Reading List 2015

What I Read in December

December 31, 2015 by Abbigail Kriebs 4 Comments

Decembers are busy months, filled with parties and lists and shopping trips. They’re not often filled with books. I wrote this year about how I was not excited for Christmas, and I think part of the reason is that I hadn’t been reading. My heart gets a little grumpy when I haven’t been reading often enough.

This year, my December was also filled with a semi-secret new project I am working on with a friend. While it’s been super fun and energizing, it has also been time- and emotion-consuming. It won’t launch until February, so I really can’t talk about it (yet!), so instead I’ll talk about the books I did manage to squeeze into the month of much.

Here’s what I read in December:

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J.K Rowling

This short book is a fabulous companion to the Harry Potter series, and you’re absolutely going to need to read it before the movie comes out in November 2016.

Touching Wonder: Recapturing the Awe of Christmas by John Blase

This collection of readings for Advent was a settling place for my soul this year, and inspired reflection on Christmas Eve.

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

This book was a well-woven mystery. You don’t see the end coming until the very, very moment that it happens. Moriarty is just vague enough throughout the whole book that you know something is about to happen and when it does – WHAM! – you are shocked and thrilled. And the ending is very satisfying, so that’s a plus, too. If you like a little mystery, layered characters and a spider web of a plot, read this.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

On the exact opposite end of the spectrum from Big Little Lies, Jojo Moyes Me Before You is a love story through-and-through. It’s not very apparent at the start, but you can soon see what is coming and how you think it will end – and then it ends completely differently than you expect and you are left crying in the backseat of the car while your husband drives and your dad navigates on the way home from Christmas at Grandma’s four states away. True story.

Quidditch Through the Ages by J.K. Rowling

I added this to my Amazon cart in December after needing just $4 more to get free shipping. It sounds silly, but I’ll pay $3 extra for a book but I’m not willing to pay $5 for shipping. #BookAddictProblems.

Just as with Fantastic Beasts, this short novel was vintage Rowling. Short, punchy, and full of tiny little details that capture the imagination and tie the magical world and muggle world together. If you like Harry Potter, read this, of course.

What did you read in December to wrap up the year? I hope it was something great!

What I Read in November

December 1, 2015 by Abbigail Kriebs 1 Comment

I probably read too much in November.

Well, that isn’t really possible, but I do think I ought to have expended some more energy elsewhere. It’s just so hard to go outside when the weather starts to turn cold, even if I do love winter. All of this month’s reads were a slam dunk, too – so well worth staying up late to finish.

Here is what I read in November:

These Are the Moments by Jenny Bravo

I gushed about this book on Instagram. And then gushed about it on the blog. It is a truly good book and you should definitely check it out if you are a 20-someting gal just living life and hoping your doing it right. Read my full review here.

The Last Summer (of You and Me) by Ann Brashares

I love this book. Love it. I read it about once a year, and am always reminded of how stunningly Ann Brashares writes. Not only is it a great story, but it is so well written that I get wrapped up in the language and can’t help reading it over and over. Read my full review here.

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald

This book doesn’t release until January, but I was able to read a preview copy this month and really enjoyed it. It’s a warm, predictable love story that fills your need to read something that turns out perfectly once Rainbow Rowell has broken your heart with Eleanor & Park for the third time. Read my full review here.

It Begins Here: An Anthology

This anthology highlights seven new authors and the beginnings of their stories. My internet-friend Amber Thomas is featured here, and also designed the kickin’ cover art. I love the idea of getting seven stories of beginnings all in a row… and a few of them I definitely wanted more. It’s an anthology, so not all of the stories rang true for me, but they were all worth reading. The writers know how to write, even if the topic or subject matter wasn’t what I would normally reach for. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to discover several great authors all at once, who would like to support authors just getting started, and anyone who loves a good love story.

The Charismatics by Ashley R. Carlson

After I read Merry’s story in It Begins Here, I had to read more about the world of Shinery that Carlson had created. The Charismatics is a whirlwind of a first novel, introducing characters, places, and plot lines that I’ve not found elsewhere. It’s a steampunk fantasy with dystopian flair, but filled less with extensive descriptions of the surroundings, and more about the main character, Ambrose, as she learns who she is and what she has to do to make the world right again.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente

I loved this book when I read it last year, so when my book club wanted a fairytale, this was my recommendation. It is a charming, whimsical, delightful fairytale full of the best kinds of charters: ones you would never be able to dream up on your own. Read my full review here.

So that’s what I read in November. What about you?

Can you believe there is only one more month left to read in 2015? What are planning to tackle before the end of the year?

Story in Review: The Last Summer (of you and me) by Ann Brashares

November 19, 2015 by Abbigail Kriebs Leave a Comment

The Last Summer (of You and Me) by Ann Brashares is one of my favorite books. I first read it when I was about the same age as the main characters, which I think always makes a book feel more immediate to a reader, more pertinent to where they are in their life right then. Yes, it’s the same Brashares as the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants fame, but this time she’s written a novel for a slightly older audience.

Alice and her older sister Riley have spent summers on Fire Island for as long as they have been alive. Riley’s partner in crime lives next door. His name is Paul, and Alice is in love with him – and always has been. This summer is the first in three years where they will all be on the island together, and everything that can happen does – for better and for worse.

While the book at it’s heart is a love story, it’s also a novel about true friendship, about growing up and whether or not you can bring your childhood loves with you.

Favorite Quotes:

She preferred to save her lies for the people whose names she knew. – p. 4

You loved what you knew. You couldn’t help it. He couldn’t, though he did try. – p. 6

How familiar it felt to want his wants for him. That much had not changed. – p. 11

[As children] they talked about fish and they talked about God. But it was all the stuff in the middle that came to preoccupy you as you grew older. – p. 18

Sometimes you couldn’t face the sadness of being forgotten until you felt the comfort of being remembered again. – p. 19

So great was Riley’s imagination that she did not bother with the distinction between what was real and what wasn’t. – p. 45

She didn’t deserve it, which was to say she deserved better. – p. 61

There were many things in life like that. You couldn’t imagine it, and then it happened and you couldn’t imagine it hadn’t. – p. 94

Only the places she hadn’t yet visited met her expectations. – p. 105

Maybe there weren’t two kinds of love. Maybe there were a trillion kinds. Or just one. – p. 112

He was weary of being stupid. – p. 124

What if he learned to love what he had? – p. 145

A lifetime of planning could be canceled in less than five minutes, it turned out. – p. 164

Her heart mismanaged its work of beating. – p . 180

What made this a good story? I loved how deftly Brashares captures that mixture of longing and dread Alice feels at seeing Paul again, and having life move forward now that she is an adult. It’s a hard feeling to put into words, and she nails it. It’s also interesting to note that all of the characters in this book are flawed in one way or another, and yet there is something lovable about each of them. I’ve read this book no less than 5 times and every time I find something new. This read through, I felt more compassion for Paul’s mom than I may have in times past, even when she is not the most deserving person.

What could have made this a better story? I can’t think of anything. The story holds up, after multiple reads at multiple ages.

Have you read The Last Summer (of You and Me) by Ann Brashares? If so, what did you think?

P.S. If you liked this book, you’ll probably enjoy Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell.