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Hi, I'm Angi
Welcome to my corner of the internet! My passions include travel, photography, books, music, Japanese language and culture, Italian language and culture, and art.

Here at Abbott Lane you'll find my thoughts on these topics and much more. Thanks for stopping by to visit!

Best Books: November 2020

 


November was an average reading month with five books. There were a couple of surprises in there - books I hadn't planned to read, but that I stumbled across and decided to pick up on a whim. One of them ended upbeing a favorite read this month, and I love little surprises like that. Here were my two faves of the month...






The Southern Bookclub's Guide to Slaying Vampires - Hendrix

I fully expected to enjoy this one, and I was not disappointed! I became a fan of Hendrix after reading his very funny take on a haunted IKEA-like store, Horrorstor. Since then, I've read all of his fiction and he just gets better and better.

I'd intended to do a lot of "light" reading in November, anticipating that I'd be experiencing a lot of election stress. So I grabbed this thinking it'd be perfect, but it was much darker and more intense than I'd anticipated. Don't get me wrong, it's still fun. But Hendrix packs a lot of social commentary into this one, so if you're looking for purely light and fun book, I'd recommend holding off a bit until your mind is ready!






How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy - Odell

This book's title is misleading. It isn't really a "How to..." in the most traditional sense, so if that's what you're looking for you'll walk away disappointed. But it is a WONDERFUL book that talks about how what social media wants, more than anything else these days, is our attention. Why? Because more clicks = more money from advertisers. 

Odell takes examples from numerous sources (seriously, she is one smart woman and I was left amazed at how she was able to move from line of thought to another effortlessly) to discuss how we can regain a sense of autonomy and agency in a world that is increasingly clamoring to for our time and energy. My favorite parts were where she discusses bioregionalism as a form of resistance, but this is the type of book that I want to read again and again because despite its short length, it is suuuper rich and full of things to muse on.


Also read: The House in the Cerulean Sea - Klune, Lair of Dreams - Bray, Confessions - Minato




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