Reading Wrap Up: October 2020

Welcome to the October edition of, My Reading Wrap Up! 

I thought October would be a big reading month for me; I love the idea of cozying up with a book on a crisp fall night with a blanket, a candle and a warm beverage. But I didn’t do much of that. I did read, but not as much as I thought I would have.

I also thought I’d read some paper books this month. Remember in September when I told you I had a huge stack of paper books thanks to my local Little Free Library, my aunt’s condo library and my cousin who works at a publishing house? Well, I have finished exactly zero of those books. Turns out, reading e-books and listening to audiobooks is just way more convenient for my life.

Another trend for my reading this month? Lots of 2020 releases! I don’t usually prioritize reading new books and have no problem with backlist titles but I just so happened to pick up a bunch of 2020 books this month. A few library holds came through at the same time and here we are!

Lastly, I noticed I had a few lower-rated reads this month. I’m not sure if it was the books I was picking or maybe I’m just a harsher critic in October, but my last few books didn’t quite do it for me. Hoping to start fresh with some good reads in November!

Okay, without further ado, here are my books of the month for October 2020!

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Beach Read by Emily Henry

Contemporary romance, 362 pages, published 2020

“When the world felt dark and scary, love could whisk you off to go dancing; laughter could take some of the pain away; beauty could punch holes in your fear.”

Beach Read was a book I saw all over Bookstagram this summer but, due to its popularity, I didn’t get my hands on it until the fall. It didn’t quite live up to the hype for me, but I still really enjoyed it. I thought the characters were interesting and I appreciated that there was a good element of family drama too. I liked the dialogue and thought the premise, two authors writing books at their beach homes, was fun. The romance did take a while to get started, which was a bit painful since it was obvious it was coming eventually. The part that bothered me the most was how much time we spent inside the main character’s head. It felt like a cliched romance movie where the leading woman learns something about the leading man and instead of just asking him about it, she creates this whole explanation inside her head and freezes him out. It was frustrating and overdone. And yet, I still found this book very engaging and I couldn’t put it down.

TW: cancer, death, divorce, cults

Rating: 4/5

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Here for It by R. Eric Thomas

Essays/memoir, 264 pages, published 2020

“I’m basically Peeta from The Hunger Games, except gay. I am here for the baked goods and then basically I’m going to be dead weight. Cut your losses.”

This book of essays by R. Eric Thomas was HILARIOUS! I highly recommend you pick this one up and it’s another book that is really excellent on audio. I loved hearing the author himself tell his stories. I enjoyed the pop culture references, as well as all of the stories about church. Some of the essays weren’t as funny or poignant for me, but I still enjoyed them all. This book does a great job of showing the intersectionality of who Thomas is as a gay, Black, Christian man. I especially loved his amusing story about babysitting and the beautiful chapter about his wedding.

I’d say this book is similar to Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby, which you can check out in my September reviews. And certainly a candidate for my favourite memoirs!

TW: homophobia, suicidal ideation

Rating: 4.5/5

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Cribsheet by Emily Oster

Parenting, 352 pages, published 2019

“So before you even get into reading what the evidence says is “best” for your child or thinking about the family budget, you—and your partner, or any other caregiving adults in the house—should think about what you would really like to do.”

No, I am not expecting a baby. And yet, I still picked up this parenting book and really enjoyed it. I had heard about it on a book podcast and was really intrigued by the premise. In this book, Emily Oster goes through major early parenting moments, like potty training, choosing a daycare and postpartum depression, and presents the data. She then shares how that data could inform your decision and what she did with her own children. I loved that this book was based on facts, and not just someone’s opinion. But at the same time, Oster did a great job of pointing out how preferences are important and that there’s no one right decision for everyone. I learned a lot and highly recommend this book to anyone thinking about kids in the future. Bonus: I think Oster also does a pretty decent job at being inclusive and not framing things in heteronormative ways.

TW: infant death

Rating: 4.25/5

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Paris Is Always a Good Idea by Jenn McKinlay

Contemporary romance, 334 pages, published 2020

“Sunshine, you’re in Italy… They have gelato there, which can cure anything.”

I picked up this book after a bit of a reading dry spell when I was just craving something light and fun. I also wanted a book with a bit of an escape to help cure my ever-growing wanderlust. So when I learned this book was all about the main character travelling through Ireland, France and Italy, I was sold! The book was what I expected: cute but terribly cheesy. The inner monologue of the main character was especially cliched and I couldn’t really stand the enemies to lovers back to enemies back to lovers and back again trope. But the travel aspect was a lot of fun and some of the scenes were more sweet than cringe-worthy. Not the kind of book I usually go for but it was a nice palate cleanser.

TW: death, cancer

Rating: 3.5/5

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Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker

Biography, 400 pages, published 2020

“It’s only a red flag when it starts to create conflict in your life, but otherwise it’s a truly healthy coping mechanism for you to organize your sock drawer.”

This is the true story of the Galvin family, in which six of the 12 siblings were diagnosed with schizophrenia. This book was recommended to me a few times and as a lover of psychology and true crime, I was very interested in it. Unfortunately, it fell a bit flat. I struggled to keep up with not only the names/stories of all of the siblings but also neighbours, spouses, medical professionals and all of the scientific research. Certain chapters devoted just to the science were really dry to me. There was a lot of emphasis on one daughter, Mary/Lindsay, and on the Galvin mother, Mimi. This was fine, but it felt like the emphasis was there because these were the only family members who would sit for interviews, rather than that being where the meat of the story really was. Overall, I was interested enough to keep listening but didn’t really enjoy this one.

PS: This was my 50th book of the year! I blew last year’s 40 books out of the water and it’s only October!

TW: violence, child abuse, sexual assault, murder, suicide, mental health challenges

Rating: 3/5

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Open Book by Jessica Simpson

Memoir, 416 pages, published 2020

“There was a life waiting for me, I told myself. I owed it to the people in it to be brave.”

For about a minute when I was 12 years old, I was a big fan of Jessica Simpson. I loved her song, “With You” and I remember watching a few episodes of Newlyweds with her and Nick Lachey. But I didn’t know much about her and this book definitely taught me a lot. In this memoir, Jessica gets candid. I was surprised how honest and vulnerable she was. The book is a lot about her relationships (ex-boyfriends and ex-husband, look out!) and a lot about religion, with a good amount of body image issues and alcoholism thrown in too. The God stuff got to be a bit much for me, but I still enjoyed hearing Jessica’s story. It was particularly impactful to hear her tell her own story on audio, and she often got emotional. Another bonus on audio: the book ends with a few songs!

TW: child abuse, bullying, body image, eating disorders, alcoholism

Rating: 3.5/5

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Best book of the month

Overall, my favourite book of October was Here For It by R. Eric Thomas. I still laugh out loud thinking about lines from that book! Honourable mention to Cribsheet which I really enjoyed and took lots of notes from while reading.

Annual reading stats update

Here is a quick update on my 2020 reading stats!

• Total number of books read: 51
• Total number of pages read: 15,916
• Fiction vs non-fiction: 15 fiction & 36 non-ficiton
• Male vs female authors: 13 male & 40 female (two books had two authors, hence why I have more authors than books)
• Diversifying my reading: Of the 53 authors I’ve read this year, 16 are BIPOC and 8 are LGBTQ+. (I need to do better here – that’s a lot of straight, white authors!)

 

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