February 2022 Reading Round-Up

The best and worst of my reading month

Welcome to the February 2022 Reading Round-Up. Each month, I write about the books I read and rank them from worst to best.

I had an eclectic reading month in which I mostly picked up books based on when they were available to check out at the library, (or more likely given my extensive library book collection as anyone who visits my apartment will tell you, when they were due). In my struggle to find a theme as I wrote this post, I did notice that there are multiple books on this list that were recommended by Ann Patchett through her bookstore’s social media. Making this even more serendipitous is the fact that my favorite book this month is by none other than Ann Patchett herself.

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12. Black Cake - Charmaine Wilkerson

Fiction, 400 pages

When Eleanor Bennett dies, she leaves behind two things: a long audio recording to be played for her children, Byron and Benny, and a traditional Caribbean black cake in the freezer to be shared when the moment is right. Benny has been estranged from her family for nearly eight years, and it is Eleanor's hope that this recording, which reveals the long and secret backstory of her life, will bring the siblings together and introduce them to a legacy of which they were previously unaware. The cake, ever-present in the freezer, serves as a reminder of the long journey that Eleanor took to come to the United States and provide her children with the life they knew, which included her escape from the island on which she grew up, a train crash and the assumption of a new identity, and the birth of a child who was taken from her by disapproving Catholic nuns. This book has the makings of an exciting multi-generational saga, but unfortunately, nearly all of the reveals (of which there are many) felt a little too convenient, causing the whole story to fall a bit flat. I've seen that this book has been picked up to be turned into a Hulu series, and maybe some of the twists will translate better to dramatics in a TV show, but in this format they sometimes felt forced and not as exciting as intended.

Rating: 7/10

Thank you to Penguin Random House/Ballantine Books for the advanced reader copy of this book.

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11. Weather Girl - Rachel Lynn Solomon

Fiction/Romance, 330 Pages

Ari Abrams is a young meteorologist working at the local Seattle broadcasting station. This is her dream job, especially because she gets to work with her personal hero, senior meteorologist Torrance Hale. Torrance Hale, however, spends most of her off-camera hours embroiled in conflict with her ex-husband, the station’s news director, and is unable to provide the mentorship and opportunities that Ari wanted. After a very awkward holiday party, Ari and sports reporter Russell decide to work together to reunite their bosses with the hopes that it will make everyone’s working conditions better. In the process of their parent-trap scheme, however, Russell and Ari fall for one another as well, and they must keep their ruse a secret while also navigating their newfound relationship. I enjoyed Rachel Lynn Solomon’s previous novel, The Ex-Talk, and was excited to pick up Weather Girl when it came out. While The Ex-Talk is definitely better, Weather Girl is an enjoyable and light read that delivers what it sets out to achieve.

Rating: 7/10

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10. Edge Case - YZ Chin

Fiction, 304 pages

One day after returning from work Edwina discovers that her husband Marlin is missing. Edwina is not particularly concerned for his physical safety – it is clear that he packed a suitcase and left deliberately – but is instead concerned about his motivations. As Malaysian immigrants, Edwina and Marlin have struggled to obtain green cards. This stress, combined with Marlin’s father’s recent death, has sent Marlin turning to spiritual alternatives and has driven a wedge in their relationship. Marlin’s disappearance causes a personal reckoning for Edwina as well, and as she searches New York for her lost husband she also begins to consider whether or not staying in America is worth it, what it means to be an immigrant, and if her suffering is valid or worthy of consideration.

I read a critique of this book which argued that Chin spends too much time on supplemental material, such as Edwina’s work experience, rather than honing its focus on her search for Marlin and her past relationship with him. While I agree with this take, indeed some scenes of her testing AI at work and interacting with her coworkers felt disconnected from the larger story, I also appreciated what Chin was trying to accomplish by including these scenes, namely that despite Marlin’s disappearance, Edwina’s life continued on. 

Rating: 7/10

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9. Several People are Typing - Calvin Kasulke

Fiction, 246 pages

The entirety of Several People are Typing is told through the exchange of Slack messages at a New York PR firm. This satirized portrayal of an American corporate workplace, one in which employees communicate primarily online and work from home at will, highlights the absurdity of the intense connectivity expected of employees in the digital world. Illustrating this point is Gerald, a mid-level employee whose consciousness has been commandeered by the company’s Slack channels, trapping Gerald in a 24-hour work day. This is absolutely unlike any book I have ever read before, and I rated it as highly as I did purely for its novelty. I listened to most of this book and think that this is the best way to read this novel. Each character is portrayed by a different voice actor and the end-result feels like the performance of a play rather than just a bizarre reading of Slack messages.

Rating: 8/10

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8. The Souvenir Museum - Elizabeth McCracken

Fiction/Short Stories, 239 pages

The Souvenir Museum is a short story collection by author Elizabeth McCracken. I picked up this collection at the recommendation of Ann Patchett (unfortunately, not a personal recommendation), who raved about the stories and the characters contained therein. I was not as impressed as Ann, mainly because I found myself much more drawn to certain stories over others. This is not a knock on McCracken's writing - she is certainly talented and writes about unique characters in unique settings - I was just not always drawn in. However, if stories about a relationship with a ventriloquist, a father-son trip to see puffins, or a couple taking their son to a waterpark in Texas (just to name a few of the eccentric stories contained in this collection), sound appealing, Souvenir Museum might be perfect for you. 

Rating: 8/10

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7. Both/And - Huma Abedin

Memoir/Politics, 500 pages

Both/And is the memoir of Huma Abedin, best known as Hillary Clinton's right-hand woman. Abedin's memoir covers her entire life, beginning with her birth in Michigan and her childhood living abroad in Saudi Arabia with her mother and ailing father. After a friend recommended Abedin apply for an internship in the White House while she was a student at George Washington University, Abedin chanced upon the best luck of her life when she was placed in First Lady Hillary Clinton's office. Earning a full-time role upon graduation, Abedin quickly worked her way up in Clinton's office by finding her niche with the advance team mapping out Clinton's travel and appearances. At the end of President Clinton's term in 2000, Abedin followed Hillary Clinton, with whom she clearly had and continues to have a close personal relationship, into her next roles as Senator, Secretary of State, and in her run for president in 2016. Abedin writes about both her demanding work schedule as well as her personal life, writing in detail (this is not a short memoir, some of the scenes could have been cut in the interest of making it shorter), about her relationship with disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner, his scandals, and the emails that contributed to Clinton's 2016 election loss. I was impressed with the honesty with which Abedin approached her subjects, not shying away (for the most part) from hard topics. However, given the level of time spent on Abedin's complicated relationship with Weiner, I did think she could have spent a bit more time discussing Weiner's felony conviction for exchanging pornographic photographs with a minor, his subsequent prison sentence, and its impact on her. Otherwise, I enjoyed reading about Abedin's life, not least because of my interest in reading memoirs by former staffers of Obama and Clinton. 

Rating: 8/10

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6. Brown Girls - Daphne Palasi Andreades

Fiction, 204 pages

Set in the immigrant communities of Queens, Brown Girls tells the story of the neighborhood’s daughters who come of age as Americans grappling with the duality of their identities. Told with a collective voice, readers watch these girls grow from children to teenagers to adults and observe as their paths diverge depending on what schools they attended, careers they chose, and connectivity to the neighborhood that raised them. Although I understand that the point of the collective narrative in Brown Girls was to emphasize the shared experience of the many girls that grow up in lower class and immigrant communities in Queens, I found the singular voice and vast expanse of time covered to detract from my enjoyment of the novel. The generalized storyline creates a removed feel to the book, and while specific anecdotes added specificity, no more than a paragraph would be devoted to exploring individuality at any given time. Despite this, I was immediately drawn in to Palasi Andreades’ descriptions of Queens and the girls’ associated New York experiences. There was so much packed into this slim novel and I have continued to think about the girls’ relationship with the city even after finishing the book.

Rating: 8/10

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5. The Outlaw Ocean - Ian Urbina

Non-Fiction/Shipping and Fishing Industries, 420 pages

Despite an increased consciousness about food sourcing and the impact of factory farming on the environment, very little attention is paid to the vast fishing industry operating in international waters with little regard for environmental or humanitarian concerns. Ian Urbina, an adventurous investigative journalist for The New York Times, seeks to redefine our priorities by exposing readers to the expansive underbelly of the fishing industry and the lawless terrain of the world’s oceans. Jumping from boat to ship around the world, Urbina experiences firsthand the myriad types of exploitation that take place at sea. Each chapter tackles a different issue, from the lack of safety standards for fishing trawlers off the coast of Vietnam and Indonesia, to the horrible and unsafe working conditions for fishing crews, to a rampant trafficking industry of laborers that amounts to slavery. In addition to the massive human costs associated with profit seekers at sea is the immense environmental costs, including a disregard for endangered species, toxic dumps of chemicals and waste into the ocean, as well as the inefficiencies of fishing for one type of fish and inadvertently killing and wasting the many other fish that were caught as collateral. At the heart of each of these issues, and the biggest roadblock to enacting meaningful change, is the fundamental lawlessness of international waters and associated difficulties in enforcing any types of standards to improve conditions. In spite of these enforcement challenges, Urbina encourages readers to be aware of how they contribute to these problems - indeed, unless you seek out your fish from a specific local source, you are likely eating fish that was collected within this outlaw industry.

Rating: 8/10

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4. The Eternal Audience of One - Rémy Ngamije

Fiction, 372 pages

At the end of last year I read a book set in Windhoek, Namibia, which made me consider how few books I have read that take place in Eastern and Southern Africa. That book, Embassy Wife, is written by an American author about American diplomats and expatriates living in the country's small capital city. The Eternal Audience of One, however, is written by a Namibian author about the African diaspora living in Windhoek and Cape Town, South Africa. The novel follows Seraphin, a law student studying at Remmes in South Africa who begins the story at home in Windhoek for the summer holiday. Seraphin and his family are Rwandan, and having fled Rwanda right before the genocide, they have re-established themselves in Windehock amongst other refugees. Despite their desire to assimilate, they are forever marked as an "other," particularly by native Namibians.  Seraphin enrolled in law school for the chance to leave Windhoek and move somewhere more cosmopolitan, and as he nears graduation he is beginning to realize that despite his parents' and family friends' high expectations, he is not particularly interested in becoming a lawyer. The second half of the book takes place in Cape Town, following Seraphin and his friends. In contrast to his life in Windhoek, Seraphin takes full advantage of being a young adult in a big city, and readers observe Seraphin make mistakes and grow as a Black man in a post-apartheid country that still prioritizes whiteness. I thoroughly enjoyed The Eternal Audience of One. It is in equal parts an entertaining and provocative debut. 

Rating: 8.5/10

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3. Detransition, Baby - Torrey Peters

Fiction, 333 pages

What should motherhood look like? What does it mean to be a mother? Who is capable of being a mother? These are the questions central to Torrey Peters' captivating debut, Detransition, Baby.  Ames is shocked to learn that his girlfriend Katrina is pregnant with his child, believing that the extensive hormone therapy he had undergone in order to live as a woman had destroyed any chances at fertility. Katrina is shocked to learn that Ames previously lived as a woman, and while he currently presents as male after detransitioning for reasons that are revealed later in the novel, Ames still identifies as a woman. As the couple struggles with their decision about whether or not to keep the baby, Ames has the idea to invite his ex-girlfriend Reese into the equation to serve as a co-mother. Reese is desperate to be a mother, but adoption has not panned out and she can not become pregnant as a transgender woman. The offer to share in the parenting responsibilities with Ames and Katrina, however, proves enticing if not exceedingly complicated and the book progresses through the decisions about how to parent and mother while simultaneously exploring Ames (previously Amy) and Reese's pasts. Peters' writing is immensely compelling, and while the book covers large and weighty subjects, it is also very readable, in no small part because of how easily Peters' drew me into the lives of her characters. If the sign of a good book is that it sticks with you after you finish reading it, this definitely fits the bill, especially given that I'm still thinking about the question central to this novel: what makes a mother and who gets to decide? 

Rating: 9/10

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2. Thank You, Mr. Nixon - Gish Jen

Fiction/Short Stories, 272 pages

Thank You, Mr. Nixon is a short story collection that takes place over the 50 years since Nixon visited Beijing and China opened to the west. Each story moves forward in time, beginning with a letter from a girl who saw Nixon when he visited China in 1972 and ending with a story of a Chinese immigrant struggling to educate her child during COVID in New York. Each of the stories stretch from China to the United States, and are often filled with enigmatic characters rediscovering the home they left behind or experiencing a new one entirely. While these are separate stories, they are often connected by characters who took center stage in one story and then are mentioned in the ones that follow. By connecting the stories and their characters, readers watch the relationship between the United States and China develop on an intimate level, while also experiencing the broad scope of the issues at hand, including assimilation, economic growth, and the maintenance of cultural identity. This was another recommendation from Ann Patchett, and it did not disappoint. I enjoyed and learned from every story in the book and was impressed by the depth of the writing and topics covered. 

Rating: 9/10

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1. These Precious Days - Ann Patchett

Non-Fiction/Essays, 320 Pages

Inadvertently, my reading this month appears to have been inspired by the recommendations of the amazing Ann Patchett, so it seemed fitting that my favorite book of the month was written by Ann herself. These Precious Days is Patchett's most recent non-fiction essay collection about her life. In my opinion, Patchett is at her best in her non-fiction essays, including in her previous books This is the Story of a Happy Marriage and Truth and Beauty. In These Precious Days, Patchett looks at her life with new wisdom, writing essays full of heart and humor on topics ranging from her three fathers to her husband's love of flying to her induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The title essay, "These Precious Days" and its epilogue about Ann's friendship with Tom Hanks' former assistant, her battle with cancer, and her accidental living arrangement with the Patchetts during COVID moved me to tears. If that is not a sign of powerful writing, I do not know what is. 

Rating: 10/10

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Want to see last month’s round up? You can find that here.