every page and it was a real joy to read.
I’d give it 10 stars if my rating system went up that high, but it stops at 5, so that’ll have to suffice.
My toxic trait is starting a book series and then not finishing it.
Or at least, if I do finish all the books, I don’t read them back-to-back. I’ll read the first, then read 15 other books, then 2 months later come back and read the second book, then a few months later read the next and so on.
(The exception being the Chaos Walking trilogy. I zipped through those in like a week honey!)
Anyways, Unwind. First of the series. Near-future dystopian YA. The only things I knew about it going in were one person (my brother) saying there is a scene that scarred him and still haunts him to this day, and a second person (my sister) saying she read the whole series last summer and is still traumatized.
Basically, I was sold and had high expectations to be shook.
The premise? Following a pro-life vs pro-choice civil war, a compromise was reached where now all abortions are totally illegal but from the ages of 13-18, parents can choose to ‘unwind’ their kid where, thanks to new scientific technology, every single part of the body can be donated and transplanted to another person so the life of the unwound doesn’t technically end.
But that wasn’t even the wildest part to me.
Part of the law now makes it legal to leave your baby on a random doorstep and if you find a baby at your door, you LEGALLY have to take it in and raise it as your own.
Are you kidding me?! You’re telling me that next to my Amazon package I could find a BABY that is NOT MINE and now I legally have to be its MOTHER?! Absolutely not.
If there was even a possibility a baby could show up any day there would be motes around every house, spikes coming out of the front lawn, snipers ready to take down an intruder. Ever seen anti-homeless benches? Imagine that times infinity.
Anyways, you have your typical, YA dystopian plot line. Oppressed teens have to rise up and fight against the system to change an unfair world they don’t agree with. The Hunger Games, The Uglies, The Shadow Children–you know the type.
Even though I have only read the first book (I believe there are 4 if I’m not mistaken), I would say it is a solid addition to the genre and I’m looking forward to continuing the series.
My only complaint is that at times it might feel a touch too YA but that is probably because I am, alas, not a YA and instead just a RA (regular adult). Still, a solid 4 stars.
Oh, and “that scene” scarred me for life as well.
What was your favorite read of the month? Or least favorite? Let me know in the comments below and I'll be back next month with more reviews! :)
