Books I’ve Read Recently

My husband came home with Fifty Shades of Grey the other day. Do you know how long it’s been since I spent actual money on a book? Since I've been using the library religiously for the past several months, it’s been a long time. BUT, I was number 200-something on the waiting list for Fifty Shades, so he picked it up for me. I’ve only read about 70 pages and I currently do not like Christian very much. I also don’t feel the compulsion to never stop reading ever like some people have said. I’m not judging! I’m the girl who read the entire Twilight series in a four day span while neglecting her family and personal hygeine. This just hasn’t grabbed me yet. That doesn’t mean I plan to stop reading, because I must know what all of the fuss is about. (For the best review of the series I’ve read so far, check this out.)

But! I have read, and enjoyed,several books lately, and here they are.

If You Were Here This is a novel, but it reads like the rest of Jen Lancaster’s memoirs. The characters have the same personalities and the names are one-offs of each other (Maisy = Daisy.) I liked this book because it was light and fluffy and I just let myself believe that it was one of her true stories, because it read like one of them. The reviews on Amazon are across the board, and I always feel a bit judged when people say that they hated a book, but for me this was light, and fluffy, and a quick two-day read.

Cleopatra’s Daughter This was our most recent book club pick, and I was sorry to miss the meeting to discuss this book. I’ve never read anything else by Michelle Moran, but several reviews say this is her best work. I did like this, but for me it was like chick-lit historical fiction. It’s technically not a YA book, but since it’s written from the point-of-view of a 12-15 year old, it reads like it is. None of those things are bad in my mind. I enjoyed the book, and wept through the last twenty pages. I’m not really sure what that’s about since the last book that did that to me was Marley and Me

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close  This was another book club pick. So many people looooved this book. I wasn’t one of them. I found it hard to read, and not just for the subject matter. Honestly, the way it was written with the switching between narrators confused me and made me feel stupid. I did like the story the book told, but I didn’t like the way that it was told. All of that said, I’m kind of interested in seeing the movie because I can’t really imagine this book in movie form without it being wildly mind-numbing. (I’m sorry Jonathan Safran Foerr, It’s not you, it’s me.)

Ready Player One I loved this book. I wish that the pop culture references would have been more in my personal wheelhouse, but really enjoyed reading this book.

40 Love Eh. I tend to like the books written under the Sophie Kinsella name more than the Madeleine Wickham books. True to form, many,  many things go wrong and many of them are wrapped up by the end of the book. I just wasn’t terribly invested in any of the characters, other than really, really disliking some of them.

The Island This was probably my favorite of the three Elin Hilderbrand books that I’ve read. (I’ve also read Barefoot and Silver Girl.) Since we’re planning a trip to Nantucket (and all of her books are set in Nantucket)  while we’re in Cape Cod this summer, I want to read everything she’s written before we go.

Insurgent. I haven’t read this yet, but I have high hopes. I downloaded this to my Kindle the day it was released making this the first book I’ve paid for in a very long time. There was no chance that I was going to wait out my library’s waiting list on this one.

I know there are more, but it’s my style to promptly forget anything I’ve read once I close the back cover. I’ll have to start making a list.

Coming up, I plan to make my way through John Green’s books. I read Looking for Alaska a couple of years ago, and Paper Towns and An Abundance of Katherine’s are both on hold for me at the library.

What have you read lately?