January books, 1-9 (entry #6)

I hope it's not cheating to include audiobooks?  Instead of listening to NPR on my commute (about 25 minutes each way), I often listen to an audiobook, which is helping with the overwhelming anxiety of living in a crumbling democracy whilst going through menopause and having my world turned upside down by a niece I didn't even know existed (who seems to be something of a brat).

 
1. Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin – A really excellent novel about a young woman who does something really stupid (has an affair with an older, married senator) and how it ruins her life, except (spoiler) eventually she refused to let it continue to ruin her life.  Sort of Monica Lewinsky from the point of view of first Monica’s mother, and then Monica herself.  This is much better than I’m making it sound.

2. Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence—and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process by Irene M. Pepperberg – Non fiction – eh, it kept me reading, but there so many excellent nonfiction books out there that I can’t really recommend this one.

3. From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty -  Nonfiction – excellent blend of a sort of travelogue plus an anthropological/sociological look at how various cultures deal with death.  I find myself thinking about death a lot since turning 50, and this actually helped me be less afraid of it.  Surprisingly funny.

 

4. The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish – another one of those novels I tend to like about libraries and academics and medieval Jewish history thrown in for good measure.  I dunno, I wanted to like this, but I thought it dragged a bit.  I did learn quite a bit though, so that’s always a plus.

 

5. The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish – Nonfiction/Autobiography – I saw Tiffany Haddish charm the heck out of both Stephan Colbert and Trevor Noah, and she intrigued me enough that I went ahead and bought her book.  She gets kind of annoying sometimes, but a good read.

 

6. Vaster Than Empires and More Slow by Ursula LeGuin – another novella/cheat – I was soooo bummed to learn LeGuin died – I already had this on my kindl, so I went ahead and read it.  This was a sort of psychological thriller in space – very thoughtful, as is everything by LeGuin.

7. The Sign of the Beast by Joyce Carol Oates – actually a novella, so might be cheating to include it.  This is a strange and totally depressing little tale.

8. Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them by Jennifer Wright – Nonfiction – This was surprisingly entertaining, but I didn’t learn much.  However, I suspect it’s a pretty good intro to this sort of thing for those who haven’t already studied the history of plagues at the graduate level and taught classes on the topic.

 

9. Serafina and the Twisted Staff by Robert Beatty – supernatural thriller set at the Biltmore Estate.  This is a kid’s book, and I was needing something light and easy.