Recent Reads

(Be warned there may be spoilers, in case any of these are still on your “to read” list. Also, some previous reads.)

My goal for the year is to read 30 books, which would be more than I’ve read in a single year in…probably two decades. I’m currently on #12, so I’m slightly behind schedule but nothing I can’t make up. Here’s what I’ve read in the last couple months:

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
3/5

I made the mistake of reading a friend’s review before I read this book, in which she said the main character is basically just like Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory. Well, she was totally right, and with that bit set in my head it was really hard to conjure up any mental image of Don that wasn’t Sheldon — and I think that took away some of the charm of the book for me. Overall this was an average read. I enjoyed the story, but didn’t find myself interested enough in the characters to want to read any more books about them. (Apparently there’s a series.)

The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan
3/5

Someone on Goodreads gave this book 5 stars for subject matter and 3 stars for execution, and I totally agree. I was really intrigued to read about the role women played in building the atomic bomb, and the story behind Oak Ridge (which began as a “secret” city) was fascinating. But the first 75% of the book felt very scattered and even a bit incoherent at times, and it was difficult to keep the women straight even with the “cheat sheet” at the beginning of the book. Ironically, the story began to come together better at the end, when the focus was less on the women themselves and more on the sequence of events surrounding the use of the bomb itself and the fallout (sorry, bad pun) that had on the town of Oak Ridge.

How She Does It by Anne Bogel
2/5

My fixation on books about motherhood and work/life balance continues! This was written to be an e-book, and is therefore pretty short and sweet. I possibly misunderstood the target audience — an audience that may not include me. I realized about halfway through that this really seemed to be aimed at moms who want to work but who, for various reasons, aren’t currently doing that.

I have a hard time reconciling with that point of view, since I’m coming from a place where I am working full-time outside the home and have for my entire adult life except for a 3-month maternity leave. I strongly WANT to be a working mom. But just because I want to do it doesn’t mean it’s easy.

So how do I do it? Well, first and foremost, I rely on daycare. And therein lies my other chief complaint about this book — a seemingly inherent assumption, based on the stories told by dozens of different women featured, that daycare = bad…and also that part-time work = good. I feel like you can’t truly write a book about “making time for work in your life” without also including stories from women who work full-time and utilize traditional daycare.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
5/5

I absolutely loved this book and think it’s the best thing I’ve read so far this year. The story jumps back and forth across a ~40 year time span and at least 4-6 main characters, and yet somehow this never becomes bothersome because the threads and people and timelines are so expertly woven together. I found myself marveling at how the author maintained so many links and small details while still making the story seem very real, relatable, and not at all contrived. I really liked the “small world” nature of the story as well — both literally, since the world’s population is now very small and figuratively, with the small but meaningful connections between characters.

On top of that, I found it really interesting to read a post-apocalyptic book that actually takes you through how the apocalypse occurred, shows you how people reacted to it, and then shows what has happened as the years go on for a particular set of survivors. I have to admit that it also freaked me out — I feel like a widespread deadly virus is an apocalypse scenario that actually is within the realm of possibility, which made me feel quite disconcerted at times (but obviously that’s a reflection on me, not the book).

It was already at least a 4-star book for me by the time I was halfway through. But with everything in mind, I was somewhat desperate for a hopeful ending. When I got that, the book easily got promoted to 5 stars in my mind.