It would hardly be a family holiday get-together if someone didn’t end up sick afterward, so naturally the post-Thanksgiving festivities over here have included Forrest being up half the night with a fever and terrible cough. He’s spent the whole morning so far catatonic on the couch, staring blankly at The Justice League on Netflix, and gets a little emotional if I wander more than 18 inches away from him. So this month’s book ratings and reviews will be a tad shorter than usual—any minute now, he’s bound to realize I’m not in the same room as him and lose his mind over it.
Bread and Wine (Shauna Niequist) Nothing but love for this memoir about family, friends, and the food that brings them together. I wrote a full post about it HERE.
Still Alice (Lisa Genova) This story of an accomplished college professor’s descent into early-onset Alzheimer’s is made especially unique and heart-breaking since it’s told from her own point of view—you truly feel her confusion and anger. Just try and get through it without convincing yourself you also have Alzheimer’s.
The Archived (Victoria Schwab) This story about The Archive, a library containing the ‘imprints’ and memories of everyone who has ever lived and died, had all sorts of promise and potential, then went absolutely nowhere. Big waste of a cool idea.
In the Woods (Tana French) After reading (and loving) The Likeness a few months ago, I was eager to get my hands on this one, a mystery about a young girl’s murder being investigated by the sole survivor of a similar disappearance in the same area 20 years before. I have mixed feelings about this—I definitely enjoyed it, but grew increasingly frustrated with the characters as I worked my way through, and the ending was wildly unsatisfying. Also, just a heads up: there is lots of swearing, if that bothers you, and it’s rather grisly (which I suppose you’d expect from a murder mystery).
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire & Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (J.K. Rowling) I’ve been working my way through the Harry Potter audiobooks, and I’m honestly a little depressed about nearing the end of the series. The audiobooks are absolutely fantastic—even the 5th book, which I believe is the only one in the series that I only read once because I thought Harry acted like such an obnoxious emo dimwit the whole time, was better than I remembered.
The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook (Deb Perelman) I feel a little silly including a cookbook in my monthly reading, but this one is so well done that you can curl up and enjoy it like a novel. I haven’t tried any of the recipes from it (yet!) and am not even a reader of the blog (yet!), but it was such a pleasure to read.
What did you read this month?
I have had Still Alice on my TBR list for ages. I hope I can make it through without convincing myself I have Alzheimer's! Yikes!
ReplyDeleteI hate books that in theory are such great ideas but the execution is a total flop. I'll probably skip The Archived.
I hated the fifth book in Harry Potter. I'm with you on thinking that Harry acts like a an "obnoxious emo dimwit." Everything he did frustrated me and I have yet to read it for a second time. Although, that doesn't really mean much in my case because I haven't ever re-read the sixth or seventh books either. I'm not really sure why I haven't. Maybe I just can't live through Dumbledore dying again?
Even though I knew it was coming, I still got teary when Dumbledore died this time around. And I think the later books in the series are harder to love--they're just so much heavier than the early ones.
ReplyDelete