A bit of a shorter stack this month as life is extra busy preparing to move! Let’s dig in.
Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make—and Keep—Friends by Marisa G. Franco
I really enjoyed the first quarter of this book. Thinking about how your attachment style (more frequently applied to romantic relationships) impacts how you show up in your friendships is interesting reflection. The rest of the book felt overly long and obvious to me though, discussing generally how to be a good friend. I love anything furthering the societal trend of taking friendships more seriously as deserving care and attention, but I’d say maybe grab this one from the library so you can just skim after the first section.
The Book Tour by Andi Watson
This graphic novel is a Kafka-esque bleak comedy with an interesting illustration style. I liked this as an example of a different kind of story than I’d typically read in graphic novel form and it’s a quick one.
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears (audiobook)
I don’t normally do audiobooks (more on that in a post to come), but Michelle Williams brought this to life so well. It started slow for me, but then hearing in detail about Britney’s experiences of fame and her conservatorship were way more engrossing than I expected. This left me pissed off and with a lot of respect for her.
Gods Without Men by Hari Kunzru
I initially picked this up at the library because I loved the cover, and the novel held that attention. This is like some of the best episode arcs of X-Files (I mean this as a real compliment). It stretches over time and many characters, all with a tie to the same mysterious spot in the dessert. Somehow through all of that, there’s more of a focus on beautiful character development than plot. Highly recommend this one.
Lastly, a couple of short stories I loved this month:
“In the Heart of the Village” by Emma Binder
“Sleeper Hit” by Jinwoo Chong
This month Sazerac adored Platonic and Margot was too busy causing trouble to get any reading done.
What did you read this month? Have you read The Woman in Me and what did you think?
I thought the Woman in Me was a great listen (I also did the audiobook - Michelle Williams was superb). I read an article about how Brit worked with three different ghostwriters to get the story written and I was impressed that it came across so cohesively. It's such a cautionary tale about the price of fame and how being beautiful and talented won't protect you from greed and manipulation. Another great stack!!!
I need to hear more about Britney over the next wine night