Sometimes I feel like all I do is talk photography, but truth be told, there’s actually more to my life than taking photos (strange, right!?). This summer I’ve fallen back in love with books. I  always have a book on the go, but it can sometimes take me more than a month to get through it, especially if it doesn’t catch my interest right away. But in the last few months I’ve needed a mental escape and Netflix has been disappointing to say the least (no cable in this house!), so I’ve been reading way more. My husband has even said to me a few times, “you’ve finished another one!!??”.  I love hearing what my friends are reading, so thought I’d share with you a few of my favourites from the past few months, in case you’re on the hunt for your next book. 

 

All The Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood was by far my favourite book of the summer. It had been recommended to me, and when I first read the description I was hesitant. A meth lab, an older man, delinquent parents….it wasn’t doing it for, me but the reviews on Goodreads were raving, so I gave it a shot and am SO glad I did. I couldn’t put it down. There were a few days that I survived on only a few hours of sleep because I simply couldn’t stop reading at night. 

 

The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes. I’m a pretty big fan of Jojo Moyes and have read many of her books (The One Plus One and The Last Letter From Your Lover being my faves). At first, it took me a while to dig into this one as it felt very similar to The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, but once it started flipping back and forth between WWI and present day it had me hooked. I’m a sucker for the memories that art can hold (obviously!), and when the plot became about art then I was really into it. 

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover. After I finished All The Ugly and Wonderful Things I went to Goodreads and searched for similar books, and this one came up. It didn’t disappoint. It’s hard to give a good summary without giving away the whole book, but in essence it’s a love story (although one with some serious issues), that will have you loving characters one moment and hating them at the next. 

 

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley. Noah Hawley is the screenwriter behind the Fargo TV series, which my husband and I really enjoyed, and given the amount of holds this book had on it at the library, it seemed like it was going to be a good one. I wouldn’t say it was mind-blowing, but it was good and left me guessing until the very last chapter. My only criticism is that I found the ending a bit underwhelming after the build up. 

The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion. The Rosie Project is one of my all time favourite books, so I was really excited to read the sequel. If you haven’t read the Rosie Project before starting this one, I recommend reading it first or you definitely won’t have the love for Don Tillman otherwise. Not as good as the first book, but still a great read if you need to know what happens to Don and Rosie, plus it’s a really easy, lighthearted read. 

The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell. This is the only non-fiction book on my list, but it reads much like fiction. It’s the story of Helen, a Londoner whose husband takes a job at Lego headquarters, so they pick up and move to Denmark for a year. The fish-out-water adjustments give some really good laughs, and it made me think a lot about our society and how we could do things differently to have less stressful lives. Be warned though, you’ll want to redecorate your house and eat only Danish pastries after reading it. 

 

How about you? Have you read any of these? Any books you’d recommend? I’d love to hear about them.