Book reviews from the world’s worst English major
A mid+ year reading roundup (Part 1)
In college I joked that I was the world’s worst English major because I don’t have a favorite book or writer, haven’t read a lot of classics, am not a particularly critical or close reader, and often forget about what happens in a book as soon as I finish it. But I do believe that Reading and Books and The Humanities are important to being a Good (Full) Person so I did a liberal arts degree at a university obsessed with econ and finance and becoming a Bank Boy,* and now I struggle to find a job I like in a world being actively destroyed by capitalism but try to distract myself from that by reading books about magical teens!
*A Bank Boy, as defined by the main character in PREP, one of my favorite books I’ve read this year: “Most of them were from New York and most of their dads had jobs having to do with investments and brokerage and other money-related matters … (Technically a bank boy didn’t have to be from New York or have a banking father–he just had to seem as if he could.)”
A few years ago I made a conscious decision to try and read more (more often, more for fun, more books I actually enjoy, and more than white men), and so far this year I’ve finished around 30 books. In chronological-ish order, here are some reviews, with a Part 2 coming next week. Have you read any of these?
RULE OF WOLVES BY LEIGH BARDUGO
Set in the magical YA fantasy Grishaverse, this is the second book of a second duology (a funny word I didn’t know before these) spun off from the Shadow & Bone series, which was also adapted into a Netflix show last year. I don’t remember the plot of this at all but the series as a whole is a fun read and I like coming back to these characters. The Six of Crows duo is especially good because it’s about a magical heist.
I read the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas right after the original trilogy so the storylines are always getting mixed up in my head, but these are much better. I’ve also read Bardugo’s Ninth House, her first non-YA book, but did not like it AT ALL.
BEWILDERMENT BY RICHARD POWERS
A moving book about a father, his dead wife, and their son who is struggling to process his grief around losing his mom and an endangered planet. This book engages with a lot of topics–science, technology, psychiatry, climate change, Trumpian politics–but ultimately I thought it was beautifully written and it made me cry at the end.
I haven’t read The Overstory yet because it’s long and maybe boring but it’s always hovering at the top of my book stack especially now that I’m “into trees.” Another short book about kids, parents, and climate change is A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet, which is chaotically apocalyptic and no less devastating, but also funnier and more searing than the despair that permeates Bewilderment.
HIDDEN VALLEY ROAD: INSIDE THE MIND OF AN AMERICAN FAMILY BY ROBERT KOLKER
I don’t read a lot of nonfiction but I love a compelling story. This one follows the Galvin family and their 12 kids, six of whom (all boys) develop schizophrenia. It was a fascinating read and I kept wanting to know what was going to happen next, even though the tragedy is that nobody in the family or the medical community at large could understand at the time. In between chapters about the Galvins, the book also tracks the diagnostic history of schizophrenia and all of the attempts to understand where the disorder comes from, which is still unknown today. The events in this book are so sad as this family is destroyed from the inside out, but Kolker writes with a lot of care for everyone involved.
The last nonfiction I read before this was Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Raden Keefe and I’ve been wanting to read his latest, Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty, for a while now.
THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS BY ROSS GAY
A collection of essayettes written over the course of one year by a poet. Mostly just 2-3 pages long, each entry is a closely observed ode to the joys that Ross Gay finds in his life, whether it’s a song, an interaction with a stranger, something in his garden, or the fact that he is a Black person writing a book about Black delights, “daily as air.”
CLOUD CUCKOO LAND BY ANTHONY DOERR
What can I say, I love a book with lots of narrative threads that all come together in the end. This one follows a 15th century orphan in Constantinople, an octogenarian librarian in present day Idaho, and a young girl living on a spaceship in 2146. In each timeline, an ancient Greek manuscript called Cloud Cuckoo Land appears. I think some sections are weaker than others but it’s a book about life, love, and literature that I’m a sucker for.
If you liked this or All the Light You Cannot See, I hope you’ll read A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra, another wonderful writer who does the connected characters thing. After seven years, he finally has a new book (coming out next week!!) that I’m so excited for!
NEVER SAW ME COMING BY VERA KURIAN
A thriller about a college student plotting a murder. And she’s part of a psych study where *gasp* everyone is a psychopath and *twist* one of them is killed. What’s not to like?
I picked this up after Melinda read it and last year on a sisters trip she read another book about a scammer and an heiress called Pretty Things. Both would make good summer reading picks.
THE TURNOUT BY MEGAN ABBOTT
When I first learned about Megan Abbott it took me a second to realize that she is not Meg Cabot, author of The Princess Diaries. I’ve read a few of her other books that I enjoyed because they were about dark teens or female friendships gone bad.
This one is about sordid adults and I HATED IT, DON’T READ IT. I honestly can’t believe the praise this book has received, it viscerally gives me the ick.
THE PARIS APARTMENT BY LUCY FOLEY
Jess goes to Paris to stay with her half-brother. When she arrives at his building he’s nowhere to be found. His neighbors are less than helpful but Jess needs to find him. Everything that could possibly happen happens. Too much happens! Compared to The Guest List and The Hunting Party I think this is the weakest of the three, but Lucy Foley knows how to hook me and you can read her books in 24 hours so I’ll still be picking up whatever she writes next.
Random fact: she is sisters with Kate Foley, the blonde British stylist who used to buy for Opening Ceremony. Does this mean anything to anyone else!
NIGHT FILM BY MARISHA PESSL
I read Pessl’s Special Topics in Calamity Physics last year and thought it was really long, but I tore through the 600 pages of this book in a frenzy. Another mystery thriller, this one is about a journalist who is trying to uncover what really happened after the daughter of an infamous and reclusive horror director dies, convinced that the death has something to do with the perverse legacy and cult following surrounding her father’s films. The last third goes off the rails but I couldn’t put it down and found myself on my couch at 1am feeling genuinely scared and thrilled.
AND THEN THERE WERE NONE BY AGATHA CHRISTIE
After a string of mysteries, I decided to read Agatha Christie, who basically doesn’t exist in my reading life. I think I’ve only ever read Murder on the Orient Express. I know this book is like the best mystery of all time but…I just have a hard time with old stuff… Or maybe it’s because the copy I read had really small font? I don’t know! I’m sorry! World’s worst English major for real.
What are you reading? I really want to know!
Erin
🤓📚🤓