June was a prolific reading month for me… it felt like I read ALL THE BOOKS. In reality, I read 10, which is the most I can remember ever reading in one month. Considering how much I traveled this month for school-related things, I’m impressed that I managed to find time for 10 novels (and not many short ones either)!
That being said, I definitely gravitated towards more fluffy books. The heavier books that I did read didn’t go over well, and it was probably because I wasn’t in the right frame of mind. Summer hit me hard, y’all, and I just didn’t want to read the deep stuff I planned on tackling this summer.
Of course, because I read 10 books this month, I ended up being 14 books ahead on my Goodreads Challenge. It bothered me, because 70 books was obviously not an effective goal anymore. Sure, it was attainable, but it wasn’t effective in pushing me, and I was worried that I would end the year not wanting to read and saving books for my 2019 challenge. So I upped my goal to 90! And now I’m only 3 books ahead and still feeling the pressure. Hopefully I can keep up with this pace once the school year starts back up again! (PS. If you want a list of all of the books I’ve read, you can definitely check out My Year in Books page!)
Books are listed in the order they were read. For more mini-reviews, check out my What I Read tag.
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Premise: This sweeping novel follows the descendants of Maame, who had two children that never knew each other. Each chapter introduces a new character in the lineage, and you go back and forth between ancestry lines. In the end, the novel spans 7 generations and hundreds of years.
My Rating: 4 Stars
Thoughts: I know I keep saying that the book I’m reading is unlike anything I’ve ever read before, but this novel is unlike anything I’ve ever read before. The concept of following lineages and seeing how one ancestor’s decision impacted the future generations really struck me. Don’t get me wrong; this novel was HARD. Slavery and Jim Crow America and African wars are not easy topics, and I often found myself having to put down the book after reading only one chapter so that I could really absorb and process what I had just read. That being said, this was an amazing novel, and, I think, so necessary.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who enjoys historical fiction. Anyone interested in African history. Anyone looking for a unique read.
Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King
Premise: After her best friend dies, Vera spends a large amount of time ruining her life and ignoring her best friend’s ghost, before finally succumbing in the last 50 pages and revealing everything that could have been solved in the first 5 pages.
My Rating: 2.5 Stars
Thoughts: Did my summary of the book sound a bit snotty? Sorry. I get that this book won the Printz award, but I really, really don’t see why? The things I liked: multiple points of view and the alternate timelines, the conflicted parents, and Vera’s job and coworkers. But also, this book was a lot of sex and curse words and drugs and penises. Why did Charlie feel the need to sell his dirty underwear to an old dude? What was with the random one-time conversation that Vera has with her mom? Why did there need to be a white supremeicist? Why did all of the animals have to die? There was a lot of stereotyping and cliché characters and I just…. couldn’t look past it. I didn’t hate it, but I found a lot of it repetitive and unnecessary and like it was just trying too hard.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who likes YA. Anyone looking for alternate timeline books. Anyone wanting to prove me wrong.
Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah
Premise: Tully and Kate become best friends in 1974 when Kate discovers the truth about Tully’s mom, and they were inseparable ever since. Life events take them apart, and misunderstandings come between them them, but their friendship is something stronger than can be broken with words.
My Rating: 4 Stars
Thoughts: I’M GOING TO NEED A MOMENT TO RECOVER. This novel… I had such low hopes for it. Don’t get me wrong. I LOVED Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale. But this book is about friends. And it’s not in a war-torn country. But it is Kristin Hannah, and I should have known better.
I expected this book to be fluff, and it was, to an extent. A lot of the book felt like a journey through nostalgic pasts (which it was, really). I couldn’t get into it for a while. But then Kate and Tully got older, and their problems became more serious, and I absolutely could not put it down. By the end, I was sobbing like a baby, which is saying something, because I rarely cry when reading. Be prepared for tears when you read this one.
Who Should Read It: People who want to cry. People who love friendship stories. People who want to take a journey.
Final Girls by Riley Sager
Premise: Quincy is one of the three infamous “Final Girls” — girls who survived massacres by fighting their way out. When Lisa, the first Final Girl is found dead, and Sam, the second Final Girl, shows up on Quincy’s doorstep, Quincy is forced to relive the trauma she survived so many years ago.
My Rating: 3 Stars
Thoughts: If, on page 150, you asked me what rating I would give the book I’d say a generous 1.5. The first two thirds of the book are slow and obvious (painstakingly obvious). So why three stars? The last one third of the book picks up and moves and you start questioning all of the things you were sure about, but… I still guessed the ending. And I NEVER guess endings of books.
Also, I did not connect to Quincy at all. I thought she was stupid, mistrusting of the right people, too trusting of the wrong people, and all around angry (although, I guess I would be too if I had survived everything she survived, but STILL). The writing on this just wasn’t what I was hoping for. If you’re looking for a thriller, I can direct you to some good ones, but this one just didn’t do it for me.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who wants a thriller. Anyone who likes a mystery.
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
Premise: A.J. Fikry is the owner of a bookstore on a small, secluded island. After his wife dies, he struggles to find meaning, but through a series of events, his life is turned around.
My Rating: 4 Stars
Thoughts: This book has been on my To Read list forever, and I’m glad I finally picked it up. I love books with persnickety characters, and this novel was just sort of adorable. A.J.’s heart grows 10 sizes in this book, and it’s so beautiful and lovely to watch.
For the book lovers especially, this novel is just a joy to read. Each chapter begins with A.J. discussing a short story that he loved, which made me so happy, and I loved all of the references made to various novels. This is a book that I wish would have been 200 pages longer so that I could have settled in with the characters (and get their reading lists)!
Who Should Read It: Anyone looking for a light read. Anyone who loves books about books. Anyone who loved A Man Called Ove.
Circe by Madeline Miller
Premise: The goddess Circe is exiled to a remote island after revealing her ability to perform witchcraft. Over the course of centuries, she encounters many mortals who would change the course of her life.
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Thoughts: This novel was an epic to rival Odysseus’s. We follow Circe from her birth to the end of her story. Just like with Miller’s The Song of Achilles, there are many liberties taken with the story, so if you are a Greek mythology purest, you may find some things in here you don’t like. That being said, I really enjoyed the slow meandering of this novel. It was told in first person past tense, which I thought was an interesting choice — it felt like I was sitting at Circe’s fireplace, listening to her weave tales of her life.
My favorite parts of this novel were Circe’s musings on life and immortality. Her views on being a human, a mortal, really struck me and made me think about our fragility in ways I hadn’t really considered before. I enjoyed it, but there were many parts that moved so very slowly, and this book took much longer to read than I anticipated.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who likes Greek mythology. Anyone interested in a (slightly feminist) retelling of a classic story. Anyone looking for a leisurely read.
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray (Gemma Doyle series #1)
Premise: After Gemma’s mother was murdered in , Gemma is shipped off to a private boarding school for young ladies. While there, she’s expected to learn about how to become a good wife, but she as she learns more about her family’s past, she realizes that her life is much different from the people around her.
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Thoughts: This novel was a historical fiction feminist gothic magical realism YA love story about coming of age, and I think it did everything it tried to do well. Set in 1895, this book is all about subverting the future people expect for you and making your own path, which I LOVE. Gemma and her friends must navigate their parents’ expectations, society’s expectations, and their own wishes and desires, which is still a common theme in actually being a teenager. They also have to figure out how to access and control an ancient magical realm, which is not a common theme in being a teenager, but I enjoyed it.
Despite some of the dark themes (and surprising deaths) in this novel, it still felt light and quick. I’ll probably pick up the rest of this series later when I need an easy read to run through.
Who Should Read It: Anyone looking for a quick YA series. Anyone who enjoys magical realism. Anyone looking for an old school story with some very current themes.
The Four Agreements by don Miguel Ruiz
Premise: When we are born, we live in a dream, but as we get older, society takes us out of that dream with “agreements” or rules we feel we must live by. As we get older, we assign agreements to ourselves — truths we believe about ourselves and internal rules that we set ourselves to follow. This book explains the four agreements that we should set for ourselves as a way to free ourselves from our own expectations.
My Rating: 2.5 Stars
Thoughts: The premise sounds great, right? But that’s about all you need to know about this book. The introduction was interesting and eye opening, but the four agreements that follow were generally “duh” and not very eye-opening. The first one, Be Impeccable With Your Word, was the only one that really stood out to me as something I should try to remember. Don’t gossip, don’t degrade yourself, speak positivity into the world. The other three agreements (Don’t Take Anything Personally, Don’t Make Assumptions, and Always Do Your Best) were obvious and… not that enlightening. Plus, I found the book to be very repetitive and the examples to be very simplified and unrealistic. I could see this being helpful to someone who has never read personal development books or gone to therapy, but it just wasn’t for me.
Who Should Read It: Anyone looking for a release from self-doubt. Anyone with low self-esteem. Anyone needing a reminder.
Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughn
Premise: *Trigger Warning: Rape* James, an Eton and Oxford graduate, has gotten everything he wants in life. But when he has an affair with his employee, his life starts spinning out of control. Taken along for the ride is James’s beautiful wife, Sophie, and Kate, a lawyer who must convince a jury of James’s wrongdoing. James finds that his past may catch up with him more than he expects.
My Rating: 4.5 Stars
Thoughts: I am such a sucker for a legal drama and a story told from multiple points of view and from multiple timelines, and this one fits the bill. We see Kate’s first person point-of-view, and James and Sophie and Holly’s third person points-of-view. Kate is firmly in the present, while the other characters flit between the present and 1993 on Oxford’s campus. The twisting and turning of their points-of-view really help the story unfold.
This is one of my favorite mystery novels that I’ve read this year. It was chilling without being outlandish, it was different from anything else I’ve read, and it was realistic to the point of it being scary. While there was some rambling on by the author that I didn’t particularly like (3 pages to describe how James gets from his office to the courtyard?), there were so many that I did — expositions on women and the role we play in society, commentary on life circumstances and privilege, and the nature of truth — all of these resonated with me strongly.
Who Should Read It: Anyone wanting a good mystery. Anyone who enjoys legal dramas. Anyone who loves nonlinear timelines.
Rebel Angels by Libba Bray (Gemma Doyle series #2)
Premise: Gemma Doyle continues on her quest from A Great and Terrible Beauty. It is now Christmastime, and on a brief respite from Spence, she, Felicity, and Ann must figure out how to protect the realms from Circe.
My Rating: 4 Stars
Thoughts: So I actually enjoyed this novel more than the first one in the series. The setting of London in Christmastime was enchanting, and I loved hearing all of the fashions and trends from 1895. The story line was also easier to follow, and there were more surprises and less exposition of the characters, which I enjoyed. Overall, if you read A Great and Terrible Beauty, I recommend following up with this one as well.
Who Should Read It: Anyone who read A Great and Terrible Beauty. Anyone who enjoys magical realism. Anyone interested in historical YA.
What do you think? Did I miss the mark on any of these? Are there some that you are excited to read? Leave a comment below!
