August 2016 books

I went through a major book slump this month. I didn't even WANT to read, and that is so weird for me. But I did get through these books.

A Field Guide to Awkward Silences by Alexandra Petri
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm a fan of Petri's work at The Washington Post - she strikes the perfect balance of humor and insight. This collection of essays is similarly bright and witty, though I think I still prefer her political essays. Definitely worth reading if you'd like to laugh while enjoying social commentary written by a really smart person (ah, finally, a memoir-ish book written by someone who is actually as smart as she thinks she is!).

One of my favorite passages:

"So many things from childhood seem bigger than they are. There is a kind of magic that clings to things when you don’t know their backstory. That armchair has always been there. That is the Big Serving Spoon. This is What We Do on Sundays. Things take the definite article. This isn’t just a chair. This is the chair. This is the grandmother. This is the house. Then as you get older you realize that there is no particular magic to any of these items. There was nothing special about this chair. It came from a catalogue. It didn’t matter that you had pot roast on Sunday. Those rituals held no special potency. There are no characters, just more people. You see the strings behind the puppets. The movies that once terrified you leave you bemused, at best."

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Their Fractured Light by Amie Kaufman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the only book of this series that I've read in its physical form rather than as an audiobook, and I think it suffered for it. I would have liked to hear this story brought to life by other people's voices outside of my own imagination. The first half was good, but the second half, despite its high stakes, fell ever so slightly flat.

I still really like this series - I think it's different, and smart (mostly), and full of interesting characters. But ultimately my interest decreased from book to book.

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Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I did not expect to enjoy this book so much, but that doesn't mean I liked it. I enjoyed many of the ways the author updated Austen's story - it was so refreshing to see 2016 Elizabeth Bennett and Caroline Bingley be openly b****y to each other, for example, and Lydia and Kitty being crossfit/paleo enthusiasts was pitch-perfect. But other updates fell flat. I couldn't get past the age of the sisters - Jane was 40 and Lizzie was 38. I get that this is an update of the "how come you're not married?" age standard, but still. And, of course, there was all the talk about sex. I wish the story could have relied a little more on romance (even in 2016! I know) and a little less on bawdiness.

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