November Wrap Up #1

 In the first half of November, I've DNF'd 1 book and finished 4.

The book I had to give up on was The Hilarious World of Depression by John Moe. I read 119 pages but found that the book wasn't funny at all, more wry insight to his depression. The book was part memoir and part self-help book which was just not what I thought it'd be. Super underwhelming. I told my husband I'd have named it The Slightly Amusing Book of Depression and he said that's why I'm not in marketing.

The first book I finished was Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth. I read this around Halloween and it was a great creepy read. It focused on two timelines; a past timeline where two lesbians were living together running a boarding school and a current timeline where a movie was being made about the supposedly haunted boarding school. While this book is billed as "horror" I found it to be spooky/creepy but not overtly scary. There is lots of sapphic representation is this book which I liked but some of the characters felt undeveloped, especially in terms of motivations. I gave the book 4 stars.

Next, I picked up Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard by Haben Girma. This is the memoir of the first Deafblind woman to finish Harvard Law School and she is now a disability rights lawyer. She talks about her early childhood visiting Eritrea and Ethiopia (where her parents are from), going on a mission trip to build homes in Africa, parts of high school and college. Her story was fascinating but I felt like devoting only one chapter to Harvard Law School was misleading based on the title of the book. I wanted more information about her day-to-day obstacles in school. I found it well-written and easy to read and gave the book 4 stars.

Then I listened to Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. This was a hysterical memoir of his life growing up mixed race in apartheid South Africa. I learned a lot about this era and was shocked by the ending of the book . He is a natural storyteller and I breezed through this book in a mere two days. I gave the book 5 stars.

Lastly, I finished my last nonfiction book which was called Lies my Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen. This was a book that focused on the gross misrepresentation in history books, ethnocentric views, and careful censorship that textbooks go through which purposefully leaves anything "controversial" out of the books. They also present information as if it is the one true fact and that there aren't other possible causes or reasons. I found the book highly informative, although not always enjoyable. I'd highly recommend it to people interested in history or censorship. I gave the book 4 stars.