I’m slowly getting back on track with keeping y’all up to date on my reading life (yes, I know it’s almost the end of November…shut up). October was actually a pretty interesting (and wildly varied) month of reading for me. It’s only fitting too, because I was travelling to some extremely diverse places in October. From LA to Honolulu, to Chicago to Cleveland to Atlanta to New York, my settings were as varied as my reading material.

Why can’t that be my life always? Anyway, that was the fun time between jobs, and now I’m a working woman again, so I’m just struggling to keep up with my book-a-week goal. Here’s what I read:

• The Girl with Seven Names – Hyeonseo Lee || 👍🏾👍🏾
  • This book chronicling the life of a North Korea escapee introduced me to so much that I never knew I never knew about North Korea. What an interesting read about an interesting (and scary) place.
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian – Sherman Alexie || 👍🏾
  • Though definitely a young adult novel, I enjoyed the unique and fun perspective of life on the reservation (even when that life is anything but fun). The novel is from the perspective of a young man living on a reservation who decides to move to the largely-white school off the reservation…I can relate to that one, I tell you.
• White Teeth – Zadie Smith || 👎🏾👎🏾
  • Sigh. I tried to like Zadie, I really did. This book is about things. I’m glad it’s over.
• The Chosen – Chaim Potok || 👍🏾
  • This story about the friendship of two Jewish boys growing up in Brooklyn, one Hasidic, was an interesting look at a life I know very little about…even if I didn’t understand everything in the book.
• Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows – Balli Kaur Jaswal || 👍🏾👍🏾 (🙌🏾)
  • I need to meet Balli because she is going to be my new best friend. I LOVED this book. It is full of yell-laughs. If you thought Crazy Rich Asians was great summer fun, just pop this one open. It brings summer to the winter.

I’m thinking about doing some “themed” reading for the month of December, so if you have any recommendations, please feel free to share them!

-Dij