A Bunch Of Books I've Read Lately

Life is in a weird space right now and I don't really know what to blog about. However, I have read quite a few books these past two weeks so I thought I'd give you some mini reviews. You can always count on me to blather on about books :)

I've decided it's time for a re-read of the In Death series. It's always fun to go back to the beginning and see how the relationships formed. And I don't just mean the romantic relationships but all of the relationships which make up Eve and Roarke's community. These are quick, mindless, fun reads which I can always count on to keep me entertained. There are about sixty books in the series and this is my third or fourth re-read of it.

A writer I'd heard a ton about but had never checked out was Louise Penny. A lot of people I know rave about her Inspector Gamache series. It's mostly set in a small Quebec town and this is the second book I've read. I've got another one on my TBR. I find these books a slower pace and I sometimes wish she'd get to the point. Plus, this is unfair, but I struggle with books set in Canada. It just seems so... normal... when an author is writing about Toronto or winter or Tim Horton's and I realize I read books to escape. A book that basically takes me somewhere I'm really familiar with (like Tim Horton's) doesn't really do that in the same way. Does this make any sense at all???

This was a teen book written from two points of view. One of the points of view was an autistic boy and the other was a girl dealing with the fallout from the death of her dad. It reminded me again how cruel high school kids can be and how it's amazing to find someone else who might just understand. This book made me cry but it was also so very lovely. 

I know a ton of people who LOVED this book. Spoiler alert: I am not one of them. I think because I lived in the Middle East and saw people, women especially, who didn't have many choices, this book did not entertain me. I didn't feel like there was any redemption for some of the main characters. It just made me sad and was really hard to read. I know there are people who loved it so if you've read it, and loved it, please let me know why. What did I miss??? 

This was one of those books that came in on my library holds and I can't remember why I put it on hold. Who recommended it? Why did it intrigue me? I put off reading it for a bit (I had to renew it and hadn't touched it yet) but then I devoured it in one sitting. There was just something about the story which sucked me in and I wanted to know more. Basically two sisters trade life for about a week and discover the secrets they've been hiding from each other. There was romance involved, but it really felt more like the relationship about the sisters.

This book was amazing! I devoured it as well although it's probably one of those books which should really be savoured. Samra Habib writes about moving from Pakistan to Canada as a kid and then discovering that she is queer. This book is about how she reconciles that with her strict Muslim upbringing. I loved how she wove her faith and her journey of discovery together. I highly recommend this book. I loved it.

This is a last minute addition to today's blog post. After a (way too) busy weekend, I picked this up last night as I crawled into bed. Supposedly it's a chick lit romance book but Emme's story, the thirteen year old who is now being raised by her brother, is the one which sucked me in. I loved how the friendship between Kailyn and Emme was just as central to the story as the romance between Dax and Kailyn. This book had me in tears way more than I expected. Even if you don't like romance, I think you should give this book a try :)

And I will end this post about books with two reading memes because there are way too many out there which so perfectly describe me and I couldn't choose between them. Ha!

images from here