Apparently, there’s something about March where I really struggle to find my reading groove. And since I only finished two books in March, I decided to just hold off and blog those with my April reads. The start of April was a bit of a slog as well, but I finally found my stride and ended up tearing through three books at the end of the month.
It shouldn’t be surprising with my new line of plant stakes that I started March reading about houseplants.
The first book I read was The Hidden Histories of Houseplants by Maddie & Alice Bailey. This book focused on the histories of specific plants, and while I will admit to getting a little bored at points, I found the last sections fascinating enough that I’m glad I pushed through.
I was more than a little excited when I learned about Nature Inside: Plants and Flowers in the Modern Interior by Penny Sparke because Sparke wrote the most influential book I read for my MFA thesis, As Long as It’s Pink: The Sexual Politics of Taste. I will admit that I didn’t find Nature Inside as earth-shattering as As Long as It’s Pink, but that’s probably because, at 40, I know more about the world than I did at 24. Still, I found Nature Inside to be an interesting, albeit fairly academic, read.
I have been anxiously awaiting Hannah Gadsby’s memoir, Ten Steps to Nannette, ever since she announced it. I loved both of her comedy specials on Netflix, and not just because she talks about art history. (Though that certainly helped.) I was hoping her book would pull me out of my reading slump and it did just that. I tore through it in a weekend! I loved learning more about her childhood, but for me, the most valuable part was reading about the creative process that went into writing Nanette. If you love her comedy, this book is definitely a must-read!
I picked up The Eye Test by Chris Jones earlier this year because I was drawn in by the subtitle, A Case for Human Creativity in the Age of Analytics. I’m a sucker for anything that heralds a more human approach in our data-driven world. I can’t say that this was the best book I’ve ever read on the subject (that remains Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing) and I did find the book a little heavy on sports stories (Jones was a sports journalist) not to mention a little lacking in a coherent argument, but the stories were interesting and I definitely agree with the overall premise.
My final book of April, Body Work by Melissa Febos, has been on my radar so I was excited to pick it up at an independent bookstore when I was in Savannah at the end of the month. It had been heralded by a number of people in the writing circles I follow, since it’s technically a book about writing, but honestly, it’s so much more than that. In reality, it’s a celebration of the power of storytelling for marginalized people. And I loved it. My favorite essay, which was the final one, had moments where it reminded me of my favorite piece of writing of all time, Annie Dillard’s Holy the Firm, and I can’t give anything higher praise than that.
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