May 2018 Reading Wrap-Up
Ah! May is always such a quick month in my opinion, despite it being 31 days. January is 31 days and it always feels like twice that long. I read 5 books this month: 2 literary fiction, 2 sci-fi, and 1 thriller on audio. I have been really bad about reading non-fiction this year, but oh well. I just haven’t been motivated, probably because of the news. That’s enough realness for me right now. Here are my reviews:
The Idiot by Elif Batuman * *
I was excited to read this book because I love coming-of-age stories and I had heard this was a really good one. The novel follows Selin, an American of Turkish descent, through her freshman year at Harvard in 1995. She develops a crush on an older classmate, Ian, when they strike up an email correspondence. In the summer, she follows him to his native Hungary through an English tutoring program. At first, I was enjoying the quirky humor of the novel and Selin’s awkwardness. It felt relatable and true to figuring out the start of college. Once Selin becomes more obsessed with Ian, however, the book went off the rails for me. I found her behavior to be completely confounding and unrealistic, like she was doing it deliberately in order to be different/eccentric. The novel just started to get really boring and frustrating, with the pretension and quirkiness getting in the way of the narrative. In the end, I was pretty disappointed with this read. Selin is way too much of a passive narrator.
White Teeth by Zadie Smith *
I picked this up because I’ve heard from several people that White Teeth is Zadie Smith’s best novel. I have read Swing Time and The Autograph Man, both of which I found to be meh. Reading this novel confirms that I just do not understand the Zadie Smith hype. So many people rave about her and she’s such a famous figure among the literary elite, but I do not like her books. I don’t know how this one made it onto The Great American Read list! White Teeth follows the life of two immigrant families in London as they navigate the balance of assimilation vs. honoring old traditions. If the book was actually about that, it would maybe be good, but Smith makes so many random digressions and turnoffs, that this is a jumbled mess in my opinion. The characters are more caricatures than real people and the story and writing are just super frenetic and all over the place. To me, it always reads like Smith is trying so hard to be brilliant. Meanwhile, I’m left bored and confused. It was a struggle for me to make it to the end of this one and I came close to giving up, which I never do. Needless to say, I’m officially done with Zadie Smith books.
The Power by Naomi Alderman * * * *
This is a really hard book to review. It’s more like a 3.5 star for me. This was super-hyped when it came out, but once I actually started reading, it wasn’t what I had been expecting at all. This is speculative fiction where women suddenly have an electrical power in their bodies that allows them to shock and even kill others. It makes them the physically dominant gender, which violently shifts the power dynamics of society. Alderman frames this as a book within a book, where an author is writing an account of the beginning of “the power” after many, many years have passed. I would say to approach this as more of a thought experiment than a novel. I was ultimately kind of disappointed by the direction the book took, and it isn’t very engaging or clearly narrative (which surprised me). It’s not plot-heavy or fast-paced. Still, I read this for book club and we had A LOT to talk about. I think, for that reason, this is a worthy read just to kind of make yourself think and challenge your own preconceptions. Alderman is a great writer — I REALLY loved the little newscaster sections she scattered throughout the book and I could read a whole book of just those scenes.
Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty * * *
I am not a huge thriller/suspense reader, but I really like Liane Moriarty’s books, especially as read by Caroline Lee on audio. Unfortunately, this one was slightly disappointing by the standard I hold for these books. I think this is mainly because Moriarty holds onto her withholding, slowly unfurl the details-type structure, but the subject matter of this novel doesn’t require it. Truly Madly Guilty centers around three families and their feelings of guilt after an accident during a backyard BBQ. During the first half of the book, through which we are tortured with the What Happened At The BBQ question, everything feels like it’s dragging on and is too shrouded in secrecy. Once it’s finally revealed, you’re kind of frustrated by all the mystery. I think the book actually gets much better once you know what happened and I enjoyed the read after that. The characters are classic Moriarty, and there are good sections centered around friendship and marriage. I just wish the book had started out with telling all the events of the BBQ from the get-go. Not the Moriarty read I would recommend. Big Little Lies and The Husband’s Secret are much better.
Dune by Frank Herbert * * * *
This was a sort of random read for me, but after watching The Great American Read I was motivated to pick up some of the classics I haven’t ever read. (I was not motivated to pick up 50 Shades of Grey and can’t believe that made the list!) Dune is a sci-fi legend and I can see why, the story and world seem way ahead of their time for its initial publication in the ’60s. The story focuses on Pual Atreides, the son of Duke Leto who is left for dead on the harsh planet of Arrakis after the assassination and political takeover of his father’s power. I really liked the world-building here and was fascinated by the Fremen. They are so underestimated by the Guild/Imperial forces who don’t understand them. The book is old-fashioned and a pretty dense read, so that kept me from rating it 5 stars. Sometimes I found the inner calculations to be repetitive and tedious. Still, this has some awesome concepts about time, religion and power, and the spice drug seems like a crazy trip. Would I ride a sandworm? No way. Would I recommend this book? Yes.
This wasn’t an awful reading month, but a lot of the books were more dense than page-turners, so I’m looking forward to some true summer reads for June. To say up-to-date with all my reading, follow me on Instagram @tinaisreading.
