My reading in June has been all over the place. I reread almost all of the Vampire Academy series (which I shan't review here as I've spoken about the YA series enough on my blog), I picked up a diverse range of books after getting a cold dose of reality that I really haven't been reading enough books by black authors this year. I gave so many books 4 or 5 star ratings, and yet.. I've been in a huge reading slump. I feel exhausted by the prospect of picking up a book, yet when I inevitably do I'm devouring hundreds of pages in one sitting. It's some sort of weird mental slump, I guess? Have you ever dealt with this kind of thing? Let me know, especially if you have any advice. 

Memoirs are always a tricky thing to review as you usually go into them already knowing if you're going to want to listen to someone's life story for hours. But for me From Scratch was a whole new experience. I had never even heard of Tembi Lock prior to this becoming a Reese's Book Club x Hello Sunshine pick. I didn't even know she was an actress when I started the audiobook. I just thought this was a book about the cultural differences between a black woman and an Italian man and the overall effect that had on both their marriage and the joining of their families.This was so much more. As mentioned, I listened to this as an audiobook on Scribd (which I highly recommend) and just didn't want to stop. Firstly, Tembi is a beautiful writer. I smelt the garlic she described, I felt her grief in the pit of my stomach, and my heart ached for her and her daughter. I felt joy when I listened to her describe her marriage, and I felt grief stricken when she wrote about what it was like to lose her husband to cancer. If this has been on your radar at all, I urge you to pick it up. It's already going on my top books of 2020 shortlist. 

Prior to moving to America I'd never heard of this modern classic. A crime! I enjoyed this coming-of-age story about a young Latino girl living in Chicago, and the process of her slowly discovering her true self. As this book was written as a series of vignettes, I definitely enjoyed certain sections more than others. It made me think, which I think is something that truly matters when it comes to stories written about race. Overall, I can see why it's a beloved classic.

Emmeline lives on a remote island with her father, a man who collects scents in jars and stores them in his study. But as she gets older, less and less makes sense in her life. I'm going to sound harsh when writing about this one, so be prepared. This book read like a really bad version of Where The Crawdad's Sing. I do not get the hype around it. It felt silly, and incredibly unrealistic. I spent most of this book confused and frustrated. I still gave it 3 stars as the writing was very beautiful, but sadly the story let the entire thing down. I really wouldn't recommend this to anyone.

I'm a huge fan of Rhimes's TV shows Grey's Anatomy and How To Get Away With Murder, so this book by her has been on my TBR for literal years but I was always reluctant to pick it up as it seemed a little like a self help book, which I've never had much luck with. However, I was an idiot. This book was incredible. It made me laugh so much, which wasn't expected. I finished it with a great ache to befriend Rhimes. I've gained so much respect for her as a human. If you enjoy her work at all, I definitely recommend giving this a read.

Annie is a twenty-seven year old woman waiting for her Tom Hanks. When she manages to get a job on a movie set, she finally gets her meet cute. But what happens when the guy that ought to be the perfect man for her, falls flat compared to big-shot movie star Drew? This was a really cute rom-com book. It gave exactly what it sold itself as. However, I found the characters all a little too cheesy and predictable. It was overall meh. Not bad, but not very good.

When two teenage girls feel unheard by their respective after-school clubs, they decide to create their own club/blog focusing on the problems facing women. It quickly goes viral which starts a domino effect on the school. This YA contemporary was everything I wanted it to be. The inserts of their blog posts were really entertaining and I had to continuously stop myself from looking up the blog in the hopes that it had become real. I cared for both main characters, which is rare for me, and I liked how many boxes this book managed to tick without ever really preachy. A wonderful example for what happens when a YA does it right. I'll definitely be keeping up with whatever else this author duo writes. 

This was my most anticipated book of 2020 and it didn't let me down. Marketed as a love story told in reverse, this is a look at how complicated a breakdown of a relationship can be. I have always loved Hazel Hayes's way with words, but this was next level. You can sometimes tell when an author puts their love and blood into writing a deeply personal novel, fiction or not, and that was the case with this. I haven't read such an authentic contemporary in a long time. 

A plane goes down and there are no survivors. Two young woman lose their fathers on the flight, Camino and Yahaira. The tragedy brings the girls together in a way that neither could expect. This is another novel written in verse, which seems to be a new love of mine. Elizabeth Acevedo is already on her way to being a writer of modern classics. Her novel Poet X is loved hugely in the book community, which is making my fingertips itch with the desire to pick it up soon. I loved Clap When You Land. It touched my heart in a way that I didn't expect, and I instantly made my husband read it. 

If you've been reading my blog for a while now, you'll already know that the Me Before You series by Jojo Moyes is my guilty pleasure. I adore these books mainly for the protagonist Louisa Clarke. She's been the most relatable character for me throughout my reading journey, so they hold a place in my heart. This is a short story that Moyes published for free online. I adored it. I laughed multiple times, cried even more, and it gave me a huge desire to reread the series. If you want to give it a read, I'll link to it at the bottom of this blog post! 

Artemis is an 11-year-old evil genius. He's cold, unashamed of his intelligence, and is willing to do just about anything to get his way. But he may of met his match in the form of Holly Short, a fairy he kidnapped. Silly me thought that it'd be necessary to read this book before watching the movie.. err.. that would've only be beneficial if the movie stuck with the plot of the book and didn't instead transform itself into a hot mess. My husband described the movie as "It's like the writers had a kid on a sugar rush explain the book to them and then still ignored the advice." and I can't agree more. But anyway, this is a review of the book. I liked it, it was okay for a children's book and though I didn't particularly care for any of the characters or the plot, I was reasonably entertained. A little bored, but not overly so. It was just 'okay'.

Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but ends up in London. This is one hell of a book. For me, it was very much like the reading experience of A Little Life by Hayna Yanagihara. It was a one hell of a journey. The writing was flawless, I often kept reading just for the writing style and not the story itself. However, I think my main problem with Americanah was the main two characters. They were so unlikable to me, which made it hard to root for them separately and most definitely together. Ifemelu became incredibly self entitled in a bitch way and not necessarily in a feminist way. And Obinze was just insufferable when it came to his love life. I wanted to read the book from literally any other character's POV. I can't in good faith give this novel less than a 4 star rating as, again, the writing and story-telling was flawless. But it's definitely a story that has had a lasting place in my brain. 

So, yeah. Quite a mix of books this month, but some real gems. What was the last 5 star book you read? I'd love to know! 

So far, 2020 has been the year of non-fiction for me. I read Know My Name by Chanel Miller in February and nothing has yet to compare to the overall feel of that book. It touched my heart and had a huge impact on my overall life. If you haven't yet heard of it, this is the memoir of the girl who overcame the rape of Brock Turner. But really, it's so much more than that. It's a glimpse at the life of a young woman who's learning to heal herself and more notably, it's an unflinching look at how lost we all feel in our early 20's. Chanel Miller opens up discussions on sexual assault, race, feminism, youth, and the expectations that are put upon young women in life. Man, woman, cat, everyone needs to read this book. 

I'm not a huge series reader, so this is always going to be a tough question for me. However, I have been slowly working my way through A Series Of Unfortunate Events series by Lemony Snicket. So far, my favourite in the series was the 6th installment, The Ersatz Elevator. I think it had the perfect amount of character growth, misery, and humor. 

I placed my first ever preorder this year, which was Out Of Love by Hazel Hayes. It's currently on it's way to me and I'm so excited to finally get my hands on her debut novel. This is a love story told in reverse and sounds just as heartbreaking as Normal People by Sally Rooney. I can't wait to cry all the tears.

I'm probably going to get persecuted at the stake for this, but Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer. I know The Twilight Saga is problematic for a multitude of reasons but it's still a huge part of my childhood and the inner teenage Anne is still squealing at the prospect of a new book set in this universe. So with a shamed head, I choose this book as my most anticipated release. 

Sadly, Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire. I really loved the fourth installment in the Wayward Children series so it got me really psyched for the next book, however, it felt so cluttered and utterly pointless. I adored Jack & Jill from the series, but this book kind of messed up their entire dynamic and felt too try hard. I have a complicated history with the author when it comes to this series, but nevertheless, it was still mighty disappointing. 

Kiley Reid. I listened to Such A Fun Age earlier this year and fell completely in love with both the writing and the story. If you don't know, her debut novel was about a young black nanny who is wrongly accused of kidnapping the white child she's looking after, and the domino affect that has on the life of both her and the child's parents. It is an interesting new take on wealth, race, and the power of a female orientated friendship. 

Is saying Michelle and Barack Obama cheating? Yeah, it probably is but after my husband @BilliamSWNtw said it, I can't unthink it. I read Becoming in January and though I knew this power couple were going to end up together, I couldn't help but root for their relationship throughout Michelle's memoir. They're adorable. 

As mentioned above, this has been the year of non-fiction for me so I don't have an answer for a fictional character. However, if we're going for a real person who I grew very fond of due to their memoir, I'll say Shonda Rhimes. Her book Year Of Yes had been on my TBR for years, but I always put it off as I (wrongly) assumed it was just over hyped. However, I devoured this book and it made me respect Shonda on a whole new level. She's a truly inspiring woman. 

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle. I literally got dehydrated by listening to this book in one sitting. I laughed, cried, laughed, and cried some more. I really think this debut book is reminiscent of Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah, which is a book I loved. In Five Years follows two friends and the turns that life gives them, I know the synopsis says that this is a book about a woman who wakes up five years in the future only to see that the life she loves and knows is long gone and instead she's engaged to a guy she doesn't know in a place that she's never been, but it's so much more than that. That description really does the story an injustice. If you want a wonderful story of friendship, loss, and possibility, pick this up. 

I didn't want to answer any of these questions with a reread book, but I honestly haven't read anything new that made me happy. So.. I'll have to go with the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead, I've been slowly making my way back through the series and have been having a wonderful time. They're funny, silly, nostalgic, and wonderfully entertaining. There's nothing better than rereading something you've already loved. 

I'm answering this with  book I found beautiful both in look and contents. I'd have to go with The Rules Of Magic by Alice Hoffman. Emma from Drinking By My Shelf described this book as written in the style of a mood board and I fully agree. Alice Hoffman's writing is always so beautiful, but this newest edition to her inventory is near magical. The Rules Of Magic is a prequel to the book Practical Magic, the book that inspired the much loved movie starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. It's the story of the two crazy aunts as teenagers, and how the curse of the family affected them. It's truly beautiful, in every way. Much more of an experience than a book.

Do you have 12 hours for me to list them all? Heh. There are so many books that I hope to read before the end of the year but my top 5 picks are:

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Rebecca by Daphne de Maurier 

Final Girls by Riley Sager 

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin 

and... 

Bringing Down The Duke by Evie Dunmore 

So there we have it. I can't believe we're already halfway through 2020. This has definitely been a whirlwind of a year. What book are you hoping to read before the end of the year? Let me know in the comments! 

I tag 

Saph // SimplySaph

Tiffany // FoodAndOtherLoves

Imogen // ImogensTypewriter

*Just like last year, I've changed this question from 'newest fictional crush' to better suit me as I really don't get fictional crushes anymore. But, boy, do I ship fictional characters. 

Furikake Party mix is basically seaweed flavored trail mix. It has a saltiness that will keep you reaching for more. This is a recipe from a family friend and in the original it made 4 sheet pans of mix, but for the purpose of not feeding an army, I've halved it to make 2 sheet pans worth. If you want even less, just half the measurements I've written down below. Enjoy!

A twisted modern classic wherein a grown man falls hopelessly in love with twelve-year-old Lolita, and makes it his life's mission to make her his in every way possible. This isn't a love story, but it is a book about obsessive love. I read My Dark Vanessa last month and devoured it, I found the off-balanced relationship between the protagonist and her professor captivating for all the wrong reasons. I couldn't stop reading. In that book, they make a lot of references to Lolita so I wanted something along the same theme after I finished, and so naturally I picked up Lolita. It's weird to say I enjoyed the first half of this book, I know, but I did. It was sickening but so utterly brilliantly written that I couldn't help but have a fondness for the story. But, and this is a big but, the second half destroyed any shred of my enjoyment. It got so slow and ridiculous, the story took some even more questionable turns and all the characters become insufferable. Keeping that in mind, I really don't know what my rating for this book would be. It felt like two completely different books, one being almost poetic and the other being written just for the ""shock value". I just... meh, I'm so meh about this book. 

When a white activist demands that no person of colour touches his new born baby, it sets off a chain of events that leads to the baby's death. Putting all their blame on the black nurse that they first came into contact with, the grieving parents take legal action. Ruth, the nurse, is put on the stand for neglect of an infant. In the style of Miracle Creek by Angie Kim, this is a contemporary mixed with a court-drama. Unlike Miracle Creek, it took me a while to work out my feelings toward this book. I wasn't sure how I felt about a white author writing from the POV of a black woman, and writing about the prejudices that come with not being white. I wish, really wish, that the author's note was at the beginning of this novel and not the end as her reasoning behind the entire book made it less problematic to me. However, that aside, the story itself is a powerful look at race and how racism isn't intentional a lot of the time. As a protagonist Ruth was a strong willed woman with a wonderfully written family. The character could at times fall into cliche territory, but all-in-all this was a well-done novel. I knocked off a star for the cheesy and too perfect ending, but I would still recommend this to anyone who enjoyed Miracle Creek.

Have you ever wanted a novel that has the writing style of The Night Circus but the plot of A Little Life with the magicalness of a Seanne McGuire book but written by Donna Tartt? Then this is the book for you! This is a tragic story set around two children, Rose and Pierrot, who are abandoned at an orphanage in 1914. There, they both experience abuse - sexual and physical - and eventually leave to forge their own paths, yet they're always hoping they'll find each-other again. This novel has an undertone of magical realism as both the main characters have somewhat magical abilities, but that's never a front-and-centre part of the story. Instead it's carried behind the plot of Rose wanted to start her own circus, and Pierrot becoming a bugler. This book is the definition of quirky, and because of that, I'm not sure whether I enjoyed it. I had previously DNF'd it, but seemingly had a 'I hate myself' moment and decided to finish it. This just has too much juxtaposition. It was too depressing, and I never fully came to care for either of the characters. There was too much sexual content throughout this novel, non of which was the smutty kind, instead being a devastating miserable kind. And if I hear the word 'cunt' one more time in a book this year, it'll be too soon. No, just no. Which is very sad as I found this signed copy at a library sale. Did you love this novel? Let me send this to you! Save me from it's miserable aura. (No, but really, someone ought to have this who loves the author.)

When a father and son move to a new town, strange things begin happening. Whispers come from outside the boy's bedroom at night. Could it be related to the imprisoned child murder known as The Whisper Man? I wanted to like this thriller, I really did. It seemed dark, creepy, and I was hopeful for a better written Stephen King type novel. However, I don't think this book knew what it wanted to be. It read like some weird mash-up of a detective centered novel and a thriller, which really didn't work with the story. I can forgive a thriller for not having a great ending so long as I can enjoy the journey to get there, but with this I sadly didn't. I was bored so many times, and found all the characters tedious or pointless. Meh. I, sadly, do not get the hype.

After everyone at at a wedding party gets food poisoning, Olive and Ethan are the only two not to get sick. Because of this they're forced to go on the bride and groom's honeymoon with only two problems: they have to pretend to be newlyweds, and they hate each other. Yup, ultimate hate-to-love plot. As someone who loved The Kiss Quotient and The Hating Game, how have I never read a Christina Lauren book before? The mystery! The Unhoneymooners is arguably the most popular book, so I figured I'd start there. This read far more chick-lit than I was expecting. There was no smut which left me feeling rather bitter. Nevertheless, this was a quick enjoyable read. Not a new favourite, but I'm still glad I've read it.

After humanity stops dying off, a group of people known as Scythe's are solely responsible for keeping the population numbers under control. They go out and kill whomever they want. When two teens are put into training to become Scythe's, they begin to see a new side of their controllers. The world building in this novel was exceptionally done. I never once questioned it. For such a fast read, it really build up this dystopian land without ever feeling info-dumpy. However, I'm unsure whether the two main characters could've been more bland. Neither of them had any personality, which made it incredibly hard for me to care about their individual outcomes.

I'm still reading this series via audiobook and am having a great time. Would 110% recommend for miserable fun. The further into the series I get, the darker and more twisty each book becomes which I'm loving. For a series targeted at kids, I'm way too invested. 

Go forth and read my other wrap-ups:

This is a quiet but poignant WWII novel about certain aspects of the war that we don't often read about. Following two different time periods, one in the past and one in present day, we learn of the life of Henry, an American-Chinese living in Seattle. As a young boy he befriends an American-Japanese girl whose family is struggling as the Nazi reign is beginning to show in their hometown. An adult Henry, however, is in the mourning process of his wife. His days are bland. That is until a local hotel owner digs out artifacts of the past from the basement. Is the object that Henry longs to once again see down there, hidden in a box? I found this novel fascinating as, like I said, this isn't necessarily the story people write about when WWII is the backdrop. Usually we get put right in there at Auschwitz, especially in the more popularized books like The Nightingale and, yes, The Tattooist of Auschwitz. This never felt overly historical, at times it even felt like a contemporary. I think reading about the war through the eyes of a child lessened the impact of the ugliness that was going on around him. If you like books set around WWII or simply want to dip your toes into the historical fiction pool but don't want to jump in, I'd wholeheartedly recommend this novel.

Candace Chen is feeling unfulfilled in her life - her job as a bible product coordinator is a far cry from the art route she wanted her career to take, her uninspired relationship seems to be ending, and she's just a little lost. Then a viral fever takes out half the world and she's left alone. This synopsis sounds interesting, right? Sadly, this entire book was a case of great idea but poor execution, at least for me. I felt so jarred throughout this book as it kept jumping between timelines while trying to tie everything together. Candace isn't meant to be likable, but god, she was borderline insufferable. 

When a woman decides to go Vegetarian it sets off a chain of events in both her and her family's life. I started listening to this as it is arguably one of the more talked about translated Japanese novels as of late. And though the plot was very odd, the characters were all insufferable, and I'm not exactly sure what the author was trying to do.. I really loved this book. There was just something so addictive to the writing style and I felt touched by the story, but for absolutely no particular reason. This book and my liking to it is a mystery to me. 

Though fiction, this is an inspired look at the lives of the Japanese picture brides who migrated to America in the early 1900's. This short book (129 pages) was a piece of art. It was written so beautifully and with such originality that I struggled to put it down. It wrote about these different women in the style of "we did this, we went through that, this was our lives". Like the brides were a collective, similar to the way of The Handmaids Tale. However, I can't help but think that this would've been better executed if it had instead been a collection of poetry. It didn't read like a novel. 

So, yeah. I only read 4 books but I'm so glad that I joined in for this readathon. If libraries were still open, I imagine it would've been much easier to get my hands on some other Asian themed books that weren't, you know, the length of Pachinko. 

Did you read anything for this readathon? Let me know. 

I partook in Nicole's month long readathon in May, and it was so much fun. I used to solely read contemporaries written about mental illnesses but fell out of love with the sub-genre after so many YA books disappointed me. The Mentalhealthathon rekindled my love for books like this, which I'm so happy about. I originally aimed to read books based on the prompts that Nicole gave us on the Bingo card, but alas, I did what I always do and strayed away from the list. Where are my fellow mood readers at?