The Silent Patient
This book fit into the thriller genre I enjoy reading. I will say it took a few chapters to get invested in reading it. I ended up really enjoying the ending and how it all tied together, though. This wasn’t my favorite thriller I’ve read but I did think it was worth reading.
Here’s the blurb from goodreads: “Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word. Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him…”
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy this one. I don’t typically enjoy reading historical fiction, even though I do like reading about the Holocaust. Although this book was sad, I ended up LOVING it. I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction, the Holocaust, or a good love story. It looks like there is also a follow up book, which I’m adding to my to be read list!
Here is a blurb from goodreads: “In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, is forcibly transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When his captors discover that he speaks several languages, he is put to work as a Tätowierer (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners. One day in July 1942, Lale, prisoner 32407, comforts a trembling young woman waiting in line to have the number 34902 tattooed onto her arm. Her name is Gita, and in that first encounter, Lale vows to somehow survive the camp and marry her.”
Little Fires Everywhere
I know I talked about this book briefly in this post as a quarantine essential. This is another book that took a few chapters to get into it. I ended up really enjoying this book. Just an FYI: The TV adaptation has some differences, but the big stuff is still the same.
Here is the goodreads summary: “In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned–from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.
Enter Mia Warren–an enigmatic artist and single mother–who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community. Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood–and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster.”
Such A Fun Age
I LOVED this book. It was probably my favorite book that I have read this year. This was the most light-hearted book I’ve read all year, too. It felt good to read a book that wasn’t so serious. I loved that it was told from both perspectives of the main characters and they added in some funny commentary from the daughter in the book. Overall it was an easy quick read. Can’t recommend this one enough.
Here is the goodreads summary: “Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living showing other women how to do the same. A mother to two small girls, she started out as a blogger and has quickly built herself into a confidence-driven brand. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains’ toddler one night. Seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, a security guard at their local high-end supermarket accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make it right.
But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix’s desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix’s past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other. Such a Fun Age explores the stickiness of transactional relationships, what it means to make someone “family,” the complicated reality of being a grown up, and the consequences of doing the right thing for the wrong reason. “
