Happy Monday! I have a really busy week and weekend ahead of me (plans almost every night, ahh), so I’m trying to prepare myself. Ideally, I like to only have plans once during the workweek and once or twice during the weekend but every so often, schedules align so that everything happens in one week! Thankfully, I had a very low-key weekend so there’s that.
Let’s dive into the books I finished last week. There were three and I liked all of them:
The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker (★★★★☆)
A girl at a college in Southern California falls asleep… and stays asleep. For days and days and days. Nobody can rouse her. And then… another girl falls asleep and then another… until it’s become an epidemic. The local hospital is filled with sleeping patients, people in town are terrified that they’re going to be next. As the weeks go by and more people succumb to this contagion, the town is put on lockdown as doctors try to figure out what this is and why it’s happening. Throughout the story, we follow a handful of people: the college freshmen whose dorm saw the first cases of the disease, a man and his two young daughters, a young couple with a newborn, a college professor. I actually didn’t have too much difficulty keeping all the storylines straight, probably because each one was so different from the other, and I really loved Walker’s writing style and the way she really made you understand how pervasive hysteria can be.
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams (★★★★☆)
Oh man, I both loved and was frustrated by this novel. Queenie is a 25-year-old black woman living in London who is dealing with a messy breakup with her boyfriend of three years. She’s living in a tiny flat with two other roommates, sleeping with men who aren’t good for her, and constantly wondering what more she could be doing with her life. Early reviews have said this book is like a mash-up of Bridget Jones’s Diary and Americanah and I wholly agree with that comparison. Queenie is such a well-written, complex character – someone who makes so many bad decisions that frustrated me, but even so, I was still rooting for her. Ultimately, I think this story is about mental health in the black community: what it looks like and how it’s evolving. This book was smart, funny, and refreshing, and the growth of Queenie from the beginning to the end of this novel was lovely to witness.
Jordan Reclaimed by Scarlett Cole (★★★☆☆)
For the most part, I really loved this novel. Jordan is in a successful heavy metal band called Preload, which is made up of the guys he met in a group home as a foster kid. All of the men have traumatic childhoods, and Jordan’s involves being locked in an attic for years as a child. It’s horrific to think of a young child suffering such abuse, and Jordan bears many scars from it to this day. And then he meets Lexi, a principal ballerina for the National Ballet of Canada. Lexi is beautiful and sweet and a breath of fresh air for Jordan, and they have a connection toward one another that cannot be denied, even though Jordan has a hard time believing someone as perfect as Lexi could have use for someone like him. However, Lexi is dealing with her own demons, such as an eating disorder and a volatile relationship with her father. I found Jordan and Lexi’s love story to be sweet and original and fun to read, but I was rather unimpressed with the way the author handled Lexi’s eating disorder and the way it was all wrapped up. It felt irresponsible to me.
What I’m reading this week…
> Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny. This is the sixth book in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. I’m slowly making my way through the series, reading maybe one book a quarter. The ending of the last book was incredibly unsettling so I’m hoping the same does not hold true for this one.
> An Unconditional Freedom by Alyssa Cole. This book wraps up Cole’s The Loyal League historical romance series. These books are actually ones I would recommend to non-romance readers since they aren’t too explicit with the romance and provide a look into the Civil War era from the perspective of freed slaves, so they’re really interesting!
> Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige, on audio. This is my book club’s June selection from our resident sci-fi/fantasy lover. It’s completely out of the realm of what I normally read, but the premise sounds GREAT so I’m excited to start listening to it this week.
What are you reading this week?
I neeeeed to read Queenie. I just ordered it as an add-on to my June BoTM pick!
I’ve been wanting to check out Alyssa Cole’s series – so this is pushing me to add it to my hold list! Queenie sounds super interesting – I will have to check that out!
I’m reading “Shoe Dog” by Phil Knight, the creator of Nike. I had heard this was a great book but it’s even better than I thought it would be. It’s a total page turner! I have huge respect and awe for Phil Knight. He made a lot of sacrifices and worked SO HARD to bring Nike to fruition. Kind of makes me want to go out and buy some Nikes. 😉 I’m also reading “Meet Me at the Museum” which is told in epistolary form. It was recommended on WSIRN awhile back. I like to have a physical book and ebook going at the same time. That way I can (conspicuously) read on my kindle ap when it’s quiet at work!
I had a week like that last week… 3 evenings with plans and I hate that! UGH!
Queenie sounds really good!
Concur that the writing style for The Dreamers was great, but that book left me totally unsatisfied. I wish the end had explained things a little bit more.
That first one sounds like something I’d really like! I am curious to hear what you think of the sci fi book that your friend selected.
I am trying to read a memoir (Running Home) but am struggling.
I hope you are surviving your hella busy week! :-*