Nine more book reviews
And me begging for Vecna's skincare routine
Welcome or welcome back! Today I’m continuing with the contents of my last newsletter and adding a few more reviews of other books I’ve read this year, but first I have to address something that I’ve been thinking about for weeks. That is the name and theme of this newsletter (who knew!) after all. I finally finished SEASON FOUR OF STRANGER THINGS last weekend and loved it, laughed it, cried it, I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat with my hands clutching my face. I want Steve’s yellow sweatshirt and a pair of red sneakers and I have a crush on Eddie, duh. I was FIXATED, however, by how young Jamie Campbell Bower looks?! Did they CGI and age him down in the hospital scenes? Did he look 16 because his hair was done in a swoopy style?? How did he look so baby faced!!! He’s 33! I need answers.
Also, I started rewatching season one last night and one of the episodes ends with The Bangles’ Hazy Shade of Winter. It reminded me of this video I used to watch [redacted number of times] during my early Haim obsession era. May we all channel this energy into the rest of the weekend and grow our hair long again.
Now on to books, where my general style of reviewing aligns with the Las Culturistas adage, “I don’t know my words but I do know my heart.” These might not be the most critical or nuanced or even accurate takes but I hope they’re still helpful in some/any way.
EUPHORIA BY LILY KING
I remember when this first came out and hearing endless praise about it, but the plot never quite appealed to me enough to pick it up–it’s based on the life of anthropologist Margaret Mead and an expedition she took in 1933 to New Guinea. Traveling with her husband, they met up and collaborated with another anthropologist who would later become Mead’s third husband. I was in the mood for something more literary though so I figured that choosing a book with near universal acclaim wouldn’t be a bad choice. Euphoria is lush and atmospheric and dramatic, and I agree with countless others, I really liked it too.
THE MAIDENS BY ALEX MICHAELIDES
After noticing its use on so many book covers from the last 5ish years, I started a personal project where I’ll read books that use this title font (Lydian). So far it’s been more of an idea than an action but I think it’s a great way to discover books that I might not normally pick up. The first book I read was The Silent Patient by the same author, which I didn’t think was very good, but this one sounded more promising because it’s murder + elite university + England. Well, it wasn’t much better, and the ending is shockingly bad.
Follow me @LYDIANBOOKCLUB!
EVERYTHING NOW: LESSONS FROM THE CITY-STATE OF LOS ANGELES BY ROSENCRANS BALDWIN
A freewheeling book of ideas about what makes and shapes Los Angeles. Even after reading this I don’t really have a grasp on it but maybe that’s the point.
THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD MOTHERS BY JESSAMINE CHAN
Speculative fiction that feels entirely real; an absolutely chilling story about motherhood, incarceration, surveillance, technology, and the total and unreasonable expectations and burdens placed on women. Frida is a first-time, newly single mom who had a very bad day, and as a result she’s separated from her daughter and sent to a government rehab program (prison) to learn how to be a “better mother.” It’s a book you can’t put down even though it makes you ill, especially now. It’s hard to call this something I “liked” but I would highly recommend it. Another #lydianbookclub pick.
BOOK LOVERS BY EMILY HENRY
I started reading contemporary romance a few years ago and found it to be such a refreshing reading experience—if I’m in a slump or need a palette cleanser it’s a great genre to turn to because they’re fast and easy and guarantee a happy ending. I don’t think they’re always particularly good though. I’ve read Emily Henry’s other books and found them a little boring, not that well-plotted, and generally overrated, so I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I liked Book Lovers. Could have been sexier though!
THE PARTY CRASHER BY SOPHIE KINSELLA
I read the Shopaholic books as a teenager and still often think and laugh about the part where she HAS to buy expensive matching underwear and wants to be hit by a car so that everyone can see them. Then a couple of years ago I learned that Sophie Kinsella had written at least 10 more books, so I read all of them. The Party Crasher is definitely not her strongest but even when her books are bad I find them so pleasurable and fun to read. I did think this book was called “Life of the Party” though so the whole time I was confused by why the main character was hiding under tables lol.
PREP BY CURTIS SITTENFELD
I’ve seen and ignored this cover since freshman year of high school and 15 years later I read it and loved it. Misfit Midwestern girl comes of age at an east coast boarding school where she doesn’t know how to fit in with people who have names like Dede, Aspeth, and Cross Sugarman. Cross Sugarman! It actually reminded me a lot of Normal People, particularly in the painful ways that the protagonist Lee doesn’t communicate with her friends, her crush, or herself. One of my favorites of the year so far.
PORTRAIT OF A THIEF BY GRACE D. LI
Will Chen is an art history major at Harvard who finds himself plotting a series of heists to steal and repatriate ancient sculptures from the Old Summer Palace in Beijing that are now displayed in Western museums around the world. For his crew, he enlists his confident sister Irene, her street racing roommate at Duke named Lily, his childhood best friend Daniel whose father is an FBI art crimes agent, and a former MIT student Alex who dropped out to work in Big Tech as a software engineer. As they plan how to steal the art and return it back to China, they face their own questions about what home and China mean to them. I love the representation and themes that this book offers but it ultimately fell a little flat for me. I wish there was more heist.
BRAIDING SWEETGRASS: INDIGENOUS WISDOM, SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE, AND THE TEACHINGS OF PLANTS BY ROBIN WALL KIMMERER
I wrote about this book a few weeks ago and finally finished it. Kimmerer’s powers of observation are unlike anything I’ve ever read and she writes with so much detail and care that it feels unfair to not give your full attention to the stories that she’s telling. It was a slow read for me but every sentence felt like a gift.
Let me know what I should read next!
Erin
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