Let's Talk About Books Baby!

July

Books Bought:

A Paris Affair By: Tatiana De Rosnay

Go Set A Watchman By: Harper Lee 

Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town By: Jon Krakauer

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim By: David Sedaris

Books Read:

Euphoria By: Lily King

A Paris Affair By: Tatiana De Rosnay

The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan By: Rafia Zakaria
 Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town By: Jon Krakauer
 Go Set A Watchman By: Harper Lee
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim By: David Sedaris

 What a month for books!  First, let's just talk about how happy it makes me that Barnes & Noble had it's biggest release day for adult fiction in the store's history thanks to Harper Lee's newly released Go Set a Watchman.  But, let's also talk about how sad it is that no one knows for sure... did she even want the book to come out now?  Was she bullied? Did she even write it?  Who knows?  But everyone has an opinion on it!  AND, don't even get me started on the whole Atticus situation.  Is he a racist? Does this change the way that we think of America's most beloved character?  Is it a co-incidence that this book comes out at the very time that racial tensions are reaching a new level in the US?  I don't know.  But, for what it's worth, the book was ok.  I kind of put some of the "news" surrounding the book out of my mind and just read it with an open mind.  I liked that it was a grown up version of Scout, and that she challenged the normal societal conventions of the time--- marriage, staying in your small home town, etc  I also liked that the book heavily explored the idea of you can never go home again, and that as we get older, we are able to see our parents flaws... but we still love them anyway, maybe even moreso.

In other book news... Tatiana De Rosnay had another book translated into English, of course I had to go pick it up from the bookstore.  It is a short story collection about affairs in Paris, it's a bit cliche, but it's a super quick read so at the very least if you are not in love with this book, you can be done with it in an hour or so.  

And, the one other piece of fiction I read this month... Euphoria. Such. A. Good. Book.  Seriously!

I had noticed this book made like every list of "Best Books of 2014", but for some reason I just kept avoiding it.  But for some reason, maybe it was the heat or something, a book about a love triangle between three anthropologists in New Guinea was just calling my name.  It met all my expectations.  I love books that are exotic and sexy but are not trashy romance novels.  I felt like I learned a lot too, I always knew anthropology was important and interesting, but I see it in a whole new light and feel kind of sad that I wasn't born in another time and as a more adventurous person.  Maybe in another life... who knows?

Ok... Non-fiction.

The Upstairs Wife-- kind of a letdown, but I liked the premise... tying a girls history of her own family to the history of a Nation (Pakistan) and a Politician (Benazir Bhutto).  

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim... Only my second David Sedaris book, and I have to say it was so fun to only now be finding out he's gay!  How nice it was to just know of a person for so long without having to know his sexuality.  Obviously it doesn't change my opinion whatsoever... but it was just funny to be listening along and then realizing that there is this person who I've heard about how brilliant he is and how hilarious and that people never had to talk about or mention that he was gay.  Anyways... the book was alright, it was funny, but it didn't make me shed tears of laughter like Holidays on Ice did.

And now... Jon Krakauer.  Can I just say I have been missing out!  This guy is amazing!  This was my first book I've read by him, (even though a different one has been sitting on my shelf at home for years now...).  While the content of this book is heavy and depressing, the way the story is told is like listening to an episode of the podcast Serial.  Soooo entertaining... yet educational and informative. It felt like I could sit back and point a finger at this other small college town, and at the end Krakauer revealed that the University of Colorado Boulder is on a list of schools being investigated federally for not investigating sexual violence complaints.  Sad.  Disappointing.  Why is no one talking about this?!?!

Anyways, that's all I've got for now.  What have you guys been reading?