Everything I Read in May and June

May and June have come and gone and brought with it the end of lockdown in New Zealand and a little trip to the tippy top of the North Island. Here's what books I made my way through during these months.

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood: A satisfying and solid read, I enjoyed this follow up to Margaret Atwood's modern classic The Handmaid's Tale. As an avid watcher of the series, I was interested in seeing how her follow up book compared. It certainly gave more insight into the inner workings of Gilead and I enjoyed the passages that were told from Aunt Lydia's point of view. 

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien: I've never been a big fan of "war books" but The Things They Carried isn't a typical book about missions and patrols. It's harrowing, sad and insightful but most of all gave a real sense of the pointlessness and numbness that many soldiers experienced while serving in Vietnam and the lives they returned to afterwards. 

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin: An intriguing read about four children who pay a psychic to tell them the date they each die. Each child dies on the expected date, but was it fate or did this knowledge push those who were supposed to die young live more recklessly than their siblings? I enjoyed the premise of this book a bit more than the actual story but it left me with a lot of interesting thoughts nonetheless.

Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton: According to my British friends, Dolly Alderton is a bit of an icon for millennial women who have grown up with her columns and television appearances. I know her from the delightfully insightful podcast The High Low and was intrigued to hear more about her thoughts on relationships, dating and love. I have to think that had I grown with Dolly as an icon I would have enjoyed this book a bit more. It's a fairly light read, peppered with stories about her love life and her close friends' relationships. I did enjoy that the ending was much more focused on self-love and Dolly finding herself, rather than finding the perfect relationship.

Mosquitoland by David Arnold: Fifteen-year-old Mim runs away from her Dad's house and boards a Greyhound to visit her sick mother. This coming-of-age adventure story is peppered with a cast of crazy characters and missteps and a touching ending that has our protagonist realizing a thing or two about the adults in her life. While I enjoyed the story, the character of Mim felt less like a real teenager and more like a vehicle to deliver the wit and insights of the adult author. In the same way that many John Greene characters feel too precocious to be real, Mim didn't really encompass a teenagers point of view in my opinion.

The Bride Test by Helen Hoang: An easy read that has cute and realistic autism representation and a cast of funny characters. I have to admit that romances just aren't my jam. While I enjoyed that the writing and plot of this book are fun, I have a hard time staying interested in the will-they won't-they premise of this novel.