hey what’s up hello !! it is fall, classes at Middlebury started, and its the perfect time for a summer reflection. With the school year officially in full swing I wanted to take a step back and talk about all the amazing and fantastic books I read this summer. What better way than to write mini reviews.
Started off the summer with my road trip from VT –> MO. My mom and I listened to THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW and we thought, though it was addictive, that it was SO BAD. It moved so slowly and it was painful on audio. Then we watched the movie and thought it moved too fast…so idk. More interesting than the novel itself imo (because there are better mystery/thrillers out there)…read this New Yorker article about the author.
THE SECRET HISTORY, on the other hand, was the book my friends from high school and I decided to read this spring for our bookclub. As someone going to tiny college in Vermont it was hard not to love this. Dark Academia at its finest, this is a new favorite.
THE UNHONEYMOONERS was my first Romance of the summer and it was so good I read it in one sitting. The perfect enemies to lovers with curvy-girl positivity. I loved.
THE WHITE COAT DIARIES was pitched to me as Grey’s Anatomy in book form and…that couldn’t have been more off. This novel is far more about a young doctor and her family than any sort of nail biting drama and romance like I wanted. I really struggled to finish this one.
THE GIRLS WHO WENT AWAY was a beautiful collection of oral histories from the young women and girls who surrendered children for adoption in the decades prior to the 1950s; it was painful to read at times but provided so much detail about the way this institutions and cultural practices were run. This was one of my favorite non-fiction reads of the year!
HEARD IT IN A LOVE SONG is a joyous romp through music and the magic of love. Graves opens this novel with Layla Hilding, an elementary school music teacher reeling from the divorce of her husband but crushing on the father of one of her students. Josh, the aforementioned father, is also processing his own divorce but finds Layla intriguing and ultimately electric. With this pair Graves weaves a story that moves back and forth in time, from first kisses to heartbreak. Such a warm, cozy-up-by-the-fire novel. PREORDER NOW / Releases November, 2nd, 2021
THE REHEARSALS is one I’m struggling to put my finger on. It is propulsive and addictively readable, but at times the train wreck relationships were a bit painful to read about. Neither Tom nor Megan are perfect characters, but their moral grayness caused me to a stumble a bit. This certainly doesn’t feel like a traditional Happy Ending romance. I think if readers are looking for a book about a relationship with a lot more angst than what you typically find in the Romance genre, perhaps this will be the pick for you. Also, the concept quite reminded me of the MG novel 11 BITHDAYS by Wendy Mass…I think that Mass did it better! Ultimately this wasn’t a personal favorite but I know that morally gray romance is a burgeoning sub-genre, so the right reader is out there for sure.
If you’re looking for a slow paced, atmospheric novel, then CATHERINE HOUSE may be the dark-academia book of your dreams. Set at the elusive and exclusive college fondly referred to as Catherine, in this debut novel Elisabeth Thomas explores the mysterious depths that money and power are willing to go, all the while told from the perspective of the easily disappeared Ines, who isn’t sure life outside of Catherine is worth living. It very obviously pays homage to Donna Tartt’s THE SECRET HISTORY and Kazuo Ishiguro’s NEVER LET ME GO; CATHERINE HOUSE remains, in my opinion, original.
THE HEIRESS GETS A DUKE is perfect for Bridgerton lovers out there who may have wanted a little bit more of a feminist flair; this was a compulsively readable romance and is set to be a part of a trilogy! Also the cover is to die for I must mention.
I read POISON FLOWERS & PANDEMONIUM in an effort to both get ready for fall (#spookyseason) and bring more graphic novels into my life. Perfect for fans of Scooby-Doo, supernatural thrillers, and other materials of the like, this Richard Sala graphic novella collection features four unique graphic novels that will leave your head spinning. I absolutely couldn’t get over how much fun each story was and am certain the ambiguous endings will leave you pondering as they have left me! This art style is addictive and I’m convinced prints of Sala’s work must sell like wildfire—particularly among the occult-obsessed + Halloween lovers alike such as myself.
I got the joy this summer of reading an advanced copy of GRACELING: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL. This is one of my FAVORITE adaptions that I’ve ever read! Gareth Hinds has done a fantastic job adapting the richly visual original material written by Kristen Cashore and has created such a reader friendly version of this story. Can’t wait for this to get into readers hands. This is perfect for fans of the Graceling Realm series or for those eager to join in // Releases November 16th, 2021
I read A LESSON IN VENGENCE per the request of my co-workers at The Novel Neighbor to see how this sapphic Dark Academia title holds up. Truth be told, it’s one of my favorites of the year and I had SO much fun with this boarding school mystery. This had the perfect level of academic indulgence—it didn’t go quite as far as CATHERINE HOUSE but spent plenty of time meandering so I could enjoy the atmosphere. Love love love!
Undoubtedly a new FAVORITE was DAISY JONES & THE SIX which I listened to on audio with my mom on our drive from Missouri to Vermont this summer for the start of my semester. I’ve read a lot of Taylor Jenkins Reid, but none of them have made me feel quite the way that DAISY JONES did. This title will absolutely rip you apart emotionally but the characters are spectacular and the story-telling is some of the best of Reid’s career. I can’t wait for the mini-series (with music being written for the SONGS) that just started production!! This is also, notably, audio-book production at its best…so if you’ve been meaning to try and need a push…here you go.
When I downloaded my ARC of IF I DISAPPEAR this winter I was so excited…but this one didn’t land for me. The writing seemed to play with metaphor and social commentary about True Crime and missing women but the execution was off. Sera was such an unreliable narrator and the second person narration (Sera speaking to Rachel) was stilted and at times hard to follow. I think that the premise of this had a lot of potential but it really lost me in the last fifty pages and as I saw someone write in their review–I was left with more questions than answers (not in a good way)! If you’re game for an unconventional mystery with thriller elements and don’t mind an ambiguous ending this might be the one for you.
So, admittedly, unless I’m listening to an audiobook on a road-trip I am a notoriously bad audiobook listener—and given that for most of this year I’ve done very little lengthy driving (#pandemiclife) I was “listening” to THE WATER DANCER since…last fall. In my defense, this is the perfect title to pick up and put down because its plot is slow and steady. Ultimately, I loved it! The writing fit the energy of the story so well and I loved the narration style. I would recommend pairing it with a biography from the era—TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE and INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL—come to mind for a big picture effect.
Sally Rooney has done it again with BEAUTIFUL WORLD, WHERE ARE YOU. Rooney’s newest novel demonstrates her absolute mastery of the character driven novel. We follow Alice, the novelist, Felix, the blue-collar warehouse worker, Eileen, the lit-mag editor, and Simon, the devout Catholic politician as they come together and come apart throughout the course of the novel. My heart ached for these characters in a way I have begun to now associate with Rooney’s writing; the age of these characters made the stakes feel higher and ultimately makes this a better fit for those who preferred CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS to NORMAL PEOPLE. Nonetheless, Rooney continues to hone her skills as a writer who can capture the intricacies of early adulthood. Stellar writing and perfectly moody for a fall read. If you’ve finished, let’s talk about the ending!
What did you read this summer? Anything of note?
