Birthday Haul 2022: Because I Went to Powell's, and We've Got to Talk About It

So, as you might be able to surmise from the title and the accompanying opening image, I went to Portland to ring in my birthday!

It happened the weekend before last. We left Tacoma on Friday the 14th, zipped around town on the 15th, took a lazy morning on the 16th, and languidly made our way home that afternoon. And honestly? I still feel like I didn't get everything I wanted to do worked in to the mix. 

I've had plenty of time to plan: it was the first time we've been back to the major PNW hub since I moved my younger sibling out of their dorm at Portland State in June of 2019, at the end of their freshman year. They transferred schools, the world suffered a massive stop, and things were pretty homey for a while. Since then, they have graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle, and Portland has sat in the back of my mind, relatively untouched. Until, of course, that same sibling - who makes an average of ten or so trips back a year - brought it up as a potential destination for my birthday! 

In between eating just, literally, so much incredible food - from truly so many unique and remarkable places - we also made plenty of time for zooming around other parts of the city we haven't seen before.

But one that we've definitely spent our fair share of time in, year in and out, was Powell's City of Books.

For those who are unfamiliar with the nerdy mecca of Powell's, it is the largest independently-owned bookstore in the world. So named due to its footprint taking up the length of a city block in the middle of downtown Portland, Powell's is heralded the world over for its extensive catalog, sprawling real estate, and generous amount of secondhand and rare books.

Hands-down, it's one of the favorite (and honestly, only) reasons that Portland has become a regular fixture in my life. If I'm being hauled two-and-a-half hours out of my comfort zone to visit a city with a heinous lack of parking and overabundance of one-way streets, you can bet your bottom dollar that I'm spending a minimum of an hour and $50 drifting around inside of Powell's. 

Originally, we had planned that our excursion would take place on Saturday afternoon - giving me an ample amount of time to wander, owl-eyed and drooling, to my heart's content - but we ended up leaving our house several hours earlier than anticipated on Friday, and suddenly found ourselves with a fair chunk of time before we were due at Bamboo Sushi for dinner. After some schedule redesigning, it became one of the first things on the agenda upon entering the city. 

While it might have felt a little scrambled in the moment - and truly, it is impossible not to feel at least a little overwhelmed every time you walk in - I eventually hit my stride, remembered my plan, and stayed on course. When I slowed down later that night, unwinding back at the hotel after a batch of homemade, bespoke s'mores from 1927 S'mores Company, I figured that it was probably the best possible way to start my birthday weekend. 

The text I received from my sister after I sent along the news.
Needless to say, you can tell we're a family of "itinerary" people.

the shopping experience

Here's the thing: 

I am Pro-Library-Noise. The library is a public institution, representative of equitable access, and is not only a source of knowledge, but also public benefits. You don't just come to the library for books, but also assistance, also understanding, and to be perfectly honest, for comfort without cost, because the library is one of the few places you can exist freely without the expectation of payment. 

Do I think that you should maintain a respectable understanding of your surroundings in a library, and accommodate your voice levels accordingly? Absolutely. But I believe that it's important to feel free to talk in the library. 

Meanwhile, I think I should absolutely be allowed to start shushing people in Powell's. 

If you're someone who suffers from sensitivity about volume, or just the occasional bout of social overwhelm, you need to know beforehand that IT IS NOISY. Yes, it is a large and well-known store in a populous downtown area, so you're going to have plenty of people chattering or shopping with friends, but this goes far beyond that. Occasional cacophonous call-outs across the intercom came regularly and without warning, with an audio trigger that crackled like lightning. People would stand in the middle of narrow aisles and hold boisterous, arm-flailing conversation, and still manage to look at you derisively when you asked to slide past them to get to the other side. Those seeking recommendations or help from booksellers - following along in their nametagged trail, still trying to explain what they were looking for - expected people who were simply browsing on their own to, no joke, cut a path and stand aside, regardless of who had been browsing at that same bookshelf first. 

For someone who was already a little sweaty about being in an unfamiliar city, and trying their best to juggle a large stack of books in their arms, it was honestly chaos. 

The relatively peaceful second-floor, which I believe is where most of the Nonfiction is stored.
Photo courtesy of my mom, while I was maneuvering the shelves of a nearby room in a hazy stupor.

But maybe that's Portland for you. It felt like everywhere we went this that weekend - be it a dimly-lit, well-populated restaurant for dinner, or an early morning café stop bumping egregiously loud '80s tunes - was too damn noisy. So maybe that's just the claim of the hustle and bustle of a large metropolitan area. 

Still. Seriously. Let people look at books in peace, without feeling like the father in "Harrison Bergeron," with the extreme audio feedback of the intercom kicking on every other minute. For a place full of knowledge-to-be-gained, you can barely hear yourself think in there. 

the haul 

Book spread + hotel bed = vacation paradise.

Okay, so, to clarify: did I intend to walk out of Powell's with this many books? Of course not. You never do! But you've all seen my bookshelves, so it's not like I can kid you guys with some expressed measure of self-control you already know I don't have, especially about discounted printed material. Instead, I'll simply excuse myself with this:

You don't walk into Powell's with books in mind. Sure, you can come up with some kind of a gameplan... in fact, I recommend it! But that's not saying you follow it to the letter. Instead, you blackout completely, and emerge an hour and a half later, brain full of cotton fuzz and arms buckling under the weight of a tower of new titles you barely remember picking up. If you met me just beyond the doors after checkout and put a gun to my head, and told me to name all of the books I'd just purchased, I'd maybe be able to get all the way up to three. 

The easiest way to explain it, is by comparing it to an afternoon trip to Trader Joe's. Only you leave with books, instead of some undiscernible amount of exotic dips, frozen entrees, and a dessert within which there exists an ungodly amount of cookie butter.

Maybe this is a little bit of exaggeration, on my part, but I'm willing to bet you know what I mean.

Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of Spiritual Life, Fr. James Martin, SJ

Case in point: this was one of the only books I entered into the store with a direct title in mind! I've been a fan of Fr. Martin's for years, and funnily enough, have bought my copies of all of the other wonderful books of his I own only from Powell's. So, one of the dedicated stops on my list was to the Catholic shelves, buried within the scope of the heinously unorganized Christian Religion section. 

To be fair, this was one of the quietest sections of the store, which would lead me to believe not a ton of people venture up here... including, it would seem, the staff. 

365 Saints: Your Daily Guide to the Wisdom and Wonder of Their Lives, Woodeene Koenig-Bricker

This selection has slightly less intention behind it, beyond the conscious thought of "Ooh, only $4." Basically, I've been wanting to pick up a book of collected saints for a while now, just to kind of browse out of as the fancy strikes me, and one that comes jam-packed with a whole year's worth of them sounded pretty alright to me. 

Besides, I kind of recognize the cover, and think that it might have been the one from my Confirmation classes over a decade ago, the book that gave my friend Madi the idea for St. Scholastica. 

And, you know... four dollars. 

The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t With Her Mind, Jackson Ford

The first of the Frost Files series, this novel follows telekinetic government specialist Teagan Frost, as she encounters an unexpected body at the site of her latest break-in job. With less than a day to clear her name, LA teeters on the brink of an underground battle, one only she can stop before it's too late.

Full disclosure, my interest in this one was peaked weeks beforehand, at an entirely different bookstore: while pacing the Fantasy section of Barnes and Noble - which never seems to carry the books we're actually looking for - I stumbled upon this expletive-titled series... or at least, what remained of it. It seems that someone had picked up the first title, but not the rest of the books, and no one at B&N had thought it fit to refill the slot. Does this bode well for my own reading enjoyment? Well, if I'm looking to find the second and third books in the series when I'm finished, at least I'll know where to go. 

Senlin Ascends, Josiah Bancroft

The first in the Books of Babel series, this novel follows "man of letters" Thomas Senlin, as he takes his wife on a honeymoon through the boisterous metropolitan Tower of Babel. However, after the two become unexpectedly separated, he is forced to combat against the mysterious inhabitants and numerous fellow tourists of the strange and dangerous city, in order to find her again. 

This title comes highly recommended from fellow Fantasy-loving friends, and also carries the distinction of having been touted multiple times by BookTuber Regan from PeruseProject. Plus, I've heard it referred to as an "unknown treasure," which is a title carried by several other faves from the genre. 

The Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden

The first in the Winternight trilogy, and inspired by works of Russian folklore, this novel follows Vasilia - whose father has recently remarried after the death of her mother - and the mysterious figures in the snow, the ones from her nurse's stories. While her city-bred stepmother forbids the family from honoring the spirits of the house Vasilia was raised with, the young girl begins to believe that their halted rituals have been protecting them from forces far beyond their reckoning... ones that are now growing nearer.

Another popular Fantasy title, I've actually been pondering this one for a fairly long time, as well... but from yet another bookstore. We frequent Sunriver, Oregon, a couple of times a year, and this title was always a standout on their slim-stocked Fantasy shelves. I neglected to pick it up due to the fact that we never saw it when seasonally appropriate, and then after a while, someone else beat me to the punch, and the only titles left on the shelves were those of its sequels. But now, I finally have it... and snow should be coming down soon! 

The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison

The first in the Goblin Emperor series (yes, yes, I know you're sensing the pattern with all of these Fantasy selections), this series follows the youngest, half-goblin son of the emperor, who unexpected ascends to the throne when his father and three older brothers are killed in an "accident." Despite never having lived at Court, he is now expected to contend with politics he doesn't understand and social rituals he's completely unversed in, all while keeping wary of those who may have caused the past emperor's demise.

Originally published in 2014, this book had - to my knowledge - somewhat of an indie / cult favorite following, before being brought back for a reprint and two additional series installments in 2021. In that time, though, it's gained the attention of plenty more genre fans, and was recommended in more than one video, again, by Regan at PeruseProject. (To be fair, she's also the one who I first learned about Sarah Rees Brennan's In Other Lands from, so I'm thinking that's the rightful justification for my fan-for-life mentality. At least, when it comes to Fantasy novels). 

The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton: The First Domestic Goddess, Kathryn Hughes 

In Victorian England, any information you'd need to know, from hiring maids to making dessert, could be found between the pages of Beeton's Book of Household Management. Little did her readers know, though, was that Beeton herself was only twenty-one when she started writing, and passed before her book was even published at twenty-eight. This biography explores the short life and enduring legacy of the precursor to Martha Stewart and Betty Crocker alike, as her name and title bring about family disaster, are subjected to the whims of social flux, and are used to market products far beyond her passing. 

Honestly, I was simply darting around the Food Writing shelves like a mosquito that had swallowed some Red Bull. The Cooking section is one one of the main floors of Powell's, and the people who were shopping there were not terribly nice, so I wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible. This was the first title that compelled me to stick it out, and keep moving down the shelves, and I'm glad I did, because it looks like the sort of thing that I can pass along to my aunts after I'm done reading! 

The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove, Cathy Erway

An underpaid executive assistant in New York City cuts off restaurants cold-turkey, and pledges to learn how to use her own kitchen, across the course of two full years. What began as simply a way to scrounge together some extra cash from her budget, becomes a project full of not only favorite recipes, but a newfound love of sharing meals, ethically grown ingredients, a bout with dumpster diving, and more. 

I take to "books about normal, everyday adults learning to cook for the very first time" like a toddler takes to a loose packet of glitter in a precarious location: I just wanna roll around in 'em, to be quite honest. And while I'm still working - continuously writing, always thinking about - my own 100K+ word manuscript on a similar subject, it's still a genuine source of joy to read. 

The Food Lover's Garden, Angelo Pellegrini

While I could expand upon the blurb that actually exists on the back cover of this book, I'll err instead on the side of its Goodreads summary: "How to successfully marry gardening and food." Truly, again, never has anything been written more for me. 

But to be honest, despite the conversational tone, illustrated figures, and more found within its pages, I almost didn't pick it up. After all, I have quite a few books about gardening that I don't really read already, and those ones even come equipped with full-color spreads! The selling point, however, was also found on the back cover, in the author's info: "Angelo Pellegrini was a professor of English literature at the University of Washington in Seattle." Not only my alma mater, but my specific department?! How could I put it back on the shelf? 

Will Write For Food: The Complete Guide to Writing Cookbooks, Restaurant Reviews, Articles, Memoir, Fiction and More, Dianne Jacob 

I feel like the title explains enough of what this book is for you to get it: it's like a Writer's Market, but just for all of the various directions you can take the concept of food writing, be it for critical review, journalism, fiction, etc.

Are there certain targets within this scope that draw my particular bow more than others? Absolutely. But I've already checked this thing out of the library on three separate occasions, and I'm tired of having to return it every once in a while for other people to read.

the birthday haul

Because like I said, it was my birthday, and you don't just have a birthday without someone wanting to buy you one or two books. Or, more likely than that, you don't just have a birthday without having purchased a couple of them online for yourself at least a month in advance, handing it off to other people to wrap for you, and then doing your best to forget about it in the ensuing month so that it can feel more like a "surprise." 

When we came back on the Sunday afternoon, we made certain to leave enough time for a couple of drinks out, a quick Zoom call with family members, and, of course, opening up some presents. 

If You Lived Here You'd Be Famous By Now: True Stories from Calabasas, Via Bleidner

Via Bleidner transferred from a close-knit Catholic school, to Calabasas High, and decided to navigate the change by taking notice of the chaos that suddenly surrounded her: extravagant family homes, casual mentions of plastic surgery and drug use woven into school gossip, and elbows-length relations to various celebrities. Now in college, Via has translated her careful notes into a full-scoped perspective of her time spent attending one of the most affluently-attended schools in the country. 

As I might have mentioned before, my sister's girlfriend is a Calabasas kid. In the time since they started dating, she's become one of my favorite people, and does things like drive me around Malibu to look at the Bachelor Mansion during the one visit I've taken to visit them in LA so far (to be fair, they just moved down there last year. Besides, California's so HOT). I had seen this on a shelf in Barnes and Noble over the summer, and sent her a pic for some gentle ribbing... apparently, she saved that photo, because this copy was waiting for me on my birthday. Now I'm threatening to form a book club. 

The Spiderwick Chronicles boxed set (Books One through Five) 

As you might recall from a recent blogpost of mine (or from the other times I mentioned it on this blog, once or twice), I read the first two installments of the Spiderwick Chronicles books based off of a prompt from this past Summer's "Seattle Public Library Book Bingo," and man, was my world rocked. Lo and behold, things that you enjoyed as a kid might still be capable of keeping you enthralled as an adult. 

I mentioned this to my younger brother, who never read these books growing up, and he took the initiative to do some eBaying early. While they're not the deckled-edged hardcover books I read in my elementary years, they're a freshly-sealed, crisp and clean package of the complete paperback set! And of course, they're headed right in his direction once I'm done. 

But speaking of things that I read when I was younger...

Selections from the Once Upon a Time series, various authors 

Don't ask me why, but sometime over the summer - honestly, probably when I was reading the Spiderwick Chronicles books - I got a bee in my bonnet about other books that were on my regular library rotation when I was much younger. I'm one of only two of my siblings that remember what it looked like before our local library branch got its upgrade... a part of my brain can still render, in extreme detail, the various organizational formats of the building has gone through in the past two decades. Which means I remember, what must have been fifteen years ago, back when all of the YA mass market paperbacks were lined up, unalphabetized, on some suspended racks on the back wall in the children's section...

And these books dominated my attention. 

(Well, for the most part. I was also really into the Fear Street books, which I believe were all arranged on the shelf above.) 

Published, for the most part, by Simon Pulse between 2002 and 2010 - then repackaged as sleekly-styled compendiums in 2012 and 2013 - the Once Upon a Time series were retellings of well-known-and-not fairy tales, with gorgeous and distinctive illustrated covers for their original run. There were almost twenty published in total, and now, I've got ten of them... including some of my favorites, Scarlet Moon (a werewolf-y rendition of "Little Red Riding Hood"), and Midnight Pearls ("The Little Mermaid"), both written by Debbie Viguie, as well as Golden ("Rapunzel"), by Cameron Dokey. Other remixes in the mix include retellings of "The Magic Flute," "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," "The Princess and the Frog," and more. 

It's a minor miracle that between two $15 eBay purchases of just general lots of these books, I somehow managed to only have one repeat (Beauty Sleep, Cameron Dokey). And now, I  can really lean into the whole "repeating my childhood" thing throughout the month of November!

So, that's what I got for my birthday. And if you, like my mom, are currently thinking, "Man, this kid really needs to implement a no-book-buying year again," then maybe... maybe you're correct. Or maybe, the problem at hand has absolutely nothing to do with my bookish impulse purchases, and maybe more with the fact that my 2022 Resolution to read at least 25 books off of my shelves is completely floundering. 

But more on that at a later date. As of right now, I'm just having fun luxuriating in the new reads and the promises of adventures to come, now that I'm finished up with Fall traveling. My packed Autumn schedule means that I'm not due to get out of town at least until the end of the year (if that, depending on how the new year starts shaping up), and the forecast is such that it has finally started (blessedly, welcomingly) dumping rain for like the next two months straight, so I've got plenty of reasons to stay inside and read! 

What's a good bookish gift you've received recently? Did you notice how many authors named "C/Katherine" are mentioned in this blogpost?  Let me know, in the comments below!

What I Read this Summer: Summer Reading Challenges, Part Two

Is it still Summer? The Washington weather might have you thinking so. We're still seeing days with highs in the upper 70s, and enough smoke drifting up from nearby wildfires to obscure one side of the neighborhood from the other. I went pumpkin picking with my best friend last weekend, and it was so hot, we considered ditching the plaid for just tee shirts, and didn't even consider bringing our boots. I was at my local high school earlier this week, where one seventeen-year-old complained to me that she had bought a really cute puffer coat for this school year, but hadn't even been given the chance to wear it to school yet. THAT'S how dire the situation is. 

It's midway through October, and things are still so balmy and temperate that not all of the leaves have even started turning that burnished gold color yet. My favorite Fall sweaters are still relegated to the "tricky" drawers of my dresser, the ones that get stuck, that I don't open very often. My tomatoes and cucumbers are still producing in my garden, gosh darn it! It's hard to get excited about pumpkins and apples when you're still bringing in zucchinis the size and length of your forearm! 

But who's complaining about a little extra sunshine? (I mean, the Earth. The Earth is complaining. That's why Florida's getting buffeted around like a tetherball every late summer, and Washington's on the lookout for another year of multiple-snow-day danger this winter again.) I'm just glad that the typical seasonal rainfall hasn't just blown the leaves down from the trees all together, so we can enjoy the foliage as it slowly turns... usually it knocks them all off in one good tear, leaving them a sludgy, smeared mess that floods the cul de sac storm drains. THAT'S when we'll really know it's Fall around here. 

Still, as long as there's sunshine outside, I'm counting it fair game that I haven't finished wrapping up all of my Summer Reading just yet. 

(Oh, you thought I'd forgotten? Yeah, I don't blame you.) 

where we left off in JULY (part two)

Square: Health or Healthcare Workers

Book: This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Medical Resident, Adam Kay

When I first saw that the Bingo card had "Healthcare Workers" on it, I was at a total loss. Not only did I not have any books on my own shelves that would convincingly match the prompt, but I couldn't even think of a single title in my own scope of interest that would spark my curiosity.

Then, completely out of the blue, this book got recommended to me specifically as a funny and compelling memoir - no healthcare mention to do with it - and I knew that I would absolutely have to pick it up. All of a sudden, one of the challenge squares I had been the most nervous about, became something so much better: a book I pretty much demolished in two sittings, in less than 24 hours. 

This memoir - truly based off of the personal diaries of a medical professional working as a Junior Doctor in London, as an OB/GYN in the NHS system - follows as Adam climbs through the ranks of his local hospitals, detailing the interactions he has with patients, his best and most difficult cases, and entirely too many foreign objects placed up the rectum (OBGYN, after all, isn't just bouncing newborn babies). While he gains more experience and knowledge, he can't help but notice a whole lot of loss, as well: whether from patients experiencing traumatic events at work, or losing on some of his personal relationships at home, due to critical workloads and difficult schedules. 

These memoirs ARE as funny as they were promised to be, but are also deeply emotional, and at turns, both tragic and heartwarming. Throughout stories of births, c-sections, a litany of items crammed into various crevices, and more, run further anecdotes of personal grief, critical issues within healthcare services itself, and the crucial toll that being a doctor takes on your relationships, mental health, and more. 

Kay's voice is charming, to-the-point, and conversational (something he claims he was terrible at as a doctor). The bottoms of each page are positively crammed full of footnotes on technical terms and cultural significance relevant to the story, as well as cheeky asides to the audience. His candor and heartfelt expression - paired with his natural sense of humor - make this a real glimpse into the hectic and sometimes harrowing life of a doctor... without all the tv dramatics, but with real, honest care. 

(Funny enough, this book has also been recently adapted into a comedy-drama on the BBC and AMC, written by Adam Kay himself, and starring Ben Whishaw. I've heard it's quite good.) 

Square: Reread a Childhood Favorite

Book: The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Field Guide (#1) and The Seeing Stone (#2), Holly Black and Tony Diterlizzi

I told my brother, before starting out on these books again, that it's a little nerve-wracking to revisit something you loved so much as a child. There's a level of trepidation that arises solely from thoughts of "What if this isn't as good as I remember? What if Little Me was wrong?" The idea that something you thought was brimming with magic as a kid, revealed as nothing more than rudimentary sleight of hand, is a heart-breaking one, and one that I've encountered time and again as I've gotten older, like figuring out your dad's favorite card trick. 

This series - a favorite among my later elementary school years, one that is indelibly tied to silent reading in the library the day before Thanksgiving break, for some reason - follows the three Grace siblings, Jared, Simon, and Mallory, as they move into their aunt's ramshackle house after their parents' divorce. While exploring one day, Jared finds a secret office accessed by dumbwaiter, filled with strange collections and even stranger books... including The Field Guide, which suggests that there is more to this unfamiliar place than the kids could have imagined. 

Thankfully, the Spiderwick Chronicles books lost absolutely none of the magic I had experienced when I was a kid, obsessed with the idea of hidden worlds, unseen wonders, and plenty of mysterious creatures. It brought me right back to those feelings - the ones that feel so impossible to access, once you've passed the threshold of twenty-five - of coming home after school in the Fall, when it's already dark outside by dinner, and you've finished all of your homework, but you just checked out these new books from the school library and you've been waiting all day to retreat to your room and enjoy them uninterrupted... that's exactly how I felt about picking up these books again. 

I already told my brother that I'm anticipating reading the rest of the series this Fall, and that I really love the idea of buying them not just for myself, but in building a personal library for any future children who might be a part of my life... this all made him laugh, and say to hold off on checking any more out from the library until after my birthday, which is coming up just this weekend. Apparently, there's a handful of well-priced and well-kept boxed sets on eBay. And honestly, just the idea of owning these books again makes me plenty happy, too. 

AUGUST

Square: Recommended by a Local Bookseller

Book: I'm Glad My Mom Died, Jenette McCurdy

As you might know, I have an all-encompassing love of Celebrity Memoirs. Since I was a kid, it's been one of my favorite niche genres to enjoy, for several reasons: not just the insider's glimpse into the entertainment industry, or the voyeuristic fun of attaching famous names to indiscretions or personal drama, but more than that... just the effective humanization of someone who once seemed intangible. When written correctly, these kinds of reads shouldn't leave you feeling in awe of the person, but come with the act of recognition: Oh, look, this billboard-sized face and dazzling smile is a real person, too. 

And good grief, does Jeanette McCurdy NAIL every single one of those points. 

This isn't just your typical Hollywood story, though: Jenette McCurdy details a childhood raised by a fame-obsessed mother, one who drives Jenette to not only auditions and rehearsals and dance lessons, but who prompts severe eating disorders, requires supervised showers, and controls the people she spends her time with, so as to keep her daughter as close to the limelight as possible. Jenette not only describes her own fame journey, but her mother's: the ways she constructed Jenette's life to keep her in grasp at all times, the ways the two were almost inextricable from each other in ways that, at the time, Jenette thought was just her being protective. 

The book is not just as an Hollywood actress' peek into the entertainment mecca of the West Coast, but a complete throwing-open of windows towards the good and especially the bad, plus all of the action going on in the bureaucratic underpinnings of an image-obsessed industry. She addresses not only her own missteps and mistakes, her own faults and missed calculations, but shed light on the interactions with other people in her life that allowed those faults to continue to develop, unchecked, and where the origin points had arisen. She wrenches open the idea of a child star, and points out the gross and grimy parts of the machine that the polished chrome of a million-dollar investment would try its best to hide. While other celebrities might graze a hand over the idea of eating disorders, parental neglect, drug and alcohol abuse, on-set manipulation, and more, Jeanette firmly grips it with both, and thrusts them directly into sharper relief, so that the details are made more explicit. 

And to make the point perfectly clear: She is an incredibly talented writer. There is a significant amount of detail afforded; an open, candid relationship with personal pain; and an emotionally balanced perspective on great turmoil. Jeanette McCurdy has played a game of chicken with a series of crippling life hurdles, and she's not only bested them all, but still kept on running now. 

Square: A Book About Books 

Book: Shakespeare Wrote for Money (Believer #3), Nick Hornby

I didn't realize I was at the final installment in the series from Nick Hornby's long-running "What I've Been Reading" column in The Believer, until a chance glance at the intro material. I've loved reading through each of these slim, witty installments over the past two years... in fact, I read the first of three back in February 2020, a few weeks shy of Covid lockdowns across the United States, when I grabbed it last-minute off my TBR shelves while my mom was recovering from surgery. 

I'm so bummed I've ran out of them now. They weren't only well-crafted and fully possessing Hornby's typical dry humor, but regularly churned out book recommendations that made it into my Goodreads TBR, as well as reminded me of other works I've already read and loved before. The way he couches his reviews within the framework of details about his own life reminds me of the ways I used to write my beginning book reviews a decade ago; the reviews themselves remind me of how much love I have for my blogging platform now, too. 

I've tried reading exactly ONE of Hornby's own full-length novels, and didn't really like my go at it (I made it about halfway through High Fidelity and found the main character so chronically insufferable that I decided to straight-up donate the book, in lieu of finishing it myself). But I am so sad about not being able to read any more installments of this particular series that I might want to try another attempt... definitely not at High Fidelity, though. 

It makes me wish that there were funny, thoughtful, and compelling reviews like this written in publications nowadays. I think I'll just have to stick to reading recommendations from my friends on the Internet, instead! 

Square: Book to Screen

Book: The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith

Let me tell you, I have had this book on my mind for a while now. I don't know why, but as soon as it hits July, the various aesthetically-oriented communities I'm a part of online sink into the unmistakable heat of a sepia-toned, vintage Italian summer, and this title floats around every single year. I finally picked it up at Barnes and Noble last July, but didn't have the breathing room in my TBR to slot it in... which means, of course, that I had to make room for it this year. 

The Talented Mr. Ripley follows Tom Ripley - described from jump as being a fairly unremarkable, but completely unethical person - as he is enlisted by a school fellow's father to travel to Italy, and convince his wayward son to come home. Tom figures he'll do his slight diligence, but otherwise, be afforded a premium trip at virtually no effort... until he meets the stylish and charismatic Dickie Greenleaf, and becomes determined to join his orbit. Murder, stolen identities, and lots of money ensue... all set against the backdrop of American high society in the Mediterranean. 

Wow! What a whirlwind. Between the sumptuous descriptions of European travel in the '50s, to the breath-takingly quick turnabouts in plot and pacing, to occupying the mind of a man of completely terrifying disposition, this entire novel took my breath away. Immediately engrossing, addictive, and intelligent, I finished this in less than 24 hours, and had I not been on vacation with my family, I'd probably have done so in less. 

Mr. Ripley is so much more than a 1990s Matt Damon would make him seem. Shrewd and calculating, emotionally fragile and desperate for love, with passion for learning and a curational sense of beauty, and an unconscious draw towards chaos and manipulation... truly a fully realized character, one who bizarrely captures your heart and attention, despite being established from page ONE as a bit of a sociopath, someone fully aware that what he most enjoys doing is wrong and illegal, someone nearly buckling under an already-established sense of guilt. And those feelings never really go away... Ripley feels the weight of his misdeeds acutely, intensely, sometimes immediately after they occur, and he predicts his own arrest and demise so regularly that you feel it would be a relief for him. The anger, fury, the draw to murder comes so suddenly; it's the self-awareness and self-flagellation that lasts for a long, long time. 

So, does it make at least a little bit of sense that you end up rooting for him?

Square: Most Recent Book by Same Author (paired with "First Book by an Author," read in June)

Book: Tempests and Slaughter (Numair Chronicles #1), Tamora Pierce 

Alright, I'd tackled the other Tamora Pierce title - Alanna: the First Adventure - back in June, at the top of the season. It makes sense, then, that the final book would be one I started reading in the last week of August. Did I finish it by the end of Summer? No. But I had gotten at least halfway through, and that's good enough for me. 

(Did I expect to not be able to finish it all the way in October? No, not quite... but that's a whole other issue.) 

Tempests and Slaughter travels back in time and across the sea, to the lands of Carthak, where a young novice mage named Arram Draper (who would someday become Numair Salmalin) works his way through the ranks at university. Alongside his best friends - the emperor's "spare heir," Ozorne, and the lovely burgeoning socialite Varice - Arram does battle against school bullies and rigorous academic training alike, finds his way to the gladiator games too many times for comfort, and interacts with his fair share of gods... and he's not even close to graduating. 

I kind of figured, right out of the gate, that this book wasn't going to hit as hard for me as some of Tamora Pierce's other series tend to do. For starters, Numair - though sweet, in his way - has never really compelled me like some of the other side characters have, and secondly, it's a prequel series: we already know how everything shakes out! We know what happens to Ozorne and Varice, we know how certain tables turn, and for what we don't, we still have a general idea (for instance, we know how Numair feels about more than a few issues and themes that pop up in later books, and there are more than a few introductions to other side characters you'd recognize, too). 

And while it may sound totally childish to say - which I recognize - I wasn't too interested in reading a boys' coming-of-age series, either... I mean, every other Tortall series has been about a girl! (And that awkward sense of difference is tangible when reading!) 

After reading, though, I do also recognize that I had fun. Don't get me wrong, it still very much took me the better part of two months to commit to finishing the thing, and out of Tamora Pierce's novels, this is the one that makes me think the plot definitely lags, for all they jump around with time. But I did end up enjoying Arram's voice, the ways the mage school and training was described, and how it managed to give Carthak a little more embellishment and nuance as a sociocultural touchstone in the greater shape of the world. After all, it feels like every other time we've interacted with them, they've simply stood as this monolithic "bad guy" complex; in this arena, the greater society is depicted with heightened care and empathy. 

That all being said, what I felt most at completing it was 1. I was glad that I had actually finished it at all, and 2. It made me want to go back and read Emperor Mage again. Not that I have time... there are plenty of Fall titles to pick up now! 

Thus concludes my recap of my successful Seattle Public Library and Seattle Arts and Lectures Summer Book Bingo Reading Challenge! (And the repetition of a whole lot of proper nouns in a row.) Huzzah for my three Bingoes! Which still isn't as much as some others have displayed, but it's a lot better than last year's zero! 

Believe it or not, this STILL isn't the total amount of books I read this summer... I have a handful of Romance novels read for an entirely different Reading Challenge to review here, too. And while that particular Book Bingo didn't result in a single straight line, it still introduced me to some new authors and content I might never have picked up otherwise. 

But you're going to have to continue being patient for that one, in a greater Romance recap. We may be in Fall now, and I'm still fixing to get the last of Summer set away, at a minimum, before November 1st... when NaNoWriMo has begun consuming my waking hours once more. 

And... you know. It's my birthday this weekend. Cut me some slack! ;) 

What were some of your favorites this summer? Did you take part in any reading challenges of your own? How unseasonably warm is YOUR neck of the woods? Let me know, in the comments below!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my Fall 2022 TBR

"Top Ten Tuesday" is a weekly bookish meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl!

Look at me, teasing you with a singular post in my promised Summer Wrap Up, and then immediately turning around and compiling a list of the books I'm actually looking forward to reading this Fall. To be fair, I'm going to be very much grappling with the resolving of my feelings for the season past, at a minimum, until October 1st - what did I even do for the last three months, other than hide from the roofers for a week, venture off to Oregon twice, and do my best to get out of every camping trip I could? - so those other two promised posts are still forthcoming. However, "Top Ten Tuesday" waits for no emotionally-beleaguered late-twenty-something, so it's about time to get with the times! 

Before I begin this post, I would also like to state, I almost never actually manage to follow through on my TBRs: for starters, I am a notoriously fickle mood reader - which is something that drives my reads-one-Brandon-Sanderson-book-after-the-other brother absolutely batty - and furthermore, I seem to constantly assess my personal reading levels at a rate that is much more consistent than how I was ten years ago than I am now. 

For instance, take everything I say I'm going to read in November with a significant sprinkle of salt: as much as I'd like to pretend that NaNoWriMo isn't so much a compulsion as a particularly gratifying and personally challenging pastime, I'm not exactly known for the idea that "I can stop any time that I want," either. In fact, I'm more of a "If I write 1,000 more words in the next hour, I can get well on my way for hitting tomorrow's chapter goal, and also maybe make it to bed at 1am" kind of gal. I will always be a high-strung straight-A kid at heart; meeting my daily word count is the only thing that brings the emotional high of nailing school projects in my English classes back into tangible reach again. Unsurprisingly, I read almost nothing during November. 

But enough about all of these back-to-school-themed feelings. Let's take a look at some of these seriously aspirational TBR reads: 

september: sewing up summer mid-finishes

using the remainder of the month to complete the remaining pages 

of some of Summer's halfway-theres

1. The Blacktongue Thief, Christopher Beuhlman

A man is compelled by his debts within the Taker's Guild to follow along with a mysterious fighter on a mission, combating strange enemies far from the land he knows, tangling with magic and beasts he has only heard of in legend. 

I got about halfway into this fun, creative Fantasy during the summer, mostly while stuck on a camping trip. Even though I was absolutely loving what I was reading - the majority of the main cast beyond our protagonist is female, for instance, and there are lots of made-up Fantasy swear words, which I love just as much as regular swearing - and while I fully intended to finish the novel, I just got caught up in other things, and never quite made it to the end. However, my resolve is still firmly in completing this novel before the end of the year.

2. Tempests and Slaughter (The Numair Chronicles #1), Tamora Pierce 

Long ago, the boy who would become mythical Tortallan mage Numair Salmalin was simply Arram Draper, a promising student within the Imperial University of Carthak. There, he befriends Ozorne, powerful burgeoning heir to the throne, and Varice, a social butterfly with more cleverness than meets the eye. 

This was technically my final read of the Summer, if we're playing by Summer Book Bingo rules, but I never actually managed to make it across the finish line of the last page. Again, I'm stuck somewhere around halfway through, where it just felt like things might have been lagging a bit. However, this is another that I am bound and determined to see to its completion, so it's only a matter of time. 

3. The Best Cook in the World: Tales from my Momma's Table, Rick Bragg

From stolen ham hocks to backyard squirrel meat and seriously just so many biscuits, Bragg's heartfelt and enthralling narrative of his family's cooking journey is told through humorous anecdotes about rural living and how a sparse kitchen can still make a feast. 

Despite the fact that this book lived on my coffee table with the rest of my TBR all through Summer, I never actually got around to finishing this cooking-and-family inspired memoir, which is absolutely wild, because Cooking Memoirs are one of my absolute favorite things to read. Again, I had really been loving the whole thing, but got stuck somewhere around the middle, due to various environmental factors and a general lack of reading motivation (I had a massive Slump this Spring, remember?). I know it's good, which is why I'll get back to it eventually... hopefully sooner rather than later. 

october: creepin' it real

embracing the spooky season by getting in tune 

with some atmospheric and bone-chilling reads

 

4. finishing Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice 

The iconic and enthralling adventures of Louis, a recently turned vampire, and Lestat, the mysterious and enrapturing vamp who turned him, told better than any '90s Brad Pitt movie. 

You'll maybe have noticed a bit of a trend with me by now, but you'll never guess where my bookmark is still stuck in this particular paperback. That's right, the middle! I had been really enjoying this particular spooky read this past year, when the clock ran out on the end of October without me having reached the end. I ended up getting subsumed with thoughts of NaNo, and it accidentally dropped out of my hands until I had time again in December... which is no time to be reading about vampires. I've been "saving" it - mentally, at least - until we came around to October again this year! (And just in time, too, as the trailer for the new television series just dropped!) 

5. Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia

A heartfelt plea from a newlywed family member sends a young woman to the Mexican countryside, where an imposing old house's even older lineage promises darker mysteries than she had bargained for. 

This has been a much-hyped title since its initial release in June 2020, and quickly thereafter found its way as an impulse purchase onto my Kindle after its price temporarily dipped below two dollars last year. I feel like the fervor has subsided enough that I can actually try my hand at reading it myself, without anyone else's opinion getting mixed up into it. 

6. Before the Devil Breaks You (The Diviners #3), Libba Bray

The Diviners face new enemies and old evils in a battle for not just the soul of New York City, but an America on the brink of change, while exploring the secrets of an asylum that houses more than just patients... 

I think this was the original series that taught my brother the lesson "When Savannah says 'soon,' she doesn't mean 'within three to five business days,' but really, 'eventually, hopefully before the sun burns out." He's been well and truly done with this series since the final installment - King of Crows (#4) - was released two years ago, and has since managed to even finish the Great and Terrible Beauty series beyond that, but I've been taking my sweet time enjoying these spooky installments. Besides, some of this stuff gets heavy, for YA. I'm just enjoying the ride. 

7. If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio

A passel of Shakespearean students find their off-stage dramatics overtaking their on-stage personas, in a play that leads to death. Ten years later, one of them is released from prison, serving time for a murder they may not have committed. 

I was recommended this novel by a fellow Shakespeare nerd back when it was released in 2017, and picked up a hardcover within the year. And then... promptly relegated it to the back of my shelf. I don't know if its the imposingness of its hardcover status or size or genre (I'm not a big fan of thrillers), or if its just its collegiate setting, but something about it has always felt easy to put off 'til the following Fall. Maybe I can break the cycle, and just tackle it this year? 

november: getting cozy with lit

a warm fireplace, hot chocolate, and throw blankets make 

for the ideal environment on a blustery November day

8. The Immortalists, Chloe Benjamin

Four siblings seek out a woman in their neighborhood who is rumored to predict when you will die, and over the next five decades, navigate their ways around fate and family while seeking their own fortunes. 

I picked this book up two years ago after hearing its praise on more than a few of my favorite bookstagram accounts, but still haven't managed to find a good time for it. Maybe it's the theme of family, or the Thanksgiving-welcome shades of brown on the cover, but this might be a really good one to get to this Fall. 

9. The Coward (Quest for Heroes #1), Stephen Aryan

Ten years after his heroic actions saved the land, a young hero is tired of hearing his name proclaimed in song. Even more unwelcome, however, is the new evil threatening the kingdom again, especially when it prompts the calls for him to return to the fray... and because he knows he only got lucky the first time. 

I picked this title up on a Barnes and Noble run with my brother over the Summer, and we were both drawn to the plot immediately for its sideways sort of description for its hero. I called dibs first, though, which means he's relegated to waiting for me to finish - the age-old story - before he can pick it up for himself. Or he'll just check out the audiobook from the library... that's a pretty common occurrence, too. 

10. Gingerbread, Helen Oyeyemi

A young woman struggles to untangle the mysteries of her gingerbread-loving mother - like her strange country of origin, and her enigmatic best friend - neither of which show any sign of existing any longer. 

I'm a huge fan of Oyeyemi's magical realism, especially books like Boy, Snow, Bird that serve the elements of adaptations from some of those folklore and fairy tale inspirations that still have a grip on our public consciousness. I've had this hardcover on my shelf for a while, which not only makes it a welcome cozy read, but a great way to get another book off of my TBR shelves.

What's in YOUR Top Ten? Let me know, in the comments below!

What I Read this Summer: My Summer Reading Challenges, Part One

Insert requisite "I can't believe Summer's over," blah blah blah. In fact, I can believe that Summer is over. The weather has turned, local schools are back in session, and my soul is plagued by a persistent itch to break out all of the Halloween decor early (Not until the 24th! We have it written down in the family calendar already). 

Besides, despite the fact that there are still plenty of tomatoes hanging out on the vines outside - Washington has had a miserable growing year for tomatoes - the seasons have officially begun to turn, from "Farmer's Market" to "Wildfire and Spiders." It's a more welcome transition than you might think. 

However, more importantly, the onset of September brings to a close yet another year's worth of Summer Reading Challenge Library Book Bingoes, and all of their affiliated distractions. 

The official close of the Seattle Public Library and Seattle Arts and Lectures series Adult Summer Reading Book Bingo was on September 6th, and I can't say that I didn't breathe a sigh of relief. Not because I wanted it to be over, necessarily, but because I actually managed to up last year's miserable performance, and get three individual Bingoes across my card! 

Out of the 25 possible squares, I successfully filled up THIRTEEN squares with the titles of books I read this summer. (There are also an additional five romance novels that I completed that didn't necessarily manage to work into the list, but you've already heard about two of them here.) Due to the nature of this online space supposedly being a Book Blog, and because I've managed very little else by way of updates over the course of this summer, I thought you might like to see what I've been busy reading, and why. 

JUNE

Square: A Book with a Blue Cover

Book: The Nest, Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

I started off the Summer with the best of intentions of also tackling one of my other longstanding reading challenges: chipping away at the towering TBR stack lurking over my reading nook. So, when given such a deliberately ambiguous prompt, I selected one of the titles that has been sitting here the longest, purchased in hardcover in the Spring of my senior year of college. 

Unfortunately, I really, really didn't like it. 

The Nest follows a family of upper-class New Yorkians, specifically, a family of four siblings and their various spouses and children. The four were promised shares of a large nest egg, bequeathed by their late, wealthy father, that would become available to them all when the youngest was old enough to spend it responsibly... unfortunately, they never get the chance, as their oldest brother's indiscretions and legal trouble have scrubbed the whole thing clean right before they can legally access it. Now, they're forced to grapple with the various ways they've been banking on that money - to shore up failing businesses, to pay for college, to smooth the wrinkled edges of an expensive lifestyle - while contending with their own fragile family relationships. 

To break the entire cast of characters down to their bare essentials, everyone in The Nest falls into the following criteria: absurdly horny, morally repugnant, worthy of pity, and positively delusional. And yes, there are absolutely people who fit all four categories at once. 

Obviously book characters don't have to be good people. In fact, it's often more fun when they're not! But from a moral / ethical standpoint, these people were all over the place, and it's not fun reading a book where a good 70% of the total cast are making decisions that warrant a response of "What the hell are you thinking?" while shaking the book like you've got a hold on their shoulders. 

And then, even in the other characters, you get shades of xenophobia, racism, sexism, etc. For a book that includes two different major queer relationships, some of the other subtext of the book oriented around it carries this weird, mid-'00s flavors of homophobia. I'm sure these kinds of shading were included to round things out, make the entire world of the novel feel more real, but honestly, the overall impact was just really kind of sideways-preachy, like the author was presenting them in a way that made sure no one would accuse the author herself of being racist or homophobic. It was just what the characters were doing. 

Also, what the hell was that ending?? I won't detail the specifics, given the nature of spoilers and their associated social no-nos, but seriously? Come on. 

It was not an auspicious way to start the Summer's reading. 

Square: First Book by an Author (partnered with another square, "Most Recent Book by Same Author")

Book: Alanna: The First Adventure (Song of the Lioness #1), Tamora Pierce

Okay, don't get on me about this. I'm not a fake fan, I'm just someone whose first Tamora Pierce book was Trickster's Choice, and I've read pretty much every series since out of sequential order. And I've dragged my feet SO LONG over reading the Lioness Quartet. Strictly speaking, I have attempted this book multiple times before - including a format change, on audiobook - and I even had a copy of it that I ended up giving away a couple of years ago, absolutely determined that these books were just the Tamora Pierce novels I wouldn't read. 

However, my younger brother, equally set on me meeting him at his level, was so motivated at changing my mind that he ended up purchasing me a boxed set - one that matches my Daine boxed set - with the insistence that I give it another go. 

Then, he sat beside me as I read, and listened to all my mutterings and exclamations, in real time. Unbeknownst to me, he was also running the Stopwatch app on his phone as we were taking our time, only pausing it once when I got up to use the restroom. At the halfway mark, he boasted about what good time I was making; once I'd finished, he proudly showed me the score: two hours, sixteen minutes, and 42 seconds. 

Alanna: the First Adventure, is the first novel of the first series legendary YA Fantasy author Tamora Pierce first wrote back in 1983. Since then, her multiple series set in the world of Tortall have only served to continue to develop the rich, immersive landscape her many characters occupy. Alanna, a young noblewoman desperate to become a knight, switches places with her brother in order to be allowed to learn... along the way, she makes friends with a Rogue and a future King, squares up against school bullies, and proves her own merit against dark forces. And that's just the first book! 

I mean, not only was it worth it to finally get my brother a quarter of the way off my chest about it, but the book itself was quite good. Despite the decades she's been writing across, Tamora Pierce's voice rings incredibly consistent throughout the years, her stories are populated with compelling characters and incredible feats, and she is equal parts sentimental and light-hearted, which is a great juggling act for an author for teenagers. I love the realm of Tortall, and reading this after getting to know Beka, Kel, Daine and Ali already almost makes it feel like a prequel. I especially love seeing how much Alanna's story in turn shapes Kel's, who will always be one of my favorites. 

And yes, I'm genuinely excited to read the next in the series. Hopefully my little brother will help inspire the same kind of motivation from the other side of the state once he returns to college. 

Square: Debut Author

Book: Trail of Lightning (Sixth World #1), Rebecca Roanhorse 

I actually had attempted to read this book for the first time the previous summer, amidst a period of frustrating mental health and a near-desperate urge to pretend I was anywhere but Earth. Needless to say, a post-apocalyptic world of near-constant violence was not the right sandbox for my fragile mind to shovel knee-deep into, and I DNF'd within the first thirteen pages. 

The second attempt was actually made in the same location (Sunriver, OR), but in a more positive frame of mind: instead of the End-of-August Scaries (which are kind of like the Sunday Scaries, but with the Pavlovian instillation of back-to-school dread that hangs around from childhood far into your adult years), the only thing I was dealing with was still shaking off the ooze of a Springtime slump, and trying to work my way into a Summer Reading mindset. Because I really wanted to get this novel off of my TBR, I decided that instead of allowing myself to be overwhelmed by the violence, I was just going to push through it until it gave way to plot. And I found it! Also plus more violence. 

Trail of Lightning - the first in the Sixth World series - is set in Dinetah, the protected remnants of the Navajo reservation, left after a great flood and the appearance of mystical boundary walls wipes out access to the rest of the world. Maggie, whose monster-killing powers come as a byproduct of her powerful lineage, collects bounties on the heads of strange and terrifying creatures in order to get by. After she teams up with a confusing bigger-city medicine man at the behest of her mentor, the two track a developing evil causing mysterious disappearances, while it quickly becomes clear that someone has it out for her, too. 

My feelings on this book are a little confused. It belongs to one of my more rapidly-expanding least favorite genres (Post-Apocalyptic fiction, mainly due to last year's Water Knife, by Paolo Bacigalupi, which still makes me grimace every time I think about it, and which I hated so much I never pushed 'publish' on the blogpost I wrote about it because I was just so sick of thinking about it). Trail of Lightning really does manage to be both extremely violent and angry - with a lot of that violence and anger perpetrated against the female main character - and really freakin' grim in places. But... the mythology and world-building really IS THAT GOOD, just like pretty much everyone has been saying this entire time. 

There just aren't a lot of people out there that are this uniquely adept at translating Native American mythology into such a tangible and enthralling genre landscape. Fantasy names have long held the stereotype of being some keysmash abomination with a few extra Zs, Xs, and apostrophes thrown in, but in Roanhorse's book, she utilizes real Navajo; instead of the familiar and long-utilized Greek and Roman Gods, trotted out of their Pantheon every once in a while for accessible popular effect, she utilizes familiar characters from ancient and American folklore, like the trickster Coyote.

In fact, I've been so completely taken in by the actual world itself, that in the past two trips to Barnes and Noble, I've very nearly picked up the second in the series, Storm of Locusts. Maybe I will, when my stomach is strong enough. 

(Oh, and in case you were wondering, while tackling three of the longstanding books on my TBR was absolutely the move and a source of personal pride, I almost immediately added a total of NINE back onto my shelves the same month, thanks to a gift from a family member, a vacation impulse purchase, and a Book Outlet order. Then I bought a ton of books in July for my Bloggoversary and because I love thrifting, and more in August because I went on vacation again. You win some, you lose some, you never learn some.) 

JULY (Part One!)

Square: Recommended by Library Staff / Peak Pick

Book: Malibu Rising, Taylor Jenkins Reid

Maybe a stiff and uncomfortable camp chair, in the middle of a lush, green forest, wasn't the right environment to be reading a book about the dry, hot sand of a California beach... but then again, I finished it in very nearly one sitting, so what do I know?

In Malibu Rising, the annual party thrown by the Riva family - helmed by eldest sister Nina, almost-twin brothers Jay and Hud, and overshadowed youngest Kit - is the stuff of Malibu legend, and this year, it promises to be even more over-the-top than ever before. Over the course of one eventful day, each of the sibling's lives will be changed forever, as relationships are forged and broken, secrets are revealed, and ugly truths are confronted. By the end of the night, the party will end in a whirl of police sirens and flames.

Taylor Jenkins Reid is a pro at making her novels evoke a sense of time, style, and memory. Daisy Jones and the Six held fast to the magic of the '60s and '70s music scene of Downtown LA and California sun-soaked rock. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo centered a complex narrative around the glow of Old Hollywood soundstage lights, and a whirling catalogue of fake movie stars. She attempts the same here, by bringing the readers to the beaches of the '80s surf scene in Malibu, where the burgeoning glitterati of media glory intersect with modern perspectives on feminism and family. 

Unfortunately, unlike with her previous two books, I feel like Malibu Rising's attempt at a nostalgic, idealized form of time travel fell flat. With so much focus being placed on bringing forth a specific cultural timestamp, she wastes attention on establishing retro collateral - emphasizing how everyone does their hair, what they're wearing, who they're listening to - without making more concrete moves to build out her characters, instead. As a result, plenty of the cast feels shallow and insubstantial, lacking any kind of dimension. 

Again, I don't want to dispense any spoilers here; on the other hand, I don't really know if spoilers would altogether change any part of your reading experience... because while each of the Riva siblings does, in fact, find what they've been looking for or deserving, the expectations of them are established so completely obviously within the first 50 pages that their bestowal is less of a revelation than an eventuality. Attempts at foreshadowing are done so ham-handedly it's like Reid doesn't trust her audience to catch any kind of nuance, so she feels the need to hand it to them on a platter instead. 

And like I said, I read this in essentially one sitting, as my chronic insomnia and hatred of camping combined to perch me in a folding chair on a well-lit morning at 6am, and have the whole book finished before breakfast. If a bleary, uncomfortable camper can still manage to find your book overly simple while running on four hours of hard-ground sleep with no coffee, then maybe it could have used some more character development. 

Yes, I will be reading Carrie Soto Is Back anyways. I don't even know why you felt the need to ask. 

Square: Out of your Comfort Zone

Book: Ariel: the Restored Edition, Sylvia Plath

Two things that are totally true: one, I really, seriously do not get Poetry, and two, I have been going through a major Poetry period recently that I can't quite figure out how to explain. And no, I do not mean "poetry" in the overly-Instagram-friendly kind of way, I mean it in the way that I am a big fan of both abstract metaphors and occasional rhyming and this is a quick and convenient way to get access both of those things. Also, I like it when books are short. 

I've also been having a major Sylvia Plath fixation recently - in a "published journals and letters" kind of way, not in a "rereading The Bell Jar yet again" kind of way - so I figured that this would be a knockout way to get both a bookshelf-sitting collection of poetry and a difficult Bingo square out of the way at the same time. 

Unfortunately, I still seem to be one of those boring people who more enjoys Sylvia's fiction and journals, rather than her poetry. 

As always, she uses beautiful, evocative language, words that call to mind carefully assembled visuals and characters. Making heads or tails of them is kind of like constructing a puzzle very carefully, and in my case, required reading a couple of times over to get the clearest picture, like how we used to slowly tune my grandmother's old TV to sort through the static, in order to get to PBS after the younger cousins had cranked the knob out of focus.

Some of them were really quite lovely, while others felt more jumbled or deliberately inscrutable. Some included antiquated language that made it very obvious what time period Plath wrote in (in a "you definitely can't use those words anymore" kind of way), which I understand, but was still sensitive to in reading. 

Common themes included motherhood, with frequent uses of the word "baby," and dual usage of black-red color juxtaposition. Her feminist perspectives are definitely in full-force here, especially in poems like "Lady Lazarus" and "Lesbos." 

One particularly notable element of the collection that I read, was the inclusion of Frieda Hughes - Sylvia's daughter, and last living child with Ted Hughes - who wrote both the introduction as well as bonus material in the back. She served as a sobering relative force, who provided a necessary recontextualizing of Plath as a human and mother first, and an artist second; however, by the end of her materials it more appeared that she was foremost motivated by the defense of her father, and promotion of her own artistic views. 

I'm still not a Poetry kind of person. But I'm glad I was able to take an afternoon in a hammock to sort and sift through the words and images Plath constructed, almost like a kind of meditational practice. I'll be back to my Wendy Cope soon enough, but sometimes it's nice to riddle things out for yourself a bit. 

Square: LGBT Love Story

Book: So This Is Ever After, T. J. Lukens

I've actually already written a review for this one! You can check it out in my "So, You Accidentally Read Three Novels That Were Basically Fanfiction" post from back in July. 

With a total of eight books, July will probably go down as one of my greatest reading months out of the entire year, no doubt thanks to a couple of heartily welcome romance novels and two of my favorite childhood middle grade series ever. Hence, this blog post will be divided into several more portions: next up, the second half of July and all of August, and after, the rest of the Romance novels I read! 

Did you undertake any reading challenges this summer? What was the hottest read of the hottest months, for you? Let me know, in the comments below!