I didn’t put up my weekly reading update on Monday because I had much more exciting news to share, so I’m publishing it today! Last week, I finished three books (and all were five-star reads!) so I’m back on track for my usual reading speed. 🙂 I’m pretty sure I’ll finish another three this week, so I’m feeling good about my reading life right now. Here are my reviews:
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (★★★★★)
I was worried that my reread of Anne of Green Gables wouldn’t hold up, that maybe the story was only meant for younger me. I am pleased to announce that the opposite is true, and I enjoyed this book so much the second time around. I read it at the perfect time, when I really needed a story that was sweet and light-hearted. For those unfamiliar, Anne of Green Gables follows the precocious Anne Shirley as she is adopted by Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, a brother and sister pair, at the age of 11. Throughout the book, she gets into a fair amount of trouble, as a girl with a big imagination is wont to do, and readers follow her journey from ages 11 to 16, watching her grow into a beautiful, kind woman. I loved every single page of this novel and was sad when it ended since it meant stepping out of Anne’s world for a bit, but I’m excited to read the next seven books in the series.
They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement by Wesley Lowery (★★★★★)
Wesley Lowery is one of the most influential voices reporting on police killings and racial justice, and this book was so powerful. It begins with Michael Brown’s death because that’s where Lowery began his journey, as he traveled to Ferguson to report on the protests and was arrested with another journalist at a McDonald’s (they were both released pretty quickly). The book chronicles the next few years after Michael Brown’s death, as the Black Lives Matter movement begins and gains a following. It details more deaths of black men at the hands of police and the protests that follow. It’s an infuriating read, a book that had me exclaiming out loud multiple times because I was so enraged. If you’re committed to becoming a better ally and learning as much as you can about racial justice, this book is a must-read.
I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh (★★★★★)
Oh boy, do I love a good thriller, especially one that makes has me flipping back to the beginning of the book when a big twist is revealed. I devoured this thriller in a few days because I just could not put it down, although I’ll admit that the beginning 40% was slow and read more like a police procedural than a thriller. But I knew a twist was coming and I could not predict what it was for the life of me! This book is about a hit-and-run accident that kills a little boy, who was running across the street to his home when he was struck by a car. The driver drives away and what follows is a story about how this little boy’s death reverberates through the community, especially between the two police officers who are tasked to find the driver and bring him or her to justice. Definitely add this one to your list if you love a good thriller. (Although content warning for violence against women, which is quite graphic in parts.)
I’m currently reading…
Landwhale: On Turning Insults Into Nicknames, Why Body Image Is Hard, and How Diets Can Kiss My Ass by Jes Baker, on audio. (I really need nonfiction authors to calm down on the length of their subtitles, sheesh.) I’m about halfway through it and it’s been… okay so far. I think Jes Baker has an important story to tell but I’m not sure it’s fully landing with me.
The Last King by Katee Robert, my romance pick for the week. I’m nearly finished – I have maybe 30% left – and it has been such a steamy read! Whew! I would have no problem rating it five stars right now, but we’ll see how all the loose ends tie up.
There, There by Tommy Orange, for book club. I’m a little over 100 pages into this novel, and I’m really enjoying it. It’s much different than I imagined and there are a ton of characters and I’m not yet sure how all of their stories will relate, but I’m looking forward to finding out.
What are you reading?
We read There, There for book club, too. But then everyone was sick or had something else going on so we didn’t get to have a discussion about it. I read the ebook version and wish I had read the physical book as I think it would have been easier to keep the characters straight if I could have flipped back to previous chapters.
I’m glad you liked “I Let You Go.” That was such a page turner for me. And I thought the ending was kind of creepy because it’s not really closed up tidily like most thrillers are!
Over the weekend I finished “The Sun Does Shine” which is a memoir by a man that spend 30 years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit. He was 29 when he was sent to prison so spent more time on death row than as a free man. It was maddening to see how long it took to get the conviction over turned when the evidence showed he was innocent (he was working in a locked warehouse when the crime was committed – you had to check in and out with a guard so there was no question as to where he was when the crime was committed). It’s so sad to read about our criminal justice system. The author was poor so did not have the money to hire an attorney and the court appointed one did a TERRIBLE job! At the end of the book he lists out all the people on death row by state. It’s interesting to me/sad that capital punishment is legal in so many states in the south/bible belt… Seems like a disconnect to profess to be so christian and then to kill people…. But I’m against capital punishment. There are so many wrongful convictions and I just don’t think it’s right to kill people. I think there are better solutions. And capital punishments are extremely costly to the state. So it’s just a big problem all around.
Oof. That was a long rant! After reading that, I started “My Sister, the Serial Killer.” It’s written by a Nigerian author and so far it’s a page turner. The chapters are super short so it’s easy to read ‘just one more’ and it’s just over 200 pages long. I had heard it raved about on a couple of podcasts and am really liking it so far!
I’ve got There, There on my hold list at the library and am looking forward to reading it. My problem is now I went on a rampage and ended up with a bunch of books coming available at the library all at once and I am overwhelmed, but this is a pretty awesome problem to have.