This week’s reading was a mixture of fiction and memoir, all books from my to-be-read list as I’m trying to clear my shelves. Here’s a recap of the reads I finished this week.
The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
I wanted to love this book by Jamie Ford; I really did. The Many Daughters of Afong Moy had all the conventions that I love on a regular basis: strong female main characters, a sweeping family saga, and deep explorations of the past. However, this book didn’t live up to my expectations. The concept of generational trauma is very compelling, and I think that Ford should be commended for his ideas in this book. Yet, it was a slow read for me, and even though each daughter was intriguing, they weren’t compelling enough for me to love the book. I think I would have enjoyed it more if there had been more focus on two or three Moy daughters, rather than a briefer look at them all. I wanted more of Afong Moy’s own story as well. Still, Ford is an accomplished writer and the book’s concept was unique.
Kiss Her Once for Me
Alison Cochrun’s Kiss Her Once for Me was the best book I read for the week.In general, I don’t care for the fake-dating trope in romance novels, but Ellie’s connection to Andrew, her fake fiancee, wasn’t overdone or trite. To summarize, Andrew proposes that he and Ellie get married in order to open the inheritance that his grandfather left him under stipulation that he marry before receiving the $2 million. Broke and lost after losing her dream job, Ellie says yes, but she soon finds out that Andrew’s sister is Jack, the woman with whom Ellie spent a magical 24 hours last Christmas. I really liked Ellie and Jack’s story, and I think the LGBTQIA+ representation was excellent. This was a good story with great character development and growth over the course of the chapters, and I recommend this read.
All Boys Aren’t Blue
I love a good memoir, and George M. Johnson’s writing took me into his world of being a gay Black man raised in a family who supported him as well as let him discover his own personhood. All Boys Aren’t Blue is a young adult memoir, written for young people like George so that they could hear from someone like them, an experience that George never received. As a forty-something white cis woman, I’m not Johnson’s target audience, but it’s important for me to read and learn about experiences like his so that I can be aware and more educated about the topics of race and sexuality. I appreciated his honesty and openness throughout the book, and I was happy to learn.
So now it’s the last week of March, and I have a goal to read three more books by the end of the month. I’ll be tuning in to at least one audiobook, but as I review the month so far, March has been a good reading month.
Bookish Brain 