Planes, Trains, and Running Shoes

Lately, I'm moving away from that. Life is just too short and there are too many good books out there to read the bad ones. I've written almost every month that this has been a weird year for books for me. I haven't really read anything I've loved and, in fact, I've really disliked most of the books I've read this year. So, I've taken to giving up on books. I've done that 3 or 4 times this year, twice this month. 

As a result, I've only finished two books this month. Take a look:

"The Trespasser" by Tana French - I read "In the Woods" earlier this year, the first in French's Dublin Murder Squad series (which don't need to be read in any kind of order) and picked up her newest book before I headed to London. Another murder mystery, I found myself drawn to the story and slowly figuring out who the murderer might be along with the detectives, which is how I like a murder mystery to unfold, but this book desperately needed an Epilogue of some sort. The case was solved but leaving several more questions than answers and I finished the book really needing those answers to be solved. I felt the same way about "In the Woods." Her books seem to end when the detectives have solved the mystery rather than going a little bit further. "In the Woods" did go a bit further but again, still left a lot of lingering questions. Overall, I would give this book 3 stars. 

"China Dolls" by Lisa See - Lisa See wrote "Snowflower and the Secret Fan," one of my all-time favorite books so I was excited to read her newest book about three Chinese-American girls who meet in San Francisco and pursue careers in entertainment. This book dealt with a lot of heavy stuff - the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the targeting of Japanese (and Chinese) people, as a result, the racism that followed, and a lot of other topics, but I really hated the characters. There was so much betrayal in this book, it felt a little bit like "Mean Girls" but with much heavier subjects, which I really didn't like. Again, I would give it 3 stars.

"Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng - Full disclosure: I haven't finished this book. This is the Beyond Words Book Club pick this month and Carolann and I were discussing it the other night, and I told her I didn't plan to finish it. I'm not sure if this is still true. This book touched on a topic that I'm really sensitive about right now and I really didn't want to continue reading once I hit that. I did manage to get a little bit further into the book and I can't believe how wildly vindictive the characters in this book are. They're so unlikeable and it seems like everyone is out to get everyone. Set in Shaker Heights, OH, which is meant to be this idealist, utopian town (which Ng reminds you of every 5 pages), the book follows a mother-daughter outsider duo who move into the town and get involved with the oh-so-perfect Richardson family, which it seems like will have devastating consequences because of Elena Richardson's vindictiveness. Again, I haven't finished it but given that the book jacket says, "Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs," I think it's pretty obvious that that will be catastrophic. So far, 2 stars. 

I'm desperate for good book recommendations, especially with a week off coming up at the end of December! If you have any, please share! I promise I'm not a harsh critic - this has just been a weird year for me picking all the wrong things to read!

If you're part of Beyond Words (or want to be!), next month, our link up will be about your best reads of 2017 (mine will be a short list!) and I hope you'll join! We'll pick back up with our picks in January and the poll is open now! You can vote or suggest books to either of us at any time!