I read Big Little Lies after putting it off for a year. I knew it would be similar to The Husband’s Secret and it was. It would be an okay read but nothing to write home about.

When I was in Zurich last December, I felt too tired to focus so I decided it was a good time to read this book. And i finished it while I was there. It was a fast, gripping read as most of hers are.

But my life didn’t really change because I read it.

Alas I don’t really regret it either.

So this one is up to you.

I have no idea why I read Leaving Time . I had sworn not to ever read another Jodi Picoult. I knew she has last minute twists. I knew I rarely like them.

And this wasn’t an exception. The twist bothered me less in this one. But it was also more of a meh twist. Been there, done that.

And all those chapters on elephants were not interesting. Not even a tiny bit. I felt like they might never end.

On the whole, it was mediocre. And completely skippable in my opinion.

I read Station Eleven because it was on so many lists for great books of 2014. And I will say it was likely one of the most interesting books I read last year. Unlike anything else. It’s dystopian but not young adult and it talks of a terrible future but the story is told from the perspective of a traveling orchestra and theater troop. The story goes back and forth in time and weaves together.

It’s interesting, well written, and thought provoking. Gets points for being different but not at all gimmicky!

I read The Other Typist because amazon recommended it. I resisted this one for a while, too, but I found myself coming back to it again and again. It seemed to call to me.

And once I started reading it, it was really interesting. I was interested in the characters, and especially the narrator, even when it was clear she was an unreliable narrator. I still wanted to keep going.

But then there was the ending.

It felt like the author came to the end and just didn’t know what to do. So she did some really weird, unclear stuff and ended the book.

The ending is very up in the air and not clear. I read all over amazon to see if anyone got it, and there are opinions every which way. In my opinion, that’s not a success. If the ending was clear but some liked it and some hated it, that’s good. people react to it. but if it’s so unclear we’re not even sure what happened, well that’s just bad writing.

I read The Enchanted because amazon recommended it and I just kept coming back to it like there was something calling to me.

It was also so very short that I felt like I should at least give it a chance. It takes place in jail, so I knew it wouldn’t be all that uplifting.

And it wasn’t.

But it also wasn’t all that great. Not the worst book I read but not as interesting as Amazon made it sound like it would be.

I read Afterworlds for a book club. I had read Uglies by him before and hadn’t liked it so I wasn’t sure about this book but I did finish the whole thing. I didn’t like it. It’s an unusual book with alternating chapters where one story is about a girl who’s writing a book and then the other one is the book she’s writing.

very meta.

but maybe because it tried to be gimmicky, it was just too shallow. too stereotypical. too uninteresting.

i’ve said it often i know, but gimmicks are hard to get right.