Gemma

I really enjoyed my experience with this book. One of my goals for 2020 was to read more non-fiction, particularly history, and this was one of my top contenders for the year.

Firstly, I have studied very little history and while I learnt about WWI in school we did not cover WWII. So it was really interesting and enlightening to read about the transition period. The accounts go chronologically and come from a variety of walks of life. As another reviewer said, the fresh feeling of the letters and diary entries kept me very engaged and focused.

I would say that as someone who knows absolutely nothing about the time period, I could have done with reading a few other texts to get a better grasp of the major players of the time. A lot of information is packed into this book, and I am looking forward to re-reading it when I have a better base knowledge.

A genuine surprise, but I stan Mr Knightly now.

I need to go ahead and read the rest of Jane Austen's novels, because so far I've enjoyed them all!!

I really enjoyed my experience with this book. One of my goals for 2020 was to read more non-fiction, particularly history, and this was one of my top contenders for the year.

Firstly, I have studied very little history and while I learnt about WWI in school we did not cover WWII. So it was really interesting and enlightening to read about the transition period. The accounts go chronologically and come from a variety of walks of life. As another reviewer said, the fresh feeling of the letters and diary entries kept me very engaged and focused.

I would say that as someone who knows absolutely nothing about the time period, I could have done with reading a few other texts to get a better grasp of the major players of the time. A lot of information is packed into this book, and I am looking forward to re-reading it when I have a better base knowledge.

Castle Coeurlieu by Naomi Novik
The Red-Rimmed Eyes of T??u M?? by Aidan Moher
The Hedgewitch by Sarah Beth Durst

The only story I truly loved was the one by Novik, but I enjoyed the other two to a degree. I branched out of my usual wheelhouse to read a short story collection and I don't really feel like I liked the experience. I own a couple other Unfettered and Unbound books, which I will try.

This one was recommended by my book club, and I knew absolutely nothing about it. It turned out to be a phenomenal surprise.

The book is set in Scotland, and it really felt like it was written by someone who had either spent a lot of time here or was Scottish. This is the first time I've read accurate Scottish speech on the page and I felt so seen. The audio book is also top notch in terms of accents.

At the beginning of the story, Eleanor is absolutely, determinedly F-I-N-E with her life, her complete lack of friends and the limited contact she has with others. Eleanor's story pulls no punches, and we get an intimate look into her life as she begins to branch out and connect with the people she works with.

Another re-read from my younger years, which I enjoyed. The audiobook elevated the experience as it was a full cast production. I really enjoyed the performances and the story while being short has proven to be memorable as I could still remember the plot fairly well after 10 years.

I picked up Americanah as part of my bookclub as one of the members had used it in their dissertation and was excited to share it with us. I'd heard a lot about this book through booktube, but I never thought I'd pick it up myself. I don't read a lot of literary fiction and I already own quite a few that I haven't got to yet. I listened to the audiobook, which I would highly recommend. I really liked the narrator's voice and it made the listening experience so lovely.

PLOT ???????????????
As with most literary fiction, we are going for a deep dive into Ifemelu's life and relationships. But I found the plot of Americanah to be much easier to read because there was an inciting incident that we remained firmly in the midst of throughout the book. Ifemelu decides after thirteen years in America that she misses her home, and moves back to Nigeria.

CHARACTERS ???????????????
I wasn't that interested in Ifemelu's relationship with Obinze, which was the main reason I couldn't connect to the story. I found so much of Ifemelu's life interesting that Obinze didn't really rank high enough on that list for me to care about. Ifemelu's blog posts added a more informal style of writing which was interspersed, and I really liked those breaks.

OVERALL ???????????????
All in all, this is a well crafted book that probably just isn't to my taste. I can't really say anything bad about it, I just didn't love it.

Read for my IRL Bookclub.I don't really pick up historical fiction, so I was pushing myself out of my usual interests. I was completely wrapped up in the main relationship in the book (and I loved discussing it with my book club).

This book hurt to read. It was painfully real, and the characters felt like people I could lift off the page into reality. Some of the development that is revealed along the course of the book really added to the dimensions of the plot and the characters simultaneously.

This was an incredibly crafted story; it didn't miss a beat. It is just shy of a five star book for me, and I strongly recommend it. Depending on how much the story stays with me I may even bump it up.

Vox is dystopian America where women can only use 100 words a day, and are heavily policed. Jean is an Italian-American woman whose life has been irrevocably tore in two by this law. Her life before was full as a neuro-linguist, married with four children. Now she feels adrift in life as she struggles to live her new life.

I'm not going to share anything else about the plot because I want you to pick this book up as I did, completely blind as to the details. I devoured the book in a day and I could not wait for the next chapter, the next clue as so what was going to happen. I don't think I really knew what was going to happen next at any point through the book. All of the chapters are short, and really kept me engaged with every page turn.

I didn't expect to love this, because it was similar in concept to The Power by Naomi Alderman. However, this book was executed in the way I expected The Power to be, so it suited me much more. I'd really like to read more of this type of story, so I will have to keep a lookout.

I picked this one up as the first installation in a book club between friends, suggested by a member as it is her favourite book ever. It is fairly outside of my usual wheelhouse, so reading something different was a refreshing experience. This is a young adult book following Cadence, who is missing memories of a summer two years ago due to an accident.

Every summer her family descends on their private island, and the firm hierarchy of the family becomes constricting again. I really like the glimpses of family interactions between the aunts, especially the different tactics they use to one up each other. There is a lot of passive aggression, backhanded manoeuvring and using their children as weapons. I thought this was the most realistic aspect of this story because I have seen it in real life. It really helped the book for me, because otherwise I think I would have felt like I could not relate or emphasise with the characters.

This family is unfathomably rich, and it genuinely didn't feel real to me. This was worsened because the main characters are teens, but really don't read like teens. One character constantly mentions “sexual intercourse”, and they never contract their sentences (I am versus I'm). This really added to the surreal vibe, which did intensify the atmosphere. The book also took the time to touch on important topics such as privilege and racism, but I don't feel like it really did much with it.

All in all, I think this is a well crafted book and I can't deny the quality. If you are into contemporary or literary fiction this book could do well for you. I didn't personally resonate with the book, but I can see why so many do.

I picked this one up as the first installation in a book club between friends, suggested by a member as it is her favourite book ever. It is fairly outside of my usual wheelhouse, so reading something different was a refreshing experience. This is a young adult book following Cadence, who is missing memories of a summer two years ago due to an accident.

Every summer her family descends on their private island, and the firm hierarchy of the family becomes constricting again. I really like the glimpses of family interactions between the aunts, especially the different tactics they use to one up each other. There is a lot of passive aggression, backhanded manoeuvring and using their children as weapons. I thought this was the most realistic aspect of this story because I have seen it in real life. It really helped the book for me, because otherwise I think I would have felt like I could not relate or emphasise with the characters.

This family is unfathomably rich, and it genuinely didn't feel real to me. This was worsened because the main characters are teens, but really don't read like teens. One character constantly mentions “sexual intercourse”, and they never contract their sentences (I am versus I'm). This really added to the surreal vibe, which did intensify the atmosphere. The book also took the time to touch on important topics such as privilege and racism, but I don't feel like it really did much with it.

All in all, I think this is a well crafted book and I can't deny the quality. If you are into contemporary or literary fiction this book could do well for you. I didn't personally resonate with the book, but I can see why so many do.

This was a delightfully quick read, which I was in need of after hitting a small slump. I found the writing to be a bit bland to read, but I suspect that was due to the author trying to convey the lack of emotions of some of the characters. This was a good thriller, and I would have given it four stars if the ending had not left me feeling unsatisfied. I understood the twists, and I really liked the idea of them, but I think if they had been revealed more gradually (over 20% of the book versus 10%) the impact of the individual twists would have hit me more. I will say that I only saw about half of the twists coming, and even then I wasn't really sure.

A genuinely engaging and surprising read, but not a favourite of the genre so far.

Sharp Objects is my first Gillian Flynn novel, but not my fist experience of her work. I watched Gone Girl and was hopelessly confused. Not by the plot, but I had read a review before seeing the film that desibed it as a feminist work of art. After seeing the film I had to conclude it was one of the greater thrillers I'd seen, but that blogpost about its feminist contributions must have been satire.

I read Sharp Objects for my bookclub, on my suggestion. I was expecting a typical detective style thriller where the big twist was that the reporter we were following was much more closely connected to the story that we expected. A lot of thrillers follow this pattern, but I really wasn't expecting the twists and flavour that Flynn put on that storyline. The plot took such a rapid increase in tension towards the end of the book that I flew through the pages. The story was captivating and horrifying; I almost didn't believe the ending once I had read it.

For this book, I would have to say that while I enjoyed the reading experience I would have preffered a longer book. I think that some of the plot elements would have benefitted from more time before the reveal, and that Flynn's writing was so gripping that I could have easily read double that pagecount. I'd like to go on to read all of her stories, especially as I hear so many great things said about her as an author.

I genuinely loved this book for many different reasons. Firstly, I know the history of how the States came to be (a little), but the specifics of it all isn't something I'm familiar with. I really enjoyed and appreciated a closer look into the life, and variations of a life, you might expect living in different states in that time period. I love the closeness we feel to Cora, in fact, I found her to be an endearing character. I really resonated with her struggle with her relationship with her mother, the sudden moments of anger she felt and admired how human she felt at times.

Similarly, the book struck a really strong emotional chord with me throughout. I really feel like this book was the one that made me feel the most this year.

I never thought I would enjoy a Liane Moriarty novel, after I hated The Husband's Secret (?????? ?????????). In that a particular story, I found the reveal came too quickly and the writing wasn't strong enough to support the story. However, in this novel I really enjoyed the writing. The style of the book lends itself well to the writing, as it is all written through the speculation of 3 unreliable narrators. At the end of chapters there was a brief summary of the gossip going about.

The novel is a similar construction as to The Husband's Secret, where it follows 3 women who know each other because their children all attend the same school. Drama flies about the school after one child is accused of bullying; while the chapter titles count down to the school trivia night, where something horrible has occurred.

I feel like this was the novel The Husband's Secret was meant to be, but seeing as this came only a year after according to goodreads publication dates I'm surprised the quality improved so quickly. I highly recommend this one, and I'm delighted I've finished now and I can watch the tv show.

I picked up The Essex Serpent in an effort to start reading more literary works. That effort paid off, and the habit persisted even if the original book did not. I began this novel in early January and am finally calling it quits in July at 70%.

There is nothing to fault with the novel itself. The characters, setting and relationships are all interesting and I genuinely enjoyed reading the book every time I picked it up. The brush of the unknown, magical elements within the story really improved the concept. I'm giving the book a solid four stars due to how much I enjoyed the book when I originally started it. However, after having left it for so long the plot was hard to remember and my interest in the book have faded, so it remains an unfinished four stars. I have every belief that a reread will be a successful four or five stars.

Wow. I adored The Martian and read it within one day, raved about it to anyone who would listen and devoured that movie. I even considered listening to the audiobook after all that because I loved the book that much and I really don't enjoy audiobooks.

I wish I'd never picked Artemis up. Jazz wasn't written as a human being so much as the author's idea of a wisecracking protagonist. I could go on for a long rant about how your female characters should be noticeably female in a way that isn't the character or other characters talking about shagging her. Or how MCs who can do everything they need to do with ease isn't interesting or fun to read, especially if they over explain what they're doing while narrating. Or any other of the aspects to this book.

Basically I don't think there were any redeeming features to this book. 300 pages of absolute guff.

I picked up The Husband's Secret because I'd been recommended it by a friend at work. I quite like domestic thrillers (or simply thrillers in general) when I'm in a reading slump. And this book did just the trick!

I enjoyed the story, although the big reveal came altogether too early in the plot I think. The characters were enjoyable and felt real. The ending felt a bit like a cop-out with all the endings neatly tied away. And we're not going to talk about the epilogue, because as far as I'm concerned that ruined the book.

3.5 stars

When I picked up The Roanoke Girls, I was in a rut with many aspects of like. Particularly reading, as I was completely failing my reading challenge and couldn't seem to finish any book I picked up.

The Roanoke Girls is a compelling, creepy read that is different to the thrillers I've read before. In a refreshingly new take on a mystery novel, I both knew the creepy twists that were coming and simultaneously was desperate to find out more.

If that doesn't intrigue you, I finished the book in under 2 hours.

Circe has given me the taste for retellings of ancient myths, because this was a beautiful story. It follows the life of a young daughter of Helios and all of the men who enter and leave her life.

The writing is simple yet powerful and I really appreciated how it let the story stand on it's own. I felt deeply connected to Circe throughout the plot, which particularly impressed me as I read this book with almost a months gap between the first two thirds and reading the last third. When I picked the story back up only a small reminder of the plot was required and I quickly fell back into the world and sensation of reading this book.

I definitely recommend this book if you are interested, and will investigate Miller's other novels to tide me by until her next release.