2021 has started off with a ton of books. My work has been doing staff reading challenges for the past few years and I was really excited to do one this year. I was in a reading funk for most of 2020 so I really wanted to jump back in to reading more often. The reading challenge was 24 items in 24 categories to be read from January - December 2021. I finished the challenge by March 1st haha. I'm not sure why exactly it was so important to me to finish it quickly but I just wanted to embrace my reading mindset and knock out the categories so I could then just focus on reading only things I truly wanted to read the rest of the year and not have the stress of it on me. I read majority of my categories in January so I am going to split up this book reviews into a few different posts. I also want to be clear that I am NOT good at writing book reviews so these are going to be short and sweet with minimal description on what the book is about. I feel like I end up babbling and typing way too much if I try to describe the story. Hopefully this format will work for me but I might try something different next time.
I chose this book for the "Adult Fiction Title" category of the reading challenge.
2. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
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Oh, this book. I do not have enough words to describe how much I adore this story. Attachments is one of my favorite books EVER. A very different one from The Doll Maker that's for sure haha. I chose to read this because 1. I love to re-read this in January each year since it goes along with the new year portion of the book and I finally received my own copy for Christmas - I had rented it so many times from the library I figured I should just buy it - and 2. It fit the "Book Chat Title" category for the reading challenge. A win-win.
In the romance/chick lit genre, this book tells the story of Lincoln, a late twenties young man, in the years 1999/2000. He is lost after constantly going back to college for different things and living with his mother so he decides to take an IT job at a local newspaper. His job does not involve a lot, these are the early days of the internet after all, but he is supposed to monitor the email of the newspaper staff. If they get flagged for inappropriate content or doing things that do not involve work he is supposed to warn them. Emails from two best friends begin appearing in his flagged email box, emails containing personal details and practically nothing work related and while he should be warning them to stop, he chooses to say nothing. He is drawn into these conversations, enjoys reading them and and before he knows it he develops a crush on one of the friends, a woman he has never seen.
There are so many reasons to love this book. The time period of 1999/2000 with all the fear of Y2K is too much fun and makes this plotline work. I love that this is a chick lit novel told mainly from the side of the male character, something I haven't really seen before. I find Lincoln to be adorable and charming and I loved getting to read along with all the details of him trying to figure out his life. Even the fact that he is in to Dungeons and Dragons doesn't weird me out and is another strangely charming part of his story. Beth and Jennifer are two more lovely characters and the fact that you can get to know these women through mainly only reading their back and forth emails shows that Rainbow is an excellent author. There is only a tiny bit of them outside of the emails back and forth but it works. This story is cute and sweet and while it did receive some scathing reviews on goodreads - one girl claimed Lincoln was a stalker and creepy and a nerd and would never be attractive lol - I really truly love this story. Some foul language and very minor sexual content which makes this book a very clean story for the romance/chick lit genre. I give it 5 out of 5 stars. 10 out of 10 if I could.
3. The Walking Dead, Vol 1: Days Gone Bye
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I feel like I need to start this off on a clear note: I do not typically read graphic novels. They are just not the type of book I enjoy. That being said, one of the reading challenge categories was to read a graphic novel and I instantly knew what I would pick. I am a huge fan of tv series The Walking Dead and loved all of the earlier seasons. There is solid character building and I have always wanted to read some of the comics to see how they matched up. There are MANY comics in the story so this is just a small bit of the story. I have to be honest and may receive some hate for it but I have to say I am a bigger fan of the tv series than the comics. Maybe it is just because I can't seem to get used to the style of reading graphic novels. It never once felt enjoyable or like I could really focus on what was going on. I feel like I can get a stronger grasp of the mood of the story if the scene is being described to me with just words over words and illustrations. So that may be part of it but there are also MANY plot differences that I did not like and enjoyed the show's version better. I am just gonna outright spoil it and say the character of Daryl Dixon does not exist in the comics. Not. At. All. Daryl is one of my favorite characters so as you can see this was a problem for me. I was reading the story and kept waiting for him to show up and then it hit me: he will never show up. That doesn't completely ruin the story for me but it did have a huge impact on my thoughts because it completely eliminates some of the best storylines that the show had from being in the books. I'd probably read more just to see how certain characters die off but it wouldn't be my first choice and I probably wouldn't ever read it again. It's a quick read so if you like the show you may like the comics. I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. It wasn't the best and it wasn't the worst but it gained more points because it is the reason a good show existed lol
4. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
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I chose this classic children's story for the "Audiobook" category of my reading challenge. Like the graphic novel, I do not enjoy audiobooks. My brain is way too scattered most of the time to be able to focus on a story being read to me and I prefer to be holding the book in my hand. However I tend to do better with a shorter book and children's stories typically have good narrators. I've read the story of Willy Wonka before and love both of the movies but it was a fun quick read. I listened to it off and on over the course of a few days, mainly while washing dishes or cleaning and it went by fast. It is truly a fun children's book and I think one almost anyone could enjoy. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.
5. Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist
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The next category I decided to tackle for the reading challenge was "e-book." I prefer to hold a book in my hands over reading on a device but since this was available through our library for ebook and I have always wanted to read this book, I decided to give it a try. I typically love Shauna's books and her writing. I love the way she tells stories and that they are written out like short stories/blog posts almost. It makes them easy to read an enjoyable. However. I did not enjoy this book and was actually really disappointed with it. There were a couple faith related things that had me raising my eyebrows and questioning some things she was talking about. I don't want to jump to conclusions but I don't think I'm going to be reading Shauna's books for spiritual advice/wisdom. Besides that it was just simply not well written. I get that she was trying to not focus on perfection but it was not good. Every essay felt like a repeat of the last one. I kid you not she repeated so many things so many times that I had myself confused thinking I had already read that part even though I hadn't. I don't want to be overly critical and mean but it just was not a good book and I would have been upset if I had paid money for this. 2 out of 5 stars for the few small good parts that existed. I highly encourage you read her other books: "Bittersweet", "Cold Tangerines" and "Bread & Wine". Basically any of her other books would do fine. Just skip this one.
6. A Christmas by the Sea by Melody Carlson
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This book was a Christmas novella. I chose this for the "Holiday read" category for the reading challenge. Most of the time I do not like Christian fiction. I find them to be the most annoying unrealistic dull stories and so cheesy I want to throw up. But when it comes to a Christmas book? bring on the cheesiness. This book had all the usual elements of a cheesy Christmas book and could easily become a Hallmark movie. Single mom that lost her husband? check. Poor, trying to stay afloat? check. Has an adorable child that is almost perfect? check. Inherits a cute fixer upper cottage in an adorable small town on the coast of Maine? check. Hunky guy just so happens to live in the town and be single? check! So yes it was very cheesy but once again that is what I expected and I don't feel like I can really hate on this book because it did live up to the expectations. The descriptions of Christmas at the Maine seaside sounded dreamy and was something I truly enjoyed. But the ending? No. It felt SO rushed and had me rolling my eyes. I get it needed a "good" ending but it felt so pushed to get there in just the last few pages that it was like the author realized she needed to be done with the story fast so she tried to shove the happy ending together before we had much time to get there. If you like cheesy Christmas books this may be for you but just a warning that the ending leaves you wishing there had been more pages in-between to make it seem realistic at all. I gave it 2 out of 5 stars because I am mean.
7. The English Son by Wanda Brunstetter
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In the book world there is this special genre called "Amish Fiction" and it is very popular with the old ladies. It is not popular with me. These stories are the book version of nails on a chalkboard. And that is why I chose an Amish story for the reading challenge category "a genre you wouldn't normally read." I picked this one mainly because it was short. Wanda Brunstetter has a couple different series that have 6 books each but each book is short enough that if you combined them all together it would almost make one full length normal book. This book was silly and ridiculous and everything else you'd expect from it. Long paragraphs describing what they are eating. Why do I need to know that she eats low sugar strawberry jam? I do not care. No one else does either. The main character, that I am sure will have a major life change by the end of the series, is selfish and a liar and should NOT be getting married. I'm sure he will magically be a wonderful Christian and reconnect with his Amish family by the end of the all the books but none of these characters were enjoyable to read about. I was very happy to be done with this book. I give it 1/2 out of 5 stars.
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