Happy Hanukkah! Welcome to the (first) December edition of Show Us Your Books with me and Steph. I say first because we have second one planned for December 29 and for that one, we’re asking you to link up with your favorite reads of the year. That’s right! A BONUS Show Us Your Books! I hope you’ll join us! And make sure you stick around to the end of this post as there’s a giveaway for you to enter.

This past month I read 14 books. Five for work, 9 for fun. I’ll only be reviewing the 9 I read for fun but if anyone is interested in the books I read for work (4 business type books, 1 criminal justice/cold case book), let me know. I’ll put them in a separate post or we can talk about them over email.

Let’s do it. But buckle up because this is one long ass post (you can skip to the bottom of the reviews for my must reads, the linkup and the giveaway):

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I first learned about this book through Lisa’s book club and I waited quite awhile for it to come in at the library. Worth. The. Wait. Which is weird for me to say about a science fiction book (and one of two I read this month) but guys, this books is so good! Like The Martian, it helps if you skim through the really technical boring video game stuff but once you do, what a great adventure/mystery/love story behind it! So creative, a little WALL-E-esque, and also, a possible scary glimpse into our future. Not to mention all the 80s pop culture references. If you were a kid/teenager in the 80s, you will explode from excitement with all the references. And for me, an extra bonus, Rush (one of my all-time favorite bands) played a crucial part to the story.

Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. The second science fiction book I read this month. It’s based on the podcast of the same name and I think it’s crazy awesome that a podcast was turned into a book. I don’t really know how to describe this book to you except to tell you that it’s weird, sarcastic, unlike anything I’ve ever read before, and it will hook you. That said, because it’s so damn weird, it gets hard to read sometimes. Also, it’s written with the exact same cadence and manner as the podcast so if you want to read the book, listen to the podcast first. You don’t have to but it’ll help it make more sense.

Stoner by John Williams. I decided to read this after I heard both the hosts of All the Books (another podcast I listen to) rave about it. Unfortunately, I did not feel the same way about this book as they did. I mean, it was very well written and I felt many emotions, but it was just…meh. It’s a story about a college professor named William Stoner set in the 1930s-40s (mostly) at the University of Missouri, so the historical stuff was pretty cool, and the progression of his average, and at times failed, life made for a decent enough read but it didn’t floor me. I wanted it to. But it didn’t.

Gangerland by Tod Goldberg. Nope nope nope nope nope. Don’t read this book. Boring, annoying, the good parts of the story were shortened and disrupted by the tedious ones, he killed the best character, and I only finished it because of the few pages of goodness peppered throughout. I wanted to read about the FBI agent and his pursuit of the mob hitman-turned rabbi (right?) not the other way around. I totally expected more from the guy who co-hosts a podcast with Shawn from Boy Meets World.

Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Let me say upfront that she’s definitely on the list of authors I won’t quit. She reminds me of Jennifer Weiner in that she writes chick lit but does it in a way that makes you want to keep reading her books. The characters are not too over the top, they’re relatable, and the situations/scenarios they’re in feel real and not contrived for the sake of entertainment. You feel like you might know them or be one of them. She writes the kind of books I’d like to write. And this one falls in the same vein. It was like Sliding Doors/The Butterfly Effect (but less awful) and I loved the message that you can be happy with your life no matter what choices you make or what circumstances happen to you. It also made me really want to eat cinnamon rolls.

The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter. I enjoyed the premise of this book way more than the execution. It told the story of Matt, a failed blogger and former newspaper reporter on the verge of losing his house and his family (due to a debt that’s not entirely his fault and it angered me how much of a pass the wife got on her responsibility in the whole situation, not to mention her cheating on him) and his failed attempt at dealing weed and the ramifications of his choices. Honestly, the parts of the book I found the most compelling were his financial and home life. I could not have cared less about the drug dealing. Or the terrible poetry that was weaved in. I did like the author’s writing style so I’m not giving up on him yet.

God Shaped Hole by Tiffanie DeBartolo. This was a reread for me. I read it years ago and had forgotten about it until Julie Murphy (author of Dumplin‘), who I follow on Instagram, posted a picture of it. I couldn’t remember exactly what the book was about so I figured I’d give it a shot again. Much more memorable this time around and I’m glad I reread it. The book is heartbreaking and sad and touches on the intensity of romantic love and feeling stuck and fractured parental relationships and, without actually mentioning it specifically, mental illness. Trixie and Jacob remind me of an older Violet and Finch (from All the Bright Places), if that helps give a picture of their relationship and the direction of the book. The author wrote another book, How To Kill A Rock Star, which you should also put on your radar.

I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak. I’d had this book on my TBR for awhile but when one of your closest blogging friends can’t stop raving about it, you bump it up to the top of the list. You guys. So glad I did. What a phenomenal book. Not five stars because some of the plot felt choppy and unfinished, and the end was a little too rushed, but wow. Using playing cards to send cryptic messages to a directionless, kind of pathetic, underage cab driver who lives alone with an overly smelly dog to go out and do good in the world without him realizing exactly what he’s doing and the impact he’s having, but also making him suffer, made for a wonderfully different read. I love Zusak’s writing. He reminds me of an Australian John Green except not every book is about the longing of a teenage boy.

Beneath the Bonfire by Nickolas Butler. OMG, I love this man’s writing. It’s just beautiful. I don’t even know what else to say about it. This book, unlike Shotgun Lovesongs, was a collection of short stories and yes, there were themes tying each one together, and yes, each one dealt with different moral issues, but each one of them could have been their own book. I’m glad, though, that he left them the way he did as it gives you more room to think about the characters and the endings and I feel that the impact was greater as a result of the brevity of the stories.

Definitely add: Beneath the Bonfire (even if you don’t like short stories. Trust me), God Shaped Hole, I Am the Messenger

Alrighty. Now that we made it through all of that, it’s your turn. Show us what you’ve got!

And now the giveaway! With the holidays upon us, Steph and I decided we wanted to give you a present and also, donate to a charity on your behalf. Because giving and receiving are not mutually exclusive. So one lucky winner will receive a $25 gift card to Amazon so they can buy books. And we’ll give $25 on your behalf to Project Night Night, which is a charity that provides free Night Night Packages to homeless children. Night Night packages contain a new security blanket, a children’s book, and a stuffed animal.

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Hello, fellow booknerds. We meet again. FOR THE GREATEST DAY OF THE MONTH!!! I cannot wait to see what you guys have read and to add to my TBR even though I have 8 books on my nightstand, 6 books on hold, and about a dozen unread books on my iPad. This is perhaps why I am taking a readcation over Thanksgiving. No blogging, no social media except maybe Instagram, no work. Just books, family, the occasional workout because food, and more books.

It really needs to get here already.

But since it’s still 2 weeks away, let’s review what I read last month, which was perhaps my slowest reading month of the year. I finished 5 and had one DNF.

Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg. This was just nominated for a Goodreads award and with good reason. This is a sad, beautifully written book. It told the story of a woman who lost her entire family in a terrible, tragic accident (that actually could have been prevented but we don’t know that until the big confession), and the narrative is done through a number of characters who, in another book, would have been peripheral characters but in this book, come together to tell the whole story. It does drag in some places but overall, it was such a phenomenal story and I gave it 5 stars because of the creativity in storytelling. I don’t recommend this book for everyone. But I loved it.

Who Do You Love by Jennifer Weiner. There is a reason she is on my list of authors I’ll never quit. I simply love her books. They are not earth changing, they are not inspiring, they will not make you think differently about life. But she writes (mostly) realistic stories with (mostly) realistic characters and those stories give you all the feels without being overbearing or wrecking you for days. Which is nice. This one in particular chronicles the relationship between Rachel and Andy, starting from their first meeting at 7 or 8 and ends with them as adults, and it’s not always as storybook as you’d think. That’s the part I loved. Also, the characters are my age and since the story is told with an age progression, I could relate on a whole different level. I’m describing that poorly. Essentially, I liked that I understood a lot of the pop culture references and experiences.

You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine by Alexandra Kleeman. Fuck this pretentious, boring book with awful characters written by someone who clearly has buckets of talent but chose to showcase it in a way that alienates readers who actually want to be slightly entertained by books. The main character, A, is miserable, her boyfriend, C, is a huge dick, and her roommate, B, is even more miserable than A and they’re all pathetic and maybe it was social commentary that I’m not smart enough to understand and that’s why it didn’t click for me but blech. I hated this book. I could write dozens of sentences as to why and they’d probably all be more interesting than everything about this book. This was my DNF, by the way

Hate List by Jennifer Brown. Continuing my support for banned books, I decided to read this one. Another school shooting book but this time, it followed the girl whose boyfriend was the shooter and how he seemingly picked victims both at random and targeted based on their collective “hate list”. We see how the shooting affects not only Valerie mental health, family life, and school life, but we see the overall impact to the school and survivors. The ending was a little to rushed and parts were tied in a neat little bow, but for the most part, the author did not shy away from the ugliness of the aftermath (particularly in the way Valerie’s family treats her). It’s a hard topic to read but I highly recommend this book.

Galveston by Nic Pizzolatto. If his name sounds familiar, it’s because he’s the guy behind True Detective. I first heard of this book from Erin, and since she and I have similar taste in, well, everything, I put this one on my list. I’m glad I did. I read this book in about 3 hours. It’s definitely right up my gritty, dark, violent, emotional, crime story alley. The book–which is relatively short–follows the Roy, who’s essentially mafia muscle and recently diagnosed with terminal cancer, who escapes a hit on him and in the process, becomes the unwilling partner/guardian of Rocky and her “sister”. The story follows them in their travels through Louisiana and Texas and eventual stay at a motel in, you guessed it, Galveston. What happens isn’t pretty, which I liked. The ending is not at all what I expected, even if it became pretty predictable after a point.

Bream Gives Me Hiccups & Other Stories by Jesse Eisenberg. If his name sounds familiar, it’s because it’s Jesse Eisenberg, the actor. Who, for what it’s worth, I love as an actor. He’s one of those actors who will get me to watch a movie simply because he’s in it. So that’s partly why I wanted to read this book. Also because a book of short stories is on my self-imposed, never shared reading challenge. What’s nice about a book of short stories is, if you don’t like one, you can skip it and it doesn’t at all affect your reading experience. That’s what happened in this book. There were some stories I LOVED (like the one with the college freshman and the opening one with the kid giving his life story hidden in restaurant reviews) and some that were just meh. I will say, though, regardless of my opinion of the story, he’s a great writer. I’d read another collection if he writes one.

Definitely add to your TBR: Hate List, Galveston

Read only if every other book ever written goes up in flames and the internet shuts down: You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine

Now it’s your turn! Link up below with your posts or, nonbloggers or bloggers who didn’t write a post, let me know in the comments what you’ve been reading. Next linkup will be on December 8.

 

 

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I cannot believe it’s been a year since Steph and I started this little linkup! It’s giving me all the feels how supportive you all have been and how many of you have been involved and stay involved and it really is a testament to the power of books. And as a thank you, Steph and I have a little giveaway of bookish presents so after you read through my reviews, make sure you enter (or, skip to the end, enter the giveaway and then go back and read my reviews. Either way works for me).

I have many mushy things to say but Thursday’s post is an emotional gut punch so I’ll refrain from most of my comments and simply say I appreciate everyone who joins us, regularly or irregularly, and thank you for your books and your comments and your love of reading.

On to what I read last month.

Dietland by Sarai Walker. A story about an obese woman whose sole purpose in life was to stay hidden and lose weight until she starts being stalked by a stranger who gets her involved in an underground group trying to change beauty standards in strange, often bizarre, quasi-militant ways (which, truth be told, got annoying after awhile). The point the author was trying to make–that we can love ourselves regardless of size–is a good one but the story was kind of all over the place, I hated the main character’s name, and it left little room for the mindset that if you want to change how you look that’s okay, too, as long as it’s on your own terms. Body positive books are important but this one, for me, was not the one to lead the charge.

Ally Hughes Has Sex Sometimes by Jules Moulon. This was a fun little book. I read it in a couple of hours, on my flight from Philly to Charlotte. Ally Hughes is a college professor, has a short fling with one of her students that maybe was more than a fling, they don’t speak for 10 years until he shows up at her house with her daughter and throws her already messy life into even more disarray. It has the makings of a Lifetime movie, and it’d probably be a great one, and there’s a little mystery plot thrown in and you really want Ally to get over herself and be with this guy who clearly never got over her. This book will not rock your world or change your life but I do recommend it because it’s pure entertainment.

$2 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America by Katherine Edin and H. Luke Shaefer. So, this was an interesting follow up to Ally Hughes. A study of families living at the lowest income you can imagine, with no cash flow at all, and how they survive. And what they do is survival in its basic form. From selling plasma to selling their food stamps to using whatever free services (think library, parks) they can find to doubling and tripling up in homes that should essentially be condemned, the families highlighted in the book show just how dire the poverty in our own country can be. They use the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 as the foundation of their thesis, and the solutions that they propose are practical yet most likely not going to happen in the near future. Which is pretty freaking sad.

Radiant Angel by Nelson DeMille. I did not finish this one. Not even linking to it because it doesn’t deserve the link. This book was absolutely terrible and the only reason I even made it 100 pages in is because I like John Corey as a character. The plot was ridiculous, the writing was lazy, the characters were horrible, and everything else was atrocious. I recommend the John Corey series but do yourself a favor and avoid this one. Negative 400 stars.

Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari with Eric Klinenberg. My sociology nerd heart skipped many beats reading this book. It was equal parts hilarious and smart and well researched and also, it made me so, so happy I don’t have to date. I’m grateful I met my husband in the dark ages. I cannot even begin to imagine what dating is like in the texting and Tinder age (you can visit my friend Ali for lots of insight about that) and this book was very eye opening to me. Aziz is hysterical, the book was definitely written in his voice, and whether you’re in the midst of dating or are on old married hag like me, I definitely recommend picking this one up.

Undermajordomo Minor by Patrick deWitt. I had been looking forward to this book since I learned that Patrick deWitt wrote another book because The Sisters Brothers is one of my all-time favorites and I did a little happy dance when I got the notification from the library that it was ready for pick-up. And maybe I built the book up in my head too much but I was disappointed. It did not blow me away like I’d hoped it would. He’s a phenomenal writer but this story, for me, was too bizarre. Not only that, it felt like there were gaping holes in some of the plot. Like, it was half-plots or half told stories for some of the characters. And there was a disturbing, pretty fucking gross sex scene that had the husband say to me “you look horrified by what you’re reading”. I definitely was. And I made it through the whole 50 Shades trilogy. So that says a lot.

Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy. Far and away my favorite book of the month. Probably in my top 10 of the year. THIS is the body positive book people should be reading and talking about. And one of my favorite part of the book was Willowdean herself. Sure, she’s kind of bitchy and judgmental and confident and insecure and moody but she’s a 16 year old girl. Those are the characteristics that made her feel real and relatable (honestly, I’m 38 and I’m still bitchy and judgmental and insecure and occasionally confident). She is exactly what you’d expect a teenage girl to be, especially one who’s overweight with a very unexpected admirer (two, actually) and a former pageant queen mother and who’s still mourning the sudden (but not unsurprising) loss of her aunt and role model. She makes some questionable choices that both help and backfire on her but in the end, you realize what a badass this teenage girl really is. I wish she existed when I was in high school. I would have maybe felt a little less lonely. Oh, and I feel obliged to add that Dolly Parton plays a big role in the story so that was like the sequins on the cherry lollipop (once you read the book, you’ll get that reference).

Definitely add: Dumplin’, Modern Romance, Ally Hughes Has Sex Sometimes 

Now let us know what you read! Then keep scrolling for the giveaway entry form.

Congratulations! You’ve made it to the end of the post which means it’s giveaway time! To say thank you for a year of bookish awesomeness, Steph and I are giving away a $50 gift card to Amazon and some swag from Bookworm Boutique (see above). Complete the entries below for your chance to win one of those prizes (how commercially did that sound?). Winners will be pulled on October 19:

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