evicted, by matthew desmond (this is a re-read of an incredibly powerful and important book - i re-read it because i led a faculty book club at school on the book this spring. reading and talking about it with others was so rewarding - but also a reminder of how depressing it is to enter the world of people constantly facing eviction. it's as if looking at that world alongside other people forces you to confront how truly horrible it is. sigh. READ THIS BOOK, even though parts of it will be hard to get through.)
normal people, by sally rooney (this was my book of the month club pick last month, and it's getting a ton of good press, but this book did not do it for me. the relationship was messy and both main characters had some real flaws and self-destructive qualities that i was like YOU NEED TO SEEK THERAPY FOR THIS and it wasn't escapist - it was just messy and occasionally bad like real life is messy and occasionally bad. so it didn't do it for me, and i was glad that others on goodreads agreed with me - with the articles in the major newspapers being so positive, i wanted to make sure i wasn't being too judge-y. goodreads gave me permission to feel the way i feel about it.)
the library book, by susan orlean (i read this for my book club - what a lovely meditations on libraries and los angeles and (the main point of the book) the library fire from the 1980s. this was an easy book to pop in and out of because a lot of the chapters could stand on their own - and weren't terribly long. highly recommend!)
uncommon type, by tom hanks (on a friend's suggestion, i listened to the audiobook of this one, which hanks reads. i liked this but didn't love it - it was well worth a listen while i drove around town, but i won't be running out to purchase it for anyone. the common theme throughout all these short stories is typewriters, and seeing how the typewriter played a role in each story was fun. there are also three or four stories that feature the same set of characters, which i really enjoyed.)
