F*ck Feelings: One Shrink's Practical Advice for Managing All of Life's Practical Problems by Michael Bennett and Sarah Bennett. Funny name, serious topic. Here's what I liked the most about this book, in each of the different chapters (f*ck communication, f*ck parenting, f*ck assholes) they talk about the things that we FEEL like we should be able to control about the topic and then what we ACTUALLY can control. We think that we have far more control over circumstances than what we do. Then after you get on the same page of what we can actually control we can be more realistic about what we can expect from ourselves and other people. Like "stop letting hurt feelings and anger control your decisions". So much easier said than done, right? A quote that I really liked from the titular "f*ck feelings" chapter was : "if some people don't want peace, stay out of the way of the bullets". Like, for real. Some people just want to watch the world burn.
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed: Stories by Mariana Enriquez. This author also wrote the amazing "The Things We Lost in the Fire" so I was thrilled that this, just her second work, was a another book of super creepy, kind of south american gothic horror. (If you were left cold by the very popular this past year "Mexican Gothic" and were looking for something a little more mature and scary I highly recommend this collection.) I had to make myself slow down and savor these stories, I was so excited I wanted to read through them as fast as I could because I couldn't wait to see what was next!
Murder in Amsterdam by Ian Buruma. I was excited to read this book on vacation but ended up feeling very meh about it. What I was hoping for was "Man, the Netherlands is a country made of a lot of immigrants which makes for some tension and weirdness especially after this murder so let's talk about the tension in a super progressive country that still has some old prejudices that it struggles with". But it was more like "Let's talk about these 3 specific politicians in depth and how they are liberal/conservative/antiMuslim/proimmigration whatever". So, wasn't quite what I was hoping for. I did learn some fun Dutch words though, which is always a plus.
Deacon King Kong by James McBride. My boss mentioned that while she was waiting for her first grandbaby to be born that she read this book and really liked it. She was really excited about it and said I should read it so I said I would pick it up (can you tell I'm a recovering people pleaser? And I really like my boss?) so I did. I tend to avoid the big famous book club book choices (they get so much publicity, they don't also need me to read it) and this was one of Oprah's so about as big as it gets - but it wasn't a book I would have picked up on my own so that's always a benefit. It was a pretty fast read, I found myself getting a little bored and had the big plot twist figured out pretty early but the characters were varied and interesting and there's 2 little background love stories that I really found myself cheering for their success. Hopefully my boss and I chat about it soon so I didn't read it "for no reason" haha.
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