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!
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!
3 – Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern
This novel tells the story of two high school seniors – a girl with cerebral palsy and a boy with OCD. They become friends as the boy works as a “peer helper” for the girl in effort to try and help her have a more “normal” high school experience. As time goes on they fall in love.
I loved this story Absolutely ate it up. At times the teacher in me was thinking, “NO SCHOOL WOULD ALLOW THIS! THIS IS RIDICULOUS!” but the story was so good that I ignored that side of me. A quick and captivating read!
4 – Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
I read this on my boyfriend’s mother’s recommendation but I did not really enjoy it. It wasn’t an awful book, but I just felt like the story had no point. It centers around the bubonic plague in England in one small town. Pretty much half the residents die. I felt like the story just droned on, and the end sexual encounters between the main character and the pastor just made me mad because I felt like it was cheap and unnecessary. Not too much of a fan of this one.
5 – The Neighbors by Ania Ahlborn
This was an odd book but it definitely kept me interested. A young man sets out on his own after spending his life taking care of his alcoholic grandmother. A childhood friend takes him in, and he moves to this wonderful neighborhood feeling like his luck is on the upswing. The gorgeous cougar next door has taken a vested interest in him. However there are strange things going on, and little does he know that beautiful lady is a psycho serial killer and her eyes are on him as her next victim!
I was reluctant to start this book because I get scared so easily, but I was still able to sleep at night after reading this. I enjoyed it but would only recommend to people who enjoy a dark side of literature.
6 – I Grew My Boobs in China by Savannah Grace
A memoir of a girl who as a teenager spent a year backpacking across Asia with her mother and older brother and sister. It was fascinating to learn about China and Mongolia through this book, especially because they did everything cheaply and went off the beaten path a lot. However, I can’t imagine anyone doing this to their teenage children, and am so thankful my parents aren’t into that kind of stuff because I would’ve freaked out if that had been my life.
The book became repetitive at times, especially since she made sure to include every detail of long train and bus rides, and how much fucking goat she ate in Mongolia… but it was a quick read.
7 – Unenchanted by Chanda Hahn
A young adult novel about a teenage girl who is a descendant of the Grimm Brothers and has inherited their curse – she must live through every fairy tale, and if she fails, the curse will be passed along to her next relative.
The story was very interesting, but I kind of just got tired of the high school drama… love story and all that. I also hoped that there would’ve been more tales packed into this book, but there really weren’t too many and even then they were allusions at best. Needless to say I will not be reading the sequels.
8 – Garden on Sunset by Martin Turnbull
A novel of old Hollywood when movies were just starting to have dialogue and sound in them. The book follows three characters – a wannabe writer, a wannabe reporter, and a wannabe actress who are all friends living at the Hotel on Sunset. I was immediately drawn into this book and could not put it down. It was interesting, fun, and well written. Highly recommend this one!!
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