An Update on My Reading Goal: How Should a Person Be?

The most recent book I finished from this list published by the Huffington Post is How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti.

(Image from amazon.com)

This is Heti’s semi-autobiographical novel. It centers around a woman writing a play and wallowing in self-doubt.

At first I was interested in Heti’s examination of female friendships, especially how it seems to be so difficult for women to make good friends after high school and college. A quarter of the way in, I began to lose interest. The author weaves back and forth between the play she is writing and the real world.

Fair warning: This book features a lot of graphic sexual content. I am not offended by graphic sexual content in a book, but I am offended by a crazy plot with no real sense of direction. This has been my least favorite book on the list so far.

Here’s an updated list. The first five books on this list are the ones I had read prior to discovering the list:

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
Yes, Please by Amy Poehler
Bossy Pants by Tina Fey
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
Drink by Ann Dowsett Johnston
Room by Emma Donoghue
The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan
Her by Christa Parravani
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
How Should a Person Be? by Sheila Heti
Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson
NW by Zadie Smith
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique
The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin