I spend a lot of time picking out books. Even when I’m reading one, I keep out feelers for another. I always like to have my next read queued up. The time that I spend searching for books—by reading the Amazon and Penguin Random House emails that are tailored to my tastes, downloading Kindle samples, falling down a rabbit hole of recommendations—is happily spent, though weighted heavily. So much potential lies in that search. I can either end up with a story that I’m enamored with or one that feels like a waste of time. And I hate wasting time.

My hope is that these book recommendations help you to not waste time. Furthermore, my hope is for you to pick up a book—any book, whether I’ve recommended it or not—and start reading.

I read four books in February: The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O’Neal, Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn, and Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt. Here are my thoughts on each.

If I could summarize one theme of The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, it would be that family is complicated. The book is narrated by Danny Conroy, a boy who grows up in the Dutch House, a massive, opulent work of architecture, a gilded mansion of times past. His mother is gone, his father distant, his older sister his caretaker. It’s the two of them, brother and sister, against the world. I’ll admit that it took me a little bit to get into this book because I wasn’t sure if the story was going anywhere, but it did. And it was good. The story was emotional for me; it’s one that I could draw a lot of parallels to. Not with the story of rags to riches and back (I wish I got to live in a sweet mansion when I was growing up), but with the feeling of loss of a family home, a family unit, and the strained relationships that ensue. So The Dutch House was a bit of a heavy read. But one that I still enjoyed. The writing was great. I’d recommend it.

When We Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O’Neil was (surprise!) another heavy read. I guess I’m in a novels-about-family-dynamics phase. When We Believed in Mermaids tells the story of adult sisters who are trying to escape the past and their dysfunctional upbringing. One sister, Kit, is an ER doctor in Santa Cruz. The other, Josie, died fifteen years ago. Or so Kit thought. One day at work, Kit sees her sister’s face on the TV in the background of a New Zealand live news broadcast, driving her to embark on a journey to try and find Josie, stirring up painful memories in the process. This is a story about family love, loss, anger, forgiveness, and healing, so if you read it, buckle up. It’s good, but it’s a lot. It might not be for everyone.

After reading two…trying books, I wanted to try something light. And romantic. It is February, after all. The month of love! And black history. But I’ll get to that later. So I picked out Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn. It was okay. Definitely different from the first two books that I read this month, and I appreciated that. It’s about a girl who works in hand lettering—she has a small business making planners, wedding invitations, stationery, and other calligraphy-based things—who has a bad habit of leaving secret messages in the work that she creates. Like telling an engaged couple that their wedding would be a mistake on their wedding invitation. A year later, the groom shows up at her shop. He found her message on his wedding invitation and wanted to know why she thought his marriage was doomed. The two of them develop a friendship, and, I think I’m not giving too much away here when I say something more, that builds over time as they walk through New York City looking for old hand-painted signs. The story has a cute concept, and I loved the parts about New York, but it just felt like something was…missing. The storyline was a little messy. I wouldn’t recommend this one.

Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt was great. Balanced with research, personal anecdotes, history, and facts, I felt like I both learned a lot and enjoyed reading this book, even if it was upsetting at times to get through. I heard Dr. Eberhardt speak about implicit bias at my company last year and grabbed a copy of her book, intending to give it to a friend that works in Diversity & Inclusion. But alas, almost twelve months later, the book is still onboard Thisldu, so I figured it was high time I give it a read. (If you’ve been reading these book reviews you know I don’t love non-fiction but am trying to be better about it, hence the delay in getting through Biased.) I’m so glad that I did. My education in black history was inadequate and my current understanding of racism in America today is limited. Biased taught me so much about the way that the human mind works, how that coupled with societal constructs leads to racism, the extent of oppression in our history that got us to where we are now, and the amount of work that we still need to do today. I think that this is not only a great book, but an important one, and I encourage you to read it.

Have you read any of these books? If so, what did you think? I’d love to know!

If you’re looking for more book reviews, check out:

Thisldu Book Reviews - January: Circe, The Most Fun We Ever Had, and Such a Fun Age

The Best Books of 2019

Happy Reading!