What I've Been Reading

Hey folkses! January has been a much better month reading-wise than December so far, in that I've read more than zero books. Two down so far and I'm in the middle of five others. One day I'll learn not to read five books at a time, but at least the five books I'm reading are all different types of books. I have an audiobook going, some poetry, nonfiction, short stories, and a novel. I should throw in a graphic novel for good measure and maybe a screenplay for the hell of it :p

My first read of the year was Haruki Murakami's The Strange Library and "strange" was indeed an excellent word choice for the title. This was seriously one of the most bizarre books I've read in awhile. It's a very short novella about a young boy who visits a library to return a book and asks for books on tax collecting. He's pointed to a part of the library that he didn't know existed and then down the rabbit hole we go. He gets the book he wants but he cannot leave the library with this book. In fact, he can't leave the library at all as the strange librarian takes him through a maze within the library and locks him in a cell with a man dressed in a sheep suit where he is forced to memorize the book if he wishes to live...I won't go further into the book because I don't want to give away what's a very short but twisted and bizarre story. As strange as it was, I still enjoyed it as I have with every Murakami I've read. This book was made especially neat by it's packaging and design with illustrations and collage throughout. A neat one to have in the collection.

The other book I've read this month is Something Like Summer by Jay Bell. I. Loved. This. Book. I was not expecting to love this book as much as I did. It's one that's been on my radar for quite some time now but I finally decided to listen to the audio of it. It follows Benjamin Bentley, a 16 year old boy through his high school years as he navigates his first love as an openly gay adolescent. The book takes us through high school, into college and beyond. At first, I found the book to be extremely cliche and thought it was going to be another predictable slash novel with token erotic scenes thrown in but god now this novel grew and grew and grew until I was so invested in the characters that they felt like they were a part of my own life. It's almost like Bell went in to this novel saying "I'm going to take the cliches and address the human touches that they come from." I immediately downloaded the second book in the series, Something Like Winter and started listening to that one today and I don't EVER want this series to end.

Right now I'm reading:

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng: This is my current novel and I'm very meh about it. Everyone who's read this book seems to have loved it and it's nominated for all sorts of awards but I cannot for the life of me fall in love with it. I don't hate it but nothing is calling me to pick it back up either. I'm about 100 pages into it right now. Has anyone else had this experience with this book? Do I need to give it more time?

One More Thing by B.J. Novak: Short story collection and a good one at that so far!! I forgot where I first heard about this collection but they're very short short stories that run the gambit from entertaining and funny to extremely thought provoking.

Rope by Alison Hawthorne Deming: Poetry collection and such a beautiful one. I read the first half of it last night and I'll likely finish it tonight. This collection focuses on living life as far as I can tell...the human experience. There was a poem in here about Hurricane Katrina that I was not expecting and while I generally hate all things Katrina after living through it, this poem was beautiful and poignant and much appreciated.

Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed: I've been dipping into this book for months and I'm almost finished it now and I don't want it to end. This is some of the most beautiful and poignant writing I've ever read and between this and Wild, I've fallen hard for Strayed. I want to give this book to everyone.

Something Like Winter by Jay Bell: The sequel (companion book) to Something Like Summer, told from the point of view of Tim Wyman, one of the main characters of Something Like Summer...so far so good! This is my current audiobook!

What are you reading right now? I've been looking for new poetry collections in particular if anyone has any favorites that they'd like to share ;)