Books I Read in November

I made a mistake, friends. I created a TikTok account that's dedicated solely to books, and I think it might be the death of me. But sort of in the best way possible? Because, in the month of November, I read seven/almost eight books, which is a new record for me. I'm officially over my yearly goal of 46 books (which I changed a few times to account for the children's books I read and didn't count toward that total). And I've bought more books in the past month than I have in the past few years. I had to incite a book buying ban pretty much on the spot, but there are worse habits to have . . . right?

With all of that being said, I hope 2022 brings more interesting reads because of BookTok's influence, although I know even more now that books in the official genre of romance are not my thing. I prefer more of the Chick Lit genre, I think: way less smut, more beach reads-cutesy stuff. If we're using a thesaurus to describe sex and sex organs for more than a paragraph, I'm not . . . that is not my thing. Two books this month were . . . that, and let's just say I'm happy they're behind me. I also had a DNF and a near DNF, which were disappointing. A lot of two star ratings this month, which nearly put me in a reading slump. But I'm going to try to keep things light for December (with the exception of my book club book, which deals with working through trauma). Anyway. On to the reviews!

Food Rules: An Eater's Manual by Michael Pollan

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Shelves: Health, Self-Help

Review: A straight-forward guide to eating. If you're familiar with this type of literature, you will have heard most, if not all, of his 64 rules (which, within themselves can be repetitive), but they're all a healthy reminder in a world where we are constantly bombarded with new diet trends and fads. This is a quick read, making eating more laid back and simplified for those who need to hear it.

You don't need Keto, Whole30, Paleo, or Atkins. You just need a return to the simplified: Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.

Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before by Tony Horwitz

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Shelves: Favorites, History, Travel

Review: I initially went into this book a) because it's Tony Horwitz and I enjoy his writing style/storytelling, and b) because I wanted still more history on Hawai'i, even if it involved another European explorer that I half-cared about. I checked this out at my library as soon as I could, and I was not disappointed!

Before reading this, I had only heard of Captain Cook briefly, but he never held my interest enough to make an impression. It wasn't until the option of hiking to his monument in Kealakekua Bay for good snorkeling came up that I started questioning more about who he was, what he did, and the legacy he left behind. Particularly, what did that legacy look like in Hawai'i for Hawaiians?

I went into the book expecting the typical explorer trope: they came, they saw, they spread venereal disease and killed indigenous populations for sport; but I was surprised to find that Cook was actually one of the more open-minded, dare I say, caring explorers? Maybe a bit of a stretch, but I think Horwitz's remarks in the closing chapter summed it up nicely:

"If there was an overriding message in [Cook's] journals, it was that people, the world over, were alike in their essential nature-even if they ate their enemies, made love in public, worshipped idols, or, like Aborigines, cared not at all for material goods. No matter how strange another society might at first appear, there were almost always grounds for mutual understanding and respect."

Horwitz took to land, air, and sea to follow Cook's paths through the Pacific on his three voyages from the 1760s to 1779. His writing was easy to follow, enjoyable, and humorous while also being fair, informative, and light on making Cook a saintly character in history. I appreciated Horwitz's efforts to talk with local people, explore indigenous cultures and perspectives, and paint Cook's explorations in an unbiased lens.

If you're a fan of travel writing mixed with history set (mostly) in the sunny Pacific Ocean, I say give this book a go. Horwitz was one of my favorite modern writers, and I'm glad this could steal me back to Hawai'i for a few days longer while also teaching me a lot about Captain Cook and the valuable insights his voyages left behind for the rest of us.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

Rating: ⭐️⭐️

Shelves: Beach Reads, Fantasy, Modern Lit

Review: ** spoiler alert ** I think I was let down by my own expectations for this one. I'd seen this beautiful book on the shelves at Target and Barnes & Noble for so long that, every time I passed it, I told myself it had to be a great book. Just look at the cover!

But alas, I lost a great deal of interest after the first ~200 pages. When Addie meets Henry, I didn't care. When I learned more about Henry, I didn't care. I found him boring. And, after a while, the repetition of the chapters felt boring too. Yes, we know, she meets Luc on the anniversary of when she gave her soul to him. Yes, we know he's terrible and just wants her to surrender. And the whole captive "falling in love" with their captor thing just made me mad. There was a twist at the ending, a sort-of open ending, but it wasn't enough for me.

The concept of the story was cool, but I just wasn't a fan of the way it was executed. Great cover be damned, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue just didn't do it for me.

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

Rating: ⭐️⭐️

Shelves: Beach Reads, Romance

Review: ** spoiler alert ** TW: Domestic violence.

I recently joined the youths on booktok and Colleen Hoover is everywhere I turn. After reading the synopses of a few, this one piqued my interest the most. This was a quick read - it was easy, but also, after domestic violence played a prominent role in more than one relationship, I really just wanted to get it over with.

When thinking back to my mid-20s (the age of the main character), I don't remember acting or feeling the way this one did, nor did I know a lot of people who acted like her. Which ultimately led me to feeling like the writing style and the characters were a bit . . . mediocre? That sounds harsh, but I felt like neither were fully developed, a bit immature, or written all that well. I hate saying that about a book with such a big personal meaning to the author (and anyone else who has grown up dealing with domestic violence), but I really didn't like the characters and I didn't like the writing style.

Maybe because it was overhyped, maybe because all the hands to the mouth, sobbing, and predictability within the book was just too much. It was just a miss for me, unfortunately. But two stars solely for the importance of the topic of domestic violence and the author's personal note about it at the end of the book.

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller

Rating: ⭐️⭐️

Shelves: Memoir-Biography

Review: I really wanted to like this book—it's been on my TBR for a long time and it sounded so interesting. A memoir of a child growing up in Africa during a tumultuous growing period in its history.

What I got, however, was disappointing. I can see why some rated this book highly: the sensory details and overall writing style were both great. I could picture everything the author was writing about. I thought certain snippets from her memoir were insightful and educational. But, overall, I just didn't enjoy it. The way she describes her family is sparse: there are no deep relationships, there is no context or background for why they went to Africa, why they stayed, etc., there is no explanation or even a justification for their racism (so the conversations and actions fueled by it were exhausting and made the characters extremely unlikeable to me).

Unfortunately, I didn't care enough to finish this book properly. I skimmed the remaining chapters and didn't feel like I missed much. I know it was the author's life and she delivered her experiences in what seemed to be a very truthful way, I just wish it had been filled with a little more introspection, retrospection, or more context even to fill in the reader a bit more and better place her experience in the larger context of Zimbabwe/Malawi/Zambia during this timeframe.

It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey

Rating: ⭐️

Shelves: Beach Reads, Romance

Review: Just a heads up: I have now solidified that I'm not a fan of romance, so my review is based on that. If you are, that's great! But I 100% am not. I'm not overly mushy or sappy, I definitely don't consider myself a romantic by any means. So, most of this book's dialogue (or inner dialogue) was one big eye roll after another. If this is your thing, I am so happy for you!! I just learned, officially, that it is not at all my thing.

I was made to believe that this was Schitt's Creek-esque, but the only correlation was Piper and her reason for going to Washington—slightly. After that, everything was a no-go for me. I had a hard time believing a girl who couldn't brown beef could quickly learn how to basically remodel an entire bar in the span of a month and some change. I had a hard time believing an asshole love interest stuck in his ways just suddenly did a 180 and miraculously threw most of his stubbornness to the wind within the span of a week. I didn't like him at all. I didn't like the way he talked to Piper, especially during the *spicy* scenes. I didn't like how possessive he was, or how rigid. None of that was romantic to me—they were all big red flags. I enjoyed the secondary characters more than the main characters to be honest. Let me hang with Abe and Opal all day! Lol

I should say: I was recommended this and my last romance book ("It Ends With Us" by Colleen Hoover) by booktok, so I had some expectations. They weren't super high because I mostly knew romance was not my genre, but even the low expectations I had weren't met. I understand a lot of people like romance, so if you do, you may really love this. I just . . . did not.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Shelves: Book Club, History, Western

Review: This book was well-researched and did a good job presenting the events of this terrible era of our history. It was written in a way that was easy to read and follow the bigger themes/events. Three stars because there were so many players that it was hard to keep track of them all and I felt it was a roller coaster of interest levels: some chapters I was hooked, others I wasn't. I can't say much else because I feel like I'd be giving away a lot of the plot, but I had never heard of these murders and was sad to learn about this situation in Oklahoma. Although I shouldn't have been surprised, this story sheds a lot of light into a running theme in American History of white immigrants trying to lay claim and possession over the "other" in vile, destructive ways.

Overall, if you're big into Native American history, this is a good book to read. A very important book to read as well.

** Did Not Finish **

Aloha Rodeo: Three Hawaiian Cowboys, the World's Greatest Rodeo, and a Hidden History of the American West by David Wollman and Julian Smith

Rating: ⭐️⭐️

Shelves: DNF, History, Western

Review: I *so* wanted to like this book, but I went in expecting this to be a story of three Hawaiians going to compete in a Wyoming rodeo and was instead met with a long history of cattle in Hawaii mixed with a conglomeration of information on Wyoming that I felt wasn't necessary. It's halfway through the book before you're introduced to the main characters, and you're almost done with it before you get them even arriving in Wyoming to compete. Don't promise me a book that isn't within those following pages, man.

The writing style was easy enough to follow, but I hate when books do this. I don't need a lengthy history on how San Francisco was transformed just months before the Paniolo arrived because of an earthquake or about Buffalo Bill's Wild West show when the book is supposed to focus on three people and their stories. The synopsis on GoodReads compares this to The Boys in the Boat, which I've written a review on here, and which also makes me a little angry because that book was supposed to be modeled after a Laura Hillenbrand style of writing and which I thought felt so flat. That book also spent the majority of its pages giving way more detail than was necessary and having the main event cover the span of a few measly pages.

I stopped probably 80% of the way through and it was because I just didn't care enough to finish. Did I even get to the Hawaiian cowboys competing? No. Clearly the authors did a great job with their research, but my expectation just didn't meet the reality of the book. For those reasons, this book was a very sad DNF.