October + November Reading Wrap-Up!
Hello everyone! It's been a while, hasn't it? Hope you have all been doing well these past couple of months.
I'll be honest, both October and November were pretty meh reading months. Considering October is THE month to read horror and thriller novels, I did not read anything particularly spooky. I had some better luck in November, but altogether, I'd say I'm hoping for better reading luck in December.
So without further ado, here are the books I read in the months of October and November.
To Sir, With Love by Lauren Layne - 😐
So one of my favorite Christmas movies is "The Shop Around The Corner". I read the play that the movie is based on last year, if you remember, which...why would you? But anyway, the story is about these two co-workers who don't like each other, and it turns out they're secret pen pals and have fallen in love through their letters. The plot of this book sounded quite similar to the plot of the movie. We're following this woman, who has somehow begun this anonymous texting relationship with another person, and she starts catching feelings for this person. This is all happening while she is trying to keep her father's champagne store open and away from this mean rich guy Sebastian who is trying to take over the space of the store. Based on how romance novels typically go, why don't you make a guess as to what happens? Did you guess yet? Okay, I'll just tell you. Sebastian and the anonymous texting guy are the same person, and this reveal is literally in the last 5 pages of the book.
This book was disappointing. I liked our main character, Gracie, but the relationship itself was so dull. Sebastian was cardboard and I don't really see why Gracie liked him in the first place. Not a spark between them. For a romance novel, the romance should be the main attraction, right? Wrong. Overall, this was just meh. Also, remember this author, because she'll come up again later on in this post.
Talk Bookish To Me by Kate Bromley - 😐
Another disappointment of a romcom book. We're following this woman, Kara Sullivan, who is a romance novelist. She's been in love with her college ex-boyfriend for 10 years and happens to run into him at her best friend's wedding. To my surprise, Kara and her college ex-boyfriend Ryan were actually hilarious and delightful. I loved Kara and enjoyed her banter with Ryan. Ryan was funny and charming. I was like c'mon guys, is this going to be a good book? I'm really enjoying it. And then.....kapoot. With one twist, my entire positive perception of this book went out the window. Now you might be wondering, Pooja, aren't you being a tad bit dramatic? No reader. No, I am not. I am not being dramatic at all. To explain why I'll need to delve into spoilers.
*SPOILERS*
Kara and Ryan get together during this friend's wedding. It's all fun and good for a while. They're super cute together and it's going great. AND THEN it is revealed that Ryan has been ENGAGED this whole time to another woman. Not only that, he's engaged to Madison, the woman who Kara thought Ryan had cheated on her with the first time they broke up. So Ryan lied about everything and Kara feels bad about everything and Ryan is all like, I didn't know how to tell you XYZ, you're the love of my life, blah blah. Kara is like no way, I'm leaving, and then she yeets herself all the way to Italy for six months. But then, after a few months of being in Italy, Ryan goes there to apologize and gives her this photo album which is supposed to make her feel bad and forgive him. But then they don't meet. He just gives the photo album to her landlord or something and then she sees him from a distance. Then after her six months in Italy end she ends up forgiving him and is like can we be together and obviously he's all like sure. And then in the epilogue, they are married and have twins. And I'm just like? So we're not going to be angry at Ryan for never telling Kara he was ENGAGED to another woman? That woman isn't angry about any of this? She didn't even know what was happening. Is engagement a joke to these people?
*END OF SPOILERS*
Mythos by Stephen Fry - 🍦
After the busts that were those two terrible romance novels I read earlier in the month, I decided to go ahead and read from an author I know will never disappoint and from a genre that is very far from romance. For those avid readers of this blog, you may remember how I read Heroes by Stephen Fry, the second book in his Great Mythology Trilogy, back in September. I decided to go ahead and read the first book in his trilogy and to no one's surprise, I loved it. In this book, Fry explores the stories of Greek Gods like Zeus, Athena, and Apollo, keeping fun and cheeky per usual. I mean if you ever wanted to read about Greek mythology in an accessible way with some insane comedic timing, Fry's your man. If you have the opportunity, I'd highly recommend listening to the audiobook, Fry is just a delight to listen to. 10/10 would HIGHLY recommend.
Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King - 🍦
We got the first cry of the Fall season with this book. It seems Lily King just doesn't disappoint because she is 2 for 2 for 'books that make Pooja cry'. I read her book Writers and Lovers earlier this year and 100% had a little crying episode at the ending. This is her latest short story collection and it was fabulous. My favorites among the stories were: Creature, Five Tuesdays in Winter, and When in Dordogne. In Creature we have a young woman put in an uncomfortable situation at a swimming pool. In Five Tuesdays in Winter we're following a heartwarming situation between a father and daughter. The ending of both Five Tuesdays in Winter and When in Dordogne literally had me SQUEALING out loud, which is very uncharacteristic of me, but honestly given my love for romcoms I'm surprised I don't do it more often. Overall, this is definitely being added to the list of my favorite short story collections of all time and I'd highly recommend it.
Ahalya by Koral Dasgupta - 🍪
Now here is a book I had never heard of, much less thought I would read and like. Ahalya is a character in Hindu mythology. Her backstory is that she was a devoted wife to her sage husband, but one day the King of the Gods Indra saw her on Earth and was like omg, I need to be with her. So he DISGUISES himself as her husband and he and Ahalya sleep together, but then her actual husband comes back and is like umm... what's going on here and then Ahalya realizes she's been fooled. And then her husband curses her for getting fooled by the LITERAL King of Gods and she's turned into a rock for like centuries until a different guy comes to save her cause sexism, misogyny, and her husband is the worst.
Yeah...so, this book is a retelling of this story from Ahalya's perspective. I'll be honest, the story itself was a little dull, however, the writing was phenomenal. I don't know what Koral Dasgupta is drinking, but wow can this woman write. Her descriptions of physical nature and her insights into human nature honestly had me hooked from the first few pages. The plot was pretty meh, but I think that was mostly just me being disappointed that Ahalya as a character did not receive more justice. This book is the first of a series of 5 so I'm super excited to read more from this author in the future.
Kink: Stories by R.O Kwon, Garth Greenwell, Roxane Gay, Kim Fu, Vanessa Clark, Alexander Chee, Brandon Taylor, Peter Mountford, Cara Hoffman, Carmen Maria Machado, Larissa Pham, Chris Kraus, Zeyn Jhoukhadar, Melissa Febos, Callum Angus - 🙅
This is an anthology of stories relating to...you guessed it, sex. It's not very good. Honestly just save your time, money, and energy and read better books. This just felt like a bunch of very good writers coming together and writing incredibly pretentious short stories. No story is memorable and I was so bored (surprising given the nature of the content, yes I'm aware), that it literally took me like 4 months to finish this collection.
In My Dreams I Hold A Knife by Ashley Winstead - 🍦
Instead of reading Kink you should read this book, cause gosh, it was fabulous. Literally SO GOOD. We're following this wild protagonist, Jessica Miller, and her crazy inner thoughts as she goes back to her 10-year college reunion. Everything and everybody is suspicious and wack and it's just generally so intriguing from the first five pages of chapter 1. I'm not going to say anything because you should just read it. The writing is great, the plot is intriguing, and the characterization is phenomenal. HIGHLY recommend if you want those thrillery, suspicious, tension-filled vibes.
BOOKS THAT ARE FEATURED IN THE USELESS DOCTOR'S BOOK CLUB
Here are the group of books I read that were covered in the Useless Doctor's Book Club Podcast of which I am 1/3 host. I'll refrain from sharing my thoughts on these books since they were spoken about in detail in the podcast. Feel free to check it out if you are interested! In the meantime, some one-line descriptions of these books.
Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - 😐
An action vampire novel that was low on the action and high on the relationship drama.
The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris - 🍪
A clever "thriller" novel that wasn't very thrillery but was quite confusing in an interesting way. Take that as you will.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson - 🙅
A snoozefest. I'm sorry Shirley Jackson but after reading "The Lottery" I expected more from you.
You Had Me At Hola by Alexis Daria - 😐
Did not care about the romance or the dude. Really stuck around just for the female friendship.
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones - 🍪
The pacing of this book made it difficult to read, but it was generally my kind of brand of weird. Also, there are some iconicly gross scenes.
Passion on Park Avenue by Lauren Layne - 🙅
Remember To Sir, With Love? SAME author. Honestly, I would've stopped reading this book after the first chapter if I wasn't committed to the podcast. Female protagonist girlbossed a little too close to the sun. Male protagonist was cardboard. Thank u, next.
I Thought You Said This Would Work by Ann Wertz Garvin - 😐
Meh. The writing style was so meh, the characters were meh, and the plot was even more meh.
So there you have it folks, the books I read in October and November. Did you read anything interesting this fall? Anything terrible? Let me know!
