January Reads!

I began the year with three incredible books! I read two memoirs (my favorite genre) and one fiction (a genre I don’t typically read, but have been increasingly enjoying). Below you will find a little bit about each books, with a few of my more personal thoughts interspersed. I also provide any trigger warnings, as books, like any form of entertainment, can bring any past trials and pains to the surface. As always, if you read any of these, please let me know your thoughts! Enjoy reading... for fun :)

The Less People Know About Us by Axton Betz Hamilton

Genre: Memoir

Page length: 320 pages

Trigger warnings: parental abuse, depression/mental health issues, talks of suicide

Favorite line(s): “Knowledge, I’ve found, will not betray you the way that people will.”

I loved this book. In my true 7 year old self fashion, I started this book on January 1st and stayed up until 2 am reading, finally finishing it the next afternoon. The book centers around the author’s childhood and subsequent life, particularly looking at the impact that her childhood had on her life from her trust in others, to her mental health and social relationships, and even her career. Axton Betz-Hamilton writes honestly and thoughtfully about the struggles she experienced as a child as a result of her family experiencing seemingly persistent identity theft. She grew up in a small town in Indiana and her parents suffered from identity theft no matter where they went and escaped to. As a result, Betz-Hamilton experiences life in isolation and anxiety. She suffers in silence and fear, and her life spirals out off control even more when as an adult, she realizes that she, too is a victim of identity theft. The book is a sort of mystery - who is committing these crimes against Betz-Hamilton’s family? Why won’t it stop? When reading you can’t help but feel an attachment to Axton. Betz-Hamilton is now a leading expert in identity theft - she took ownership of her struggles. But this book reveals the massive impact of her life that was illuminated and defined by identity theft for so long. I highly recommend this book, especially if you’re not too sure about memoirs - this has mystery, excitement, even research… a little bit for everyone!

Educated by Tara Westover

Genre: Memoir

Page length: 352 pages

Trigger warnings: child abuse/neglect, spiritual/religious trauma, verbal, emotional, and physical abuse (scenes of physical abuse are descriptive and graphic)

Favorite line(s): “My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs.”

I recognize the first two books on this list are memoirs, but I promise, I read a range! Like The Less People Know About Us, I really enjoyed this book. It also felt a bit similar to The Less People Know About Us, in terms of the overarching themes and motifs. I’m sure many of you have heard of this book and many of you may have already read it. If you haven’t, read it NOW! Ok, but in all seriousness, I learned so much from this book about a world and life I had never been exposed to, and after all, isn’t that the reason we read? (Besides escapism, of course!) Educated centers around the life of Tara Westover and her life growing up in rural Idaho with a survivalist Mormon family. Juxtaposed with stories about her family, their essential oil business, her father’s eccentric (and later diagnosable) behaviors and ideologies, funny anecdotes, and counts of abuse, Westover discusses her fight and struggle to obtain an education - stopping not at a bachelor’s degree but continuing onto a master’s AND a PhD. Entering college against the wishes of her family, she starts literally from square one… she is exposed to things that many of us heard about in our daily jargon or learned at an early age such as basic math and algorithm and even the Holocaust. She vulnerably and seamlessly ties in her story about her mental health struggles stemming from trauma, pressure to succeed, being told she would fail, and feeling like an outcast - utterly lacking community. I love memoirs because I get a glimpse into someone’s life, and while just a glimpse, I am so thankful for their vulnerability in sharing.

The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

Genre: Fiction/Novel (bildungsroman)

Page length: 234

Trigger warnings: sexual assault, mental health issues/struggles, suicide

Favorite line(s): “What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.”

“You can hit my father over the head with a chair and he won't wake up, but my mother, all you have to do to my mother is cough somewhere in Siberia and she'll hear you.”

I loved this book… shocker. It also holds a special place in my heart as it is the first book I ever taught to my students in high school English 10. But I really did love this book. I was able to dissect it completely, which I haven’t done in a long time. I forgot how fun it was taking a book a part piece by piece and breaking down lines, scenes, ideas, identifying meaning, significance, metaphors, and then figuring out why it all matters. Considering the groans of my students as we dissected the book, however, perhaps I too never thought it was fun and that is why I “forgot” how fun it was. I digress. I will be honest, I know a lot of people that DO NOT like this book. I understand that. This isn’t one of those books that I think everyone should like or love. But, I do believe it is a book that everyone needs to read. A bit of background - this book follows the main character, Holden Caulfield, over just a few days of his life. It is told mostly as a stream of conscious narrative - he says everything that comes to his mind, which was many of my students’ largest critique. My favorite quote from a student in class was, “He’s literally so whiny… ‘I’m sad’, ‘no one likes me’, ‘blah blah blah’, yah Holden, because you’re annoying.” I reminded them that, like Holden, they are also high school students who are probably struggling with many of the same things Holden is struggling with. One of our class activities was to make a list of “adolescent problems and pressures” - a motif we identified within the book. The students came up with a list that felt miles long, and when cross listing with textual evidence for Holden’s problems and pressures, there was a lot of line up. And that, is precisely the reason why I love this book. As someone who is a few years removed from “high school hell” I am now able to look back and reflect with a more mature eye and an understanding of the life that has unfolded post-all of that crap. That in no invalidates or discounts that hell, but it’s so helpful to see growth. The Catcher in the Rye so beautifully and honestly depicts so much of that “stuff” and not just the external, but more specifically, the internal. Holden’s internal narrative and thoughts are front and center for the audience. My students found that annoying because let’s be honest, who would say out loud half of the things they thought in high school? I know I wouldn’t! But you need a book like this because it’s validating in some way. While you might not experience the same exact thing as Holden or possess a completely different identity from him, you are still experiencing the trials of development. I understand why my high schoolers didn’t like this book. They are still in the thick of it, they don’t have the ability to see what is to come - I know I didn’t. This book is for those who ponder life, who feel things deeply, who might not know how to share those feelings, and who might not have anyone to share those things with. It is for those who once sought friends but have found their place. This book felt comfortable and familiar. I felt like there was a piece of me within its lines.

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