2020/06/30

JUNE BOOK HAUL

A D  :  V I D E O  S P O N S O R E D  B Y  B O O K  D E P O S I T O R Y  +  
S O M E  B O O K S  S E N T  F O R  F R E E
I N C L U D E S  A F F I L I A T E  L I N K S
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June is coming to a close and gosh, it's been a very warm month here in Oslo. We've had up to 30C, which is not really your average Norwegian summer (although it is becoming more and more common, sadly). 

I've spent most of the month just working and trying to stay home as much as possible (because corona), but I did take a really lovely trip downtown to see the new main library in Oslo and it was definitely a highlight of the month.

Now that we've come to the end of the month, I'm just at the beginning of having three weeks off of work which is really nice. The plan is to read, sleep, eat loads of good food and then at the end, make my way to the West Coast to visit family, which is going to be super nice!

Anyways, enough of that. Let's take a look at the books I got this month!
















( a f f i l i a t e  l i n k s  +  b o o k s  m a r k e d  *  s e n t  f o r  f r e e )

I hope you're all doing all right and that you're taking care of yourself and staying safe!
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2020/06/29

BOOK REVIEW:
THE BOOK OF ETTA BY MEG ELISON

I N C L U D E S  A F F I L I A T E  L I N K S
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Title: The Book of Etta
Author: Meg Elison
Published: 2017
Language: English
Pages: 314
Rating: 3/5

This is the second book in The Road to Nowhere trilogy.


Summary:
Set over a hundred years after the events in The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, a young woman living in Nowhere, a settlement of survivors, lives her life raiding the nearby desolate territory, sometimes coming across other people, including slavers trading women and girls.


Review:
So, the first book in this series was one of the best books I read last year and this follow up was good, but not great.

I like the darkness in this story, just like I loved it in the first book, and there's a grittiness to it that I think is fantastic. There are a lot of interesting discussions brought up in this story about women, childbearing in times when humans are dying out, gender and survival. I also do just love the world this is set in and seeing how it looked a hundred years after the first book was really interesting, and I liked how the main character in the first book has become lore in this new world.

I think that this story feels a lot less original than the first book in this series and that's one of the reasons I like it a little bit less. I think the characters are interesting and complicated, but not as interesting as I found the characters in the first one. I feel like a lot of the things in the first book that elevated it are a little lacking in this, and it makes for a much more average book.

There is still a brutality to the way this is written that has been brought on from the first book that I actually really like; there's a lot in this new world that is horrifying and hard and it makes for a very interesting setting. I will be reading the third book in this series, because I do still really like it and I want to continue exploring this world.
You can get this book at The Book Depository (affiliate link)
You can read more about it on Goodreads
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2020/06/28

2020/06/27

BOOK REVIEW:
WE CROSSED A BRIDGE AND IT TREMBLED BY WENDY PEARLMAN

I N C L U D E S  A F F I L I A T E  L I N K S
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Title: We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria
Author: Wendy Pearlman
Published: 2017
Language: English
Pages: 290
Rating: 4/5


Summary:
Based on interviews with hundreds of displaced Syrians, this book is filled with testimonials, all together showing us the story of the Syrian war and the way it affected the people living through it.


Review:
I got this book because I wanted to learn and better understand the conflict in Syria and this book provided all of that and more.

There introduction of this book concisely explains the conflict in Syria and the way it progressed and I found that very helpful. After that, we move on to all these testimonials from all these different people and when I first started reading, I felt like those vignettes were a little to short and I wished I had gotten to know all the people better, but the further into the book I got, the more I saw what the book was doing; all these voices are a puzzle piece and in the end, they show you a picture of what it was really like for these people. I feel like that worked really well; we get an overview as well as a human view of what was going on,

I feel like I got a much better grasp of the politics and history of this conflict than I had before. There are a lot of parts that are difficult to read but I like that the book doesn't shy away from it because although it's horrifying, it's the truth. It shows us the human perspective of this conflict and the war and everything going on in it.

Definitely one of the better books I've read this year.
You can get this book at The Book Depository (affiliate link)
You can read more about it on Goodreads
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2020/06/26

2020/06/24

BOOK REVIEW:
THE KIND WORTH KILLING BY PETER SWANSON

I N C L U D E S  A F F I L I A T E  L I N K S
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Title: The Kind Worth Killing
Author: Peter Swanson
Published: 2015
Language: English
Pages: 411
Rating: 3/5


Summary:
Two people, a man and a woman, meet on a flight from London to Boston and the man confesses he's upset with his wife and jokes about killing her, when out of nowhere, the woman offers to help him do it.


Review:
This was a really enjoyable read but I think maybe I had hyped it a bit too much up for myself and it didn't quite live up to the massive expectations that I had.

The story is intriguing from the very first page and I really liked getting to know our characters, everyone's backstory and getting to know their often quite twisted minds. It's an easy book to read and an easy book to get sucked into. I really, really liked getting to know one of the main characters we meet from the start and getting flashes to her past was one of my favorite parts of the book.

There are a lot of twists and turns in this book, but I found the ones at the beginning much more surprising than the ones that appear later on in the novel, which to me became almost predictable, or at least not as shocking as I wanted them to be. I also started feeling towards the middle that we were spending too much time on uninteresting things and I think maybe it would've been a tighter and more exciting story if it had been edited down a smidge.

One thing I did notice while reading this is that although each chapter names which character we're following in said chapter, the voice doesn't change a whole lot when switching between perspectives and I think having more distinct voices for the characters would've upped this a notch.

There is undeniably a lot of suspense in this though and I really wanted to know how it was all going to end, so it was overall quite an entertaining experience. I do think that I would've rated this a bit higher if I hadn't had such high expectations though.
You can get this book at The Book Depository (affiliate link)
You can read more about it on Goodreads
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2020/06/23

2020/06/22

BOOK REVIEW:
ASK AGAIN, YES BY MARY BETH KEANE

I N C L U D E S  A F F I L I A T E  L I N K S
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Title: Ask Again, Yes
Author: Mary Beth Keane
Published: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 400
Rating: 5/5


Summary:
Two NYPD cops move to the suburbs and become neighbours and the story in here is about these two families relationship, what happens behind closed doors in both homes, the lifelong friendship between their children and a horrible incident that breaks them all apart.


Review:
I've had this book recommended to me a lot and after having read it, I can say the recommendation was spot on. I loved this!

This book is about family, forgiveness, trauma, addiction, mental illness, love and so much more. I loved getting to know our characters in here; each one feels complex, complicated and interesting and I loved how the book explored them and the relationships between them. There is so much emotion in these pages and I loved following our characters through all these years.

It is a quiet story in a lot of ways and I think that works well for this type of story. It's readable, full of detail and even though it sometimes jumps around when it comes to characters and time, I never felt confused or like we skipped over anything important, even when we skip several years forwards in time in a few sentences.

This is an absolutely perfect read for lovers of Celeste Ng (I read Little Fires Everywhere earlier this year and I loved it), so if you like literary fiction, family dramas and character driven stories, this is a must read! One of the best books I've read this year.
You can get this book at The Book Depository (affiliate link)
You can read more about it on Goodreads
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2020/06/21

2020/06/20

BOOK REVIEW:
THIS IS NOT A DRILL

I N C L U D E S  A F F I L I A T E  L I N K S
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Title: This Is Not A Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook
By: Extinction Rebellion
Published: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 208
Rating: 3/5


Summary:
This is a collection of essays from a diverse group of voices, all dealing with climate change.


Review:
This was an interesting book. I've tried to take my time with this, because there is a lot in here to make you think.

I really like the diversity of the voices we get to hear from in here and I like how the essays all together give us an overview of the problem of global warming, while also still having focus on people and the human lives affected by it. There were several essays in here that had parts that were jaw-dropping.

I do think though, that because all of these essays are written by different people, there is some variety in how well written they are and the quality of them. Some essays stand out as much stronger than the rest, and I think some of the weaker ones got quite repetitive and could've been cut.

It was overall quite insightful though and I'm glad I read it.
You can get this book at The Book Depository (affiliate link)
You can read more about it on Goodreads
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2020/06/19

2020/06/17

BOOK REVIEW:
SEXING THE CHERRY BY JEANETTE WINTERSON

I N C L U D E S  A F F I L I A T E  L I N K S
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Title: Sexing the Cherry
Author: Jeanette Winterson
Published: 1989
Language: English
Pages: 192
Rating: 2/5


Summary:
Set in 17th century London, a giant woman finds a child in the Thames and raises him; the story is about them and their journeys.


Review:
This book went right over my head.

Sexing the Cherry is my first Jeanette Winterson and maybe I started with the wrong book, but I just... I didn't really get this one. The writing had some beautiful parts, but overall felt a little disjointed and I think the whole thing just got a bit too abstract for me.

This is clearly a very creative and imaginative story, but I think it's maybe just my personal preference to have things be more concrete and more solid. This story is very fluid in the way it deals with characters, setting and time and I honestly just felt really confused most of the time.

It's probably a fantastic book for the right reader, but I don't think that reader is me. I'd like to try something else by this author though, because I think if I could find a story that worked better for me, I'd really love it. This though... I don't even know what this was.
You can get this book at The Book Depository (affiliate link)
You can read more about it on Goodreads
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2020/06/16

2020/06/15

BOOK REVIEW:
THE HOUSE BETWEEN TIDES BY SARAH MAINE

I N C L U D E S  A F F I L I A T E  L I N K S
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Title: The House Between Tides
Author: Sarah Maine
Published: 2014
Language: English
Pages: 380
Rating: 2/5


Summary:
A woman returns to her ancestral home after her last living relatives have died and finds a mysterious skeleton on the estate, leading her to try and find out who it is and what secrets lie in the past of her family.


Review:
I don't have a whole lot to say about this particular book. It wasn't a bad book by any means, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

I picked this up because it's been hailed as perfect for fans of Kate Morton; now, I've read quite a few of Morton's books years ago and really enjoyed them, so I was disappointed when I found I wasn't really enjoying this one. There were some things I liked, don't get me wrong; I think the setting was pretty good, I liked all the descriptions of nature and birdlife and there's some great atmosphere in parts.

The story is told through dual perspective, so we follow one person in modern times and one back in the day and I found that I was more interested in the historical perspective than the modern one. I found our present day main character to be kind of boring and uninteresting sadly, and although I liked the historical perspective and the woman we follow in the past, I wasn't ever completely invested. I also just thought the story was slow and felt kind of long.

There is also a bit of a mystery element to this that drives the story forward and in the beginning I was very intrigued by it, but by the time we'd gotten to the reveal, I found I didn't really care all that much.

For me, this was just an OK, kind of forgettable read, but I think that's just due to my taste and my preferences than any fault of the book.
You can get this book at The Book Depository (affiliate link)
You can read more about it on Goodreads
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2020/06/14

2020/06/13

BOOK REVIEW:
THE PUPPET SHOW BY M. W. CRAVEN

I N C L U D E S  A F F I L I A T E  L I N K S
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Title: The Puppet Show
Author: M. W. Craven
Published: 2018
Language: English
Pages: 352
Rating: 3/5

This is the first book in the Washington Poe series.


Summary:
A serial killer is burning people alive in the middle of various stone circles in the Lake District and disgraced detective Washington Poe is brought into the investigation when his name appears on the charred remains of one of the victims.


Review:
This was a gruesome and dark book and I wholly enjoyed it.

The whole story starts off with a bang and I was immediately pulled in. The crimes in here are twisted and horrible, but also intriguing and I was so curious as to what was going on. It's written in a way that's extremely readable and it has a lot of suspense to it.

I liked getting to know our characters in here, but I will say, they felt very stereotypical to me; we've got the disgraced detective who will go to any length to get justice, even if it costs him his career, and he teams up with a genius analyst whose good at computers and math, but socially inept and awkward. I liked them just fine, but I would've preferred them to be a bit more complex, and I think there could've been more depth to the relationships between various characters.

The mystery was the best part of the book for me and I liked how complicated it was. I did manage to figure out who had done it before it was revealed, but I still liked reading about the mind behind the crime and why it had been done, even if I felt like the last part of the book dragged out quite a lot.

My reading enjoyment of this was very high though, high enough to make me want to pick up the next book in this series. If you like police procedurals, I'm sure this is worth giving a go. I will say though, it does get quite graphic in parts, so be prepared for that.
You can get this book at The Book Depository (affiliate link)
You can read more about it on Goodreads
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