First up was Veronica Mars - The Thousand Dollar Tan Line.
No one loves a good detective series more than I do, so I was hopeful when I heard this one mentioned in a reading podcast I listen to. I have not watched the series (or maybe it's a movie) on Netflix. Meh. I was not impressed. Veronica Mars is no Kinsey Millhone. (Yes, I realize that's a tall order. But then again, there is only one Sue Grafton.) Towards the end, I was looking forward not to finding out who did it, but to the book being over.
Next came Tiny Little Thing by Beatriz Williams.
This was great. This title also came up on the podcast I try to catch. I love hearing about a book I don't know anything about and being so pleasantly surprised -so much so that I plan to check out other books by this author. Likeable characters, excellent pacing, and a compelling love story, this one had it all.
I shifted into nonfiction next because I had Quiet Power - The Secret Strengths of Introverts by Susan Cain from the library. If you are an introvert, have an introverted child, or work with children, this is a must-read. It was geared towards tweens/teens, but I appreciated the fact that Cain saw the need to write a book like this after Quiet - The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. I wrote a longer post about that book that you can read here if you haven't checked that one out yet.
The Good Girl by Mary Kubica finally came in from my list at the library. I had seen this book posted in a lot of places and knew it was very popular. I kept seeing it recommended it if you liked Gone Girl. Okay, I did like Gone Girl, and I guess I can kind of see why people would say that, but these are actually two very different books. I also liked this quite a bit and didn't see the twist at the end coming. I currently have Kubica's newest book Don't You Cry on short term loan from the library, so I plan to get cracking on that after I finish this post!
Speaking of short term loans and hype, The Girls was the next book I read. This is also pretty new, but I had heard a lot about it. Did it live up to the hype? Yes. Yes, it did. Emma Cline is an immensely talented writer who makes you feel like you are transported to northern California in 1969 (which is pretty remarkable considering Cline is 27 years old- what???). The best way to describe this book is that it is a fictional account of the Manson family murders told by a girl on the fringe of the group. I just saw tonight it is a Book of the Month Selection. Deservedly so. If there's one book I recommend this month, it's this one. Be warned, though. It's very dark.
Last because I like to juxtapose things as dramatically as I can, (just kidding, it was kind of a fluke) I finished up Eat Pray Love Made Me Do It which was over 40 writers explaining how Gilbert's phenom, Eat Pray Love changed their lives. I read Eat Pray Love about 10 years ago and liked it, but I can't say it changed my life. It did, however, change the people's lives in this book, which I think is noteworthy. I enjoyed this, and I think anyone who read Eat Pray Love would also. It did start to feel like a lot of the stories were too similar as I got further and further on.
That's it for June. Bring on the July books!
Kim
I read Quiet two years ago and loved it! I only wish I could have had Cain's new book back when I was a self-conscious, introverted middle schooler.
ReplyDeleteI said the same thing! Where was this book when I was 14?
DeleteI had no idea there was a book based on Eat Pray Love! How fun! I really liked Gilbert's newest book, Big Magic. I read it in June. I LOVE Quiet and have been hearing about Quiet Power. I will need to get a copy!
ReplyDeletehere are my june reads: http://elle-alice.blogspot.ca/2016/06/june-book-reviews.html
I loved Big Magic as well!
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