September Book Recap

Hey!! Getting Back into a reading groove! 📚

I won’t share too many thoughts about the books I read back in September because I am just trying to catch up to 2024 now.

Here is a full list of the books I read this month: (scroll down to read more about each one)

1. Beach Read by Emily Henry

2. I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder: A Memoir by Sarah Kurchak (unfinished)

3. Self-Care for People with ADHD: 100+ Ways to Recharge, De-Stress, and Prioritize You! by Sasha Hamdani

4. Mistakes We’re Made (But Not By Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris, Elliot Aronson

5. No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating by Alicia Kennedy

6. Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

7. On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good by Elise Loehnen

8. Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein

9. Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

10. The Heat of the Moment: Life and Death Decision-Making From a Firefighter by Sabrina Cohen-Hatton

11. Glossy: Ambition, Beauty, and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss's Glossier by Marisa Meltzer

12. Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear... and Why by Sady Doyle

13. Mom Rage: The Everyday Crisis of Modern Motherhood by Minna Dubin

14. Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

15. Empty: A Memoir by Susan Burton

16. Backstory: My Life So Far by Avani Greg

17. The Good the Bad and the Barbie: A Doll's History and Her Impact on Us by Tanya Lee Stone

18. The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff

19. Good Mom on Paper: Writers on Creativity and Motherhood edited by Stacey May Fowles and Jen Sookfong Lee

20. Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May

21. Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians by Tara Isabella Burton

22. Celebrity Nation: How America Evolved into a Culture of Fans and Followers by Landon Jones

23. Superfandom: How Our Obsessions are Changing What We Buy and Who We Are by Zoe Fraade-Blanar, Aaron M. Glazer

(bold = read the book, not bold = listened to the book)

Here are my thoughts on the books I read this month:

Beach Read by Emily Henry
”A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.” 3.5/5

I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder: A Memoir by Sarah Kurchak (unfinished)
”Tackling everything from autism parenting culture to love, sex, alcohol, obsessions and professional pillow fighting, Kurchak’s enlightening memoir challenges stereotypes and preconceptions about autism and considers what might really make the lives of autistic people healthier, happier and more fulfilling.” 3/5

Self-Care for People with ADHD: 100+ Ways to Recharge, De-Stress, and Prioritize You! by Sasha Hamdani
”This book can help you engage in some neurodiverse self-care—without pretending to be neurotypical. You’ll find more than 100 tips to accepting yourself, destigmatizing ADHD, finding your community, and taking care of your physical and mental health. You’ll find solutions for managing the negative aspects of ADHD, as well as ideas to bring out the positive aspects. With expert advice from psychiatrist and clinician Sasha Hamdani, MD, Self-Care for People with ADHD will help you live your life to the fullest!” 4/5

Mistakes We’re Made (But Not By Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris, Elliot Aronson
”Why is it so hard to say "I made a mistake" — and really believe it? When we make mistakes, cling to outdated attitudes, or mistreat other people, we must calm the cognitive dissonance that jars our feelings of self-worth. And so, unconsciously, we create fictions that absolve us of responsibility, restoring our belief that we are smart, moral, and right—a belief that often keeps us on a course that is dumb, immoral, and wrong. Backed by decades of research, Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me) offers a fascinating explanation of self-justification—how it works, the damage it can cause, and how we can overcome it.” Very insightful read!! 5/5

No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating by Alicia Kennedy
”Kennedy—a vegetarian, former vegan, and once-proprietor of a vegan bakery—understands how to present this history with sympathy, knowledge, and humor. No Meat Required brings much-needed depth and context to our understanding of vegan and vegetarian cuisine, and makes a passionate argument for retaining its radical heart.” 4.5/5

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan
”A soul-stirring novel about what we choose to keep from our past, and what we choose to leave behind.” 4/5

On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good by Elise Loehnen
”A groundbreaking exploration of the ancient rules women unwittingly follow in order to be considered "good," revealing how the Seven Deadly Sins still control and distort their lives and illuminating a path toward a more balanced, spiritually complete way to live".” I highlighted this book cover to cover!! So interesting!! 5/5

Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein
”Combining comic memoir with chilling reportage and cobweb-clearing analysis, Klein seeks to smash that mirror and chart a path beyond despair. Doppelganger What do we neglect as we polish and perfect our digital reflections? Is it possible to dispose of our doubles and overcome the pathologies of a culture of multiplication? Can we create a politics of collective care and undertake a true reckoning with historical crimes? The result is a revelatory treatment of the way many of us think and feel now―and an intellectual adventure story for our times.” I also highlighted this book cover to cover!! 5/5

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
”A comedy writer thinks she’s sworn off love, until a dreamily handsome pop star flips the script on all her assumptions. Romantic Comedy is a hilarious, observant and deeply tender novel from New York Times–bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld.” 4/5

The Heat of the Moment: Life and Death Decision-Making From a Firefighter by Sabrina Cohen-Hatton
”Taking us to the very heart of firefighting, Sabrina uses her award-winning research to reveal the skills that are essential to surviving – and even thriving – in such a fast-paced and emotionally-charged environment. And she immerses us in this extraordinary world; from scenes of devastation and crisis, through triumphs of bravery, to the quieter moments when she questions herself and the decisions made in the most unforgiving circumstances.” 3.5/5

Glossy: Ambition, Beauty, and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss's Glossier by Marisa Meltzer
”The bombshell exposé that reveals—for the first time—exactly what happened at Glossier, one of America’s hottest and most consequential startups, and dives deep into the enigmatic, visionary woman responsible for it all.” 4/5

Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear... and Why by Sady Doyle
”From Mary Wollstonecraft—who, for decades after her death, was more famous for her illegitimate child and suicide attempts than for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman—to Charlotte Brontë, Billie Holiday, Sylvia Plath, and even Hillary Clinton, Sady Doyle’s Trainwreck dissects a centuries-old phenomenon and asks what it means now, in a time when we have unprecedented access to celebrities and civilians alike, and when women are pushing harder than ever against the boundaries of what it means to “behave.”' 4/5

Mom Rage: The Everyday Crisis of Modern Motherhood by Minna Dubin
”A frank, feminist examination of the hidden crisis of rage facing American mothers—and how we can fix it   Mothers aren’t supposed to be angry. Still, Minna Dubin was an angry exhausted by the grueling, thankless work of full-time parenting and feeling her career slip away, she would find herself screaming at her child or exploding at her husband.  When Dubin pushed past her shame and talked with other mothers about how she was feeling, she realized that she was far from alone. Mom Rage is Dubin’s groundbreaking work of reportage about an unspoken crisis of anger sweeping the country—and the world. She finds that while a specific instance of rage might be triggered by something as simple as a child who won’t tie her shoes, the roots of the anger go far deeper, from the unequal burden of childcare shouldered by moms to the flattening of women’s identities once they have kids.” 5/5

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
”With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface takes on questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation not only in the publishing industry but the persistent erasure of Asian-American voices and history by Western white society. R. F. Kuang's novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.” 4/5

Empty: A Memoir by Susan Burton
”An editor at This American Life reveals the searing story of the secret binge-eating that dominated her adolescence and shapes her still.” 4/5

Backstory: My Life So Far by Avani Greg
”In this funny, vulnerable, and genuine memoir, award-winning content creator and actress Avani Gregg takes you behind the scenes of her incredible life, sharing how a girl from small-town Indiana went on to become TikToker of the Year.” 3.5/5

The Good the Bad and the Barbie: A Doll's History and Her Impact on Us by Tanya Lee Stone
”During her unparalleled fifty-year history, Barbie has been the doll that some people love-and some people love to hate. There's no question she's influenced generations, but to what end? Acclaimed nonfiction author Tanya Lee Stone takes an unbiased look at how Barbie became the icon that she is, and at the impact that she's had on our culture (and vice versa).” 4/5

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
”A taut and electrifying novel from celebrated bestselling author Lauren Groff, about one spirited girl alone in the wilderness, trying to survive.” I chose to read this book because I saw a piece by Vox calling it the Book of the Year and while it’s not my absolute favourite it was still very good!! 4/5

Good Mom on Paper: Writers on Creativity and Motherhood edited by Stacey May Fowles and Jen Sookfong Lee
”ood Mom on Paper is a collection of twenty essays that goes beyond the clichés to explore the fraught, beautiful, and complicated relationship between motherhood and creativity. These texts disclose the often-invisible challenges of a literary life with little the manuscript written with a baby sleeping in a carrier, missing a book launch for a bedtime, crafting a promotional tour around child care. But they also celebrate the systems that nurture writers who are mothers; the successes; the intricate, interconnected joys of these roles. Honest and intimate, critical and hopeful, this collection offers solace and joy to creative mothers and asks how we can better support their work. Mothers have long been telling each other these vital stories in private.” 4/5

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May
”Ultimately Wintering invites us to change how we relate to our own fallow times. May models an active acceptance of sadness and finds nourishment in deep retreat, joy in the hushed beauty of winter, and encouragement in understanding life as cyclical, not linear. A secular mystic, May forms a guiding philosophy for transforming the hardships that arise before the ushering in of a new season.” I will re-read this in 2024 for sure! 4.5/5

Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians by Tara Isabella Burton
”In a technologically-saturated era where nearly everything can be effortlessly and digitally reproduced, we're all hungry to carve out our own unique personalities, our own bespoke personae, to stand out and be seen. As the forces of social media and capitalism collide, and individualism becomes more important than ever across a wide array of industries,  "branding ourselves" or actively defining our selves for others has become the norm. Yet, this phenomenon is not new. In Self-Made, Tara Isabella Burton shows us how we arrived at this moment of fervent personal-branding.” 4/5

Celebrity Nation: How America Evolved into a Culture of Fans and Followers by Landon Jones
”Celebrity Nation is an exploration into how and why fame no longer stems only from heroic achievements but from the number of “likes” and shares—and what this change means for American culture. Landon Jones—who spent decades in “celebrityland” only to emerge, like Alice, blinking in the sunlight—brings a personal and first-person perspective on fame and its dark underbelly, complicated even further by the arrival of the internet and social media. Jones draws on his experience as the former managing editor of People magazine to bolster his account with profiles of celebrities he knew personally, ranging from Malcolm X to Princess Diana, as well as observations about contemporary social media stars like Kim Kardashian and computer-generated macro-influencer Miquela, a self-proclaimed “19-year-old Robot living in LA.”’ so interesting!! 5/5

Superfandom: How Our Obsessions are Changing What We Buy and Who We Are by Zoe Fraade-Blanar, Aaron M. Glazer

“An in-depth look at the influence of fans―society's alpha customers―on our lives and culture. As fandom sheds its longtime stigmas of geekiness and hysteria, fans are demanding more from the celebrities and brands they love. Digital tools have given all organizations―from traditional businesses to tech startups― direct, real-time access to their most devoted consumers, and it's easy to forget that this access flows both ways. This is the new "fandom-based economy": a convergence of brand owner and brand consumer. Fan pressures hold more clout than ever before as they demand a say in shaping the future of the things they love. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't.” 4/5