Now that I’ve amped up my reading time quite a bit, I finally feel like I have a decent amount of books to share with you! I’m sharing below some of the books I’ve read over the past couple of months that I would recommend. I had a few duds along the way too, so I’m leaving them out of this little round-up (though I do review all of them on my Goodreads), and am instead just sharing the good! Here’s what I’ve enjoyed lately.
📖 Book Reviews
📘 Baby Teeth
Author: Zoje Stage
Genre: Fiction ◦ Thriller
Publication: 2018
Format & Source: Print ◦ ARC from coworker
Dates Read: May 9 – 20, 2018
Rating: ★★★★☆
A very unique story about a seven year old mute child, Hanna, who is out for blood when it comes to her mother. She hates her mom and adores her dad. She wants him all for herself, so she meticulously plots and executes evil plans against mom, Suzette, in attempts to kill her. Of course she only shows her sweet side to Dad, who never knows whom he should be siding with.
So many interesting things going on here, including an exceptionally creepy child with mutism, and an uncomfortable and creepy tug of war over Dad. We also have Suzette who struggles with health difficulties and her own warped relationship with a neglectful mother. Luckily, the story is told in alternating points of view between the two, so we see both perspectives.
All in all, I really enjoyed this. We don’t often see diabolical children in books, so it was definitely something different and CRAZY to read. I kept turning the pages as fast as I could, and always looked forward to getting back to it when I had to put it down. It captivated me from beginning to end.
I look forward to seeing what Zoje Stage comes up with next… hopefully something just as twisted (oh, and fun fact! Apparently she used to work for the same library system where I work as a librarian. Who knew?!).
📘 The Trigger: Narratives of the American Shooter
Author: Daniel Patinkin
Genre: Nonfiction ◦ True Crime
Publication: 2018
Format & Source: eBook ◦ Netgalley (for review)
Dates Read: May 19 – June 16, 2018
Rating: ★★★★☆
This book was really gripping. It contains the personal stories of six different people who have all shot someone. It was very detailed, well written, and goes deep into each individual’s background and life story well before the shootings ever took place.
The stories are really varied to offer a wide scope of perspective. One story was about a cop who shot someone to save a life. One was about a young woman who had suffered years of abuse. Others were hardened criminals, and some had no criminal background at all. I enjoyed this diversity because it showed that all kinds of people COULD find themselves in such a difficult situation.
All of the stories were excellent. Each time I was in the midst of one, I would declare it as my favorite of the bunch… until I was reading the next one and declared THAT one my favorite… and on and on.
Very eye-opening narrative. The author gets a BIT into political talk which I don’t typically enjoy, but all in all, I found the book to be incredibly informative and interesting. This is one I’d highly recommend.
📘 Labyrinth Lost
Author: Zoraida Cordova
Genre: Fiction ◦ YA ◦ Fantasy
Publication: 2016
Format & Source: Print ◦ Library
Dates Read: July 6 – 15, 2018
Rating: ★★★☆☆
I was pleasantly surprised by this book! It was another Forever YA book club selection that I was unsure of, but I found myself enjoying it more than I thought I would.
The story centers around Alex and her family of “brujas” or witches. Alex is an encantrix, a bruja with the highest of powers. She decides she doesn’t want her magic though, and in doing a spell to rid herself of it, accidentally banishes her family to Los Lagos, a strange and dangerous land. Now she must journey there to save them and bring them back.
I’m not really a fantasy or paranormal reader, so I wasn’t really looking forward to this one. However, I ended up liking it, particularly the first portion of the book where you see Alex trying to live a normal teenage life as a bruja. The rest of the book takes place in Los Lagos, which was interesting, but a lot more fantastical / magical than I’m used to. All in all, it was fun though. Did I LOVE it? No. It was definitely out of my comfort zone. Did I like it enough to want to read the next one? Yes! I’m definitely interested to see what happens with these characters, especially because of the cliffhanger ending. I do plan on continuing on with the series.
Note: this was the pick for my Forever YA book club.
📘 Switch and Bait
Author: Ricki Schultz
Genre: Fiction ◦ Romance
Publication: 2018
Format & Source: eBook ◦ Netgalley (for review)
Dates Read: July 5 – 16, 2018
Rating: ★★★☆☆
This was a fun romantic comedy that I flew through relatively quickly.
The story centers around Blanche who runs a bookstore by day, and has an interesting side hustle by night: running online dating profiles for women who need a little help getting a date. It’s a fun job; she creates their profiles, finds their matches, messages back and forth with handsome men, then sends the happy women on their way. All is going well, until a man she had a one-time fling with shows up as a match for a client. Despite her feelings, she has to flirt with him and message him while pretending to be another woman. Disaster obviously awaits.
This book was definitely funny with some great dialogue. Blanche was super witty and had some great one liners and comebacks that made the story easy and enjoyable to read. I was definitely engaged and eager to see what would become of the disaster she had gotten herself into.
Though I found the book to be fast and really fun, I had to detract from my rating a bit for one particular reason: politics. I was surprised (and not in a good way) to see that this book was heavy on the political opinions right from the get go. Regardless of what the opinion is, I don’t want or expect to see it in my chick lit / romantic comedy reads, which I read for fun and escapism. I was really taken aback by it and found that it took me out of the story a bit at times. Without this aspect, I definitely would have rated this one four stars because I enjoyed it A LOT. Regardless, I will read other books by Schultz because aside from that, I really did find this book to be funny and light.
📘 The Sh!t No One Tells You About Toddlers
Author: Dawn Dais
Genre: Nonfiction ◦ Parenting
Publication: 2015
Format & Source: Print ◦ Library
Dates Read: July 15 – 22, 2018
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Fun, relatable, and funny. This was a super fast read about all things toddler-hood!
Dawn Dais’ book about newborns, (The Sh!t No One Tells You: A Guide to Surviving Your Baby’s First Year), is one of my all time favorite parenting books (review here), and this one on toddlers had all of the same qualities. The reason I rated the other one a five though (and not this one) is because I was reading the original right in the midst of my son’s newborn days and it made me feel less alone. It was a lifeline that I needed at that time. This time with the toddler book, I guess I didn’t “need” it quite as much, but still found it enjoyable.
Basically, this book contains Dawn’s musings on different topics pertaining to toddlers as well as some input and feedback from other toddler moms. She offers honesty, funny quips, and parenting tips. Lots of sarcasm, wit, and self-deprecating humor… all things which I enjoy! If you’re looking for a parenting book that isn’t too serious, and talks about both the ups AND downs… check out Dawn Dais!
That’s a wrap on my recent reads — here’s to another great chapter! 📚
No comments