Some recent books I read [2019 books #1-10]

HI YOU GUYS!!!!

Sorry for not posting since ages – college is literally driving me crazy – and buy now I’ve just given up on trying to do everything at once. I’ve just accepted that my blog may have to suffer, but the good thing is that I’ve been reading as usual (which is more than what I asked for).

Here is my first wrap-up of the year! I’ve been wrapping up every 10 books that I read, ditching the conventional monthly wrap-ups long ago, and I’m just much more comfortable this way!

So I’ve had a mediocre start to my reading year – some good books, some bad ones, and some very average ones. Without further ado, let’s get into the books!

The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

Major disappointment, but oh well. I talked a whole lot about it in this post but I’m just going to go over it in brief again. The Queen of the Tearling has a great plot but massively fails in execution. It’s about this young girl who inherits a kingdom and is thrust upon queenhood and has to survive within brimming political disputes and some other crazy stuff. That premise is so attractive to me, but the execution was really poorly done. There were two things which I couldn’t ignore while reading the book – 1) it seems to be targeted at a younger audience (by young, not TOO young but relatively, young) and 2) it’s targeted towards people who’re just starting out with fantasy. It’s not the sweeping, massive fantasy I thought it would be – it’s fairly basic and frankly, boring. The political disputes, the romantic developments, they were all so basic and boring and things which a reader like me (who’s read a LOT of fantasy) would probably not find exciting. DNF.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

This was a reread! I’ve wanted to reread this for a while now, and recently acquired my copy of this book. This is probably one of my favorite classics ever, and I read it first as a young child. I really wanted to see if my feelings would change rereading it as an adult, and just as I imagined, I still absolutely love this book! It’s the story of four young sisters who live with their mother while their father is at war and it’s all about their activities and friendships and relationships. It’s a very heartwarming read and definitely worth the time.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

I’ve been meaning to read this book for so long! This is the first book to a young adult science fiction trilogy about people who are divided into different classes, and follows an uprising of the lower class to overturn the higher. Exciting premise, amazing execution. Though initially, it was difficult to understand, I soon became invested in the story and I’m really excited to continue on with the series!

Feminists Don’t Wear Pink and Other Lies (compiled) by Scarlett Curtis

This is a collection of essays by various women over the world on topics of feminism and their own experience being feminists. It was a good read, though I believe it’s targeted towards a younger audience, and would be ideal to pick up if you’re just starting out with reading feminist books. Though I did enjoy reading this book, I didn’t really find or read anything new and that kinda disappointed me a bit.

Conversations With Friends by Sally Rooney

I read Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People the previous year and it was one of the best things I read all year. Naturally, I had to pick up her other novel. This book is about a married couple which befriends a pair of college students and the various relationships and lines which cross between all four of them. It portrays some very unique characters and their relations and still, I found this book to be so rooted in reality. Some of the emotions developed in the book really hit me hard. It isn’t a perfect read, it has its flaws but it’s still worth a read.

The Forest of Enchantments by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I read this author’s absolutely stunning The Palace of Illusions two years ago, and I’ve been a fan ever since. I have read one other book by her before, and then came this book. I didn’t even know The Forest of Enchantments was a thing, but I recently found out about its release, attended the author’s book signing (!!!), and finally read this book. It was so good!! It’s a reimagining of the Indian epic story Ramayana from the female lead’s point of view and it was SO good. I absolutely loved this book, I’m such a huge fan of this author.

How To Stop Time by Matt Haig

Ahh this book was painful. I read Matt Haig’s The Humans last year and really enjoyed the book, so I planned to read more of his works this year. This book has an interesting premise but sucked in execution. It’s about this man who ages slow, really slow and thus has thousands of years of life to lead. He has to hide his condition from others and thus has to keep shifting his location every eight years. My biggest problem with the story was that it didn’t move forward. Nothing happened. There’s a storyline of this man looking for his daughter (who has the same kind of life) but it’s not highlighted enough and isn’t engaging at all. The book is set in different time zones and involves random meetings of the main character with all the famous people in the world and it was just ridiculous – like it made no sense.

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

I loved this book so much more than the first time I read it! I read it last year back when it released and really enjoyed it – but this time, I absolutely loved it!! I love the political intrigue, love the viciousness of the main character and it’s just really different from other fantasy books I’ve read. I’m currently on The Wicked King and it just gets better! The Cruel Prince is about Jude, who lives with the Fae because her Faerie father is a general to the High King, and being a human being, Jude has to go through a number of things to survive and gain respect in this world. It’s her fight to power and it’s SO GOOD. Highly recommend!

99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne

Another disappointment, another DNF. I read and absolutely loved Sally Thorne’s previous book The Hating Game – it is one of the few, few NA romances that is actually enjoyable and well-written – but damn this book did not work for me. The characters seemed very off and the conversations they had were very weirdly written. I just couldn’t be invested in the story and eventually just decided to DNF it.

Becoming by Michelle Obama

This was AMAZING!!! Michelle Obama is such an inspiring person and reading her story and about her journey was absolutely stunning. I loved the book, it filled me with so much awe of her and I’m super glad I picked this book up!

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So that was it for my post! I’m pretty happy with my reading pace so far this year – I read 10 books in 5 weeks and that’s pretty good considering how terrible college is and also the fact that I’m preparing for entrance exams. I’m going to slow down on my reading significantly in the coming months, but currently I’m fine with whatever I’ve been reading and doing :)

How has your reading been going? What books have you read recently? What are you currently reading? Did you DNF any book so far this year? Share below!