I’m reading 9-10 books a month these days, well on my way to reaching 100 books in 2018 (want to read more? Try these tips!) With so many books to cover, I decided to make these reviews shorter, or only review the real winners each month. I’ll have to start next month, because May was ALL WINNERS. Non-fiction wise, I have a refreshingly different Christian book, a Pulitzer Prize winning presidential biography, and an inspiring feminist memoir that read like a novel. Fiction-wise, I started a new audio-mystery series, continued another, listened to a delightfully soapy book I wanted to read before the movie comes out, and FINISHED the last of the books-I-previously-abandoned from my failed April reading challenge. I fully recommend all of these books (with one exception), how can I not tell you about them??

Quick Book Reviews: May NON-FICTION

The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong Can Be Made Right, by Lisa Sharon Harper

A broader, more beautiful vision of the Gospel: Lisa Sharon Harper is a wise guide, leading us beyond four spiritual laws to a gospel that begins in Genesis 1 with God’s “Very Good” and ends in Revelation when all is made new. Along the way, she shares a vision for how the very good gospel can and should transform the relationship between all things (families, genders, the earth, ethnic groups, even our relationship with death.) Highly recommend for the entire book, but I found the chapter on gender very thought provoking, and the chapter on race/ethnicity is MUST READ.

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, by Edmund Morris

I had forgotten how much I enjoy a good biography, and as a Pulitzer Prize winner, you know this is a really good biography. My familiarity with Theodore Roosevelt was almost entirely from Night at the Museum (Robin Williams!), and I realized while reading this that my US History education centered almost entirely around wars (TR did participate in the Spanish American War as part of the Rough Riders, but I couldn’t have placed that particular war in the correct century or continent.)

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt begins with the future president’s birth and ends with the telegraph informing Vice President Roosevelt that President William McKinley had died from a gunshot wound (he was shot by an anarchist), spanning the post reconstruction years to the dawn of the 20th century. I learned a lot about the history and politics of that period, though this reads like a novel (mostly because of TR’s colorful probably-an-enneagram-8 personality.) I listened to this on audio, the narrator does a great job (but it is long, over 700 pages in book form…)

The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace, by Lynn Povich

The Good Girls Revolt is about the group of Ivy League educated women working at Newsweek (considered liberal and progressive) after employment discrimination based on race or gender was made illegal in the 1960s. While researching Newsweek stories about the rise of feminism, these women realized Newsweek’s own policies were identifiably illegal, and began to be frustrated with the inequality and sexism in their supposedly liberal and progressive workplace.

Like many women my age and younger, I had little idea how much I benefit from the women before me who fought for wider opportunities and pay equality. This book is like a front row seat to history, and helped me correct a lot of the misconceptions I was taught about the women’s movement: First that the original feminists were not all man haters or bra burners, but second that there was actually good reason for anger and bra burning. Povich’s story also reinforces my belief that you can be a feminist and also value motherhood and families. Really enjoyed this book!

Quick Book Reviews: May FICTION

Crazy Rich Asians, by Keven Kwan

Crazy Rich Asians is the delightfully frothy story of a Rachel, a Chinese American professor whose boyfriend of two years invites her to fly home to Singapore for his best friend’s wedding, and to meet his family. She discovers that Nick is the golden son of one of Singapore’s richest families, and most eligible bachelor among a tight knit group of the Uber-wealthy who are not at all happy to meet her.

If that sounds dramatic, it is: this is a page turner, and a cross between a fun romantic comedy and a very frothy, culturally interesting soap opera. I can’t wait to see this movie (coming in August!) This is super fun as an audiobook, but I had to Wikipedia a list of characters to keep everyone straight.

Station Eleven, by Emily St.John Mandel

Station Eleven imagines humanity before and after a global flu pandemic wipes out 95% of the world’s population, leaving earth without borders, governments, mass communication, or electricity. The story jumps between before the pandemic hits, shortly after, and 20-30 years post-flu, filling in the story of several characters whose lives intertwine in various ways.

This was the last book surviving from my (failed) go back and read books you abandoned self-challenge, and I am SO GLAD I pushed through and finished it. The tone was a little dark and creepy for me, to be expected in a post-flu pandemic book. But hope and beauty began to shine through in the second half. I loved how the theme (“Survival is insufficient”, a Star Trek quote) was woven through the story, and the importance of Shakespeare and music in the desolate world of the book. I really enjoyed seeing how various characters’ lives end up being connected.

This book Left me with two thoughts: 1. The contrast between what is important to me when I have all I need and what would be important if the world fell apart and 2. If there is ever a global pandemic, I would just as soon not survive, thank you very much.

A Study in Charlotte, by Brittany Cavallaro

My first free book from Audiobooksync.com, this was a fun listen. I enjoyed re-imagining the Sherlock Holmes tales with the teenage descendants of Holmes and Watson. Charlotte Holmes and Jamie Watson end up at the same Connecticut boarding school. I enjoyed this, but it was a bit profanity and sex-laden for me. I might not have minded as much in book form, but I don’t love listening to books with this much F Bomb, though I am sure it’s a pretty accurate depiction of high school talk. This is the one book I read this month that I can’t unequivocally recommend: It may be for you, it may be too teenager-y.  I have the second book in the series from my library’s Overdrive, but I haven’t decided if I want to continue or not.

Amelia Peabody Books 5-7, by Elizabeth Peters

Peabody & Emerson continue to help me fly toward my 100 books in 2018 goal, these books are such fun and quick listens. Book 7 introduced a new narrator who took some getting used to, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to continue with her (she has a much more posh accent than the narrator for books 1-6). Super glad I stuck with her, because The Snake, the Crocodile and the Dog was my favorite in the series by a LOT (and the narrator has grown on me): Emerson is kidnapped, feared dead, and when Amelia finally finds and rescues him the last thing he remembers is the time just before they met. AMNESIA!  I was on pins and needles waiting to see if Emerson would remember (or fall in love again with) his Peabody, and discover what role the Master Criminal Sethos played in this mystery. Such fun.

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I’m starting June off with a fun read-aloud with my younger two boys, a kids’ book about art and creativity and facing the fear of letting your imagination out into the world. On my own I’ve started a fun twisty mystery that was presented to me as “The Westing Game for adults” (SOLD.)

I’d love to hear what you read in April, and what you’re reading now!

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