Thanks to some nice beach time and some less-nice work travel, we've been on a book tear over the past few months, reading like it's our job.
At the beginning of the summer, we shared a bunch of books we'd recently read and asked for your recommendations (which were awesome!). Here's what we've read over the past few months, and what we plan to read next.
We'd love to hear your own list: What books do you love? What do you plan to read next?
Here are ours:
Big Little Lies. Our love affair with Liane Moriarty continues. In our next lives, we aspire to be wealthy women in Australia. This one is classic Moriarty...with a twist of murder! [Buy it.]
Two Boys Kissing. This gay teen novel had been highly recommended by our friend Sion. We adored it: It's a touching portrait of adolescents trying to find their way in the world. And you don't have to be gay or a teen to like it -- worth reading just for the innovative narrator. [Buy it.]
California: Zach read this debut novel by Eden Lepucki after seeing her interviewed on The Colbert Report (as part of Stephen Colbert's campaign against Amazon for freezing out Hachette). The plot may not have lived up to the intriguing premise -- one couple lives in back-to-the-land isolation following the economic collapse of Los Angeles -- but it was still a good read. [Buy it.]
The Bone Clocks: We both read David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas a couple years ago and found it challenging, wondrous, frustrating, marvelous, epic and confusing. Reading it was like trying to remember a dream -- just as soon as you thought you understood it, the story fled away. But we were nonetheless eager to read Mitchell's follow-up, The Bone Clocks, when it came out earlier this month. (In fact, it's the very rare book we downloaded the very morning it dropped.) Bone Clocks is more straightforward than Cloud Atlas, but it's still got a rollicking fantasy subplot (supraplot?) that is off-the-charts insane. But it knows it's insane. It's weird. We liked it. A lot. We think. [Buy it.]
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry: A sweetheart of a novel that's tailor-made for book lovers, The Storied Life follows bookseller A.J. Fikry as his life takes a major change in course. It's like dessert -- light, sweet and completely charming. (And yet it managed to leave Zach in heaving sobs when he finished it, which was awkward because he was on a plane at the time.) [Buy it.]
This Is Where I Leave You. We read the book in advance of the film's release and loved this portrait of a semi-estranged family coming together for a week to sit shiva for their deceased father. We can't vouch for the film, but the book is funny and filled with vivid characters. [Buy it.]
Me Before You. If we were the sort of people who used the word "chick-lit" to describe certain books, we'd use it here. This much loved and widely recommended JoJo Moyes book is candy, but a little on the sweet side for us. [Buy it.]
We Are Not Ourselves. We don't typically write here about books we've read that we did not enjoy, but this novel by first-time author Matthew Thomas seems to be on everybody's fall "must-read" lists, so we read it and want to chime in. The book follows a woman named Eileen through at least six decades of her life. We weren't fans. We never felt like we got to know who Eileen is. (Six decades is a looong time to not get to know someone.) And we kept waiting for any of the plot to matter. On top of that, the book is filled with incredibly depressing themes. It wasn't for us, but as we said, it's received lots of critical praise. What did we miss? [Buy it.]
What's Next On Our Lists?
Station Eleven. More post-apocalyptic fodder. [Buy it.]
What I Know For Sure. Oprah! Collected essays. [Buy it.]
Maybe Someday. Clay and some coworkers are reading this for this for their not-so-top-secret YA book club. [Buy it.]
What about you? Got a recommendation or a book you're planning to read this fall? Let's talk it out!
