Pandemic Vacation Reading List

In my last post I alluded to the books I read on vacation; I said I had some recommendations and also a controversial opinion. The great thing about living in the current age is, when it comes to books, there is something for everyone, and we don’t all have to like the same things!

I always like a good mix of reading; light books mixed with thought-provoking books, with different points of view and ideas. I especially like this on vacation, although my book choices tend to skew towards the “light” end, as you will see. To be honest, I read most of these books because I they finally came in at the library, after I had them on hold, but some of the books I picked up in person, and that is still a novel thing that I will be grateful for, after months of not being able to browse the shelves.

Pandemic Vacation Reading

Rebecca. I read this book as a teenager and was inspired to pick it up again after I saw my friend Anna (HI ANNA) post about it. I didn’t remember too much about it except that there was a dead wife and a mean housekeeper. It reads differently than when I was young but hooooo boy, it’s macabre and haunting. I really like it, this story of a young woman who marries a rich widower and goes to live on his fabulous estate. His late wife seems to be everywhere though…especially in his thoughts. Things aren’t always what they seem, though, and scandal lurks everywhere! This was written in 1938 and set in a wealthy English estate, which was right before those wealthy English estates were a thing of the past. There’s a very upstairs/ downstairs theme, which fans of Downton Abbey will enjoy, but also, it is DARK. I enjoyed it a lot.

The Book of Longings. Here is the controversial opinion: I was so very disappointed with this. I’m going to preface this by saying that I think historical fiction is one of the most difficult genres to get “right.” It’s hard not to put modern voices into historical fiction. I also think that the concept of this book is wonderful and interesting: it follows Jesus’ wife, who is an educated writer. Yeah. I have been looking forward to reading this for months – I have had it on hold for at least six months, I really have enjoyed other books by this author – and to be honest, it was a huge disappointment. I found it incredibly boring, and it shouldn’t have been, with that kind of interesting premise. It is SUCH a great idea, but it dragged for me, and the dialogue seemed off. Oh well. I know many, many people have just loved this book but I am not one of them.

The Stylist Takes Manhattan. When on the beach, a beach read is a must! This was just fun and fluffy. Sometimes I love a satisfyingly silly read and this was that! It is apparently number two in a series but believe me when I say you do not have to read the first one to keep up with the plot. A young British woman, who used to be a stylist for the stars but now designs window displays at Selfridge’s (I think it was Selfridge’s, it’s been a few weeks since I read it) moves to Manhattan for three months with her boyfriend. She gets a job, connects with an out-of-favour designer, there is a big misunderstanding and then everything ties up nicely. Very satisfying.

Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead. I really enjoyed this quirky debut! Gilda suffers crippling anxiety and depression, and goes to seek “free therapy.” She finds out it is at a Catholic church, but instead of getting therapy, she accidentally gets hired as a church receptionist. (One of the reasons she gets hired by the 70-year-old priest: she knows how to use the internet and email!). She’s gay and atheist, and it feels very wrong to her to be working for the church, but she gets caught up in a web of misunderstanding. Mysterious questions arise around the passing of the previous receptionist, and how she ended up being hired. This was a really good, quick read. It was a compassionate and also very witty look inside the head of a person who is suffering from anxiety.

Let Me Tell You What I Mean. I really like Joan Didion’s writing and this collection of essays is very good. I especially enjoy her early work, getting a view of the late Sixties in California. I mean, what an era! Most of the essays were from the Sixties, but there are a few from later decades as well.

First Comes Like. What’s the book equivalent of a romantic comedy? Is it just a romantic comedy? Anyway, I love a good literary rom-com, which this is: fun and fluffy, sweet, silly, and satisfying. This was particularly good because the main characters were different from our usual white rom-com ones: the story involves a Muslim woman who is a social media star for her makeup and skin care tutorials, and a Hindu television soap actor from a famous Bollywood family. Most rom-com books seem to have predominantly white characters, and so I loved the little details like how Jia matched her headscarf to her outfit, and how she doesn’t drink alcohol, and she observes her five daily prayers. I also liked references to Bollywood and Hindu culture. The other interesting thing is how the story occasionally alludes to Covid, without mentioning Covid – Jia was sick, her physician sisters were all so busy over “the past year,” one of her sisters suffers lung issues from illness. I immediately added this author’s other titles to my hold list at the library.

We Are All Perfectly Fine. Remember in the beginning of the pandemic when we all had that “let’s pull together, we can do this” attitude, and then it was just relentless and we all became fatigued? I have always wondered about how the medical community copes with relentless stress. This book is about physician burnout, not pandemic related, just generally. It’s a moving memoir by a physician with a complex family history. Here’s an interesting tidbit: the author was just about to go to London to do her PhD in literature, but ends up going to med school at McMaster instead. I mean, how does that even happen? My mind is blown. She decides on medicine as her sister is very medically complicated, after being incredibly disabled from childhood brain cancer, and she wants to add her compassion to the medical community. She does this by working in an inner-city area with very marginalized people, but ultimately burns herself out, which is what this book is about.

All in all, a satisfying vacation reading list; what is everyone else reading these days? xo