Well. After back-to-back aircraft-related posts about my first fixed-wing single-engine flight with Ryan, who just recently got his private pilot license, and my helicopter ride over a Sedona-area wildfire for work, this post is incredibly lame in comparison.
However, May was a GREAT month for reading! Before the Miller Fire broke out. I was able to finish six books. Ryan was gone the whole first part of the month on a fire assignment, so I had a lot of time to cuddle up with Yukon and my Kindle during his absence.
Ryan is more of a TV kind of person, and he’d rather watch a documentary or YouTube videos when he’s home, and I have such a hard time focusing while he does that… so it’s a lot easier to find time to read when he’s out of town for work.
Plus… it’s STILL been raining nonstop in Flagstaff. So I’ve had WAY more rainy days to read than I’m used to at this point in the year. I’ll always take a rainy reading day over a smoky working day.
(As a reminder: I always track my reading both on Goodreads and via Instagram stories.)
・・・
“GIRL IN PIECES” BY KATHLEEN GLASGOW
Charlie is only 17, but she’s been through hell and back. Charlie is recently out of rehab, where thick white bandages covered the self-made scars on her arms and legs, and she’s been abandoned, once again, by her mother. With no options and little money left, Charlie buys a bus ticket to a new start across the country, where she hopes to leave behind her bad habits, her trauma and her self-harm and forge a new life for herself.
Trigger warning: Rape, drug use, self-harm. I almost gave up on this book three times at the beginning, but I’m glad I didn’t. The writing in the first part of the book is really tough to follow along with, but eventually, the narration becomes a little clearer and easier to follow. I cried about six times throughout the last third of the book. It’s so good, and if you can handle the subject matter, I would definitely recommend it!
“THE FAMILY GAME” BY CATHERINE STEADMAN
Everything is picture perfect for Harriet (“Harry”), who recently published her first bestseller and recently became engaged to Edward, an old money heir who’s made billions on his own. Come Thanksgiving, Harry finally meets Edward’s family, including his imposing and secretive father, Robert. Robert hands Harry a tape telling her to listen to it, and listen to it carefully, because her future with her new family depends on it.
POTENTIAL SPOILERS: I have a really hard time with thriller novels narrated by and focused on a dimwitted main character. And, unfortunately, that’s what this was. Harry is given the tape, then only listens to half of it, and then embarks on this whole play-detective act. Half the book could have been avoided if she’d just listened to the tape in advance before making assumptions and acting irrationally. Also, the ending was really, really dumb.
“HAPPY PLACE” BY EMILY HENRY
Harriet and Wyn, college sweethearts, broke up six months ago. But, they never told their friends. Instead, they amicably split up gatherings for their shared social circle, hoping to never overlap. Except, when Harriet arrives at their mutual friend’s beach cottage in Maine, Harriet’s happy place, she’s shocked to see Wyn waiting there. And even more shocked when he plays along with the omission, sweeps Harriet into his arms, and pretends the two are still engaged.
SPOILERS: First of all: Nobody can write romantic banter like Emily Henry. NOBODY. This book had every single bit of Henry’s flirtatious snappy dialogue, which I loved. I didn’t really love the ending, though, because while it did make sense for Harriet to quit her prestigious neurosurgical residency to move to rural Montana with Wyn… it was still such a cliche, and I will always hate watching women give up their careers for men, even though Harriet realized how deeply unhappy her career made her. With that said, I did appreciate the matching of an indecisive neurosurgery resident and a confident blonde Montana farm boy- it was a nice deviation from career-driven-bubbly-blonde meets brooding-but-sensitive-dark-haired-artist.
“EVERY LAST WORD” BY TAMARA IRELAND STONE
Samantha is one of the popular girls in her class, but she’s harboring a secret. She was diagnosed with OCD, and has struggled to hide her intrusive throughs, obsession over the number “3,” and psychiatrist appointments from the rest of her popular friend group. One day, Samantha impulsively chats with an outcast who leads her to a secret poetry club hidden underneath her school’s theater, and Samantha’s life changes forever.
Full disclaimer: Goodreads suggested this one to me after I finished “Girl in Pieces,” and I downloaded it without reading too much into it, so I didn’t realize it was a YA novel. But, with that said, I did really like it! I wish YA books like this existed when I was a kid. I loved how prevalent Samantha’s psychiatrist was in the novel, and how much Samantha grew as a person. The ending was a little out there, but fit well with the rest of the story.
“CAMP ZERO” BY MICHELLE MIN STERLING
Camp Zero is an American settlement built in the north of Canada as a refuge from the effects of climate change. Rose is a sex worker sent to the camp to spy on its lead architect. Grant is a self-proclaimed professor who accepted a job at the camp to escape his wealthy family’s legacy. Both encounter a mystery that lurks at Camp Zero.
This book was… interesting, but not my favorite. It somehow moved both fast and slow at the same time. It’s told from three different perspectives and it’s really hard to keep up with. It was a weird read because it vacillated between weird kitschy scifi points, such as references to made-up futuristic terms and gadgets, and nostalgic old-world wisdom — often combined in the same sentence.
“LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY” BY BONNIE GARMUS
Elizabeth Zott is a scientist living in 1950s/1960s California. She’s spent her entire life battling the status quo, but while sexism and science are both incredibly predictable, life, as it turns out, is unpredictable. After losing her job as a chemist and finding herself as an unwed single mother, Elizabeth takes a job as a host on an afternoon cooking show.
I absolutely LOVED this book. Five starts, easily. I put it off for so long because I absolutely judged this book by its cover, and thought it was a cheesy romance book for so long. But, no. It’s an incredible feminist story about a brilliant down-to-earth woman searching for love, equality, knowledge and fulfilling work in an era that insists women must remain at home as housewives and mothers. I couldn’t get enough of this book and I though the ending was absolutely perfect!
・・・
So, there you go! My favorite read of the month was easily “Lessons in Chemistry,” and my least favorite was “Camp Zero.” I’m not sure how much time I’ll have for June reads due to the wildfires that have started popping up on my forest, but I’m still a bit optimistic. I started a thriller and it’s already so good — it’s killing me that work is keeping me away from it!
