This month I really put the hours in and ended up reading 19 books! I was lucky enough to have a lot of time to invest into my hobbies this month, especially with lots of travel and not so many midterms (alas, now I will have a lot less time to read). Here are the best five that I read this month and why you should read them, too!
The Murder at the Vicarage
It’s a murder mystery, the first of Christie’s Marple series. I found the book hilarious; it was told from a first-person perspective by a self-effacing vicar. The setting was great, and I would recommend this to anyone who fancies themselves as an amateur detective. The mystery was pretty captivating, and I left the book feeling very satisfied with it.
Finding Flora
A woman starts a homestead in Alberta with three other female neighbours after escaping her abusive husband. It was a fun read, and I enjoyed the historical aspect. I also read it whilst in Alberta, which definitely made the setting feel even more fleshed out. The blend of fact and fiction was great. If you love a feminist read, I’d recommend it!
One Perfect Couple
Lyla is encouraged to join the new TV show One Perfect Couple with her boyfriend Nico to compete in a reality-TV show. They end up in a tropical paradise, and compete against four other cousins to win a cash prize. However, not long after their arrival, there is a dangerous storm, and they are unable to contact the crew who took them there. The group must bind together for survival, made worse than they find another contestant dead.
I love a reality-TV story; I find the stakes and the set-up of that sort of story really work for me. I also found the development of the story really interesting. It was fast-paced and I read it in one sitting even though my copy was fairly long. If you love a good survival story, reality-TV, or a thriller, this is for you.
Apartment Women
This story is really interesting. It is a discussion on marriage and family, and more specifically, motherhood. It’s translated, set in Seoul, and critiques cultural expectations of motherhood in South Korea. To add another layer to the story, the cast of characters are comprised of four couples, all living in an apartment born of a government initiative to boost the national birth rate.
I felt frustrated alongside the women in the story towards their partners, and thought the changes of perspective allowed for a really illuminating look at their communal life.
The book in its own words: the blurb says it focuses on “the unspoken imbalance of women’s parenting labor, challenging the age-old assumption that ‘it takes a village’ to raise a child.”
I Who Have Never Known Men
Honestly, it’s best to go into this book not knowing very much. I’ll say this, though: underground, thirty-nine women and one young girl sit in a cage. They do not remember how they got there or even their lives before. One day, everything changes, and the girl becomes the key to their survival. It’s ambiguous, but sticks in your mind. Read it!