Welcome to my first monthly reading round-up! I finished four books this month—three physical books + one audiobook. Keep scrolling for my detailed reviews, and if we haven’t connected on Goodreads, come give me a follow there, too!
Wellness by Nathan Hill
Format: Hardback
Pages: 624
Reading time: 9 days
In the tradition of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, Wellness is about…everything. It’s a love story and a social commentary, a coming-of-age tale and a satire. Jack and Elizabeth meet in Chicago. It’s the 90’s, and they’re both on a mission to make their way in the world—Jack as an artist, Elizabeth as a research psychologist. Jack and Elizabeth also share a deep desire to leave their families and childhood traumas behind. They fall in love fast and hard, and this origin story becomes the fabric of their next two decades together. Twenty years later, Jack and Elizabeth no longer feel fated. Their story no longer feels written in the stars. They grapple to balance work and parenthood while navigating the perils of privilege in suburban America—community advocacy groups, social media, conspiracy theories, swingers clubs, and the latest health crazes. If they want to find their way back to each other, they must individually come to terms with the ways in which their upbringings shaped them.
While reading Wellness, I kept thinking to myself, “This is a contemporary classic. Everyone in their 30’s needs to read it.” I related deeply to Elizabeth and hated that I saw so much of myself in her. A perfectionist and information junkie, her relentless research offers her a false sense of control and safety in an uncertain and often scary world. On the surface, Hill uses Wellness to critique of our society’s obsession with health and wellness. At greater depths, Hill appears to feel empathy and compassion for his characters.
Wellness is not an easy read. You’ll find a full bibliography at the back of the book, and certain sections absolutely read like a textbook. Hill has a tendency to use run-on sentences. I think he used them intentionally, but I still found myself skimming some paragraphs and finding that I didn’t miss anything too important. Chapters alternate points of view without the benefit of headers. You just have to start reading to figure out which character is talking/thinking/reflecting. Hill’s writing stunned me at times. This is the kind of book where you’ll want to reread a sentence or paragraph a few times through just to appreciate Hill’s way with words.
Order Wellness online here.
Favorite Quotes
“She finally comprehended parenthood’s strange paradox: that it was deeply annihilating while at the same time also somehow deeply comforting.
It was both soul-devouring and soul-filling.”
“Maybe that’s what true love actually was: an embrace of the chaotic unfolding.”
“And the only thing she was certain of was this: that between ourselves and the world are a million stories, and if we don’t know which of them are true, we might as well try out those that are most humane, most generous, most beautiful, most loving.”
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
Format: Audiobook
Listening time: 5hr, 31min
Narrator: Michelle Williams
I can’t think of a more iconic figure in my youth than Britney Spears. I have sweet, pure memories of choreographing dances to “Lucky” in my friend’s living room. Like most of my generation, I watched her fall from grace in real time, and also like most of my generation, did not appreciate the cruelty inherent in watching a person’s life fall to pieces. Describing The Woman in Me as sad feels reductive but also the truest description. It’s alarming to look back at the way the media treated female performers. It’s more alarming that we all accepted it. While I suspect that Britney Spears suffers from a mental illness, I wondered whether it was always present or the byproduct of her fame and the trauma it created. I do not wish to imagine how I might have behaved or what I might have done had someone taken my 5-month-old baby away from me.
I’m partial to a memoir read by the author, but it’s obvious why Spears only read the introduction. Michelle Williams did a wonderful job. As the book progressed, it almost sounded like Williams’s voice changed. I forgot I wasn’t listening to Britney. Compliments to her ghostwriter, too. It’s well written while preserving Spears’s voice.
Order The Woman in Me online here.
Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot
Format: Paperback
Pages: 240
Reading time: 3 days
Comprised of four separate poems published individually first and as one, longer poem later on, Eliot considered Four Quartets to be his best, most important work. The collection won him the Nobel Prize in literature in 1948. Together, the poems offer reflections on time and the pursuit of the eternal. They are rich with symbolism, of which I understood very little.
I enjoy poetry, but I found Eliot to be very challenging. I took copious notes and underlined generously. I also had the benefit of discussing these poems with my Well-Read Mom book club, and our discussion helped me better understand, process and appreciate the work. Our book club guide encouraged us to read (or listen) to Four Quartets and simply appreciate its beauty and musicality. Here, Eliot succeeds. While I did not necessarily understand each poem in its entirety, multiple stanzas left me breathless.
Order Four Quartets here.
Favorite Quotes
I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
For most of us, there is only the unattended Moment, the moment in and out of time, The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight, The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply That it is not heard at all, but you are the music While the music lasts. These are only hints and guesses, Hints followed by guesses; and the rest Is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action. The hint half guesses, the gift half understood, is Incarnation.
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
Format: Hardback
Pages: 415
Reading time: 12 days
I ordered The Frozen River from Book of the Month after seeing friends and #bookstagram raving about it in December. It felt like the perfect book to read in front of the fire during our short, dark, and frigid January days. In this respect, the book delivered. The Frozen River is a fictionalized account of Martha Ballard, a midwife who lived in late 18th century Maine. Unlike most women of her time, Ballard could read and write, and her real-life diaries served as the inspiration for this novel.
As a midwife, Martha Ballard tends to not only births but also deaths, illness, injury, and crime. It is under these circumstances that she learns about an alleged rape, and later, the murder of the accused. As the investigation progresses, Martha bucks all the traditional roles of her time, defying dangerous and powerful men in her relentless pursuit of the truth.
I love historical fiction based on real people, and given the rave reviews, I felt surprised this book didn’t immediately capture my attention. One quarter of the way through the book, I actually considered it might be a DNF. I didn’t dislike the book. I just found myself easily distracted by other things. I’m glad I pushed through—I fell more in love with Martha’s pluck with every page. Besides the slow start, I also found Martha’s relationship with her husband, Ephraim, a tad unbelievable. Martha and Ephraim’s moments of marital intimacy felt too contemporary, but maybe I’m not giving 18th century New Englanders enough credit?
Order The Frozen River here.
Favorite Quotes
“Like all mothers, I have long since mastered the art of nursing joy at one breast and grief at the other.”
“I cannot count the number of times that I have wordlessly held a hand as grief explodes in the room. The only antidote to this kind of despair is to create a bulwark of immovable calm. To sit and be. To pray and offer comfort. To watch the shadows cut tracks along the wall as the sun slowly moves across the sky. To say nothing when there are no words that can console.”
That’s it for January, folks. Let’s chat in the comments if you read any of these, too!
All bookshop.org links are affiliate links, which means I earn a small commission from your purchase. Thank you for supporting my time and energy.