Lots of good reads in this post! And the first and last one were recommendations from Stephany’s Best of 2019 list.
Red, White & Royal Blue is a romantic comedy about the first son, Alex, and a British prince, Henry, falling in love, then keeping their romance a secret while Alex’s mom is up for reelection. It’s set in current time (2019-2020), in an alternate reality where a female Democrat was elected in 2016. This is a fun, humorous read, that has you rooting for Alex and Henry’s relationship. The jokes, the way the friends interact and communicate with one another, and the pop culture references all feel very current. The author said her brand is writing “super of-the-moment books,” and the topics covered in the book definitely are “of-the-moment.”
I enjoyed it, and recommend it! However, romance is not a genre I typically read, so the amount of sex scenes and long romantic email chains got a bit boring for me. Ha, I’m positive I’m in the minority there.
My next book, Such a Fun Age, begins with Emira, a 25-year-old black woman, being accused of kidnapping the white girl she babysits. A bystander films it, encouraging Emira to go public with it, but Emira just wants to forget about it, and focus on figuring out what the hell she wants to do with her life, and how to get health insurance after she turns 26 and can no longer be on her parent’s plan.
Her employer, Mrs. Chamberlain (Alix), is mortified by the incident. She desperately wants to to show Emira she’s not racist, that they consider Emira family, and will do anything to support her. She’s obsessed with getting Emira’s approval, and frankly, just obsessed with Emira.
There’s a lot more going on, but I don’t want to spoil it. This book is an easy (except for scenes were there were lots of characters and I had to keep reminding myself who everyone was) fast read, that gets in to race, class, life goals, and motherhood. It was unputdownable. And the ending made me laugh wickedly. (Although there was a minor detail of the ending that was very unrealistic to me, but only because I am a federal employee – I doubt others will think twice about it)
After that I switched over to non-fiction and read Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, by John Carreyrou, the journalist who exposed Theranos in October 2015. This book is a detailed look at the lies and manipulation in Elizabeth Holmes’s biotech company. Theranos, that promised to run lab tests off of a small blood pinprick. As you probably now, the machines never worked, they used modified larger machines from other companies to run the tests, and the results were rarely accurate, scaring people in to thinking they had diagnoses they didn’t, or that nothing was wrong at all.
The book gets in to all the issues with the impossible mechanics of what they were trying to do, and the culture at the company. It was run in a secretive and fearful way. They had a revolving door of employees and many bridges were burned as they left. The book was a well-written and interesting look in to the issues and culture. To me, it just read as that though – a huge list of issues, with only speculation as to the “why” Theranos was run that way by Holmes (which I understand it has to be that way – is not like Holmes would interview for this book).
We started watching the documentary about Theranos/Holmes last night, and, whoa.
I just started Running with Sherman, about a family who adopts a donkey in really poor shape and nurses him back to health, then starts doing races with him. I was worried it would be too hard of a read for me because Sherman arrived so ill and malnourished but it hasn’t been and I’m really enjoying it!
These all sound pretty interesting! I had heard about Running With Sherman before and it’s definitely on my to read list.
I am really enjoying it! And don’t know how I am going to finish it before it’s due Wednesday, ha. It could be one of your non-fiction reads!
Did _Bad Blood_ mention Elizabeth Holmes’ deep voice? It’s surprising in the footage of her, and many people think it’s an affect.
Do you photograph the books next to each other to symbolize that you start one as the other one is wrapping up?
Yes, several times! I was going to make a snarky comment here on it but decided not to. We are watching the documentary on her now and it honestly creeps me out.
I photograph them so I have some pictures for these posts that aren’t downloaded from the internet! 🙂
I am loving your book reports! I want to read Such a Fun Age now; wonder if I actually will? I kinda stopped reading for pleasure when I started knitting, and now I do neither. Weird turn of events – I need to get back to both!
I feel like I do one or the other too. Which sounds more appealing to get back to?
I’m glad you enjoyed Red, White & Royal Blue. It’s such a fun alternate reality and I just LOVED the rapport between Alex and Henry.
I see what you’re saying about Bad Blood. I would be interested in an in-depth look at Elizabeth Holmes and her psyche. Why is she so obsessed with power? Why did she run her company the way she did? etc. But that’s all pure speculation – the book stuck to the facts and I think that’s important, both from a journalistic point of view and because Holmes and company were so quick to discredit him whenever possible.
I just requested Such a Fun Age from my library! I’m #96 in line so we’ll see if I’ll cave and just buy the book, haha.
It was a wonderful alternative reality. Sigh. After being in Iowa this weekend, I feel very down about politics.
You’re right – the book did exactly stick to the facts as it should have, and it’s just amazing how many horrible ones there were. We will never get a real look at Holmes… unless she writes a memoir from jail (ha, that wouldn’t be very truthful). So much of me is just like WHY WHY WHY after reading it, you know?
I think you will like Such a Fun Age!
I’ve never read a bad review of Running with Sherman – everyone I know who’s read it seems to totally love it. I’m interested to hear what you think!
I can see why! It’s such a well told story! Although, there was a chapter that deviated from the story and got in to humanity’s history with animals and I was like “back to the story PUHlease.”