What I Read This Summer

I have to admit, I wasn’t as good with reading a book every single month this summer. I’ve still managed to keep my promise of reading 12 books by the end of 2018, but there were definitely months this summer that I was just too busy to put my head down and actually get some reading done. I foresee myself reading a lot more as we get into Fall since the evenings will be longer and my daily routine will slow down considerably.

Eventide by Therese Bohman ~ I absolutely loved reading Eventide! It was a book that I had never heard of, however I saw that one of my friend’s was reading it, inquired about it, and was sold when she told me what it was about. The story follows Karolina Anderson, who is a middle-aged unmarried Art History professor in Sweden. The novel is narrated by Karolina, who has just ended an unfulfilling long-term relationship and who finds herself drawn to one of her PhD students. Although the premise is somewhat clichéd, the writing and the details of the story are anything but. So much of the book is spent on Karolina’s inner thoughts and flashbacks, which are then connected to her work as a scholar. Being someone who spent a lot of their degree focusing on both Art History and gender theory, this book was incredibly interesting, however I don’t think it would be an alienating read for those who are not as familiar with either topic.

The Multi-Hyphen Method by Emma Gannon ~ I have to say this book was a bit of a let-down. I really like Emma Gannon and the work that she does, however this book was not at all what I was hoping it would be. I thought it would be much more about how to construct a freelance career and the inner-workings of wearing different hats in your career, but so much of the book was spent regurgitating studies about how many people have side-hustles. So many of the points made in this book were painfully obvious and not original, that I don’t think I learned much from it in the end.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Otessa Moshfegh ~ Ok, so I’ll admit I’m cheating a bit by including this book in this season’s roundup because I’m not quite finished with it. I thought I’d include it because I’m nearly finished with it and already formed a pretty solid opinion on it, and it’s hugely positive. The book is about a twenty-something girl who’s been left a hefty inheritance by her late parents, and proceeds to, as the book would suggest, spend a year “resting”. I use the word “rest” in quotation marks because she spends the better part of a year in a narcotics-induced hibernation as a way to escape from the stresses of dealing with the outside world. Although the premise sounds bleak, the book is peppered with a lot of dark comedy and nuanced commentary on both mental health and the struggles of being a woman in her early twenties.