Hellobee

I’m in a book club with a group of moms, and it’s something that I look forward to every month. We meet once a month and the person who selects the book hosts at their house, providing snacks and wine. Many of us travel frequently so sometimes it’s hard to find a date we can all get together, but we’ve been remarkably consistent considering we’re all busy moms! I find that when I have a commitment to read just one book a month, I end up reading a lot more books in general. These are some of our recent book club selections, as well as reviews of some other books I read recently!

Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness (nonfiction) – As a fan of design I enjoyed reading this book, and because the author lives in New York, I was familiar with every business she wrote about. The author explores things in every day life that spark universal joy, and I particularly enjoyed the chapter on color as I have gravitated towards more white/neutral/minimal designs in recent years. Color sparks joy! Most of the people in my book club didn’t enjoy it as much as I did because it went into too much detail, and they said it read like a college thesis. The last couple chapters did drag on a bit, but overall I still enjoyed the book very much.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (fiction) – Since Joyful was a slower paced nonfiction book, I chose this juicy novel as a light read to follow it. It’s an epic tale of one of the biggest Hollywood celebrities who writes a memoir at the age of 79 about her seven husbands and much more. There is celebrity, glamour, love, heartbreak, betrayal, plot twists — an excellent beach read. Everyone enjoyed it and couldn’t put it down!

Nine Perfect Strangers (fiction) – I’d read several of Liane Moriarty’s books before (The Husband’s Secret, What Alice Forgot) that had a much faster pace than Nine Perfect Strangers, which took the time to flesh out back stories for nine different people who meet at a wellness retreat. The book started out a little slow and I think there were too many characters to keep track of. An enjoyable read, but not my favorite Liane Moriarty book.

A Dream of Trees (novel) – I believe this was the first book by a Filipino author to be represented by a major American publishing house. A Dream of Trees follows two main characters who exist in a realm somewhere between life and death. Shiori assists people in their final moments before death, guiding them through rooms full of their experiences they need to reconcile before passing away. Aiden is dying when Shiori visits him and through the rooms they visit together, the discover their connection to each other. It’s a beautifully written book, especially if you’re a fan of magical realism or have experienced a loss in your life. My book club was split on it; half loved it and half was so-so on it.

Born a Crime (memoir) –  This is one of the most entertaining and interesting celebrity memoirs out there about Trevor Noah’s upbringing as a half African half Swiss child in Africa. He was a very naughty little boy! My friends recommend listening to it on audiobook because if you’ve seen his stand-up, you know that he is a master of accents, and you can hear him perform all the different African accents he picked up.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (novel) – Eleanor Oliphant is a charmingly quirky character who adheres to a strict routine to deal with what we later find out is a traumatic childhood. I assumed she was on the autism spectrum but that’s never mentioned in the book. We actually just met to discuss this book. It started out slow, but you start to root for the protagonist. I didn’t love it, but it was an enjoyable read.

The following are books I’ve read the past couple of months:

Dear, Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, and Advice for Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong (memoir) – I couldn’t relate to how sexually explicit this book was, especially knowing that this was a book written for her two daughters. But I love Ali Wong — she is hilarious, smart, and a great writer. It’s rare that I get to read about the Asian American experience, and so much of what she wrote resonated with me. She worked hard to get where she is now and I respect the hustle! Memoirs are usually fun, easy reads for me, and I also enjoyed Demi Moore’s book Inside Out as well as Tiffany Haddish’s book The Last Black Unicorn recently.

Where the Crawdads Sing (novel) – This was the bestselling novel of 2019 and I can see why — it’s a gorgeously written coming of age story with lush, evocative prose. The author showcases her vast knowledge of nature and avian life throughout, and you feel transported to the marsh, where the protagonist Kya grows up alone from the age of 6 having been abandoned by her entire family.  An incredible book that I loved reading.

Educated: A Memoir – Tara Westover’s memoir details the crazy, off the grid childhood she and her siblings experienced under her religiously fanatical, doomsday prepping father. None of the seven children attended school, but Westover ending up becoming highly educated in spite of it, attending both Oxford and Cambridge. While it was a riveting read, it was a bit inconceivable to me that 6/7 of the siblings ended up attending higher education institutions, without any education growing up whatsoever, so I ended up having some mixed feelings about it. Educated has been compared to one of my favorite books, The Glass Castle, which I’ve selected as my next book club choice!

Little Fires Everywhere (novel) –  Set in the upper middle class community of Shaker Heights, Little Fires Everywhere explores themes such as motherhood in its many different forms: a “traditional” family with four kids; a single mom and her daughter; an American woman desperate to adopt a Chinese baby whose birth mother wants back. The characters were very well developed, particularly the female characters, and the story moved at a brisk pace as the lives of all the characters intertwine. I enjoyed this book as I could find myself relating in some way to many of the characters in the book.

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What am I reading now? Chanel Miller’s memoir Know My Name, Bill Bryson’s The Body: A Guide for Occupants, and Jojo Moyes The Giver of Stars for Book Club. A memoir, a nonfiction book, and a fiction book. I like to have 2-3 books going at any given time so I can read a genre that I’m in the mood for.

What are some good books you’ve read lately that you’d recommend?