Books I’ve Read Recently #2

Hello friends!

I’m finally back with my long overdue recent books post!  Between March and June, I did a terrible job at doing any sort of reading, and I’m currently very behind in my book goals. Still, life has been super exciting and so I can’t be mad about missing out a little on reading!  However, I’m going to make it a bigger priority moving forward because I love to do it and I have so many books to read still and move off of my shelf.

Elevation by Stephen King

I read this book because it had won the horror book of the year on GoodReads and I’m challenging myself to read all of the award winners for 2018!  Elevation is about a man who starts to lose weight, but for some reason he doesn’t look any different.

This book has gotten a lot of flak, because people go into it expecting horror and getting… well, not horror.  To me, this was much more of a slice of life book with paranormal elements than it was a horror story and while I enjoyed it, I can completely understand why other people didn’t.  It was an incredibly short story at 146 pages, but I thought it worked fine for what it was!  Definitely a surprisingly heart-warming story for a Stephen King novel.

4 / 5 stars

Children of Blood & Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

The night magic disappeared, Zelie’s life was forever changed.  Now, a chance encounter has given her the hope that perhaps she can defeat all odds and bring magic back to her people for good.

While there were some very common tropes in the writing, I loved exploring the world and seeing the African inspiration, seeing how the magic affected the character’s appearances, and the ending was wild.  This isn’t my new favorite series of all time, but I’m still pretty excited to read book two!

4 / 5 Stars

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Camille Preaker hasn’t been home in years, not wanting to remember her dead sister and spiteful mother.  But after young girls have been found dead, her boss tells her she needs to go back and report on what’s going on.

I read one of Gillian Flynn’s books a while ago and really enjoyed her writing style, so it’s been on my radar to read more, and I was not disappointed!  I really enjoyed taking a deep dive into each of the characters and finding out what was going on.  It was also incredibly impressive how everything tied together, and the final plot twist caught me completely by surprise.

Just a heads up, there are some very adult themes so if you’re uncomfortable with that I might suggest skipping this one.

4 / 5 Stars

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Frankenstein is a book I’m sure that everyone’s read – even if you haven’t, you’ve probably seen and heard so many references to it that you feel like you have! To give a quick synopsis, Frankenstein is about the titular character’s obsession with science and creating life, and the horrifying implications he experiences when he succeeds in his quest.  The story is actually told by a third party detailing Frankenstein’s account of his life, which I had completely forgotten.

I found that listening to Frankenstein’s Monster was much more interesting than listening to Frankenstein talk about himself, but I was still really enjoying what I read!  I’m not sure that I would ever reread it, but it definitely made me think, and my GoodReads review only said one thing – who was really the monster in the end?  This is definitely a book I’d recommend checking out and thinking about what the moral of the story really is.

4 / 5 Stars

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

If you’re tired of constantly working and never feeling like you’re getting anywhere, you need to read this book!  It’s about the lessons Robert’s “rich dad” taught him, and the actionable steps he takes to constantly make money work for him.

Kory was insistent on me reading this, and I figured it would be like any other book – I’d take a few things away from it, think it was good, and move on.  Nope.  This has completely changed my view of how money works and what I should be spending my money on, and I will forever recommend this book!  I’m not exaggerating when I say it has changed my life.

5 / 5 Stars

What have you read recently?