Reviews: Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

I have fallen so far behind with reviews and it feels overwhelming, so I was thinking of doing a quick wrap-up of a few books I read last year that I did want to share my thoughts about - clear the slate - and hopefully move on to the new year and new reviews. 

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid ~ Goodreads

Source: ALC provided by the publisher via Libro.fm in exchange for an honest review

Review: I liked Daisy Jones and the Six audiobook - it was the audiobook that finally won me over to the format - but I loved Carrie Soto is Back! 

Carrie was a young tennis phenom, coached by her father, tough as nails and without many friends. She's written off by the sport due to age (30's *gasp*) and injuries. But Carrie isn't going down without a fight. 

Carrie burned a lot of bridges, including with her father, making it to the top before her retirement from the sport, so when she wants to make her comeback, support is scarce. But with a small and loyal team, she claws her way back.

Carrie is fierce af and I loved every prickly inch of her. This book follows Carrie over decades and it's a joy to watch her growth. She's closed herself off so much with her hyperfocus, in pursuit of the record Slam title, that she has really earned her nickname - the Battle-Axe. Only she needs people if she wants to make her comeback, and more importantly, if (& when) she inevitably leaves tennis for good. 

Jenkins Reid does a few things I really love in this story. Sure, this is a sports comeback story (super engaging too! despite not caring about tennis), but it's really a father/daughter love story. Her father Javier is so wonderful. Their relationship is messy, sometimes painful but - oh my heart. I just loved it. It's is the crux of the story. 

There's also a romance but I wouldn't call this book romance. It's an important part of Carrie's healing, for many reasons, but not the focus. 

And while Carrie doesn't have girlfriends in the traditional sense, she develops (a sometimes grudging) comradery with competitors and her agent. I loved to see how terrified she was to open herself up to that but it happened anyway - against her will. lol

I almost think of Carrie Soto is Back as a coming of age story. It just took her over 3 decades to get there.

And the full cast audio is fantastic!

Content Warning: (& this is a BIG spoiler): death of a parent

Stacy Gonzalez (Narrator), Mary Carillo (Narrator), Patrick McEnroe(Narrator), Rob Simmelkjaer(Narrator), Brendan Wayne (Narrator), Max Meyers (Narrator), Reynaldo Piniella (Narrator),Vidish Athavale (Narrator), Tom Bromhead (Narrator), Heath Miller (Narrator) Julia Whelan (Narrator), Sara Arrington (Narrator) 

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah ~ Goodreads

Source: Bought

Review: I've had Born a Crime since the beginning of the pandemic - but the paperback print is SO fricking tiny!

I finally did an audiobook trial and listened to it instead, which of course, was much better since it is narrated by Trevor Noah. 

This biography covers Noah's childhood during the last gasp of & post apartheid South Africa, as the child of a black mother and white Swiss father where he was, literally, as the title suggests, born a crime. 

"On February 20, 1984, my mother checked into Hillbrow Hospital for a scheduled C-section delivery. Estranged from her family, pregnant by a man she could not be seen with in public, she was alone. The doctors took her up to the delivery room, cut open her belly, and reached in and pulled out a half-white, half-black child who violated any number of laws, statutes, and regulations—I was born a crime."

As such, Noah never really quite fits in anywhere and even his own mother is forced to distance herself from him in public, so it didn't look like she was kidnapping a white child. He was white passing and enjoyed the privileges that came with that, at times, but was also seen as black and endured the racism as well. 

Their mother, son dynamic is quite fascinating because he's a spoiled, precocious, sometimes wild child of a deeply religious mother. She doesn't spare the rod when it comes to discipline but clearly does what's necessary to give her child every possible advantage. Some could see it as almost abusive in some ways but he has nothing but admiration, love and respect for her and the women who raised him. 

She remarries and has another child but it's an abusive marriage and that was really heartbreaking to read.

Noah has a way of looking at the world and seeing the bad in people and society while having, because of his own unique circumstances, a deep understanding of what led to it - and forging on with his life anyway, which has, obviously, turned out to be very successful for him.  

This is the story of apartheid South Africa, Trevor's coming of age but, at it's core, it's a love letter to his mother, to her resilience and sacrifice so that he could have a better life. 

Content warnings: racism, bullying, animal abuse, domestic violence, his mom hits him as punishment

Note: It doesn't really even mention his comedy career or The Daily Show, so if that's what you're hoping to read about, this isn't it. And if there is one flaw with this book is that it jumps around in time quite a bit and while you get s sense of what shaped Trevor Noah - it feels like you're missing a huge chunk of his life between childhood and adult. But maybe that is left to a second biography.