December Wrap-Up

[Lea]

Let us know how your reading went this month!

[Lea]

Ok soooo, I've already read The Power by Naomi Alderman, which I liked a lot but think it could have been better developed (esp. towards the end). Still, a fun read.

I read The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. I always feared Ishiguro would be kind of a slog, and then he won the Nobel and I was like, "slog confirmed", but I picked it up with this challenge in mind and SERIOUSLY LOVED it. It's actually REALLY easy to read and very very beautiful. I cried, ngl. This probably sounds funny but I think Downton Abbey fans will enjoy it a lot.

I tried The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry which was praised everywhere in 2017 but THAT, I found a slog. Sooo boring.

I still have a lot of titles that I wanna try this month, so I'll keep reading!

[Alyssa]

I read The Girls and i actually really liked it? I feel like everyone i know hated it but i found it to be very engaging and the prose didn't distract me at all.

[Cecil]

I ended up reading Every Heart a Doorway for this month. It was...good. Teenage me would have loved it. But I feel like the plot that gets introduced in the second half of the book just didn't fit well enough.

[susan]

I ended up reading The Underground Railroad, and thought it was really excellent. My mom didn't like it because there wasn't much... realism with the characters, I guess, but I went into it expecting it to be a book that was all about exploring concepts and experiences, and it really delivered on that front!

[Sam]

I read The Power for this month. I liked it but I wish I liked it more. The premise was really interesting and engaging but I kind felt like the execution fell flat, especially the end.

[Undine]

I read Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant and figured I’d have a strong negative or positive reaction given what I’ve seen from other people, but I didn’t! It was a quick read — I read a third in one sitting and the final two-thirds in another — and I remember reading Never Let Me Go in one sitting years ago, so he’s consistent on that point! I feel like the theme of forgetting and wanting to forget as a means of dealing with trauma or a shared difficult past and our own guilt or failings is especially relevant (I like Aminatta Forna’s books on this sort of thing.) But I also didn’t really get a strong sense of place (I guess that drives home its universality), just a sketchy outline of the setting, which is really weird for me! My biggest problem was reading Querig the dragon like the coffee brand in my head, so it’s not like I have a lot of complaints. Decent read!

[Eve]

I just finished The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (Goodreads award winner, but I think it deserved to win more awards!) and it was incredible. Definitely one of my favorite books I’ve read this year.