So, you guys, I did it. As though I need more books. I joined The Book of the Month Club (I had incentive, I was gifted a three-month subscription*). And the first book I received was Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West. I had a really hard time deciding which of the June books I wanted. Here were the choices:
- Shrill by Lindy West,
- Modern Lovers by Emma Straub,
- The Veins of the Ocean by Patricia Engel,
- Before The Fall by Liberty Hardy, and
- Enchanted Islands by Alison Amend
About Lindy West’s Shrill
I originally was going to choose Modern Lovers, but I felt so much pull from Shrill to choose it. I’m glad I did. It’s hilarious. It’s truthful. It’s in your face. Let me demonstrate, if I may:
“So, what do you do when you’re too big, in a world where bigness is cast not only as aesthetically objectionable, but also as a moral failing? You fold yourself up like origami, you make yourself smaller in other ways, you take up less space with your personality, since you can’t with your body. You diet. You starve, you run till you taste blood in your throat, you count out your almonds, you try to buy back your humanity with pounds of flesh.
“I got good at being small early on–socially, if not physically. In public, until I was eight, I would speak only to my mother, and even then, only in whispers, pressing my face into her leg. I retreated into fantasy novels, movies, computer games, and, eventually comedy–places where I could feel safe, assume any personality, fit into any space. I preferred tracing to drawing. Drawing was too bold an act of creation, too presumptuous.”
Lindy West’s words here are both poignant and startling, with some dark humor thrown in. She talks more about the word “big” when used to refer to women of curvy and large stature. She talks about her love-hate relationship with The Howard Stern Show. She tells it like it is.
I did not grow up “big.” Instead, i was a frail thing who looked like I could be blown over by a strong wind. That came with its own adjustments. When you’re a woman, no size is ever right according to society at large – a point West makes later in the chapter. When you’re a woman, people comment on your body, your size, your height, your lifestyle choices, all as though they actually had a say in how a woman should be. In some parts of the book, West appears to be yelling back at society at large in the way that many of us want to.
As a curvy woman now, after three kids, I can say that people look at you funny when you’re “big” and not at all quiet. It’s like they’re forced to face you, to reconcile the fact that you exist, and that you’re not hiding. We could all stand to make ourselves known a little bit more. We could all stand to be loud women.
I have to say that I really am enjoying reading this book and I recommend it, highly, to others. You can purchase it on Amazon here (affiliate link), or you could, like me, sign up for Book of The Month Club, like I did (also an affiliate link). If you’re at all interested, keep reading. At the end, I have a special deal for readers of my blog.
About Book of the Month Club’s July Selections
Okay, so the idea with Book of the Month Club is that you get a book each month that has been pre-selected for you from the vast number of books that are out there for a discount price. Ten dollars for a hardback (with the summer code to the right) is a STEAL). I am really glad I have had the opportunity to try the club membership, because I’d not have otherwise come across Shrill, which I’m really enjoying. I want to see about picking up the other selections at some point as well.
Now, I have to make a hard choice. The club selections for July were released today. So once again, I have to go about choosing which of these books will make it onto my shelf. Here are my choices:
Love That Boy by Ron Fournier
Do you have expectations for your children? So do a lot of us. This book is about kids and their parents’ expectations by the Senior Political Columnist for National Journal. (He followed the Clintons’ early career in Arkansas and then followed them to Washington where he then covered Bill Clinton’s presidency as well as George W. Bush’s and Barak Obama’s presidencies). The book chronicle’s Fournier’s journey with his son, Tyler, a boy who has been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome.
This was Arianna Huffington’s guest judge pick. I bet it’s pretty interesting.
Rich and Pretty by Rumaan Alam
This is a debut novel. Reading about it, it kind of makes me think of Gossip Girl. Okay, okay, I admit it. I loved that show. I binge watched it on Netflix, and I may even have a bunch of the novels hanging out in boxes – er our book collection (we will get that unpacked soon, I hope). The women are in their 30s, and they were friends for years. They were high school friends, college roommates, and now they’re grown ups. Not like sort of grown ups but like Lorelei and Rory style grown ups. The novel explores how friendships change over time.
It sounds right up my alley. I may choose this one.
Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel
This is the book that Book of the Month Club recommends to me based upon my interests in the survey you take when you sign up for the program. It seems like an accurate guess – there have been comparisons made between the author, Sylvain Neuvel and Michael Crichton, World War Z, and The Martian, which are books in a genre I very much enjoy reading. The premise of this novel is very intriguing – a girl falls through a hole in the earth and lands in a giant metal hand. The girl, now a grown woman 17 years later, is trying to solve the mystery of what this thing was and why it’s being covered up. The book is the first in a series.
So yeah, now I have a decision to make, because this sounds like sheer awesome. I think I might leave this one as my selection.
The Girls by Emma Cline
The cover art on this one intrigues me. It totally makes me think of the 70s. It has been compared to Jeffrey Eugenide’s The Virgin Suicides (an amazingly well-written book that I read in the summer of 2003 sprawled out on my couch during a thunderstorm in a 4 hour marathon because I couldn’t put the book down. If you have not read it, you simply must. You can get it here. (affiliate link) Moving onto the Book of the Month club selection for July, The Girls is set in the late 1960s in Northern California. The book follows Evie who becomes obsessed with an older girl, Suzanne…and gets closer and closer to violence.
Okay. I know I said I wanted to choose Sleeping Giants, but now I want to choose this book. Why is it so hard to decide!?!
Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner
Okay, so this is the last book I have to choose from. This is a mystery. The book follows the detective assigned to a high risk case as she uncovers not only the whereabouts of the missing character, Edith Hind, but also the dark secrets Edith had been hiding from all those who are close to her. It seems like it will have some good twists and turns, but I think I have to rule this one out at the moment just because thinking about a missing person’s investigation is simply too triggering still after my own older brother’s passing.
I do think I’ll add it to my reading list for some future time, as it seems like a good book.
A deal for my readers who would like to join Book of the Month Club:
If after reading all of this, you’re intrigued enough to want to join Book of the Month Club, I have a code here that will save you a little money. If you sign up between now and the end of July, you can get 30% off 3-month Book of the Month memberships + Free Tote and Sunnies with code SUMMER30. So please, take advantage of that offer!
Meanwhile, which book should I choose? Have you read any of the books mentioned in this post? Post your thoughts in the comments!
*I was given a subscription to The Book of the Month Club to try out and review for three months. The opinions posted here are my own, and they have not been influenced by the receipt of this gift.
