The week in review

It’s been a very long day/week/month so I’m going to get right to it. But, SUN SUN SUN FINALLY SUN!

I Found You started out very strong, but the plot got too convoluted and soap opera-ish for my taste. I liked the characters but I didn’t really care how it would all turn out. I still love this author, but if you’re interested in checking her out, try The House We Grew Up In instead. One of my favorites over the last few years.

Next, I just devoured Saints for All Occasions. I’ve loved everything J. Courtney Sullivan has written, and this is now my favorite. Reading a saga of a large Irish family mourning the loss of a sibling who dies in 2009 pressed on a weirdly specific bruise for me, but I didn’t even care. Overall they weren’t all that similar to my family but that was an odd personal overlap. This was so good, touching, funny, insightful, I laughed, I cried, I loved it.

Tough act to follow, but I still really liked No One Can Pronounce My Name. It may be a little longer than it needs to be, but nice writing and awesome characters make it worthwhile. I’m still smiling just thinking about these people, especially Teddy, and Harit, and Ranjana, and actually pretty much everyone in it. Solid read.

I’m kind of bouncing between two books right now. I started Last Things and it is very good, but incredibly sad, and kind of not great timing for me. I will probably finish it tonight, because graphic memoirs are typically very fast, but I needed to take a little break halfway through. It feels like a pretty derpy observation to make, but this book about a 40-something man who dies of ALS and leaves behind a wife and three young kids is a downer.

I put that aside for a bit and started The Light We Lost. This is also very fast, and I want to know what happens, so I’m flying through it. I can’t say I love it though. It reads too much like YA for me, and I find the main characters kind of annoying. I tend to be annoyed by characters who don’t move on after a breakup; for me, exes are out of sight, out of mind, so it’s hard to sympathize with this character who keeps comparing the new guy with the ex. I do want to know exactly how it turns out, even though I think the marketing is essentially a spoiler. I’m eager to find out!