Another month, another book list! Let’s do this thing!
1. Eleanor and Park, by Rainbow Rowell. The reason I did not read more books this month? This one, right here. This book wrecked my soul. It broke my heart. I cried after I finished it. Real, raw, nasty, ugly tears. I really truly absolutely loved it. Don’t let the cutesy cover fool you–this may be the story of two teenagers, but it’s the story of a first love, a desperate, clawing love–one that you won’t easily forget after you’ve set it down. It’s set during 1986, and my heart still aches for Eleanor and Park.
2. Skipping a Beat: A Novel, by Sarah Pekkanen. I have been wanting to read a book by Sarah Pekkanen forever because she is local to me and I follow her on Facebook and I think she’s hilarious. So when she announced that Skipping a Beat was on sale for $1.99, I snatched it up. This book hit me hard, too, but not as hard as Eleanor and Park because guys, I’m not even kidding, I’m still a mess and it’s been almost a month since I read it. Michael and Julia are wealthy and living the good life in DC–until Michael suffers from heart failure and is dead for four minutes. He is resuscitated with a brand new lease on life, determined to give away his fortune–something that Julia isn’t really down with. He tries to get Julia to understand, but the book tells the story of whether or not their marriage will stay intact after Michael’s change of heart. I enjoyed this book and even though some people have claimed that they saw the plot twists coming a mile away, I actually did not.
3. How to Be a Heroine: Or, What I’ve Learned from Reading too Much (Vintage Original), by Samantha Ellis. This book worried me at first and I was afraid that I was going to find it too self-indulgent, which is often the case with memoirs. But I didn’t. It was pure delight. I loved learning about Ms. Ellis, who is a playwright and also hails from an Iraqi Jewish background. In her thirties she realized that her whole life she had been trying to be Cathy Earnshaw of Wuthering Heights–when really, she should have been trying to be Jane Eyre. She then goes through all of the inspiring literary heroines she has read, and there is a bevy of them to go through–Anne Shirley, Lizzy Bennett, and the list goes on. Ellis goes over the lessons she has drawn from reading these heroines, and even though we shared a lot of titles, there were others that I now feel like I need to read. It was as if I was having a conversation with a friend about books that I loved, and you can’t go wrong with a book that makes you feel that way:)
Right now I am reading The Lincoln High Project
by Raelee May Carpenter. Will let you know my thoughts next month!
