Some Books I Read

Happy New Year, friends! Book of the Month suffered last year; not just because I didn't read as much (I really didn't) but because I didn't talk about what I did read as much. I really enjoy books and talking about them and in the spirit of finding pockets of joy everywhere and especially outside of work, hopefully I'll be better at talking about books I read this year.

Towards the end of 2024, I posted about some books I read on Instagram and I thought to share them here, where they can be more permanent. So here goes (in no particular order):

Everything is Fine by Cecilia Rabess: I spent the entire holiday staying way past my bedtime to finish this book. It was very engrossing. I really really enjoyed it.  It wasn’t until I finished that I heard of some of the controversies surrounding this book and its plot. I honestly don’t know why people were angry with the author. Sure, the main character is irritating and I didn’t like some of the premise and the end of the book. But… everything is true to the character, Jess. We all know that type of Black girl: running as far away from their blackness as possible and desperate for white validation in a pitiful and scary way. It’s not actually bad or immoral or even malicious. That type of Black girl is the product of so many things. I also disagree vehemently that this book is anti-black. It is absolutely not. That said, I am a little worried about a Black woman that is able to envision a story like this. It takes a particular kind of Black girl to write this story lol. One look at the author and I just knew. After a little internet sleuthing, I can confirm that, yea, she is. People say this read like a “white supremacist’s wet dream/fantasy”. I don’t know. I know enough to say Black girls are not a monolith. I know enough to say no single Black girl close to me would cater to the same relational dynamics the main character did. No Black woman I know would crush on a racist. But but we are not a monolith. I also hope that we can tell girls that if a boy is mean to you it is because he is mean to you not because he likes you. The only other thing I will always say to women (a hill I’m willing to live on—because I will not die in Jesus name) is that never ever, EVER shrink yourself for “love”. Never ever compromise on your core values for love no matter how “nice” they are. No matter the controversies surrounding this book, it was very well-written.

Normal People by Sally Rooney: This was okay and very hard to put down. But I want to refrain from thinking what makes a good book is that you read it in one go. Literature, the way we were taught, should cause you to pause, reflect, think. This book had a good story going for it but something was off. The author tried too hard to make characters cool, aloof. As if to say that’s how to be millennial. But we are spirited, angry, happy. We feel all the feels. The BDSM (???!) and lamely linking it to the trauma and abuse was disgusting. The on again off again thing would have been fine (happens all the time) if they didn’t make it seem so extraordinary. As if their love was sooo strong, nothing else could survive. Chilee please lol. And the ending was abrupt cos you just know the author got tired of her own nonsense. Overall, it was still very engrossing. Ohh this also broke all the writing rules and that was surprisingly my favorite part of the book: no quotation marks, no strict point of view etc.

Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin: I joked on Instagram that I don’t have the range to critique James Baldwin and I stand by it.  This was deeply profound and extremely cerebral. But none of this is surprising because James Baldwin is JAMES Baldwin. 

The Courage to be Disliked by Fumitake Koga and Ichiro Kishimi: This book is profound…once you can get over the format, which irritated me at first lol. It is a truly phenomenal book. BUT I disagree with its stance on trauma. I think it’s a bit too reductive to essentially imply that we should deny trauma. Even though the point it was leading to was we shouldn’t let it overpower us. In the end though it makes a good case for setting boundaries, freedom to choose, and redeeming yourself from people-pleasing.

I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi: Nothing to be said here other than it’s a great into to personal finance. Depending on where you are in getting your finances this may seem relatively rudimentary. Listen, all my girlies, get your money together. Whether you have a lot of it or a little of it, get a better grip of your money. Cool girls have great personal finance management. I've talked about money way back on this blog but my views have evolved a great deal from that because I would never ever watch that man called Dave Ramsey who brings guns to meeting and fires people for being pregnant out of wedlock. Here is somewhere else I talked money. 

Wellness by Nathan Hill: This book was just needlessly long. It was tedious. It wasn’t even hard to read. I just found it a bit boring. It felt like streams of consciousness that were never edited.  I don't even know where to start with a summary or description of what it was about. That said, the author is a very good writer, and I love when the craft is appreciated and I'm trying to. Not to mention, since coming to this understanding of “bestsellers are chosen” a lot just makes sense about so many “bestsellers” I read.

Pyre by Perumal Murugan: This wasn’t  bad. There’s a simplicity to the premise. I also read the translation (it was originally written in Tamil) so I’m convinced a LOT of nuance was lost in translation. The premise was love in the face of resistance/differences/societal violence.

Selfcare for Black Girls by Oludara Adeeyo: I picked this randomly on a trip with my siblings when we stumbled on a Black-owned bookstore. I read it several nights just before sleeping after really hard days, and it felt like a love letter. Some of the self-care are obvious, some a bit too woowoo, but most are helpful. It was so soothing to read. Now I didn't and probably will never practice the self-care habits…but oh well.

Rootless by Krystle Zara Appiah: This book is so beautiful it actually made me shed a tear. It’s mainly on loss, love, motherhood, and the heavy weight of expectations. I have such mixed feelings about this book. I liked it for sure but also some parts were just...you had to suspend belief a little Also Efe's (the protagonist) background not being properly explored was odd. It was almost like if it wasn't something traumatic then the author didn't know how to write it. So, when there wasn't any real trauma (besides the ambiguous one being alluded to but never really explored), Efe's childhood just went unexplored altogether. I also I'm getting tired (I've only read two books with this plot but still lol) of the Black Babe in London dating the very rich white man and then dumping him for her Black boo. Some scenes of Efe and her white boyfriend seemed exactly like scenes from Maame...down to even the sex scenes. That said, still a great book. That end made me really sad. Really really sad.

The Braid by Laetitia Colombani: This story should be powerful but what we read is a translation since it was originally written in French. And it just feels.. watered down. Still, I really like the premise of the lives of three extraordinary women being intertwined by the most unlikely thing: hair.

Prequel by Rachel Maddow: I’m still reading this but it is compelling enough to talk about already. If we dont take care past will become prologue. Maddow is effectively making the thesis that the idea of a specific few adulating (romanticizing, even) fascism and determined to spread it to western democracies is not new. This is such a brilliant book. It is also the perfect reminder that nothing is new under the sun. Hitler didn’t just become Hitler overnight. Democracies aren’t just toppled overnight. Genocides, oppression, inequality, bigotry aren’t happening in some dark corners of the world…no, it’s all in plain sight. It’s people working fastidiously  to create this reality and they are not even hiding it anymore.  Weirdly enough, it  (among other things) helps me to be deal with the  new reality of presidents musk and trump. Their own brand of hate isn’t new or unique. It is, in fact, very ordinary. I will talk about this one again. 

I'm not going to lie I almost like this idea of talking about many books rather than a deep dive into one. And I'm now considering it. Do you have a preference? Many or One? Or some combination of both like I did last year?

I don't make New Year's resolution but I do plan to write more this year (or more like be more public with my writing this year). I'm doing it partly because I want to take on a new challenge and also because I desperately want to commit to the "we are multifaceted beings who weren't created to just work" value I hold dearly. 

Here's to the new and out with the old.

Love, and all the best wishes for the new year,

I

P:S: I did something similar to this here. And of course, you can find so many more books here.