July Reads!

Hi Readers! How happy are you? 3 posts in 3 days!! Am I on a roll or what? Don’t be too pleased though, because after this post, I’ve got nothing left to give you all till I finish a few books! Anyway, believe it or not, with my sad reading slump period in the first half of July, I still managed to read SEVEN BOOKS this month! As usual, most of them were AVERAGE, only two were REALLY GOOD & one was pretty BAD. Check them out!

 

~~THE BEST~~

~~PRETTY THINGS by JANELLE BROWN~~

My Rating: 4/5

Don’t judge the book by its name, because Pretty Things is an amazing Thriller. It is the story of TWO WOMEN. Nina Ross is a con artist and has been doing that for 3 years. But, she is an ethical con artist. She only steals from extremely rich people who won’t notice a few things are missing in their huge mansions. On the other hand, we have Vanessa Liebling who is born into money but also into a complicated family. This story weaves a mutual hatred between these women based on decade-old issues caused by their respective families. They also both carry a self-blame for those decade-old issues when in fact, they were not to blame at all. The story sometimes mirrors these characters so well despite their differences & that is what got me hooked into this book.

Check out the full book review here!

 

~~OF MICE AND MEN by JOHN STEINBECK~~

My Rating: 4/5

I am not a fan of reading Classics, but if the language is not that old & the novel is short, I can do it! Of Mice and Men was just such a beautiful novel. I read this book for the category of ‘A book mentioned in another book.’ This book was mentioned in Dan Brown’s ‘Origin’. And from that mention, I had a bit of an idea of what I was getting into but that still did not prepare me for the heartbreak! If you haven’t read this book yet, you must! You are missing out on so many feelings!

~~THE AVERAGE~~

~~THE WATER DANCER by TA-NEHISI COATES~~

My Rating: 3/5

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates is the story of Hiram Walker, set in the times when coloured people were treated as slaves. We watch Hiram, who has lost his mother, to go seek shelter with Thena. Hiram starts working as a slave for his white father Howell Walker & half-brother Maynard Walker. Soon after, we see him go through immense struggles to finally become a part of the Underground. We see Hiram start off as an intelligent boy to grow into a sensible one. This story focuses on the cruelties of slavery. It also has a bit of magical realism in it. It is a 403-page book with not a lot to offer.

Check out the full book review here!

 

~~THE NICKEL BOYS by COLSON WHITEHEAD~~

My Rating: 4/5

The Nickel Boys is the 2020 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction & so I had to read it. I had heard a lot of praise for Colson Whitehead as well. The story is based on real events that happened at Dozier School for Boys. I really liked his writing style & how impactful it was. There was so much injustice that those boys faced. The harrowing truths about it unfolding years later gave me goosebumps. The book is a mere 203 pages, but the story had a lot more potential to be put forth in more pages to make it more complete. I was also shocked by the ending & gave an extra point just for that! I think everyone should read this book. Now that I have read this, I can’t wait to read The Underground Railroad which also won a Pulitzer in 2017!

 

~~THE GUEST LIST by LUCY FOLEY~~

My Rating: 3/5

The Guest List is set on a spooky island near Ireland where a famous couple decide to have their wedding. The groom Will Slater is an actor on a show called Survive the Night while the bride Julia Keegan is the founder/owner of an online magazine called The Download. Both the parties are obscenely rich. The book is divided into two story lines; one is the NOW where the setting is of the wedding night, and second is THE DAY BEFORE until it catches up to NOW. The story is told through FIVE different people – Aoife (The Wedding Planner), Hannah (The Plus-One), Jules (The Bride), Johnno (The Best Man) and Olivia (The Bridesmaid). From a thriller standpoint, you get a lot in this. An isolated creepy island, a dead body, messed up characters & many secrets from the past!

Check out the full book review here!

~~A LITTLE BOOK OF HAPPINESS by RUSKIN BOND~~

My Rating: 4/5

I read this book because it sounded so promising & given the current circumstances, everyone needs a little more happiness. This is a small book with a lot of happy quotes. Some are by Ruskin Bond while some are by other authors or philosophers and such. It is a really nice book to read before you sleep.

 

~~THE WORST~~

~~A BEAUTIFULLY FOOLISH ENDEAVOUR by HANK GREEN~~

My Rating: 1.5/5

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor is a much-awaited sequel released 2 years after the first novel, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. The first book ends on a cliff hanger so interesting that you can’t not read what happens next! In this book, we see the aftermath when the Carls disappear. We see how every character in the book copes differently with it & how they move on in their own lives. This book is divided into chapters for all of April May’s friends, so we get to see their point of views & their current happenings.

Check out the full book review here!

 

 

So, that’ about it! Initially I had planned on reading the physical books that I own, but then I ended up reading mostly e-books because come what may, I had to get out of the reading slump! I hope I can do that in August!

Until next time,

The Guest List by Lucy Foley Book Review + A MINI Announcement!

Hi Readers! I am on a roll! Ever since the weight of my 2020 Reading Challenge has been lifted, I feel invincible. Okay, the Challenge is not technically completed. I did read 52 books, but I have only read 42 out of the 52 categories. The remaining 10 books are random. But, it is as good as done because it’s only July & I’ve got a ton of time to complete it.

This brings me to my ANNOUNCEMENT. I have decided to read a total of 75 BOOKS this year!! It sounds overwhelming, but it basically means I just have to read 22 more books in the remaining FIVE MONTHS! That’s nothing! So, there you have it! The mini announcement! Now, feel free to head on to the book review!

~~INTRODUCTION~~

Lucy Foley’s ‘The Guest List’ kept popping all over my Goodreads account, but so do a lot of other books. The funny thing was the mixed reviews. Some people had rated it 5, many at 3 & a few at 1, which was all so misleading yet intriguing! So, I decided why not read it & decide for myself? Anyway, it was a thriller, so it had to have some SHOCKING potential in it, right? That’s why I finally read it. And, I am with the many people who rated it at 3/5!

The Guest List is set on a spooky island near Ireland where a famous couple decide to have their wedding. The groom Will Slater is an actor on a show called Survive the Night while the bride Julia Keegan is the founder/owner of an online magazine called The Download. Both the parties are obscenely rich. The book is divided into two story lines; one is the NOW where the setting is of the wedding night, and second is THE DAY BEFORE until it catches up to NOW. The story is told through FIVE different people – Aoife (The Wedding Planner), Hannah (The Plus-One), Jules (The Bride), Johnno (The Best Man) and Olivia (The Bridesmaid). From a thriller standpoint, you get a lot in this. An isolated creepy island, a dead body, messed up characters & many secrets from the past!

~~OVERALL THOUGHTS~~

~~Narrative Division~~

The ‘NOW’ part is obviously the one where the chapters are basically one page giving very little away until we are close to the end, which I really LIKED. All we know that has happened in the NOW is that there is a body, which makes it all the more interesting.

 In ‘The DAY BEFORE’, we get to meet all these MANY characters, listen to their stories & learn their lifestyles. The most amazing thing is that there is AT LEAST one cliffhanger in every person’s story which always keeps hanging. I suppose that was a bit of a different take which I also LIKED. Because of this take, there was always a lot going on on every front. This made me continue reading it obsessively.

Were Jules & Charlie ever together?

What is Olivia’s past?

Why is this month bothering Hannah?

What is the long past secret between Johnno & Will?

Every single character has something hidden, which was probably the x-factor of this novel. Other than that, I’d say it was quite an average read.

 

~~Well-Balanced Characters~~

The Guest List is a character-driven novel & I loved that about it. I got a lot of insight into the characters because of this narrative. I found a common trend among the male characters in this story – they are all assholes! All of them are so toxic when they are together, especially Will, Johnno & the ushers. Next is Charlie, a married man with kids, who keeps flirting with Jules, the bride, a day before her wedding. We also have Jules’ & Will’s fathers who are both poor examples of parenting. We also see Will with his polite (read flirtatious) talks with Hannah & Aoife. There are just no examples of good men in the story which became a bit notorious to read. It was well-balanced with all the amazing female characters though. Jules being the strong & take-charge woman. We also see Hannah & Olivia sharing their stories in the vulnerable darkness of the cave. I would’ve liked to see more of their power together after seeing them being sad together. Given that we have so specific characters, it was fun at times, but also dull at other times.

~~Predictability & Probability~~

In thrillers, the most fun part for readers is to guess who is the murderer & to connect the very blurry dots along the story. In this novel, there were two BIG REVEALS relating to Will, which I was able to guess pretty easily. Because Will is not one of the narrators, there was always an aura of mystery to him & I knew from the beginning there had to be something about him. But I always hate it when my guesses are right because it just means that the writing is not that great. Another thing about those two things was how low the probability was of Will being connected to them both. I know it’s a novel, but the probability is so unimaginably low, which also disappointed me.

~~The Ending~~

I was finally happy when the ending was unpredictable. I should have seen it coming if I had put a LOT of thought & logic behind it. So, just the last 20 pages or so were thrilling in the whole novel. Even though I liked the ending & how it nicely connected the dots, I felt like it was incomplete. There was so much happening in that wedding that I think somehow think that all the loose ends did not tie up at the end.

 

~~CONCLUSION~~

I read thrillers awfully quickly & usually tend to guess what’s coming. In The Guest List, some factors were really amazing, such as the island setting, narrative division, each person’s hidden secret with so much drama & the ending. What did not fit with me was how easy it was to predict things. Also, I got a bit of a ‘Big Little Lies’ vibe toward the end when all these women are pissed at Will. Given the build-up, the end didn’t feel as complete as expected. Overall, it was a good attempt, but not the best I have read.

I have rated The Guest List by Lucy Foley at 3/5 stars! By reading this, I have completed the category of ‘A book written by a British author’ from my 2020 Reading Challenge!

Until next time,

July Book Haul!

Hello Readers! July is coming to an end at last. I think this was the month that actually felt as long as a month since April! I wasn’t able to buy any books from Amazon for the past 2 months because apparently they are non-essentials. But, in this month I finally could! Check out my book haul!

 

~~THE PEOPLE IN THE TREES by HANYA YANAGIHARA~~

If any of you know me at all, you know how much I LOVED Hanya Yanagihara’s ‘A Little Life’. That book was full of all kinds of emotions & it was just so powerful in its writing. So, I obviously had to read whatever books Hanya has written. Three months after reading A Little Life, I am finally prepared to be hurt again by reading another brilliant novel - The People in the Trees. It feels impossible to love it as much as A Little Life, but I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

Pages: 368

Goodreads Rating: 3.70

Published: 2013

 

~~THE SONG OF ACHILLES & CIRCE by MADELINE MILLER~~

I have heard SO MUCH about Madeline Miller’s mythological fiction books! So many of my friends on Goodreads have rated these two books quite highly. It’s a genre I haven’t read before, so I am all the more excited to read them! I have heard that The Song of Achilles is better than Circe, which is why I will probably read Circe first. I will keep you posted on these!

The Song of Achilles:                                                                       Circe:

Pages: 352                                                                                           Pages: 393

Goodreads Rating: 4.35                                                                      Goodreads Rating: 4.27

Published: 2011                                                                                   Published: 2018

 

~~THE GREAT ALONE by KRISTIN HANNAH~~

Kristin Hannah really impressed me with her novel ‘The Nightingale’! This is the reason that I have been meaning to read more of her books as well. Unfortunately, the font in this book is the tiniest one I have seen so far which greatly reduced my enthusiasm for reading it. But, some day, I will pick it up & I know I will enjoy it!

Pages: 435

Goodreads Rating: 4.34

Published: 2018

 

~~THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW by A.J. FINN~~

I am pretty late on this one, but better late than never. I am on a roll with thrillers lately. I read Pretty Things by Janelle Brown & The Guest List by Lucy Foley. The best thing about thrillers is how they have you HOOKED to them! Now that the movie is out starring Amy Adams, I had to watch it. And, in order to watch it, I had to read the book first, so here I am!

Pages: 455

Goodreads Rating: 3.94

Published: 2018

 

~~THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD by COLSON WHITEHEAD~~

Colson Whitehead is soon going to be one my favourite authors. He has already written TWO Pulitzer Prize winning books! After reading the average story of Ta-Nehisis Coates’ The Water Dancer, I had to give some space between that book & this one. The underlying theme is similar in both. I didn’t want my disappointment in ‘The Water Dancer’ to continue while reading this one, which is why it is still on my TBR, just a little lower.

Pages: 306

Goodreads Rating: 4.03

Published: 2016

 

~~THE NICKEL BOYS by COLSON WHITEHEAD~~

Guess what? I already read this one! I absolutely loved the form of the book. It was a bit bigger in size with a readable font which helped me finish it in TWO DAYS! This is 2020 Pulitzer winner for Fiction & very well deserved!

Pages: 213

Goodreads Rating: 4.28

Published: 2019

 

That is all, folks! I have been having an aversion to reading actual books ever since I started reading e-books. Especially, in monsoon now, it is too dark to read books in the morning even. I hope this goes away soon & I get back to first love of books!

Until next time,

Pretty Things by Janelle Brown Book Review. (Mindscape Reviews!)

Hi Readers! I’m pretty sure I am back in the reading game now, after having suffered this entire month. After reading books like The Water Dancer & A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, my reading speed deteriorated drastically. But then I picked up the book that I have been meaning to read since a LONG TIME! Finally Pretty Things by Janelle Brown took me out of my reading slump! (I’m pretty sure!) I read this 498-page book in 3 days and thankfully I loved it!

~~INTRODUCTION~~

Don’t judge the book by its name, because Pretty Things is an amazing Thriller. It is the story of TWO WOMEN. Nina Ross is a con artist and has been doing that for 3 years. But, she is an ethical con artist. She only steals from extremely rich people who won’t notice a few things are missing in their huge mansions. On the other hand, we have Vanessa Liebling who is born into money but also into a complicated family. This story weaves a mutual hatred between these women based on decade-old issues caused by their respective families. They also both carry a self-blame for those decade-old issues when in fact, they were not to blame at all. The story sometimes mirrors these characters so well despite their differences & that is what got me hooked into this book.

 

~~CHARACTERS~~

NINA ROSS introduces us to the book & wins us head over heels. She is brilliant but won’t accept that she can do great things. She has so much empathy & kindness, even when she is acting as a thief. She has an ethical/moral compass which she checks often. More so, she comes ALIVE in the book. You feel the thrill when she accomplishes a theft. You feel loss for her while reading about her mother’s cancer. It is impossible to read the entire book without feeling all the emotions that Nina feels.

VANESSA LIEBLING initially comes off as a brat, just another Instagram Influencer with no real life purpose. But, when we get to the chapters with her point of view, everything shifts. We get to know her from an entirely different angle. She has been through SO MUCH and she is still standing. With her mother’s suicide, father’s death & brother’s schizophrenia case, she is the one with immense strength. A beauty with bravery, if not brains. You feel for her too. Probably not as much as for Nina, but definitely a fair share worth.

BENJAMIN LIEBLING AKA BENNY is Vanessa’s younger brother. He is the most innocent one in the story. He and Nina were together when they were kids until everything went downhill. Even the grown-up Benny is self-aware & smart.

LACHLAN is Nina’s crime partner. From being a tiny part of the story, he later goes to dominate the story. I never liked him from the beginning. He seems too matter-of-fact. He can easily switch to other personalities and other names. He is basically a professional thief, with no morals or ethics whatsoever.

~~OVERALL THOUGHTS~~

Narrative / Writing Style

When I started the book, on page 1, I understood why this book was so highly rated. I loved the writing style immediately. It was captivating, intriguing & it was impossible to keep the book down. That particular writing style was designed only for when Nina is doing a crime. It was the perfect way to start the novel.

And, then there is the other narrative which is written for most of the novel, that is, the two point of views. After reading about 30% of the book, I understood that the book is divided into chapters for Nina & Vanessa & that each involves huge chunk of the story before handing it over to the other. When I read Nina’s chapters, I was so into her character already. And, so when Vanessa came in, it was hard to concentrate on her & totally ignore Nina. Then when I read further, I understood that the story is told by both the characters once in Nina’s chapters & then in Vanessa’s. To tell you the truth, when I understood this theme, I was not so glad. Because, who wants to read the same story twice, right? But, then I realized how it was not the same story at all! When I finally got that gist, I fell for it even more, if that’s possible!

I could predict a bit of what Vanessa was thinking in Nina’s chapters & vice versa, but when I came to Vanessa’s chapters I understood how my thoughts were just the tip of the iceberg. I cannot state how amazing it feels when the plot is unpredictable. That leaves me to the next point!

 

Unpredictable Plot

In Pretty Things, you will not be able to predict what happens next unless you are only 50 pages or so behind the ‘next’. You cannot start this book & correctly predict how it will end. I predicted what will surely not happen, but so can many other people. I knew that Ashley & Michael’s plan when they go to Stonehaven would not work out, which was obvious. I predicted either Vanessa & Ashley OR Vanessa & Michael will get together & I was right about that. I thought about how these two ladies have such similar stories & I wanted them to unite (Women Power and everything) against Lachlan. But, obviously I predicted this very late when it was more obvious. The thing with the cops was shocking. Nina’s mother’s cancer reveal toward the end was another WHAAAAATTT moment. There was so much scheming in this novel which I totally enjoyed. For once, it was awesome to not know what would happen!

Character Growth

I always love me some good character growth in novels! Knowing how they start out, watching them change, either for better or for worse, and then finally becoming something different within a span of 500 pages or less is really remarkable! Young Nina was the one who cared too much & loved too much. Then, because of the self-blame she somehow matured. Though she had good prospects, she didn’t really explore those. Instead she decided to do something she liked, even if it had no job prospects. Nina started out as a woman who got into crime to pay her mother’s cancer bills. From hating a woman for a decade to saving her, she really grew. Whatever situation was thrown at her, she reacted perfectly to it, which I loved about her!

As for Vanessa, I think her character arc is more of ups & downs. Young Vanessa was resilient & empathetic towards people. That changed when her mother died & her brother started to show schizophrenia symptoms. She blamed herself for both those things until she finally knew better. Her relationship with Benny is so pure & treasured throughout the novel. Sometimes she seems shallow. Sometimes she seems like a person who has gone through too much & yet she is still smiling. Sometimes she makes stupid decisions like marrying a stranger. But, toward the end, she finally has it right.

~~CONCLUSION~~

After reading this book halfway, I sort of had an epiphany. I realized that I am reading the story of two crazy women who are after each other’s lives because they both think that the other’s family destroyed theirs, while all these years they blamed themselves for things their parents were responsible for! This is why I thought once they had a heart-to-heart, they would understand that all this time they were the victims and then become friends. Some version of this happened, but in a different sense. They did become friends because what connected them was something bigger.

I loved the ups and downs in the story & there were so many of them too! I rated Pretty Things at 4/5 & I definitely think you should read it. It may not be the kind of thriller you expect to read. It is more of a softcore thriller with a slow burn as you keep reading it. And, that experience is simply amazing!

Until next time,

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green. (Mindscape Reviews!)

Hi Readers! After 10 difficult days, I have finally finished reading Hank Green’s ‘A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor’, which was a sequel to ‘An Absolutely Remarkable Thing’. First of all, I want you all to know that I love Hank Green. He is the kind of nerd-king I worship. I also immensely loved his first book ‘An Absolutely Remarkable Thing’. This is why I had HIGH HOPES from the second book. But, imagine my pain, when I didn’t like it AT ALL. I am really CONFLICTED about my disappointment in the book & with my love for the author. S0, Hank, if you find this post, please don’t read it. It won’t be good for either of us.

You can check out my book review for the first book here!

~~INTRODUCTION~~

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor is a much-awaited sequel released 2 years after the first novel. The first book ends on a cliff hanger so interesting that you can’t not read what happens next! In this book, we see the aftermath when the Carls disappear. We see how every character in the book copes differently with it & how they move on in their own lives. This book is divided into chapters for all of April May’s friends, so we get to see their point of views & their current happenings.

~~CHARACTERS~~

We have Andy Skampt how is rich & has become somewhat of a philosopher preaching people to be kind. Then there is Maya who is still hopeful of April’s existence. Miranda is again immersed into her research. And soon, April comes into the picture being half-human & half-alien. We also have Carl who is like that old retired scientist who only like to talk about science with his grandchildren.

As the story progresses, each of the character sets on a journey that progresses toward the climax of the book. Andy becomes a billionaire so that he could spend it all on an important cause. Maya goes on a scientific adventure only to discover some unusual white stones. Miranda applies to work for a company started by April’s archenemy Peter Petrawicki. All of them are doing something, but none of it is remotely intriguing, but more like unbearably dull.

~~OVERALL THOUGHTS~~

Let’s start with how I found this 483-page novel. The first 30% of the book goes in setting up how all the characters felt post Carls’ disappearance. And, also, after that 30%, we get to see April May. I hated that I had to wait THAT LONG to know what happened to her. And the waiting was not at all interesting. It was incredulously boring. Now, for the next part. NOTHING HAPPENS in the book in the first 60% of it! Yes, there are minor things going on in their lives, but those things are not enough to hold the reader’s attention, rather on the contrary. Even after April & Carl enter the story, the chapters somehow become even MORE BORING. I was expecting some brilliant mind-blowing explanation of Carls, but instead it was so purely scientific that it just did not work for me. The thing is that the author was so overworked into setting the right theme for the novel, that he spent the better part of it in that instead of creating even an average story. And, as for the remaining 40%, it was much more JUVENILE than anything I have read. The whole rescuing Miranda by invading Altus plan was just that. I have read Adventure & Sci-Fi & Action, but this was neither of it.

Now, I am going to break down the parts which I found disappointing. When Carl & April came into the story, I was glad. I thought I will finally have some answers. But this only led to Carl explaining everything in such a manner that any average person would not understand. And, this wasn’t like a quick brief, it was LONG! A load of crap about pelagibacter & neuroscience & what not! This was a big BUMMER for me. I liked the vision of Altus Space & also liked how Hank has made its dual impacts clear. It makes you wonder about how it will change everything, but it also makes you wonder about the inequalities, mental health issues & other problems it creates. This book was basically 70% SCI & 30% FI.

Apart from the lengthy scientific explanations which helped me only in dozing off, there were also lengthy non-scientific explanations. These were more about humanity, but they were written as if they belonged in a non-fiction philosophy book. Yes, he has talked about possibly all the problems with humanity, such as climate change, pandemics, bigotry, inequality, wars, data privacy, concentration of power, gun control & so many other things. And, when he connected SOME of these issues with the story, it aligned really well & also the message was clear. But, when he just plainly rambled on about them, that was NOT FUN.

I also want to talk about the 5 Character-wise separated chapters throughout the novel. Maybe the point of doing that was to bring all of them together at the climax, but nothing great happened there either. That’s when I realized how that kind of writing SLOWED the story immensely. So many unnecessary details about all of them because they themselves are telling their own stories connecting those to the one big story. Usually when the chapters are separated with 2 characters, it is a good change, but to separate it in 5, was not really clever. I would have even allowed it if the end was something massive & if the end required that kind of writing, but NOPE.

The thing I LOVED about An Absolutely Remarkable Thing was CARL & everything that surrounded him like the Dream. In A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, everything is again surrounded by Carl, such as The Book of Good Times, unreal white stones, Carl in monkey form, Carl’s sibling, April’s half-alien body and so on. There wasn’t one absolutely remarkable thing, but there were multiple absolutely unremarkable things. None of them made an impact significant enough as it did in the first book.

 

~~CONCLUSION~~

I rated Hank Green’s A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor at 1.5/5. I am done feeling guilty about it. This book was supposed to take me out of my reading slump, but instead it put me far down below & put rocks over me making it difficult to get up & go on! I’d now welcome any book recommendations that have helped you guys get out of the slump!

Until next time,