The month of November I read 11 books, and this month I was down to 5 books. I think the holidays played a factor and I did some knitting that took up my reading time. I also had one book that I started and it took me forever to get to page 40 and I finally just gave up. Here are the books I read:
My rating system:
Five Stars: Blew me away, made me want to stay up till 3am to finish, would read again and again.
Four Stars: Really good book, fast paced or thought provoking
Three Stars: Okay, didn’t thrill me but didn’t disappoint me either.
Two Stars: I almost didn’t finish, it may have irritated or offended me in some way.
The Life Intended – Some books just really hit you hard and speak to you in such a way that it leaves you raw long after you finish the book. This book did that for me, I cried while reading it more than a few times. It could be because it dug up things I have been feeling lately, but also because it leads you to think about your own life and how you affect others. This book deals with a widow named Kate who upon getting engaged to a good caring man starts to have dreams of her lost husband and the life she would have led. It leads her to question her life and also to take new uncharted paths. They lead her to take sign language and take on work with hearing impaired children in the foster care system. She starts to question if she is living her life or still just getting through it. This book left me broken and feeling every emotion, I urge you to give it a read.
The Girl You Left Behind – The first half of this book discuss the life of Sophie, the wife of a French artist Edouard Lefevre. Edouard painted Sophie and it hangs in the family hotel during WWI and draws the eye of the German Kommandant. Sophie risks her family, reputation and life for a chance to save her husband. The second half of the book you find Liv who was given the painting as a gift from her now deceased husband. That painting has become a symbol and life force for her. When she gets notice that the Lefevre family wants to reclaim the painting the fight begins to tell the story of the paint and Sophie’s history.
The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club – Just after Jo’s husband asks for a divorce he gets into a fatal accident. This leads Jo to move with her two sons to a little villa in London to take over her Gran’s knitting shop. It comes with a stuffy set in her ways assistant and all the local color of the community. After a movie star befriends her while trying to hide out while pregnant her shop gets a boost and new knitting group can hardly contain themselves. The Goodreads summary would lead you to believe this is a romance but it really doesn’t come into play into the last 100 pages. It is more her journey of moving on, and the cast of characters who helps make it easier.
The Memory of Flight – This story is the tale of a mother and daughter, told from both points of view. Marilyn, the mother escapes from her marriage to move her family into her parents guest house, and struggles with mental health. Ginny, the daughter escapes behind a camera preferring to view the world behind the lens. Her mother’s increasingly erratic behavior leads Ginny to need to escape more and more. I think this book would be great for a book club. I felt the telling was gritty and full of struggle but I failed to see the point, other than life is not always sunshine and roses.
Jeneration X – I read this book for the Semi-Charmed Winter Challenge and I wish I could get that time back. I have read a few other books from this author, but this one was just horrible and really made me dislike this author. Normally she is sarcastic and tells it like it is. She went through some really rough times losing everything and she kept her humor about it, this book was basically her whining about everything, being paranoid to the point of chasing people down the street. She blasts Generation X but talks about her love of designer brands and luxury travel. i just can’t relate to her in any way.
What books have you read this month?
Will you add any of these books to your list?
Linking up with Steph and Jana for this months reads.
I’ve only read one Jen Lancaster book and liked it, but I can see how her writing is just not going to be that good with every book!! The Life intended sounds amazing, any book that can evoke such emotion is well written to say the least!! xo, Biana
Yes, I liked one and it was funny but the rest have just been not good. I think it was right book right time but it hit so deeply, and for that I loved it.
I have the first one on my to read list. I enjoyed the Moyes book. Adding Beach Knitters.
Not a Lancaster fan!
It was so good, hope you like it. I have found I am not a Lancaster fan either, just to a little too much for me.
Great reviews! I’ve read one of Jen Lancaster’s books and really liked it (bitter is the new black), and I’ve had my eye on a few others, so I’ll make sure to skip over that one because it doesn’t sound like I’d be a fan either.
Thanks! Yes, I liked Bitter Is The New Black which prompted me to try this one, and it was so wrong. I wanted her to more forward or getting better, learn something but nope. She comes off spoiled and entitled.
I really loved the girl you left behind 🙂 adding the life intended – that sounds like an amazing book. i totally know what you mean about a book speaking to you.
It was so amazing, i hope you like it too. It floored me and made me so emotional in the best way. Left me thinking which is always good.
I need to read that first one!
It was so good, and it made me feel so many feels.
I read one Jen Lancaster and loved it, so this review makes me sad. But it was a while ago since I read it tho!
I loved Bitter is The New Black, but this one was just not as funny. I felt she was older but didn’t learn anything from previous books. Still very materialistic and overly neurotic
Putting The Life Intended on my list!!
I hope you like it as much as I did.
That’s a perfect way to describe Jen Lancaster – she has lost her relatability. I unfollowed her blog and twitter because all she did was complain. I hoped her older book would be the author I used to like but nope, didn’t happen.
Your five star book sounds good but also that it could give me an early mid-life crisis so I might have to wait on that one!
Thanks, yes I wanted to see some growth and maturity but it just didn’t happen.
Haha! It might. It really left me question things in my own life and if I am happen in certain areas and if I am doing things just to do them and not push myself to grow. I don’t think it was the intention of the book but it certainly did for me. I think it’s good though because it forces you to get out of your comfort zone.
The Life Intended and the Knitting Club sound good. I’ll have to see if I can get my hands on one of them this year.
The Life Intended was so good, I hope you give it a shot.
I used to be a huge Jen Lancaster fan but this book was the beginning of the descent for me. Her books now, even her fiction books, just come across as bitchy and bratty and so entitled you want to punch her. It’s like she knows she’s successful and doesn’t have to try that hard anymore. It’s so annoying and disappointing because I loved her first few books. I think I might just be over her gimmick at this point.
I read The GIrl You Left Behind last month, too. But we’ve already discussed that 🙂
Yes, that is exactly how she comes across and that schtick gets old real quick. Grow up already.
I’m heading to look into The Life Intended (is it on Netgalley?) right after I leave here. It sounds like such a good read!
None of Jen Lancaster’s books have been as good as her first ones!
I got it from there, and it’s still available. It was so good, it was that book I just needed to read at the time. Hope you like it.
Her humor was only funny after the first two and it has just gone downhill from there.
I always appreciate book recommendations. I’m always looking for a new book to dig into!
Hope you found something to read. My Goodreads to-read list is over 350, I need to get reading!
Adding that first one to my to read list!! The Girl You Left Behind is also on that already. I love reading everyones reviews!
Hope you like it! It is so good to get others opinions before suffering through a bad book. 😉
I’ve LOVED some of Jen Lancaster’s books–but others I just could not get into.
I just added The Life Intended to my library hold list.
It seems her older books have gotten really bad. She needs to switch it up. It really touched me, hope you like it too.
I have The Girl You Left Behind and plan on reading it soon 🙂 And The Life Intended sounds good, I think I’ll add that to my reading list. Thanks!! 🙂
It was good, the second half could have been edited a bit but still good. I hope you do, her struggle really resonated with me.
I have added the The Life Intended to my to-read list, that sounds really good! I’ve never read anything by Lancaster before, doesn’t sound like one I would like.
It was so good, it left a mark. At first she was snarky and self deprecating but now it is just whiny and annoying. Just not worth it.
The Girl You Left Behind is on my to read list. It sorta reminds me of The Gallery of Vanished Husbands, but I think they’re going to be pretty different.
I haven’t read that one, was it good?
I have added The Life Intended to my Goodreads list. I’ve been wanting to read The Girl You Left Behind after reading Me Before You.
I hope you like it, it really touched me, and made me think.
I have to say…. I haven’t heard of any of these books! I’m sorry you didn’t like that last one. I hate feeling like I wasted time reading a book, but at the same time I have an insatiable urge to never quit on one in the middle. The struggle is real.
I used to really try to stick with them, but I have since realized life is too short to read a book you don’t connect with when you have so many others to choose.
Since I wanted to read Life intended anyways Im adding it to my list! I trust your reviews haha 🙂
Haha! I hope you like it. I don’t think it was meant to be as deep as I felt it but it just resonated with me. Those moments that hit you with “What are you doing with your life?” questions and things that just lead you to the life you are supposed to be whether you meant it to or not. So good.
Adding The Life Intended to my queue. I could use a soul shaking book.
It really made me think about following where life takes you, and if things really make me happy or if I am just floating through life. Hope you like it.
LOVE the book reviews. I need to / should read more and am always looking for suggestions of books that I can download onto my ipad and never read. 🙂
Haha! I found if I just read a little in the morning and a little at night it really helps to fit in some reading.
you know i always love your reviews. i finished Wild over the weekend. now i need to see the movie.
I really want to read that too, so I can see the movie!!
I love your reviews. They are always so honest. I wish I had more time to read. heck, I’m still reading Outlander. It’s so long.
Thank you! I really try to give the most honest review I can, I may not like them all but people’s tastes do vary too. It might be time to let it go. 😉
The Life Intended looks like a good read, I will have to add it to the list. After the move I am sure I will have more time to fit in some good books.
It really is a good one. How is the move going? When is the official day?
i need to add the life intended to my reading list. i was reading “little, big” in december and the beginning was sooooo slow, i just gave up on it. i hate not finishing books!
It is so worth the read! I hate not finishing but there are too many good books waiting sometimes you just have to let them go.
Generation X… sigh. I don’t think I could stomach that either lol that yarn book intrigues me for a friend of mine. Thanks for the reviews!
It was so horrible. So self absorbed. Very welcome, hope you found one you want to read.