April & May Reads: The High & Low Of It

Two months of books and a tidal wave size of good and bad reads.

The past two months have been a disappointing wash out, in more ways than one. With the wettest, most depressing spring weather came an unfortunate imbalance of lacklustre reads verses unputdownable ones (the latter a sorry few to choose from). Increasingly, I am discovering that a long held theory remains truer than ever: never trust a high rated Good Reads book (with the exception of my own reviewed 5 star reads of course!).

It’s frustrating to not be able to trust in the masses, but history never let’s me down and indeed history eludes to the truth of that sentence. No more so when it comes to taste in books. I find the more popular a book, on a uncontested and uncontroversial scale, the more boring and predictable they become. Watering-down caters for all, I suppose, but leaves an unsatisfied taste in my mouth. I blame myself in some ways, a guilty consumerist; I am heavily and embarrassingly-easily influenced, in a way I never was as a young reader. Back in the ‘good ol’ days’ I always trusted my gut when book shopping and it never, if ever, steered me wrong. Perhaps I should re-introduce book shopping in the only way I knew how as a 90’s kid - in person bookshop visitations. It would help to decrease my ‘I want it now’ attitude which grew along with the ease of online shopping and thus leaving me drowning in the TBR debris cluttering up my flat. I suppose all alternative routes have a butterfly affect though, in all likelihood this nostalgic way of book buying will bring destruction to my bank account by way of additional coffees, travel fees and the pick me up little treats I will inevitable invest in along the way, as I skip along gleefully to the local bookstore (which also sells wine, sorry liver), but at least there’s a possibility of buying something I absolutely truly love - which is surely worth the extra price tag?

The positive - because I promise there is a silver lining - I read two incredible reads that I cannot shake from within. And one curve-ball that will guarantee good (not-so clean) fun. Read on to take a look at my two month book wrap up.

Best Reads

Butter

Calling all self-identified foodies and true crime podcast obsessives - Butter by Asako Yuzuki is a book made just for you!

While this wonderful tale seamlessly combines the mouth-watering world of fine-dining cuisine with the dark underbelly human transgressions, there’s more to this book than meets the eye. Based on a true story, we follow Rika, a modern-woman living in Tokyo Japan, as an ambitious young journalist caught up by the lonesome rat-race lifestyle, she manages to score one of the most enviable scoops: an interview with gourmet chef turned black-widow-style murderess Manako Kajii. The catch, Kajii insists on only discussing her one true love: food.

Kajii has never spoken of the crimes she was convicted of, despite the case's notoriety sweeping feverishly nationwide, but Rika hopes to discover the truth behind this infamous criminal through humouring Kajii on her obsession with exquisite cuisine done the 'correct' way . Along the way Rika discovers more than she bargained for about herself and gets caught up in Kajii's eccentric gastronomic world.

Really, this book offers an immense insight into Japanese culture, the expectations of women, the nature of the media and the justice system and the power balance between the sexes. The characters are a delight to get to know, full of quirks and relatability - you’ll not only read about the food with such intensity you could almost taste it, but you’ll feel as though you’ve read each character into existence.

As you chew through every delightfully immaculate detail of the dishes cooked and sampled by Rika, you’ll find a story of cultural misogyny, societal judgement of women (especially when it comes to their relationship with food, work, motherhood and sex), insight into the effects of salacious gossip and trial by media, and a tantalising whodunnit in an unjust system within an unjust world, unfold.

With plenty of tension (Rika’s first meeting with Kajii reminded me immediately of Silence of the Lambs), and delights (you’ll want to pause mid-chapter to attempt to make and sample every described meal) this book is as fun as it is intriguing - you're guaranteed to eat up every single word.

Warning: Do not read whilst hungry! 5⭐️s.

Salt Slow by Julia Armfield

Gothic and poetic, step into the surreal world of Julia Armfield and her collection of short stories: Salt Slow, which tackle subjects on girlhood, love, obsession, culture and motherhood (to name but a few), all told through metamorphosis experiences within an unhinged, and at times dystopian, metaphorical world.

A modern sci-fi twisted version of romantic-gothic literature, this book screams to me of honouring the worlds of Shelly, Radcliffe and Bronte. Perhaps given the genre's cultural significance for women at the height of its popularity (which in itself was transformative on page as it was for the women who read them), the choice to create an alternative world submerged in this eerie genre feels poignant for this feministic collection of stories.

Each short story is distinct in its plot and succinct in its telling. Little breadcrumbs of connection hidden within each tale are a thrill to discover and seamlessly sews together a clear over-arching theme throughout to book: an anthology of the female experience.

It’s beauty in prose is only improved by the short, sharp stories. Conjuring up Tim Burton style visuals, this is a collection of gruesome fairytales but for the adult women - empowering, monstrous, dark and lyrical. The individual plots are unique and unusual with incredibly powerful hidden meanings that will send your head spinning.

Left wanting more, you’ll quibble and concur with your reading pals over which tale was your favourite (for me I connected embarrassingly deeply with Stop Your Woman’s Ears With Wax, and Cassandra After – even the name of this story is to die for). You’ll quote the most gorgeous and haunting sentences like: ‘the opened ribs, hands reaching into the pulp of her, a rhythmic movement of fingers, tapping out a song against her heart.’. If you have a poet's heart you'll be forever unpicking the dreamy yet horrific choice of words, swimming around in your head until you can’t help but burst aloud, ‘How beautiful is this!’.

Salt Slow creates a bizarre yet almost identically recognisable world, an atmosphere that reminded me of Wivenhoe (book) or Black Mirror (tv series). Immersive and original, you’ll read in one sitting. 5⭐️s.

OK Reads

Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville

Restless Dolly Maunder by Kate Grenville is a quiet and perfectly formed tale about the life of an ambitious woman caged by the time she is born in. Set in the turn of the 20^th century, Dolly wants more from her life than settling for rough farm living and an existence only as mother and wife. Despite the uphill battle of the patriarchal world around her, she refuses to accept the fate of a working-class Edwardian woman that she is dealt.

This book highlights one of many unspoken voices in history, the story of an unremarkable life that nonetheless deserves to be told. If you’ve ever wondered on the day to day experience of an ordinary woman in the past, trying to get by and make something of herself – then this book will bring clarity to the unknown. What strikes most in this book is the relatability to the mundanity and disappointment of every day life, and the restless urge to strive for better, which we can all recognise in Dolly, especially as a woman entrapped by the society she belongs to.

If you love historical fiction you’ll love the simplicity and straight-talking account of Dolly’s life in the 1900’s and of the everyday living of Australians at that time. It’s originality comes in giving a voice to an unextraordinary but no less important person: the author’s own grandmother. Grenville attempts to understand her cold, distant grandmother better by exploring what hardships she must’ve experienced and it’s through the author’s own reflection that we really get to know the life of women with such a rural and restrictive lives.

This is a wonderful read for lovers of books by Kristin Hannah and Kate Mosse and will satisfy nicely those who seek to unearth the past through the eyes ordinary folk.

For me, the fact it is based on a real woman, and one who is a family member, bumps the score up higher. It’s a perfect recounting of an everyday working woman’s live at the turn of the century, however because it rings true to life it can come across a little unexciting and leave you feeling not much happens plot-wise. I don’t believe that the point of the book is to be heavily plot driven, it is bare and truthful about the not so unique existence of most people, and this can be hard to confront with. If you are a history enthusiast you will enjoy it for it’s insight into everyday life of a person of history, and if you like a slow unassuming tale you will enjoy the simplicity and unpretentiousness of this book. 3.5 ⭐️s.

The Girls by Emma Cline

There was a lot I liked about The Girls, I in fact scored it quite highly at Book Club, however sitting down to review I’ve come to find I remember very little about the book and have not given it much thought since reading.

Things I enjoyed: the understanding of teenage girls, how friendships are formed or painstakingly lost and the difficulties of fitting in. The coming of age element hit hard as well as the insight into what a mason-style cult would’ve been like, along with it’s gold painted turd messiah of a leader. The immersion in 60’s life was particularly pleasing to read!

Things that didn’t work for me: the ending was a little anti-climatic. The jump between past name and present felt unnecessary and distracted from the juicy meat of the story which of course was her time in the cult. The story being told by an outsider - her story wasn;t compelling enough to outweigh what ultimately you wanted to read about which was life as a cult girl, in the end the side characters fascinated the most and didn’t dive into them enough to satisfy as a reader. Perhaps that was the point given that name never truly fit in - but as a reader wanting a good story, it didn’t quite work for me and left me wanting more in the worst way.

Having said that, it is still worth a read! The writing in particular is incredibly beautiful, Cline breaks literary rules in such a fun way that make her descriptions just pop of the page: a personal favourite line of mine being ‘a glut of spaghetti, mossed with cheese’. Her unconventional use adjectives or nouns as verbs not only gives colour to the piece but also feeds into the playful deconstruction that this cult life is determined to emulate against society. For that alone, I would recommend this to anyone to read - 3.5 ⭐️s.

Disappointing Reads

Take What You Need by Idra Novey

Because I don’t Know What You Mean and What You Don’t by Josie Long

I’m sorry but I just didn’t get it?! I suppose it’s not fair having read two short story collections in one month but honestly I’m not sure I would’ve enjoyed this one even if I didn’t have Salt Slow to compare it to. Firstly the writing was bizarre - written very much in the head of each protagonist, I didn’t particularly enjoy Long’s style. It was hard to differentiate who was narrating at times, and difficult to like many of the protagonists. Mostly, I would end each story wondering what the point of it all was, either it felt so on the nose (with particular political eye-rolling) that there wasn’t much of a tale to be told, or it was all so obscure I felt like I was fighting with the author to understand what she was trying to convey. It was neither funny, emotional, clever nor so weird it could be counted as wacky and irreverent. Just not for me and when I compare it to Salt Slow which I think attempts similar commentaries and alternative reality settings, I’m afraid you can see the immaturity in this book when it comes to writing technique and style - 1.5⭐️s.

A Room With A View by EM Forsters

I want to enjoy classics, I want to understand the revolutionary, cautionary, humorous commentary of classics. I am constantly ashamed that I just don’t think classics and I get along. As a history lover this hurts more than I can say. Nonetheless I will continue to power through popular classical books - unfortunately A Room With A View joins the growing pile of dusty old, challenging to read and consistently un-enjoyable classic books I’ve read.

There seems to be a cross over period of history where it’s close enough to the present that references still make sense, and the differences can seem whimsical, comical and even nostalgic, and then there are books so far in the past that it’s almost like discovering an ancient civilisation, there is a thrill in getting to understand the world building and language much like a fantasy novel, and reimagining the past with it’s follies and unusual practices, you can forgive easily the further back the tale was written for the ignorances at the time of humans less capable than us modern counterparts - you accept them for what they are and the society that existed and could be no better.

Then there is this odd middle ground, were it’s close enough that references and practices feel outdated even for the time it was written in, the language is clunky - almost modern but not quite (which is hard to excuse as poetic or romantic) and it’s impossible to amuse at the naivety, yet it is far back enough to be tricky to read syntax and understand cultural pin points - in a word these books are frustrating. This book unfortunately sits in that ground. The constructs and rules the characters are bound by seem farcical and are the basis for a lot of the book’s narrative and plot, which makes it immensely hard to get on board with any of the characters and what drives them. For me it doesn’t age well - you can neither enjoy nor feel like you are immersed in historical verse. It’s just plain unenjoyable - I am convinced there are other classics which are much more worth the time. I don’t take any joy in the scoring (much like I didn’t in the reading): 1⭐️s.

Take What You Need by

Oh I so wanted to like this one! I was drawn by the interesting nature of the book - an estranged but beloved relationship between a step-mother Jean and her step-daughter Leah, set in the Appalachian lands - but the execution left me bitterly depressed and not in a good way. The two protagonists were unfortunately unlikeable, their actions hard to relate to and the author’s own voice came through too strongly. I couldn’t help but pick at the strong stereotyping bias against working class, Mid-Western Americans in such a way that felt cliche and written based on opinion rather than fact. And that’s not to say you can’t be critical of a part of your country, or history or societal attitudes but I think the haughtiness of Leah in particular is off putting and the book in general offers no nuances, explanation or redeemable character arcs. In the end, bitterness and conceited virtue seemed to be the main point of the book. The metal welding aspect had the potential to be cool but verged too far into the technicality that it alienates the reader. I learnt nothing and felt nothing other than utter disappointment and boredom. Would not recommend.

Curveball Fun Reads

Done And Dusted by Lyla Sage

A sexy, chic-lit, cowboy romp. Fun, cliche and totally ye-haw. If you’re looking for a easy romance, light on the drama, heavy on the sex-appeal then y’all are gonna love this book - ok I’ll stop. But seriously, I was in a book slump, in need of a fresh pick me up and this book did just the job (think romantasy but without the war and intense new world to get on board with). Sometimes reading is about just living in a thrill bubble without the fancy words nor underlining meaning trying to convey some kind of lesson. Also, it honestly brought me a juvenile amount of joy to make up the southern drawl American accents in my head while I read.

Sometimes you just want to ride off into the sunset with a hunky cowboy and that’s just a-okay! 5⭐️s purely for the stupid escapist delight…and the sexy cowboy - did I mention he is hella sexy?!

Wonderwahl Book of the Month: May & June Selection

Butter & Salt Slow - I mean what more can I say! These books were my Wonderwahl spotlighted books of the month and with good reason. They both have a healthy mix of intriguing plots and characters, breathtaking writing, and interesting commentary. You will not be disappointed.

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