This was a meh reading week, for me. Here are my goodreads reviews. If you’re on goodreads, add me as a friend so I can see your books too! I’ve also started an instagram account where I join my love of reading with my love of art.
Marriageology (3 stars): I am a big fan of reading about marriage (and other topics) while things are going well. I feel like at moments like these, I am open to learning and receiving because I am not constantly triggered by what I might be upset about. So all potential ideas feel like options I can try out and use to strengthen my marriage. This book has both anecdotal stories and academic research and statistics. I would say that if your marriage is in trouble and you’re reading this book for ideas, the tone might throw you off a bit. It’s funny and jokey, not in a bad way but it might rub you the wrong way if you’re hurting or angry.
For me, I enjoyed this reminder of several different areas to pay attention to in my marriage and to always keep working on it.
The Better Sister (2.5 stars): This was a relatively fast paced novel that started with an interesting premise but then didn’t keep up the pace as much as I would have liked. If domestic mysteries are your thing, you will likely enjoy this and the few twists it contains. I didn’t really want to put it down while I was reading it which is definitely a sign of good pacing and plot, for me. But alas I don’t think it will stay with me for long.
The Invited (3 stars): I had read that this story was going to be creepy and while I am not picky in my reading tastes, I generally try to stay away from creepy. After hemming and hawing I decided to pick it up anyway and I am glad I did. This is a medium paced character driven novel, you get attached to the characters through slowing learning more and more about their lives.
The chapters are short and pacing is much faster than a typical character-driven story though I’d say slower than a typical mystery. For me, this didn’t turn out to be creepy at all. There is a twist here and there and I was able to guess several pretty easily but it didn’t take away from the story, for me, since there’s more depth here than a typical mystery story.
In the end, I am glad I picked it up.
With the Fire on High (4 stars): Acevedo is such a good writer. Her characters are so 3-dimensional they come off the page. They stick with you and you find yourself thinking about them all the time. This novel was very different from Poet X and still had some of the similar themes. It was fun, deep, thought-provoking, fast-paced and meaningful all at once. It’s hard to pull off all of those things in one story and she does such a good job with it!
The Farm (3 stars): Golden Oaks is a surrogacy farm. Women host children for the wealthy. Many of the women who are hosts are immigrants who need money and jobs and a leg up in life. The clients are wealthy and white. This story is dubbed as dystopian but it’s not that far from a potential truth.
While it was character driven, I still found myself unable to get into it as much as I would have liked. There was not enough variety and inflection in the story. The characters were each different but they all fell a bit flat for me. I felt the story went on longer than it needed to be (especially the epilogue.)
While I think there are some very interesting ideas in this book and it’s a valuable social commentary, I think the execution wasn’t as tight as it could have been. Having said that I still enjoyed reading it and am glad these kinds of books are getting printed and read.
And there we go, an okay week of reading. Here’s to a great week next week.
Books I Read this Week 2019 is a year-long project for 2019. You can read more about my projects for 2019 here. I am also tracking my books in real time on Good Reads here. If you’re on Good Reads add me so I can follow you, too! I’ve also started an instagram account where I join my love of reading with my love of art.
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