All of my favorite…and not so favorite books, found here!

I don’t know if there’s something in the air right now or what but this is about to be my third negative book review in a row. When I first saw this book hit the shelves I was actually pretty excited because I really enjoyed Book Lovers which is also by Emily Henry. Disclaimer: I have not read The People We Meet on Vacation so I can’t compare either book to that one, which is arguably her most popular novel. But I have to say this one just did not really compare for me and I was really let down. Everything about this book just screamed CLICHE to me. The setting, the friend group, the main characters. It was just unbearably predictable. There was nothing original or surprising, it was just…eh. The love story wasn’t unique, but it also wasn’t fun! I wasn’t rooting for the main characters to get together, in fact I was kind of rooting for the entire friend group to go it’s separate ways because it really didn’t seem to me like they were having a very positive impact on each others lives. The writing also was a huge let down here, because despite the fact that Book Lovers was definitely cheesy and the writing reflected that, it still felt a little more put together and sophisticated than this one. I’m not writing Emily Henry off, I think that maybe this book just turned out differently as a result of the major success she has had with the others, and I will be interested to see (and potentially read) what she puts out next.

You know how they say “don’t judge a book by it’s cover?” Well, the neon green book sleeve of The Guest by Emma Cline completely caught my eye and I was immediately interested in reading the excerpt on the back. Even after reading the excerpt on the back, I was pretty interested in finding out what was going on inside. I had heard generally positive things about Cline’s other book titled The Girls so I thought that I would give this one a shot. Honestly I wish I hadn’t because not only was it a total waste of money but it was a waste of my precious beach time this summer sitting there and reading it. There are easily a hundred other books that would’ve been more enjoyable beach reads than this one. A very basic overview of the book is that a young woman is living with what one can only call her “boyfriend” in the Hamptons after fleeing NYC because she stole money and/or drugs from the previous guy she was with. The “boyfriend” is much much older and rich, and eventually he decides to trade out the main character for another young socialite and kicks her out a week before his big Labor Day blowout party. The entire book builds up to this huge party and how she’s going to go win him back (did I mention she’s delusional?) and then when you finally manage to read through pages upon pages of nothing…the book ends before you even find out what happens at the party. And it’s not like there’s another book that’s picking up where this one left off, the author just…ends it. Do yourself a favor and skip this one.

Originally when I went to go pick up this book from Barnes and Noble, I was planning on picking up Elif Bautmans’ other novel, Either Or, come to find out that book is actually the sequel to The Idiot so I did what needed to be done, I bought the first one. This is a book I have seen a lot about on social media and truthfully I’m not sure why. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed this enough, but I’m not sure its worthy of it’s “fame” unless you, like me, enjoy books that tend to take place at pretentious universities where nothing really significant happens and it’s just a character study. This is very much so a long and in my opinion, way too drawn out, character study of a young girl as she navigates her friendships and relationships in college, but she and her friends are painfully boring. And not even the kind of boring where you can forgive them and empathize a little bit, understanding that most people don’t live these massive glamorous lives, but I think everyone has a story or two they can tell. I felt almost like it was trying to own a Normal People vibe of two young people unsure of how to communicate their feelings, in a The Secret History setting, but it was just…boring. I didn’t dislike it, I read through it pretty quickly, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody because I don’t think it is something most people would enjoy. I’m on the fence about going back for Either Or.

Despite the intense title, this memoir by iCarly star, Jennette McCurdy is has some surprisingly funny moments. The memoir came out last summer and recounts McCurdy’s journey into becoming a child actor, which was forced onto her by her abusive mother. McCurdy recounts her experiences chronologically and writes as if these situations are happening in the present, instead of looking back on them in the past. The entire book is written as if you are sitting down and listening to McCurdy tell her story — it’s not overcomplicated, it’s straight and to the point. Despite the scattered moments of humor, the majority of this book is incredibly heavy and heartbreaking. Truthfully, I think that it’s a miracle that she was able to survive the pressure of being in the spotlight, whilst dealing with an abusive and manipulative mother. If you were a big Nickelodeon fan growing up, I definitely recommend you giving this book a read. It isn’t a “light” or fun read, but I think it brings awareness to the idea that you don’t always know what other people are going through, so be kind to everyone.

However, there are very graphic scenes relating to eating disorders, sexual abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, and other types of abuse, so for those of you that struggle with this type of content, I would make sure you do your research before reading.

I recently found a copy of this book for 50 cents at the thrift store, and truth be told, I’m glad I didn’t spend a single penny more on it. This was one of the worst books I have ever read. Starting off with the way the narrator changes just a mere six times in the first fourteen pages. After being pretty disappointed with The Guest List I’m not entirely sure what I expected with another one of Lucy Foley’s novels, but this left so much to be desired. The characters and the plot are equally messy and difficult to follow. For a novel that’s considered a “thriller” I was expecting for there to be a little more suspense, but instead I found myself just rolling my eyes at the naivety of the main character, who time after time alludes to this troubling and tumultuous past, but never actually explains any of it. As much as I hate to do it, I’m giving this book one out of five stars, there were too many under-developed characters filling in to a messy and lackluster plot line. If you’re looking for a page turner that will have you at the edge of your seat, this is NOT the book for you.

Believe it or not, this was my first Joan Didion book! And unfortunately, I was not impressed. I want to say that someone on social media referred me to Didion, as she’s supposed to be one of the most influential female authors of recent history, and I was eager to understand why. In. my opinion, Play It As It Lays left a lot to be desired. There’s a roughly 500 word summary of the novel on Wikipedia that tells you every thing that you need to know about the book, without all the confusing and chaotic writing. Now, seeing as the narrator spends most of her time in a drug and alcohol induced haze on top of her spiraling mental health conditions, that could very well have been the point that Didion was trying to get across through her writing style, I just felt as though there wasn’t much of a plot. As far as my opinion on plot-less books go, I’m willing to overlook the lack of plot if instead the novel is a good character study, but I didn’t feel like this was on of those either. All this being said, I have not written Didion off completely. Obviously to have such a strong and loyal fanbase, you have to have been doing something write. Chances are I just started with the wrong book, but I will return to read more of her work.

Another Taylor Jenkins Reid book under my belt, but unlike the others, I felt as though this one was just slightly overrated. I’m not going to go into a whole plot summary, because since I’m giving it only 3.5 out of 5 stars, I want to be able to explain myself. Starting with things I liked about the book. I loved the “old Hollywood” vibes; I think TJR does these “period pieces” very well and creates a solid setting for her stories to take place. I also really liked the way the story was told in a back and forth style between past and present, not entirely unlike Daisy Jones and the Six. I think that it’s a unique writing trait that makes TJR stand out from her competition on the market right now. Moving on to the dislikes. The main character, Evelyn, has seven different husbands and marriages, and while they all serve different purposes, it gets extremely repetitive. I think that we could have done with a husband or two less, because it just got to the point where it was boring and redundant. Then we get to Celia St. James, who ultimately becomes Evelyn’s wife, and I couldn’t stand Celia. She is always playing the victim and despite the fact that oftentimes she is just as guilty as Evelyn. Yet, she manipulates Evelyn into thinking that she is completely absolved of the any blame throughout their rocky relationship. It wasn’t the worst book I have ever read, far from it, but it won’t make my list for best books of the year. There’s also a lot of diversity in this book which I think is relatively rare for a lot of the books that are floating around mainstream BookTok these days. All that being said, rumor has it that it’s supposed to be getting it’s own on-screen adaptation and if it’s the same caliber as Daisy Jones I would be very interested to watch it.

I first read Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick when I was in high school, which was right around the time Jennifer Lawerence won an Oscar for her performance in the movie adaptation. But since then, I haven’t though much about either the book or movie until I recently saw the book sitting on a thrift store shelf for 50 cents. Seeing as I didn’t already have it in my ever-growing book collection, I couldn’t pass up the steal of a 50 cent book. Recently, I re-read the book and remember why it was so popular when it first made it’s on-screen debut. While the movie takes more creative freedoms with the story than I personally would have liked, the sentiment holds true throughout. I think the story beautiful follows the process of two people who are battling different forms of grief and mental health struggles. It isn’t your cut and dry rom-com, seeing as it deals with two deeply flawed characters who are trying their best to do “what is kind and not what is right” which in some cases, has a very clear distinction. This is definitely a book I would recommend, but if you can’t commit to the 304 page novel, I highly recommend the film adaptation with J-Law and Bradley Cooper.

Taylor Jenkins Reid has been getting a lot of love online recently after the wild success of her recent novel adaptation of Daisy Jones and the Six, so in an attempt to get back into reading a little bit, I decided to give another one of her novels a whirl. One True Loves follows the story of Emma Blair, who marries her high school sweetheart and moves across the country with him to begin her life of travel and adventure, leaving behind her family and their bookstore in Massachusetts. When her husband dies in a helicopter crash off the cost of Alaska, she moves back to MA and settles into the life she thought she would never want to return to. There, she learns how to fall in love again in the wake of her husbands passing…well, supposed passing. When her husband returns out of the blue, Emma is forced to decide between her true loves. While I normally don’t gravitate to love stories like this one, I think they are a great way to revive yourself from a reading slump, and this book did just that for me. I really enjoyed reading this book, despite the fact that it did make me cry once or twice. I will say, it’s not the most profound book I have ever read in my life, but it was entertaining and easy to enjoy. In my opinion, there was only one option for Emma in the end, but I still was on the edge of my seat hoping she would choose the right one (and she did!). I definitely would recommend reading this book, but I’m not sure if I would jump at the opportunity to watch the movie adaptation that’s coming out. Personally, I think they are making it look a little “Hallmark-y” in the trailer which wasn’t the vibe that I got from the story. It’s definitely not a romantic-comedy, in my opinion.

Alone with You in the Ether by Olivie Blake tells the story of two intrinsically pretentious and deeply flawed characters who “fall in love” with each other after a mere six conversations. While this was another of my one-sitting, cover-to-cover reads, I found myself fiercely disappointed in the book. I had higher expectations for a book that considers itself to be “a love story.” Arguably, I was not convinced that the two characters were even slightly compatible for one another. Aldo, an introverted “genius” level mathematician, meets Regan, a trust fund baby with a passion for art (and more specifically art forgery), in a museum. They’re both quirky and have big personalities, and shocker…they start dating. However, I don’t think that they were actually the “in love” type. Aldo seems to only want to placate Regan, and based on his extreme belief system that’s entirely rooted in statistically logic, I have my doubts that love is something he truly believes in. But what he has with Regan is enough like what love is described as in the movies so he decides that he loves her. Similarly, Regan also doesn’t resonate as a character that fundamentally believes in love. It actually seems like she hates the idea of it, but she loves the idea of Aldo. In my opinion, these are two characters that have strong feelings of obsession towards each other, and maybe this is just my personal definition of love, but I would argue that real obsession has no place in a healthy relationship. Aldo and Regan have no friends, they have no social lives, they don’t do anything alone. All they have is an all-consuming idea of each other and their relationship, which sure, they are “alone in the ether” but I don’t think this is a healthy “love story.”

I want to preface this entry by admitting to the fact that this particular novel has been sitting on my nightstand, untouched, for over a year. I wasn’t entirely convinced that I was going to like it, so it took me awhile to finally crack it open and give it a chance. And I’m glad I did! Daisy Jones is a good and easy read. There’s no underlying meanings or prophetic monologues, it’s very much a story for the sake of storytelling and entertainment. After a stretch of reading pretentious and intense novels, this book was the perfect break. The characters were normal, the story was fast-paced and enjoyable. Truth be told, I’m really excited to see this book be told on screen in a few months when the TV adaptation of it comes out. I also can’t help but show favoritism to this book due to the fact that it was partly inspired by Fleetwood Mac. I think the author Taylor Jenkins Reid is completely underrated and deserves much more recognition than she’s receiving. Her books are the perfect easy read, but she doesn’t compromise the quality of her writing.

If We Were Villians by M.L. Rio is esentially The Secret History but with Shakespeare kids instead of Greek philosophy kids. That being said, I loved it. It definitely was a faster and smoother read than The Secret History, whereas The Secret History was a lot more eloquently written and focused more on individual character development rather than plot. I normally don’t like to put books in direct competition with one another, but here it’s hard not to. I will say, I did feel a bit perturbed when I finished this book because it felt so similar to The Secret History, to the point where if I had written this book in college I would’ve most likely been flagged for plagiarism. After taking some time to see what the people of the internet had to say about this, I found a lot of mixed feelings. Some love both, and some have strong hatred for one or the other. I do feel partial to The Secret History because I found more value in it’s writing, but I read If We Were Villains in one sitting because it was so hard to put down. Definitely worth the read, even though it was strikingly similar to TSH.

This book currently takes the cake for being by far, my favorite book of the year. When I saw that people were calling The Secret History by Donna Tart “a modern classic” I rolled my eyes. After spending most of my college years reading real classics, I had low expectations for this book, but I was proven wrong entirely. This book is pretentious, like all classics. The story is told in time jumps and narrated by one of the main characters Richard Papen, who has a Holden Caulfield-like unreliability to him. The story tells the tale of a twisted friend groups path to (and from) murder. I found myself utterly enthralled by each page, waiting to finally put all the pieces together. This is a story that I’m genuinely excited to read again to pick up on things I might have missed the first time around, since I was so invested in the story, I’m sure there are important style choices I glanced over. This is not a book I would recommend to someone in a reading slump, due to the exaggerated language and ultimately, drawn out ending. It moves at a slower pace than most murder-mystery novels, and doesn’t read like one. Nonetheless, I’m going to let it sit on my favorites list for a little while.

First things first, HUGE TRIGGER WARNING. I want to warn anybody that might be interested in reading this book, it deals heavily with detailed sexual abuse, graphic self-harm, and suicidal thoughts and ideation. Please, please avoid reading this book if you struggle with any of these topics.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihar might be one of the most controversial books that I have read this year. It follows four boys throughout college and into adulthood, highlighting the traumas of life, for one boy — Jude — especially. While critics claimed that Yanagihar exploited childhood trauma and the struggles of the LGBTQ+ community in this novel, I think that it brought awareness to the undeniable, but unfortunate fact that some people are unable to heal or recover from trauma. It’s excruciatingly sad on so many levels, and it took me weeks to get through it, but this was a book that reminded me to always be a little kinder to those around me. You never know what someone might be going through, so make sure you show the world and those around you a little more love whenever you can.

Another book that I can finally cross off my TBR (“To Be Read”) list! An outlier compared to the recent books I’ve reviewed, Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid was not a book I was able to finish in one sitting. This was a book that took me a little longer to get into, but once I did get into it, I ended up really enjoying it. The book follows Emira, a twenty-five year old black woman working part-time as a babysitter for a wealthy, white family. Emira and the child, wide-eyed and overly curious, Briar, are the best of friends. So when Briar’s mother, Alex Chamberlain interrupts Emira’s night out with friends for an hour of emergency babysitting, Emira takes on the opportunity to make some extra money. But the night takes an intense turn when Emira, who has taken Briar to dance around the local grocery store and browse the tea aisle, is accused of kidnapping sweet Briar. This book has plot-twists in it that I never saw coming, and left me fighting for Emira to run as far away from these people as she could.

Writers and Lovers by Lily King has great potential to be one of my favorite reads of this entire year. After seeing the cover swirl around on my Instagram explore page a few weeks ago and reading the summary online, I knew it had to be my next book purchase. The story follows Casey, a 31-year-old writer, working as a waitress to make ends meet in the tiny shed she calls an apartment. She’s drowning in debt, and barely making enough to get by, but she continues to wake up at the crack of dawn each day to work on her novel...or at least attempt to work on it. The story follows her as she struggles to navigate her grief following her mother’s death as well as her tumultuous dating life. While I find that oftentimes books centered around the main character writing a book can be difficult to pull off, King perfectly demonstrated what it feels like to be bursting with ideas and have no pages to prove it. I genuinely loved this book, identified so strongly with the main character, and I’m already ready to read through it again.

Before I headed out on my beach vacation, I went off to my local bookstore in search of “beach reads,” when I stumbled upon this promising book by Carley Fortune titled Every Summer After. The story switches back and forth between two neighbors growing next door to each other, and ultimately falling in (and out) of love. I absolutely adored the setting in which this book takes place, and felt like the author did a great job pouring details into the descriptions. Additionally, I thought the love story was good until Fortune pulled the whole “I cheated on you with your brother” aspect. And then she lost me, and I emotionally checked out of the book after that. There isn’t a single book in which I will be able to get behind love interest(s) cheating on one another in. However, I did think it was well-written compared to some of the more recent “romance” books I’ve read (I’m looking at you CoHo). All in all, I did enjoy this book until the very end, but the cheating just ruined it for me. I will be on the look out for more of Fortune’s books in the future, but I won’t be reading this one again.

When I started this book less than 24 hours ago, I seriously did not know what to expect. I had seen the book sitting on shelves at bookstores and at Target, but to my knowledge, I don’t know anybody who has read it (yet). But I could not be more glad that I added it to my cart in hopes it would pull me out of my reading slump. Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica tells the story of two women and a child who all go missing within a few short weeks of one another. 11 years later, when the child finds her way out of captivity, the story of her kidnapping begins to slowly piece itself together. I truly had no idea where this book was going until I was 50 pages from the end — the plot twist is one that I could not have called in a million years. Looking back, the ending comes together fairly quickly, but it’s not so rushed as to ruin the rest of the novel. And I have to give credit to Kubica for managing three different narrators in a clean and cohesive manner — a feat that not manner authors can actually pull off. I highly, highly recommend giving this book a read.

This book was a selection made by my friends for our first “Book Club” read, and it was my first ever Emily Henry read. To be honest, I didn’t have exceedingly high hopes for this book nor did I expect to like it based on the description and title — but I was entirely wrong! I haven’t been a huge romance book reader since early high school, but this book was the perfect amount of romance and legitimately funny banter between the characters. The book talks heavily about literary analysis, cliches, and tropes, while managing to avoid all of them (except for an always enjoyable, enemies to lovers moment). It wasn’t completely devoid of cheesiness, but it was the kind of cheese that you can bear to appreciate and even enjoy in small doses. I fully judged Henry’s writing before giving her a shot, and I do apologize to Ms. Emily Henry after reading, and loving this book. I will highly recommend this one to any of my friends!

When I started Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, my expectations were not very high. This is due to the fact that I wasn’t super impressed by the first book of hers that I read, Everything I Never Told You, but Little Fires Everywhere showed me an entirely different side of Ng’s writing. The novel follows two main families — The Richardsons, a wealthy and “cookie-cutter” family of six at the center of the spotlight, along with the Warren’s, a nomadic family of two with an affinity for art. When the two families get tangled up in the affairs of an abandoned baby, secrets come rising to the surface in ways that you will never expect. I found the characters in this book to be quiet likable and the turn at the end was one that I would never have been able to predict. The book also raises a difficult and multifaceted question about integrating culture in adoptions, but I will leave it at that in hope to not spoil the book. Although it started out a little slow for me, by the time I was half-way through this book I was having trouble putting it down. Ng redeemed herself in my eyes after finishing this novel and it’s one that I would, without a doubt, recommend to a friend.

After reading Normal People by Sally Rooney, I went into this read with high expectations. By the same author Beautiful World, Where Are You was written in a way that makes it so vivid that it feels as if you are watching a movie. I truly love the way that Rooney writes, which is a pretty uncommon opinion from what I have read regarding her writing. While I didn’t find this book to be as good as Normal People I enjoyed the characters and the way it bounced between the different characters. The dynamics between the four characters were increasingly interesting and unique, and unlike the characters in Conversations with Friends I think that they would do exceptionally well in a live-action adaptation. The one, and probably only criticism that I had for this piece is that I found the ending to be a bit rushed. I wasn’t a huge fan of the epilogue portion but it gave a very definitive feeling to the novel which was not something Rooney has given in her other book(s). This is one of those rare books that I will definitely be reading again because I feel like there are things that I missed reading the first time around.

Colleen Hoover, you helped me out of a reading slump and I do appreciate that, however, I cannot keep defending you. There is one singular thing that I can say I liked about this book, and that is the fact that November 9 did briefly cross over with Ugly Love, which is something that I think is thoughtful and interesting. There was way too much going on in this book and none of it was done well. In particular, I just felt like there were a lot of tropes overlapping one another. Additionally, like I said in my review of Ugly Love her plot-lines are just getting repetitive. While she talks about a lot of serious and emotional topics within her novels, I can’t find myself caring about the characters enough to empathize with them. All in all, if you’re dying to read Colleen Hoover, I recommend starting strong with Verity which is by far her most riveting piece (that I’ve read thus far).

Normal People by Sally Rooney is a book that has been sitting on my TBR (“To Be Read”) list for months now. I had certain expectations for this book, and while I wouldn’t say that I’m disappointed, I will admit to be surprised. It isn’t entirely what I expected, but I did genuinely enjoy it (even if it did cause a certain amount of heartbreak and frustration). It’s honestly been a book that I have been thinking about almost constantly since I finished it, which isn’t something I can say about most books. I want to go into a deeper analysis of the novel, the characters, and the TV adaptation in much more depth, but in order to do that, I have to finish the show first! So stay tuned for that and when I do publish my full review, I will link it right here!

The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck was published back in 1961, but is not considered to be a “classic” nor is it deemed one of his most successful books. After a brief hiatus from my classic and old-timey book selections, this book brought me back to my old ways. The story follows a Long Island shopkeeper, Ethan Hawley and his family around throughout their poor, mundane life. The Hawley’s, minus Ethan, wish for a life where they can live above their means, oftentimes reminding Ethan of the wealth his father had lost for them. While Ethan also wishes that he were better off for his family, but he insists on maintaining his integrity and honesty in order to achieve this wealth. Ethan faces a number of external pressures that offer him a shortcut to the high life, but he refuses to give in. While I thought that I was able to predict what I thought the ending would be like, I was ultimately ver surprised by the ending. While I do recommend this book due to its strong themes of morality, I will admit that 80% of it is boring. If you didn’t like any of the books you were required to read in your high school literature class, I would argue that you probably won’t like this one either. That being said, I really enjoyed the way this book made me reflect on what society values as “good” versus “bad” when it comes to economic status.

The Guest List by Lucy Foley was a book that I have had on my reading list for a few weeks now and I recently visited the cutest feminist bookstore (support small, local bookstores!!) where I was able to pick up a copy of it. I had high hopes going into it because I have seen so many good reviews of it. However, I was a little bit disappointed. The way the characters all tied in together at the end was definitely interesting and well thought out, but I was a bit disappointed overall. I’m interested to read The Paris Apartment by Foley as well to see if that mystery is a little more captivating, since it also has some really high praise. If you’re looking for a thriller to have you on the edge of your seat, frantically flipping through pages, I would skip over this one.

Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton is hands-down one of the defining books of my twenties. This memoir follows Alderton’s journey through her young adult life and her twenties, sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly. This book had me laughing out loud on multiple occasions and the ending had me in a puddle of tears. It will be a book that I return to time and time again when I need to remind myself that “I am whole and complete. I will never run out” (page 304). There is much to be learned in the life experiences of others, and this memoir allows readers into the deepest and darkest corners of Alderton’s life, and then shows you why it’s all worth it. A must-read for everyone woman trying to remember her place in the world! All in all, this book is one that inspires me to write as much as I can, about everything I can.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig is a book that truly makes you question…well, everything. When the main character, Nora, makes the decision try and end her life, she finds herself stuck in the Midnight Library, where she has the opportunity to explore all the choices that she has made and even see how her life might have turned out if she had made different ones. I didn’t dislike this book by any stretch of the imagination, however, I did find parts of it to be a little repetitive and…boring. This is also the type of book that could send you into a tailspin of worry if you have even the slightest wandering thought that maybe you’re not “making the right decision.” Overall, a unique and thought-provoking read, which is why I think it has made it to #3 on the NYT Bestsellers list, but not one of my favorites.

Verity by Colleen Hoover is a page turner if I have ever read one. Like with Hoover’s other books, I finished this suspenseful piece in just one sitting…because I was truly unable to put it down. Lowen is a struggling author, sitting at the threshold of financial ruin when the opportunity arises for her to take over the series of well-known author Verity Crawford. Following a car accident that left Verity alive, but without cognitive functioning, Lowen moves into the Crawford house with Verity’s husband Jermey and son, Crew, in order to research and begin writing the new novels. But after finding a manuscript Verity wrote, that was never supposed to see the light of day, Lowen realizes that Verity is not what she seems. Fair warning, this book is quite dark and twisted, but it makes for a great read!

I read Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng in TWO sittings, granted the book is on the shorter side falling just under 300 pages. I wouldn’t say I was ‘on the edge of my seat’ while reading this book, but I definitely was eagerly awaiting the next turn. The story follows a mixed-ethnicity (Chinese American and White) family of five after the sudden and unexpected death of their eldest daughter, Lydia. While investigating Lydia’s death, secrets come out about her and everybody else involved. It also touches heavily on discrimination and stereotypes of Asian Americans in the 1970’s. If you’re in a reading slump, I would recommend this book to pick you up out of it.

The Night Watchman. by Louise Erdrich won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2021. The story follows multiple different members of the Chippewa Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota throughout the time period where Congress was attempting to terminate the rights of Native Americans to their land. under the guise of “emancipation.” There are a lot of moving pieces in this book, so be prepared to have to go back and re-read different sections a few extra times. Ultimately, this book is not the type of book that I would normally read, but I’m glad I did! The plot picks up in some places and falls out in others, but by the time you get to the last fourth of the book, it becomes hard to put down!