April 2021 Reads

What have you read and loved lately? Here's what I read this month.

After false starting on several books at the beginning of the month, it was a delight to next pick up "Outlawed" by Anna North. This compelling novel details what fear of the unknown and unnamed can do to people. It was a page turner whose prose moved quickly while still being centered on meaningful threads (e.g., misogyny, motherhood).

Usually romance novels are my way to escape from the stressors of the world, but in the last few months, I could not get into them! I tried several "must reads" and abandoned them all (I am, admittedly, over the whole social media influencer romance novel approach). So I decided to try again with "The Ex Talk" by Rachel Lynn Solomon, figuring, hey, a public radio/podcast nerd romance! And it DELIVERED, with the unexpected (to me, clearly I did not read the description) delight of a hot Korean lead character. This was a fun one with great dialog that actually made me laugh out loud.

After being on an NPR segment with Nicole Chung, I ordered her memoir "All You Can Ever Know" and I simply couldn't put it down. It occurred to me as I was reading that I had never read a book with an adoptee-centered voice and it was a true eye opener into the complexities involved in that experience, while also providing me with a sister lens on the struggle of assimilation and racism.

OK, wow. It took me more time to read "How to Be an Antiracist" by Ibram X. Kendi because I found myself needing to re-read paragraphs because I was literally unlearning and reframing as I went. Like, CONSTANTLY. This read has made me pause and question and reframe so many things, often multiple times in a day. This is an essential read because as Kendi says, "The only way to undo racism is to consistently identify and describe it -- and then dismantle it."

"Of Women and Salt" by Gabriela Garcia is a compact (just over 200 pages) novel that packs a lyrical, aching punch. If you're drawn to multi-generational stories involving family secrets, struggle, and strong yet classically oppressed female figures making difficult choices, read this book.