Books I Read in January 2021

Helloooo! This month, I read six books plus two children's books. I don't fully count the children's books because they took me maybe five minutes a piece to read, but I do count the other six! Starting out the year strong! (I'll probably end up trying to read additional books for every children's book I read since GoodReads counts those toward my 2021 Reading Challenge).

Anyway. Let's get into the books!

Eat a Peach by David Chang

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Shelves: Memoir-Biography

Review: I'm not entirely sure how to feel about this book. It's a "kill your heroes" situation. I have admired and followed David Chang for the last few years. He's a native to the area of the world where I am from/familiar with, I loved Ugly Delicious on Netflix, and I had always admired the restaurants he's opened (and dreamed of eating at one one day). But this book made someone I admired into a human that, at times, left a bad taste in my mouth. And I struggled between, "but he's human," and "Okay, at some point, you have to realize you're being a huge asshole."

While this book is important in a lot of ways--it discusses important, necessary mental health topics, delves into his successes and failures as road maps for current or aspiring chefs, and points out the sexism and racism not only in the world of professional cooking, but in his personal life as well--it really was a raw, truthful look at Chang's career. To be honest, he wrote himself as a hugely mean and maniacal person who seemed to be a nightmare to work for. At least he was being honest? At least he didn't sugarcoat it? But it turned out to be a book I didn't enjoy reading the majority of the time.

I was glad to reach the end of the book. But I was also glad I read the book. If anything, this was a good reminder that it's okay to try and fail. It's okay to seek professional help. It's okay to realize you did something wrong, and to try to be a better person. A good paragraph from the book was: "The lobster became Momofuku's unofficial mascot. Never again would we fear the grueling work of breaking ourselves down and gluing ourselves back together again. That cycle of building and destroying and rebuilding is not something to overcome. The human equivalent of not wanting to molt is trying to make life easy, refusing to grow or be self-reflective."

That pretty much sums up the synopsis of this memoir. David Chang is an incredible individual for all he's accomplished, all he's done in his personal and professional lives, and all he's working on in regards to himself. Unfortunately, I went into this having read Anthony Bourdain's deliciously descriptive books and Marcus Samuelsson's heart-felt, soulful Yes, Chef. I expected the same level of soul, description, and growth, but didn't find it to quite measure up. Did he talk about heavy-hitting issues? Yes! Did he tell the reader a lot of very personal information, including the demons he struggles with on a daily basis? Yes! It makes him human, and having his voice (an influential one) say these things has weight and importance. But don't get it twisted. This is a dark, heavy read. But, for me, it tended to lean more toward a self-depreciating read more than anything else.

If you're a fan of David Chang, give it a go. It just didn't have that "umpfh" that other chef/food/travel memoirs had for me.

They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Shelves: Favorites, Children's Lit

Review: Cute, fun read that can challenge a child to seek the different perspectives of one thing (in this case, the cat) from different audiences. I thought it was a super creative, important children's book - one that can encourage parent-kid conversations on perceptions and open the door to bigger, more important topics. It's also beautifully illustrated.

I really liked this book!!

The Good Egg (The Bad Seed #2) by Jory John, Pete Oswald (Illustrator)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Shelves: Children's Lit

Review: To be fair, I don't think I intend to rate every children's book I read, but I might. This is a cute book with great illustrations and a good overall message. I'm not sure the intended ages for this book, but I think it's one with a message that would go over most young children's heads. Maybe not? But it felt more geared toward adults with the message of taking care of yourself AND others. I was never concerned too much with self-care as a kid because I didn't feel like I needed it? I also didn't know what self-care was as a three-year-old. But I still don't think I would have needed it or even known what that meant for me as a three-year-old. Lol.

But it also emphasizes having "responsible" fun, and distinguished being terrible from just being a kid, which I can appreciate. Not as good as I hoped, but still pretty cute.

The Ardent Swarm by Yamen Manai, translated by Lara Vergnand

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Shelves: Modern Lit, All-Time Favorites

Review: The theme of this book is summed in its explanation of both Japan and the fictional country it's set in: ". . . a delicious mix of tradition and modernity."

I've read that this book is a fable showing that progress and modernity are not always the best things, and I think that's true, but it also sparks hope that both new and old ways can coincide in a beneficial way. It makes you question your views of progress - what makes certain progress acceptable? - all while balancing the images and roles of politics in both nature and society. It's been a while since I've read a book like this: one that not only defined community as both local and global, and what the responsibilities of a community could/should be defined as, but that also left me having to remind myself that it's happening in today's world and not generations ago. Between the village of Nawa, the capital city, and to even Tokyo, this book felt like a wonderful mesh of old and new worlds colliding. That was the central theme and question, I believe: how can we live in a changing world while making sure our communities are taken care of? What does it mean to move forward? What does that look like for one group of people and how does that affect other groups of people?

There is some weird humor in here, but I found it to be sparse. Overall, I found this book to be precious and heartbreaking, with beautiful moments of descriptive writing. For example, one of my favorite highlights from this book, "The bees never stung [Sidi] as they strolled across his hands, even allowing him to caress their plump bellies streaked with honey and rays of gold, their bodies as small and soft as a baby's thumb, delicate legs lightly covered with hair, and wings that gleamed like diamonds whenever the sun flooded the Nawa countryside."

It was such a warm tale of community that really touched my heart. It's a simple, short story, but one I really enjoyed. I appreciated the author taking the Tunisian tradition of oral tales and writing a novel in that sort of form as an appreciation and nod to his heritage. Thanks to Amazon First Reads, otherwise I don't know that I would have ever found it otherwise!

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski, Amelia Nagoski

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Shelves: Book Club, Self-Help

Review: In comparison to other self-help books, especially those geared toward women, I thought this book was fine. It had some good insights - as they usually do - some data and writing that had my pencil out and underlining. I enjoyed it overall, but definitely skimmed most of the chapters. The information in them was mostly made up of things I'd heard before, but I appreciated the effort and overall message!

The Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair

Rating: ⭐️⭐️

Shelves: History, Short Stories

Review: I learned, unfortunately, that colors and their histories don't hold much of an appeal to me. The premise of this book sounded so interesting, and I'm sure for some people, this book is a delight from start to finish. However, for me, I couldn't get attached to it. Maybe it was because the author only spends two to three pages on a color and, sometimes, it feels like the information she's writing has little to do with the color itself. It could also be that I felt most of the color histories followed the same pattern: someone found out that an animal or something natural gave off a particular color when X happened, etc., etc. It usually led to a gross process, the species was nearly or (sometimes) extinct, but finally, we came to our senses just in time!

I consider myself a person who is interested in fashion, interior design, and color theory, so I had high hopes for this. Turns out, either because of the writing style or the way these histories were presented, I don't find this premise interesting enough. It's history. And it's history dealing with specific colors. To me, that seemed like a winning combination. Unfortunately, this book just seemed to miss the mark.

Outlawed by Anna North

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Shelves: Western, Beach Reads, Modern Lit

Review: The idea behind this book had a solid path to go down: a group of women, outlawed into a gang because they are barren in an alternative history where the flu took out most of the population and a woman's worth was tied to her fertility. The women in this group don't define themselves by gender. There are queer stories and straight stories. Mental health issues. People of color. The wild, wild west. Women's empowerment.

A lot of potential.

But, with only 12 chapters, and ~260ish pages, the book felt rushed. The characters and plot felt underdeveloped. I felt a lack of attachment to most of it.

I so wanted to like this book, and I found bits of enjoyment in reading a western (the setting), and the moments of adventure and suspense. Overall, though, it just fell short, and I was a little bummed about that.

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.25-.5

Shelves: Classic Literature

Review: **SPOILERS** Before this book, I had only ever read and seen Pride & Prejudice - the book, the movie, and the TV mini-series - and I loved it all. So, after the shitty year that was 2020, I thought I would challenge myself and give myself something more to look forward to by trying to read through Jane Austen's books in 2021 in the order they were published. This led me to Sense and Sensibility, published in 1811.

This book sits around the 3.25-3.5-star range. I didn't get into it at first, and I quickly read through certain parts that didn't keep my interest. But, in the Jane Austen style, most of the book was sharp and witty, cleverly written, and amusing. Her character relationships were jarring at first, and I had to write myself a diagram to keep track of who was related to who, and by what means, etc. (Typical, I believe.) If anything, I came out of reading this book with a new literary heroine in Elinor - the type of woman I aspire to be. To me, all the other characters just weren't written as well as her.

In addition, the ending, as I believe all Austen endings do, came together almost too well and too quickly. I think that was always her goal in what she wrote, but this one left me wanting. I wanted more of a connection between Marianne and Colonel Brandon instead of her growing to love him, eventually. I wanted a little more chemistry between Edward and Elinor. I wanted Willoughby to not be so immature.

So, I can't say I loved this book, but it mostly enjoyable to read. I'm very much looking forward to reading Pride & Prejudice next!