Allie

What a weird book. I enjoyed it, but how to actually classify it? I picked it for my book club because they requested “something lighter, maybe something dystopian.” They're probably never going to let me pick anything again!

Because while I thought it was supposed to be a thriller, The Survivalists didn't match the quick pacing that I've come to associate with thrillers. There was a lot more about main character Aretha, her character motivations, a bit of character building associated with the other characters as well, but a lot of the action up until the very end was more internal than external.

And I didn't know where it was supposed to be headed! Which was kind of nice that I didn't figure it out, though there were zero hints dropped in advance. Most of the time we were in Aretha's head, but occasionally we would randomly jump into one of her roommates' heads.

Sometimes the format confused me as to whether Aretha as literally traveling around the city or just fantasizing about doing so. Her job and most of her existence sounded hellish. As always, you should watch the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend “Don't Be a Lawyer” song.

Anyway, I hope some book club people read it so I can talk about it.

I've done a lot of cooking, and a lot of learning how to cook, since college, because neither of my parents did a lot of cooking or ever really taught me when I was younger. Even so, with years of dinner prep under my belt, most of the time it's a recipe or bust. I have a very small handful of meals I'm confident making without a recipe, but I had no idea why those worked, just that if I did the same thing time and again, it worked.

This was a great, if hefty in size and information, primer on the basic building blocks of cooking, what flavors work together, and how to elevate even regular, routine meals with just an extra sprinkling of salt or splash of lemon juice. There's even mini cooking lessons throughout and in the recipe suggestions in the back, which I hope to try, but I also learned quite a lot throughout the reading that I took back to the kitchen with me as I went (and declared to Matt as Fun Facts). I liked learning about Nosrat's learning to cook, and her experiences in famous kitchens even if I never plan to set foot in one; she is a lively and passionate teacher with a great sense of humor, and the drawings and charts throughout were delightful. I'm personally a pescatarian (mostly vegetarian) for health reasons, but I found good useful information even among the sections that were more meat-heavy.

This one's going to live in my kitchen and be referred to often.

This was a really weird book. And yet I kind of had a hard time putting it down. Shadow has been in prison for three years, and upon his release, he has plans to go back home to his wife and work at a gym his buddy owns. But when both of them die in a car wreck just days before he is released, he has to change his plans. On the flight back home, Shadow meets the secretive Mr. Wednesday, who offers him a job as his personal bodyguard. But it's the most unusual job ever — really, they're recruiting other “gods” for the war Wednesday claims is coming. Meanwhile the mysterious Mister World is on the opposing side, and he keeps sending his lackeys to thwart Wednesday and Shadow's progress. Throw in some late-night visits from Shadow's dead wife's not-quite-ghost, several disappearances and the weirdest sex scene ever (seriously), and you've got a really strange, interesting book. I'll give it a solid B, just because it was entertaining to read.

WHAT. THAT'S WHERE IT ENDS???

I loved this book. It was like chatting with a wise older friend about her life experiences (and I only read the words on the pages - if I can hear her this well through paper, I imagine hearing her perform the audio would be absolutely fantastic). She and her husband were so busy, and did so many things in such a short period of time. I'm always amazed by this when I learn more about presidencies.

What I actually want to say about this book though, is that Michelle writes so beautifully about grief. Obviously, this is not a book about grief, but there are so many moments - in between her writing about her family growing up on the South Side of Chicago, and about overcoming self-doubt, and working her way through two Ivy League universities and a law firm before swerving, and the exhausting behind-the-scenes of being a First Family - where you feel this undercurrent of grief. Her personal grief (and that of her mother and brother) at the loss of her father, who had MS that went untreated for many years; the end to his suffering and that feeling of living in a vacuum, going through the motions because nothing, nothing makes any sense. Grief for herself and her husband as she talks about the struggle for the birth of her daughters and the miscarriage that preceded them. Grief for the country - for children who did not survive school shootings, for children who were gunned down in the streets of Chicago, for black lives lost to senseless violence, for the racism our country continues to carry.

Her writing made me feel a little better about this place I'm in, though she doesn't mince words. But she also writes so beautifully about hope. There's always a lens of optimism, even through her dread of what her husband's being president would do to their family - optimism about what they could do better to help others reach their full potential and to serve people who need a hand, and to give kids opportunities through learning and feeling like the people around them care about their success. I am never going to be a high-powered career woman, but her life is an inspiration to me - that there are people who dream of making the world better, and then do it, knowing that change takes time, and choosing to take those incremental steps.