october reading roundup

happy 11/11. this book roundup features babysitting, betrayals, and biases

Man, I’m just feeling great these days! How about you guys?

JK. It has been a wild month and some change. As evidenced by the fact that we are one third into the month of November, I’m a wee bit behind on recapping October. To quote a famous aphorism: better late than even later.

Here is a little overview of what I read last month. Like Sabrina Carpenter’s album, the list is short n’ sweet.

Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid

This was a deeply uncomfortable, hyper-enthralling read. Never in my whole life have I yelled “BITCH!” at a book until I found myself 75% deep into Such A Fun Age. One of the characters really perturbed me - more on her later.

This is Kiley Reid’s debut novel, published back in 2020. Earlier this summer I read her second novel, Come And Get It, which I loved and highly recommend.

Such A Fun Age follows Emira, a striking black college grad in her mid-twenties. She has two jobs but her main source of income is babysitting Briar, a cherubic blonde toddler. Briar’s mom Alix, a.k.a. Mrs Chamberlain, is a thirty-something millennial multi-hyphenate (writer, inspirational speaker) and recent Philadelphia transplant.

Emira and Mrs. Chamberlain’s stiff, professional relationship takes a weirdly personal turn when they discover they share eerily common ground when it comes to a certain individual.

Kiley Reid is masterful in shifting her characters’ narrative perspectives. At points this story felt like a thriller thanks to her slow unravelling of details. By the end of the book I truly abhorred one of these characters (hence my verbal outburst) BUT I shan’t reveal spoilers. The fun whiplash of this reading experience stemmed from the ever-shifting opinions on who I did, and did not, empathize with.

RUN, do not walk, to grab a copy.

The Age of Magical Overthinking by Amanda Montell

This is the nonfiction read I needed to preface this chaotic fall season. The Age of Magical Overthinking is Amanda Montell’s third book. (Her first book is about linguistics and the second one is about cults. She also hosts a podcast about cults.) Overthinking entered my sphere via Empty Calories, a newsletter by

Lisa Kholostenko

, whose taste I deeply trust.

This book is about our irrational thought patterns as they relate to our modern lifestyles. In each chapter, Amanda Montell expounds upon a different cognitive bias. The chapters I found most interesting were those on proportionality bias, zero-sum bias, and the IKEA effect. To expand a bit on the latter: IKEA effect explains why some humans (me, hi) are stupidly proud of the simple meals they concoct, even though logically they know the cuisine in question is completely average.

If you’re interested in psychology, I’d recommend The Age of Magical Overthinking. Montell is a wonderful storyteller, so even though the book is academic in nature, the way she weaves in pop culture references and personal anecdotes keeps it interesting.

To give you an amuse bouche of what to expect, I’m including a snippet from the chapter about confirmation bias below. It’s highly relevant in light of our current political climate:

I’ll be back next week with a travel-themed newsletter featuring a destination in Asia.

Want to guess where? Here is a hint: this country measures their GDP in happiness. (America could never. lol.)