November Book Report
When your friends recommend books, take their advice!
I started November absolutely haunted by my own reading goal for the year. I was so behind! My toxic trait is turning enjoyable (relaxing! restful!) hobbies into competitions – why must I do this to myself?
In my pit of early November reading-challenge-based despair, I considered binge-reading a couple of short books that I wasn’t very excited about just to get some completions under my belt. But I knew that was ridiculous, gave myself a pep talk, and, instead, dove into some backlist recommendations from friends I WAS excited about.
Obviously, I made the right choice because I had SUCH a fun reading month. I followed the whims of my friends (and timely library holds coming available) completely. I read and texted the recommending friends, and it was like I was in my own mini-book club all month; it was glorious! Talking about books with friends is one of my absolute favorite things.
Unintentionally, many of the books I loved this month had overlapping themes about what it means to live a meaningful life. How and when can we change life’s circumstances? What gives a life meaning? How impactful and lasting are our relationships with other people? Where is the balance between playing it safe and taking risks? What does it mean to leave a legacy? Is your legacy what others remember or what you carry in your own memories?
I loved getting lost in all these stories, and though they were fiction, they prompted some very real thinking on my part, and isn’t that one of the wonderful gifts of fiction!? Reading brings me so much joy and makes my life one thousand times richer.
If you have friends who send you unprompted reading recommendations, listen to them! Mine did not steer me wrong and I am so glad I followed their leads this month. I can’t wait to share them with you, too.
November Reads
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
Sure, this one is on all the lists now but way back in April, one of my most trusted reading friends said, “This book will be in my top 3 at the end of the year and I know that only 10% into it.” And upon finishing it, he said, “This book is why I read.”
I’m not sure why I kept putting it off after that rave review but… I did. It just languished on my TBR. In the spirit of following my friends’ recommendations this month (and after another friend urged me to read it so we could discuss), I finally dove in.
I can’t say that I was completely engrossed early on; in fact, it was kind of a slog for me at the beginning. The author and protagonist are both poets and I was impatient with the meandering language. But once I got halfway through, I finally connected with the protagonist, cared about his story, and began to unravel some of the tangled themes. I flew through the final third.
Ultimately, Martyr! is a gorgeously written commentary on what it means for a life to have meaning — as an individual, in relationships, in society. What does it mean to be a martyr? Cyrus wrestles with the desire for his life to be worthwhile in a way that I think we can all relate to. The narrative was not typically what I love in a story, but now that I’ve finished, I can tell I’ll be thinking about it for a while.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
Addie’s story is all about her desire to leave a mark when no one remembers her. Have you even lived if no one else remembers it? Again, these questions of what it means to leave a legacy come up. Do we live for ourselves or others? Are our lives meaningful if isolated or can we still make an imprint on the world?
This is another that has been languishing on my TBR for far too long after chatting about it with a friend over a year ago. I’ve checked it out and returned it to the library countless times without being able to get into the story. But this month, I discovered that the audiobook was narrated by Julia Whelan so that bumped it to the top of my list.
Whelan’s narration is incredible – her ability to convey different characters’ entire beings through voice is gripping. The audio here was a force of its own and enormously complemented (or made entirely?) my reading experience.
The Good Part by Sophie Cousens
A 26 year-old has a bad day – broke, horrible date, lowest ranked at the office - and time travels to “the good part of her life.” She wakes up in bed next to her husband, in her 40s, with two children and her dream career and the scene where she notices her 40 year-old face and body in the mirror for the first time is absolutely hilarious. Imagine doing 16 years of aging overnight!? Waking up deep into marriage and parenthood and needing to figure it all out and understand the nuanced layers immediately on the fly? I cackled and also wept – often at the same time.
The whole story is about Lucy falling in love with her current life while also missing her old one and it is SO GOOD. Gut-punching, relatable, and incredibly tender. The audiobook narration was excellent and it wrecked me in the most wonderful way – just as my friend promised it would.
The Husbands by Holly Gramazio
Lauren’s attic produces - and exchanges - husbands. Everytime he goes up to the attic, he returns as a different husband, complete with a different life.
Lauren’s discovery of each husband and the details of her life with him was hilarious but I quickly got overwhelmed by her propensity to exchange! My anxiety mirrored her stress, giving me empathy for a protagonist that I haven’t felt quite so acutely before. She made some comically bad decisions in trying to get rid of the worst husbands and I appreciated the levity surrounding what was actually an enormous decision each time. How do you settle into a life you didn’t create, decide it’s good enough and you’re ready to actually live it, when something better might come out of the attic next?
The Wedding People by Alison Espach
A woman goes to a hotel to kill herself but then she does not. Over the subsequent few days, she remembers what it means to be alive – in all the tangible, logistical ways, but also the nuanced relational bits of existing among other people. She is having a rebirth of sorts while also playing mediator to the blending families preparing for a million dollar wedding and it is hilarious and tender.
The characters bring so much depth to the contained storyline – they are all navigating what it means for them to live their lives and for whom they should be living. Overall, this book exceeded my expectations in the most wonderful, layered ways!
I started with the audio and appreciated getting the protagonist’s dry tone and sense of humor narrated in my head but it was much too slow, even on 1.3x speed. I needed to devour it more quickly than audio narration would allow! Once I got the print version, I stayed up until 1am to finish in a single sitting.
[I also loved Espach’s Notes on your Sudden Disappearance in January 2023.]
Hello Stranger by Katherine Center
This is a delightful rom-com that brings more to the table than your standard oxytocin-filled happily-ever-after. The protagonist is navigating temporary face-blindness and throughout, there are powerful lessons about accepting help, wrestling with major life changes and big feelings, and reckoning with confirmation bias.
But my favorite part of the book was actually the author’s note at the end, completely separate from the story. In it, Katherine Center shared why she reads and writes romance and outlined some of the psychology behind its popularity (fascinating!). She finished with,
“Reading love stories is good for you. Believing in love is believing in hope. And doing that, choosing in this cynical world to be a person who does that, really is doing something that matters.“
I loved this story on its own, but it gets major bonus points for giving me an encouraging shift in perspective for my TBR pile of romance novels. How lovely to think that when we sit down to read, we’re doing something that matters to the world by believing in hope? 💚
I still have some friend recommendations I’m working through and my TBR is also full of TOB long list books so I’m hopeful for the next month of reading.
I’d love to continue building my list of books recommended by my friends – what are you reading right now? Send me an email (just hit reply, if you’re reading this in your inbox!) or drop a comment to share with the group.
Hi, I’m Liz! Thanks for being here and reading my journals on the journey. If you’re new, learn a bit more about me and this space here and here and consider subscribing to my weeklyish posts.
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I remember reading and enjoying Addie LaRue a few years ago! I couldn’t get into Martyr! alas but I understand why people like it. I’ve added a couple more of these to my Libby holds. Thank you for the recs! Have you read The midnight library? I feel like you might enjoy it based on some of these recs.