Halfway Through March And What I've Read

I was doing really well on reading during the first half of March and then we went on vacation. Well, okay, actually, we went on a "trip." Have you read this article: Vacation or Trip? Well, according to that article, we actually went on a "trippety trip trip." Good to know. So because we went on a trip, I didn't have a lot of time to read. Thus, this is a shorter book blog post than I might normally write. (For comparison, we've been home for three and a half days as I write this and I've already finished three books and am well through another one.)

I am still deciding how I feel about Sally Hepworth. I actually liked this novel more than some of her others that I've read but I don't find her novels super compelling, most of the time. I did want to see how this one ended, and (slight spoiler alert) I wasn't sure if there was the unreliable narrator trope (which you all know how much I love (insert sarcasm here)), but overall it was a fairly good book.

I first read this book in March 2019 and I loved it. I thought everyone should read it. I raved about it. So my book club read it this past month and I have to say, I just thought it was okay this time around. I like to think that's because I've read so much more trans literature since then and I know more and thus, this book didn't blow my mind in the same way. I think it's still a great book to read if you are looking to learn more about trans people but if you already know a lot, you could probably skip it.

Can I be honest? I wanted to love this book. I love love love Friends (and you know I don't watch much TV ever, at all) and I really adore Chandler. However, Matthew Perry is not the greatest writer. There, I said it. Did he put himself out there in this book? Yes, definitely. Did it open my eyes to the long-term struggle that addiction is? Absolutely. Is Perry a better actor than writer? No question about it. However, I did read this book in one sitting so take that for what it's worth.

I don't think I love Taylor Jenkins Reid. I enjoyed this book but, honestly, I probably would have enjoyed a JD Robb book more. Yep, I said it :) This did take me back to the spring of 1989 when I lived in Germany and got more into tennis than I ever thought I would so I enjoyed that part of it. I just didn't think this book was amazing.

This was a decade's reading challenge book and I thought it was very interesting. It's about early incubators and keeping premature babies alive. I think many of you remember that Dave was born at 26 weeks so clearly in the 1910s, he would have been written off at birth as "not worth saving" or, if he was very lucky, he would have been taken to Coney Island and kept in an early incubator at the amusement park. And put on display to "earn his keep." I am very glad that he was born after we knew so much more about micro preemies and how to keep them alive and healthy. And I recognize that there are many micro preemies who are born and still struggle a lot today, and we know even more than we used to.

So that was my reading for the first half of March. I almost finished a book before we went on vacation (I had 15 pages left) and I just couldn't get it done. And it took me from March 9th to the 18th to read the one book I did read on our trip so I'll write about that next time too.

Have you read any of these? Am I way off base or do you agree with my assessments? Am I too harsh with these books? I'm feeling a little judgmental and strict in this post so feel free to tell me if that's the case! I won't take it personally.