I tend to gravitate towards reading fiction, especially this past year, but in May I read quite a bit of nonfiction. In fact, my favorite books of the month were nonfiction, which is saying something for this fiction lover.
As usual, I read a wide variety of books, split fairly evenly between fiction and nonfiction. Here’s my May reading round-up.
Fiction
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. My Brilliant Friend chronicles the friendship of Elena and Lila, two young girls growing up in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Italy. Both girls show promise at school, yet their families are both suspicious of that kind of learning, and seek more practical knowledge instead. As the girls come of age, their lives take very different directions, but they continue to be pulled toward each other. While this detailed, character-driven story took me a while to get into, I really appreciate the way Ferrante painted such an authentic portrait of friendship—its ebbs and flows, and how family and cultural values play an important role. I felt fully immersed in their lives and walked away very glad I read this book that many consider a modern classic. My rating: 4/5 stars.
Beloved by Toni Morrison. This is the story of Sethe, born into slavery but living as a free woman in Ohio when the novel begins. Although she technically has her freedom, she is bound by the chains of a past that she can’t stop reliving. This modern classic work of literary fiction wasn’t at all what I was expecting; I was fully on board for the dark and sad elements, but was surprised by parts that had more of a horror feel. Horror may be too strong of a word, but there were definite creepy and otherworldly components, and I surprisingly really liked that aspect. I listened to this on audio, which for me was the wrong choice. I struggled to follow the story, and had to look at a plot summary after I listened, as I knew there were things that I just missed. Had I read this in print I think I would have had an easier time following the plot and therefore letting the beautiful, haunting quality of Morrison’s words sink in. My rating: 3.75/5 stars.
Don’t Look for Me by Wendy Walker. Molly Clarke’s life is upside down. She is riddled with guilt for driving the car that took the life of her youngest daughter, and her relationships with her husband and two living children are extremely strained. So when Molly disappears one night and the police find a note from Molly telling her family not to look from her, most people believe she wanted to run away from her life. Her daughter Nicole, however, is not convinced, and she thinks that something may have happened to her mother. She will do anything it takes, including putting her own life in danger, to find out the truth. This was very compulsive—I listened on audio and wanted to extend my walks with Blue so that I could hear more of the story. I also thought that the characters were complex and well-developed, something that doesn’t always seem to be the case in plot-driven thrillers. I really enjoyed this! My rating: 3.75/5 stars.
The Unadoptables by Hana Tooke. Milou, Fenna, Egg, Sem, and Lotta are orphans who live at the Little Tulip Orphanage, cared for by the cold and uncaring matron Elinora Gassbeek. As they’ve never been considered for adoption in their 12 years of life, they are considered “unadoptable.” Milou is convinced that her birth parents are out there looking for her, and this belief leads her and the others on an unforgettable, zany, and sometimes dangerous adventure. This was a fun read! It’s not necessarily a story I would normally pick up, but I think if you like middle grade adventure stories with a touch of the unconventional, you will like it. My rating: 3.75/5 stars.
In Every Mirror She’s Black by Lola Akinmade Akerstrom. Kemi is an ambitious American marketing executive whose success is tempered by her sleazy boss’s unwanted advances. She is recruited by the head of a top marketing firm in Sweden, and she decides to accept the offer to become head of diversity and inclusion in marketing there. Brittany-Rae is a former model turned flight attendant who meets Jonny—the same man who recruited Kemi—on a flight. He falls hard for her and she is soon swept off her feet and living in his luxurious world in Sweden. Muna is a Somali refugee trying to start her life over after unthinkable loss, and she gets a job cleaning the office where Jonny and Kemi work. We hear alternating perspectives from all three women, each giving different perspectives of what it’s like to be Black in a country that is known for being very progressive socially, yet very homogenous in culture. Despite this being a pretty long book, it flew by for me, and yet I feel like there were a lot of loose ends that weren’t resolved and characters who didn’t feel fully fleshed out. I did find the perspectives fascinating—I don’t know a lot about Sweden and especially not about what a Black woman would experience there. I enjoyed talking about this one with my book club, but overall it was just okay for me. My rating: 3.25/5 stars.
Nonfiction
American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment by Shane Bauer. Using his real name, reporter Shane Bauer applied and was hired for $9 an hour to work as a prison guard at a private prison in Winnfield, Louisiana. While he took the job with plans to write a story, he didn’t anticipate the way that working long hours in a prison would change him. He tells his unforgettable, often shocking account, alternating with the equally brutal history of private, for-profit prisons in America. His story was often hard to read because of the unflinching detail he provides, but at the same time I understand that was the point. I recommend this if you’re interested in learning more about the prison system in America, its flaws, and its origins. My rating: 4.25/5 stars.
Now What?: How to Move Forward When We’re Divided (about Basically Everything) by Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers. It’s clear that the world is very divided right now. From conversations with close friends and relatives to the abyss that is social media, we have fraught encounters all the time. Now What? offers practical advice that’s helpful and heartfelt, encouraging us to practice connection without avoiding conflict. While I enjoyed reading Sarah and Beth’s perspectives through their personal anecdotes, what stood out to me is that it went beyond sharing stories and general advice, but also offered actual conversation starters to encourage readers to engage in challenging conversations when it makes sense to do that. This was an excellent follow-up book by two of my favorite podcasters, the ladies of Pantsuit Politics – I definitely recommend! My rating: 4.25/5 stars.
Almost American Girl by Robin Ha. Robin Ha grew up in Seoul, Korea, raised by her mother. They had a tight-knit relationship, and Ha always felt proud of her mother, despite the negative way Korean society viewed her as a single mother. When a vacation to Alabama becomes a permanent move, Ha feels betrayed by her mother for uprooting her from the life in Korea she loves. Ha struggles to learn English and to fit in with the people she meets—even the Korean Americans seem to exist in a different world. She finds comfort in the Korean and Japanese comics that she adores, and when her mom surprises her by enrolling her in a comic drawing class she finally starts to find her footing. I loved this graphic memoir! My rating: 4.25/5 stars.
Bomb Shelter by Mary Laura Philpott. I loved I Miss You When I Blink, Philpott’s essay collection from 2019, so I couldn’t wait to pick up this new release. While Bomb Shelter is also an essay collection, it feels more like a memoir with a narrative of her life as a mother of nearly grown children being the thread that weaves everything together. While I didn’t relate to this one quite as much as I Miss You when I Blink, I still found her writing honest, funny, and enjoyable to read. My rating: 4/5 stars.
The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race edited by Jesmyn Ward. In his book The Fire Next Time, writer James Baldwin published his “Letter to My Nephew” which discusses the hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, and how “the country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom one hundred years too soon.” This collection of essays and poems from several different authors is writer Jesmyn Ward’s response on how relevant Baldwin’s words still are today. This collection is perfect if you’d like to read more about the history of racism in this country but aren’t sure where to start, or maybe feel intimidated by longer, more intense works. It offers multiple perspectives that tell complete, moving stories in bite-sized vignettes. It was well done on audio too, although I would have liked to have a print copy in front of me to go back and reference which writer wrote what—there were many that made me want to read more by that author, but I didn’t do a great job of keeping track! My rating: 4/5 stars.
The Journey Toward Wholeness: Enneagram Wisdom for Stress, Balance, and Transformation by Suzanne Stabile. This is an enneagram book specifically focused on how to use your knowledge of the enneagram to help cope with stress and find more balance in your life. First Stabile explores how the different enneagram numbers respond to stress and how we can use our stress response in a way that is helpful instead of detrimental. Also, she dives into the Centers of Intelligence for the different numbers: Thinking, Feeling, and Doing, and how each number can work to use its “repressed” center more intentionally. I liked this as a deeper dive into the enneagram; I feel like I understand my “oneness” pretty well, but this took my understanding even further. I wasn’t as interested in learning quite as much about the other numbers, with the exception of my husband’s number (9) and other close family/friends’ numbers that I know. My rating: 4/5 stars.
Did you read anything good last month?
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