My Review: Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner
I only read two YA books this month, and to be honest, I didn't miss it. I went to the library the other day and found myself staring listlessly at the YA section, halfheartedly stopping to pull a book out and flip through it before putting it back and leaving. I probably won't stop reading YA entirely, and I'll still follow some of my favorite authors, like Markus Zusak and Neal Shusterman, but I don't think I'll really look for it. So what does this have to do with Goodbye Days? Well, because this may be my last YA contemporary for some time. Which is really interesting to think about. My decision has nothing to do with this book, I liked it just fine. Anyway, it's about a boy who lost all three of his best friends in a texting-caused car accident. It's about love and loss and all those immortal themes books enjoy rehashing over and over again. It was okay.
My Review: Little Deaths by Emma Flint
Not since Missing has there been an easier least favorite book of the month. I could not stand it one little bit. It was like Silent Child without the soap-opera drama that made Silent Child worth reading. I'm sure feminists will love this novel, about a mother accused of murdering her children in the 1960s- based on a true story-, but I did not at all. This will make it fairly high in my worst books of 2017 list, I can feel it.
My Review: The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda
I think I've read this story before. In fact, I probably have, and yet I still can't remember this book at all. I think it was about a reporter-turned-teacher whose roommate goes missing? And it turns out said roommate lives a strange double life? Something like that. Whatever. I'd advise you to pass on this one, unless you like psychological thrillers that really don't deserve that title after all.
My Review: The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
This was the month for long ass books, and this was the longest of the long, weighing in at a whopping 580 pages! Being that it follows basically the entirety of a man's life, I kind of expected that it would be a long, often slow novel. It was okay, not something that I would ever wilingly read again, and I left the book feeling underwhelmed by it.
The main reason why I didn't write a full review for this is because, well, I know nothing about the brain and Medina is a neurologist so this book could be filled with nothing but psychobabble nonsense and I wouldn't know the difference. Regardless, I thought that Medina had a very easy to understand writing style and I liked his little stories. Overall, Brain Rules gets a thumbs up from me. I bet he's honored.
My Review: Never Let You Go by Chevy Stevens
I keep wanting to call this book Never Let Me Go. Also, I keep accidentally typing Chevy Chase instead of Chevy Stevens. Which is really funny when you think about it. Anyway, this is a really easy to read thriller with enough twists and turns to keep you sufficiently entertained. For those curious, it's about a woman who leaves her abusive husband with her young daughter. Years later, she begins to believe her ex husband, who has recently been let out of jail, is stalking her. The mystery then goes from there, and if you like generic but, again, easy to read mysteries I'd recommend picking this one up.
My Review: A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline
Normally, I'd stay away from books like this, historical fiction novels about real people, but I was intrigued enough by this one that I decided to read it anyway. This is about the woman in Wyeth's most famous painting, Christina's World, which also happens to be one of my favorite paintings, even if I wouldn't count Wyeth as one of my favorite painters. This was a solid book, and one I'd recommend to fans of Kristin Hannah and other women's lit historical fiction writers.
My Review: Retribution by Jilliane Hoffman
Jilliane Hoffman's not the best writer I've ever encountered but damn if her books aren't fun to read. This is the first book in her CJ Townsend series, about a female prosecutor in Florida. In this first installment, our main character is introduced as being a survivor of a horrific rape. Years later, she must take down her own rapist before he hurts other women. Reading it is as easy as watching a Law and Order: SVU episode- more serious than a soap opera, but less serious than an ID Channel episode. It's a dark, twisted police procedural, and that's the kind of stuff I love.
Yet another reread from last year! I wanted to read this book again because I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be human lately, mostly because of the stories about the first robot citizen of the world (is robot still PC, or does she prefer the term artificial intelligence? These are questions that keep me up at night). Stories like that bring out the internal Luddite in me. One of the things that have always stuck with me about this story, and something that seemed even more poignant in the wake of the robot citizen thing, is the idea that emotion and especially love is what makes someone human. It's a very literary idea, and one that is simple, but something that I love. I'd be curious to see a think-piece done on Never Let Me Go in the context of the AI revolution, but now is not the time and place for it.
My Review: Shallow Graves by Maureen Boyle
My nonfiction book of the month! This is a well-written crime nonfiction novel about a New Bedford MA serial killer, targeting girls with heroin addictions from this small Portuguese-American fishing community. It was short and well-written, though does have kind of an unsatisfactory ending. This should be an easy read for any crime buffs out there.
My Review: The Teacher's Funeral by Richard Peck
My reread of this was inspired by the fact that I found a copy of it at Goodwill for $1. This was one of my favorite childhood stories by one of my favorite childhood novelists, and because of that I don't think I can give this one of my usual unbiased reviews. Nostalgia glasses, maybe, but I'd still give this to any 10 or 11 year old interested in history, especially 20th century history.
My Review: Brazen by Katherine Longshore
Praise the Lord Jesus Hallelujah! I finally finished the Royal Circle series! This is probably the best one of the bunch, which admittedly ain't saying much given that all the other books got 4.5s from me. It's a little depressing that Longshore didn't really appear to grow as a writer much at all over the course of the series. As a whole, I wouldn't really recommend any of these Tudor England YA novels, but I suppose that this one is perfectly passable.
My Review: Defending Jacob by William Landley
If someone is a huge Jodi Picoult fan, then I'm sure they'll love this book, given that it's a legal thriller/family drama about a father who is trying to defend his son who is accused of murder. Despite the fact I didn't actively hate this novel, I despised the narrator as being a stereotypical pig-headed man who refuses to see what's right in front of his eyes, though I admit that if I was ever in Jacob's position, I'd probably want a dad like that, even if he was just doing it for himself. The twist at the end was good, so good I wish it wasn't a twist, but other than that I didn't really like it all that much.
Charles Bukowski is one of my favorite poets, with both Nirvana and The Crunch (the one from Love Is A Dog From Hell) being two of my favorite poems ever. Yet I have never read one of his novels. I figured his books would be raunchy as all hell, and, needless to say, I'm not a raunchy kind of person. And yet, I found myself strangely enjoying Ham on Rye. There's something about it that drew me in, that same grittiness that was what originally drew me to Bukowski's work. This is not the kind of book one should read if he wants something happy. This is the kind of book for someone who wants to read about a miserable, bitter man who has lost all faith in humanity. Which is a kind of character I've been able to relate with lately. Without getting into specifics, 2017 has been a particularly bad year for me, and this is the kind of book I assume one's enjoyment of it will depend on how much one can get behind the main character. I didn't agree with him on everything, but with enough that I ended up really liking this book. Though I admit, some of it may have to do with my soft spot for the Buk.
My Review: The Secret History by Donna Tartt
This month, it seems that both the current toppers of my favorite and least favorite books of the year were challenged. Missing by Little Days, and, most surprisingly, Marina by The Secret History, a book I wasn't even expecting to like- though that low standard probably made me enjoy it even more. This book, about a cultish group of friends in college, was just made up of everything I love- character studies, Fitzgerald-esque writing, old fashioned touches- and held my attention almost the entire time reading. I just loved it in a way I hadn't loved a book in quite some time.
Page total: 5,719
Average rating: 7/10 (rounded up by not much)
Genre breakdown: 6 mystery-thrillers
5 historical fiction
2 nonfiction (1 science, 1 true crime)
1 contemporary
1 science fiction
Of those 12 were adult, 2 were YA, and 1 was children's
I'm happy with November, mostly because of how much I got to read even if it was such a hectic month for me. I also read a lot of books that I actually enjoyed, including a book that may make the top of my end of the year favorites- who knows? My first December reviews will go up soon!
*e-books
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