I read ten books this month (yes, I know there are only eight in the above picture, more on that shortly) and it’s the most I’ve read in a single month since September 2020. (When, let’s face it, there wasn’t much else to do.) This time, it was a combo of blowing through a bunch of fiction, taking some time off to travel, and camping on back-to-back weekends.
And not only that, I’ve got actual (albeit short) reviews for you this month!
First up: the non-fiction.
Hannah Ryggen: Threads of Defiance – I’ve been leaning into my obsession with tapestry weaving lately (not actually weaving, just reading about it), and when when I came across this book about a badass woman artist I wasn’t familiar with who moved to a farm in rural Norway and wove tapestries, I was in. All my nerdiness combined. And the book itself is just beautiful. Soft paper and so many lovely illustrations. I’m glad I picked this one up, because Hannah Ryggen is a complete and total badass, and more people should know about her life and art.
Empire of Cotton: A Global History – This book was incredible, but damn, it was also dense and took forever to read. But I’m so glad I did. Any book that weaves together textile history and the history of capitalism is right up my alley. (And I got it at a used book sale for a steal too.) If you’re looking for a contemporary take on the ills of the textile industry, I’d recommend Worn over this book, but if you’re a history/textile/capitalism-kind-of-sucks nerd like me, definitely add this to your reading list.
Ok, now on to the fiction.
The Book of Doors – This book was on my radar, but I wasn’t sure if I would like it, so I was happy to stumble upon it at my library. But it had to go back before the month was over, which is why it didn’t make it into the main pile. I really loved the first half of this book, but I’ll be honest, all the looping time travel in the second half broke my brain. Picture the ending of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, but repeated over and over again from different perspectives. I wanted to like it, but in the end it was too much of a mind-fuck for me.
Johanna Porter is Not Sorry – Fun fact: my guilty pleasure movie genre is heist movies and my favorite fiction category is books about art (ok, I know, technically not a genre, but it should be) so when I heard about this book where an artist steals a painting of herself, I was in. It’s a fun read that I finished in a day, but there’s also some beautiful passages about an artist finding her way back into her process. I think any woman who’s looking to get back into creative work, but in particular those who are mothers, will resonate with this one.
The Cartographers – This book was a reminder of why I stopped reading fiction (ah, the tension hurts) but also what I was missing by not. This book stuck with me for days after I finished it, and I have a feeling I’ll be thinking about it for a while. While I wanted a tiny bit more resolution (where’s an epilogue when you need one?), everything else I loved.
Sourdough – I was happy to stumble upon this one at a library book sale, and it was a perfect find given all the sourdough bread I’ve been baking lately. It even made me want to build my own outdoor bread over. (Whether or not that happens remains to be seen.) This book was a fun and easy read, but I didn’t love it, love it. I found the thinly veiled references to Chad Robertson and Alice Waters kind of annoying, and I would have preferred to see them developed as their own characters, rather than caricatures of real people.
What Wild Women Do – I bought this book on a whim after I heard the author being interviewed on a podcast. I’m also pretty sure I ended up buying the Canadian version because I liked the cover better. (And it was paperback, which is my preference.) I’ve always loved the idea of opening a summer camp for adults (I even have a Pinterest board about it) so the fact that part of the book is set in the 1970s with a woman who did just that was what appealed to me. Nothing about this book was earth-shattering, but it was a fun read.
The Binding – This was not what I expected at all. The writing itself is really beautiful, and Collins is an expert at description, but I was definitely expecting a different plot than where the story ended up going. (I’m not sure what, but it wasn’t that.)
Ninth House – I started this book, got really into it, and then, about a third of the way through, I did the thing that I sometimes do with fiction which is flip through and skim the ending because I can’t handle tension. Then I put the book aside for a couple of weeks. Then I came back and read the rest of it in a couple of days. All of which is to say that I ended up liking this one in the end.
Greenwild – Ok, so my tenth book of the month is technically a middle grade book, but when you get an email from B&N describing the book as The Secret Garden meets A Wrinkle in Time (two of my all-time favorite kids books) you have my attention. I promptly ordered two copies, read one of them, and then gave them both away to some of the small people in my life. If you have small (or not so small) children in your life, I’d highly recommend it, and if you just want to read it for yourself, no judgement, because it was fun and magical and a nice, easy escape. (I read most of it in a hotel while I was away at a craft show.)
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