53 The Brief and Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Rambling.
54 Etta and Otto and Russel and James by Emma Hooper
Weird…
55 Girl On a Train by Paula Hawkins
Loved.
56 An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
Quirky.
57 What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
Engaging.
49 The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
I found the premise very interesting, especially because I didn’t know much about the topic. However, I enjoyed the modern day story component so much more than Ann Eliza’s. I felt the writing style and tone was very accurate, but I found her to be downright annoying. I assumed her boss at times.
50 Jumpstart the Work by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Read this one so fast, didn’t realize it was YA fix. I loved the story, although I wish Wilbur wasn’t gay… I wanted him and Elle to end up together.
51 This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz
I liked it, I liked how it is set in Jersey and I knew a lot of the places he was writing about. I didn’t realize at first it was told from a few different characters’ perspectives, so that was a little confusing.
52 Heads or Tails by Leslie Gordon
A woman takes her friend’s baby while she recovers from postpartum depression. Chick lit for sure, I liked it except I felt the author was repetitive at times, and talked about stupid stuff way too much.
44 Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell
Interesting. Different. Strange. But a happy ending.
45 The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson
Moving. Fascinating. Emotionally disturbing. Resonated with me.
46 Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
Loved it, but what the duck ending?!
47 Becoming Chloe by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Sweet and sad, couldn’t put it down
48 Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Lovable, despite not reading fanfic/Harry potter ever
40 Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
41 It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
42 The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
43 The Year of my Miraculous Reappearance by Catherine Ryan Hyde
34. The Language of Hoofbeats by Catherine Ryan Hyde
I am never disappointed by this author’s books. This story centers around a family who just moved to a small town in California. Jackie and her wife have one adopted child, and two foster children. The oldest foster child runs away with the neighbor’s horse and then forms a very unlikely relationship with her. I flew through this one.
35. Every Day by David Levithan
A wakes up everyday in someone else’s body. Boy, girl, fat, thin – doesn’t matter – but the borrowed body is always someone his (possibly hers, they never specify, but to me it seemed like a guy) age. He falls in love with a girl named Rhiannon, and tries to have a relationship with her in his ever changing physical state. I really liked this book too. Quick and interesting read.
36. Tell A Thousand Lies by Rasana Atreya
A girl in a small village in India is manipulated by a scumbag politician her entire life. He makes everyone believe that she is a goddess to help him win votes in elections. I’m surprised I made it through the entire book because at times I was just plain bored, or the writing was getting on my nerves. Just when I was about to abandon it there would be some twist and I’d get sucked back in… I didn’t really love it though and wouldn’t recommend it overall.
37. The Crying Tree by Naseem Rakha
Oh. My. God. This book was AMAZING. I can’t even do it justice by trying to give you a plot synopsis, but I can tell you that you should make it a point to read this book. I finished it in about a day – I just couldn’t put it down. Fantastic.
38. Brailling for Wile by James Zerndt
This book was just weird. The beginning started out so well, and then the more time went on, it was just odd. I had trouble keeping track of some of the characters (because names were thrown out there with such little character development you couldn’t remember who they were supposed to be). The characters that you did know were just weird (uh, hello, Helyana). I was glad when the book was over…
39. Sold by Patricia McCormick
A 13 year old Nepali girl is sold into sex slavery by her gambling step father. She thinks she is going to work as a maid in the city, but instead finds herself in a brothel where it’s nearly impossible for her to escape. This was a quick read (I started it around 1:15 today, and here I am blogging about the books I’ve read the past two weeks at 3:07 pm). It’s a heavy topic but soooo beautifully written. Almost like poetry. Definitely recommend this one..
31. It Isn’t Cheating if He’s Dead by Julie Frayn
I was unimpressed by this book, and it had way too much sex in it for me (I just don’t enjoy reading sex scenes in books, and not because I’m a prude, trust me). The main character’s husband, who has schizophrenia, disappears for years. Finally he turns up, murdered, but the woman has trouble letting go. Meanwhile, she starts to fall in love with the officer who has been in charge of the case…
32. Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov
A writer gets a job for a newspaper creating obituaries for famous people who are not yet dead. Meanwhile, the people he is writing these obituaries for start dying shortly after he completes his work. With a few other twists thrown in – the main character is responsible for an Emperor penguin that he rescued from the zoo, and a six year old daughter of an acquaintance,
I had a little bit of trouble with the writing style of this book, but it could’ve been the translation. It wasn’t as funny as I had hoped and I was a little confused at parts, but it wasn’t completely unenjoyable.
33. All That is Solid Melts into Air by Darragh McKeon
I had trouble getting into this book initially because it is very wordy, but I’m glad I stuck with it because I really enjoyed the story. It follows several different characters all impacted by the Chernobyl disaster. For some reason I have a strange interest in this topic, partly because I just can’t wrap my head around how the Soviet Union dealt with the aftermath (hiding it from their people, hiding it from the world, cover up cover up cover up). I felt the ending was a little abrupt and it didn’t finish the story line for all of the characters, so I was a little miffed at that, but overall I really liked it. The essay at the end is also definitely worth reading.
I can’t remember some of these books so there will be little review and more of a gut reaction to the book.
24 – The Dirty Parts of the Bible by Sam Torode
AH-MAZE-ZA-ZING. I loved this book – laugh out loud funny. Highly recommend.
25 – No Hope for Gomez by Graham Parke
It was cute and funny, although odd.
26 – Roadwalkers by Shirley Ann Grau
Mehhhh it was okay.
27 – We Are Called to Rise by Laura McBride
LOOOOVE. So good.
28 – The California Club by Belinda Jones
Silly for sure. I really wanted her to end up with Joel tbh.
29 – Sentence of Marriage by Shayne Parkinson
Difficult to get into, but kind of interesting I guess.
30 – To Sir, With Love by E.R. Braithwaite
I wasn’t a fan of the actual writing… but I found the story fairly interesting.
I’ve been reading up a storm and not sharing the dirty deets with you all. My apologies… Sorrynotsorry.
Anyways, some of these I read so. long. ago. I don’t really remember much. From that and being lazy I may or may not include anything past the title and author.
16 – The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer
The description likened this book to the Time Traveler’s Wife. I disagree… it wasn’t as good. But still good. Interesting to say the least.
17 – Take Me With You by Catherine Ryan Hyde
What’s to say? I love her. I love her books. This one was an interesting concept, although unlikely.
18 – The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
A woman who is essentially incapable of doing anything but lying in bed gets a pet snail. She spends all day observing said snail and reading about snail behavior. It was more information about snails than I thought it would be. I personally find snails kind of fascinating so I liked it, but it was a little slow. And probably very boring to most people.
19 – Leaving Las Vegas by John O’Brien
I had heard the end was incredibly tragic and I think it was built up too much for me. By the time I got to the end, it didn’t seem as outrageous as I had expected. Regardless, I liked the book.
20 – Bird in Hand by Christina Baker Kline
Once I got into this book it really wrapped me up and I couldn’t put it down.
21 – Take a Load Off, Mona Jamborski by Joanna Franklin Bell
If you ever watch/like My 600 Pound Life, you will love this book. I don’t love that show (I find it scary and depressing) but this book was really incredible. Crazy, yes, but I loved it.
22 – Pam of Babylon by Suzanne Jenkins
This book was very odd. A man dies unexpectedly and his wife finds out some twists and surprises about her late husband’s life. I liked the book enough, but the author switched perspectives between 3 characters so abruptly sometimes I’d be halfway into their inner monologue thinking it was someone else. It was confusing. Apparently she wrote a ton of sequels to this book, which I am sure was a mistake… and I certainly won’t be reading them.
23 – Slip by David Estes
OH. MY. GOD. This book was INCREDIBLE!! In future America, the country is low on resources. To combat over population, you must apply to the government to have a child. Only once someone else has died will you be allowed to have a child. Slips are children who are born illegally and continue to live under the radar. The story is about the head of Population Control and his son, who is a Slip. This book was riveting… I couldn’t put it down. Wouldn’t be surprised if this gets turned into a movie soon.
That’s all for now, folks!
11 – Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight
A single mother is distraught when her only child commits suicide by jumping off the roof of her school. Until she gets an anonymous message that she didn’t jump…
A very sad but captivating story. At times there were parts of the school setting/protocol/administrative decisions made that I just didn’t believe could ever be true… but I was easily wrapped up in this story.
12 – The Bucolic Plauge by Josh Kilmer-Purcell
A true story of two NYC men decide to purchase a mansion in the country and become weekend farmers.
I loved this book. At first I was reluctant to read it, thinking it was going to be kind of meh… It was a recommendation from my boyfriend’s mother. But I was not disappointed. One of the more interesting parts, surprisingly enough, was when Josh was recounting the harsh times faced when the economy tanked in the early 2000’s. I guess I forgot just how bad it was… it depressed me. I was so glad for the happy ending.
13 – The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow by Rita Leganski
A magical realist story about a boy who gains incredibly acute hearing capabilities but loses the ability to use his voice. Bonaventure’s father was murdered before he was born, but the ghost of his father comes to visit and through Bonaventure helps to accomplish his unfinished business.
At times I felt like the story was somewhat oddly written… Not disjointed, but just awkward? I’m not really sure. Regardless, I did love the story. The characters were so interesting, the end was so satisfying (and shocking). It was just a really excellent story. Even through the awkwardly written parts.
14 – The Uncanny Valley by Gregory Miller
A compilation of stories about Uncanny Valley, PA, supposedly collected through a radio contest created by NPR. The prologue states that the 33 entries from this one particular town came in with only the postmark “Uncanny Valley, PA) on them. Perhaps it was an elaborate hoax, the author states.
I read the stories and I’m not sure what to think. The prologue had me so intrigued and I couldn’t wait to read the entries. As I read them I realized this whole thing was completely made up – based on both the content of the stories and the way they were written (the ones supposedly submitted by children: yeah, no. Kids don’t write like that…). The stories were short and eerie, but not really scary. I read this book in a couple of hours, so it was a fast read. But I don’t know that I would particularly recommend it.
15 – The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman
I don’t know how to describe this book because it was so complex, but I really, thoroughly enjoyed it. It is definitely a tragedy, and perhaps I’m just overly emotional at the moment, but I cried at many points throughout the book. It was truly heartbreaking at times, surprising at others, and romantic in a very different way than you would expect. Pete was probably my favorite character, and Mimi is the human form of Kevin Henkes’s Lilly.
Just read that book and you’ll understand what I mean…
9. The Island by Jen Minkman
A dystopian novella about an island where parents send their children away from the village at age 10, not to return until they’ve “grown up” and found a spouse. No one ever leaves or comes to the island.
On the other half of the island, there is another village of people who believe there is something beyond the water. They are called the Fools by the first group.
I enjoyed this story a lot, although I wish it had been fleshed out more and made into a full novel. The idea is really intriguing. It just went so fast, and I didn’t want to read sequels… I just wanted more out of the book.
10. Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
Quite the opposite of the last. Simply put, a group of monarchs winter on a farm in rural Tennessee, setting off a series of events that change the lives of many in the town.
This is the first Kingsolver book I’ve read and all I can say is her writing is dense! The story was excellent. It took me a minute to get into it, but once I did I got really swept up in the story.
Usually I am a fan of truthful, believable endings over happy ones, but I was slightly disappointed by Dellarobia’s decision in the end. It makes perfect sense, of course, but somehow deep down I wished she would’ve found a way to love and accept her husband for the man he was.
I finished this one last night, so technically I read 9 1/2 books in January. Off to a good start!
niennie