Books I Read In 2019


We could talk about how much I slacked in the reading department this year, but I'm already wearing the cone of shame. Here's what I did manage to read in 2019. 

The Woman in the Window - A.J Finn

Once I saw a movie was being made with Amy Adams I checked this out from the library. A.J is a tremendous writer and I like how she handled agoraphobia from a doctor's point of view. It looked at it very clinic-y which I appreciated. That's different. The story itself was pretty predictable but I enjoyed reading it. Though afterwards, I read an article about this author, who sounds like a grade A douche by the way, and I'm not sure I would've picked this up had I read that first. B

Milk and Honey - Rumi Kaur
This is a lovely book of poetry that at times is very hard to read. Rumi focuses a lot on sexuality including writing about sexual assault. She had a poem that I related with so much by experience that I cried reading it. I just can't get over how beautiful her writing is. A+

Becoming - Michelle Obama
I loved this. Michelle Obama is such a wonderful woman and I really enjoyed hearing her own POV and learning more about her childhood. She managed to make me feel so many different things along side her in this book. A+

Defending Jacob - William Landay
Since this is getting the TV mini series treatment on a service that I will never buy, I figured I'd read the book instead. I really liked this, it was very engaging and I flew through it. I had a few people tell me it was very disturbing so I had ideas of where the story would go as I was reading, only for it to be nowhere near as bad as I expected. Not a bad thing at all, but I was expecting something darker. A

Men Explain Things To Me - Rebecca Solnit
I picked up a few of Solnit's books of essays at the library one day and they were certainly worth the read. I found this one kind of uncomfortable to read at times with how much it examines rape. (Which needs to be done but doesn't make it any less uncomfortable to me) B

The Mother of All Questions - Rebecca Solnit
This one was my favorite. She covers such a broad scope of feminism in various forms. B+

In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
This book was excruciating. I know it's a classic and you can tell Capote put a lot of love into making this but it seriously made me question my enjoyment of true crime. I think I prefer it in shorter form, like an article or podcast or documentary. True crime books, where complete scenes are re imagined and things that have nothing to do with the crime itself are painstakingly added in is just not my thing. D

The Godfather - Mario Puzo
I went full stan after watching The Godfather so I picked up this book to continue on with that. The movie was very closely adapted, but I liked this book a lot too. Mostly for more insight on characters like Tom Hagen. A

Catch and Kill - Ronan Farrow
The saga of how he got his expose on Harvey Weinstein to go to print was very gripping for the first 300 or so pages, but once it was said and done, a lot of the follow up just wasn't as interesting to read. Farrow is a good author, and I'm glad I read this. B

Comments

  1. Most of the books you read are on my TBR - happy to see that they got positive reviews!

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  2. I haven't read any of them but I recommend you Daisy Jones and the Six.. it will be a show too so I think you'll enjoy it before the show. :D

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  3. I heard about Woman in the Windows as I saw a trailer for it. Looks interesting but my interest on the film was mainly due to the fact that Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross were to score the film but the studio rejected the score as it's now being replaced by a new score by Danny Elfman.

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  4. I didn't read Woman in the Window, cause I have time for maybe 1-2 books a year and it's usually King's, but that trailer makes it look 90's trashy thriller so I'll love it

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    1. lol it does get that way but as long as they don't Girl on a Train it, I hope it will translate well.

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  5. I too read Milk and Honey, and Becoming last year. The first had me crying for the same reason you mentioned and the latter was such an inspirational one and I loved learning about Michelle.

    The Woman in the Window is on my read list. Hopefully I'll get to read it because the movie comes out.

    I'm so glad you loved The Godfather :D

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    1. I'm glad I purchased Milk and Honey and Becoming and didn't just get them from the library. It will be nice having them around.

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  6. That's still an impressive list! I set myself an ambitious reading goal this year and gave up when I realised I wasn't going to make it in time, doh.

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    1. It's hard for me to read when it's so nice outside because I'd rather be out running or riding bike or skating. I need to get in the habit of biking someplace with a book or something.

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  7. Agreed on TWITW... I liked the book a lot but then read about the author and it sort of dulled my enthusiasm for it. I'll probably still see the movie because... Amy Adams.

    I really want to read the Godfather, but I also feel like I want to watch the movie first. Becoming was fabulous as well.

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    1. Yeah that author is a mess. The press tour for the film should be interesting. Watch The Godfather first!

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  8. Jeez I haven't read a book in ages! Thinks Brit, now I feel bad! :P

    I did start The Room recently, I should get back to that. I also borrowed a book from my keyboard/piano teacher called 'This is your brain on music'. I've only read a tiny bit but it looks good!

    Oh i did read one book start to finish. Its the King book about the guy's creepy paintings. Apparently its not his best, but I liked it enough. I did reread Needful Things as well now that I think hard, that is one of my faves. Didn't that one get made into a movie too?

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    1. I don't think I've heard of Needful Things? Room, I enjoyed.

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  9. Nice reviews! A lot of these are on my to-read list like The Woman in the Window, Defending Jacob, and Becoming. I hope Rambling Reads becomes a regular series here if you find more time to read. :)

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    1. Thank you! I think this is my third or fourth year doing a book recap like this. I don't think I've branched out in doing a full book review yet on this site. That's something to think about.

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