Monthly Musings: More Thoughts on Vacation Reading If You Don't Mind
Everything Madeline read last month 💎
Hello! April was an interesting reading month for me. I was traveling for two weddings, and I was out of my usual reading and writing routine. Kelsey’s most recent Monthly Musings really resonated with me because I, too, have recently struggled with vacation reading — and the way I enjoy reading while traveling as an adult is completely different from how I read on trips as a kid. As a young child, my family usually favored beach vacations, which I always saw as a chance to do a few things: swim in the ocean until my fingers were pruny, play pool games with my brother until one of us was completely annoyed with the other, and, most importantly for the sake of this newsletter, disappear into a book, ideally with a basket of chicken fingers at my side. I think I’ve re-read the first book in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series about five times, all on vacations. When I got a little older, and we started visiting cities, I didn’t read nearly as much, and my vacation media consumption turned into watching about 30 minutes of a romantic comedy in the hotel room before falling asleep.
Now when I travel, I typically prefer exploring new cities where I’m active throughout the day, and, therefore, exhausted by the night’s end (I would say don’t tell my mom that I stayed out until 4am after a wedding in Spain, but I already told her and she just laughed). But that doesn’t mean there’s no downtime. Rohit and I were in Madrid during the nationwide blackout last month, and thankfully, I had a book of short stories (Where Are You Really From by Elaine Hsieh Chou) to immerse myself in while we waited for the lights to turn back on. Once the electricity returned and we were back on our way, I enjoyed an audiobook (still working through Pride and Prejudice) while staring out the window on a three-hour-long train ride to Granada.
At home, I usually read before bed, but when I’m away and out of my routine, I know that’s just not going to happen. And I’ve learned to be ok with that, even if that means I might technically fall behind on my Goodreads goal. I love the Clarissa Pinkola Estés quote: “Art is not meant to be created in stolen moments only.” It’s something I think a lot with my own writing. However, as far as reading goes, I think sometimes reading is actually most enjoyable in stolen moments. Like, you know, in a candlelit hotel lobby with no power once you’ve realized you should probably start carrying more cash on account of all ATMs being down.
See you next month!
Madeline
A Termination by Honor Moore
★★★★
A personal account of the author’s abortion in 1969, and how the experience shaped her life.
The prose is beautiful, often lyrical and sometimes in a stream-of-consciousness style, which is an interesting contrast to how heavy the subject matter is.
It left me feeling haunted, and it feels like an important read for the time we’re in.
RIYL: The Year of Magical Thinking, Obvious Child
Health and Safety: A Breakdown by Emily Witt
★★
I wanted to like this. I was really interested in the subject matter — the Brooklyn rave scene in the mid-aughts and the author’s experiences with psychedelic drugs within that scene — but the narrative fell flat for me.
I found myself frustrated with the author’s perspective and where she was drawing her morality from, so that took me out of being able to enjoy her commentary on drugs and Brooklyn nightlife.
I’m definitely interested in reading more about the subject, though. This anthology, Writing on Raving, is on my TBR now.
Instead, I’d recommend the Jia Tolentino’s essay about religion and ecstasy in Trick Mirror
Bring the House Down by Charlotte Runcie (Out July 8 - thank you Netgalley and Doubleday for the ARC)
★★★★
What a capital “F” Fun novel — it follows Sophie, a culture editor at a British newspaper, as she travels to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for work, alongside her problematic but occasionally lovable coworker and well-known theater critic, Alex.
The book explores cancel culture and who a story belongs to, as well as female rage, grief, and motherhood in an impressively nuanced way.
The plot felt a tad predictable at times, but I could ultimately see past it because I enjoyed the themes so much.
Saving plot details because I may do a full review for an upcoming issue?
RIYL: Good Material, Margo’s Got Money Troubles, The Rachel Incident
Audition by Katie Kitamura
★★★★
A thrilling, unsettling novel that asks many questions and answers almost none of them — I reviewed this in our last issue.
RIYL: Martyr!, All Fours, Trust Exercise
Best Woman by Rose Dommu (I’ve followed Rose for a while so this made it to the top of my TBR — it’s out September 23, thank you Netgalley and Ballantine for the ARC)
Sucker Punch by Scaachi Koul (Josh,
, was talking about this so I have to read)All-Night Pharmacy by Ruth Madievsky (I’ve been wanting to read about sisters)
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