I didn’t like Arundhati Roy’s previous book so I was determined not to pick up Ministry of Utmost Happiness despite all the press about it. But then Amazon listed it as one of the best books of this year and for some reason that was the tipping point for me. I committed to reading it. I wish I hadn’t. Yes, it was well written. Yes, it was an important story and has valuable points/perspective/insights but it’s so brutal. So difficult. So tough. The story just got worse and worse and I couldn’t deal with it. I should have put it down.
I then read The Shack which is stupid because I knew it was also very sad. and it didn’t disappoint on the sadness. I just couldn’t get past the dying of the girl. I was so sad as a mom and kept imagining the worse case. It was a good book, though and I’m also watching the movie, now.
I then moved on to Void Star which I’d checked out an returned several times previously. So I decided this was the time to actually read it. I will admit though that I was still on vacation and listened to this book a but half-focused. Nonetheless if science fiction is your thing, this one is a good read.
I had also returned The Fifth Season a bazillion times so I decided to also buckle down and read it. I read it on my last day in Sydney and on the airplane. I retained probably half of this book and would have to read it again if I want to read the sequel. However, if fantasy is your genre, this one’s a winner.
I finally got to read Hunger after patiently reading the books that came before it on my queue. I had been wanting to read this book since I heard about it. I love Roxane Gay. I knew this book would be honest. And I knew it would be tough. I was right on both counts. But I was also wrong. It was much tougher than I thought. So so tough. I am glad i read it but if you get triggered, I would not recommend this one.
When I got back I dove into Fireworks because it’s the next book in our Young Adult book group. It was a super-fast read and I am glad I read it instead of listening to it. It was eh.
Next on my library queue was F*ck Feelings. I started listening to it but quickly moved to book format because I knew i wanted to be able to jump around and only read the sections that were interesting to me. There was nothing new in this book for me.
I then listened to Windfall for something fun. It was okay. Not as fun as I hoped it would be but not bad either.
And I ended the week with Body Love, thanks to Ali. She’s been quoting Kelly’s book for a little while now so I decided to order it on my kindle and see how I felt. I already mentioned this one in the Nourish post yesterday so I won’t add more here.
A lot of reading this week. Hunger was the most profound one.
Books I Read this Week 2017 is a year-long project for 2017. You can read more about my projects for 2017 here.
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