October 2021: Zero Fail
A spooktacular month of unsettling reads with four five-star books and six repeat authors. Sometimes I think about branching outside my reading comfort zone, and then I think mmm maybe not.
“The browser was sick with user-generated opinions and misinformation. I was in a million places at once. My mind pooled with strangers’ ideas, each joke or observation or damning polemic as distracting and ephemeral as the next. It wasn’t just me. Everyone I knew was stuck in a feedback loop with themselves. Technology companies stood by, ready to become everyone’s library, memory, personality. I read whatever the other nodes in my social networks were reading. I listened to whatever music the algorithm told me to. Wherever I traveled on the internet, I saw my own data reflected back at me: if a jade face-roller stalked me from news site to news site, I was reminded of my red skin and passive vanity. If the personalized playlists were full of sad singer-songwriters, I could only blame myself for getting the algorithm depressed.”
— Anna Wiener, *Uncanny Valley*
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*Cold Storage* by David Koepp (F) // [Sci-Fi; horror: The screenwriter behind Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible, and Spider-Man (to name a few) presents biohazard emergency in the form of mutated space fungus.🦠]
*Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service* by Carol Leonnig (NF) // [History; politics: Fascinating history of the Secret Service from Kennedy to Trump and all the gaffes and scandals in between. "The Secret Service was born out of a fundamental tension that lies at the heart of American democracy: symbolism versus security."]
*The Rules of Magic* by Alice Hoffman (F) // [Witches; historical fiction: Love this series so much, and watching Practical Magic every year with my sister (we read these books together too).]
*Pieces of Her* by Karin Slaughter (F) // [Thriller; mystery: Slaughter does it again, another one I found hard to put down right up there with *Pretty Girls.*]
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*White Magic* by Elissa Washuta (NF) // [Essays; memoir: Outside-the-box writing interwoven with pop culture, cultural appropriation, and history—not what I was expecting based on the title. “Maybe it’s not that I’m so strange; it’s just that I catalog pieces of strangeness and, through them, bring my body into focus in a way I can’t when I look into the mirror.”]
*Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet* by Claire L. Evans (NF) // [History; science: On my TBR for ages, glad I finally got to it—if you enjoyed *Hidden Figures*, this is a must read.]
*A Touch of Jen* by Beth Morgan (F) // [Horror; dark humor: Eerie and unsettling, this slow burn touches on faith, solipsism and parasocial relationships with David Lynch meets Franz Kafka vibes. Unique and definitely not for everyone.]
📚⭐️⭐️⭐️
*Uncanny Valley:* by Anna Wiener (NF) // [Memoir; tech: My main impetus to read this was because it was referenced in one of my favorite books of the year, *Cultish.* Exactly what you’d expect being one of the only females at a big-data tech startup in Silicon Valley might be like.]
*Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife* by Mary Roach (NF) // [Sociology of Death: Not quite as creepy as I was hoping but what can you expect from a nonfiction book of this nature? Roach’s *Stiff* was better IMO.]
*Isaac's Storm : A Man, a Time, and The Deadliest Hurricane in History* by Erik Larson (NF) // [History; science: My 6th and least favorite Larson book, it was still interesting just a little dry (heh).]
*Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle* by Emily Nagoski (NF) // [Psychology; women’s health: Felt pretty basic to me, although it does have some nice reminders.]
*Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family* by Robert Kolker (NF) // [Psychology; biography: A drawn out suffering, for both the reader and the family with 6 out of 12 children having schizophrenia. (I like the ranch better.)]
📚⭐️⭐️
*The Shadows* by Alex North (F) // [Horror; thriller: I gave North’s *The Whisper Man* 4 stars for reference. Confusing hot mess of a book.]
*The Hole* by Hye-young Pyun (F) // [Horror; psychological “thriller”: A Korean bestseller, it was short and sad with elements of Stephen King’s *Misery.* Still not opposed to buying it for the gorgeous cover and title: "a transliteration of the English word ‘hole,’ 홀 (hol) is a Korean prefix meaning ‘alone’ and most readily refers to one who is widowed."]
