I Heart Books: The Valentine's Day Edition

This month of reading can best be described as out of control.  All of my books at the library seemed to come available on my holds list at once, and I want to devour each and every one like chocolate.  I have made my way through four of them, and they were so good I had to share now.  Well, three of them were.  There's always that one chocolate in the box that you bite into thinking it's going to taste amazing, but then it just ends up being filled with coconut or some unidentifiable flavor.  It happens.

Yeah, I did not expect everything to land at once.

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert:  This was a great read for anybody interested in any form of creative living.  After reading the first 30 pages, I wasn't sure it was going to be my thing, but I pressed on because this book is on my BookPage list and many writers I like are obsessed with the Big Magic book and podcast.  I'm glad I continued because Gilbert's insight was freeing in so many ways.  I think her advice to be a "disciplined half-ass" fits me to a T, except I'm not disciplined.

Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist by Sunil Yapa-: I devoured this book in two days.  Set in Seattle during the World Trade Organization protests in 1999, this story contemplates big issues in the world while simultaneously exploring the personal stories of characters I really cared about.  Yanal's writing style is intoxicating.  This is one of my faves from this month so far.

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates:  Coates' biography, written in the format of a letter to his son, offers his journey through the world and his understanding of what it means to be black.  He challenges assumptions, points out inconvenient facts, and lends his voice to the conversation about our views and understandings of race.  I read this in one night and will probably read it repeatedly throughout my life.

Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins:  What to say about this one.  Here's the best I can tell you:  I started reading it then stopped and read two other books, then picked it up again.  For me, that's not a great sign.  There's no doubt that Watkins can write.  My problem is that none of the characters were sympathetic enough for me to feel invested in their fates.  This has been a problem for me with several books I liked but also didn't feel overly connected to.  The Secret History by Donna Tartt fell into that category.  Great writing, good story, but I was not dying to see what happened next.  I just wanted everyone to get their lives together.

I'm still planning on tackling the following this month:
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara :  I am about 100 pages in, and it is good.
World War Z by Max Brooks:  This is a D recommendation.  I am finally going to learn all I need to know about the zombie apocalypse.
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine:  This is a book of poetry, and I'm going to read a few poems every night.

I'm on Goodreads, so if you haven't found me and I haven't found you, let's find each other!  Goodreads is my Pinterest.