The first book I read was The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, which I absolutely loved. The story is the perfect combination between a mystery and a love story. Once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down.
The second book was the Seeking Her novella by Cora Carmack. As much as I liked reading from Hunt's perspective, there wasn't much in terms of new information. I'd rather it have been a continuation of the story, like Keeping Her. Reading the novella did however inspire me to reread Finding It. I don't know if I liked the book as much as I did the first time, but it still made me all emotional inside.
The fourth, and probably the most frustrating, book I read over the summer was The Circle by Dave Eggers. The novel was a satirical view of the value we place on digital communication and technological advancements over personal connections. I liked the book because of the questions it prompted and it's analysis of human behavior, but I thought the novel could have made it's point using less words. I also still can't figure out how I feel about the ending.
Book five was We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. Although the writing in this book was simple, the characters themselves became quite complex. There's not much to say without ruining the story. Just go read it!
The sixth book was The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. This was not a required read in my junior high english class so I missed out on the book years ago. Although I was expecting Anne's diary to be sad, I was quite surprised at how funny her writing was as well. Anne lived a very different life than my own, but I often felt like her thoughts and opinions were similar to mine at that age.
The seventh book I finished was The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. This was another story I absolutely adored. Reading the story was like entering into a dreamland that was so visible in my mind I never wanted to leave. They need to make this into a movie.
Book eight was the Fracture Me novella by Tahereh Mafi. I'm getting sad just thinking about the fact that all I have is one book left in the series. I feel so attached to these characters and I still have no idea who I want Juliette to end up with. Although reading from Kent's perspective actually turned me off from his character more.
Books nine and ten were If I Stay and Where She Went by Gayle Forman. After purchasing a few of the songs from Adam's band off of the movie soundtrack, my interest in seeing the movie grew exponentially. So the minute I finished reading the book, I immediately begged my mom to go see it with me. The thing I loved about these books were how big of a part music played in all the characters lives. Since music is a really big passion of mine, I felt connected with everyone in the book. I also used the book as inspiration for some exploration into the punk rock world. Although I already own/listen to a wide range of music, there's always room for growth. Side note: I might have liked Where She Went better than If I Stay.
I also began reading The Brothers Karamazov last month, which seemed like a big task, but has been surprisingly fun. I'm only about 1/5th of the way through the book, but I'm actually reading faster than I expected now that I can kind of keep all the characters straight. I think mastering the names is probably the hardest part about the novel.
Lastly, I've still been plugging away at Les Miserables over the last few months. I'm nearing at the half way point and trying to dedicate more time to the book in order to finish the novel by the end of the year.
At the end of the season I've finished a total of ten books since making my summer TBR. Seven of the ten were directly listed in my TBR post, leaving two of the original nine listed (The Angel's Game and Goodnight June) left. Hopefully I'll get around to reading those last couple books soon.
Did you make a summer TBR? How did you do?
-S
I'm surprised you didn't have to read the diary of Anne Frank in your younger years! I reread that one every couple years and find it incredible each time.
ReplyDeleteMy teacher followed some random list the year everyone else had to read it (we didn't read To Kill A Mockingbird either). It was an amazing book though and I wish I had read it before now.
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