January 2020 reading recap

January was a great way to start my reading year. I read eleven books, and five of them were 5-star reads. Here are my quick thoughts on each of the eleven reads.

Nonfiction


Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger by Rebecca Traister
I adored All the Single Ladies, which Traister also narrated herself. I highly recommend both. Good and Mad is brilliant, cathartic, and necessary reading. (5 stars)

Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn 
I liked Jennifer Garner's narration. She reads with compassion and care. The issues are well-researched and combined with compelling human interest stories, so readers get both the big picture and the personal impact. I wish the geographic scope were broader. It's mostly set in Kristof's hometown, but it's told in first-person plural (Kristof and WuDunn are married), so at times the audio was confusing with a single female narrator. Overall, recommended, but I would opt for it in print. (4 stars)

Mysteries


The Lies We Told by Camila Way
This British thriller is delightfully twisted and full of twists. I devoured it in a single day and only regret waiting so long to read it after Liberty recommended it. Get it from Book of the Month for only $5! (5 stars)

Alone in the Wild by Kelley Armstrong
This is the fifth mystery set in the fictional town of Rockton, and it's the best yet. (My thoughts on the first two.) This series definitely should be read in order, so if you haven't had the pleasure of spending time in Rockton, start with City of the Lost.

Fiction


Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown
Mozhan Marno is my favorite audiobook narrator, and I will listen to anything she narrates. This novel has an interesting premise: two new wives in the same house, one today and one in the 1950's. Both narrators were excellent, and I loved the historic storyline, but the contemporary characters struck me bizarre. Overall, an enjoyable listen, if only for the historic storyline. (3 stars)

Winter in Paradise and What Happens in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand
The first two books in Elin Hilderbrand's Paradise trilogy were both fun listens. Winter in Paradise introduced a strong cast of characters and a lot of drama. It was fun to have the book set in Iowa (Hilderbrand is an Iowa Writer's Workshop alumna) and the Virgin Islands. What Happens in Paradise is much more compelling. Hilderbrand uncovered a lot of secrets and raised a ton of questions, which left me impatiently awaiting Trouble in Paradise (out October 6.) (3.5 stars and 4 stars)

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson
I loved the writing and commentary in this novel more than the characters and story. I'm glad I read it, and I enjoyed it, but I did not love it as much as everyone else seemed to. (4 stars)

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
I adore Elizabeth Gilbert and her books, and I don't know why it took me so long to read this book. It's a delightful piece of feminist historical fiction. Vivian is a character for ages, and her wife life was a fun, wild ride. (4.5 stars)

Topics of Conversation by Miranda Popkey
The publisher's description of this novel is better than I could write: "Miranda Popkey's first novel is about desire, disgust, motherhood, loneliness, art, pain, feminism, anger, envy, guilt--written in language that sizzles with intelligence and eroticism. The novel is composed almost exclusively of conversations between women--the stories they tell each other, and the stories they tell themselves, about shame and love, infidelity and self-sabotage--and careens through twenty years in the life of an unnamed narrator hungry for experience and bent on upending her life. Edgy, wry, shot through with rage and despair, Topics of Conversation introduces an audacious and immensely gifted new novelist." When I first read about this novel, I felt as though it were written for me. It's fucking brilliant, and I universally recommend it to everyone, but especially to women under fifty. (5 stars)

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
One of my reading goals this year was to read more from my shelves, and I picked this Book of the Month pick as my first read of 2020. I read it in a single day and loved spending time with the beautifully raw and flawed Queenie, a young British woman from a Jamaican family. It's a confident, wise, and brilliant debut. (5 stars)

Want to read for yourself? Order from an independent bookstore, Book of the Month (for many of these titles!), or Amazon.

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