It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? 2-27-23

Currently Reading

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

I bought a copy of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou ages ago because it’s one of the many books I’m embarrassed to have never read. Then it sat on my shelf for a few more years, until I put it on my 2023 TBR Pile Challenge list. I’m reading it for Black History Month, as well.

I’m only halfway through, but it’s clear why it’s a classic. I’m kicking myself for not reading it sooner. (Damn that prejudiced preference for fiction over nonfiction!)

Recently Read

Bookworm by Robin Yeatman

It was possibly deliberately ironic that Bookworm by Robin Yeatman was released this month on Valentine’s Day. You know all those wildly popular books about bookish young women finding their bookish true loves in unexpected ways by Emily Henry and Jenny Colgan? This is not that.

Bookworm is more like what Patricia Highsmith or Herman Koch might come up with if they tried writing romantic comedy. The novel’s protagonist, Victoria, trapped in an unhappy marriage, and uses reading and fantasizing about adultery and killing her husband as a means of escape – even if it’s only in her mind. Maybe.

I took an immediate dislike to Victoria because she was reading and hating a big book that I loved – A Little Life by – and I never really warmed up to her. I don’t mind having a dislikable main character, even one with poor taste in novels, but in the end, the humor in Bookworm was too dark for me and the story too amoral. Instead of taking the book so seriously and not appreciating the satire, though, another reader might be laughing hilariously all the way through it and cheering Victoria on.

For a review from a blogger who enjoyed Bookworm more than me, check out Linda’s review at Linda’s Book Obsession Reviews.

Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell

I was going to try and explain why I like Maggie O’Farrell’s novels about families so much, but this paragraph from the New York Times review of Instructions for a Heatwave says it all:

“O’Farrell appears to be fascinated by the idea that the visible connections of kinship or marriage are often not the entire story — and not even the actual story — of what holds us close to one another. Secrets and lies pervade her fictional worlds, and they always tumble out to satisfying effect. She has made her mark by combining the elements of good old-­fashioned drama — love affairs in the shadows, the reappearance of long-lost relatives, hidden wives — with a modern lightness of touch in language and a deft freedom in moving her narratives forward through juxtaposition rather than linear plotting. For the reader, this can feel like having one’s cake and eating it too. O’Farrell’s novels appeal to a broad audience, but they’re also smart and provocative. Over and over, they try to work out who people really are, how ordinary lives can conceal extraordinary stories.”
– The New York Times, July 26, 2013

Currently Listening To

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

An instant New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today Bestseller • AN OPRAH BOOK CLUB SELECTION • ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2021 • WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR FICTION
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: New York Times • Time • Washington Post • Oprah Daily • People • Boston Globe • BookPage • Booklist • Kirkus • Atlanta Journal-Constitution • Chicago Public Library
Finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel • Longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois is from the library and turned out to be over 30 hours long, so I’m not sure I’m going to be able to finish it before it expires. But what a good audiobook! I hope I won’t have to wait too long to get it back from the library.

Another Earphones Award winner from AudioFile Magazine. I’ve been picking some great audiobooks lately! Check out the full AudioFile review.

This post is linked to “It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?” hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date. Check out the link-up party there for more book lists!