Reading, lately

Summer reading!

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay - Moving on with the Ferrante series. I like these but I need a break after each one. So much melodrama! I enjoyed this one quite a bit and felt like maybe Elena was finally showing a bit of self awareness.

Into the Darkest Corner - Several online and IRL friends were reading this, so I jumped on the bandwagon. If you're looking for a seriously creepy thriller, this should do the trick. It's solidly written, you feel for the main character, and the tension is high.

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair - I almost loved this book. It's a mystery/novel and the writing and the plot are engaging and darkly comedic. The basic premise is that a young writer gets caught up in a cold case investigation involving his favorite professor/longtime mentor/pseudo father figure. I have to say, though, I could not get over the central plot point, which is a love affair between a 30-something man and a 15-year-old girl (sorry if that's a spoiler, but it is included in the summary text, so fair game?). I never stopped being icked out by it, and it made it impossible for me to really lose myself in the book.

The Wonder Garden - A collection of short stories set in the fictional small town of Old Cranbury. The stories don't really intertwine but the characters keep brushing past each other. I really enjoyed this book and it felt like a voyeuristic chance to peek behind all your neighbors curtains.

If I Loved You I Would Tell You This - And here are some short stories that are not at all connected. They are highly detailed, and mostly sad, and so well written. The titular story made me tear up multiple times.

The Hand That First Held Mine - I think I've already recommended this novel to at least three friends. I loved it. The plot revolves around two women living in London during different time periods and it touches on love and motherhood and loss and relationships and there's a nice dash of post-war Soho descriptions that I loved.

The Kind Worth Killing - Billed as being a contender for the title of next Gone Girl (but what thriller isn't?) and it actually is closer than some of the others I've read. It's got a bit of everything - love affairs, multiple murder plots, psychopaths. Add this to your list of page turners, if you're into that.

The Boys of My Youth - Looooved this. It's a beautifully written collection of autobiographical short stories that are tender and funny and sometimes very intense. Her voice is perfect, I never wanted to stop reading, and I cried multiple times. Winner.

You Are One of Them - This novel explores that question lingering of every child of the 80's - what if your best friend was actually a Soviet spy? Joking, obviously, but I did enjoy the plot premise for this novel and the writing was good. I think it fell apart a little bit towards the end, but overall I really enjoyed reading it.

The City of Mirrors - The final book in Justin Cronin's trilogy and it got off to a slow start but was ultimately satisfying. I recommend this series all the time and will continue to do so, but I have to admit that it gets wonky sometimes. I realize it might sound odd to claim that there's a lack of believablity in a series about a pathogen that turns people into vampires, but that's my main quibble here. Most fantasy novels have strict internal rules, but I feel like Cronin sometimes tweaks the rules he's created to suit the plot. Just me? I think I need a book club for this one because I still don't fully understand the logistics of what happened near the end of the second book and I don't want to spoil anything here. Regardless, this trilogy is fun, has lots of well detailed descriptions, and is totally worth reading.