I read 3 books this past week! Like I mentioned in my last check-in,
I was almost done reading The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, so I
was able to finish it and read two more books. I read Aru Shah and the
Song of Death by Roshani Chokshi as well as In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth
Ware.
The
Glass Castle is a memoir, and I more or less generally like memoirs,
but I loved this one! It was really interesting. I’m pretty late to this
party, it came out in 2005, so half the people I tried to recommend it
to had already read it. It’s about her childhood, growing up in extreme
poverty with parents who don’t necessarily want to work, and how she and
her siblings managed to get it together enough and get out from the
toxicity of their household and grow to have good lives. And how even
though her parents didn’t take care of her the way she wanted, she still
loved them. I was riveted, there was some crazy stuff happening in this
book, but part of what made made it so compelling was that it’s true.
Sometimes with fiction, you think, that’s interesting, but it couldn’t
be true. With this, nothing is unbelievable, and the things that maybe
you wish weren’t true, you know they are.
Aru Shah and the Song of Death is another one from the Rick Riordan Presents collection, which I talked about a lot in my last check-in.
This one comes from an Indian author, and is about a handful of girls
who are the reincarnated souls of the ancient heroes from Hindu legends.
This is actually the second in a series, I had liked the first, but
it’s been a while since I read it, so I didn’t remember the story that
well. It did a good job of refreshing me, without being overt about it.
It was longer than I expected for a middle grade book, so it took me a
while to get through it. The plot of this one is that the main
character, Aru is accused of stealing a magical weapon, and if she
doesn’t manage to get it back within 10 days, she and her friends will
be banished from the Otherworld, the magical realm that they’re allowed
to be a part of due to their powers. I really loved the characters in
this one. They felt real and well fleshed out, and I cared about them
and their goals. And another thing I loved, they didn’t all necessarily
want the same thing, or for the same reasons. I’m looking forward to the
third book, but unfortunately my library doesn’t have it yet.
In a
Dark, Dark Wood is a thriller. I’ve read Ruth Ware before and I really
like her. This one I whipped through in just like two days cause it had
me on the edge of my seat. I went to bed super late one night because I
couldn’t put it down! Our main character is invited to a bachelorette
party for a friend she hasn’t spoken to since they were in high school -
10 years, and she wasn’t invited to the wedding for. She agrees to go
with one of her other friends who she’s still in touch with and was also
invited. It ends up being in this weird glass house in the middle of
the woods where she keeps feeling watched. The story is interspersed
with her in the hospital, after some accident has happened, which she
can’t remember from head trauma, but she knows the police are guarding
her door and somebody may have died. The story flips between
chronological order, and her in the hospital trying to remember what
happened. I was racing to find out what happened and who it was, and I
loved the ending. Definitely would recommend if you’re into thrillers.
I’ve
started two new books! Always and Forever Lara Jean by Jenny Han (the
third and final in the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before series) and My
Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult.
As always, you can see all the books I’ve read on my reading list.
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