Here are my goodreads reviews. If you’re on goodreads, add me as a friend so I can see your books too! I also have an instagram account where I join my love of reading with my love of art.
Clap When you Land (4 stars): I love Acevedo’s books. I’ve loved The Poet X and With the Fire on High. And I loved Clap When You Land. I love the rhythm of her books. I love her characters. I love the way her books make me feel. This is a very short book and Acevedo has a section at the end where she explains how she got inspired to write this story. Enjoyed my time with this one.
A Beautifully Foolish Endevour (3.5 stars): Sometimes you read a book at the wrong time for you. I think this was my issue with this book. I loved Green’s first book and really enjoyed the story and the writing. I was very much looking forward to the sequel. Even though I know he didn’t write it during 2020, this book is such a relevant book for 2020. The desire to escape and belong to a virtual reality is just so palpable this year when the real world is unfriendly to human activity.
And yet.
I felt like this book was too much, there were too many things crammed into it. There were too many POVs and not enough depth in any part cause there was just so so much going on. The social commentary was fantastic and I think there could have been two other books here instead of the one dense and shallow one.
Still love Hank Green and will continue to read anything he writes.
The Book of Hidden Wonders (4 stars): “In each room the crying sounded different. In the drawing room there were huge, racking sobs; in the bathroom quiet little whimpers.”
This is the story of Romily who lives in a ramshackle mansion in the English countryside with her artist father who writes picture books about Romily and her cat. These books a wildly popular and there’s a story that they contain a treasure hunt.
The book is a coming-of-age story for Romily as people looking for the treasure wander in the vicinity of her life, as her mother who abandoned her comes in and our of her life, as she befriends a local girl.
As the years pass, and Romily finally uncovers the treasure, she is left to pickup the pieces of her life.
Even though the book is quite sad, I really enjoyed my time with it. I loved the visual elements and each of the characters were unique and interesting. I wish I knew more about the dad. Some really really beautiful writing and imagery in this story.
with gratitude to netgalley and harlequin publishing – Park Row for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
Reading People (4 stars): I have become obsessed with Personality Assessments a bit this summer so this was the perfect complimentary book for me. It is, in fact, the only book that has finally made me understand Myers Briggs enough to make my peace with it. I enjoyed Bogel’s writing very much. It’s the perfect combination of background history, information, and personal story. If personality tests interest you, too, you will love this book.
The Switch (4 stars): I read and loved Beth O’Leary’s The Flatshare last year, so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this story.
This is the story of Leena and her grandmother Eileen. Leena is deeply burned out and is required to take two-months off work when she blows a major presentation and Eileen is newly single and looking for both some fun and companionship in her life.
To help each other, they decide to switch homes for a while so Eileen can live in the bustling, urban London and Leena can relax in the quiet life of Eileen’s little neighborhood.
What I loved most about this book is how lovely both of the women were and how they each found ways to bloom where they were. Even though things don’t go as planned, of course, and they learn so much about themselves and what they really want, of course. And they get to see that the people they think they understood, maybe they didn’t understand as well as they thought. Even with all that, most of the moments of this story and happy, hopeful, and show you how strong both Eileen and Leena are.
How they have each other and other community to help and support them. And how they show up for the people around them, too. O’Leary knows how to create characters that stay with you.
This lovely book was made only more lovely by the narration of Alison Steadman and Daisy Edgar-Jones who play their parts beautifully and really make these characters come alive.
with gratitude to netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.
His & Hers (4 stars): Holy Wow!
I’ve never heard of or read any books by Alice Feeney before but the premise of this book sounded interesting to me so I decided I wanted to give it a try. It’s about a journalist, Anna, who goes back to her hometown to report about a murder. And Detective Jack who is also trying to uncover the truth while he’s embroiled in it himself.
This is a fast paced novel where the chapters alternate between him and her and the whole time you’re trying to figure out what’s going on and who did it. I am not usually a fan of twists or weird ways the author tries to manipulate the plot in books like these to make it hard to guess.
But in this case, Feeney managed to keep me interested and surprised without making me frustrated. She does an absolutely excellent job of keeping the reader on his/her toes. If you like fast-paced mysteries, you will love this one.
If audiobooks are your genre, this one is narrated by two actors: Richard Armitage & Stephanie Racine, which makes the audio quality excellent.
With gratitude to netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
The Nothing Man (3.5 stars): The premise of this book was absolutely fascinating to me. The chapters alternate between a book (within the book) where the author’s writing about a serial killer who’s murdered all of her family and others. The serial killer himself finds the book at a store and starts reading it so the alternating chapters are told by him as he reads this book and reacts to what he’s reading.
This book was great at first and great at the end with a bit of a slump in the middle, for me. As the details of the serial killer and the ways in which he killed all of his victims kept coming, I was pretty ready to put the book down but, of course, I kept wanting to see what was going to happen.
And I am glad I stuck with it. There were some twists I didn’t see coming and other twists I did see coming. The whole book came together really well in the end.
I read an audio version of this book narrated by Alana Kerr-Collins and John Keating and the two different voices really helped make the story more real.
with gratitude to netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.
And there we go, grateful to be reading.
Books I Read this Week 2020 is a year-long project for 2019. You can read more about my projects for 2020 here. I am also tracking my books in real time on Good Reads here. If you’re on Good Reads add me so I can follow you, too! I’ve also started an instagram account where I join my love of reading with my love of art.
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