It was a pretty good month for books, even if I didn’t read or finish a few that I had planned for the month of September. Sometimes you just gotta know when to say when, ya know? Life is too short to waste time on books that aren’t ~speaking to you. I started to realize this month that there were SO MANY BOOKS out there that I was desperate to read, and when I really wasn’t enjoying the audiobook I was listening to (Devil in the White City – I think I just need to give it a try NOT on audiobook, because it was so confusing) I decided to move along to something better.

Don’t be a book martyr! Put down books you don’t like! Read stuff that makes you feel 100 emoji! Reading should be exciting and fulfilling!

I have 2 books waiting for me at the library and several more on hold lists – audiobooks, ebooks, and physical copies! And they’re all books I’m excited about reading! Sometimes it’s hard to find the balance with my “3 Books A Month” goal. I follow the book clubs of other people or read what sounds good or is available, but it’s so much better when I spend the time on books that are exciting, uplifting, engaging, or otherwise un-put-down-able. There are enough good books out there that we shouldn’t have to force ourselves to read meh books that don’t resonate with us. That’s my two cents. Here we go.

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up

I’m not going to write another review here, because I already dedicated a whole post to it. Suffice it to say that I really REALLY enjoyed it, and look forward to continuing the process in my home. I also have Spark Joy on my shelf to read when I feel like it – probably when I think the process is “done.”

Career of Evil

In this third installment of the Cormoran Strike novels, Strike and Robin become the targets themselves. A disgruntled figure from Strike’s past stalks and harasses the duo with ominous body parts to harm their business and eventually – them. Their personal lives are upended as the killer dominates their time and they spend every waking minute tracking down potential subjects from Strike’s past. Their professional and personal relationship strains and grows throughout the commotion, ultimately coming to a fever pitch as they close in to solve the murders. 

This book was by far my favorite from the series. Seeing from the killer’s anonymous perspective was chilling and fresh. The crime & mystery were yet again weird AF and original, continuing the theme of taking Strike and Robin into strange, unfamiliar territories to solve a case. Now I’m just pissed that there isn’t another one to read! But very excited about the BBC series that begins filming this fall to air next year. I really want more people I know to read this and talk to me about it!!!!

Good

• You get more depth and backstory to both Strike and Robin in this book, and it makes you like and understand them both so much more. It isn’t all forced or endearing, either. It just makes them real and much more part of the story.
• The killer perspective was creepy and confusing, but in a good way that lent suspense and adrenaline to the reading.
• The amputee side stories were so FREAKING WEIRD but just kept me coming back for more. Definitely original.
• I have only listened to these books on audiobook, but they are SO GOOD to listen to! The narrator is amazing and they’re just the right amount of interest and ease to listen to when you drive, clean, workout, or do most of your daily tasks. I fly through them!
• The ending! I found myself relieved and proud of Strike. I guess I like it more as time goes on and I look back on it. I’m so excited to read the next book ASAP AS POSSIBLE.

Less Good

• The ending! I found myself confused at where this is going and why and what’s happening and DANG IT JOANNE WHY ARE YOU STILL DOING THIS TO ME
• Still plenty of swearing, some violence, sexual stuff. I don’t think ~quite as much as the other books, but still there.
• Some heavy stuff – child abuse, sexual abuse, etc. Definitely some triggers.

So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed

Jon Ronson interviews people from all walks of life who have been publicly shamed – or a big part of publicly shaming others. He begins with a journalist who was caught plagiarizing, talks with the PR girl who jokingly tweeted about AIDS, and even those in the criminal justice system who deal with shaming on a daily basis (as well as many more). He looks into the dynamics of public shaming, including the history of public shaming, the role of modern technology, anonymity, and the way in which it affects people’s lives, jobs, families, and more.

This book was absolutely fascinating. I found myself giving The Beard the cliff notes version of each story and chapter because I wanted to talk about it more in depth. I began noticing trends of public shaming in my own life – stories I’ve followed, Twitter scandals, even anonymous bullying on my own blog. Just fascinating. It’s winding non-fiction, and pretty soft on the science, but definitely applicable and interesting to everyone in the social media world today.

Good

• It really did change my brain and views on scandals and public shaming. It forced me to think about how things truly do affect people, and the responsibility we must take for our actions. Just because someone ~did do something bad, doesn’t mean it’s our personal responsibility to judge and punish them for it.
• I like that he balanced it, albeit only slightly, with the idea that sometimes we ~should feel bad! He interviews a notorious judge who uses public shaming as part of his sentencing, and the judge showed that it truly works in some situations. Mostly when people did something actually, truly wrong and the punishment was tailored to the crime.
• It really made me think about how we punish our kids and students. He talks with people in the prison system who believe that incarceration is largely ineffective because shame is such a destructive force. Rehabilitation is more likely to happen when shame gives away to respect.
• A lot of this fits in with Brene Brown’s Daring Greatly which I really really loved. Basically it’s the idea that shame is bad because it redefines our identity as bad. The internet does this so well – you say one thing, post one picture, make one mistake, and suddenly that’s your whole identity. That’s who you are now. Justine Sacco is the girl who tweeted a dumb joke about AIDS. She doesn’t deserve a job or a life or an identity outside that one 140-character tweet. Yikes. No.

Less Good

• I kind of feel like Jon Ronson is a bit of an a-hole? Maybe that’s just me but his voice and the way he talks about certain things didn’t make me like him very much, although he is a good writer & journalist.
• I fundamentally disagreed with a lot of the arguments he was trying to make. Sometimes people need to feel bad! Guilt is important – it’s a message from our feelings about our choices & consequences. I felt like he wanted to make out that shame/guilt was always bad and that it’s ok to tweet insensitive jokes about stuff, or to plagiarize, or to do super weird porn stuff. Let’s make it all normal and shame-free! Nope.
• Oh yeah. There’s a weird chapter about pornography. It’s not as bad as I expected it to be, to be fair. But it *is* there so… fyi. And they talk about another guy’s weird sex scandal. Just be aware.
• It just kind of… ends? No real resolution. No real conclusion. Yes, shaming is bad and destructive and unregulated. But what does that mean? What can we do? What should we do? Idk. Just all of a sudden the book was over and it left a sense of unease and incompletion.

Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth

The mother of modern childbirth, Ina May, wrote this handbook to compile all of the information she has learned in over thirty years of experience. Half of the book is a series of natural birth stories to show the diversity of experience and the potential for happy and safe natural birthing. The second half of the book goes through steps in the process of pregnancy, labor, delivery, medical procedures, medication, postpartum care, and modern medical practices.The main purpose of the book, she says, is to prove to women that their bodies are not “lemons.” Childbirth is natural, do-able, and completely possible for anyone. 

This is not a book I ever thought I would read. At no point in my life, even now, have I been inclined to labor and deliver naturally. I’m pretty transparently pro-epidural, pro-c-section, pro-hospital, and pro-modern medicine. That being said, I was so woefully unprepared last time. What if I had to do it natural?!!! I would have had no idea how to manage the pain, maintain focus and calm, anything. This time is likely to go faster (which LOL bc last time was rapid), and the lack of preparedness gives me anxiety. I wanted to read a few natural childbirth books to cover my bases.

Good

• It was actually very empowering. I honestly think I can do it now, if I have to. It talks about the female body in a way that makes you believe in your divine feminine power.
• They dispel a lot of the common fears – low pain tolerance, small hips, large babies, even breech babies! It was cool to see and understand why people choose this.
• It really made me think a lot more about my options, even when I do plan to deliver in a hospital with as many drugs as they’ll give me. I have more questions to ask my doctor about episiotomies, cord clamping, stuff like that. I learned a lot.
• I have so much respect for natural childbirth – always have – but I really feel differently about it now. Less judgmental, more impressed.

Less Good

• They sure don’t like modern hospitals. I think they use the phrase “assembly line” about a hundred times in reference to hospital rooms. At one point she talks about how nurses and doctors kept coming in to check her patient and it was stressing her patient out and slowing down labor. Heaven forbid the hospital come check on a woman in labor? Stuff like that bugged me a little.
• There’s some seriously hippy stuff in there. Like being totally open with your body and making birth sensual and stuff. Not really my thing.
• I’m not a big fact checker, but I felt like there was no way that a lot of the facts/science in the book was pretty biased. Maybe that’s just because I’m viewing it through the lens of someone who had a bomb epidural “assembly line” birth in a hospital.
• My good friend Jessica recommended this book, and she’s so wonderful and accepting and not preachy at all. Thankfully! However we all know those people who ~are preachy and weird about it though, and it kind of feels like this is their bible. You just kind of have to take it with a grain of salt.

I’m currently reading Rising Strong on my phone (a godsend, because I’m coming off what feels like a lot of mistakes and smackdowns and I’d like to, well, rise strong), and I’m about halfway through The Good Girl on audiobook and wondering if I’ll finish. It was listed as a similar book to Gone Girl, but I’m not as ~into it as I think I should be.

I just picked up copies of Hypnobirthing and #GirlBoss from the library this week, and I’m ordering my own copy of You Are A Badass because I know it’s one I’ll want to read, annotate, and re-read. I also plan to read Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand and Wuthering Heights for book clubs. It’s a good month to do a lot of reading, as it looks like I’ll be back
on some form of “rest” for the next little bit eyeroll emoji. Bring on the books!