June was a much better month for reading so lets just get into it!
The Hours by Michael Cunningham (Bookclub Choice)
This book was a pleasant surprise. I do love Virginia Woolf and I am always a sucker for a tragic, slightly mad, woman story. Following three women (Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway, and Mrs. Brown) I don’t always love a multiple timeline story, but the interweaving of the three women was prosaic in the most perfect way. The writing itself was what was really the joy. Really just this side of poetry with the tempo of the writing and storytelling. Each woman struggling in her own way, each story tragic in its own right. I haven’t watched the movie so I cannot compare the two, and while I absolutely adore Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore, I don’t think I could ever bring myself to sully the experience of reading this. I know in my heart the movie could never measure up. A beautiful read.
The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
There’s very few times I will say that a movie is better than its originating book. The Geurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Society is on that list, Fight Club, Bridget Jones Diary, and now The Devil Wears Prada. Now granted the book is not bad, I did give it 3 stars on Goodreads, and probably would’ve bumped it to a 3.75 if that was allowed, but it is just different. There were many changes in characters from the book to the movie and they were ultimately for the better. Stanley Tucci’s character is most notably much better in the movie, and even Meryl Streep’s changes to Miranda Priestley improved the character. The book does have its high points—as with many books the character relationships are more comprehensive and auxiliary characters are given more personality. The relationship between Andy and Emily is a bit friendlier and you have a better sense of life working in the office, forever pounding home the “a million girls would kill for this job” message. Andy in the book is a bit of a jerk and Nate is actually the super-nice-insufferably-good-boyfriend, which gives the story a very different feel (again, the movie does this better). If you told me these were two separate stories, I’d honestly believe you.. or maybe that one is some sort of spin off of the other. Maybe one is a Wattpad retelling or something. Would I recommend reading it? I’d comfortably say it’s not bad, but don’t go out of your way. Spend your time watching the glorious Stanley Tucci instead.
Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain by David Eagleman
This book was surprisingly interesting and mildly unsettling. The book dives into the magic of our brain, something I am always so intrigued by. Described as sharing information about how the brain “unceasingly adapts, re-creates, and formulates new ways of understanding the world we live in” the author, who also happens to be neuroscientist, dives into things like missing limbs and addiction and AI surrounding our bodies. While some medical terminology and understanding went a little over my head, it is generally user friendly and didn’t negatively impact my overall understanding of things. I opted for the audiobook and while it was an information heavy listen, it wasn’t difficult. My only complaint? is just how much “What if we did this” things came up. I understand as scientists there’s a lot of excitement about new ventures and one thing leads to a breakthrough in another, but a few times I saw sexy Jeff Goldblum flash through my brain saying “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should". If you’re into brains, it’s a good read!
Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Right Now by Jaron Lanier
While I quite obviously did not actually delete my social media, let me tell you, I was tempted. The book makes some really great points, but of course is not all encompassing. What I found most interesting is how accurately things were predicted—this book was written back in 2017? and the predictions surrounding AI and the changes in social media have already come true in just a few short years. At the very least it made me want to reassess how I interact with the socials I have, lean heavier into Substack vs. IG, and spend a lot more of my time just touching grass. I would recommend that everyone read this book and at least get a temperature about how you feel about your socials, if you can make some changes, or maybe even go crazy and delete it altogether!
July Bookclub Theme is ‘A book with a day in the title’ and let me tell you, the pickins are slim so I am choosing to personally read Monday or Tuesday by Virginia Woolf and offering to the club ‘A book with less than 300 pages’ for our July theme. (Because I can do whatever I want and I’m also behind on my Goodreads challenge!)
Here’s the choices: (Which ended up completely by accident having a slightly feminist lean as well, #grlpwr)
Women Talking by Miriam Toews
(I watched this movie but really interested to see how the book compares)
One evening, eight Mennonite women climb into a hay loft to conduct a secret meeting. For the past two years, each of these women, and more than a hundred other girls in their colony, has been repeatedly violated in the night by demons coming to punish them for their sins. Now that the women have learned they were in fact drugged and attacked by a group of men from their own community, they are determined to protect themselves and their daughters from future harm.
While the men of the colony are off in the city, attempting to raise enough money to bail out the rapists and bring them home, these women—all illiterate, without any knowledge of the world outside their community and unable even to speak the language of the country they live in—have very little time to make a choice: Should they stay in the only world they’ve ever known or should they dare to escape?
Based on real events and told through the “minutes” of the women’s all-female symposium, Toews’s masterful novel uses wry, politically engaged humor to relate this tale of women claiming their own power to decide.
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
A ruthless dissection of American life in the late 1960s, Play It as It Lays captures the mood of an entire generation, the ennui of contemporary society reflected in spare prose that blisters and haunts the reader. Set in a place beyond good and evil - literally in Hollywood, Las Vegas, and the barren wastes of the Mojave Desert, but figuratively in the landscape of an arid soul - it remains more than three decades after its original publication a profoundly disturbing novel, riveting in its exploration of a woman and a society in crisis and stunning in the still-startling intensity of its prose.
The Body Lies by Jo Baker
When a young writer accepts a job at a university in the remote English countryside, it's meant to be a fresh start, away from the bustle of London and the scene of a violent assault she is desperate to forget. But despite the distractions of her new life and the demands of single motherhood, her nerves continue to jangle. To make matters worse, during class a vicious debate about violence against women inflames the tensions and mounting rivalries in her creative writing group. When a troubled student starts turning in chapters that blur the lines between fiction and reality, the professor recognizes herself as the main character in his book--and he has written her a horrific fate. Will she be able to stop life imitating art before it's too late? At once a breathless cat-and-mouse game and a layered interrogation of the fetishization of the female body, The Body Lies gives us an essential story for our time that will have you checking the locks on your doors.
Liars is not out in the UK until 22nd August even on kindle so I picked badly 😂 should have checked first