It’s been a couple months since my last reading list post (I blame the holidays – too much fun 😉), but if you’re curious about all my book lists you can grab them here. I like to produce small reading lists of 4-5 novels that I’ve read lately, and if you’re new here, you’ll see that I read a variety of old and new titles across a few genres. But I’m partial to anything really murder-y. I know, I’m weird. This month’s reading list is a strange but deserving mash-up.
This post is a little later than I’d like, but the reason for that is that I got a little bogged down trying to read a book that I just didn’t like…at all. I kept putting it down and picking it up only to put it back down after just a few minutes. This is unlike me. I like to read for long stretches of time. I don’t know why I didn’t give up on the book sooner, as one of my mantras has always been, “Life is too short to read bad books” (or drink bad wine, ha). I won’t mention the title here, because I really don’t like trashing an author’s work, but it was really bad. I finally gave up and moved on to another book that I finished in a single day. That being said, if you don’t like a book I recommended on here, that’s ok! Read what you enjoy!
January Reading List
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Maybe I’m the last one to the party with this book, but I’m ok with that. I loved this story! Give me all the WWII fiction! The author provides a unique look at what was going on in the villages of France, mostly through the eyes of its women. Left behind while their husbands, brothers, and sons are off fighting the Germans, these women go through so much and for so long. They risk their lives everyday to fight back however they can, and they’re starving while they do it. I found myself right there with the main character, feeling all the tension, suspense, and fear, as she’s forced to share her home with a German captain. Recommend!
In the Garden of Beasts: Love Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin by Erik Larson
I guess I couldn’t get enough of this theme, but this next book has been on our shelf for awhile and it’s one of the very few Erik Larson books I hadn’t read yet. His books always send me off on a research quest. I end up learning so much about the characters – who were real people – and thinking about all the history I didn’t learn in school. In this book you follow the family of the American ambassador as they live and work in Berlin amid Hitler’s rise to power. I feel like we always hear about the war itself and very little time is spent learning about the years leading up to it. I was amazed at what was already happening in Germany and Europe in the 1930’s. If you enjoy nonfiction of this era, this is a great read.
The Third Victim by Phillip Margolin
I’ve been in a season of thrillers lately and this one was perfectly worthy of this genre. It begins with a battered woman who is found on a rural road. She claims she was kidnapped and tortured and names a prominent attorney as her assailant. Clues emerge demonstrating that he could indeed be guilty, but as you know, there are always twists and turns in these kinds of books. There’s also a criminal defense attorney who takes the case, but she has a secret of her own that could damage everything. This is a great quarantine read where the pages fly.
After Anna by Lisa Scottoline
I love books that are told in reverse chronology with flashes back to the present. These kinds of stories give me that how did I miss that feeling that I love with a good thriller. This is another book that I devoured and as far as thrillers go, it’s top notch. The story centers around family drama. The husband is a widower who remarries a woman with a teenage daughter, Ann, whom she has no contact with. Anna lives with her father and attends a very expensive boarding school. When news of her father’s death surfaces, Anna contacts her mother and begins living with her and her new husband. But things are not what they seem and Anna is hiding a lot of things. Everything breaks down and the husband ends up defending himself in court. D-R-A-M-A in this one!
Camino Winds by John Grisham
Yes, another John Grisham has made the list! After reading Camino Island, a story about a famous literary heist and its connection to a small island off the coast of Florida, I couldn’t wait to read the sequel. Camino Winds is a fun and quick read beginning with a category 5 hurricane and ending with a suspicious murder and investigation into nursing home fraud. I know…lots of crazy things happening in this one! This was the book I picked up after the one I didn’t finish and read it in a single day. Sequels aren’t always great, but I think this one holds up.
What are you reading right now?
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xo – Erin
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