Today I’ve got two quick reviews of two nonfiction books I read in February, one about the difficult conversations we need to have with each other, and another about the difficulty of living, working, and crossing the Mexican-American border. Let’s dive in!

Tell Me More by Kelly Corrigan

Tell Me More is a collection of “stories about the 12 hardest things I’m learning to say.” Each piece in the collection focuses on a phrase or conversation – Yes, No, I Don’t Know, Good Enough, I Love You – and the ways in which Corrigan has learned how or why those conversations can make our lives and relationships better. Without knowing it when I picked it up, I soon learned that Tell Me More is also a memoir about grief – many of the essays were written in the wake of her father’s death and the death of a close friend, Liz.

One of the many things I loved about this collection is how specific and funny Corrigan’s writing was. She’s writing about fairly universal conversations, but she’s magnificent at picking out the particular details of her life in way that makes you feel like you’re conversing with a friend, not engaging in a big conversation. Many of the essays made me laugh out loud.

At the same time, the book (like life) was punctuated by a number of remarkably touching or outright sad stories and essays. There’s one near the end, framed as a letter to Liz written a year and a half after her death, that was an absolute gut punch for me. I started tearing up just a few paragraphs in and, by the end, was outright sobbing. I loved that I could go from laughing to tears within the span of a few pages, and that every emotional response felt earned rather than situational. I can’t recommend this one enough.

The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú

The Line Becomes a River is a memoir about the Mexican-American border – what it’s like to study it, work along it, and see others struggle with lives on either side of it. Francisco Cantú, the grandson of a Mexican immigrant, studied international relations, learning about the border through books on history and political theory. After graduation, he wanted to get a better idea of the realities of the border, so he joined the Border Patrol as an agent.

I was really excited about this book, but ended up being not entirely satisfied with the reading experience because it felt like Cantú couldn’t find the narrative to hold the story together. The first two sections have some interesting moments, but they’re told in a lot of vignettes and so don’t have a lot storytelling momentum, which was hard for me.

I was much more engaged with the third section of the book, when Cantú steps away from his own experience to share the story of a co-worker, José, who leaves the United States to visit his dying mother and then can’t return because he was here illegally. That story was specific and, interestingly, helped me learn more about Cantú than the sections in which he focused on himself. I liked this one, but didn’t love it enough to universally recommend it.

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that I just got back from a quick warm weather vacation near the beach! A college friend and I went to an all-inclusive resort just south of Cancun for a long weekend, where we ate, drank, swam, and read. I actually finished four books on the trip (all fiction), and am well on my way to finishing a fifth (nonfiction), which is so exciting!

This week, I thought I’d do some quick reviews of the four books I finished, and share some big news about a new project I am really excited about – but you’ll have to scroll to the end of this post for that!

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti

For years, Loo Hawley and her widowed father, Samuel, have lived a nomadic existence. When they move back to the town where Loo’s mother lived, they plan to stay put… until a man from Hawley’s violent and mysterious past upends everything. The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley is told in alternating chapters, shifting between the present and episodes in Hawley’s past that illuminate the threats happening now. This book was so interesting, in structure and in story, that I couldn’t put it down. Loo is such a great main character, and I loved the way the alternating chapters showed two coming-of-age stories at the same time. I thought it was great.

The Rocks by Peter Nichols

The Rocks opens with a scene that genuinely surprised me. Two elderly neighbors (who we soon learn were once married, but spent decades estranged), get into a fight, fall off a cliff, and drown in the Mediterranean Ocean. Yikes! The book then goes back in time over the decades to see what happened between the two lovers, and how one fateful decision affected the lives of their children, friends and community. I love books that play with traditional story structure, so that part of the novel really worked for me. I wasn’t as enamored with the conclusion of the mystery, which just didn’t seem to be as dramatic as the characters acted like it was. This was a good beach book, but it didn’t knock my socks off.

Hate to Want You by Alisha Rai

One evening we were sitting out on some couches reading and it got too dark to keep going in the print book I was reading… enter, my trusty but infrequently-used Nook! Hate to Want You is a Romeo and Juliet-esque romance about two high school sweethearts who are broken up by the devious machinations of a family member. Nicholas and Livvy have continued to secretly meet once a year over the last decade for a single night of meaningless love-making. Except of course it’s not meaningless, forcing them to reckon with their relationship when Livvy moves back to their hometown. I loved this book and these characters – they felt real and honest, and the challenges that kept them apart felt genuine and serious rather than contrived. I’m not a big romance reader, but I know I’ll be picking up more from Alisha Rai when the mood for a romance strikes.

You Don’t Know My Name by Kristen Orlando

This young adult novel was a last-minute addition to my beach bag that made the trip on my sister’s recommendation. Since the way she found out her parents were elite secret agents, Reagan has been training to be one of them. But the life of an agent is nomadic, and Reagan is also tired of hiding her identity and losing her friends each time her family’s cover is compromised. When threats from a Mexican drug cartel makes it seem like Reagan will have to start over again – losing her friends and the boy she’s in love with – she starts to push back against the role she’s never asked to take. You Don’t Know My Name was really delightful, and managed to surprise me in a couple of really big ways (which I can’t reveal because spoilers!). It was fun and smart and engaging, and made me anxious to pick up the sequel.

And Now… My Big News!

I’m so excited to share that I’m hosting a Book Riot podcast! For Real is a nonfiction podcast I’m co-hosting with my friend Alice Burton (@itsalicetime on Twitter, blogger at Reading Rambo, fellow Rioter). Every other week, we’ll be talking about nonfiction in all sorts of different ways – new releases, weekly themes, book pairings, and what we’re reading now.

Our first full episode came out on Tuesday. Our theme for the week was International Women’s Day, which let us share some interesting titles. I got to throw some accidental shade at Ken Burns, and Alice talked about vaginas and Lord Byron, which seems like exactly what we’ll want to keep doing. You can listen to episodes on the Book Riot website, or subscribe through your favorite podcast app.

Whew! That’s a long one for just getting back from vacation. Thanks for sticking it out to the end!

After complaining that January felt like it lasted forever, February absolutely flew by. I mean, I know that’s because there are fewer days to start with, but it felt like everything in work and in life started to pick up speed this month. My reading didn’t suffer too much despite the quicker pace, but I certainly wouldn’t mind a more moderate March.

In February I finished eight books, a little heavier on the fiction thanks to increasing my audiobook time, but overall still pretty balanced. Here are the books:

1. A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas, narrated by Kate Reading (fiction, audiobook) (review)
2. The Evolution of Beauty by Richard Prum (nonfiction) (review)
3. Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore (fiction) (review)
4. An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon (science fiction)
5. The Storied Life of A.J. Fickry by Gabrielle Zevin (fiction) (review)
6. Tell Me More by Kelly Corrigan (essays)
7. The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú (nonfiction)
8. A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourn, narrated by Angele Masters (fiction, audiobook)

Looking at the list, I really can’t complain! I didn’t love the book I was reading for my book club, The Evolution of Beauty, but everything else really felt like it hit the spot. The two other nonfiction books I read – Tell Me More and The Line Becomes a River – were both excellent, definitely books I’d recommend to others.

On the blog I reviewed two nonfiction books that complete tasks in the Read Harder challenge, confessed my love of Victorian-era lady detectives on audiobook, and shared the books I’ve bought so far this year.

A Look to March

This month, I’ve got three new releases on my shelves that I’m looking forward to reading: Fisherman’s Blues by Anna Badkhen, a look at a fishing village in Senegal and the impact of climate change and overfishing on the industry; The Last Wild Men of Borneo by Carl Hoffman, the story of two men and their fates in the wild; and Soon by Andrew Santella, “an overdue history of procrastination.”

I’ve also got a little project planned for the month. The March prompt for the One Little Word workshop I participate in is to pick a personal practice to work on each day, something that supports your One Little Word (mine is “explore”) or challenges you in some way. One of my goals for the year is to be on my phone less, so I decided my practice is going to be reading a short story or essay every morning instead of immediately picking up my phone. I’m hoping this will help me start my day off on a more positive note than my current habit of scrolling through Facebook and Twitter and getting alarmed about the state of the world. Win-win, I hope!

What was your favorite book of February? What are you hoping to read in March?

One of my goals this year is to actually complete Book Riot’s 2018 Read Harder challenge. It’s going pretty well so far — I’ve finished books that meet five of the 24 tasks — and have some good ideas for others. Today I’m sharing some thoughts on two books I’ve read for the challenge, a charming memoir about cows and India, and a challenging book about the role of beauty in nature.

The Milk Lady of Bangalore by Shoba Narayan

5. A book set in or about one of the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, or South Africa)

After starting a family in Manhattan, Shoba Narayan and her husband decide it’s time to move back to Bangalore with their two daughters to be close to family and connect with their Indian heritage. Shortly after they return, Narayan meets the milk lady who lives across the street, Sarala, who she buys fresh milk from each day. Their business relationship develops into a friendship, and Narayan starts to dig deeper into the cultural, economic, and historic role that cows play.

On the whole, I thought The Milk Lady of Bangalore was a charming memoir. Narayan has a lovely sense of humor, and I loved the way her personal conversion to drinking fresh milk grew into a bigger exploration what cows mean in Indian life. I thought that her position as both an insider (growing up in India) and an outsider (spending much of her life in the United States) brought a unique perspective to the story. My only critique of the book is that I wished Narayan had spent a little more time interrogating the major wealth gap that exists between her family, her neighbors, and the other Indians in their orbit, but that’s a small critique in an otherwise charming book.

The Evolution of Beauty by Richard Prum

6. A book about nature

Last year I joined a book club that reads the New York Times top 10 books of the previous year, which is why I ended up picking up The Evolution of Beauty in the first place. The book is an extended argument in support of one of Darwin’s lesser-known theories, sexual selection. Prum, an ornithologist, uses his years of studying ornamentation and beauty in birds to ground his argument, then expands out to try and make some big statements about beauty and human evolution.

Unfortunately, I didn’t love this book, mostly because it felt like Prum couldn’t quite decide what kind of book he was trying to write – a serious scientific book that would be read by fellow scientists, or a more popular science book for a general audience. Although I was interested in the topic, I finished mostly wishing that Prum would have made his argument in fewer pages. There was a nice sense of humor in the book, the writing was fine, and I appreciated the light feminist angle Prum brought to his stories, but it was just much longer than I wanted to spend with the topic.

The other three books I’ve finished that meet challenge requirements are fiction, so I’m hoping to group them together in a set of reviews sometime soon. I’m also curious — are you taking on the Read Harder challenge? If so, have you picked books for either of these topics? Any recommendations to make?