What I Read: January-June 2018

Hi Everyone!

A bit of a different one from me today: this post is all about books.  More specifically, book reviews.  I have always been a lover of books, I remember going to the library with my Mum when I was little and also getting excited when we were allowed to choose a book from the book shop.  Over the past few years, though, I have got into a bit of a bad habit of surfing the web before bed instead of picking up a good book… I blame kids!  This year, however, I have set myself a challenge to read 20 books via my Good Reads account.  I am pleased to say that I am well on my way to achieving that.  I have also been helped by joining a virtual bookclub, which has helped me to pick up books that I maybe normally would not have.

I love hearing about other’s book recommendations, so I thought I would note here what I’ve been reading.  My plan is to update it every few months, to keep you guys in the know and to keep me reading!  Trying to foster a love of reading with my kids is a bit tricky – my son seems to have got the bug over the past few years, but my daughter less so.  Hopefully when she sees me reading more in my spare time, it will help.  Any tips to engage reluctant reader welcome!

Now, without further ado, here are my reads for the first part of this year – January-June 2018:

Maggie O’Farrell – This Must Be the Place

I really enjoyed this book about an American man living in the wilds of Ireland with a reclusive ex filmstar wife.  Things turn a bit tricky when he returns home for his estranged father’s birthday – the past comes back to haunt him with memories of a girl he once knew.  I love Maggie O’Farrell’s writing and the characters that she creates.  This book for me was heart-wrenching, I felt for all of the characters and wondered how the story was going to end.  It was a story about family, love and identity and I would recommend.

Rating: 4/5

Liane Moriarty – The Husband’s Secret

This book was one recommended by my virtual bookclub.  It is primarily about a woman called Cecilia, who finds a letter from her husband in an envelope worded ‘open in the event of my death’.  Only Cecilia’s husband has not died, and it contains a deep, dark secret about something that has happened in his past.  If this secret were to come out, it would change the lives of not only Cecilia and her husband, but also of Rachel and Tess – who hardly know Cecilia.  I found this book kept me entertained and it made me question what I would do if I was in the same situation.  I think that I would consider it more of a holiday read – one you can work through quickly and come away from feel satisfied with the outcome!

Rating 3.5/5

Erin Morgenstern – The Night Circus

This is another book from my virtual bookclub, though I had wanted to read it for a while before.  It is about a strange circus that only comes out at night (no surprise there!) and at the heart of the story is a duel between two young magicians who have been trained since their childhoods to the win.  Neither of them knows that only one can be left standing at the end and that the lives of all the characters hang in balance.  This book is about magic and love – it is elaborately and descriptively written and the many characters really bring it to life.  However, I unfortunately didn’t love it.  It took me a while to get into the story and the flamboyant writing style, with so much emphasis on magic and the unknown, just wasn’t for me.  I also found it a bit confusing in parts as it hopped back and forth in time,  I appreciate the fact that others might love exactly what I didn’t about the book.

Rating: 2.5/5

Celeste Ng – Everything I Never Told You

This book is about a teenage girl called Lydia, who has grown up in a Chinese American family in the 1970s.  When the family learns that Lydia has died by drowning in the local lake, a moving and sad story unravels about the expectations that can be placed on children, family secrets and really knowing and understanding your loved ones.  I loved this book and couldn’t put it down, highly recommended.

Rating: 5/5

Gail Honeyman – Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

Eleanor Oliphant lives her life the same way, day in, day out.  She is a loner without friends and struggles with social interaction.  Until she meets Raymond – an IT technician from work.  Together, Eleanor and Raymond help an elderly man who has fallen on the pavement.  This leads to unlikely friendships and Eleanor learning more about herself so that she can work through the troubled and damaging past that made her the way she is.  Again, I loved this book.  I loved Eleanor and I was rooting for her throughout.  This book made me both laugh out loud and cry.  Perfect.

Rating: 5/5

Betty Smith – A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

This book was written in 1943 and tells the story of Francie, a bright and resourceful girl who lives in the Brooklyn tenements in the early 1900s with her family.  It is a fantastic coming of age novel that emphasises family and love under the stresses of poverty, alcoholism and inequality.  I loved all the characters: Francie’s hardworking and straight talking Mother, her alcoholic but loving father and her ‘promiscuous’ Auntie, to name a few.  And of course, there is Francie: clever and imaginative, dreaming and using her books to escape. The woman in the story were all strong, the backbone of their families.  The tree that the title talks of is the one that Francie can see from her window, where she reads and daydreams.  A fantastic book that really opened my eyes to early 20th century America in New York; I could visualise it so well.

Rating: 5/5

Celeste NG – Little Fires Everywhere

The second book I read from this author.  It starts with a teenager burning her house down, and the story is of how we got to that point.  In the ‘perfect’ Shaker Heights, life is turned upside by the arrival of nomad artist, Mia Warren, and her daughter, Pearl, who weave their way into the community.  Elena Richardson, who employs Mia, is particularly rattled by Mia’s disregard for rules and mysterious past; it doesn’t help that Elena’s own children are drawn to both Mia and Pearl.  When the Richardson’s friends attempt to adopt a Chinese American baby and Mia and Elena are on opposing sides, tensions rise and Elena becomes determined to uncover Mia’s secrets.  Though this book didn’t hook me as much as the first Celeste Ng I read, I still really enjoyed it.  It is basically about dysfunctional families and Ng is so good at creating complex characters that you want to follow right to the end of the book and beyond.

Rating: 4/5

Jon McGregor – Reservoir 13

I read this book on a recommendation.  It chronicles the 13 years following the disappearance of a teen, who had been on holiday with her family in a small English village.  Though initially people are there to help and search, time does go on.  Seasons change and people move in and out of the village, going through their own lives.  This book is not a thriller or ‘who done it’, but instead a careful look at how a community changes over time.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t get into it; too many characters and I prefer a book with a plot and definite beginning, middle and end.  The descriptions of nature are lovely but, all and all, not my type of book.

Rating 2/5

Elizabeth Laird – Red Sky in the Morning

I bought this book for my 10 year old son to read, being young fiction, and ended up reading it myself!  It was a lovely, inspirational and emotional story.  The book is about Anna, the teenage narrator, and how she and her family deal with the reality of her baby brother being significantly disabled.  I really felt that the emotions described were so real and I loved the way that Anna grows in maturity as she moves from girl to young adult.  A really special book that I will be keeping and encouraging my kids to read as they get older!

Rating 4.5/5

Heather Morris – The Tattooist of Auschwitz

This is a true story of Lale and Gita Sokolov, who both were prisoners in Auschwitz when they met.  Lale had the job of tattooing the new arrivals – something that he hated doing, but it afforded him certain ‘perks’ that other prisoners didn’t have.  He used his freedom of movement to exchange jewels and money from murdered Jews for food to keep others alive.  This is also a love story; Lale meets Gita as he is her tattooer.  For him, it is love at first sight.  She falls in love with his zest for life and positive thinking, no matter the atrocities that they were living through.  I enjoyed this book but didn’t love it.  Perhaps because it was written as a story, I felt that the emotion wasn’t quite there, which is hard to say when it is talking about something so awful.  It does describe the horror of the concentration camp, but I would say that this was less graphic than other Holocaust novels.  Ultimately, I feel like it is a memoir of Lale’s life- the author really got across his determination to survive through love and positivity.

Rating: 4/5     

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I would love to hear if you have read any of these books and what you thought of them 🙂 Also if you have any books you really recommend, I am always up for new ideas.

Till next time,

 

 

 

Cover Photo by Florencia Viadana on Unsplash