2019 is halfway over and I’m one book away from being halfway through my reading goal! I know I say this in almost every post, but I can’t believe I’m still on track to hit my 52 book goal. When I made my goal back in January I was leaning towards 25 books like I had done for the past 2-ish years. Last minute, I decided to up the goal to 52 because it was something I had wanted to do for a while. Now, 6 months into 2019, I have officially read 25 books (I just finished one yesterday that will be a part of July’s book round-up).
If you want to catch up on what I’ve read so far this year, here are my reading update posts from January, February, March, April, and May. And if you like keeping up with what I read in real time, you can follow me on Instagram where I post pics of what I’m reading or you can add me on Goodreads! AND in case you forgot, I’m participating in the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge this year… so I’m including what prompt I read the book for if you were curious.
22. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
3.5/5 stars
“A book published posthumously”
This was my IRL book club’s pick for June and I finally got to attend the meeting! This is the first in-person book club I’ve ever been a part of (except for the middle school book club that my neighbor and I put together when we were kids). I really really wanted to love this book, but I ended up giving it 3.5 out of 5 stars.
While the writing was good, I found it distracting that it wasn’t told in chronological order. Knowing next-to-nothing about the Golden State Killer before reading, I also felt like I was playing catch-up the whole time. There were lots of names and dates and places that weren’t super familiar to me which aided in my confusion. Michelle died before the book was complete, so there were many parts that were written by her partners. These parts weren’t as good and were almost just factual encounters of the things that happened, which was disappointing.
The book was definitely scary and I couldn’t read it at night. That, paired with the feeling that I was playing catch-up, attributed to me taking almost 2 weeks to finish the book. I’m really glad to have read it though, as it was definitely interesting and eye-opening. I really wish that it had been published after GSK’s arrest last year, though, so I could learn more about that and how he was caught. However, I realize that part of the reason he was caught had something to do with this book itself.
23. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
4/5 stars.
“A book featuring an amateur detective (spy)” — taking a creative liberty in including this book for this prompt
If I had a dollar for every time someone told me that a) they loved this book and/or b) I need to read this book, I would probably be a rich woman. Needless to say, I went into reading The Nightingale with extremely high hopes. This book is set in WWII, a time period that I find extremely interesting. I loved learning about WWII in school, and developed such a fascination with Anne Frank that I did almost every school biography report on her.
I enjoyed this book. I thought the characters were fascinating and learning about the women’s involvement in the war back at home was a different take than a lot of books I’ve read about WWII. The inconsistencies throughout this book are what forced me to dock it a star. It didn’t take away from my enjoyment, but they couldn’t be ignored. There were also many parts that could have been edited; some felt long and really drug out. Other than that, it had me reading in the same chair for 2+ hours and I cried toward the end. Definitely worth 4 stars!
24. Red, White, & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
5/5 stars.
“A book published in 2019”
Okay WOW. I really didn’t know what to expect going into this book. I’ll admit that I haven’t read many books with queer characters, and especially not a queer main character. This is something I’ve been trying to get better at (hence my involvement in the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge… I’m trying to get better at reading things out of my comfort zone!) and this book was the sweetest reward !!!
I’m going to try not to make this review too ~gushy~ but I absolutely adored this book SO much more than I expected I would. The book was funny. Like “wow I’m actually laughing out loud while reading” funny. The characters were likeable but all had their flaws, just like in real life. The love story in this was so real and I think that’s what I loved most about it. You read about this progression, and it was believable. You read about their feelings, and it was believable. Everything felt natural and authentic and it was so well done.
I read some reviews of people saying they couldn’t stand Alex. But I feel like that was kind of the point? Not every character needs to be extremely likeable, and Alex grew on me after about 4-5 chapters. It seemed like another reason people didn’t like this book was due to their political views. I agreed with just about everything McQuiston wove into this book’s universe, and reading her acknowledgements left me feeling comforted, but you don’t have to go into reading this book agreeing with her political stance. You just need to have an open mind.
Currently Reading
Yesterday, on the plane home from Charlotte, I finished reading The Unhoneymooners (so good) and last night when I got home I picked up Recursion by Blake Crouch. V excited to dive into it! I loved Dark Matter and have a feeling I’ll be devouring this one too. What are you reading right now?
