February Wrap Up

Welcome back everybody, this month was all about getting back into the thick of it. I made a post at the beginning of last month, where I talked about wanting to get out of my reading slump and start reading again. In that post, I had made a few choices for books to read in the month of February that I knew I would love. This is what I ended up reading instead:

Chroma by Derek Jarman

★★★★★

I said I was going to read this book this month and I did. I have been going on and on about this book for the past three months that it didn’t feel right to take a pass on it. This is a very short read which is undoubtedly the best kind of read for getting out of a reading slump.

I loved this book. It was an interesting read to say the least. Jarman discusses color in a nuanced way: historically, scientifically, sociologically and personally. His writing style is refreshing but jarring - it took me some time to get familiar with his voice and the way he presents information.

Chroma is part color theory and part memoir about Jarman’s struggle with HIV/AIDS. Jarman doesn’t always talk about these experiences openly, instead he alludes to them in short vignettes. Although, in the chapter on the color Blue, Jarman talks more about his illness in relation to the color blue. It is one of the book’s most powerful moments.

Like I said I loved this book. I can see myself rereading it again, using it as a reference and discovering new bits of information and nuance. It’s a great book, if you love art history and want to learn more.

Bluets by Maggie Nelson

★★★★

I read this right after I finished Chroma because I’m on a kick to read books about colors that are also memoirs. I really adored this book but I found that of the two books I’ve read by Maggie Nelson, Bluets is not my favorite. Bluets is a list of propositions on the color blue. Throughout the book Nelson explores heartbreak and sexuality. The way the book is written in short proposition that connect but not always seamlessly is perhaps my favorite thing about Nelson’s exploration with the color blue. This book is new and experimental and I really appreciated the level of creativity with which it was written.

A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi

★★★★

This was my first audiobook ever and I loved it. I was really surprised by this book. I wasn’t expecting to love it but then I fell head over heels in love. A Very Large Expanse of Sea is a YA contemporary novel that follows a Muslim girl name Shareen as she settles into her new school and falls in love with a boy named Ocean. This book has a lot going for it and I really appreciated how Tahereh Mafi explores racism and the legitimate insecurities Shareen has dating a white man. The relationship between Shareen and Ocean is healthy, they’re open with one another about their feelings, they’re supportive of one another and they care about each other’s health and well being. This was such a great book, and I highly recommend everyone give it a chance.

That’s it for me this week! I’ll see you all again very soon, until then, happy reading!

Library Haul - February

Hello all, this week I did something I hadn’t done in months: I went to the library. I haven’t had a lot of time to go to the library between school and work. Now that I’ve finally found my rhythm, I’m trying to get back into reading. I love the library, if there’s something I desperately want to read, I know I can find it at the library.

I should say that I had put all these books on hold and was really only anticipating having three books ready when I got there but Black Leopard, Red Wolf was sitting there waiting for me. I’m crying.

The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein

Husband, father, drag queen, sex worker, wife. Sarah Krasnostein's The Trauma Cleaner is a love letter to an extraordinary ordinary life. In Sandra Pankhurst she discovered a woman capable of taking a lifetime of hostility and transphobic abuse and using it to care for some of society's most in-need people.

Sandra Pankhurst founded her trauma cleaning business to help people whose emotional scars are written on their houses. From the forgotten flat of a drug addict to the infested home of a hoarder, Sandra enters properties and lives at the same time. But few of the people she looks after know anything of the complexity of Sandra's own life. Raised in an uncaring home, Sandra's miraculous gift for warmth and humour in the face of unspeakable personal tragedy mark her out as a one-off.

I heard about this book over on Jen’s channel. She didn’t completely love this book, but I was all in for the trans representation. I am worried. Although, to be fair I’m not setting the bar too high on this one.

I may not get to this one before the end of February, but I am thinking of reading it in March.

Bluets by Maggie Nelson

A lyrical, philosophical, and often explicit exploration of personal suffering and the limitations of vision and love, as refracted through the color blue. With Bluets, Maggie Nelson has entered the pantheon of brilliant lyric essayists.

I just finished Chroma by Derek Jarman this month and I had to pick up Bluets. This isn’t the first time I’ve picked up Bluets. The first time, I didn’t finish reading it, I got far enough to find a book titled Chroma before I inevitably put it down. It was too soon after reading The Argonauts that I couldn’t possibly get into it. Ever since I’ve been dying to give it a second chance, because who am I kidding, I’d love this book.

I’ve already started reading it and I’m more than halfway through. I’m enjoying it but not as much as The Argonauts.

Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

The Santiago family lives in a gated community in Bogotá, safe from the political upheaval terrorizing the country. Seven-year-old Chula and her older sister Cassandra enjoy carefree lives thanks to this protective bubble, but the threat of kidnappings, car bombs, and assassinations hover just outside the neighborhood walls, where the godlike drug lord Pablo Escobar continues to elude authorities and capture the attention of the nation.

When their mother hires Petrona, a live-in-maid from the city's guerrilla-occupied slum, Chula makes it her mission to understand Petrona's mysterious ways. But Petrona's unusual behavior belies more than shyness. She is a young woman crumbling under the burden of providing for her family as the rip tide of first love pulls her in the opposite direction. As both girls' families scramble to maintain stability amidst the rapidly escalating conflict, Petrona and Chula find themselves entangled in a web of secrecy that will force them both to choose between sacrifice and betrayal.

This book has been on my mind since its release in 2018. I’ve mentioned it in my Christmas wishlist post and then completely forgot about it. Then I was listening to the Reading Women Podcast (which you'll know if you've read my last post, I love) and remembered how much I really wanted to read this book. At the time, this was still a hot new release, so the waitlist at the library was long but now the hype has died down a little bit, enough for me to grab myself a copy.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter: "He has a nose," people say. Engaged to track down a mysterious boy who disappeared three years earlier, Tracker breaks his own rule of always working alone when he finds himself part of a group that comes together to search for the boy. The band is a hodgepodge, full of unusual characters with secrets of their own, including a shape-shifting man-animal known as Leopard.

As Tracker follows the boy's scent—from one ancient city to another; into dense forests and across deep rivers—he and the band are set upon by creatures intent on destroying them. As he struggles to survive, Tracker starts to wonder: Who, really, is this boy? Why has he been missing for so long? Why do so many people want to keep Tracker from finding him? And perhaps the most important questions of all: Who is telling the truth, and who is lying?

I’ve talked about this one too in my 2019 most is anticipated releases post which you can read here. I’m really excited I was able to get my hands on a copy so quickly. And I was surprised too that this came in as soon as it did. When I first put this on hold the library had just ordered the copies. I’ll definitely be reading this one in March.

That's it for today's Library book haul, I'll see you all next week an end of the month wrap-up! Until then, happy reading!

Books I Should Have Read in 2018

While we’re waiting to see if I can shake my reading slump, I thought why not chat about some of the books I never read in 2018 and definitely should have! This is a list of 2018 releases that were highly acclaimed and that I seriously considered reading in 2018, but never got around to it in the end.

Educated by Tara Westover

If by now you haven’t heard of Educated by Tara Westover, where have you been? Everyone and their mother had read this book and raved about it. This is a memoir about Tara’s experience growing up without formal education and her drive to educate herself. It’s been called raw, powerful, difficult to read but impossible to put down. I was never going to pick this book up initially in 2018. However, towards the end of 2018 I was sold by the Reading Women Podcast to give this one a go. It’s 2019 now, and I still haven’t read this one, but I do have the audiobook on hold at my library. We're currently looking at a 21 week wait on this one, I don’t know yet whether I should just pick up the physical copy. We’ll see, I was really wanting to read the audiobook for this one.

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

This is another one highly praised about on the Reading Women Podcast (it’s one of my favorites, can’t you tell?) but I heard about this book very early on in 2018 and I don’t remember where. What I do remember is that I picked this book up from the library last summer and I had planned on reading it and never did. Her Body and Other Parties is a debut collection of short stories about the female body. I love a good short story collection, I love reading from new Latinx authors and I’m kind of upset that I didn’t read this when I did.

I’ll be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

I’ll be Gone in the Dark, is a book I would have never thought I’d want to pick up. It’s a genre I never ever read. This is a true-crime novel about the Golden State Killer it is written from a collection of Michelle’s notes and journal entries. Right off the bat I have no idea what I’m getting myself into. I don’t know anything about the Golden State Killer. All I know is that at some point in 2018 I wanted to read this book. Since then I’ve heard a lot of mixed reviews on this book because of the way it was written.

Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward

This book has been calling to me from every shelf in every bookstore and library I visited in 2018 and I still never picked it up. I’m ashamed I never read this one in 2018 but it sounded like it’d be too much at the time. This book isn’t for the faint hearted. Sing Unburied Sing follows a family’s road trip to pick up their father who has just been released from prison, that’s as much as I’m going to say. There’s no reason not to pick this up in 2019, it’s gotten a lot of praise over the past year and I haven’t heard a single bad review for it!

That does it for this week's post!