Gillian Flynn

Top 5 Wednesday: July 4, 2018

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Best Books You’ve Read So Far in 2018

To participate in Top 5 Wednesday, head over to their Goodreads Group!

Alrighty, I’m going to do this in the order that I read them, not in the order that I liked them (because that would be way too hard).

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

This was my first Gillian Flynn novel and I was honestly nervous to read it. I liked the movie and was worried that the book wouldn’t be as good. But a fellow blogger assured me Flynn was an excellent writer and Gone Girl did not disappoint. In fact it kind of blew me away how much I loved it. I went online and bought it before I had even finished reading it. I look forward to reading it again sometime.

Tales of the Kingdom series // Cynthia Voigt

Oh come on, you knew this series had to be on the list somewhere, right? I reread them earlier in the year and loved them just as much as always, maybe even more. As always, this is a loosely-connected, non-magical, fantasy series, set in a medieval-esque world.

Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick

This is one of the best autobiographies I’ve read ever, and definitely the best this year. Anna is funny and pithy and pleasantly verbose. What made it even better was listening to the audiobook version where Anna reads you the book herself.

White Oleander by Janet Fitch

This book was recommended to me from another reader because I said I wanted to branch out of my genre comfort zone and I have to admit I didn’t expect to like it. But the prose was engaging and beautiful and I found myself falling into the mind of the protagonist quickly and easily. I definitely want to read more by Janet Fitch in future.

The Martian by Andy Weir

I had one main issue with this book (mentioned in this post), but everything else about it was excellent. It was funny and the format was interesting. If you liked the movie you will most likely like the book as it is extremely similar. I found it really hard to put down.

What are the best books you’ve read in 2018 so far? Leave me a comment or link me to your own post.

First Lines Fridays: June 22, 2018

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First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

First Lines:

I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ. Slit me at my belly and it might slide out, meaty and dark, drop on the floor so you could stomp on it.

Did the quote pique your interest? View this book on Goodreads!

 

January 2018 Reading Wrap-Up

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Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  January 6
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Sneaky sneaky sneaky!
Least Favorite Thing:  Ooooh Nick is such a douche!

I’m so grateful to Kelsie @ BilboBookins for putting Gillian Flynn back on my radar and making me really consider reading her books and Marina @ The Review Marina for her review which put to rest my worries about whether having liked the movie, I could enjoy the book too. If it hadn’t been for these two I probably wouldn’t have picked up this amazing book at all and I’d have really missed out!

My Posts About Gone Girl

Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham
Rating:  ★★☆☆☆
Review:  Yes
Reading Dates:  January 7 – 10
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  The diet secrets “monologue”.
Least Favorite Thing:  Boredom.

For something with “Gilmore Girls” all over the cover, it had surprisingly little Gilmore Girls in it. (This is neither a good nor bad thing, just an observation.)

My Posts About Talking as Fast as I Can

All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  December 27 – January 11
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  The way Beatriz thinks.
Least Favorite Thing:  Waiting for something to Happen in the beginning of the novel.

As I mentioned in my rating post, my complaint about this book was just that it was hard to get into, but I really think it’s worth it.

My Posts About All the Crooked Saints

Jackaroo by Cynthia Voigt
(Tales of the Kingdom, book 1)
Rating:  ★★★★★
Review:  Yes
Reading Dates:  January 11 – 12
Read Count: 4-ish?
Favorite Thing:  Burrrrl!
Least Favorite Thing:  Cam is so much more annoying than he was when I first read this in middle school lol

This is my favorite series, and this is one of my favorite stories from the series. It makes me so sad that no one seems to know about these books anymore (admittedly they are a bit old, but they are so good)!

My Posts About Jackaroo

On Fortune’s Wheel by Cynthia Voigt
(Tales of the Kingdom, book 2)
Rating:  ★★★★★
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  January 12 -15
Read Count:  4-ish?
Favorite Thing:  Birle at the end, with Nan.
Least Favorite Thing:  The part at the slave market where that nasty fucker shoves his fingers in Birle’s mouth while he’s deciding if he wants to buy her. I literally had to stop reading and go brush my teeth, the passage evoked that visceral a response from me. (Actually I may need to again now just remembering…)

This one always gives me a little trouble during Part 1, because it moves slowly, but once I get past that, Parts 2 & 3 speed by so fast because this book is amazing.

Note:  Also published as The Tale of Birle, which is the copy I actually read this time, since I don’t have access to my own copy right now.

My Posts About On Fortune’s Wheel

Live Through This by Mindi Scott
Rating:  ★★★★☆
Review:  Yes
Reading Dates:  January 17
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  That life goes on as normal even with the bad things that are happening.
Least Favorite Thing:  I wish we got to know what came next. I mean I get it, but I still wish.

Trigger Warning:  Sexual Assault

Despite the harsh subject matter, I really liked this book.

My Posts About Live Through This

Counterfeit Son by Elaine Marie Alphin
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  January 20
Read Count:  2
Favorite Thing:  The sailing.
Least Favorite Thing:  The mom at the end. Spoiler: [start] I just hate that the book ended without her even acknowledging that he was really her son or anything other than standing there… [end]

I’m not sure what made me think of this book all of a sudden, but once I did I suddenly also wanted to reread it.

My Posts About Counterfeit Son

Gallows Hill by Lois Duncan
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  Yes
Reading Dates:  January 25 – 26
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Piecing together all the little tidbits that didn’t get direct explanations.
Least Favorite Thing:  The usage of the g*psy slur & negative stereotyping of Romani people. (It was a part of the characterization of the antagonists, but it was still left a bad taste in my brain.)

I decided to go on a Lois Duncan reading kick, and Gallows Hill was the first one I grabbed.

My Posts About Gallows Hill

The Wings of a Falcon by Cynthia Voigt
(Tales of the Kingdom, book 3)
Rating:  ★★★★★
Review:  No
Reading Dates:  January 21 – 29
Read Count:  4-ish?
Favorite Thing:  Oriel & Griff’s friendship.
Least Favorite Thing:  Merlis…

Don’t talk to me. Don’t look at me. The Thing literally gets harder every time I reread this even knowing it’s coming!

Note:  Also published as The Tale of Oriel, which is the copy I actually read this time, since I don’t have access to my own copy right now.

My Posts About The Wings of a Falcon

The Third Eye by Lois Duncan
Rating:  ★★★☆☆
Review:  Yes
Reading Dates:  January 30
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  I liked the mechanics of Karen’s gift. Especially the heightened sense of smell. That was interesting.
Least Favorite Thing:  Did we really need such a detailed description of a dead dog?

This was the second book on my Lois Duncan kick. I liked it better than the first one I think.

My Posts About The Third Eye

Thursday Quotables: January 11, 2018

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This weekly feature is the place to highlight a great quote, line, or passage discovered during your reading each week; whether it’s something funny, startling, gut-wrenching, or just really beautifully written.

I am a thornbush, bristling from the over-attention of my parents, and he is a man of a million little fatherly stab wounds, and my thorns fit perfectly into them.

Summary:

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy’s diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?

Thank you Bookshelf Fantasies for this fun book meme!

WWW Wednesday: January 10, 2018

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Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at Should be Reading and revived on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three W’s!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading:  Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham

I grabbed this one because I was getting a little stuck on the other book I’m reading. Lauren has a quarter-serious, mostly comical way of looking at her life and it’s pretty fun to read.

I almost feel as if she’s sitting there just chatting to me rather than me just being curled up reading a book.

I’m looking forward to finding out about behind-the-scenes Gilmore Girls things, but I don’t see how she can top the Top-Secret Hollywood Secrets on dieting.

All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater

I am both enjoying, and not enjoying this book…

Basically, it’s fascinating and strange, exactly like I was hoping it would be. But I don’t like it as much as I hoped.

I was warned that it might seem less magical than TRC, which when I first started I thought was erroneous, but the more I read of it the more I start to see what they meant. That’s not to say there isn’t any magic, in fact there’s quite a lot. But that’s my problem. There’s so much magic, it feels… somehow less magical…. And I can’t really explain that very well, but there it is.

Recently Finished:  Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

The decision to read this was pretty spur of the moment. Some other readers had made me want to try out Gillian Flynn’s novels, but I wasn’t going to for little while yet. And then I just sort of…. did? I have no idea what made me do it, but I’m sooo glad!

It was amazing. Except for the parts where I wanted to climb into the book and push Nick off something tall for being a pretentious douche… But otherwise, completely amazing!

I’ve already ordered it online because I know I’m going to want to reread it.

Reading Next:  Jackaroo (Tales of the Kingdom, book 1) by Cynthia Voigt

I’ve found myself in a major YA Fantasy mood and I haven’t even managed to finish the two books I’m currently reading!

I thought about looking for a book I hadn’t read before, but I know how much I love the Tales of the Kingdom books so I’m going to reread them yet again. After all, it’s been just slightly over a year since I reread them last!

The hard part will be making myself wait to start until I finish the two books I’m already on.