We recently took a fun road trip (which hopefully I'll blog about later) and I took that opportunity to do some reading. This is the biggest streak of 5 star books I've had, maybe ever, so I wanted to share them with you in case you're in a reading rut.
#1 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
I recently started reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to Brayden and Brody (they love it), and then I remembered that I had heard about a new HP book. I looked it up and thought, eh, it's a screenplay, not a novel. But then, the night before it released I decided to just go ahead and pre-buy it for my kindle app. I ended up devouring it in about 4 hours. If you've never read a screenplay before (I have) it takes a little getting used to. If you can read it in one setting it will make it a lot easier.
If you're worried about new characters and how that might make you feel, toss it out the window. This book is FANTASTIC. It's everything you love about Harry Potter. And to answer the inevitable question, NO, I would not read this without having read the first seven books.
#2 Big Little Lies
This is a case (actually the only case I can recall) where I totally judged a book by it's horrific cover and nearly didn't read it. What a mistake that was. Big Little Lies was amazing and for those of you who like movie remakes, Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman are making a series for HBO (Reese plays Maddie and Nicole plays Celeste). Some people are very against books that are told from alternating perspectives, but this one just works. If you didn't have that the ending wouldn't make any sense at all, so just stick with it!
(Also, not on my list are several of Liane's other books: The Husband's Secret is very good and I also love Truly Madly Guilty).
I don't even remember how I found this book. It might have been an Amazon recommendation based on other books I read. In any case, this book is generally not one I would pick up (read the summary on Amazon or Goodreads). It's not a subject matter that generally appeals to me, but it was beyond amazing. It's one of the most well written books I've ever read. The writing style is beautiful and I just could not put it down!
#4 The Girl on the Train
Okay, so I actually gave this book 4 stars on Goodreads, but I think I'm going to change it. It's sort of funny - awhile ago one of my Goodreads friends wrote me a comment and said something like "you just don't like anything do you?" because I had gone through a stint of really awful books (and I'm painfully honest in my reviews). That's completely not the case! I love to read but I was just in a rut of awful literature. The tables have turned for me though, and I've finally found some good ones!
So, back to the book. I think its just taking me awhile to process it, and now I'd give it 5 stars instead of 4. It was definitely creative. The mystery was intriguing and kept me guessing. This is another book that alternates narrators, and again, it works here. I will warn you that just about every character in this enter book is awful, but somehow, this book turns out to be a beautifully woven masterpiece.
#5 What She Left Behind
This is another book that Amazon recommended for me (those can be so hit or miss!) that really paid off. I didn't know what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised! It's told in alternating points of view and the story is about a woman who was institutionalized in the 1930's and a girl in the 1990's who has found her belongings. I really was kept guessing throughout the story. The author did her homework was well versed on the things that actually took place in institutions during that timeframe. It was a realistic look at life for those poor women. That might make it sound like a book you wouldn't be interested in, but give this one a try. I'm glad I did!
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