Hello my lovely friends! I know this is a little late, but better late than never right? Here are a couple of books that I hope to read this month and that I thought I would share with you. You can checkout my goodreads “To Read” list here and my June TBR list here. Enjoy!
(These are in no particular order, just by published date from new to old)
:: book: The Way I Used to Be :: author: Amber Smith :: published: 2016 :: genre: novel :: goodreads
Synopsis from goodreads:
Eden was always good at being good. Starting high school didn’t change who she was. But the night her brother’s best friend rapes her, Eden’s world capsizes.
What was once simple, is now complex. What Eden once loved—who she once loved—she now hates. What she thought she knew to be true, is now lies. Nothing makes sense anymore, and she knows she’s supposed to tell someone what happened but she can’t. So she buries it instead. And she buries the way she used to be.
Told in four parts—freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year.
I believe the timing of the book is perfect in light of the Stanford Rape case.The victim’s statement in the Stanford Rape case was recently published, and I encourage everyone to read her raw thoughts and insight to what she had to endure. Here is a short excerpt:
“A life, one life, yours, you forgot about mine. Let me rephrase for you, I want to show people that one night of drinking can ruin two lives. You and me. You are the cause, I am the effect. You have dragged me through this hell with you, dipped me back into that night again and again. You knocked down both our towers, I collapsed at the same time you did.”
:: book: The Art of Healing Voices :: author: Jan-Philipp Sendker :: published: 2014:: genre: novel :: mystery :: goodreads
Synopsis from goodreads:
A poignant and inspirational love story set in Burma, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats spans the decades between the 1950s and the present. When a successful New York lawyer suddenly disappears without a trace, neither his wife nor his daughter Julia has any idea where he might be…until they find a love letter he wrote many years ago, to a Burmese woman they have never heard of. Intent on solving the mystery and coming to terms with her father’s past, Julia decides to travel to the village where the woman lived. There she uncovers a tale of unimaginable hardship, resilience, and passion that will reaffirm the reader’s belief in the power of love to move mountains.
:: book: Vicious :: author: V.E. Schwab :: published: 2013:: genre: novel :: fantasy :: young adult :: goodreads
Synopsis from goodreads:
Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?
BUM BUM BUUUUUUUM, this book was originally mentioned by @clockworkbibliophile in her Review in which she raved about how much she loved the book. I can’t wait to start reading!
:: book: The End of Everything :: author: Megan Abbott :: published: 2011 :: genre: novel :: nonfiction :: goodreads
Synopsis from goodreads:
Thirteen-year-old Lizzie Hood and her next-door neighbor, Evie Verver, are inseparable, best friends who swap clothes, bathing suits, and field-hockey sticks and between whom, presumably, there are no secrets. Then one afternoon, Evie disappears, and as a rabid, giddy panic spreads through the balmy suburban community, everyone turns to Lizzie for answers. Was Evie unhappy, troubled, or upset? Had she mentioned being followed? Would she have gotten into the car of a stranger?
Compelled by curiosity, Lizzie takes up her own furtive pursuit of the truth. Haunted by dreams of her lost friend and titillated by her own new power as the center of the disappearance, Lizzie uncovers secret after secret and begins to wonder if she knew anything at all about her best friend.
To be honest, the girl in a bathing suit on the cover reminded me of summer which is the main reason why I picked it up. The synopsis sounded pretty interesting as well.
:: book: While I Was Gone :: author: Sue Miller :: published: 2000 :: genre: novel :: goodreads
Jo Becker has every reason to be content. She has three dynamic daughters, a loving marriage, and a rewarding career. But she feels a sense of unease. Then an old housemate reappears, sending Jo back to a distant past when she lived in a communal house in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Drawn deeper into her memories of that fateful summer in 1968, Jo begins to obsess about the person she once was. As she is pulled farther from her present life, her husband, and her world, Jo struggles against becoming enveloped by her past and its dark secret.
This book I found in the free section of the library, and it looked intriguing so of course I brought it home with me.