January Reading Recap

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Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor’s Unlikely Adventure by Mimi Zieman

Quick Synopsis: Mimi Zieman, a young medical student, joins a group of climbers as the doctor and the only woman in the group as they try a new route on the east face of Mt. Everest without the use of supplemental oxygen. As the weeks tick by and three of the climbers disappear for days, Mimi grapples with her feelings of inadequacy and anxieties about what she wants out of life.

Strong/Weak Points: As someone who has read many, many books on climbing Mt. Everest, I felt that this book explored something different. Instead of the POV of a climber, we get the POV of someone who is in charge of keeping the crew alive in the harshest of environments. While I felt that it took a while to get to the climb itself and then breezed through it quickly, I did feel that the writing was solid and the story was compelling.

Writing Style: 4/5 

Plot: 4/5 

Flow/Pacing: 3/5 

Overall Rating: 4/5 

Recommend

For Fans of: Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, Growth by Karen DeBonis, & Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Thank you, NetGalley, Globe Pequot, and Falcon Guides, for providing me with a free, electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If You Would Have Told Me by John Stamos

Quick Synopsis: John Stamos talks Full House, ER, General Hospital, Broadway, divorce, love, loss, family, and everything in between.

Strong Points: Have mercy! This book was delightful! I went in as an Uncle Jesse fan and came out as a John Stamos fan. He has lived so much life, and throughout the book he is pretty honest about it (as honest as one can be while writing a memoir). I wasn’t aware that his acting chops ventured to Broadway and more serious roles. When he wants something, John Stamos goes out there and gets it.

His voice was very strong throughout the book, and the writing was pretty solid, which I’ve learned isn’t always the case with celebrity memoirs (looking at you, The Woman in Me). I loved the personal touch of his mother’s notes to him sprinkled throughout the book. Overall, very well done.

Weak Points: A lot of talk about the Beach Boys. While it was interesting to hear how he first got in touch with them and started to play, the chapters on them were a little boring. 

Writing Style: 4.5/5 

Plot: 4/5 

Flow/Pacing: 4/5 

Overall Rating: 4/5 

Recommend

For Fans of: My Name is Barbra By Barbra Streisand, Being Henry: The Fonz…and Beyond by Henry Winkler, & The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

Quick Synopsis: The title perfectly sums it up; it’s a fever dream. As Amanda lies dying in a hospital, a young boy sits with her, and they talk about how she got to where she is.

Strong Points: I was given this book in a book club Christmas exchange from someone who said this was her favorite book of 2023 and that it spooked her to her core. And let me tell you, it did not disappoint. It reminded me a lot of Jeffrey VanderMeer’s Annihilation in giving me this eerie feeling throughout that doesn’t let up. It’s perfectly paced and a master of storytelling. It’s a book that you’ll want to read again and pick up on different things each time.

This book was published in 2014 in Spanish and has been published in English for the first time, and I’m glad it was!

Weak Points: Nada.

Writing Style: 5/5 

Characters: 4.5/5 

Plot: 5/5 

Flow/Pacing: 5/5 

Overall Rating: 5/5 

Highly Recommend

For Fans of: Annihilation by Jeffrey VanderMeer, Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez, & The Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

Quick Synopsis: A group that forms the secret police in Dublin slowly starts taking over Ireland. As the government loses control and her husband’s sudden disappearance occur, Eilish has to decide whether to stay in the only home she’s ever known or leave the country and flee to safety.

Strong Points: It’s an interesting concept for a book, but nothing felt fresh about the story itself.

Weak Points: Man, I don’t know what I didn’t like about this book, but I had to force myself to pick the book back up. The writing was bleak; I couldn’t stand the one-long-paragraph format, and overall, the story was boring. Also, the children in the book were ridiculously annoying. As a Booker Prize winner, I expected more out of this one.

Writing Style: 2/5 

Characters: 2/5 

Plot: 3/5 

Flow/Pacing: 2/5 

Overall Rating: 2/5 

Not Recommend

For Fans of: The Bee Sting by Paul Murray, This Other Eden by Paul Harding, & How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney

The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton’s Endurance by Mensun Bound

Quick Synopsis: Follow Mensun Bound, the director of the exploration, as he searches for Ernest Shackleton's legendary lost ship, the Endurance.

Strong Points: I really enjoyed his writing and the journal format that the book was written in.

Weak Points: It felt a little long towards the end. The author documented every single day, and it started to feel a little monotonous when there wasn’t anything going on with the search.

Writing Style: 4/5 

Plot: 4/5 

Flow/Pacing: 3.5/5 

Overall Rating: 3.5/5 

Recommend

For Fans of: The Wager by David Grann, Battle of Ink and Ice by Darrnell Hartman, & Last Man Off by Matt Lewis

People Collide by Isle McElroy

Quick Synopsis: Eli and Elizabeth move to Bulgaria when Elizabeth gets a teaching job. Eli, while walking to Elizabeth’s school to help out one day, is met with students greeting him as Elizabeth. Like a modern-day Freaky Friday, Eli and Elizabeth have switched bodies, and Elizabeth has gone missing.

Strong Points: Eli is suddenly finding himself in a woman’s body and exploring how different everything is now, from the interactions he’s having to how to hold himself and how to dress. This was the only enjoyable part, and even saying that it was enjoyable is a stretch.  

Weak Points: The weakest point for me by far was how underdeveloped and fake the characters felt. Even fairytale characters feel more real and have more depth than the characters in this book. While yes, there was a little bit of shock to Eli when he first realized he was in Elizabeth’s body, there wasn’t enough. If I traded bodies with my husband and my husband was nowhere to be found, I would have a psychological breakdown. I wouldn’t be going out to dinner with friends and trying to live my life as if everything were normal. There was also no mention or attempt to mention how or why this body swap occurred. The book could have been so profound and thought-provoking, but it was none of those things.

Writing Style: 2/5 

Characters: 0.25/5 

Plot: 3/5 

Flow/Pacing: 2/5 

Overall Rating: 2/5 

Not Recommend

For Fans of: Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang, Day by Michael Cunningham, & The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez

The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean by Susan Casey

Quick Synopsis: The deep ocean is filled with exotic wildlife, shifting tectonic plates, active volcanoes, and valleys that are 7,000 feet deeper than the highest peak of Everest. With extraordinary technological advancements, humans can finally experience and study this scary abyss. Casey takes the reader on a fascinating adventure through the history and legends of the deep ocean while joining scientists and marine geologists on deep dives.

Strong Points: In the question of whether you would rather go to space or the depths of the ocean, I’ve always been on the side of space. The depths of the oceans terrify me; it just never felt worth it to me. You might see a few fish, but mostly it’s just dark, right? With space, you are literally no longer on the planet, and you get to look at the stars, putting into perspective just how small you are. However, this book might have changed my mind. There’s so much to be discovered in the ocean, and so much we can learn about the planet and even ourselves. The way the author’s love of the ocean shines throughout this book made me keep turning page after page. I really enjoyed her writing style and the stories she told about her adventures and the community of people that she met along the way. It felt like the reader was going on the journey with her. Maybe James Cameron will take me on his submersible someday.

Weak Points: There was a section about mining the ocean that even I felt was a little long and depressing but also very important, and I was glad that the author added that chapter in, albeit my least favorite.

Writing Style: 5/5 

Plot: 5/5 

Flow/Pacing: 4.5/5 

Overall Rating: 4.5/5 

Highly Recommend

For Fans of: The Heat Will Kill You First by Jeff Goodell, The Deepest Map by Laura Trethewey, & Chasing Shadows: My Life Tracking the Great White Shark by Gregory Skomal

“There’s only so much searching you can do, either a horse is there or it’s not.” - Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin