Young Jane Young, Gabrielle Zevin
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
What I liked/didn’t like: I loved the timeliness of the story, the story from the women’s points of view, and I really liked a lot of the characters. There wasn’t much I didn’t like about it, except that I wanted it to continue.
Exit West, Mohsin Hamid
Rating: 5/5 stars
What I liked/didn’t like: I loved the melancholy of the book, as well as Hamid’s prose– there were just some really beautifully written sentences. I won’t say a lot about this one, it’s one you’ll have to read for yourself. But I’ve recommended it just about everywhere I could, if that says something. May not be a light, summer read, but it’s a quick read.
Difficult Women, Roxane Gay
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
What I liked/didn’t like: Difficult Women is a collection of short stories, all from a different story or perspective. I laughed, I cried, I emailed Roxane Gay to tell her how much her writing impacted me. There were some weird ones that I sort of breezed through, there were some that I sat the book down and ugly cried for a while. Relatable women, unrelatable women, I learned something, I felt something.
Despite the heat and the call for summer reads— I read some heavy ones this past month. I think they hit where I was emotionally for me as well as providing a release (there was a lot of crying…) I’m doing better, and I’d like to think it was in part due to some of these reads. After all, everything you read becomes a part of you…
(ps– Honorable mentions go to Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling and In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote, both of which went back to the library unfinished. I may pick them back up at another point, but in June, they just didn’t work for me)
A Big Small Life 