Another month, another list of books for my “What I Read” roundup.
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
Rating: 5 / 5 stars
I’ve heard of a lot of people who loved this book, so I had to read it! It took me about 1/3 of the book to really get into it but once I had a good chunk of time to read, I didn’t want to put the book down! I was afraid it would be like your typical romance formula, but it wasn’t.
A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams
Rating: 5 / 5 stars
I don’t know why so many bad reviews.. I really enjoyed this book. There were definitely “OMG” moments that either surprised you or made you mad (on purpose), but I thought this was a fun, beachy read. It wasn’t too light where it became boring but it wasn’t too heavy either, which is perfect for a light summer read.
The Smoke Thief by Shana Abe
Rating: 3.5 / 5 stars
I read this book because my father-in-law loved this series and he gave it to me. It’s not my typical kind of book I read because it’s a fantasy genre, with dragons and magic, but I liked the story! It was interesting and kept me wanting to know what happens all the way until the end.
A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne
Rating: 5 / 5 stars
I’ve had this book on my shelf for a while and have been putting off reading it. It has such good reviews though, so I finally read it! It’s a character-driven novel with some plot throughout the book (so it’s not a plot-driven book but isn’t boring either).
This book is focused on a character that the reader will love to hate. It starts off from the POV of another person talking about the main character. Eventually, it switches to the main character’s POV. I loved how the main character’s life circles back around almost to how it started. I won’t say more. I enjoyed many things about this book – the characters, the plot, the writing. There were some twists I started to anticipate and some I didn’t expect at all.
Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips
Rating: 3.5 / 5 stars
I chose this book for my book club because it seemed interesting – the story, the setting, even the book cover. I think the best way to describe what this book is about is this: two girls go missing but the book isn’t really about them, it’s about how their disappearance affected other people in that town and surrounding towns on a month by month basis. Each chapter is like a short story about one person or family. It was a very different book and you shouldn’t go into it thinking it’ll be some suspenseful thriller with lots of twists. It’s not that kind of book.
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Rating: 4 / 5 stars
This is a LONG book. It took almost a whole month to listen to it on audio and I listened on 1.5 speed. It was interesting hearing about Michelle’s perspective about her life all the way up to the end of Obama’s presidency. She started from when she was a child and went through her entire life up to now.
