Is it cheating if I read children‘s books in an attempt to salvage my reading goal for the year?

First time picking up a true crime book (till now it‘s only been documentaries & podcasts for me). Not sure if I like reading it as much as watching/listening, but overall a pretty enjoyable read.

51/100

Have fallen so far behind my Goodreads challenge that at this point I‘m considering counting menus and cereal boxes.

A bit far fetched but thoroughly entertaining!

Umm, a textbook thriller. Had all the twists and turns but sort of predictable!

Took me the better part of a year to finish this — but we finally did it.

Ten Steps to Nanette is a Netflix comedy standup special unlike no others, it‘s not comedy it‘s trauma dumping which punches you in the gut. This memoir was an extended version of that feeling mostly.

Dark, intense and oh so sad for most of the book.

Concept wise - 💯 Actual Story wise - 50!

“The books she borrowed were full of words like pay-gap and redline, and she noticed that in all genres, no matter literature or biography, men‘s fury stained the pages, sowing lines like white seeds inside of people‘s hearts.”

A deliciously dark and strange assortment of short stories ❤️‍🔥

I love a weird first line!

“Life without a friend is life without sun. Life without a friend is death.”

“Being half lost was worse than being fully lost - it was impossible to know which part of you knew the way.”

Desiree and Stella are two identical girls born in an all-Black world, inseparable as children until they grow up and apart. Both of them choose to live very different lives and worlds, one of them as White!

It‘s sad when it‘s a psychological thriller related to kids!

“It takes a village to mend a broken heart”

A witty, funny, heartbreaking and heartwarming memoir of Dolly Alderton set in her 20s. This book is not preachy, it‘s just fun and light and full of funny anecdotes. The best thing about the whole book is her unwavering love and solidarity for all her female friends, especially her best friend Farly.

Mom was right. Everything that is wrong with us and our generation can be blamed on the phone!

“Maybe this is all we need sometimes, for someone else to believe in the possibilities you see for yourself.”

“Telling stories is one of the greatest powers we possess. It‘s like a dream you can fill with what you want. And the knight doesn‘t always have to save the princess; sometimes she saves herself.”

I would say about 90% of the book is truly amazing, the last 10% seemed too hurried and convenient 😅

“Money overall a very exploitative substance, creating it seems fresh kinds of exploitation in every form of relationality through which it passes. Greasing with exploitation the wheels of human interaction generally.”

This book was a drag; paraphrasing from a random review I read online, this book felt like reading one long male ego!

A predictable but enjoyable thriller. I would suggest to read it instead of listening to it though, because the narrator sometimes exaggerates some of the characters voices!

Such a strange and fun read ✨

I‘m generally not the biggest fan of romance but I expected a little more from Colleen Hoover. This one felt like a forceful stringing of cliche tropes and moments with no real substance!

Especially when you come to know why the book is named Heart Bones *cringe*

“It puzzled him that she did not mourn all the things she could have been. Was it a quality inherent in women, or did they just learn to shield their personal regrets, to suspend their lives, subsume themselves in child care.”

Literary fiction at it‘s finest 💯

I‘ve never really given a thought about how all the books we read follow similar archetypes; precisely 7 as per this book.

The writing style is not my type :(

“There is no peace for a woman with ambition. No love for a woman with a crown. She loves too much is lustful. Her power is too strong she is ruthless. She fights for vengeance she is mad. Kings are brilliant mighty godlike. Queens are deadly shameless accursed.”

Sums up the book.

A story of the first female cabinet minister of America who was instrumental in proposing Social Security to be introduced. Although the book is marked as Fiction, it reads like a memoir, and was wonderful. A wee bit narcissistic though!

Slow and a bit pointless, most classics are not my thing so I‘m not the most reliable reviewer in this case!

A coming-out story set in the 1950s; there were a lot of sub plots which served no purpose whatsoever so that bummed me out!

The dry, witty dialogue of the protagonist was everything!

I picked up this book based on Bookstagram for a change instead of Goodreads and was surprised to see how many people really hated this book there!

I‘m doubly surprised since I absolutely loved this book! The best serial killer book I‘ve read so far this year!

“The word loss was inadequate. Loss just meant a lack, meant something was missing, but it did not encompass the totality of this severance, this terrifying un-anchoring from all that he‘d ever known.”

I enjoyed the book and special shoutout to the number and references to Bangla and Bengalis in the book.

Too much jargon however!

Such a soft, beautiful read!

Too many loopholes, but an intriguing read!

19th book for this year…yay!

A collection of seemingly bland short stories!

I love an unhinged book dedication!

“It has been said that books find their own readers- but sometimes they need someone to show them the way.”

At first the book was a bit slow; seemed to be about too many people who never set foot outside their homes, but the book although lacking in any real depth grows on you!

“That was the black magic of a strong cup of coffee. It restored souls and mended all wounds.”

So true!

I have been revisiting this book at different stages of my life. At every stage I‘ve related to different characters based on my situation at the time. The morsels of Bengali reference throughout the book kept me hooked as well.
Jhumpa Lahiri‘s characters; most of them have a streak of melancholy in them. Many of the characters walk the morally ambiguous grey path, you end up wondering who to rally behind throughout all the stories.

Loved it, I have no words!

A collection of essays depicting random musings of her personal life. Short, snappy, sometimes witty and funny, at other times she comes across as a little mean and frustrated which just adds to the realistic aspect of her life.

Had this on my bookshelf for about 20 years now, finally got around to actually reading it!

Very The Fault In Our Stars coded!

It was a little implausible, I mean all 3 books in the series are but this was more than the other two.

I don‘t even know how and where to begin to review this book. It‘s about a world inhabited by zombies who thrive on corn ?!

5 short stories of different people at different stages of their lives connected by a common library.

Random note: There are beautiful illustrations before each of the stories.

Bailed a few chapters in, this one is not for me!

This is the 2nd book of the Part of Your World Series and focuses on Briana. Life is not going so great for her, with her divorce, an ailing brother and a cute doctor (Jacob) competing at work. Jacob has social anxiety and has also recently shifted to Briana‘s hospital to get away from his ex girlfriend who is also engaged to his brother.

Random musing: Although the intention was cool, there was a tad bit of overuse of the word ‘harmless‘.

The book follows June; a failed author and her critically acclaimed author friend Athena. Athena has few friends and occasionally hang out. On one such occasion, Athena abruptly dies and amidst all the chaos of 911 and all June manages to grab Athena‘s latest unpublished piece. She modifies the manuscript and publishes it under her own name and literally steps into a shoes of a celebrated author, something which she has never been before.