#12DaysofReadThis 2017 | August
It's Day 8 of #12DaysofReadThis! At this point I'm starting to wonder why I thought it would be a good idea to run down all 55+ of the books I read in 2017... but I have to persevere :) We moved in August, so it's a wonder I was able to read anything. I did a couple of audiobooks, an ARC, and two highly anticipated reads that were just middle of the road.
The Lying Game | Ruth Ware | This book reminded me a bit of The Secret History. Four female friends from boarding school play a game with one another. The Lying Game is a higher stakes version of the Mean Girls Burn book: lie if you can, don't get caught, and don't lie to each other. Most importantly- if someone from the group says "I need you", you show up. Something terrible happened when they were in college and they promised never to speak of it again. We catch up with the girls some 10 years later after Kate says she needs them. They haven't seen each other for years, but human remains have recently been found on the beach where they spent their summers threaten to disrupt their adult lives. I liked it, but it wasn't the best story. It's one of those where a super simple act could have saved everyone a lot of heartache. Rating, 3.5.
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft | Stephen King | I'm obviously a huge Stephen King fan and have been meaning to read this for awhile. I don't have aspiration to be a fiction writer, but I still loved this book so much. it's filled with writing tips and information about how he got started. I also loved hearing about his writing process, his relationship with his wife, and about who he was before becoming one of the most prolific authors of our time. Listen to it on Audible if you like audiobooks- King narrates. Rating, 5
See What I Have Done | Sarah Schmidt | I had high hopes for this book and it did not disappoint. See What I Have Done is a fictionalized account of Lizzie Borden and her 40 whacks. No one *really* knows what happened to her parents, and this book does a good job giving us a hypothesis. There was a ton of imagery that set the tone and really made me uncomfortable. It's not for the faint of heart, but it did a great job telling a creepy story in a unique way . This was a debut novel that really nailed it! Rating, 4
Annihilation | Jeff VanderMeer | This book was super strange. I liked that it was different but I had trouble getting into it. It's set in a future world where something has happened on Earth and explorers from various backgrounds go into an area that's been blocked off to try and figure out what is causing it. There's a lot of unknowns and are learning about what the explorers see right along with them. What we do know is that there have been 12 expeditions and that the explorers from each of the other groups have all had something catastrophic happen to them after they returned. Area X was surreal and had a dreamlike feel to it. I'm not totally sure if I'll continue on in the series- this is book 1 of 3- but I'm not dead set against it. This might be one of those "good books, but not for me". Rating, 2
Are You Sleeping | Kathleen Barber | This was probably my biggest letdown. Are You Sleeping had a ton of potential: inspired by the podcast, Serial, Are You Sleeping introduces us to Josie Behrman, a young woman who has spent the last 10 years rebuilding her life after her father was brutally murdered in her childhood home. One day, everything in her current life gets put into jeopardy due to a podcast, Reconsidered, which unearths the decade old murder case to re-examine the fact of the case. I thought it started out really strong, but fizzled out by the end. Rating, 3
What do you think? See any of your favorites so far on my list?
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