December and January Book List

I am so very behind on everything blog related. I am doing well meeting goals in other areas of my life, but I failed to get the book list up for December or January. Here are all the great books I ended last year devouring and started the new year reading.

Poetry
Anarcha Speaks: A History in Poems by Dominque Christina

This reimagining of Anarcha, a slave Dr. J Marion Sims operated on, experiences is breathtaking. It is best read slowly as the reader tries to digest the injustice, pain, and inhumanity of being a black woman used for experimental surgery in the 1800s by the man considered the "modern father of gynecology".

The poetry will stay with you after you turn the last page, and so will the images it recalls.

 Fiction
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

This is the second Agatha Christie book I have ever read, and it was good. I am not as blown away by her work as everyone else seems to be, but that could be because I'm so late to the game and have heard her mysteries hyped up all my life. The pacing was solid and the story intriguing.


Ordinary People by Diana Evans

Set in London after the election of Barack Obama, two couples strive to make their relationships work. One couple has children but stay unmarried as they try to balance family life with wanting more. The other is couple are married and living out of the city, neither completely happy with their current situation.

I read this one in December so am short on details, but I enjoyed it a lot. The dialogue was natural and the story moved naturally, keeping me interested to the end.


The Last Cruise by Kate Christensen

What happens when an old ship on its last cruise suffers mechanical and mutiny problems during the trip? That's what Christensen sets out to explore while also shining a light on the circumstances surrounding staff members who work on cruise ships. There is an element of mystery, though I didn't view it as a conventional suspense novel.

The characters are very well developed and it is intriguing enough to see through to the end.

The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon

Will has lost his faith in God. Phoebe is just finding something stirring in her after her mom’s death and her misguided exploits to numb the pain. When Phoebe’s path leads her to a cult, her relationship with Will is strained as he wonders if Phoebe is capable of the acts the group is carrying out.  This book was haunting and a punch to the gut. I enjoyed Kwon’s unique approach to the topics of faith, love, and desperation.
 

Motherhood by Shelia Heti

How do we decide to become, or not become, mothers? What does the decision mean? That is what the unnamed narrator struggles with in Motherhood, consulting coins, friends, and dissecting her own past and present to figure out if she wants to become a mother.

The narrator’s explorations are weighty and thoughtful, and I really enjoyed this book.

The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

You won't know what exactly is going on in this novel until the end, but good luck guessing. It is a story of two women and the man they love or loved. I will keep details to a minimum so I don't ruin any of it, but it was a satisfying read.

Nonfiction

1000 Books to Read Before You Die:Life-Changing List by James Mustich

I scanned this book and added some titles to my book list for the future, but it would be a great one to own. The variety of the books chosen is astounding, and any avid reader will come back to it over and over for more choices.

Differently Wired: Raising an Exceptional Child in a Conventional World by Deborah Reber

Reber is the mother of a child who has ADHD and is on the autism spectrum, but I honestly think this should be mandatory reading for every parent. Reber explains how being differently wired, whether it's autism, anxiety, or other issues comes with negative connotations and almost no recognition of what these unique individuals bring to life. She gives advice on how to treat children whose brains work differently than what is considered the norm, and her guidance is wonderful.

Happy by Design: How to Create a Home that Boosts Your Health and Happiness by Victoria Harrison and Debbie Powell

I am reading a ton of design books right now in the hopes of hitting that sweet spot between simple and cozy. This is a great resource, covering the colors, smells, and textures that help us live our happiest at home. The advice is practical and easy to implement, and I am finding it echoed in many other books I’m reading on this topic.

Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell

This is a hilarious quick-read. Having worked in a library for years, I am not a stranger to meeting the public and fielding questions about books. Campbell does a great job of capturing some of her more memorable encounters while also including experiences of other booksellers. She offers a hilarious, startling, at times scary, look at humans.

Almost Everything: Notes on Hope by Anne Lamott

I am now one of those readers who squeals like a baby when I read Anne Lamott’s words. I love her. I have always enjoyed her work, but it speaks to me more now than it did years ago. Almost Everything is exactly the book the world needs right now. Lamott shares personal stories of learning to hope even when it seems illogical, and she now has me using my Bob Ross voice when I make a mistake, saying, "Now it's a bird." Lovely.

First, we make the beast beautiful: A New Journey Through Anxiety by Sarah Wilson

This is a hard one to unpack because I really enjoyed it and also feel like I need to warn readers about a couple of things. Wilson's exploration of her anxiety and bipolar disorder are eye-opening and deserve consideration. She wrote a book that is part research, part personal journey, and uniquely her own. She encourages readers to stop looking at those who suffer from anxiety as less than or defective, and she’s right. Embracing what each of us has to offer is key, and it’s dangerous to live our whole lives trying to be the world’s definition of normal.

While Wilson does mention not going off medication without doctor’s approval and confesses to taking sleeping pills when needed, she also seems to be a pretty strong advocate for not taking drugs for mental health disorders. I can’t get on board here. Sure, my anxiety helps me see the world in unique ways, and I flourish in certain areas due to what it can sometimes offer. It also left me considering self-harm and plotting my suicide on more than one occasion, and that’s some bullshit I don’t want to do anymore.

It’s each individual’s choice on how to approach mental health issues, and I approach mine with a nice dose of fluoxetine every morning. I also do yoga, meditate, run, take vitamins, eat whole food, and sleep eight hours a night. However, I can do the latter things because I do the former. The fluoxetine helped build a bridge from where I was to where I wanted to be, and it kept me from jumping off the bridge during the transition.

This book is definitely worth reading and has beautiful insight. Just please go into it knowing what works for you, and don’t be encouraged to bail on medication because Wilson is content to do without it most days. That’s her choice. Know what works for you.

Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig

Sarah Wilson recommended this one in her book about anxiety, and I grabbed it as soon as I finished her book. I read How to Stop Time and enjoyed it, so it was intriguing to pick up Haig’s non-fiction and hear his voice in those pages.

This book covers the time period when Haig went through a deep depression. It explores how he coped and how it affected his relationships. It offers short chapters with practical information and is a very honest narrative. Haig was also averse to taking anti-depressants, but he is by no means anti-meds. His anxiety made him paranoid about medication, and he makes that clear without making medicine sound like a bad idea.

Graphic Novel

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh

Full of laughs while still taking on serious issues like mental illness and if we're all truly shitty human beings, Hyperbole and a Half was a great last read for the year of 2018. The graphic novel format makes it a quick read, and the author's tales of her life are relatable.

Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me by Ellen Forney

Written in graphic novel format, Forney takes readers with her through the years she struggled to regulate her bipolar disease. She speaks honestly of her experiences when manic and the mind-numbing depression that followed. As an artist, she feared taking medication to regulate her bipolar disorder would kill her creativity, but she had to decide what she wanted most out of life when the symptoms of her condition became too much to handle.

Forney offers readers insight into her struggle to find the right medications, deal with side effects, and afford mental health care in the United States. She shares what her mental health struggles cost her as well as how much she gained. This is a wonderful book.