Books I Couldn’t Put Down

Without a doubt, I would be the worst book critic. It’s incredibly rare that I find a book that I genuinely don’t like, and as such, my Goodreads page is filled with 4- and 5-star rankings. My classification of a book as “good” doesn’t exactly come from a place of high standards. So in order to share some of the books that I’ve enjoyed the most recently, I’ve come up with a new criteria – books I’ve read in one sitting. This is a true testament to my fondness for a book, because when I get sucked into a book, nothing else matters until I finish it. So given that we’re about halfway through 2017 and I’m about halfway through my mission to read 50 books in a year, I figured I’d share some of the best books I’ve read this year with y’all.

 

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

 

This was the May/June book for Emma Watson’s Our Shared Shelf book club on Goodreads, so naturally it made its way onto my reading list. The book is so good, and at the same time, genuinely terrifying. It’s a dystopian-type novel that seems just realistic enough to scare you into believing that it genuinely could somehow happen. Despite that, it’s a riveting read and is written in the style in which you’re thrown straight into the story and gradually given more and more background information, which really enhances the movement of the plot line.

 

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

 

Between All The Light We Cannot See and this, it’s apparent that I’m a sucker for WWII fiction. This book just sucked me in and wouldn’t let me go – it’s a story of two sisters during a terrible time, both of whom deal with the stresses of the war in different ways and who commit their own forms of rebellion. Fair warning, this isn’t a good one to finish in public: you will cry.

 

Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

This one’s a bit of a cheat since it’s a book of poetry and therefore a pretty quick read automatically, but I just love it so much that I couldn’t not include it. Something about her poetry is just so raw, and this book includes my all-time favorite poem:

 

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

 

This book, y’all. It was phenomenal. It deals with a great deal of racism, both the blatantly obvious type and the hidden type. And it’s set in the development of a court case, which, as someone with an interest in the law and how things like that work, was a major plus. It’s riveting and so well put-together. For some reason I’m struggling to come up with any more words that truly express how much I loved this book, but I love it.

 

Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon

 

I haven’t read a lot of young-adult fiction lately, but I saw the previews for this movie and immediately knew that I wanted to pick up the book. It’s a lighter read than what I’m used to, which is probably how I was able to go through it so fast. The story itself is really sweet – which was a wonderful break from the typical intense, not-so-happy-ending stories I usually find myself wrapped up in.

 

Now that I’ve written this, I really think I ought to make this a bit of a series. I love being able to share this nerdy side on here, so let me know what you think and if you have anything else you think I won’t be able to put down!

 

xo, Taylor