The Cuckoo’s Calling – Robert Galbraith // Yes, I picked up this book because of who wrote it, You Know Who. But you know what, I loved it, it was a page turner just like some of the author’s previous works and I couldn’t put it down. And I feel like the author has completely redeemed herself for the unreadable thing (in my opinion) that came before this, A Casual Vacancy.
Beautiful Ruins – Jess Walter // Oh how this book made me want to travel to Italy, where “all around her shards of sunlight broke on the flickering waves.” It was the imagery of the place that instantly sucked me into the pages. And then it was the characters, they caught me in their web of connected stories and kept me turning the page. “It was as if I was a character in a movie and the real action was about to start at any minute. But I think some people wait forever, and only at the end of their lives do they realize that their life has happened while they were waiting for it to start.”
Women Who Run with the Wolves – Clarissa Pinkola Estes // A powerful book full of stories about reawakening the spirit of the “wild woman”, a spirit often repressed in misogynistic cultures. “We must strive to allow our souls to grow in their natural ways and to their natural depths. The wildish nature does not require a woman to be a certain color, a certain education, a certain lifestyle or economic class … in fact, it cannot thrive in an atmosphere of enforced political correctness, or by being bent into old burnt-out paradigms. It thrives on fresh sight and self-integrity. It thrives on its own nature.”
The Fault in Our Stars – John Green // This exquisitely written book is one of the best novels I’ve read in some time, filled with engaging characters and a heart-warming story about love and loss. “You have a choice in this world, I believe, about how to tell sad stories, and we made the funny choice.” And Green does exactly that. I might have sobbed at the end but my tears were diluted by laughter.
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter – Seth Grahame-Smith // This book was given to me as a gift over a year ago. The friend who gave it to me said she’d enjoyed this book more than anything else she’d read in recent memory. But it sat on my bedside table for almost a year until I finally decided to pick it up and give it a chance. And I enjoyed it, how the author has written this as a “documentary” recording Abe’s journals. And there is some pure Photoshop genius in here adding weight and plausibility to the story, making you question in your own mind, could this be true?
Mists of Avalon – Marion Zimmer Bradley // Phew, I’m not going to lie, this was a long one. But after a recent trip to Glastonbury, I felt compelled to dive into this book and connect with a bit of the magic and mysticism of “Avalon.” And this retelling of the Arthurian Legend, with the women at its heart, didn’t disappoint, adding meaning to my drink from the Chalice Well and my breathless trek to the top of The Tor. “There is no such thing as a true tale. Truth has many faces and the truth is like to the old road to Avalon; it depends on your own will, and your own thoughts, whither the road will take you.”
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What good books have you read lately?
