Summer Reading Book Reviews

This post includes Amazon affiliate links for the book review books, which means that I will make a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. 

It’s been a while since I’ve written a book review post. Honestly, after I didn’t really like Sharp Objects or The Glass Castle, it took me a while to get into another book. I didn’t read anything in April, and it took me until the end of May–and a trans-Atlantic flight–to finish my next book. Since then I’ve finished another book, so I thought I would put together some summer reading book reviews.

My May read was  The Husband’s Secret, by Liane Moriarty.This book  came out last summer, but it is still on best-seller lists, and I can see why.

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From the synopsis on Amazon:

My darling Cecilia, if you’re reading this, then I’ve died. . .

Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret—something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive. . . .

If that isn’t enough to grab your attention, I don’t know what would be!

This is Liane Moriarty’s sixth book, and I enjoyed it so much I will be going back to read some of her others. The book is well-written, the characters are interesting, and the plot thickens with every turn (or swipe!) of the page. Where Gillian Flynn’s Dark Places leaves you wondering how much you know your children, this book may have you wondering the same about your spouse!

The book I read in June is Dear Mr. Knightly, by Katherine Reay.

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From the synopsis on Amazon:

Samantha Moore has always hidden behind the words of others—namely, her favorite characters in literature. Now, she will learn to write her own story—by giving that story to a complete stranger.

Sam is, to say the least, bookish. An English major of the highest order, her diet has always been Austen, Dickens, and Shakespeare. The problem is, both her prose and conversation tend to be more Elizabeth Bennet than Samantha Moore.

But life for the twenty-three-year-old orphan is about to get stranger than fiction. An anonymous, Dickensian benefactor (calling himself Mr. Knightley) offers to put Sam through Northwestern University’s prestigious Medill School of Journalism. There is only one catch: Sam must write frequent letters to the mysterious donor, detailing her progress. ….

I guess I would describe this book is a “coming of age” story that follows Sam as she finds her footing and learns to see people as being more than the Jane Austen characters she pegs them as. I think the plot is pretty unrealistic, and I often caught myself wondering how Sam could be so naiive or so so obnoxious, but the story was interesting enough to keep me reading to the end. I might have enjoyed it more if I were a more avid Jane Austen fan myself, but I haven’t read any of her books since high school!

Right now I am reading Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline.

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So far so good, although I’m only about 1/3 of the way into it.

What is on your summer reading list?

Does a bad book discourage you from reading for a while, or send you hurrying into a new one?

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