What I Got:
- Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
- A Little Tea Book: All the Essentials from Leaf to Cup by Sebastian Beckwith, Caroline Paul, and Wendy MacNaughton
- The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
- Once & Future by A.R. Capetta and Cori McCarthy
- The Importance of Being Earnest, and Other Plays by Oscar Wilde
- Let It Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle
- Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
- The Fool Reversed by Susan Whitcher
- Only the Dead Know Burbank by Bradford Tatum
What I Read:
- The Disordered Cosmos by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
- Finished After (audio) by Anna Todd
- Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography by Lemony Snicket
- Rise to the Sun (ARC) by Leah Johnson
- Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Battle of the Labyrinth (reread) by Rick Riordan
It’s 2022, friends! Unfortunately, my 2022 reading year started off with a reading slump. But it wasn’t for horrible reasons, and I’ve laughed a lot while watching old Whose Line Is It Anyway? clips on YouTube to satiate my current super-short attention span.
The two types of books I can talk about forever are the ones I really love and the ones I really don’t, so pull down the safety bar and keep your hands and feet inside the car. You’re in for a bumpy ride.
I got The Disordered Cosmos for Christmas and was loving it, but it’s the sort of book that takes a lot of thought. When you mix together race and gender theory, particle physics, and autobiography, it tends to require most of your brainpower. And I didn’t really have much brainpower left over while starting two new jobs amongst other life things. So it took me awhile to get through this one despite my enjoyment of it.
Let’s just start off with this: Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is a badass. I got the same feeling about her that I got about Michelle Cruz Gonzales when I read The Spitboy Rule, which is that I’ve found a new person to look up to. She writes intelligently and accessibly about so many subjects along with being a trailblazer in the physics field. I learned and got mad at society and held onto hope and generally just loved diving into the world of physics again from a new-to-me perspective.
Most people are surprised that I started out college as a physics major, but I did and I still love physics! I just didn’t like the atmosphere of the physics classes and labs I was in; I didn’t like that I would have to get a Ph.D. to have a career. It was incredibly affirming to read about someone else’s experiences with bigotry in the science community. (I mean, I had a bunch of non-cis men friends who were science majors, too, but it’s been a minute since I’ve thought about physics as it pertains to my own journey.)
Anyway, I love this book, and its author is super cool. It lives up to the hype, even if you’re not usually into science. If you don’t believe me, listen to John Green!
Now, put up your hands and get ready for a fast drop; we’re moving onto the other book that contributed to the reading slump: After by Anna Todd. I started listening to After because I was curious and because I thought it might be amusing. I was right, but oh boy, that book is long for a hate-read! Well, that feels harsh, because I was definitely entertained, but I really didn’t like the book.
All I knew about After going into it was that it was based on a Harry Styles fanfiction and there were a couple Netflix movies about it. Though I do feel like advertising it as Harry Styles fanfic is a bit misleading because the only thing Hardin has in common with HS is that he’s British and has curly hair. (Well, as far as I know.)
I’m sure there are many reviews pointing out things that didn’t work and/or were problematic in this book, so besides the obvious, the thing that bothered me the most was that Tessa always described Hardin’s lip ring as “cold.” Clearly Anna Todd has never interacted with a lip piercing before. My lip ring is only ever cold if I’ve been outside in the cold and or my face is cold. If his lips are always that cold, maybe he needs to get his blood circulation checked out.
Also, for two people who love reading and are supposedly fairly intelligent, they are rarely ever reading. (Wuthering Heights is Tessa’s favorite book, which makes me think that their love of reading was just a tactic to get this easy parallel in there.) And Tessa at one point makes a comment about not wanting to be left in her dorm with nothing to do, but, like, isn’t she a reader? Doesn’t she have books? And who gets paid for a publishing internship? I’ll answer that—no one!
I do have to give Anna Todd credit for making me curious enough to look up the synopses of the other books in the series, but that’s about it. This was an amusing experience but only because I had realistic expectations going into it.
To see more of my amusing thoughts, you can read a selection of my favorite notes I left on the audiobook here.
Okay, update from editing Ryn: I watched the first After movie and it’s much better than the book, though I’m not sure it would have made a lot of sense if I hadn’t read the book. The passage of time was poorly delineated in the movie and there are a lot of intense scenes that don’t make sense without more context for Tessa and Hardin’s relationship. But I did enjoy that the movie was more diverse, and that Tessa was more independent and self-sufficient. She grows more as a person and in a deeper way in the movie than in the book.
I also thought it was a good idea to introduce Jace earlier instead of tacking him on at the end for more drama. The ending was better, Noah was better, and the conversations about literature were better, but the plot, sadly, was not much better.
I rated the rest of these books over 3 stars and under 4 stars on The StoryGraph; I got the big rise and fall done at the beginning, just like a rollercoaster! (Those pictures of your scared faces going down the steep hill are hilarious…) Think of this as the part with small hills and that twists upside down for a second.
Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography was very Lemony Snicket. I really had to pay close attention to what I was reading to get the full experience, and I loved the insights it gave into ASoUE (the books and TV series). I especially thought it was funny that the reversible book jacket disguises the book as a delightful story that Mr. Poe is seen reading in the TV show.
I don’t have much more to say about Lemony Snicket’s writing that I haven’t said before. There were the usual parts where Mr. Snicket interacts with and manipulates the texts as he sees fit. It was cool to see how Mr. Snicket’s particular brand of storytelling combined with photographs and other paper ephemera in the file.
And now I can’t stop thinking about someone grabbing me by the ankles and pulling me somewhere… yikes…
Now, onto a less cryptic and more adorable story.
I love reading books involving music, so I picked up an ARC I had of Rise to the Sun for guaranteed enjoyment. This book is a Black Girl Magic, queer love story at a music festival… a.k.a. an amazing recipe for a rom-com! I guess it wasn’t super funny, but it has the feel of a rom-com.
This book had a slow start but I was crying by the end. (Good crying.) Toni and Olivia are so well-written that I didn’t even have a favorite narrator, which is hard to do when a book has multiple narrators. The concept of the Farmland Music and Arts Festival was really well thought out and added so many layers to the story; it was the perfect venue for this romance to blossom! (Okay, sorry, I’m being a little cheesy. But rom-coms are supposed to be cheesy, right?)
Olivia and Imani’s friendship is a great example of how having a crush on someone doesn’t have to ruin your friendship with them, how friendships and people change, how apologizing is sometimes enough and sometimes not enough. There are some heavy topics in here, but—with incredible finesse—Leah Johnson weaves them together with the lighter and more fun parts of the narrative.
I did sometimes feel like the characters’ thoughts were a bit too on-the-nose, like they were telling us verbatim what we should be getting out of a scene or moment rather than just letting us feel it. It doesn’t bother me when this is done a few times and purposefully, but towards the end, there were so many moments like this that it detracted from what was happening and slowed the plot down unnecessarily.
Oh, and Peter was such a great character, too. He was like a puppy dog and just the best dude ever. Everyone needs a Peter in their life to force them to look on the bright side (to an extent). Plus, his random US president facts were always delightful. Peter could fit in with the characters of a John Green book easily.
The last book I finished this month was a reread of the fourth Percy Jackson book, and I have to say, I enjoyed this one significantly more than the first three. I’m actually excited to read the next one for my two-person book club with my best friend!
Rick Riordan really stepped it up for this book. He’s got great comedic writing, which is something I’ve never gotten the hang of, and the ways he mixes modern life with Greek mythology often lends itself to that humor.
Nico di Angelo is my favorite character in this book. (But I still hope Thalia comes back in the next one. I don’t really remember anything about the last book.) The way he feels so outcast and his grief over his sister’s death broke my heart over and over again. He’s, like, eleven but seems like he’s eighteen. But he has badass powers and a good heart. And he deserves a hot chocolate by a warm fire with a puppy sleeping at his feet!
I wish I could have a hot chocolate by a warm fire with a puppy sleeping at my feet. Life still feels overwhelming and my brain still feels overworked, especially now that I have a cold. (I’m COVID-negative!)
Even if I haven’t gotten a lot of reading done this month, I’m really not feeling too bad about it. And I’m really good at making myself feel guilty about things. I’m trying to evaluate my reading less by amount and more by quality and enjoyment. This seems obvious, but it’s easy to get
One of my goals for diversifying my reading is to read more nonfiction, and I’ve already succeeded in starting that one. I also want to read more with disability rep, and I’ve started doing that, too.
Plus, the moments when I had time to read (and also felt like reading) were delightful, even when listening to After. Maybe my life will stabilize a bit now that I’ve been at these new jobs for a bit. Then I can spend less time on Sporcle memorizing the countries of the world and more time reading or writing or playing music.
As life continues to be difficult and amazing and strange and many more adjectives, I’m sending “hot chocolate, warm fire, cute puppy” vibes (or whatever the equivalent of that would be for you) to everyone!
As Cool As Mint Ice Cream 