I read nine books in January (four were audiobooks).

I rank my books with these categories: Highly Recommended, Recommended, Okay, and Not Recommended.

Highly Recommended

1) Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, Jessica Bruder

Description: From the beet fields of North Dakota, to the National Forest campgrounds of California, to Amazon’s CamperForce program in Texas, employers have discovered a new, low-cost labor pool made up largely of transient older Americans. Finding that social security comes up short, often underwater on mortgages, these invisible casualties of the Great Recession have taken to the road by the tens of thousands in late-model RVs, travel trailers, and vans, forming a growing community of nomads: migrant laborers who call themselves “workampers.”

I’ve long had a fascination with people who live in RVs and vans. I know it doesn’t appeal to a lot of people, but it’s something I could see myself doing for a period of time.

Of course (and this is what Bruder emphasizes), there’s a difference between doing this as a lifestyle choice and doing it because you can’t afford a typical mortgage. There’s a difference between someone tootling around in a luxury RV while someone else lives in a converted 12-passenger van.

I knew the mobile lifestyle was gaining popularity, but I wasn’t aware it had become such a phenomenon. I also wasn’t aware that the reason for the increase is largely blamed on the 2008 financial crisis, when lots of older people lost hundreds of thousands of dollars from their investment accounts, and/or lost their homes. It’s also people who didn’t save enough for retirement (if they saved anything), and those who did have money but turned to this lifestyle after a divorce decimated their savings.

Since these people can’t afford to retire, they often live off small social security checks and low-paid hourly jobs. National parks often hire mobile workers for seasonal work, and also Amazon warehouses (Amazon specifically recruits mobile workers, referring to them as CamperForce).

Bruder does a terrific job reporting from the front lines of this movement. She immersed herself in the nomad life over a period of years, including taking short stints at an Amazon warehouse and a sugar beet harvest (she makes sure to emphasize how lucky she was to be able to quit when the going got tough, which many others don’t have the option to do). She interviewed many full-time nomads, delving into how they ended up on the road and what their lives are like.

Bruder also emphasized that while this life is often difficult (more so for those on a limited budget, especially when things go wrong, like their rig breaking down), many of them get so attached to the lifestyle that they say they wouldn’t return to living in a house or apartment if given the choice. There’s a social element to being a nomad, and many of them band together to help each other out when someone is sick or injured, or in need of a vehicle repair or upgrade. They have fun and more importantly, they have freedom.

This piece that Bruder wrote for Wired is excellent, and here’s another one in The Guardian.

Recommended

2) The Book of Separation: A Memoir, Tova Mirvis

Description: Born and raised in an Orthodox Jewish family, Tova committed herself to observing the rules and rituals prescribed by this way of life. But over the years, her doubts became noisier than her faith, and at age 40 she could no longer breathe in what had become a suffocating existence. Even though it would mean the loss of her friends, her community, and possibly her family, Tova decides to leave her husband and her faith and strike out on her own to discover what she does believe and who she really is.

Tova was married for 17 years and had three children when she told her husband she wanted a divorce. More than that, this book is about growing up in the Orthodox faith, marrying Orthodox, and feeling pressured to stay exactly the same for the rest of her life. Tova decided to break away.

Here’s a piece from Tova in the New York Times which includes excerpts from the book.

3) The Last Black Unicorn, Tiffany Haddish

Description: From Tiffany Haddish, stand-up comedian, actress, and breakout star of the movie Girls Trip, comes this hysterical, edgy, and unflinching collection of (extremely) personal essays, as fearless as the author herself.

Haddish went through a lot before she became a comedian and actress: an abusive and negligent mother, foster care, working as a pimp (yes, really), and a succession of bad boyfriends (one of them bought her a car which she later found out had a tracking device on it).

Although she’s quick to say that she overlooked a lot of warning signs (and against the advice of friends), she married a man who ended up being possessive and physically abusive. She referred to him only as Ex-Husband, so I wasn’t surprised when she divorced him, but I was surprised when she decided to marry him again (and then divorce him again two years later). I know so many women have gone through that back-and-forth with their significant others, but it’s still tough to read.

On the bright side, the book is funny! I listened to it on audio, which I recommend as Haddish’s narration really brings a lot to the experience.

4) Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny, Holly Madison

Description: At 21, small-town Oregon girl Holly Cullen became Holly Madison, Hugh Hefner’s number one girlfriend. The fairy-tale life inside the Playboy Mansion (which included A-list celebrity parties and starring in a reality show) quickly devolved into an oppressive routine of strict rules and manipulation that nearly drove Holly to take her own life. This is her account of her time inside the Mansion: the drugs, abuse, infamous parties, and also her chronicle of healing and hope.

I had heard about this book but wasn’t planning to read it until I came across this article after Hugh Hefner’s death. Reading some of the accusations Madison made left me curious about what really went on during her seven-year stay in the Playboy mansion.

Madison covers the competition and in-fighting between the girls (encouraged by Hefner, who thrived on drama), including mean-girl hazing antics that rapidly affected her self-esteem. She resented the ditzy label; Hef would refuse to talk about current events or politics with her, only his male friends.

Madison was largely unhappy living at the mansion but couldn’t find an easy way out (having a 9pm curfew every night didn’t help). Things turned around when she, Bridget Marquardt, and Kendra Wilkinson (Hefner’s current girlfriends) were cast in a reality show called The Girls Next Door. It was an unexpected hit and they starred in the show for five seasons.

(Unexpected news: the show was initially billed as being about Hefner, and the girlfriends were told anyone could replace them. The powers-that-be used that excuse to not pay them anything for starring in season one of the show. Can you imagine? It wasn’t until season two, when producers could tell viewers were tuning in to see these particular stars, that they started to receive a paycheck.)

When Madison finally left the Playboy mansion, she was able to find a level of success on her own terms: she went on Dancing with the Stars, starred in her own reality series (Holly’s World), and headlined a burlesque show in Las Vegas (Peepshow) for four years.

The book does come across as gossipy at times, with a bit of snark aimed at people who have crossed her. For the most part though, Holly is relatable as a quiet, introverted woman who found herself in a most unexpected environment.

5) Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give: Essays, Ada Calhoun

Description: We hear plenty about whether or not to get married, but much less about what it takes to stay married. Here, Calhoun presents an unflinching but also loving portrait of her own marriage, opening a conversation about the institution as it truly is: not the happy ending of a love story or a relic doomed by high divorce rates, but the beginning of a challenging new chapter of which “the first twenty years are the hardest.” Calhoun’s essays explore modern coupledom for a nuanced discussion of infidelity, existential anxiety, and the many obstacles to staying together.

These essays were inspired by Calhoun’s popular New York Times article. In the book, Calhoun likens her advice for staying married to the same no-nonsense advice you’d give someone trying to lose weight. Instead of eat less and exercise more, the secret to staying married is “Be nice. Don’t leave. That’s all.” In other words, if you want to stay married, you just don’t get divorced.

I agree with this review from The Guardian: “Calhoun provides a funny (but not flip), smart (but not smug) take on the institution of marriage. Weaving intimate moments from her own married life with frank insight from experts, clergy, and friends, she upends expectations of total marital bliss to present a realistic—but ultimately optimistic—portrait of what marriage is really like.”

6) We’re Going to Need More Wine: Stories That Are Funny, Complicated, and True, Gabrielle Union

Description: In this collection of essays, Union tells stories about power, color, gender, feminism, and fame. Union tackles a range of experiences, including bullying, beauty standards, and competition between women in Hollywood, coping with crushes, puberty, and the divorce of her parents.

Gabrielle effortlessly switches from funny to serious. Tales of growing up in a majority-white town in California are juxtaposed with spending summers in Omaha with her black family (feeling like an outsider in each location). There’s a silly story about a girl in high school who hated her guts and repeatedly threatened to beat her ass, then she shares the tale of being raped by a stranger while working at a shoe store. It’s been over twenty years since then, but she still won’t go into a bank to withdraw cash (chance of robbery) or sit with her back to the entrance while eating at a restaurant.

She addresses colorism (black people judging the color of their skin, with lighter skin always being the clear winner), and how that judgment has affected her as a non-light skinned black woman. There is also a discussion of hair, and how she’s done everything from using relaxers, to weaves, to wigs. She’s honest about the drama of being married to her first husband, and going through IVF later in life (and suffering through 8+ miscarriages).

7) Pancakes in Paris: Living the American Dream in France, Craig Carlson

Description: Carlson was the last person anyone would expect to open an American diner in Paris. He came from humble beginnings in a working-class town in Connecticut, had never worked in a restaurant, and didn’t know anything about starting a brand-new business. But from his first visit to Paris, Craig knew he had found the city of his dreams, although one thing was still missing — the good ol’ American breakfast he loved so much.

A film producer/screenwriter decides to open an American-style diner in Paris. Spoiler: it’s still open today, and now there are two locations in the city.

But wow, what an immense effort to get from idea to reality. What struck me was this guy’s dedication. You really have to want something badly in order to go through what he did (finding investors, French bureaucracy, the intricacy of employees and labor laws in France).

Carlson had zero experience running a restaurant or setting up a business. It took years from the time he dreamed of opening a diner in Paris before it came to fruition. He had no money of his own to speak of; as a struggling single screenwriter he worked temp jobs to stay afloat (and had loads of student debt from attending film school). Reading this book was a good example of why I’m not an entrepreneur.

8) Big Chicken: The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats, Maryn McKenna

Description: In this eye-opening exposé, acclaimed health journalist and National Geographic contributor McKenna documents how antibiotics transformed chicken from local delicacy to industrial commodity—and human health threat—uncovering the ways we can make America’s favorite meat safer again.

I read this book for a DC EcoWomen book club that meets in February. I wouldn’t have read it if it wasn’t for the book club, since I already don’t eat chicken and didn’t need more convincing (my husband and I haven’t eaten meat since September 2015, but we do eat seafood).

This isn’t an argument against eating chicken so much as an argument against rampant antibiotic use, which is disturbing. The book delved a bit too much into the science for my liking (it made my eyes glaze over after a while), but it was obviously well researched. If you’re interested in the subject or just feel like it’s something you should know more about, I would recommend it. For a casual reader, you may think it’s too science-y, like I did.

Okay

9) Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, Michael Wolff

Description: With extraordinary access to the West Wing, Wolff reveals what happened behind-the-scenes in the first nine months of the most controversial presidency of our time.

I put this book on hold after reading some of the hype about it. I expected to be on hold for a long time, but I have digital accounts at several libraries, and they ordered so many copies that my audiobook hold became available after just a few days.

I can’t really be a good judge about whether to recommend this book or not. I couldn’t stand it, but that’s because I can only read so much about Trump and his team before I need to move on to something else. I had to force my way through it.

I also feel like, for people who know Trump’s character and followed his antics before/during/after his election, most or all of the information in this book won’t be a surprise to you. It just puts the craziness all in one place.

This may be the first time I’ve compiled any stats on my reading preferences, but a few things jumped out in my 2017 reading list. It turns out I’m pretty consistent with the type of books I pick up.

I have an overwhelming preference for memoirs and general nonfiction. Out of the 112 books I read in 2017, only five were fiction. I read one in January, two in February, one in March, one in May. No fiction at all in the last seven months of the year.

Most of the books I read are written by women. Out of 112 books, only nineteen were written by men. That means 83% of the books I read in 2017 were written by female authors.

I don’t read enough minority authors. I felt like I made more of an effort than usual, but my total is pretty dismal in that regard. Only sixteen (or 14%) of the books I read in 2017 were written by minorities.

I embraced audiobooks. I listened to 38 of them in 2017, which is 34% of the total.

I have high standards. If I like a book and would recommend it to others, more often than not I rate it with three out of five stars on Goodreads. I don’t see a three-star rating as negative; per the Goodreads guidelines, it means “I liked it.”

Even when I rate a book as Highly Recommended on my blog, most of the time I rank it with four stars on Goodreads. A book really has to blow me away to deserve five stars.

Out of 112 books, here’s the breakdown of how I rated them on the blog:

• Highly Recommended: 5
• Recommended: 62
• Okay: 40
• Not Recommended: 5

I can’t choose one favorite book of the year, but these are the five I rated as Highly Recommended:

• What Happened, Hillary Clinton
• The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion, Meghan Daum
• Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, Roxane Gay
• Settle for More, Megyn Kelly
• Homegoing: A Novel, Yaa Gyasi

In 2018, I expect to read: more of the same. I will never stop devouring memoirs because I love them. Female authors will continue to be the majority because that’s who I connect with. I will insert my earbuds and keep listening to new audiobooks. The only thing I’d like to change is to increase my percentage of minority authors.

Will you be switching up anything with your reading habits in 2018?

I read nine books in December (three were audiobooks), which brings my 2017 total to 112.

These are the books I started reading in December but decided not to finish:

• The Wrong Way to Save Your Life: Essays, Megan Stielstra
• Eat, Drink and Remarry: Confessions of a Serial Wife, Margo Howard
• Everybody in the Pool: True Tales, Beth Lisick
• The Price of Illusion: A Memoir, Joan Juliet Buck

I rank my books with these categories: Highly Recommended, Recommended, Okay, and Not Recommended.

Recommended

1) It’s Okay to Laugh (Crying Is Cool Too), Nora McInerny Purmort

Description: When Nora’s boyfriend Aaron was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer, they got engaged on his hospital bed and had a baby boy while he was on chemo. The obituary they wrote during Aaron’s hospice care touched the nation. Nora puts a fresh twist on the subjects of mortality and resilience: What does it actually mean to live your “one wild and precious life” to the fullest? How can a joyful marriage contain more sickness than health?

I put off reading this book for a long time because I thought it would be depressing, but Nora introduces the subject of grief in a new and interesting way. Some parts were really sad, but there were more funny moments than low ones. She also includes essays on her family, childhood, insecurities, and an “anthropological visit” to an Insane Clown Posse concert.

I think the name of this book is unfortunate, and the description didn’t draw me in, but I’m really glad I read it. As soon as I started reading the first essay, I knew I would like it. This article is a good overview of the circumstances in Nora’s life that led to her writing a book.

2) L’Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home, David Lebovitz

Description: Bestselling author and world-renowned chef David Lebovitz continues to mine the rich subject of his evolving expat life in Paris, using his perplexing experiences in apartment renovation as a launching point for stories about French culture, food, and what it means to revamp one’s life.

I don’t consider myself a Francophile, but I do love nonfiction books about living in France. This one mixes things up a bit because Lebovitz, after living in Paris and loving his life for ten years, decides to buy (and renovate) his own apartment. The process turns into a nightmare, taking way longer than expected and costing an astronomical amount of money.

If this book was fiction, I would have tossed it aside as being unbelievable. The things that happened during the course of his renovation were simply unfathomable. This article talks a bit about the book and includes an excerpt.

3) Where the Past Begins: A Writer’s Memoir, Amy Tan

Description: Bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan reveals herself in a way she never has before, delving into her childhood, adolescence, family history, beginnings as a writer, and professional life. Tan is at her most intimate in revealing the truths and inspirations that underlie her extraordinary fiction.

I’ve read a number of Tan’s fictional books, so I knew I wanted to read her memoir. I enjoyed discovering things about her, like how she listens to music when she writes (but not anything that includes singing, since it’s too distracting), and that it takes years for her to write a book. The biggest themes involve growing up with Chinese immigrant parents, the expectations they held for her, and how that influenced her life (and self-esteem) for many years. Her mother was especially difficult, prone to mood swings and constant threats of suicide.

I could have done without her inclusion of random journal entries and interludes, but those were short and easy to bypass. The essays themselves are worth reading.

4) Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History, Katy Tur

Description: This is the darkly comic, fascinatingly bizarre, and often scary story of how America sent a former reality show host to the White House. It’s also the story of what it was like for Tur to be there as it happened, inside a no-rules world where reporters were spat on, demeaned, and discredited. Tur was a foreign correspondent who came home to her most foreign story of all.

Katy Tur is the reporter you heard the most about when Trump was on the campaign trail, like when he mocked her for stumbling during an interview, and when he called her out by name at his campaign rallies (ultimately causing her to receive death threats from rabid fans and fear for her safety).

I listened to this on audio, and she has a good voice for it (unsurprising, since she’s a television reporter), but I actually found it annoying sometimes because she talked in “reporter voice” (you know, the tone anchors and reporters use on TV that’s different from how everyone else talks). It was easier to look past when I listened to it for long periods of time, but it definitely stood out.

The book goes back and forth from reporting on (the absurdity of) the campaign, to what happened on election day. We learn what she was thinking at the time certain events occurred. Throughout, she seems to express surprise that Trump won the election after all his shenanigans and everything that came out about his past. (You’re not the only one, Katy.) Here’s an interview with her.

Okay

5) Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London, Lauren Elkin

Description: Part cultural meander, part memoir, Elkin takes us on a distinctly cosmopolitan jaunt that begins in New York, where she grew up, and transports us to Paris via Venice, Tokyo, and London, all cities in which she’s lived. Elkin creates a mosaic of what urban settings have meant to women, charting through literature, art, history, and film the sometimes exhilarating, sometimes fraught relationship that women have with the metropolis.

The author’s definition of flâneuse: “one who wanders aimlessly; an idler; a dawdling observer, usually found in cities.” In other words, a woman who finds pleasure in walking for exploration’s sake, not because she has a destination or objective.

I like that notion very much (and I’m inspired to do more of it!), but I didn’t love this entire book. I liked the parts where Elkin talks about her personal experiences, but she also chose to highlight female authors who have written about particular cities. I didn’t care about those people at all. If Elkin had made this book solely about her, I would have liked it much better.

6) A Little Bit Wicked: Life, Love, and Faith in Stages, Kristin Chenoweth

Description: At four foot eleven, Kristin is an immense talent in a petite but powerful package. Here, Kristin shares her journey from Oklahoma beauty queen to Broadway leading lady (she starred as Galinda the Good Witch in the musical “Wicked”). Through a combination of talent and hard work, Kristin took Broadway by storm. But of course, into every storm, the occasional drizzle of disaster must fall.

Kristin is cute, but if someone were to ask me if they should read this, I’d caveat that a fan would get more out of it than I did. I’d definitely recommend the audio version if so, which is what I had. The story comes alive through her telling of it, and she giggles while reading her own words, which was the same thing I liked about David Spade’s memoir.

7) The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative, Florence Williams

Description: For centuries, poets and philosophers extolled the benefits of a walk in the woods. Williams set out to uncover the science behind nature’s positive effects on the brain, demonstrating that our connection to nature is much more important to our cognition than we think, and even small amounts of exposure to the living world can improve our creativity and enhance our mood.

I found this book to be very thorough and well researched, and I loved the theme (that proximity to / time spent in nature is advantageous for pretty much everyone). However, it’s one of those subjects I would’ve been happy reading a long article about, rather than an entire book. I just wasn’t interested in all the nitty-gritty research and topics she covered. Here’s an interview with her in the Washington Post from earlier this year.

8) Thanks, Obama: My Hopey, Changey White House Years, David Litt

Description: After graduating from college in 2008, he went straight to the Obama campaign. In 2011, he became one of the youngest White House speechwriters in history. Until leaving the White House in 2016, he wrote on topics from healthcare to climate change to criminal justice reform.

I enjoyed some of the insider knowledge but I just couldn’t stay interested. It was a struggle to finish. (There was one funny anecdote that stands out. Litt wrote the script for Obama’s 90th birthday tribute to Betty White and the description of the filming process – Litt’s first substantive interaction with President Obama – was entertaining. It inspired me to look up the finished video and watch it again.)

9) Here’s the Deal: Don’t Touch Me, Howie Mandel

Description: Mandel is one of the most recognizable names in entertainment, but there are aspects of his personal and professional life he’s never talked about publicly. Years ago, Mandel told the world about his germophobia. Then he started discussing his adult ADHD. Now, for the first time, he reveals the details of his struggle with these challenging disorders. He speaks candidly about the ways his condition has affected his personal life–as a son, husband, and father of three.

This is a quick read. I thought it would be interesting to hear about his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and how it affects his life, but he addresses that subject pretty quickly, then goes on to detail the many outrageous practical jokes he’s played over the years. I wasn’t impressed with his admitted disregard for people’s feelings in pursuit of a laugh.

I read seven books in November (three were audiobooks), which brings my 2017 total to 103.

These are the books I started reading in November but decided not to finish:

• Everything Is Perfect When You’re a Liar, Kelly Oxford
• I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual, Luvvie Ajayi

I rank my books with these categories: Highly Recommended, Recommended, Okay, and Not Recommended.

Recommended

1) Unqualified: Love and Relationship Advice From a Celebrity Who Just Wants to Help, Anna Faris

Description: This comic memoir features Anna’s candid stories of love lost and won — including being “the short girl” in elementary school, finding and keeping female friends, and dealing with the pressures of the entertainment industry. This book reveals Anna’s unique take on how to master the bizarre, chaotic, and ultimately rewarding world of love.

I heard about this book when Anna and her husband (Chris Pratt) were in the news for announcing their divorce. Releasing a book on relationships right before getting divorced? Don’t worry, it still works. It’s filled with amusing anecdotes and entertaining stories about her life.

2) Jackie’s Girl: My Life with the Kennedy Family, Kathy McKeon

Description: An endearing coming-of-age memoir by a young woman who spent thirteen years as Jackie Kennedy’s personal assistant and occasional nanny — and the lessons about life and love she learned from the glamorous first lady.

I liked this better than I thought I would. Kathy was a live-in personal assistant for Jackie Kennedy for over seven years, and continued to work for her when she moved out to get married. There were all kinds of details, like the particular challenges of caring for Jackie’s extensive wardrobe, and carving X’s on the soles of Jackie’s shoes to prevent her from slipping on marble floors.

Kathy paints a picture of a kind and generous woman but also one who demanded loyalty and hard work. In Kathy’s words: “[T]here wasn’t such a thing as ‘my’ time in her world, just her time bestowed on me when it best suited her. I had long ago lost count of the number of weekends off that had been appropriated without apology or compensation.”

The book covers tales from Caroline and John Jr.’s childhoods, family scandals, Jackie’s unexpected marriage to Aristotle Onassis, and later, the deaths of Jackie and John Jr.

3) At Home in the World: Reflections on Belonging While Wandering the Globe, Tsh Oxenreider

Description: In her late 30s and a mom to three kids under age ten, Tsh and her husband decided to spend a rather ordinary nine months in an extraordinary way: traveling the corners of the earth to see the places they’d always wanted to explore. This book chronicles their global journey from China to Thailand to Australia, Sri Lanka, Uganda, France, Croatia, and beyond, as they fill their days with train schedules, world-schooling the kids, and working from anywhere.

I read and enjoyed one of Tsh’s past books (Notes from a Blue Bike). I liked this one too, but it was less relatable since she was traveling around the world with three children – which I would never, ever do. I liked reading about the family’s downsizing process and how little they took with them (one backpack per person), and how even that was sometimes too much (like schlepping cold-weather clothing around when you spend a majority of your time in hot climates).

She is also realistic about the challenges of traveling with such a large group, especially when three of the five travelers are under the age of ten. While they saw and experienced a lot of exciting things, there were a lot of negatives: jet lag, unfamiliar foods, not being able to speak the native language, a constant feeling of discomfort. Their favorite locations ended up being the ones where they spent the most time (weeks instead of days) because they had time to settle in and enjoy their new surroundings.

4) How to Make a French Family: A Memoir of Love, Food, and Faux Pas, Samantha Verant

Description: When Samantha is given a second chance at love at the age of forty, she moves to southwestern France, thinking she’s prepared for her new role in life as an instant American wife and stepmom. It turns out, though, that making a French family takes more than just good intentions and a quick lesson in croissant-baking.

An American woman meets a Frenchman at the age of nineteen, they have a connection, but distance pulls them apart. They reconnect twenty years later; the man is now a widower with two children. They get married and the new wife moves to France. But not to exciting Paris…rural France. This story is about the stress of culture shock and battling a newfound lack of confidence, coupled with not knowing the language very well. These difficulties and assorted family drama helped keep the book from seeming too saccharine.

Okay

5) This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare, Gabourey Sidibe

Description: Gabourey skyrocketed to fame in 2009 when she played the leading role in the acclaimed movie “Precious.” Here she shares a one-of-a-kind life story and her unconventional rise to fame as a movie star.

I forget where I heard about this book. I only know Gabourey from Precious, but apparently she’s been on a few television series as well. In these essays, she addresses her childhood (including a cab-driving father from Senegal who wasn’t very nice, and a mother who made a living singing in the subway for tips), her interesting name, her weight (and eventual bariatric surgery), and a stint working for a phone-sex company before she landed a very unexpected movie role. She also talks about her struggle with bulimia and depression, but in general the tone of this book is comedic and upbeat.

6) Unstoppable: My Life So Far, Maria Sharapova

Description: In 2004, in a stunning upset against the two-time defending champion Serena Williams, 17-year-old Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon, becoming an overnight sensation. Out of virtual anonymity, she launched herself onto the international stage. Years later, she came up against the toughest challenge yet: during the 2016 Australian Open, she was charged by the ITF with taking the banned substance meldonium.

I enjoyed the first half of this book better than the second. It was interesting to read how her father brought them over from Russia – when she was six years old – with only $700 in his pocket, and how they persevered in the beginning through tenacity and sheer good luck. (Neither of them spoke English!)

I didn’t like her matter-of-fact tone (this may have been exacerbated by how she read it, as I listened to it on audio), and there was a lot of, uh…descriptions of tennis games. I know, this should be expected! But I’m not a tennis player or watcher, so I didn’t understand the terms she used, or the scoring, or many of the names she referenced (other than obvious ones like Serena Williams).

7) How to Fall in Love with Anyone: A Memoir in Essays, Mandy Len Catron

Description: In a series of essays that take a closer look at what it means to love someone, be loved, and how we present our love to the world, Catron deconstructs her own personal canon of love stories. She delves all the way back to 1944, when her grandparents first met in a coal mining town in Appalachia, to her own dating life as a professor in Vancouver, drawing insights from her fascinating research into the universal psychology, biology, history, and literature of love.

Mandy shares her personal love history, along with stories from her family. There are also opinion essays, like the Cinderella fantasy, and the impact of the movie Pretty Woman.

I read seven books in October (five were audiobooks), which brings my 2017 total to 96.

I rank my books with these categories: Highly Recommended, Recommended, Okay, and Not Recommended.

Highly Recommended

1) What Happened, Hillary Rodham Clinton

Description: For the first time, Clinton reveals what she was thinking and feeling during one of the most controversial and unpredictable presidential elections in history. Now free from the constraints of running, Clinton takes you inside the intense personal experience of becoming the first woman nominated for president by a major party in an election marked by rage, sexism, exhilarating highs and infuriating lows, stranger-than-fiction twists, Russian interference, and an opponent who broke all the rules.

I voted for Hillary last November, and I’ve long respected her history of service and activism, but this book made me like her even more. I sought out the audiobook because I wanted to hear her read it, and I’m glad I did.

I listened to a portion of this audiobook while sitting at my dining room table, writing postcards to encourage registered-Democrat voters in Virginia to get out and vote on Nov 7. (When a friend told me about the 100 Postcard Challenge, I immediately signed up. I was born and raised in Virginia, and lived in the state for more years than I’ve lived elsewhere. I’m not the type to knock on doors, but postcards I can do.)

I appreciated Clinton’s honesty. She speaks candidly about how she felt in multiple difficult situations, leading up the election and also its aftermath (like attending the inauguration as a guest instead of being the honoree).

She has biting words for Trump: she addresses his demeanor, his inability to stay on topic during debates, how incomprehensible it was to lose the election to someone with his history of sexism and misogyny. She refers to him as an “unqualified bully,” among other things.

During the town hall-style debate where Trump memorably loomed over her while she spoke, Clinton said all she wanted to do was turn around and say, “Back up, you creep.” She chose to ignore him but later wished she had spoken up. I wish she’d said something at the time, too, and I bet a lot of other women feel the same.

She includes personal details, like her relationship with Bill, and how she buys him gifts when she’s on the road and calls him every night before bed. She calls him her “partner and champion,” and says he never once asked her to put her career on hold for his, even when he was President. They’ve weathered their storms through the years and emerged strong.

There are also lighthearted details, with examples of life on the campaign trail, what her team did to pass the time, what kind of food they liked to eat, and people they met along the way.

Closer to the end of the book, she talks about why she lost the election (but not the popular vote…may we never forget the popular vote). Of course she talks about THE EMAILS. I started typing out a long paragraph about the idiocy of people focusing on THE EMAILS but ultimately deleted it; I agree when she said, “It was a dumb mistake but an even dumber scandal.”

Oh my goodness, there are so many other things: Her thoughts on how Bernie Sanders handled himself during the primaries. Her stance on guns. There’s also a section on Russian hacking and their interference in the election, which, as we know, has not been fully resolved, so it’ll be interesting (and likely devastating) to see how all that plays out.

I found myself wishing that some of the non-Hillary fans I know would read this book and see if it changes their opinion. She isn’t perfect – she freely admits to things she wishes she’d handled differently – but neither is she a villain.

This book is both heartbreaking and inspiring. It was difficult to read certain parts (I was close to tears when she read something she’d planned to include in her acceptance speech after the election; it’s about her mother and it’s so very beautiful). But if you want to be inspired to step up your activism and support causes that advance women, this is the reading material for you.

Recommended

2) Born Bright: A Young Girl’s Journey from Nothing to Something in America, C. Nicole Mason

Description: Born in the 1970s in Los Angeles, Mason was raised by a beautiful but volatile16-year-old single mother. Early on, she learned to navigate between an unpredictable home life and school where she excelled. While showing us her path out of poverty, Mason examines the conditions that make it nearly impossible to escape and exposes the presumption harbored by many—that the poor don’t help themselves enough.

Mason details her troubled upbringing: being born to a 15-year-old mother; her father going to jail for selling drugs; her stepfather’s sexual abuse; food insecurity. She attended many different schools while growing up, and became the first in her family to graduate high school.

Even though she escaped poverty and obtained a PhD, Mason refutes the belief that this is possible for everyone, arguing that the systems we have in place make this kind of advancement very difficult.

3) A Fighting Chance, Elizabeth Warren

Description: As a child in small-town Oklahoma, Warren yearned to go to college and become an elementary school teacher—an ambitious goal, given her family’s modest means. Early marriage and motherhood seemed to put that dream out of reach, but 15 years later she was a distinguished law professor with a deep understanding of why people go bankrupt. Then came the phone call that changed her life: could she come to Washington, DC to help advise Congress on rewriting the bankruptcy laws? Thus began an impolite education into the bare-knuckled, often dysfunctional ways of Washington.

I didn’t know anything about Elizabeth Warren until she campaigned for Hillary Clinton last year. This book introduced me to a lot more, and unsurprisingly, she’s a very impressive woman. She married young, got pregnant early, and became a homemaker. But she decided to get a law degree and soon after graduation became a law professor, ultimately working at Harvard years later.

I learned a bunch of details I didn’t know about the 2007 financial crisis and the bankruptcy legislation she worked on. There’s also a chapter about her decision to run for Senator of Massachusetts against long odds (and her ultimate victory).

4) Bonjour Kale: A Memoir of Paris, Love, and Recipes, Kristen Beddard

Description: Unable to find “le chou kale” anywhere upon moving to Paris with her new husband, and despite not really speaking French, Kristen launched a crusade to single-handedly bring kale to the country of croissants and cheese.

This is another (but still enjoyable) memoir about a non-French speaking American lady who moves to France with her French-speaking husband. I’ve read a fair number of these but I’ve liked them all. This one is a little different due to the author’s focus on kale. I don’t understand loving one vegetable so much (I like kale just fine, but if I’d moved to France and it wasn’t there, I would have just eaten something else). She is (spoiler!) ultimately successful in her quest to reintroduce the green veggie to France (which is apparently a cabbage…who knew?).

Luckily the entire book isn’t about kale, and throughout, she addresses the typical actions involved in learning a new culture, like difficulties fitting in and attempting to learn French.

5) Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman, Anne Helen Petersen

Description: You know the type: the woman who won’t shut up, who’s too brazen, too opinionated — too much. She’s the unruly woman, and she embodies one of the most provocative and powerful forms of womanhood today. Here, Petersen uses the lens of “unruliness” to explore the ascension of pop culture powerhouses like Lena Dunham, Nicki Minaj, and Kim Kardashian, exploring why the public loves to love (and hate) these controversial figures.

We all know women who have had labels applied to them, deserved or not. Petersen explores some of these labels in-depth and offers insights into why these women are seen that way.

6) Around the Way Girl: A Memoir, Taraji P. Henson

Description: From Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner Taraji P. Henson, comes an inspiring and funny book about family, friends, and the hustle required to make it from DC to Hollywood. Taraji reflects on the world-class instruction she received at Howard University and the pitfalls that come with being a black actress.

I think the first time I become aware of Taraji’s name was when she starred in the movie Hidden Figures (although I haven’t seen it yet), but I realized I’ve probably seen the actress in a few other things and just didn’t know her name. I’m glad I chose the audio version, since Taraji reads it herself and is quite theatrical and enthusiastic with her narration. (She does a great imitation of her dad’s voice.)

It was interesting to hear how she was mostly raised by a single mother in poverty-stricken southeast DC, so she really had to hustle to reach her level of fame. Taraji always had a lot of energy and attitude, and was extremely motivated to make a career in acting, so having a baby during her junior year of college didn’t stop her momentum at all. When she moved to Los Angeles in her mid-20s, she moved as a single mother with a toddler son and made it work. Quite impressive.

Okay

7) American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land, Monica Hesse

Description: The arsons started on a cold November midnight and didn’t stop for months. Night after night, the people of Accomack County waited to see which building would burn down next, regarding each other at first with compassion, and later suspicion. The culprit, and the path that led to these crimes, is a story of twenty-first century America.

What would possess a couple in rural Virginia to burn down over 70 buildings? That’s the question Hesse attempts to answer.

This was a bit hard to follow on audio (there were a lot of names, and I find it easier to follow names if I’m physically reading them rather than hearing them spoken). I wish I could say the story is worth it, and parts of it were entertaining, but the ending fell flat so that sealed the deal with not being put in the “Recommended” category.

I read six books in September (two were audiobooks), which brings my 2017 total to 89. There was less reading than usual (on the bright side, I recommend them all!), but that’s because I recently made a big move and my daily life is quite different. More details on that soon.

This is a book I started reading in September but decided not to finish:

• Girl in the Woods: A Memoir, Aspen Matis
  A girl who walks from Mexico to Canada? Sounds like my kind of story! Except it wasn’t. I listened to about half of this audiobook. I tried to push through so I could place it concretely in the “Not Recommended” category, but I just couldn’t do it. It got worse and worse. Could not finish.

I rank my books with these categories: Highly Recommended, Recommended, Okay, and Not Recommended.

Recommended

1) The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

Description: Crime, even the darkest acts, can happen to any of us. As Alexandria pores over the facts of convicted murderer Ricky Langley’s case, she finds herself thrust into the complicated narrative of his childhood. By examining the details of Ricky’s case, she is forced to face her own story, to unearth long-buried family secrets, and reckon with a past that colors her view of Ricky’s crime. An intellectual and emotional thriller that is also a different kind of murder mystery, this is a book not only about how the story of one crime was constructed — but about how we grapple with our own personal histories.

This is an in-depth look at a murder case, but rather than simply reporting the facts, Alexandria goes back and forth between the murder case and her personal story. It was a good mix. I listened to this on audio, which I also recommend.

2) The Rules Do Not Apply: A Memoir, Ariel Levy

Description: When Ariel left for a reporting trip to Mongolia in 2012, she was pregnant, married, and financially secure. A month later, none of that was true. Levy picks you up and hurls you through the story of how she built an unconventional life and then watched it fall apart with astonishing speed. Levy chronicles the adventure and heartbreak of being, in her own words, “a woman who is free to do whatever she chooses.”

Ariel received a lot of attention (and I believe she won some nonfiction awards) for her essay that appeared in the New Yorker four years ago and later led to her book deal. It’s pretty intense.

This book wasn’t what I was expected, but it’s okay to be taken by surprise. I didn’t like all of her life choices and there were things she could have handled differently, but she’s a terrific writer and her observations are worth holding out for.

3) Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage, Dani Shapiro

Description: This is an inquiry into how marriage is transformed by time — abraded, strengthened, shaped in miraculous and sometimes terrifying ways. Dani opens the door to her house, her marriage, and her heart, and invites us to witness her own marital reckoning — a reckoning in which she confronts both the life she dreamed of and the life she made, and struggles to reconcile the girl she was with the woman she has become.

This isn’t long; I flew through it pretty quickly. I enjoyed Dani’s three previous nonfiction books so I knew I’d like this one. Like any good memoirist, she is honest and open, which is instrumental to writing something people can relate to.

At the time of writing this book, Dani’s marriage was 18 years old (she’s now at 20 years). I appreciated her perspective on how difficult it’s been for two creative people — basically freelance writers, working from home on a wide variety of projects — to hustle for work. They have no 401k or other retirement savings. Her husband can spend months working on a screenplay which doesn’t get picked up. There are flush years when work pours in, but they end up using any extra money they bring in to sustain them during the lean years.

She also goes into the way a marriage changes over time, and the hard times they’ve had, but there is a focus on being committed for the long haul — despite her concern that one of them hasn’t stepped up to be the “responsible one” (it’s generally preferable if at least one person in a relationship provides stability by funding a retirement account and providing health insurance).

4) Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit, Barry Estabrook

Description: Tomatoland combines history, legend, passion for taste, and investigative reporting on modern agribusiness and environmental issues into a revealing, controversial look at the tomato, the fruit we love so much that we eat $4 billion-worth annually.

I read a book about the tomato industry, but here’s a fun fact — I can’t stand raw tomatoes and never eat them. (I use diced and crushed canned tomatoes in my cooking all the time; as long as they’re mixed with other ingredients, I’m fine with them.)

This isn’t about taste though (at least not entirely). Estabrook delves deep into many aspects of the industry, focusing heavily on the low-paid, undocumented workers who do the planning, pruning, and harvesting; slave-like living conditions; and pesticide exposure. What surprised me the most was learning that Florida, with its warm climate, does not actually have ideal growing conditions for tomatoes — far from it, actually. Tomatoes are grown in sand, not soil, and nutrients and water are a highly regulated science to get to the desired yield.

I may not buy raw tomatoes, but the conditions in which they reach our grocery stores should be of interest to everyone.

5) The Worrier’s Guide to the End of the World: Love, Loss, and Other Catastrophes — through Italy, India, and Beyond, Torre DeRoche

Description: Torre is at rock bottom following a breakup and her father’s death when she crosses paths with Masha, who is pursuing her dream of walking the world. When Masha invites Torre to join her pilgrimage through Tuscany, Torre straps on a pair of flimsy shoes and gets rambling. But the magical hills of Italy are nothing like the dusty and merciless roads of India where the pair wind up, improvising a pilgrimage in the footsteps of Gandhi along his march to the seaside. Coming face-to-face with their worst fears, they discover the power of friendship to save us from our darkest moments.

I’ve read a number of books over the years about women who go on long walks, and I always find them interesting. I dream of doing the same myself one day.

Several bad things happened to Torre in a short period of time (her father died, a long relationship ended), but she takes a lighthearted approach to her situation and learns some life lessons along the way. I envied her friendship with Masha, her walking partner. Except for a short period of time on their second walk, they had a closeness and easy banter that seemed to make the miles pass quickly.

6) All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood, Jennifer Senior

Description: Thousands of books have examined the effects of parents on their children. But almost none have thought to ask: What are the effects of children on their parents? Award-winning journalist Jennifer Senior analyzes the many ways children reshape their parents’ lives, whether it’s their marriages, their jobs, their habits, their hobbies, their friendships, or their internal senses of self.

I read this book two years ago, but sometimes a childfree woman likes to remind herself of the stark realities of raising a child. (Another reason: I needed an audiobook to listen to and this one was available.) You can find my first review here.

I read ten books in August (four were audiobooks), which brings my 2017 total to 83.

I rank my books with these categories: Highly Recommended, Recommended, Okay, and Not Recommended.

Recommended

1) The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness, Jill Filipovic

Description: For women, pursuing happiness is a complicated endeavor, and if you head out into America and talk to women one-on-one, you see that happiness is indelibly shaped by the constraints of gender, the expectations of feminine sacrifice, and the myriad ways that womanhood itself differs along lines of race, class, location, and identity. Filipovic provides an outline for a feminist movement we all need and a blueprint for how policy, laws, and society can deliver on the promise of the pursuit of happiness for all.

There’s a wide range of topics here, but I was able to find value in each one. In the chapter on marriage, Filipovic asks “Does marriage actually make women happy or does it, by its very nature, subsume women into their male partners?” (The author is in a long-term relationship but doesn’t know if she’ll ever get married.) You don’t have to agree with her views but she brings up a lot of interesting points.

I also liked the chapter on parenting, because she covers women who have kids along those who don’t…that topic always interests me. Other topics: female friendships, sex, women in the workplace, food and eating disorders, and women who change their last names when they get married (she doesn’t approve).

2) Almost Interesting: The Memoir, David Spade

Description: Spade takes fans back to his childhood as a wannabe cool younger brother and recounts his excruciating road-tour to fame, when he was regularly mistaken for a 14-year-old. He dishes about his time on SNL during the beloved Rock/Sandler/Farley era of the 1990s, and brags about the ridiculous perks that fame has brought into his life, including a crazy assistant who attacked him while he was sleeping, and being threatened on the street in Beverly Hills by Eddie Murphy.

I’m as surprised about this one as you are. I didn’t have high expectations for this at all, but I found it very amusing. One caveat: I listened to it on audio, which greatly enhanced the experience. I don’t think I would have liked it nearly as much without David Spade reading it. He knows how to make his stories entertaining. He even entertains himself, laughing on multiple occasions when he reads a particular passage.

3) We Are Never Meeting in Real Life: Essays, Samantha Irby

Description: Sometimes you just have to laugh, even when life is a dumpster fire. Whether talking about how her difficult childhood has led to a problem in making “adult” budgets, detailing a disastrous pilgrimage to Nashville to scatter her estranged father’s ashes, sharing awkward sexual encounters, or dispensing advice on how to navigate friendships with former drinking buddies who are now suburban moms, Irby is as deft at poking fun at the ghosts of her past self as she is at capturing powerful emotional truths.

There were a few essays I didn’t like (I have no interest or patience in shows like The Bachelor / Bachelorette, and her very first essay details how she would answer questions if she were filling out an application to be on the show). Also, while I mostly enjoyed her honest, straight talk, the description of being afflicted with diarrhea during a long car ride and crapping on the side of the road, while her car-mates and people in other cars looked on…well, that one was a bit much.

Having said that, the majority of the essays were winners, and I enjoyed this perspective from a (self-described) overweight, antisocial, black female lesbian.

4) How to Be Married: What I Learned from Real Women on Five Continents about Surviving My First (Really Hard) Year of Marriage, Jo Piazza

Description: Everyone tells you marriage is hard, but no one tells you what to do about it. A travel editor constantly on the move, Jo journeys to twenty countries on five continents to figure out what modern marriage means. Throughout personal narrative, she gleans wisdom from matrilineal tribeswomen, French ladies who lunch, Orthodox Jewish moms, Swedish stay-at-home dads, and polygamous warriors.

There’s some marriage advice in here, but I didn’t read it for that (the advice is all straightforward stuff that people should know anyway). I liked that she traveled around to different countries and told us about other ways of life. I recommend it for the adventure part and not so much the “how do I have a good marriage?” part.

5) Year of No Clutter: A Memoir, Eve Schaub

Description: Eve has a problem with clutter. Too much stuff and too easily acquired, it confronts her in every corner and on every surface in her house. What Eve discovers isn’t just old CDs and outdated clothing, but a fierce desire to hold on to her identity. Our things represent our memories, our history, a million tiny reference points in our lives. If we throw our stuff in the trash, where does that leave us?

My problem with this book is the same I had with Schaub’s first memoir, Year of No Sugar: if you’re going to give up something for a year (in the case of sugar), or take on a year-long project (like she does in this book), and someone is paying you to write about it…then do it. Don’t half-ass your no-sugar year by making concessions all the time, and don’t say you’re going to clean up this super cluttered room in your house if you aren’t going to do it 100%. Schaub said she’s pleased with the outcome, and she did make a lot of progress, but if you watch this video taken after the book was written, you can see everything still remaining to do.

Having said that, this book was entertaining to listen to on audio, and I liked hearing her thoughts on hoarders and how she recognizes some of those tendencies in herself and close family members. If you read this book for entertainment, and don’t focus so much on her lack of goal-accomplishment, it’s worth reading.

6) But Enough About Me: A Jersey Girl’s Unlikely Adventures Among the Absurdly Famous, Jancee Dunn

Description: New Jersey in the 1980s had everything Jancee wanted, and New York City was a foreign country. So it was with bleak expectations she submitted her résumé to Rolling Stone magazine. Before she knew it, she was backstage and behind the scenes with the most famous people in the world, trading her good-girl suburban past for late nights, hipster guys, and the booze-soaked rock ‘n’ roll life. This is the true story of an outsider who couldn’t quite bring herself to become an insider.

Since I enjoyed Jancee’s recent book, How Not to Hate Your Husband After Kids, I looked her up and discovered she published two previous memoirs. This was her first, published in 2006. It covers her early life growing up in New Jersey with two younger sisters, how she got a job at Rolling Stone, later adding gigs as a VJ on MTV2 and even a correspondent on Good Morning America. She shares interesting celebrity interviews she’s done, revealing details that she didn’t at the time, like when she met Brad Pitt, Madonna, and Dolly Parton. Fun read.

Okay

7) Why Is My Mother Getting a Tattoo?: And Other Questions I Wish I Never Had to Ask, Jancee Dunn

Description: Despite her forty years and a successful career as a rock journalist, Dunn still feels like a teenager, especially around her parents and sisters. Looking around, Dunn realizes she’s not alone in this regression: Her friends, all with successful jobs, marriages, and families of their own, still feel like kids around their parents, too. That gets Dunn to thinking: Do we ever really grow up?

I liked and recommended Jancee’s first and third memoirs, but I wasn’t a big fan of this, her second. There were a few enjoyable essays, but multiple chapters were simply the text of phone conversations with a girlfriend (did not enjoy), visiting a gay friend to watch movies (dull), or taking her mom on a weekend trip to Savannah (nothing interesting happened). I would pass on this one.

Not Recommended

8) Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life, Steve Martin

Description: In the midseventies, Steve Martin exploded onto the comedy scene. By 1978 he was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand-up. In 1981 he quit forever. This book is, in his own words, the story of “why I did stand-up and why I walked away.”

I expected Steve Martin (I listened to it on audio) to tell me a little about his early life and then get into the more interesting show business stuff, but it turned out to be the opposite — there’s a LOT about his early life and only a short section after he got famous. This may be interesting to big Steve Martin fans but I found it boring. David Spade (see above) was way funnier.

9) All the Lives I Want: Essays About My Best Friends Who Happen to Be Famous Strangers, Alana Massey

Description: Mixing Didion’s affected cool with moments of giddy celebrity worship, Massey examines the lives of the women who reflect our greatest aspirations and darkest fears back onto us. A cultural critique and a finely wrought fan letter, interwoven with stories that are achingly personal, this is also an exploration of mental illness, the sex industry, and the dangers of loving too hard.

I wanted to like this book and I had to wait a long time for it to be available at the library, but it wasn’t what I expected and I just didn’t enjoy it. I felt the author’s personal anecdotes were strong, and I kept hoping for more of those. What I didn’t like was most of the book reading like a string of movie and music reviews, due to the inclusion of long dissections of movie plots and song lyrics. A lot of it just didn’t make sense to me; I didn’t understand why the author chose to include what she did or ultimately why I should care.

10) You Don’t Look Your Age…and Other Fairy Tales, Sheila Nevins

Description: A famed documentary producer (she was President of HBO Documentary Films for over 30 years), Nevins steps out from behind the camera and takes her place front and center.

This book was made up of short, random essays, conversations with no context, and other erratic content. It was not coherent nor interesting. Sometimes she would write a story in third person and you were supposed to guess if she was talking about herself or not (she said as much in the introduction). Lady, if this is supposed to be a memoir, don’t make me guess if this is your real life or not. I l only finished this book because it was short.

I read 11 books in July (six were audiobooks), which brings my 2017 total to 73.

These are the books I started in July but decided not to finish:

• American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst, Jeffrey Toobin (I started this on audio and the story was too slow; it may have gotten better but I stopped listening to it)
• The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia, Michael Booth (the information in this book was too similar to The Year of Living Danishly, which I read recently)

I rank my books with these categories: Highly Recommended, Recommended, Okay, and Not Recommended.

Highly Recommended

1) Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, Roxane Gay

Description: From the author of “Bad Feminist,” a long-awaited memoir about her struggles with weight and childhood traumas.

Roxane’s story is powerful and deeply personal, but she is quick to point out that she’s not special or especially strong; what happened to her was horrific but worse things happen to men and women every day. She does acknowledge, with many years of hindsight, that she was wrong to keep her assault a secret for 25 years, and had she sought help she likely wouldn’t be in the situation she is now with her weight.

One factor which had never occurred to me was how she goes to great lengths to make sure venues and restaurants can accommodate her size. She searches in advance for photos of a restaurant’s interior to see if the chairs look large enough. She’s been stuck (literally) too many times in too-small chairs that leave bruises on her hips and thighs.

She hits many weight-related topics: the problem with reality shows that focus on quick weight loss; how she longs for nice clothes in her size, but even when she finds them they languish in her closet while she continues to wear denim and dark shirts; her parents telling her that her weight is a “family problem.” The chapter where she talks about googling the boy (now grown man) responsible for her assault was particularly moving.

You can read an excerpt here, and I enjoyed this review and this review.

Recommended

2) Unprocessed: My City-Dwelling Year of Reclaiming Real Food, Megan Kimble

Description: Megan was living in a small apartment without a garden plot to her name, but she cared about where food came from, how it was made, and what it did to her body — so she decided to go an entire year without eating processed foods. This is the narrative of Megan’s extraordinary year, in which she milled wheat, extracted salt from the sea, milked a goat, slaughtered a sheep, and more — all while earning an income that fell well below the federal poverty line.

I liked this book a lot; Megan is a good writer. She uses vivid details which make it easy to picture what she’s describing. I like that she incorporated a lot of research into her year of eating unprocessed foods (but not so much that the reading was dry), along with sharing her personal experiences — it was a good mix.

Megan makes eating unprocessed seem doable, and even fun (or at least it can be fun to read about, if you’re not motivated to do the same). No matter where you fall on the processed/unprocessed spectrum, Megan’s experience will make you question your current habits, which is always a good thing. If you want to know more, this is a piece Megan wrote for the Washington Post.

Okay

3) Nevertheless: A Memoir, Alec Baldwin

Description: Baldwin introduces us to the Long Island child who felt burdened by his family’s financial strains and his parents’ unhappy marriage; the Washington, DC, college student gearing up for a career in politics; the young soap actor learning from giants of the theatre; the addict drawn to drugs and alcohol; the husband and father who acknowledges his failings and battles to overcome them; and the consummate professional for whom the work is everything.

I thought I would like this more than I did, but Alec’s story didn’t draw me in. I did listen to this on audio though, and Alec has a nice voice, so that was a plus.

He talks about his childhood, the loss of his father, how he got involved in acting, and his early roles in theater and movies. I thought that would be more entertaining, but he focuses a lot on the directors and producers (more so than his fellow stars), and I didn’t recognize a lot of the names, so I just didn’t really care.

He does go into his relationship and marriage to Kim Basinger, and also the infamous voicemail he left for his daughter Ireland back in 2007. For someone who was made out to be a monster in the press, it was refreshing to read his perspective.

Two things I enjoyed: 1) every single night since Ireland was born (21 years and counting) he’s either lit a candle – or a match, if that’s all he has – to thank God for his daughter; 2) he’s been involved in political advocacy for many decades, none of which has been for personal gain.

4) Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), Mindy Kaling

Description: Mindy has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck-impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress. She invites readers on a tour of her life and her unscientific observations on romance, friendship, and Hollywood.

This memoir is far from deep, and I found the structure to be a bit scattered (Mindy jumps between subjects at random, even within the same chapter). However, I listened to it on audio, which is read by the author, so if you’re looking for something mindless and sufficiently entertaining to listen to, this will do the trick.

5) Why Not Me?: A Memoir, Mindy Kaling

Description: Kaling shares her ongoing journey to find contentment and excitement in her adult life, whether it’s falling in love at work, seeking new friendships in lonely places, attempting to be the first person in history to lose weight without any behavior modification whatsoever, or most important, believing that you have a place in Hollywood when you’re constantly reminded that no one looks like you.

Just like with Mindy’s first book, there were certain essays I enjoyed while others were “let’s skim this as quickly as possible” dumb. Examples of essays I hated: 1) fake emails she might have sent in an alternate life as a high school Latin teacher; 2) the speech she gave to Harvard Law School graduates; 3) things she worries about when she wakes up at 4am.

6) No Cheating, No Dying: I Had a Good Marriage, Then I Tried To Make It Better, Elizabeth Weil

Description: Weil believes you don’t get married in a white dress, in front of all your future in-laws and ex-boyfriends but gradually, over time, through all the road rage incidents, good and bad dinners, and all the small moments you never expected to happen. Weil examines the major universal marriage issues—sex, money, mental health, in-laws, children—through recounting her own hilarious, messy, and sometimes difficult relationship.

This book was shorter than I expected (the hardback was only 174 pages), and I wanted some things to be more fleshed out while other topics she focused on were poorly chosen. I thought it was interesting that she started out by telling us how fantastic her marriage is, but as the chapters unfold it becomes clear that they’ve had more issues than she initially disclosed. At the end, I felt like I didn’t learn much and it didn’t seem like she did either.

7) Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls, and Everything in Between, Lauren Graham

Description: In this collection of personal essays, the beloved star of Gilmore Girls and Parenthood reveals stories about life, love, and working as a woman in Hollywood.

Graham has a chatty, breezy way of speaking (I listened to this on audio), but the commentary mainly flowed in one ear and out the other – I made barely any notes on it. The book isn’t bad, but I’ve never watched Gilmore Girls or Parenthood (which she spent a lot of time talking about), so I had no recognition of – or interest in – the characters or plotlines.

8) WTF: What the French?!, Olivier Magny

Description: In France, the simple act of eating bread is an exercise in creative problem solving and attempting to spell requires a degree of masochism. In this book, Magny reveals the France only the French know. From the latest trends in baby names, to the religiously observed division of church and state, prepare yourself for an insider’s look at French culture that is surprising, insightful, and chock full of bons mots.

This book is a bunch of short chapters on a wide variety of topics. I would have liked for certain chapters to be longer, but that was balanced by drier subjects which were also short (like taxes, government bureaucracy, and how high-ranking officials get and keep their jobs). I listened to this on audio, and it was nice to hear the narrator switch back and forth between English and French.

9) Priestdaddy: A Memoir, Patricia Lockwood

Description: Lockwood interweaves emblematic moments from her childhood and adolescence with scenes that chronicle the eight-month adventure she and her husband had in her parents’ household after a decade of living on their own. She details her education of a seminarian who is also living at the rectory, and tries to explain Catholicism to her husband, who is mystified by its bloodthirstiness and arcane laws. She pivots from the raunchy to the sublime, from the comic to the deeply serious, exploring issues of belief, belonging, and personhood.

Patricia grew up in a household with oddball parents, one of which was a Catholic priest (married Catholic priests are rare, but it happens sometimes when men start off in another religious denomination and later convert to Catholicism).

Her “priest daddy” is a strange character (definitely makes you question the mental health of other priests as well), but I felt like this book focused more on Patricia – how messed up she is due to her childhood, and her relationship with her mother – than it does on her father. Her father is just a side character, and I was left wondering why we didn’t get more details.

My biggest problem was that I didn’t like Patricia’s writing style. She’s received attention for her poetry, she’s received attention for this book…so obviously not everyone shares my opinion. I found a number of chapters simply boring, and I disliked that she seemed proud of never holding down a “real job.” She preferred to be a broke writer, relying on her husband’s low income – and for the purposes of this book in particular, she’d rather move in with her parents for nine months while her husband was unable to work – instead of getting a job to pay the bills. It’s nice that her book-writing gamble seems to have worked out for her.

10) Chasing Slow: Courage to Journey Off the Beaten Path, Erin Loechner

Description: Before turning 30, Erin had built a fan base of women worldwide and was praised for her authentic voice and effortless style. The New York Times applauded her, her friends and church admired her, and her husband and baby adored her. So why did she feel so lost? Erin turned away from fast and fame and frenzy. Through a series of steep climbs — her husband’s brain tumor, bankruptcy, family loss, and public criticism — Erin learns just how much strength it takes to surrender it all, and to veer right into grace.

I’ve read Erin’s blog off and on over the years. It’s always been hit or miss with me; I really like some of her posts but a majority of them I could do without.

Erin employs a cerebral tone in her writing that I find grating, which I noticed in her book as well (even more so in the second half). She does this thing where she asks a bunch of questions in a row, followed by a lot of short sentences. I have no interest in knowing which questions are running through her brain all the time; I want stories and observations.

She interjects religion in here, too, with the inclusion of Bible verses. If a book is going to have religious undertones I prefer for there to be an indication in the description so I can decide if I want to read it or not (I looked at some reviews on Goodreads after I finished the book and I’m not the only person who feels this way).

11) Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America, Linda Tirado

Description: Americans have certain ideas of what it means to be poor. Tirado takes these preconceived notions and smashes them to bits. She articulates not only what it is to be working poor, but what poverty is truly like. Tirado discusses how she went from lower-middle class, to sometimes middle class, to poor and everything in between, and in doing so reveals why “poor people don’t always behave the way middle-class America thinks they should.”

On one hand, I think this book could introduce a valuable perspective on poverty, especially to people who have never experienced poverty firsthand. However, it’s really difficult to read a book (or in this case, listen to a book, since I had it on audio) that is one long, unending stream of complaints. I kept thinking there must be more constructive ways to share one’s experience than the approach Linda took.

It doesn’t help that she portrays herself in an unlikeable manner, constantly justifying her right to be a smoker and admitting that she’s been fired multiple times due to her temper. The final chapter was the worst – a rant against rich people and all the things they do to piss her off. I understand where her anger comes from, but the way she chose to put it out there is really hurting her cause.

I read thirteen books in June (five were audiobooks), which brings my 2017 total to 62.

I rank my books with these categories: Highly Recommended, Recommended, Okay, and Not Recommended.

Recommended

1) An Abbreviated Life: A Memoir, Ariel Leve

Description: A beautiful, startling, and candid memoir about growing up without boundaries, in which Ariel recalls the turbulent time she endured as the only child of an unstable poet for a mother and a beloved but largely absent father, and explores the consequences of a psychologically harrowing childhood as she seeks refuge from the past and recovers what was lost.

This is a very well done “dysfunctional mother” memoir. Ariel put up with a lot as a kid, which makes me realize how normal and sane my childhood was in comparison.

Ariel’s mother was a well-known poet in her day (she isn’t named in the book but a google search provides the answer), with famous writer friends. She was verbally, emotionally, and physically abusive. She walked around naked. She’d sometimes talk on the phone so long that she would pee herself, rather than place the caller on hold to go to the bathroom. She would host parties during the week which kept her daughter awake long past her bedtime. She made constant promises that she had no intention of keeping.

She took part in the feminist movement but would get distraught when boyfriends left her (even just for the night), grabbing onto their calves and screaming at them not to leave. Ariel says her mother never spent an entire day alone with her during her childhood, instead leaving her in the care of various nannies.

For more information: Jon Ronson profiled Ariel for this article after the book came out, and it includes an interview with Ariel’s mother.

2) Scrappy Little Nobody, Anna Kendrick

Description: Even before she made a name for herself on the silver screen, Anna was unusually small, weird, and “10 percent defiant.” Here she invites readers inside her brain, sharing extraordinary and charmingly ordinary stories with candor and winningly wry observations.

I resisted reading this book at first because I didn’t know much about Anna Kendrick, but it was a fun read. Anna started out as a theater actress as a kid, and gradually started doing films once she moved to Los Angeles in her late teens. I’ve only seen one or two movies she’s been in, but her recollections from sets she’s worked on were entertaining to read all the same.

Anna is likable and relatable because she’s self-deprecating, and she talks a lot about how she’s felt like an outsider and a fraud most of her life. In a later section, she gives behind-the-scenes observations on photo shoots, press junkets, print interviews, and attending awards shows (which apparently is not glamorous, especially the never-ending struggle to keep your dress from wrinkling).

3) Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste, Bianca Bosker

Description: Professional journalist and amateur drinker Bianca Bosker didn’t know much about wine—until she discovered an alternate universe where taste reigns supreme, a world of elite sommeliers who dedicate their lives to the pursuit of flavor. Astounded by their fervor and seemingly superhuman sensory powers, she set out to uncover what drove their obsession, and whether she, too, could become a “cork dork.”

Just the kind of book I like: a woman who immerses herself in a subject and tells us all about it. Bianca wrote articles about tech before she made the switch to wine, and it’s amazing to see how much time must be dedicated to this pursuit if you want to be good at it. You really have to love it; there’s no other way to motivate yourself to spend so much time focusing on one subject. Imagine spending most of your free time studying obscure facts on flash cards.

Bianca finds a mentor, joins multiple blind tasting groups, and attends sommelier competitions. She works in a wine cellar for a few months, and later shadows a sommelier at a fancy restaurant to see what their job is like. She also explores the science of taste, and investigates how wine quality is judged, or if it’s even really possible to do so.

In reviews I read elsewhere, I’ve seen valid criticism that Bianca is making assumptions about the wine industry, and people who work as sommeliers, based on characters she met mostly in NYC over the course of a year. She doesn’t always portray them in the best light, like when she says sommeliers are often trying to talk you into buying the most expensive wine possible and that many of them are functional alcoholics. However, her goal was to become a certified sommelier herself, so obviously she finds merit in the profession.

4) I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales From a Happy Life Without Kids, Jen Kirkman

Description: As a woman of a certain age who has no desire to start a family, Jen often finds herself confronted about her decision to be childfree by choice. She offers honest and hilarious responses to questions like “Who will take care of you when you get old?” (Servants!) and a peek into the psyche — and weird and wonderful life — of a woman who has always marched to the beat of a different drummer and is pretty sure she’s not gonna change her mind, but thanks for your concern.

This is Kirkman’s first book. I also read her second book this month (see below).

Kirkman describes multiple situations she’s found herself in as a childfree person where she hasn’t felt like her wishes are heard or respected. As a childfree person myself, these scenarios are always interesting to me, but I don’t entirely relate because – at least up to this point in my life – I’ve never felt hounded by anyone for not having kids. Kirkman has been brought to tears and made to feel bad about her desire not to procreate, while I haven’t. It made me wonder, since she’s a comedian and obviously comfortable talking in front of people, why she engaged with the asshole ladies who made her feel bad, rather than shutting it down.

I think this book would be valuable for women with kids to read as well, if only to highlight the many things you shouldn’t say to your childfree friend.

Here’s a quote I liked: “Can we all admit that the sound of a kid squealing, even if it’s with joy, sounds like squealing? I can angrily press the button on an air horn or I can press the button on an air horn with a sense of carefree fun and either way it sounds like an air horn.”

4) I Know What I’m Doing — and Other Lies I Tell Myself: Dispatches from a Life Under Construction, Jen Kirkman

Description: Jen offers up all the gory details of a life permanently in progress. She talks about making unusual or unpopular life decisions because you don’t necessarily want for yourself what everyone else seems to think you should. It’s about renting when everyone says you should own, dating around when everyone thinks you should settle down, and traveling alone when everyone pities you for going to Paris without a man.

I listened to this one on audiobook, which enhanced the experience (Kirkman reads it). I like her outlook on life. She went through an amicable divorce with her husband when she realized they weren’t happy together; she reiterates her childfree stance, saying she knew from a young age that she didn’t want kids and has never wavered; she’s happy living alone and traveling for her work as a comedian. She seems like a cool person (I’d pay to see her perform in a comedy show if she came to town).

About her job as a traveling comedian, she says, “I’m not in it for fame and fortune. It’s the other ‘F’ word: Freedom. I don’t want a boss. I don’t want to work for a major corporation. I don’t want to sit at a desk.”

6) How Not to Hate Your Husband After Kids, Jancee Dunn

Description: Dunn tackles the last taboo subject of parenthood: the startling, white-hot fury that mothers often have for their mates. After having her baby, she found she was doing virtually all the household chores, even though she and her husband worked equal hours. She asked herself: How did I become the ‘expert’ at changing a diaper? Dunn plunges into the latest relationship research, solicits the counsel of the country’s most renowned couples’ and sex therapists, and canvasses fellow parents. As Dunn and her husband discover, adding a demanding new person to your relationship means you have to reevaluate (and rebuild) your marriage.

As I do not have children, this book may seem like an odd choice. But it’s a memoir, not a how-to book, and I found value in the methods she took to heal her marriage. She goes into great detail about their therapy sessions, interviews a lot of experts, and comes back with tips on everything from how to divide household chores, to how to resolve various issues like finances and clutter – which are helpful for parents and childfree couples alike.

And yes, books like these are a good way to make childfree people feel better about their status. (Jancee shares a statistic that 67% of couples see their marital satisfaction plummet after having a baby.) As I was reading, I kept thinking to myself, “Look at all this crap I don’t have to put up with!” When I was wavering about whether or not to have a child two years ago, one of the factors in the “no” category was I didn’t want to resent my husband for doing less baby-work than I was doing. No babies = way less resentment and disagreements. (Just speaking for myself here, of course.)

7) Live Fast, Die Hot, Jenny Mollen

Description: Jenny Mollen is a writer and actress living in New York. Until recently, her life was exciting, a little eccentric, and impulsive. Then she had a son, Sid, and overnight, Jenny was forced to grow up: to be responsible, to brush her hair, to listen to her voicemail.

I hate the title of this book, but I found the essays entertaining. I hadn’t heard of Jenny Mollen until she appeared on Chelsea Handler’s Netflix show last year, when she was in a series of recurring segments with her husband, Jason Biggs. I started following her on Instagram a few months ago, and finally decided to check out her book. She is completely neurotic in a way that I can’t relate to, but her escapades amused me.

8) One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter: Essays, Scaachi Koul

Description: Koul shares all the fears, outrages, and mortifying moments of her life, whether it’s a shopping trip gone awry; overcoming her fear of flying while vacationing halfway around the world; or navigating the fears and anxieties of her parents. There are also pointed observations about life as a woman of color: where every aspect of her appearance is open for critique, derision, or outright scorn; where strict gender rules bind in both Western and Indian cultures, leaving little room for a woman not solely focused on marriage and children to have a career (and a life) for herself.

Scaachi’s only in her mid-20s, but there were some good essays in here. I liked that it’s written from the perspective of a female minority (her parents are from India and immigrated to Canada). She discusses the confusion of being considered “brown” in a country with a white majority, but when she visits India, she’s considered fair because of how light her skin is in comparison to others. She also writes about having excessive body hair, and the measures she’s had to take from a young age to keep it under control. Here’s a good review from the Washington Post.

Okay

9) The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, Amy Schumer

Description: Amy mines her past for stories about her teenage years, her family, and relationships, sharing the experiences that have shaped who she is — a woman with the courage to bare her soul to stand up for what she believes in, all while making us laugh.

I was torn with how to rate this book. I settled on Okay because I didn’t care for a number of essays and certain phrases she’d use would annoy me…but I did finish this book liking Amy a lot more than I did before I started. I didn’t read this book as a rabid fan because I’ve never seen her movies or watched her TV show; most of my exposure to her has been press she’s done online and a few minutes of a comedy special I caught on TV one night.

She does have some strong essays, like how she started in the business and gradually worked her way up. There are heartwarming stories about her dad and his struggle with MS, and the situation that caused her to pull away from her mother. She also talks about a domestic violence situation she was in, and how hard it was to extricate herself (they even reunited for a time before she left him for good).

I just wish she’d focused more on those things rather than including an open letter to her vagina, and sharing boring diary entries from her childhood and teen years. (Note: nobody cares about your old diary entries but you. That’s why I’ve thrown all of mine in the trash.)

10) Fiction Ruined My Family: A Memoir, Jeanne Darst

Description: Growing up in an old St. Louis family, Jeanne grew up hearing stories of past grandeur. The message she internalized: While things might be tight for us right now, it’s only temporary. Soon her father would sell the Great American Novel and reclaim the family’s former glory, but he wrote one novel, then another, which didn’t find publishers. This, combined with her mother’s alcoholism, lead to financial disaster and divorce. As Jeanne becomes an adult, she is horrified to discover she’s not only a drinker like her mother, but a writer like her father. For many years, she embraces both activities. Ultimately, she sets out to discover whether a person can have the writing without the ruin, and whether it’s possible to be both sober and creative.

This is one of those memoirs I couldn’t get into because I didn’t like the main character. Jeanne didn’t have an easy childhood, with a distant, alcoholic mother and a writer-father who talked about writing more than he practiced writing. Jeanne started drinking at a young age, and there are many examples of how that affected her life. She lost me for good about halfway through, when she decided to share an extensive tale about the time she contracted vaginal crabs and ended up infecting her sister because they slept on the same mattress while living at their mom’s house.

I didn’t want to read any more after that, but I powered through to the end, enduring more bad-drunk stories like how she cheated on her rich live-in boyfriend and moved into a studio apartment without a bathroom. The worst part is, when she decided to get sober, I still didn’t warm up to her. Isn’t this the part of the book where your newfound sobriety is supposed to redeem your past sins and make you a better, likable person?

11) I’m Down: A Memoir, Mishna Wolff

Description: Wolff grew up in a poor black neighborhood with her single father, a white man who truly believed he was black. “He strutted around with a short perm, a Cosby-esque sweater, gold chains and a Kangol. You couldn’t tell my father he was white. Believe me, I tried,” writes Wolff. And so from early childhood on, her father began his crusade to make his white daughter Down. Unfortunately, Mishna didn’t quite fit in with the neighborhood kids, and when she was suddenly sent to a rich white school, she found she was “too black” to fit in with her white classmates.

I listened to this on audiobook. I didn’t love the story, but the narrator (who is also the author) does a good job voicing the various characters. I felt like that was one of the best parts, so if you decide to read a physical copy, it may not be worth it.

Not Recommended

12) The Late Bloomer’s Revolution: A Memoir, Amy Cohen

Description: In quick succession, Amy lost her job writing sitcoms, her boyfriend, and her mom, after a long bout with cancer. Not exactly the stuff humor thrives on. But filtered through Amy’s worldview, there’s comedy in the most unexpected places. Cohen recounts her (seemingly) never-ending search for love, her evolving relationship with her widowed dad, and her own almost unintentional growth as she stumbles through life.

I found this story annoying. There was way too much about her parents and the end of a romantic relationship which she obsessed over for years. It didn’t help that I listened to the audiobook (which was read by the author), and she habitually did that thing where she put an upward inflection at the end of sentences so her statements sounded like questions.

13) Attempting Normal, Marc Maron

Description: From standup to television to his popular podcast, Marc has always been a genuine original, a disarmingly honest, intensely smart, brutally open comic who finds wisdom in the strangest places. This is his story of the winding, potholed road from madness and obsession and failure to something like normal, the thrillingly comic journey of a sympathetic f***up who’s trying really hard to do better without making a bigger mess.

Maron hosts an incredibly popular podcast (he’s even interviewed President Obama), and he’s worked as a comedian for many years, but I didn’t enjoy this book at all. He admits to being emotionally abusive to his ex-wife, and he says he was wrong and he’s a much better person now, but then he describes getting into screaming matches with his current girlfriend.

I also feel like this book is geared more toward men who like to read about masturbation and the hiring of prostitutes (at least Maron feels guilt about that and says he’s done it twice but wouldn’t do it again, but the fact remains…he did it). I was thoroughly unimpressed.