Books I Read, February 2024

Author

Jess Dang
March 03, 2024

February’s reads included a memoir that I already want to read again, a self-help book that is giving me new perspective on relationships, 2 health books with actions I’ll take, a comforting murder mystery (that I of course did not solve), a novel that didn’t achieve the impact it wanted IMHO, and 2 additional memoirs.

I talk about them all below (ordered by enjoyability / impact) with the exception of “Estrogen Matters: Why Taking Hormones in Menopause Can Improve Women's Well-Being and Lengthen Their Lives -- Without Raising the Risk of Breast Cancer” by Avrum Bluming and Carol Travis. I’ll save that one for a future post all about my experience with peri-menopause.

I first started reading Frank Bruni’s writing when he became the New York Times’ chief restaurant critic between 2004 and 2009 and attended his book reading for his 2009 memoir, “Born Round.” In this latest memoir, he writes about losing vision in one of his eyes at the age of 52. But ever the journalist, this book also tells the stories of so many people he’s come across and shares their experiences of loss too. I listened to him narrate this one but I want to go back and read it just so I can underline all of his beautiful choice of words.

One of my dearest friends, Markell, gifted me this book over the holidays, and I’m so glad I read it. Brooks’ book focuses on why it’s important to develop deep, rich relationships and how to do it. I didn’t always find all of the examples he provides to be the most compelling, but I really respect his intention and values in writing this book. I spent a lot of 2023 working on myself in more inward ways; this year, my goal is to focus more on creating and deepening relationships so I’ve already been using Brooks’ prompts to be more present and curious in my interactions, to talk to that stranger in the locker room, and to create more meaning in my life through these connections. I was reading the physical copy of this book while listening to Bruni’s memoir and felt that they worked well together – both books explore themes of loss and see connection as a way to fill these voids in our lives.

I mentioned last year in a Cook Smarts newsletter that I have become more and more insulin resistant and started wearing a continuous glucose monitor for a brief period of time. Between that experience, having gestational diabetes twice, and this book, I feel like I have a good set of tools for keeping my blood sugar more regulated. If you’re on social media, you probably will learn as much from Inchauspe’s @glucosegoddess Instagram account as the book because at times, the book feels like one big commercial for her IG account. That said, it’s an easy listen / read and was a good reminder for me of daily habits I can easily incorporate to “flatten my glucose curve,” a phrase you will hear a hundred times in the book.

Thank you to my library’s Hoopla subscription for having so many Agatha Christie books on audio! I loved Agatha Christie mysteries as a teenager; I know many parts of her books have not aged well but I find the structure of Christie’s murder mysteries so comforting. They are the audiobooks I turn to when I’m waiting in line for my next listen on the Libby App (seriously, thank you public libraries!). This was not my favorite Christie but it scratched the itch, and I gobbled it up in 2 days. Caroline Crale is the wife of a philandering artist, and she is convicted for his murder. 16 years later when Crale dies, Poirot is asked to reopen the case by the victim’s daughter after she receives a letter from her mom declaring her innocence. Poirot goes back and questions the 5 people who were present on the day of the murder and asks them to give their detailed accounts of the day in writing. One should be able to deduce from the letters the identity of the true murderer, but I did not. Part of the fun for me is not guessing but just going on the journey with Christie.

Growing up amid the orange groves of central Florida in the 1960’s and 70’s is not something I know anything about, which is why I picked up Hull’s memoir. Her memories transported me to the humidity and pesticide-filled orange groves, the wide freedom kids were afforded then and the second-hand smoke they all inhaled. After finishing this listen, I wished that Hull had probed more emotionally – while her writing gives a real visceral sense of time and place, there were big life events where I never really got a sense of how she was affected like her parent’s divorce or discovering that she was gay. Still, it took me to a very different world, and I’m glad I took that trip.

Every immigrant story is full of heartbreak, and Nguyen’s story is no exception. Her parents were living separately on the day Saigon fell, and she and her siblings happened to be staying with her dad on that fateful day. They had to make the split-decision to flee the country, and there was no time to inform her mother of these life-altering plans. Her mom only discovered that her kids were gone days later when she went to retrieve them. As a result, Nguyen doesn’t see her mom again until she’s an adult. I really enjoyed the writing in this book, and several parts have stayed with me (like her decision to change her name), but I don’t think there was enough exploration for a full memoir. I would have loved this as a shorter personal essay.

I felt my enjoyment of this book decrease as the story progressed. The book is divided into four parts: 1. A novel about a very wealthy couple; 2. The unfinished biography of the husband that the novel in the first part is based on; 3. The narrative of the woman who was hired to write the biography; and 4. The journal entries of the wife. As I read each part, I knew Diaz wanted to show that money can bend all truth and erase the stories it finds inconvenient. I liked that he played with structure but in the end, this is a theme that has been true for a long time and I did not feel like anything new or surprising was revealed. But it did win the Pulitzer last year, so clearly it was an acclaimed novel by the people who make those decisions!

I’m so excited to have this space to share more of my reading life with you! Are you a reader? I’d love to know some of your recent (or past) favorites. Email me or drop me a comment.

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