It’s very hot, the air is damp, and today is my due date. There is no baby in sight. Naomi is at school, two blocks of heady clumps of wildflowers away, currently napping if the schedule is as normal. Here is everything my very pregnant self has read so far this summer (since Memorial Day weekend), in order of being read more or less, and what I thought about it.

(Green titles – I recommend! Check it out! Purple titles – didn’t finish/really didn’t like. Black – choose your own adventure!)

1. You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey, by Amber Ruffin & Lacey Lamar (NF). Very funny, fast read. Just bonkers stories of truly shitty racist things that have happened to Amber’s sister Lacey (and to Amber), mixed with commentary and obvious sisterly affection.
2. Call You When I Land, by Nikki Vargas (NF) – DID NOT FINISH. Started, tried to get into, gave up. Travel memoir, which usually I love especially when I’m not traveling a lot myself, but I found the writing super annoying and repetitive. Sorry Nikki!
3. The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels, by Janice Hallett (F). A crime novel/mystery written solely in emails, texts, excerpts from plays, etc. Very fun.
4. The New Girl, by Jesse Sutanto (F, YA). Super fast, light, YA thriller at a fancy boarding school.
5. Funny Story, by Emily Henry (F). Newest romance / “chick lit” from Henry. I thought Beach Read was a lot funnier, but this was for sure an enjoyable fast read – plus it takes place in northern MI, a place I love, so that was fun to visit vicariously.
6. Just for the Summer, by Abby Jimenez (F). And this is a romance that takes place in Minnesota summer! A lend and recommendation from my super cool cousin Loren – and she was totally right, this is a well-written, funny, deeper-than-many romance that definitely did make me cry.
7. Then We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris (F) – Comedy/parody of the dynamics of an office and the coworkers therein. DID NOT FINISH. I actually really liked the writing in this – v clever, v funny, lots of lines I wanted to read aloud or text to someone (and sometimes did.) I read a lot of it, but there wasn’t enough of a continuous plot for my end-of-school-year brain to stick with, and then my loan on Libby expired, so.
8. The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley (F). Really enjoyed! Time travel, romance, danger, a lil polar exploration, discussions of racism and sexism and otherness through time, sometimes quite funny!
9. The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich (F). Erdrich is so funny and so smart. I loved the first quarter or so of this book. Then I still really liked the rest, but also it hit so close to home – pandemic, Minneapolis during and immediately after George Floyd’s murder – in ways that were sometimes… strange? to read.
10. Land of Milk and Honey, by C Pam Zhang (F) – DID NOT FINISH. Really phenomenal writing. Very interesting (and gut-wrenching; it’s literally hard for me to imagine something more horrifying than a loss of plant life) premise. Just too dark, eerie, and post-apocalyptic for my state of mind at the time the Libby lend was in force.
11. The Family Firm, by Emily Oster (NF). I’m definitely one of those parents who has read all of Emily Oster’s books (at least now that I’ve finished this one) and also subscribe to her newsletter and also checked my notes from Expecting Better as this current due date approached. The subject of this one feels much more relevant now that Naomi is a bit older, often requests screen time, has activities, etc. Can’t wait to craft our “family mission statement” with Niko! : D (Really annoyed by how little discussion of politics, privilege, funding, justice went into her chapter on school choice though.)
12. A Study in Drowning, by Ava Reid (F). Another recommendation from cousin Loren! This is fantasy which is not a genre I normally read, but I liked it! Felt like an extended metaphor for the violence and consumption of powerful men. Super atmospheric writing. Always felt damp while reading it.
13. Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs, by Michael Osterholm (NF) – IN PROGRESS. Took this from a Little Free Library and reading + annotating in prep for teaching our Infectious Disease unit at SES. Lots of very interesting and relevant passages and case studies for teaching, plus just interesting in general – and so super fascinating to read Osterholm’s predictions about pandemics and our readiness for one…three years before Covid-19.