The Books I'm Reading Now
I'm reading the story of an heiress turned abandoned orphan, based on a real-life sixteenth-century heroine, Isola; I'm reading I Am Not Jessica Chen, Ann Liang's newest young-adult novel, about an unassuming young woman whose wish to become her gorgeous, high-achieving, Harvard-bound cousin comes true; and I'm reading Jonathan Haidt's nonfiction work The Righteous Mind, about why people develop disparate, powerful views on religion and politics.
What are you reading, bookworms?
01 Isola by Allegra Goodman
Marguerite is heir to a fortune, but when she is orphaned, her guardian squanders her inheritance and makes her come with him to New France. On the way, Marguerite falls for her guardian's servant.
When their relationship is discovered, they're cruelly punished by being abandoned on an island with little chance of escape.
Marguerite, once a privileged, protected child of wealth and opportunity, must learn to survive in the wild.
Isola is inspired by the story of a real-life sixteenth-century heroine.
I received a prepublication edition of Isola courtesy of Random House and NetGalley.
02 I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang
In Ann Liang's newest young-adult novel, Jenna Chen has always been a disappointment, at least when compared to her perfect cousin Jessica. Jessica is a top student, so beautiful that others stop to openly admire her, so high-achieving that she got into Harvard. Jenna is artistic and average, and her desperate wish is to be Jessica.
When her wish comes true, Jenna wakes up as Jessica. But being a top student at a competitive school and having others distracted by your good looks doesn't make for as joyful a life as Jenna would have thought. And everyone seems to be forgetting that Jenna Chen ever existed.
I received a prepublication edition of I Am Not Jessica Chen courtesy of HarperCollins Children's Books and NetGalley.
I fell in love with Ann Liang's fake-dating young adult novel This Time It's Real, read it in one rainy afternoon, and included it in my Greedy Reading Lists Six of My Favorite Light Fiction Reads from the Past Year, Six Rom-Coms Perfect for Summer Reading, and My Bossy Favorite Reads of Summer the year I read it.
You can find my review of her great young-adult rom-com I Hope This Doesn't Find You here and my review of Liang's young-adult historical fiction fantasy novel A Song to Drown Rivers here.
03 The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt
Jonathan Haidt uses his decades of research into moral psychology to address the reasoning between a timely, potent issue: the power in conflicting opinions on politics and religion between friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors.
Haidt explores why "gut feelings" and intuition often drives moral judgments, and why liberals, conservatives, and libertarians use the same facts to come up with such different conclusions.
I'm alternating between reading a physical copy and listening to The Righteous Mind as an audiobook.
Jonathan Haidt is also the author of The Anxious Generation.