It’s time for my first half of November book review! I am sharing what I read in November, although I am skipping a few 5 star reads to share later in the month. I also read Out Of My Heart, which I reviewed separately here. The Amazon links to the books I’ve read are affiliate links and if you use them and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission. If you’ve read any of these books or are interested in them, I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
Title: Demystifying Disability
Author: Emily Ladau
Genre: Non Fiction
Publisher: Ten Speed Press, 9/7/21
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review / Non Fiction November
My Rating: 4 Stars
Emily Ladau provides an introduction to disabilities including how to talk to and about people with disabilities. Overall, her point is that not everyone wants to be treated the same way, but they should be treated as humans.
“People with disabilities are the world’s largest minority, an estimated 15 percent of the global population. But many of us—disabled and nondisabled alike—don’t know how to act, what to say, or how to be an ally to the disability community. Demystifying Disability is a friendly handbook on the important disability issues you need to know about, including:
• How to appropriately think, talk, and ask about disability
• Recognizing and avoiding ableism (discrimination toward disabled people)
• Practicing good disability etiquette
• Ensuring accessibility becomes your standard practice, from everyday communication to planning special events
• Appreciating disability history and identity
• Identifying and speaking up about disability stereotypes in media
Authored by celebrated disability rights advocate, speaker, and writer Emily Ladau, this practical, intersectional guide offers all readers a welcoming place to understand disability as part of the human experience.”
I found this guide to be very accessible and understandable as well as important as an education about disabilities and accessibility.
Title: The Hawthorne Legacy
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Genre: YA Thriller
Publisher: Hachette Audio, 9/7/21
Source: Audio Publisher
Why I Read It: Continuing the series.
My Rating: 3 Stars
Last year, I read and mostly enjoyed The Inheritance Games, so I wanted to continue the series with this second book. Unfortunately, in the beginning I felt confused and later on I felt bored by this sequel.
“The Inheritance Games ended with a bombshell, and now heiress Avery Grambs has to pick up the pieces and find the man who might hold the answers to all of her questions—including why Tobias Hawthorne left his entire fortune to Avery, a virtual stranger, rather than to his own daughters or grandsons. Thanks to a DNA test, Avery knows that she’s not a Hawthorne by blood, but clues pile up hinting at a deeper connection to the family than she had ever imagined. As the mystery grows and the plot thickens, Grayson and Jameson, two of the enigmatic and magnetic Hawthorne grandsons, continue to pull Avery in different directions. And there are threats lurking around every corner, as adversaries emerge who will stop at nothing to see Avery out of the picture—by any means necessary.”
I found the brothers interchangeable and didn’t appreciate the love triangle between them and Avery. There were twists and confusions and there were some answers, but it seemed to end suddenly – I guess to get people excited for the third installment!
Title: Moms Don’t Have Time To Have Kids
Author: Zibby Owens (editor)
Genre: Essays
Publisher: Sky Horse Publishing, 11/2/21
Source: Uplit Reads
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review.
My Rating: 4 Stars
Moms Don’t Have Time To Have Kids is the second book of essays edited by Zibby Owens in which we read about those who didn’t have time but did it anyway – whether they wanted to or not.
“Too tired to think? No time to read books? Zibby Owens gets it. Award-winning podcaster of Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books and mother of four (ages 6 to 14) compiled 52 essays by 49 authors to help the rest of us feel understood, inspired, and less alone. The authors, all previous guests on her podcast (go listen!), include 15 New York Times bestselling authors, 5 national bestsellers and 29 award-winning/notable/critically-acclaimed writers. The super short essays were inspired by a few other things moms don’t have time to do: sleep, get sick, write, lose weight, and see friends. Read one a week and you’ll finish the whole book in a year: accomplishment! Topics range from taking care on aging grandmother, mourning the loss of a family member, battling insomnia, wrestling with body image, coping with chronic illness, navigating writer’s block, the power of women’s friendship, and more juicy stuff. You’ll laugh, cry, think, and feel like you just had coffee with a close friend. If that best friend were a world-renown author.”
The essays in this book are broken into the following categories: Moms Don’t Have Time For Sleep, Getting Sick, Seeing Friends, Writing, and Losing Weight. The essays are by some writers I knew of and some that I now want to read. Some of the essays deal with post lockdown issues and others relate back to the writer’s childhood. Whether or not you have kids, making or needing time for things is something we can all relate to.
Title: The Whiteness of Wealth
Author: Dorothy A. Brown
Genre: Non Fiction
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group, 3/23/21
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review / Non Fiction November
My Rating: 4 Stars
The Whiteness of Wealth is a deep dive into how the current tax system disadvantages Black people, beginning from the time when they were taxed but could not receive any benefits and including the differences in Black families and family life that makes tax credits a good thing for white families but not so much for Black families.
“Dorothy A. Brown became a tax lawyer to get away from race. As a young black girl growing up in the South Bronx, she’d seen how racism limited the lives of her family and neighbors. Her law school classes offered a refreshing contrast: Tax law was about numbers, and the only color that mattered was green. But when Brown sat down to prepare tax returns for her parents, she found something strange: James and Dottie Brown, a plumber and a nurse, seemed to be paying an unusually high percentage of their income in taxes. When Brown became a law professor, she set out to understand why. In The Whiteness of Wealth, Brown draws on decades of cross-disciplinary research to show that tax law isn’t as color-blind as she’d once believed. She takes us into her adopted city of Atlanta, introducing us to families across the economic spectrum whose stories demonstrate how American tax law rewards the preferences and practices of white people while pushing black people further behind. From attending college to getting married to buying a home, black Americans find themselves at a financial disadvantage compared to their white peers. The results are an ever-increasing wealth gap and more black families shut out of the American dream. Solving the problem will require a wholesale rethinking of America’s tax code. But it will also require both black and white Americans to make different choices. This urgent, actionable book points the way forward.”
I learned many things from this book and I think it would benefit those who know their financial information more than I do, but it was an important read that made me think!
Title: The Happy Inbox
Author: Maura Nevel Thomas
Genre: Non Fiction, Self-Help
Publisher: Simple Truths, 11/1/21
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review / Non Fiction November
My Rating: 3 Stars
This book was not quite what I expected it to be as it was geared towards corporate life or professionals who are chained to their email – maybe like my husband! I did talk to him about some of the things mentioned in this book and he agreed.
“Feeling buried by communication clutter is that it’s that state of feeling like you are always owing return communication to someone. It’s the subtle sense of anxiety caused by your backlog of email, taunting you with the little red indicators on the communication apps on your phone―texts, voicemails, missed calls, social media notifications―plus the mountain of outstanding email piling up in your inbox even as you read this. Want to live free of that feeling?! Get ready to dive in and live free of communication clutter!”
Some of the advice in this book includes how to compose emails to get the most useful replies, managing time, and strangely enough, how to have a productive meeting. The section about meetings surprised me, since I thought the book was about emails! Also, the author offers further information if you go to her website, where sure enough, she asks you to sign up for…more emails.
Title: There There
Author: Tommy Orange
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio, 6/5/18
Source: Audio Publisher
Why I Read It: Indigenous People Heritage Month / TBR
My Rating: 4 Stars
There There has been on my TBR list for quite a long time, so when it came up as a reviewable audio book from Penguin Random House, I started to listen to it soon after! It is a well written book with many interconnected characters, which I had some trouble keeping track of while listening to the book as opposed to reading it.
“A wondrous and shattering novel that follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize. Among them is Jacquie Red Feather, newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind. Dene Oxendene, pulling his life together after his uncle’s death and working at the powwow to honor his memory. Fourteen-year-old Orvil, coming to perform traditional dance for the very first time. Together, this chorus of voices tells of the plight of the urban Native American—grappling with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and spirituality, with communion and sacrifice and heroism.”
The book contains a lot of difficult topics such as alcoholism and its effects, gun violence, and more. I found the ending to be a bit abrupt, but I imagine it was done so purposely. This is a worthwhile read, especially at this time of year. The audio had a full cast narration which was well done too.
Title: Hooked
Author: Sutton Foster
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 10/12/21
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review / Love her
My Rating: 4 Stars
Sutton Foster ties together various parts of her life with the crafting projects she did at the time. The book is mainly about her relationship with her mother, but also covers her divorce, struggles with infertility, and the adoption of her daughter.
“Whether she’s playing an ‘age-defying’ book editor on television or dazzling audiences on the Broadway stage, Sutton Foster manages to make it all look easy. How? Crafting. From the moment she picked up a cross stitch needle to escape the bullying chorus girls in her early performing days, she was hooked. Cross stitching led to crocheting, crocheting led to collages, which led to drawing, and so much more. Channeling her emotions into her creations centered Sutton as she navigated the significant moments in her life and gave her tangible reminders of her experiences. Now, in this charming and poignant collection, Sutton shares those moments, including her fraught relationship with her agoraphobic mother; a painful divorce splashed on the pages of the tabloids; her struggles with fertility; the thrills she found on the stage during hit plays like Thoroughly Modern Millie, Anything Goes, and Violet; her breakout TV role in Younger; and the joy of adopting her daughter, Emily. Accompanying the stories, Sutton has included crochet patterns, recipes, and so much more!”
There is much about her Broadway roles and one chapter about the Younger cast which I really enjoyed. Tony Goldwyn also received a shout out, which made me smile! I thought that color photos of her craft projects would have elevated this book further.
Title: The Matzah Ball
Author: Jean Meltzer
Genre: Rom Com
Publisher: Mira, 9/28/21
Source: Library
Why I Read It: People kept asking if I’d read it.
My Rating: 4 Stars
With the huge influx of Christmas books at this time of year, one would think that a Hanukkah romance would be much appreciated – and it is. However, I come from a skeptical place in which Christmas and Hanukkah are two separate things and what one has, the other doesn’t need. I appreciated that this book clearly states that Hanukkah is not the Jewish Christmas, but it did bother me that Hanukkah was called out as not at all festive and was, as usual, pitted against Christmas in terms of the wish to celebrate one or the other. Rachel has escaped the confines of her “super Jewy” parents who have long Shabbat meals that start with a series of blessings before eating and that “finally” conclude with the blessings after the meal. Being raised in a Jewish environment has somehow led her to a love of Christmas, which she sees as an escape from reality and a magical holiday the likes of which Judaism could never give her. So when she is told to write a Hanukkah romance, she knows she’d never be able to imagine people falling in love over a holiday with such little festive spirit. Enter Jacob, Rachel’s first love from the tender age of 12, who she apparently never got over. Jacob plans huge parties and is running one for the 8th night of Hanukkah, called the Matzah Ball. Rachel decides she will find inspiration through this event and volunteers to work on it with Jacob.
“Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt is a nice Jewish girl with a shameful secret: she loves Christmas. For a decade she’s hidden her career as a Christmas romance novelist from her family. Her talent has made her a bestseller even as her chronic illness has always kept the kind of love she writes about out of reach. But when her diversity-conscious publisher insists she write a Hanukkah romance, her well of inspiration suddenly runs dry. Hanukkah’s not magical. It’s not merry. It’s not Christmas. Desperate not to lose her contract, Rachel’s determined to find her muse at the Matzah Ball, a Jewish music celebration on the last night of Hanukkah, even if it means working with her summer camp archenemy—Jacob Greenberg. Though Rachel and Jacob haven’t seen each other since they were kids, their grudge still glows brighter than a menorah. But as they spend more time together, Rachel finds herself drawn to Hanukkah—and Jacob—in a way she never expected. Maybe this holiday of lights will be the spark she needed to set her heart ablaze.”
This book was – dare I say – super Jewy. (I personally may be one of those super Jewy people and somehow that label and its use in this book feels a little icky in some ways). There was Jewish culture and words included in every day conversation and lots and lots of Jewish food (though why a meat and cheese platter was included next to kosher Chinese food I couldn’t tell you). The romance was sweet and the ways that Jacob found to care for Rachel with her chronic illness were even swoon worthy. As it turns out, one can find romance over the non festive holiday of Hanukkah! I’m kidding – Hanukkah can totally be festive, it’s just that when it’s pitted against Christmas it will either pale in comparison or be lifted up to equal status for the sake of inclusion, which is where my conundrum lies. Does this book give one the permission to love Christmas or to turn your decor blue and have a Hanukkah bush? I’m not sure.
Title: How To Be Hopeful
Author: Bernadette Russell
Genre: Non Fiction / Self Help
Publisher: Sourcebooks, 4/6/21
Source: Publisher
Why I Read It: Sent to me for my review / Non Fiction November
My Rating: 3 Stars
This is a book about having hope in darker days, which I was excited about as “hope” is something that I’ve been trying to have this year. I notice it is classified as a Christian book on Amazon, which is something I wondered about when I received it, but it did not seem to be a religious book to me.
“Filled with practical exercises, questions to consider, revealing research, timeless philosophy, and tales of triumph over adversity, How to Be Hopeful is an uplifting, motivational, and essential guide to living and acting with renewed hope for self-compassion and for a more compassionate world. It shows us the places we can look for hope―in nature, art, the kindness of strangers, our own actions―and ways to keep it alive through moments of adversity.”
Although I liked the ideas of ways to find hope in various places, I found the book to be a bit slow and unfortunately, less inspiring than I’d hoped it to be.
Title: Battle of The Bands
Author: Lauren Gibaldi and Eric Smith (eds.)
Genre: YA Short Stories
Publisher: Dreamscape Media, 9/7/21
Source: Library Audio App
Why I Read It: Buddy Read
My Rating: 4 Stars
This is a fun short story collection with interconnected stories that take place mostly over the same night and at the same location – the Raritan River High Battle of The Bands. I loved that it took place in New Brunswick, NJ, which is where I went to college!
“A daughter of rock ’n’ roll royalty has a secret crush. A lonely ticket taker worries about his sister. An almost-famous songwriter nurses old wounds. A stage manager tires of being behind the scenes. A singer-songwriter struggles to untangle her feelings for her best friend and his girlfriend. In this live-out-loud anthology, the disparate protagonists of sixteen stories are thrown together for one unforgettable event: their high school’s battle of the bands. Told in a harmonic blend of first- and third-person narrative voices, roughly chronological short stories offer a kaleidoscopic view of the same transformative night. Featuring an entry from Justin Courtney Pierre, lead vocalist of Motion City Soundtrack, Battle of the Bands is a celebration of youth, music, and meeting the challenges of life head-on.”
The stories were entertaining and it was fun to wonder who would win the battle, although the winner announcement felt a little anticlimactic! If you were ever a fan of a band, I think this book would be a lot of fun.
There you have it – 10 of the books I read this month. Of these books, 7 were print and 3 were audio books. 8 were adult and 2 were YA. Genres included non-fiction, contemporary fiction, rom com, and thriller.
Have you read any of these books or do you want to? What have you been reading lately?