#21: Weather by Jenny Offill
Written almost like a diary, this book is a record of the thoughts of the protagonist as she raises her son and works as a college librarian, more and more worried about the changing world around her. The book takes place in the same time as it was written, during Donald Trump’s presidency, and Offill perfectly harnesses the turbulence and emotion of the time in her writing. It’s dark but it’s also curious, and is the perfect length to be read in one sitting.
#22: Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
Y’all know I’m obsessed with the FBI, or at least the fictional depictions of it in shows like Criminal Minds. This book so perfectly captured the true nature of the origins of the bureau and is one of the best true crime novels I’ve ever read. If you liked Devil in the White City (which I also read earlier this year) this book is so much better. It focuses on the FBIs investigation and trial of the serial murders of Osage Native Americans in the 1920’s but also uncovers a plot on the lives of the Osage that was much more vast and dastardly than anyone realized at the time. I enjoyed the first two sections of the book, which were well written and stuck to the traditional true crime script, and then spent most of the final sections gasping out loud as Grann continued the mystery.
#23: The Education of an Idealist by Samantha Power
Samantha Power was the US ambassador to the UN while I was studying political science in college, so obviously I was obsessed with her, and this memoir only reinforced it. She’s such a strong, passionate person who is also completely unafraid to admit her faults and blind spots, and equally unafraid to take on difficult challenges even if it means she won’t get the glory or the most flattering spotlight. She is everything I aspire to be, and of course is also a talented writer. I can tell that I’ll continue to reach for this book anytime I find myself feeling curmudgeon-y, to remind myself to always remain an idealist.
#24: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
I found an awesome old copy of this book in a Little Free Library in DC and decided to revisit my English major days and give it a re-read. It’s a short and powerful book about mental illness written by a poet so of course it’s beautiful. The audiobook version narrated by Maggie Gyllenhaal is great too.
#25: Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When the Stakes are High by Patterson, Grenny, McMillan & Switzler
This was the book of the month for my women in business group, but I found myself reading it from more of a personal perspective. The researchers who wrote the book originally sought to study what they called “crucial moments” or career-defining occurrences to see how they typically occur and how people handle them best. What they found is that most of these occurrences aren’t events but were conversations where the stakes are high and opinions differ, and that the people who handled them best all seemed to do the same things: they focus on what they can control (their own reactions), they create a shared pool of understanding between everyone involved, and they focus on what they actually want without getting caught up in their emotions. That last piece has really stuck with me, especially in conversations (ok, fights) with Bobby. Reminding myself that I want our relationship to be strong and for us to both be happy more than I want to win an argument has helped us avoid unnecessary spats and have more real conversations where we both get what we want and save time that would have been wasted bickering.