There’s a lot of internet hubhub about how bad GoodReads is for people who actually love books - from the over the top negative reviews, to rating bombing, to the annual book lists based on reader ranking. This
podcast episode “How Did GoodReads Get So Bad?” can give you some background.Then, TheStoryGraph popped up and presented itself as an alternative. I still use GoodReads to track, but with StoryGraph you can import over your lists if you want to get away from GR all together. They also have a giveaway feature and I love free things. They have developed a cool AI feature which lets you put in preferences for genres and give you fun new books to try. This feature has presented way more new to me books than I’ve ever gotten on GoodReads.
Now, buckle up because this is two months worth of books. Be forewarned, I dipped into a lot of subpar books the past two months. I have about 4 others that I started and never even finished because they were just not good. Out of this list, I would say I only really loved about 1/3rd of them.
Listed in the order I read them and linked here.
The St. Ambrose School for Girls by Jessica Ward. I had different expectations from this one than what I actually read. It’s described as a thriller, and it is that… I just felt annoyed by the main character.
The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig. I loved this up until halfway through when I felt like the book just drug on and on and on.
Family Reservations by Liza Palmer. The writing and story line in this book was fairly intriguing - I read this really fast and was always interested in picking it back up, but at the same time I was annoyed that there was a whole book on this one, seemingly small topic.
Ascension by Nicholas Binge. Interesting story that went too far over into the paranormal for me to believe it. (I know, who I am? I love paranormal.)
Star Splitter by Matthew J. Kirby. I’m pretty sure this was written for 5th graders. YA is one of my favorite genres, but I do like a little bit of 10th grade reading level sprinkled in. The first chapter reeled me in and went down to 5th grade pretty fast.
A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout. Finally - a good book. A memoir that grabbed me from the beginning and I couldn’t put it down. Amanda tells her story of being kidnapped in Somali and held for over 15 months. She chronicles her conversion to Islam in order to protect herself and her views on grace and forgiveness. It’s a truly beautiful books.
Living Tidal by Sheeana Jeffers. Sheena is a person I know solely from social media, enough though we live in the same city. I’ve gleaned so many life tidbits through what she shares - as a person, woman, mother, doula, and now author. When she announced her book launch, I clicked order right away. I read this in under a day. I couldn’t put it down until I was done. It’s told in one of my favorite memoir styles: tell a life story through the lens of adventure while sharing the technical aspects of that adventure. In this book, the learnings come through Sheena telling the story of finding herself through a two year sailing journey. There are fun sailing tidbits interwoven with historical information about the places Jeffers and her boyfriend sailed. There are underline-worthy sentences about life and the universe. There are moments that made me tear up. Highly recommend.
The Familiar by Leigh Bargudo. I must preface this by saying I liked this book. And follow it up by saying this is not the Grishaverse or the Ninth House Trilogy. I flew through both of those series. This is a totally different setting and characters and it felt a little like I was pushing myself through.
Imposter Syndrome by Kathy Wang. Objectively, not a good book. It sounded kinda interesting: a Russian spy steals a tech company in the U.S., works her way up to CEO while using her position to find out and tell secrets to her handlers. Then she gets busted and…. [spoiler] goes to work of the U.S. FBI. *sigh*
Wool (Silo #1) by Hugh Howey. This series came out between 2013-2016 and is now being adapted into a series on AppleTV+. I just heard about it! I love a good end of the world situation and this was a unique idea / plot. Fun fact: the main character is the same actresses as Jessica in Dune.
Quantum Radio by A.G. Riddle. Was not a super fan of this book. Interesting idea, but the whole plot and characters felt very under developed. Unfortunately for me, a lot of the book involves around a parallel world where the history of the world is rewritten and I skipped those entire section because I’m bored by history lessons, even made up ones.
Shift (Silo, #2) by Hugh Howey. I actually liked this 2nd book better than the 1st of this series - it feels like it made the whole thing make more sense and now I’m on the wait list to read the 3rd.
The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins. This was a fun thriller, quick read. Kinda a plot twist at the end that, looking back, feels expected.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. I usually avoid books that get a lot of hype, so it took me a while to get to this one. Once in though, I read it in a day and a half - I love the main character and found myself wanting to emulate her while also just wanting her to play the game. I can say I recommend this one.
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. I read this in under 24 hours. It was SO good. It’s my favorite kind of non-fiction - one that reads like a fictional novel. In this book, Preston chronicles the discovery of Ebola and a resulting Ebola breakout that occured in Reston, Virginia, just about an hour from where I live.
Book I Loved the Most:
The Hot Zone - I will put this on a list of some of my top favorite books. I loved it som much, I’ve moved on to other books by Preston.
Book I Would Add to My Collection:
Living Tidal - because I did in fact, already add this to my collection!
Honorable Mention:
Lessons in Chemistry - for being a surprising great book and the Silo Series - for being a fun, old but new addition to the sci-fi landscape.
What to see what else I’ve read so far in 2024? Check out:
YOUR TURN: What needs to be on my TBR (to be read) list?