april 2022 reading wrap up
Ah yes, April 2022. A month of continued academic dread, high film consumption, low reading register (strangely a lot of non-fiction), and general ennui. Anyways, enough of this chit chat shan’t we begin my crazy fab fun totally fresh reading wrap up?! I think we shall.
- Anna and The Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit
Coming in hot with my first read of the month: Anna and The Swallow Man. This was a YA historical (WWII) fic I read for my school’s book club. It was airy and childlike with a fresh take on the oversaturated world of WWII lit. Reading about the war and its atrocities from the perspective of a naïve orphan child made for a unique experience as much of the time our protagonist was unaware of all that was going on in the world around her. This all felt strikingly similar to a manga I read a while back called The Girl from The Other Side by Nagabe. Both teeter on the lines of fairytale-like and eerie throughout. In the end, I gave this book a solid three stars. It wasn’t necessarily bad, but it wasn’t anything all that special either.
2. Gratitude by Oliver Sacks
I picked this audiobook up on a whim from the library. I had never heard of Oliver Sacks prior to finishing this and looking his name up and I had no idea what this SHORT book (I think it was less than an hour on audio + 42 pages) would be about. Tiny as it was, it left quite an impact. Sacks was concise and rife with poignancy in dealing with his impending death. If you are interested in mortality and question the thoughts one may encounter in the face of death, this is something I would easily recommend.
3. Dear Ijeawele or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
This was also a very short audiobook I picked up on a whim and it also did not disappoint. There is truly something to be said about the author’s being able to condense such complex and abstract ideas into snippets of thoughts without the meaning being completely lost. I enjoyed that this was written in the form of a letter to a friend as these feminist suggestions felt less detached and stemming from a place of utopic idealism, rather a place of loving motherly advice. Due to its length, this definitely isn’t going to contain extremely complex and scholarly breakdowns of feminist theory. If you are already well seasoned in feminist nonfiction then this will likely read a bit obvious or surface level. However, if you are new to this field then this quick essay/letter/book would be the perfect glimpse into some enduring feminist discourse.
4. Just Kids by Patti Smith
This was a beautiful recounting of sixties/seventies NYC artist culture from the one and only Patti Smith. C’est ICONIQUE! If you loved Daisy Jones and The Six and also happen to love journalistic autobiographical fiction from cool girls like Joan Didion or Eve Babitz then this book is a must for you! I also listened to this on audio with Patti narrating it herself which made this incredibly personal account of her life feel all the more intimate. In general, if you are into the arts, New York city culture, and the seventies music scene then this book will be fab for you.
5. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
And now to close off this chaotic list of randomized blubber I bring to thee: THE GRAPES OF WRATH by mister stein-man. In my fabulous super-smart expert cool girl opinion, John Steinbeck KNOWS how to write a book. Who’d have thought? This book is not an exception. It is an epic journey of a complex family with fully developed, captivating characters. It recounts the Great Depression in such an honest and unfiltered manner, not holding back on that #sotrue American criticism. While the reading experience itself is slow and not necessarily helped by the drawn-out intercalary chapters, the turnout at the end when you reflect upon its entirety post finish is SOOO GOOD! (Plus you could also argue that the slow feeling of this book is purposeful in emulating the migrant experience but that might just be the overzealous and analytic english teacher in me).
P.S. Also, if you haven’t read it / don’t know the ending, you will totally love the PERFECT ending :)
Andddd that is all. I really didn’t read much last month just out of laziness and academic burnout (so cute!) but let’s pray for may. Thanks for reading and see you next month (hopefully).
Signing off,
andotherworlds (Nicolette)
