For The Love Of Books | July + August 2020

My reading pace has slowed way down again and I'm honestly just rolling with it. 

Also a quick heads up that I'm shifting linking the books I'm reading from Amazon to Bookshop.org which supports local book stores. You can see a visual list of everything I've read so far in 2020 here. 

Here's what I read (and in one case listened to) in July + August: 

Untamed by Glennon Doyle // Listened to this one via Audible. What I loved about this book is how she writes - so much inspiration for how we write our own narratives as memory keepers. So many takeaways for me within this book.  

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi // This is the only book I read in July and it was so, so good. Highest of recommendations for this multi-generation, multi-narrator family story. She just published a new book that arrived last week and I'm really looking forward to diving into it soon. 

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager // Quick + super creepy read (found this to be creepier than others by this author).

The Last Flight by Julie Clark // Super quick read. Enjoyed it + wanted to know what was going to happen.

The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai // Finished this one yesterday and it’s both brutal + so very beautiful. I think I first read about The Mountains Sing in the New York Times or our local paper and something in the review compelled me to get it. This book opened my eyes + my heart to life in Vietnam in the 20th century and invited me to consider perspectives I honestly hadn't thought through previously - which, as always, is why reading + storytelling is so important. It’s the authors first novel in English (she learned English in 8th grade and has written other fiction + poetry in Vietnamese) and this historical fiction combines pieces of her own story with others she interviewed. @nguyenphanquemai_writes that this is her “desperate plea for peace and for humans to love other human beings more.” Thank you so much for sharing this multi-generational story and for giving me the gift of seeing the world via a different lens.

Girls Burn Brighter by Shobha Rao // Tough subject matter (actually subjects as there are a lot of really hard things that happen to the two women). Beautiful writing. I knew very little about this book going into it (received as part of a Pantsuit Politics seasonal book club) and I’m glad that I didn’t know much at all. A really good book if you are looking to deepen your empath + understanding of our world.