Books Read May 2019: 118-133

Pictured: 5 star reads, and yes that's ironic. Or fitting.

This month was a strange reading month, where I DNF'd 6 books that I'd had over my head (most of them ARCs, one library book) and stalling my reading in other ways for too long. And even some of the books I finished were disappointing, lackluster at times. I only read 16 total, but the two I gave five stars were books I read slowly along with people. Hmm, there may be something to that

118. The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted by Robert Hillman *** (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
119. Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton **** (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
120. Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap **** (personal copy; my review)
121. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker **** (library copy; my review)
122. Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid **** (personal copy audiobook; my review)
123. Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson *** (library copy; my review)
124. Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come by Jessica Pan **** (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
125. The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel ** (RB Digital audiobook (library); my review)
126. Naamah by Sarah Blake *** (library copy; my review)
127. Shut Up, You're Pretty by Téa Mutonji **** (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
128. Chronicles of a Radical Hag by Lorna Landvik *** (library copy; my review)
129. What My Mother and I Don't Talk About edited by Michelle Filgate **** (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
130. White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo ***** (library copy; my review)
131. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell ***** (personal copy; my review)
132. The Bride Test by Helen Hoang **** (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
133. Biloxi by Mary Miller *** (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)

Books read: 16
DNF (not included in this list): 6

Print: 7
eBook: 7
Audio: 2

Personal copy: 3
Library copy: 6
Review copy: 7

Asia 2019 project: 1
Readalong or group reads: 2
Tournament of Books Summer Camp: 1

Review: Biloxi

Biloxi by Mary Miller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Biloxi is about 62 year old Louis, who is trying to figure out how to live after his wife left, his father died, and he "retires" from his job.

Louis reminds me of Ignatius J. Reilly (A Confederacy of Dunces) if suddenly left to his own devices as an older man, but not in a funny way. He doesn't really know who he is without his roles with other people, he doesn't know how to take care of himself (but then gets a dog,) and he does a lot of things out habit that he doesn't even enjoy (watching Fox News seems to be one of these things.) This is probably a pretty realistic depiction of aging these days.

I would have liked the perspectives of the other characters because they are obviously seeing that he needs looking after. I didn't find it to feel particularly southern the way it is described, maybe just not big city.

I'm trying to catch up on my eARC backlog. This came out May 21 from LiveRight.

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Review: The Bride Test

The Bride Test by Helen Hoang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This romance novel was good timing for May during Asian and Pacific Islanders Month - the author note at the end explains that part of her inspiration for Esme comes from her mother's story as a Vietnamese refugee, and not knowing much about it because she worked all the time. The author also shares her own impulse to feature a white character but Esme demanded to be more central.

So this is a good example of what is happening in contemporary romance - one character with Autism (who has to teach his love interest how to touch him because he's very sensitive to light touches,) one character who is an immigrant (although the whole fairy godmother element is a bit far fetched to say the least), men teaching each other how to please a woman, etc. .
This is in the same universe as The Kiss Quotient (those characters even show up at one point) but you don't need to have read it to understand this one.

I received a copy of this from Berkley through netgalley - this book came out May 7 and I already saw the audiobook in hoopla.

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Reading Envy 155: Music Reading Recommendations with Thomas

Thomas and Jenny huddle up in the music nerd corner of the pub, trading recommendations for books that include music in all the best ways. We start out with a few non-fiction titles then move into novels. You'll also hear about an epic list of books including music, and a few books that didn't do as well as would have liked.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 155: Music Reading Recommendations

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Books discussed:

The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart
The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross
The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain
The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
The Chimes by Anna Smaill
Chamber Music by Doris Grumbach
An Equal Music by Vikram Seth
Us Conductors by Sean Matthews
The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
The Baritone wore Chiffon by Mark Schweizer
The Student Conductor by Robert Ford
Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
Grace Notes by Bernard MacLaverty
Orfeo by Richard Powers
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West
Mapp and Lucia by E.F. Benson
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
Pastoral by Andre Alexis
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
White Tears by Hari Kunzru

Books Jenny meant to mention:
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton
Our Homesick Songs by Emma Hooper
The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe


Other mentions:
Bibliography of musical fiction
A Late Quartet (film)
On Chesil Beach (film)
On Chesil Beach (soundtrack) 
The Ensemble by Aja Gabel
Compass by Mathias Enard
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby


Related Episodes:

Episode 012 - Some Bookers and Some Madness (Orfeo)
Episode 025 - Mule and Plow with guest Jason Roland (Us Conductors)
Episode 044 - Of Survival and Memory with Luke Burrage (The Chimes)
Episode 072 - Books Are My Bag with Sarah K (Do Not Say We Have Nothing)
Episode 085 - An Acquired Taste with Thomas Otto
Episode 086 - The Queen of Bailing with Shawn Mooney (The Gustav Sonata)
Episode 110 - The Accidental Love Episode with Casey Stepaniuk (White Tears)
Episode 144 - For the Fans with Thomas of Hogglestock


Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Thomas on Twitter
Thomas at his blog, hogglestock

Reading Envy 154: Is If If with Paula

Jenny and Paula discuss what might be lost in translation, and navigate different accents and time zones to chat books. Paula brings one book that was perfect for the date we recorded - ANZAC Day! And Jenny brings one she read after a listener submitted it as one of their favorite reads of 2018.

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 154: Is If If with Paula

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Books discussed:

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Wells
Make Your Home Among Strangers by Jennine Capó Crucet
Tu by Patricia Grace
Bright by Duanwad Pimwana, translated by Mui Poopoksakul
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza


Other mentions:

Becky Chambers
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Two Lines Press
Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap
The Sad Part Was by Prabda Yoon
Tilted Axis Press
Cairo Trilogy
Salman Rushdie
Karnak Cafe by Naguib Mahfouz
The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry
Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell by Nathan Ballingrud
Wounds (film(
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman

Related Episodes:

Episode 041 - Grotesque Beauty with Nathan Ballingrud
Episode 119 - Bread and Butter Writing with Paula
Episode 139 - Stocking Stuffer (Best Reads of 2018)


Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Paula is @centique on Litsy

Review: Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come: One Introvert's Year of Saying Yes

Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come: One Introvert's Year of Saying Yes by Jessica Pan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't know if I'm an introvert. I know I'm perceived as an extrovert, so much so that when I moved into my current job, one of the librarians who would have to report to me sent me an article about how to care for introverts (ha!) But I have my own hill to climb to actually go out or show up. And I usually enjoy myself if I can hole up with a small group or one person (Gallup calls this the relator strength and doesn't bother with the E/I dichotomy.)

I enjoyed this book where Jessica Pan spent a year doing things outside of her comfort zone, sometimes taking classes or consulting experts along the way. (Some of these experts had really useful advice! Have an exit strategy. Commit to an hour. Bring a friend. Etc.)

One of my favorite chapters was when she told a story at a live event for The Moth. I also loved her comedy routines and how she talked herself into doing it three times. I felt she saw performance as extroverted, and I actually think these situations can be a safe way for introverts to get out there, because being on stage or having a persona does create distance between you and the masses. I'll give her a pass since she interacted quite a bit with fellow performers, even making some friends and connections.

Possibly the even greater extrovert experiences came from the excruciating daily challenges like initiating small talk on London's public transportation when that isn't a norm for anyone, trying to get male strangers to have deep conversations upon meeting them (if I tried this, guarantee that it would be interpreted as flirting, because nobody just goes deep for the sake of deep conversation,) and the daily grind of leaving the house. And I loved her dinner party. What's worse for an introvert than letting others inside your safe space?
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I had an ARC of the book from the publisher through Edelweiss and it comes out May 28, 2019.

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Review: Daisy Jones & The Six

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Daisy Jones & the Six tells the story about a 70s rock band in the form of interviews with band members. It is fantastic as an audiobook with separate actors for each character. I really wanted to go listen to the music and found it super disappointing to have to keep reminding myself this band did not exist (the style the story is told makes it feel real.) I did find a Spotify playlist from the publisher of listen alikes - Fleetwood Mac, Patti Smith, etc.

The blurb makes it sound like the story is all about uncovering why the band broke up, maybe trying to capitalize on the reveal element that was in the author's last novel, but to me that tiny moment was not the big event. It's the band - the relationships, the addictions, the creative energy - that make it worth the read.

(The day I finished this, it was named as one of the selections for the Tournament of Books Summer Reading (called Camp ToB, so I expect even more people to pick it up!)

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Reading Envy 153: Reading Envy Summer Reading Challenge 2019

Jenny repurposes a summer wedding rhyme for this year's summer reading challenge. You get to pick which books fit each category, and make your own square.

Something swampy

Something blue

Something translated

Something true

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 153: Reading Envy Summer Reading Challenge 2019

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Books discussed:

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell by Nathan Ballingrud
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Minnow by James E. McTeer II
The Story of Land and Sea by Katy Simpson-Smith
Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore by Elizabeth Rush
St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
Florida by Lauren Groff
Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen
Area X trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer (starts with Annihilation)
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
The Anthropology of Turquoise by Ellen Meloy
The Condomnauts by Yoss
Fired Up: Kindling and Keeping the Spark in Creative Teams by Andrew Johnston


Other mentions:
DCL Blue Book List
Daily Mayo - Books with Blue Covers
Listopia - Best Books with Blue Covers
August is Women in Translation month #WITMonth @Biblibio in Twitter
May is Asian Pacific Islander Heritage month #apicelebrasian
Lost in Translations
Man Booker International Prize


Related Episodes:
Episode 034 - The Liminal Space Between with guest Paul Weimer
Episode 041 - Grotesque Beauty with Nathan Ballingrud
Episode 054 - Retired Pirates with Jason Roland
Episode 131 - Tartan Noir and More with Claire Duffy
Episode 133 - To Understand the World with Lauren Weinhold
Episode 151- The Stories They Tell with Karen
Episode 152 - Kill 'em and Leave with Nadine

Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy

Review: Boy Swallows Universe

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Boy Swallows Universe is about Eli Bell, a boy growing up in the poorer outskirts of Brisbane, Australia. I was interested in it because I spent a month in the suburbs of Brisbane in 1994 and thought I might find familiar landscape.

At first it seems like maybe this is a typical coming of age novel, until you realize Eli's brother only speaks by drawing words with his finger, and that the parental figures the brothers live with (Mom and boyfriend) deal heroin. At that point the novel takes a turn toward Vietnamese drug wars, machetes and missing limbs, mysterious rooms, crime reporters, and estranged fathers. .
The style of writing made me question everything - is Gus alive, does the room exist, is time linear, does everything that happened have an upside down calculator word - but after I finished it I wasn't clear the author intended to deter me in that way. But there is a level of surreality to it that felt confusing when you read the afterword, where the author says he basically wanted to write about his childhood and this is it.
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I didn't know about heroin in Australia, but did some reading about it after finishing the book. It felt like a different sort of crisis in that it happened in daylight, in suburbia, and to family members and neighbors, not just sequestered to inner cities.

I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley. The book came out in the United States on April 2, 2019, but I've been hearing about it since the fall from my Australian reading friends!

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Reading Envy 152: Kill 'em and Leave with Nadine

Jenny and Nadine talk about books while Nadine's dog enjoys a bone and chasing his tail. Nadine explains how some books are like a funky bowl of noodles, where you don't think you like it, but crave it later....

Download or listen via this link: Reading Envy 152: Kill 'em and Leave with Nadine

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Books discussed:



The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark
Cape May by Chip Cheek
Her Mother's Mother's Mother's and Her Daughters by Maria José Silveira; translated by Eric M.B. Becker
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, read by Cassandra Campbell
Tonic and Balm by Stephanie Allen
The Chef's Secret by Crystal King


Other mentions:

The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
Reading Women Challenge
The Roundtable (Goodreads group) Mount TBR CHallenge
Gould's Book of Fish by Richard Flanagan
Monsoon Mansion by Cinelle Barnes
A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djèlí Clark (free on Tor.com)
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark
Interview with Roxane Coady and Celadon publishers
Open Letter Books
Nell (film)
Milkman by Anna Burns
Literary Fiction by People of Color (Goodreads group)
Shade Mountain Press
The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish by Katya Apekina
John Woman by Walter Mosley
Restoration by Rose Tremain
The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain
Music and Silence by Rose Tremain
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller
The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Blue Bear by Walter Moers
Caucasia by Danzy Senna
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson (not out until October, wow)


Related Episodes:

Episode 129 - Coming Back to Books with Nadine

Stalk us online:

Jenny at Goodreads
Jenny on Twitter
Jenny is @readingenvy on Instagram and Litsy
Nadine at Goodreads

Books Read April 2019: 83-117

83. The Cook by Maylis de Kerengal *** (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
84. Praise Song for the Butterflies by Bernice L. McFadden *** (Hoopla eBook; my review)
85. The Sad Part Was by Prabda Yoon **** (personal copy; my review)
86. Machine by Susan Steinberg **** (Graywolf Galley Club; my review)
87. The Honey Bus by Meredith May **** (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
88. Broken Stars translated by Ken Liu **** (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
89. Cape May by Chip Cheek **** (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
90. A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen **** (library copy; my review)
91. Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong **** (Hoopla eBook; my review)
92. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami **** (library copy; my review)
93. The Chef's Secret by Crystal King **** (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
94. kaddish.com by Nathan Englander *** (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
95. Mars by Asja Bakic, translated by Jennifer Zoble ***** (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
96. Calling a Wolf a Wolf by Kaveh Akbar ***** (interlibrary loan; my review)
97. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, read by Cassandra Campbell **** (Audible audiobook; my review)
98. When I Arrived at the Castle by Emily Carroll **** (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
99. Stitches by David Small **** (library copy; my review)
100. Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan Shire ***** (interlibrary loan; my review)
101. Our Men do not Belong to Us by Warsan Shire ***** (interlibrary loan; my review)
102. Misconception by Ryan Boudinot *** (library copy; my review)
103. Make Your Home Among Strangers by Jennine Capó Crucet ***** (library copy; my review)
104. The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West **** (Hoopla eBook; my review)
105. The Salt Path by Raynor Winn *** (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
106. river woman by Katherena Vermette *** (Hoopla eBook; my review)
107. Atomic Marriage by Curtis Sittenfeld; read by Diane Lane *** (free Audible download; my review)
108. Southern Lady Code by Helen Ellis **** (eARC from NetGalley; my review)
109. A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza ***** (library copy; my review)
110. The Last Woman in the Forest by Diane Les Becquets **** (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
111. Bright by Duanwad Pimwana, translated by Mui Poopoksakul ***** (personal copy; my review)
112. Brute: Poems by Emily Skaja (personal copy; my review)
113. Women Talking by Miriam Toews *** (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
114. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman ***** (interlibrary loan; my review)
115. Hotbox: Inside Catering, the Food World's Riskiest Business by Matt Lee, Tedd Lee *** (eARC from Edelweiss; my review)
116. Pastoral by André Alexis **** (Audible audiobook; my review)
117. The Athiest Wore Silk by Anna Journey **** (interlibrary loan; my review)


Total Books Read: 35
Five-starred: 8!

Print: 15
eBook: 17
Audiobook: 3

Review copies or other galleys: 14
Library or interlibrary loan: 15
Purchased: 6

Asia 2019: 5
Womens' Prize for Fiction: 1
Poetry: 7
Leftover Tournament of Books longlist reading: 2