What I've Read This Year

May 18, 2018



Back in January I did a little blog post talking about the books I was reading throughout the month and what I thought of the books. Four months on I have read a lot more books since then and thought I would put together a kind of half way through the year here's the books I have liked so far kind of post. If you have any book suggestions then please feel free to leave me a comment as I am constantly looking for new books and am often going through about a book or half a book a week so need lots of suggestions!

Also if you use good reads then be sure to add me on there and see what I'm up to book wise as I am constantly updating it with my latest reads and book progress.


BOOK ONE - THIS MODERN LOVE // WILL DARBYSHIRE

The one book that will make me fall head first into love with the idea of love no matter how many times I read it, this book is so beautifully composed and shares love stories from people of all different paths of life. You are presented with tales crushes, heartbreaks and love as people from all across the globe wrote into Will to share their experiences, it can't be made up. These tales are too true, too hard hitting and heartbreaking to even consider them as fiction.

This is a book for everyone no matter your age or gender or wether you are familiar with Will's content online, this book is always there when I need a reminder that love exists. It sits on my bedside table and brings me the same comfort I am able to find in a cup of coffee.

BOOK TWO - ANOTHER DAY // DAVID LEVITHAN

This is my favourite of David's books, I read it two years ago for the first time after finishing Everyday (this is the sister book to it) and completely fell in love with the idea of a duel narrative tale. While everyday tells the love story from 'A's' point of view this one shares it from Rhiannon's, it explores her confusion and her determination to find love.

I am the kind of person that will dod ear pages and highlight passages I love in books (much to my parents annoyance after they spent so much time raiding me not to draw in books). This is one of those books that you can flick through and see so many turned corners and black underlining, I can't explain how much I love this book but it is incredible.

BOOK THREE - MILK AND HONEY // RUPI KAUR

While I was home I decided to read a few of my poetry books from my ever growing collection, despite Rupi being referred to as 'tumblr poerty' I find so much comfort within her words. If you are looking for a book of healing and growth then this is for you.

BOOK FOUR - HERE I AM // JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER

I don't think I have ever cried as much over the ending of a book than I did over this one. The book itself explores the dynamics of a family and what happens as they begin to deteriorate. Though a lot of people disliked it once you get past the kind of strange writing style you will be hooked, after 80 pages I struggled to put it down and my host family knew not to talk to me when I was reading it. It's also on the bigger side of the books on this list considering it is 600+ pages long meaning it really was one that I had to throw myself into,

Safran Foer, in my opinion, has a brilliant mind and I am aching to read more of his works after this!



BOOK FIVE - NEVER LET ME GO // KAZUO ISHIGURO

This was probably one of the most disappointing books in the list, I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it but more that it wasn't what I had expected it to be. When writing my A Level dystopian coursework two years ago my teacher gushed about this book and how I 'just had to read it' because she knew I would love it.

While it was well written and had a somewhat decent plot I just felt it lacked something that I struggled to put my finger on. It kind of reminded me why I took a step back from dystopian fiction in the first place.

BOOK SIX - CALL ME BY YOUR NAME // ANDRE ACIMAN

Following me on social media comes with infinite posts from me about this book, film and Timothee Chalamet in general. To say I am infatuated with this book would be an understatement because infatuations are temporary, it is much more of a deep longing and love I hold for it. I did the stupid thing, I watched the film first and didn't give the book a chance (which was only because I didn't know the book existed) and fell in love with it.

The book, in differentiation to the film, continues the story further and explores the parallel lives that Oliver and Elio live in the future and completely reminds me of 'The Good Side' by Troye Sivan. I love this book, I think it will be one of those books that I will forever love and long for, I wish I could read it for the first time over and over again because it reminded me of love and summers and finding who you are.

BOOK SEVEN - ALEX AND ELIZA //MELISSA DE LA CRUZ

Being honest after reading Call Me By Your Name nothing was ever going to compare but I couldn't even finish this book. I think I picked it up because it was about Alexander Hamilton (aka the founding father my favourite musical in the world is based in) and wanted to see another fictional take on it but it just didn't sit right with me. It was clearly intended for younger end of the young adult spectrum and wasn't anywhere near as well written as I had hoped.




BOOK EIGHT - IF I STAY // GAYLE FOREMAN

After the drama of reading Alex and Eliza I decided to go for a story that I knew I loved and picked up my battered copy of If I Stay. This sent me on a two week meltdown of being incredibly emotional about Adam and Mia within both books in the series as well as the movie too.

This is a book of love and loss and the weight of the decision of whether to live or die. If you haven't read it then there isn't a single bone in my body that won't recommend it to you.

BOOK NINE - WHERE SHE WENT // GAYLE FOREMAN

The sequel to If I Stay which comes from a completely different narrative perspective, this time we get Adam's view on the world. We learn about what happened when Mia moved across the states to Juilliard and we are shown what happens to Adam and his band. There are a lot of questions answered in this and a lot more created.

I didn't know I needed a sequel to If I Stay until I held it in my hands, this book is everything you want a sequel to be and more. It is almost better than the first and just as heartbreaking (if not more). I am completely in love with Adam and he has become embedded in the list of fictional characters that I have fallen in love with over the years.



BOOK TEN - PAPER TOWNS // JOHN GREEN

I've watched the film, but I had never read the book. John Green will always be one of my favourite authors and yet something held me back, most likely it had something to do with how disappointed with the film I was in comparison to If I Stay and my reluctance to be disappointed by the book too. I put this off for years but finally picked it up off my book shelf and gave it a read and boy am I glad I did.

Sometimes books should stay books and not be made into films, I believe this about Paper Towns. We didn't need a screen version, we needed a world built out of words and put into their own paper town. There is so much in this book that you don't gain an understanding of in the film and so honestly, read this. Learn that people aren't mysteries they are people and they are complicated but if you pay attention to them, real close attention, you will learn everything you need to in their smallest actions.

BOOK ELEVEN - THE SHOCK OF THE FALL // NATHAN FILER

Another that was suggested to me while I was studying A Level English that I never got around to picking up until now. This book explores mental health in one of the most complex and beautiful narrative ways. You are met with difficult family dynamics and words of wonder and joy, you're met with a child who had to grow up too quickly and yet somehow didn't ever really grow up at all. It explored the ghosts of the past and the way they effect you as a person, how lost you can be and the truth in the difficulty of rebuilding your life after everything you know leaves.



BOOK TWELVE - THE BOYS I'VE LOVED AND THE END OF THE WORLD // CATARINE HANCOCK

I followed Catarine on Twitter for the longest time and had a complete infatuation with the writing she would post, for poetry month she put her books on sale at a reduced price and so I got myself them both as a reward for doing the complete bare minimum one day.

This collection of poems is so well written, so immensely beautiful and hard hitting to me and my past experiences that I was almost shocked I hadn't written it, or hat it hadn't at least been written about me.

BOOK THIRTEEN - HOW THE WORDS COME // CATARINE HANCOCK

The second an most recent of Catarine's books also pulled on my heart strings, I loved her writing style and how she has developed it since TBILATEOTW! If you are looking to support independent writers then this is one of the must have poetry collections for your book shelves, or even your kindle app.

BOOK FOURTEEN - THE DOGS I HAVE KISSED // TRISTA MATEER

To conclude my poetry binge I went back to one of my most loved poetry books, The Dogs I Have Kissed by Trista Mateer. There is something about her writing that will always leave me going back to it again and again, these are words that I have shared with my friends and family and have grown to find so much of myself in. Again, if you want to support an independent poet then give this a read too.

BOOK FIFTEEN - THEY BOTH DIE AT THE END // ADAM SILVERA

After all the poetry binging I picked up another novel, this time young adult again too. This is set in a dystopian world (wow can you tell I like dystopian novels) where death cast, a service that alerts you of your end day, is in place. The story is told in a multi narrative, mainly based on the perspective of the two teenage protagonists whi have been given the alert of their deaths.

While sometimes very heavy on the 'you only live once, live your best life' kind of mindset if you can get past that you are presented with a wonderful story of learning to live for now. It forced me to think about my life, how I spend so much time hiding away and thinking that it's fine because I have unlimited tomorrows to do something with my life. Yet the reality is we don't have unlimited tomorrows, we have a certain amount of days and we should embrace them to the best of our ability.

BOOK SIXTEEN - SALT // NAYYIRAH WAHEED

I had been reading this on trams for about three weeks, just opening my kindle app and having a read whenever I got a free moment and I loved this poetry collection. It was beautifully written, each poem was short but each of the words carefully crafted a world of thought within them. I will forever recommend this to anyone.

BOOK SEVENTEEN - LOOKING FOR ALASKA // JOHN GREEN

The final John Green book that I had to read in order to have read them all and the one that bloody ripped my heart out the most. It is one thing to love someone but one thing to actually have them, to appreciate them and this book taught me this. It taught me that your friends are some of the most wonderful people to exist and never to take them for granted, that the teenage years of sitting getting drunk and smoking don't last forever and to make as many memories as possible. Most of all not to drink and drive.

This books was just as wonderful as I had hoped and I think it is probably up there with Turtles All The Way Down and An Abundance of Katharine's as of my favourite John Green books to exist.

BOOK EIGHTEEN - PLEASE DON'T GO BEFORE I GET BETTER // MADISEN KHUN

Follow me on instagram and you will see my constant posts about Madisen Khun's poetry, about how much I love it and her as a person. Her first book Eighteen Years is the closest thing to a best friend I could find for years, I found so much comfort within her words and the knowledge that it is okay to feel things, that you just need an outlet. This is why last year when she announced that she was releasing her second book I literally lost my shit, I changed my phone background to the announcement artwork, yelled to everyone I knew that they *had* to buy it and preordered my copy almost instantly.

After months of waiting it finally arrived at my house and I sobbed reading it, there are so many dog eared pages and underlined passages in my copy already. It won the place for the one book I had room for in my suitcase back to Holland and has been sat proudly on my bedside table ever since (of course being picked up to bed read in between that time too). These words have been read in the clouds (literally), they have been read in the bath, in bed and in god knows how many other places. If you get any book please for the love of god let it be this one.

BOOK NINETEEN - HOLDING UP THE UNIVERSE // JENNIFER NIVEN

I've not finished this one yet so I can't give a full opinion but from what I've read, I love it. I never got into the All The Bright Places hype but this book seems to work better for me, I can't wait to see how the characters develop and plot expands over time.


Thats it for all the books I have read so far this year, what have you guys been reading? Let me know, tell me about your favourite books and authors, give me heaps of reading suggestions! My comments are always open for your opinions x

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