This month was nice and quiet with a lot of unexpectedly rainy days that made for nice reading conditions.
(As a reminder: I always track my reading on Goodreads.)
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Plastic Inc.: The Secret History and Shocking Future of Big Oil’s Biggest Bet by Beth Gardiner
Recommend
We’re so fucked, that’s all. This is a phenomenal piece of journalism that explores the role oil and gas corporations play in today’s plastic crisis. It touches on environmental concerns and health issues — all while explaining why plastic production keeps increasing despite public demands for less of it. This book left me REELING, and I can’t recommend it enough to anyone who feels guilty about their own consumption of single-use plastic while wondering why there aren’t any alternatives to the problem.
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
Recommend
This book was morbid, terrifying and awful, and I absolutely loved it. I’m honestly going to be ruminating on this for years to come.
Upgrade by Blake Crouch
Recommend
I loved both “Dark Matter” (obsessively so) and “Recursion,” so I expected to like this one. And I did! I just didn’t love it as much as I loved other Blake Crouch books I’ve read. With that said, I did devour it in 24 hours and found myself on the edge of my seat for most of it. Crouch does a phenomenal job of weaving together sci-fi, thriller and romance, and this book was no exception. I honestly do wish it was another 100 pages, though, since I thought some parts definitely could have been explored a bit further. Overall, a really solid read.
Half His Age by Jennette McCurdy
Recommend*
*for some, not all
Trigger warning: Statutory rape. This book was definitely vulgar and made me feel uncomfortable. But with that said, I didn’t hate it? It explored the power dynamic between Waldo, a 17-year-old who’s “mature for her age” (stop me if that sounds a little too familiar) and her 40-something English teacher. It’s creepy, it’s gross, it’s unsettling. This book definitely isn’t for everybody. But, I read the whole thing in a few days. Take from that what you will.
One Summer in Savannah by Terah Shelton Harris
On the fence
Trigger warning: Sexual assault. And SPOILER ALERT! This book was… OK. It had such amazing reviews and I wanted to love it. And I really enjoyed parts of it. I liked most of the characters and most of the writing. But I had a very, very hard time believing that the female main character could fall in love with the identical twin brother of her rapist? Pardon my language, but what the fuck? I was also a little annoyed at the main character’s dad who only speaks in poems and prose — which would in and of itself be fine, but the author felt the need to follow the prose up with a paragraph explaining what the character meant. Which drove me crazy. I didn’t love this book, but at least I did finish it.
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