What I’m reading: October 2021
I’ve decided this week to log some of the books I’ve been reading. This is a lovely way for me to remember all of the books I’ve read, as sometimes I can’t even remember the plot of a book and I only know I’ve read it because it’s on my Goodreads!
At the start of October, I was on holiday in Kaikōura on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand, so my book count is pretty high this month! Holidays for me ideally involve curling up next to a window somewhere in nature with a cup of tea (or wine if it’s after 5) reading to my heart’s content and going on intermittent walks with Jacob; without him, I probably wouldn’t leave the accommodation, so I’m grateful that I have someone to take me on adventures (a.k.a peel me off the sofa, hehe). Whenever I go away with his family, they each bring about eight books which, over the course of a couple of days, begin to cover every possible surface. In the morning before our day’s activity, everyone will be perched on the edge of the sofa, trainers on, backpack ready, book in hand, absorbing a few more pages while we wait for the last person to clean their teeth/brush their hair/find their socks. We sink into peaceful, soporific late afternoon reading sessions in that lazy time between ‘Anyone want a tea?’ and ‘Is it cocktail hour yet?’. I miss those holidays (damn you, COVID).
Without further ado, here’s my October list.
1. The Vanishing Half (Brit Bennett)
This was a twister and a turner. A story of two twins who run away from their light-skinned African American town and end up living drastically different lives estranged from one another – one as an African American and one who decides to pass as white and never tell her new family her real past. A complex story of race relations, family struggle, and what happens when we live in the shadow of a secret.
2. Range (David Epstein)
Fantastic book which emphasises the need for generalists, i.e. people with many skills and experiences. Great for someone like me who struggles with the old ‘What the hell am I doing with my life?’ fear. Epstein’s investigations began with discovering that the most successful sports people (e.g. Roger Federer) actually didn’t start off specialising in their sport but dabbled in many different sports as children. He found that this applied to people in other fields; the wigglier the path, the more experiences, the higher chance of later success. Ultimately, we need generalists to tackle the big, unwieldy complex problems that face us today.
3. Beautiful World, Where Are You (Sally Rooney)
A classic Sally novel, full of awkward moments between people who haven’t properly worked through their own emotional/childhood/attachment problems and cannot communicate constructively, so end up in unnecessarily painful and heartbreaking situations. A fascinating insight into the minds of other human beings struggling with things like relationships, life in general, the climate crisis, career. Interactions between characters are interspersed with letters between two characters which are rambling and highly intellectual to the point of being in accessible. It’s no Normal People but definitely worth a read.
3. Whistleblower: My Journey to Silicon Valley and Fight for Justice at Uber (Susan Fowler)
While not a catchy title, this one is a pretty gripping read. I’m a sucker for a memoir, so I really enjoyed all the details about her colourful life. Fowler started off life in poverty in some middle-of-nowhere town in the US and homeschooled herself through her high school years, eventually making it into an Ivy League university and landing a job in Silicon Valley. The book’s climax sees Fowler publicly exposing Uber for the horrendous sexual harassment and gender and racial discrimination that has just been actively ignored by those at the executive level. Equal parts rags-to-riches and devastating and shocking exposé.
4. Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted (Suleika Jaouad)
Oh god. I don’t think words will really describe this book. At the end, I was so overcome with emotion that I just had to stop as the tears welled up in my eyes and the tension rose in my throat and eventually subsided. It’s fascinating how words on a page can do that. Jaouad was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia at age 22, shortly after finishing university. Life was bubbling with excitement as she stood tentatively at the edge of the adult world, having moved to France and just been joined by a new boyfriend. The books follows her journey through diagnosis, the years spent in treatment and her eventual recovery and invites the reader into the depths of her mind as she grapples with the overwhelming grief that shrouds her life like a heavy cloak.
5. A Matter of Life and Death (Irvin Yalom)
I’m a huge, huge Irvin Yalom fan, so this was a real treat for me. Still, it was pretty challenging and I did need a few breaks from it. Co-authored with his wife, Marilyn, each chapter of the book alternates between them both as they come to terms with her terminal diagnosis of cancer. After 65 years of marriage and over 70 as a couple, the idea of not being together is unbearably painful for Irvin. However, when the situation is viewed through the eyes of Marilyn’s pain, it becomes easier to understand why life may not be worth living anymore. This is absolutely heartbreaking but, as always, Irvin Yalom brought his full, raw human self to the table and showed us the inner turmoil of his mind.
6. In the Dream House (Carmen Maria Machado)
This book makes me shudder. A haunting account of abuse in a same-sex relationship that left me feeling a little shaken and disturbed. Machado talks about her prior belief that same-sex relationships are somehow immune to the toxic abuse that exists in heterosexual relationships, that they are somehow safer. This belief is shattered through her own experiences that leave her a shell of her former self and, ultimately, drive her to share her story with the world.
7. In Order to Live (Yeonmi Park)
Wow, it hasn’t been a cheery month has it? After sexual harassment, racial and gender discrimination, cancer diagnoses and relationship abuse, I rounded the month up with this memoir by North Korean defector and activist, Yeonmi Park. I knew nothing much about life in North Korea and now I can never undo what I know and, for the sake of those who still live in that hell hole, I wouldn’t want to. I was so grateful after reading this for my house, my food, my passport, my freedom, and so fascinated by the psychology of the Kim family. This is an emotional rollercoaster and tears were predictably shed.