I finished this one in two days!! It completely materialized the potential I saw in Chaney‘s first book a few years ago. The story is inventive and fast-paced, the writing is snappy, and her characters, which could be caricatural and annoying, are eccentric and interesting. She even brought back a character from her first book and gave him so much depth! All around, a great thriller, and I already can‘t wait for her next book.

Quiet Sunday night in - laundry, football, a book... pretty sure I have a migraine coming on, fingers crossed I can nip it in the bud 🤞🏻😬

I loved this mystery! The writing and the narrative felt surprisingly modern, the mystery was well constructed, and the characters were all interesting and on the right side of quirky. My only issue was with the circumstances that brought about Lord Peter‘s final realization - I found that it was a bit of a convoluted way to get to the resolution. Otherwise, I was utterly delighted by this story and really recommend it.

Work day is done and I‘m about to start my first book of the year! Keeping my fingers crossed for a better reading year than I had in 2018 (and better year in general, to be honest). If December is any indication, my wish might come true 🤞🏻Now to read or not to read the introduction 🤔 - I‘m always scared of spoilers 😬😬

Had a rough few weeks but I did manage to finish this one. If you liked The Alienist, you‘ll love this one! Yes, it‘s longer and focuses more on the court proceedings of the early 20th century, but the story is even more twisted and we‘re reunited with all the characters of the first book. We get to know them better and are introduced to a few new ones who are just as endearing. I would‘ve read 600 more pages. Can‘t wait to get to the next one!

My favorite of the series so far!! (I feel like I‘ve said that of the last 3 books 😂) The premise was so interesting (love me some Gregorian chant), we got deeper into the main characters‘ lives, and the suspense kept increasing until the very last pages. I didn‘t even get a chance to miss Three Pines! I can‘t wait to pick up the next one!

Not going to lie, I delayed reading this book because I was very skeptical about the amount of hype surrounding it. I‘m generally hype-averse, but this one didn‘t seem like it deserved THAT much of it. Well folks, I was wrong!! This book is so well-structured, completely engrossing, highly entertaining, and will keep you guessing until the end. In other words, everything I look for in a thriller. I‘m really glad I picked it up.

I kept reading until the end, but I found the resolution and the twists to be predictable, and some plot elements to be stereotypical. If you don‘t read thrillers and mystery books very often, try it out. If you read a lot of them, pass.

Just flew through this one! My favorite in this series so far. The characters are finally becoming deeper and more three-dimensional to me, and I find the stories are getting a bit grittier and less cozy. I‘ve already put the next one on hold and I can‘t wait to ses where she takes these characters next.

Here is a review of a book I finished 2 weeks ago 🙄 I love true crime and I love books about nature so this was the perfect read for me. I learned a lot about fish and about the illegal animal trade, while also being entertained by the story of the author‘s quest to find a rare fish in the wild, and her reckoning with the best way to protect biodiversity. Great companion read to The Lost City of Z.

My favorite so far! I feel like this book finally gave a lot of depth to many of the characters, including Armand Gamache, and that made me care about the story a lot more. And I also loved that she brought back the mystery from the last book. I found both narratives really well done. I normally wait a few months in between these books but I‘ll be reading the next one very soon.

I‘ve read and enjoyed many of David Grann‘s articles in The New Yorker but this is my first time reading one of his books. I really liked it! He tells the story in a very interesting way and finds a way to humanize the people he writes about even when they‘re so far removed from him. I also learned about so many more deadly things in nature 😳 I‘ll definitely read more of his work.

Finally recovering from the sinus infection from hell 😷 so I managed to finish a book 🙌🏻 I loved this one. I found Ranger Darren Mathews a very compelling character (and a pleasant spin on the trope of the dysfunctional detective). It‘s a solid mystery and also a reflection on race, love, loyalty and family. Hope she makes this into a series!

Just the palate cleanser I needed. It was heartwarming and heartbreaking in the best way. Serious with just the right amount of comic relief. I learned about an aspect of World War II that I had never encountered before - the occupation of the Channel Islands by the Germans. I got really attached to all the characters and could have gone on reading about them forever. I‘m really looking forward to the movie now.

Finished this book today and I feel like I can breathe again. It was so disturbing, but very well written and very moving considering what happened to the author and the latest developments in the case. I think I need a little break from crime though - ready to power through The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society this weekend.

“There is a crack in everything, that‘s how the light gets in.”

There have been a lot of cracks since the beginning of this year, hence the radio silence. The lowest lows accompanied by some of the highest highs, and not much reading in between. I‘m slowly getting back into the swing of things though... looking forward to getting reacquainted with this little corner of the internet 🙂

My kind of blind date 😎

Quick read that lingers. I finished this a week ago and have been thinking about it every day since. So much beauty, hope and sadness, inevitably intertwined, which pretty accurately reflects real life in my opinion. Trying to muster the courage to watch the movie adaptation - not sure if I‘m ready for a sob-fest at the moment.

My most anticipated book of the year and it did not disappoint - I think I liked it even more than her first one. I became completely entranced by these characters' lives and the plot went places I was not expecting, which totally broke me. Celeste Ng has a special talent for capturing human nature in its truest, most raw form and I will be reading whatever she puts out, forever and always 💜

I think I enjoyed this one even more than The Widow. I wasn't sure the story would be complex enough for my taste at first but I should not have worried. I also really warmed up to Kate's character in this book and I'm now looking forward to reading more about her. Overall, another solid mystery from Fiona Barton (although I did figure out the twist shortly before the reveal - didn't dampen my enjoyment though).

The main mystery was a bit predictable but I still enjoyed this book so much! I especially loved the narrator and the novel within the novel. I don't know what it is with fall and mystery novels but they go well together, I find. So if you've read a good mystery/thriller recently, I want to hear about it!

I am LOVING this book!! And I love it all the more for referencing one of my favourite streets in all of London 💜 brought back good memories.

Exactly the escapist read I needed right now. It was fast-paced, I loved the characters and I didn't see all of the twists coming. Another solid one from Clare Mackintosh - can't wait for her next one!

That was one gritty and disturbing thriller, and exactly what I needed right now. I flew through it in two days and even though I saw the main twist coming, the storyline was complex enough to keep me engaged until the end. I love the main detective character (Sam Porter) and his crew and actively look forward to the next book!

This read like an updated, contemporary Agatha Christie novel, which is probably why I enjoyed it so much. Definitely my favorite in the series so far!

11. I almost only drink tea and water
12. I am terrified of spiders, heights and water…
13. But I love being by the water
14. I love watching tennis
15. Until getting on Litsy, I rarely read new releases
16. I re-read Jane Eyre every fall
17. I‘m an INFJ
18. I‘ve been dealing with anxiety ever since I can remember
19. I‘m a hopeful pessimist
20. I‘ve lost count of how many times I‘ve watched Friends (in its entirety)

#20thingsaboutme

There isn't much plot, and the characters aren't fully drawn out but to me, this book perfectly captures the simultaneous beauty and horror of everyday life when the shit hits the fan. I found the writing style, with a lot of run-on sentences, added to that breathlessness that comes with hard times. So it might not be a great refugee story or a great love story but it is an amazing story about human emotion and that makes it worth a read, imo.

Finished just in time for book club discussion tomorrow! I'm surprised at how much I enjoyed this, as I'm not normally a fan of post-apocalyptic stories. I thought the characters were very well drawn, each with a distinct voice (and found Melanie especially endearing) and it was entertaining all the way through. I definitely could not have foreseen the ending!

In another attempt to get me out of my reading slump, I've set myself a little challenge for the rest of the year: to get through the Man Booker Prize 2017 long list. First up, this one 👆🏻

#bookishwouldyourather @kalalalatja

1. I don't really drink alcohol, but if I have to pick, I did taste a grapefruit-flavored beer last weekend that I enjoyed, so that.
2. Based on their cover because I'm shallow like that 😬
3. At the beach always 🏖
4. Realistic novels
5. Mr. Darcy - Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books but I cannot even with a man who lies 🙅

Short, not much plot. It's more a meditation on what it is to be a woman and to have a female body, to be a foreigner/immigrant, to be Other... I thought the questions and messages the author wanted to explore were really clear and the end was a strong statement that brought it all together. I don't think it has been translated to English yet but hopefully it will and the author can gain an even wider audience.

#asidefrombooks #betterlatethannever
Fav hobby: baking, spending time with friends
Fav drink: tea
Fav food: my dad‘s beef stew
Fav color: purple
Fav city: London, UK
Dream house location: Galway, Ireland
Fav accessory: handbags
Favorite TV show: old - Friends; current - Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Last movie I watched in theatres: Beauty and the Beast
Currently reading: too many books, none of which I seem to be able to finish #feelingslumpy

Second attempt at this book and I really enjoyed it (and was also much less scared lol). I loved the format of a story within a story. The historical details were also fascinating and the narration just grabbed me from the beginning. Overall, a very gripping and entertaining ride.

I loved these five essays/lectures - Doris Lessing usually speaks a language that I fully understand. I especially loved the lectures on mass movements, and on the power of thinking for yourself. It's amazing (and maybe terrifying?) that something written so many decades ago still reflects the society we live in today. She sure was a perceptive woman.

Halfway through this and once again, the audiobook kills it for me - and not in the good way. I just cannot stay engaged with the story for more than 5 mins. Pretty sure I missed 90% of what happened in the last hour 😒 I'm giving up for now, but hopefully my hold on the ebook or the physical copy comes in soon... it's for book club so I really want to finish it. #riar

Definitely a case of right book at the right time for me. So much of this resonated with me even though my experience is basically the opposite of the author's. I was expecting many a-ha moments, and they did come but they were not the ones I was expecting to have. Overall, a great reflection piece for me. It also extended my TBR exponentially - she discusses many fascinating women writers whose works I am now dying to delve into!

I went into this with no expectations and it ended up moving me to tears. I really enjoyed the format - the story is told through letters, diary entries and court documents. And Placidia is now one of my favorite strong female characters in literature. The writing was great and I marked down many passages. I feel like I should have anticipated the "twist" but I didn't so it was truly suspenseful until the end for me.

Beautiful, heartbreaking story of a Palestinian family and their journey as refugees/exiles in various countries over five decades. Each chapter follows a different member of the family at a different point in time. The characters and settings are so richly explored and I really cared about each of them. If you enjoyed Homegoing, give this one a try.

Short and powerful poetry collection about Aboriginal identity and femininity. It packs quite a punch with very few words. If you read French and are interested in indigenous voices, I highly recommend this one.

I did not enjoy my reading experience with this but I don't think it's completely the book's fault so I'm giving it a so-so. I was expecting the "sci-fi" aspects to be better explained and got really frustrated with the lack of answers. I don't mind books with very little plot, if the characters are well-developed and evolve over the course of the story, and I didn't find that to be the case in this book. So a big old meh from me ??‍♀️

I inhaled this book - it was exactly what I needed to read at this very moment. It spoke to me on so many different levels and I find myself in a slightly better frame of mind this morning. My first Rebecca Solnit but definitely not my last.

So fascinating! The author really simplifies complex scientific theories and makes them much more palatable for people like me who aren't very well-versed in them. I felt like I understood most of what he explained and it is as breathtaking as he says it is. You can really feel his love and amazement for the subject. I especially enjoyed the last lesson, where he discusses how all those theories interact with and shape humans.

The only reason I didn't bail is that by the time I realized how much I hated this book, there were only 40 pages left. So I pretty much finished it out of spite. The writing is fine, the narrative structure is interesting, and it's short and that's everything that didn't bother me about it. I'm disappointed because I was expecting to enjoy it 😒 Oh how wrong I was. Oh well, on the next.

This was like brain candy for the political science nerd in me. His thesis and argumentation is so on point in my opinion, so if you're curious but don't think you can stomach 300 pages of deeply detailed political philosophy, just read the epilogue - you'll get the essential and impactful idea in a more succinct and approachable manner. Definitely buying my own copy of this so I can underline like crazy.

Only 15 pages into the introduction and he's already quoted Hannah Arendt 8 times... I think this book and I will be great friends 😃

This was fascinating. I appreciated the depth of his research and the absence of sensationalism, and learned a lot about events in history that I was less familiar with. The most disturbing part is the explanation of the way colonial powers used a fake cannibalism excuse to justify their enslavement and genocide of indigenous populations. To me, insects and fish eating their own will never be as disgusting as the darkest parts of human nature.

I finished this book today and find myself incapable of rating or reviewing it. I love stories with little to no plot that focus on deep character studies so I was sure I would connect with this one. The weirdest thing happened though. I have no idea how I feel about it. It's not that I can't decide between ratings, it's that I literally can't figure out if I enjoyed it or if it annoyed me or if I hated it...very weird (and new) experience 😦

I don't think I came to like any of the characters but it didn't change my appreciation of the book. The writing is very good and the story raises interesting points about grief, belonging, motherhood, wealth and responsibility. I thought the ending was really strong and pulled all the aspects of the plot together in a satisfying way. I'll definitely read more by this author.

Can't believe we're already on to the fifth one!! #hpchapteraday

This was such a wild ride! It's a racial satire that is as cleverly done as it is hilarious. For those who tried The Sellout and were put off by the language and the narrative structure, this might be a good alternative. It's a very good companion for it, regardless. An absurd plot that will make you think. And laugh. A lot.