What I Read This Month - November 2023

The Right To Sex - Amia Srinivasan

After months of neglect due to the heaviness of this read, I decided to pick The Right To Sex back off the bookshelf and finish it. Many of the topics examined in this book are vital to imbed in our knowledge, but painful to absorb. I found myself flooding in rage, so I took a step back. Now that my mental capacity is slightly clearer, I was able to digest and assess the information in a more rational and intellectual manner.

The Right To Sex explores the subject or sex on a variety of basis’s - including, rape, pornography, student-teacher sex and capitalism. The issues were articulated with poignancy - divulging into past procedures and ideologies, as well as laws present today.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Gabrielle Zevin

For the first time in, what feels like, a very long time, I thoroughly enjoyed reading a book. Recently, I have not disliked, or have even tolerated, most literature that returns to my bookshelves. However, reading Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow felt like the exact combination of emotional richness and driven narrative that I urged for.

Described by Gabrielle Zevin, the author of the novel, as a story about work, but also, about love, I found the layers of topics covered to be deft. With an overriding comparison of real life to the simulations that we build ourselves. Written beautifully, with phenomenal imagery, pages of this book will become part of your mental code.

Good Material - Dolly Alderton

Dolly Alderton’s work never fails to instil a surge of validation and hope for the reader. To do so in a fiction novel, I find vastly impressive. Good Material revolves the story of romantic heartbreak from a male perspective. Highlighting the gender imbalance of societally enforced responsibilities and pressures.

This book caused multiple strangers to look at me in an odd way, on multiple occasions, as I burst into laughter on the tube. Encouraging a raw, and ever so human, emotional narrative. As well as, seasoning the pages thoroughly with wit and wisdom.

Help Yourself - Curtis Sittenfeld

I adore a short story book. During busy weeks and months, whole novels can feel a high hurdle to leap. As somebody who constantly wants to consume new literature and art, a short story for breakfast or before bed grants me this fix.

After reading You Think It, I’ll Say It, another short story book by Curtis Sittenfeld, I was eager to get my hands on her collection, Help Yourself. Sittenfeld’s stories are layered and flow like a ticking-time bomb. Intensely vital from beginning to end, the overall message is never lost within emotion. Despite being a rather emotional writer myself, I enjoy the contrast provoked by an American writer - exploring societal issues and topics in more depth than we usually read.

She and Her Cat - Makoto Shinkai

Attempting to broaden my literature landscape and divulge into graphic novels, I purchased She and Her Cat from comic-com this year. This book, in particular, stood out to me for its warmth. The cover and concept, as well as its minuscule size, allowed me to believe that I would gain great comfort in reading it. It tells the story of a woman living alone with her cat - presenting the internal and external dialogue from both characters. I found the story to be simple, yet intimate. Heartbreakingly relatable at times, the emotivity was rich, without feeling complex or overwhelming.

Heartburn - Nora Ephron

Attending Dolly Alderton’s promotional tour for Good Material, I learnt that if she could only read one book for the remaining duration of her life it would be Nora Ephron’s Heartburn. After she recommended to a heartbroken member of the audience to listen to the audiobook, narrated by Meryl Streep, I decided to do just that.

Surrounding the topic of infidelity and marriage, I found this book to be excellently dear and honest, while maintaining a whimsical air throughout - causing me to laugh aloud numerous times. Books like this, and writings like this, make women feel seen and understood. To achieve that sensation while being thoroughly entertained is a standard I hold highly.