November 2022 Reads
November was an interesting reading month for me. I read three books- all much longer than I usually read and two thirds of my reads were non-fiction which is completely unheard of for me! I was scheduled to read Demon Copperhead with some bookish friends and that fiction read drove all of my non-fiction reading. Read on to learn more about this month’s reading experiences!
NOVEMBER READS
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe- Empire of Pain has been on my To Be Read list forever. I knew that the opioid crisis is central in Demon Copperhead so I decided, before diving in to Kingsolver’s latest, I would finally tackle Empire of Pain and wow. I knew that the Sackler family was sketchy group but I had no idea the extent to which they are truly to blame for the opioid crisis in this country. And also, I now want to read all of Keefe’s work- he is a masterful journalist and writer.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver- I am sad to say that I did not love this book as much as many fellow readers did. I liked it but I thought it was far too long and that Kingsolver could have trusted her readers a bit more. There were many times when she explained what had just happened as if we might not have gotten it and we did. One important caveat is that Demond Copperhead is a David Copperfield retelling and I have never read David Copperfield. During a Fiction Matter bookclub, it became clear to me that some of the genius of this book comes from how clearly Kingsolver paints the picture that not much has changed in terms of poverty and the care of our children since Dickens wrote David Copperfield.
Invisible Child by Andrea Elliot- After I read Empire of Pain, I thought that Patrick Radden Keefe was the best non-fiction writer out there and I still think he is amazing but Andrea Elliot also a truly incredible researcher and writer. While reading Demon Copperhead, a few of my reading buddies referenced the genius of Invisible Child so I read it immediately and they were so right. I truly wonder what good could be done in our country if Invisible Child was required reading for every human?