Books I Read in 2019
Maybe I burned myself out last year... maybe I've had some big life moments that took up a lot of my time and mental energy (hello, I got married this year! I got a promotion! A lot is going on!). Whatever the reason, I know I need to step up my game, especially since I plan to tackle Nanowrimo again this year and reading only fuels that fire and keeps my creative juices and my imagination primed and pumped for action.
Here I am checking back in at the end of November, and I have picked up the pace on reading and found my reading mojo, so to speak, once again. I've discovered some more great works this year and read some really awesome literature. Perhaps I am not keeping up the QUANTITY of reading from 2018, but the QUALITY is certainly excellent!
14 Fiction Novels
2 Writer's Craft Textbooks
1 Short Story Collection
Demon in My View by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
This book is the second in Atwater-Rhodes' vampire series. I was re-reading the series for nostalgia's sake, and this book had always been one of my favorites in the series. It's about a young author who has dreams about vampires and then writes about them. It turns out, the characters in her novels are actually real and they start showing up in her life, some with cruel intentions, wanting her to stop writing so as not to expose the vampire underworld to mortals. Others chose instead to stand and protect her. But who is who?
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
This was another foray into nostalgia for me, this book being required reading in elementary school. It's definitely written for the YA audience, but re-reading it as an adult was oddly poignant and revealed it's many, many layers and intricacies. It's a simple story at it's surface, but if you allow yourself to really dwell on the possibilities (if you were given an opportunity to live forever exactly as you are... would you take it? If you had the secret, would you share it?)
Hush by Laura Lippman
This book was so twisty and turny it might have given me motion sickness, but I kept turning those pages because I had to know what was happening! The odd part about Lippman is that her one character that threads a lot of her novels together: private investigator Tess Monaghan is my least favorite part of any of her novels. When I see "A Tess Monaghan Novel" on the front of her book, I tend to skim past it, searching for one that doesn't have that character in it. Don't ask me why, I don't know. Lippman is so amazing at making her characters feel so real and deep and intriguing and layered and nuanced, but I can't find that with Tess! However, I gave this one a go, and she wasn't enough to derail me or lose my interest. I liked the shocks and surprises in this one and it was a great read from start to finish.
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Another attempt to see if I like suspense novels outside of the world of Laura Lippman. This book was great! It kept me guessing, I had no idea what was going to happen from one moment to the next. It was a master class in unreliable narrators! The main character suffers from alcoholism so you never know if what she's describing really happened or if it happened how she remembers it... very striking and interesting, I couldn't put it down. It was fantastic.
Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown
This may have been my favorite read so far this year, even though I saw the ending coming and suspected what happens in the end the whole time. It was still somehow satisfying to read it when it finally did happen. It bounced around perspectives from a husband who's wife disappeared into the wilderness during a hike on her own, and their daughter who is trying to reconcile visions she is having with whether or not her mother is really dead or trying to communicate with her that she needs to be found because she's still alive. It was a great read!
Even When You Lie to Me by Jessica Alcott
I have a dirty little confession to make: I love taboo romance stories. Stories that really shouldn't even be categorized as romance because they involve pairings that shouldn't really exist! I was excited when I picked this book up off the shelf and read the jacket copy. A high school girl falls in love with teacher and teacher loves her back. This is what I'm talking 'bout, baby! The book was relatively okay, I got all of the way through it, but the ending didn't work for me. SPOILER ALERT: I feel the story would have ended more strongly if she never heard from the teacher again, or if the next time she heard about him it was from an internet article about his pending trial for sleeping with another student. Something along those lines, it would have made it darker and not so... fan girlish. Look, I wrote romantic fiction about my high school teachers, and I would never consider publishing it! This book read a lot like those stories I would write, sappy ending and all.
You by Caroline Kepnes
Again... I love taboo "romance" stories. The twisted, the better. I wrote a novel during Nanowrimo last month and the main character is a man stalking a woman with the intention to kill her. Crazy things happen, you'll have to read it. Anyway, when "You" popped up on my Netflix cue, I thought that... yet again... someone had beat me to the punch for an idea about a TV show or novel (see previous review of "The Final Girl" novel I read last year). But I watched it anyway and it was so brilliant. I learned it was based on a book and I put off reading it to work on my novel (I didn't want to be influenced by the main character's tone of voice). I finally got around to reading it and by God, I couldn't put it down. Joe Goldberg, the main character, is a sick creep but so fun to see the world through his eyes. My only issue with this book is the total lack of redeemable characters. Even his victims suck in their own ways and not just because we're looking at them through his eyes. Do they deserve to die? Of course not, but what I wouldn't give for just one little character to be nice and decent and good. That's all! Just one! They inserted one into the TV show (the kid, Pablo) but there are none in the book. Regardless, I couldn't put it down, not for a second, and had to go straight on to...
Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes
This is the sequel to "You". Joe Goldberg is at it again, folks. This book lacked the magic of the first one for me. Yet again, another cast of irredeemable characters, none of whom I could connect with or even try to like, and the body count that Joe seamlessly gets away with starts to seem completely ridiculous by the end. I only got to the end because I had to know if he finally gets caught. And it's far too close to the end because once he's "caught" that's when I found myself dying to know more. Does he ultimately get away with it all? What happens to Love? There was so much fat in this book I would have trimmed just to get to the end. And I also got tired of the "fake-outs" that kept happening, where you think he's caught, but he's not and it happens a few times and it got tiresome. It's pretty telling that the quote from Stephen King on the front cover is praise for "You" and not "Hidden Bodies".
Francesca Lia Block is one of my all-time favorite authors. I've read her since a friend in middle school turned me on to her work, but I had lost touch over the years. I saw this book at my local library and realized I needed to get back in touch with Block and read some of her new work. This book did not disappoint. It's not a particularly deep book, but it was an intriguing story, with Block's usual poetic prose making everything feel beautiful and other worldly. That's what I come to her for, and she still had that magic in this book. I also love the concept of the supernatural, so seeing that front and center in her plot was great. An easy read at the YA level, I did enjoy this novel.
Teen Spirit by Francesca Lia Block
No Plot? No Problem! A Low-Stress High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty
I plan to do Nanowrimo again this year, having had my first successful completion of it last year. Chris Baty, the founder of Nanowrimo, wrote this book and it lays out a lot of tips and tricks to get through Nanowrimo. I skipped a few sections of it as they didn't seem to pertain to me, but it still had great information in it. If you've ever thought about doing Nanowrimo but talked yourself out of it, I recommend giving this book a try as he explains how to accomplish your writing dreams!
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
I was asking my writing group buddies for recommendations on books that would show me how to set a creepy atmosphere effectively in my new novel. The first book recommended was this one. This book is fantastic. A great way to get into the spooky spirit of Autumn! The fear is ramped up and up and up, and like a frog in a pot of water slowly brought to boil, you don't even know you're scared until she delivers a sucker punch ending to a scene or chapter and you're clawing your blankets over your head and trying to remember how to breathe. There was a scene in this book, and I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it, but that scene will stick with me forever. It was written perfectly, the beats set to just the right rhythm to get my heart pumping like crazy. Definitely recommend!
Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link
This collection of short stories was mesmerizing and very well-written. I appreciated Link's prose and unique and creative details to her monsters and their stories. Her writing reminded me a bit of Neil Gaiman for originality and Francesca Lia Block in beauty of the prose.
Characters, Emotion, & Viewpoint by Nancy Kress
I participated in National Novel Writing Month for the third time this year (and I won with three days to spare!) and leading up to the start date I like to read a book or two on writing. This one is a follow up to a great book I read last year in the same series. This time around, Kress focused on building characters. I learned a lot from this book (like the importance of showing, and not telling when it comes to emotional output from the characters). It also pointed out little details such as clothing or mannerisms of figures of speech characters used as a method to indicate their age, their educational level, even their socio-economic level or religious beliefs. It was a lot of food for thought and I will revisit often to boost my ability to create deep and meaningful characters in my writing.
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
This book was recommended to me by a co-worker. I had never read a Koontz novel before and had no clue what to expect. The book was a fast, rewarding read. The twist at the end gripped my heart and squeezed and has stuck with me since. What a treat reading this book was! I have yet to pick up another in the Odd Thomas series, but I intend to, as the character was intriguing to encounter and I want to see what he gets into next! If you like the supernatural, mysteries, and thriller action, check out this book, it's really great!
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
I have a bad habit of picking up books at Target on a whim and bringing them home. This habit is only a bad one in that I often spend more money on books than I probably should. This book struck me with it's striking cover and that title! I mean, how could I walk away, I had to know what the sister of a serial killer had to say. The book is a very quick read, the language fluid and concise. The main character is, in fact, the sister of a serial killer and has lived her live protecting her sister out of a sense of duty. But a man she is romantically interested in gets tangled in the sister's homicidal web. Will she continue protecting her dangerous sister at the cost of this man's life? Read it and find out!
My Husband's Wife by Jane Corry
Ever since I discovered Laura Lippman last year, I have enjoyed thriller novels. They weren't my cup of tea before and even after discovering Lippman and blasting through so many of her novels, I haven't quite found another thriller author to capture me in the same way Lippman does. Jane Corry, in My Husband's Wife, however, certainly did. This book has a lot of aspects I really liked: a mentally unstable child viewing the world through a warped lens, illicit affairs, a murderer in prison reaching beyond the walls of his confines to cause havoc. The twists and turns in this novel are breathtaking and always elusive and surprising. I enjoyed it the whole way through!
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Randomly one night, I couldn't sleep. Netflix was my refuge but everything I was watching appeared stale. So I flicked through to some sections I didn't much dwell in, hoping to find something new to watch. I landed on a show called Outlander that I had never heard of. I watched the trailer and was instantly intrigued and drawn in. I couldn't stop watching it and in a manner of a week or so, had watched the first two seasons. The show was incredible. Well-paced, masterful dialog, intriguing plot, breathtaking romance, heart-thumping action... I loved it!
I talked about it with some co-workers and they assured me I had to read the books. I was hesitant, because reading historical fiction has never been my thing. I've never liked it! But in growing to love these characters in the show, I thought my adoration of them and their world could get me through the books. And boy, I needn't have worried. The book is incredible! Lyrical language, characters so deep you get lost in them and can't figure out where you start and they begin, poetic soliloquies of love and human connection... this book has it all and more. I couldn't put it down and devoured the 630+ page behemoth in only 9 days. Considering I was working during that time and participating in Nanowrimo (a challenge to write 50,000 words in just 30 days) that is quite the feat of stamina!
This book is a masterpiece in so many ways and I can't wait to read more of Gabaldon's world!
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Randomly one night, I couldn't sleep. Netflix was my refuge but everything I was watching appeared stale. So I flicked through to some sections I didn't much dwell in, hoping to find something new to watch. I landed on a show called Outlander that I had never heard of. I watched the trailer and was instantly intrigued and drawn in. I couldn't stop watching it and in a manner of a week or so, had watched the first two seasons. The show was incredible. Well-paced, masterful dialog, intriguing plot, breathtaking romance, heart-thumping action... I loved it!
I talked about it with some co-workers and they assured me I had to read the books. I was hesitant, because reading historical fiction has never been my thing. I've never liked it! But in growing to love these characters in the show, I thought my adoration of them and their world could get me through the books. And boy, I needn't have worried. The book is incredible! Lyrical language, characters so deep you get lost in them and can't figure out where you start and they begin, poetic soliloquies of love and human connection... this book has it all and more. I couldn't put it down and devoured the 630+ page behemoth in only 9 days. Considering I was working during that time and participating in Nanowrimo (a challenge to write 50,000 words in just 30 days) that is quite the feat of stamina!
This book is a masterpiece in so many ways and I can't wait to read more of Gabaldon's world!
Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
The second book in Gabaldon's Outlander series is just as captivating as the first, even though it begins twenty years after the conclusion of the first book. Such a large time lapse I thought would be too jarring and strange to pick up with the story and characters, but it wasn't. I was thrilled with reading how Claire and Roger and Brianna worked to discover what had happened to the men of Lallybroch after the Battle of Culloden. I loved the back and forth through time, anticipating so greatly when Claire and Jamie would be reunited again. Gabaldon does a great job weaving through time and writing such a compelling love story! My only gripe is that the word "wryly" started to grind on my nerves. Nearly every character speaks or smiles wrly ALL THE TIME and Gabaldon's editor fell asleep at the wheel or else also really loves that word and describing things using it. If I never see that word again, I can die happy.
The second book in Gabaldon's Outlander series is just as captivating as the first, even though it begins twenty years after the conclusion of the first book. Such a large time lapse I thought would be too jarring and strange to pick up with the story and characters, but it wasn't. I was thrilled with reading how Claire and Roger and Brianna worked to discover what had happened to the men of Lallybroch after the Battle of Culloden. I loved the back and forth through time, anticipating so greatly when Claire and Jamie would be reunited again. Gabaldon does a great job weaving through time and writing such a compelling love story! My only gripe is that the word "wryly" started to grind on my nerves. Nearly every character speaks or smiles wrly ALL THE TIME and Gabaldon's editor fell asleep at the wheel or else also really loves that word and describing things using it. If I never see that word again, I can die happy.
Finding Fraser by KC Dyer
This is one of those novels that I wrote a hundred times over in high school. I was completely into writing "fan fiction" and coming up with fantastical tales of meeting characters from movies, books, or television shows or the celebrities that portrayed them and inserting myself into the narrative of stories or fantastical lives that had captured my imagination. They were great fun! And so was this book. It dragged a bit here and there, but the story of a young woman dropping everything and traveling to Scotland in search of her own real-life "Jamie Fraser" from the Outlander series is very entertaining and fun and relatable. It's not a novel I would necessarily read twice or even recommend to someone else to read, but I did have good fun with it!
This is one of those novels that I wrote a hundred times over in high school. I was completely into writing "fan fiction" and coming up with fantastical tales of meeting characters from movies, books, or television shows or the celebrities that portrayed them and inserting myself into the narrative of stories or fantastical lives that had captured my imagination. They were great fun! And so was this book. It dragged a bit here and there, but the story of a young woman dropping everything and traveling to Scotland in search of her own real-life "Jamie Fraser" from the Outlander series is very entertaining and fun and relatable. It's not a novel I would necessarily read twice or even recommend to someone else to read, but I did have good fun with it!
Virgins by Diana Gabaldon
This was a fun novella to read to see how Jamie Fraser navigated the world before he met Claire Randall and the events of the Outlander series take place. In this, Jamie is nineteen in this book and Ian Murray (his future brother-in-law) become mercenaries. It's a fun peek into Jamie's head as a younger man and I quite enjoyed it!
This was a fun novella to read to see how Jamie Fraser navigated the world before he met Claire Randall and the events of the Outlander series take place. In this, Jamie is nineteen in this book and Ian Murray (his future brother-in-law) become mercenaries. It's a fun peek into Jamie's head as a younger man and I quite enjoyed it!
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