Show Us Your Books: February 2018

Shout-out to Teh Megan for lending audio books & vastly upping my amount this month...bloggy friends FTW!

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

First things first: this didn't quite rip me to shreds the way her previous book What I Never Told You Did. This could be because I couldn't devour it in one sitting the way I did the first book, or because it ends slightly more hopeful (in my opinion). But holy hell. This book examines family and friendship and the feminine experience and specifically mothers and daughters in a billion different complex and thoughtful ways. The adoption situation was really difficult to consider given that we are hoping to be licensed for foster care any day now.
★★★★

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Again, a book that examines family and love and friendships and culture and fame and sexuality in an intensely personal and thoughtful way.  Not at all what I expected- but in a great way. It was deep and I loved it.
★★★★★

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

I'm not sure how much I can say about this that hasn't already been said. It's touching, it's relevant, it's a story about family and friendship and tragedy. I avoided it for a while because I thought it would be hard to read, and some of it was. There were parts that were shockingly normal and parts that were heartbreaking- that juxtaposition felt like a poor writing choice at first and then felt very intentional as I thought about it. It's a roller coaster of emotions- I laughed and cried and agreed and questioned. Read it.
★★★★★

Love That Boy: 

What Two Presidents, Eight Road Trips, and My Son Taught Me About a Parent's Expectations by Ron Fournier

I really loved this- although that is a BS long title. Fournier is direct and upfront about all the BS worries and unfair expectations that parents almost always have built-in. He discuses these with experts such sociologists & psychologists and also with parents. He acknowledges his many privileges and the fact that had he not had those privileges, his children's lives may have turned out very different and the challenges his family faced may not have been overcome (or would have caused even more turmoil). I liked the basic "Yep, this was hard, I screwed it up, don't make the same mistakes" feeling of the book. It's written about his son who is an Aspie, but applicable to anyone who is a parent (or has ever been a child, for that matter).
★★★★

 The Arrangement by Sarah Dunn
Now this was a somewhat chic-lit done correctly (see below DNF for context). It was complicated and flawed and weird. I love stories that show the little hidden lives of different people in the community, all these tiny gems that are so easy to miss in real life. It looses points because there were two arcs that I didn't feel were necessary- not because they were bad or frustrating, they just added nothing to the overall narrative. One went on too long but got nowhere, and one was a single chapter that again went nowhere. They seem to be included to showcase more varieties in relationships, which I like, but these were not done well (especially noticeable in a novel where that exact thing was done brilliantly for at least 3 other couples). But overall a good read and one of the first books in a while I have breezed through with pure enjoyment.
★★★★

DNF'd Meternity. I thought it was going to be a different plot, so maybe my fault for having specific expectations. Instead of it being a "women deserve a break other times besides giving birth," it was a stereotypical millennial 30-something lying about being pregnant to get time off. Not as cool, and also I'm sick of the flailing 30 year old trope. You can be charged with murder at age 18, get your shit together. The writing felt very...fluffy. And I'm not trying to talk crap about "chic lit" in general accuse I have read finding-yourself stories and romances that were incredibly well-written, but this just wasn't.

What have you been reading lately? 

Link-up & let us know!