1. No Exit By: Taylor Adams THRILLER
This was one of the first books I read this year, and it was amazing! I know this book got a bit of buzz at the beginning of the year, so I am reminding everyone that it is out there, and if you haven't read it, then you need to. Darby Thorne is a student at the University of Colorado racing to make it home before her mother dies of a terminal illness. The real story begins when Darby gets stuck in a snowstorm, and is forced to pull off at a rest area. There are four other people taking shelter in the rest area's lobby when she gets there. At one point during the night, Darby ends up needing to grab something from her car, while outside she ends up seeing a young girl in a cage trapped in the van of one of these strangers. So, now she's stuck in the middle of nowhere, in a snowstorm, no communication methods available with someone who is a child kidnapper. Darby has to figure out how to save this girl, and also which of the strangers is responsible. This book had me on the edge of my seat until the very end, and Darby is an awesome realistic, flawed character to follow.
2. Goldie Vance Series By: Hope Larson Illustrated by: Brittney Williams GRAPHIC NOVEL
If you haven't gotten into graphic novels yet, I think Goldie is the perfect introduction! These graphic novels from Boom!Studios are so much fun and star a 16 year old Goldie Vance, whose father is the manager of a hotel in Miami in the 1960s. I LOVE this series, Goldie is an awesome female protagonist, and is always getting in way over her head. Also, she's a gay character of color, which makes me love this series even more! Graphic novels until recently have been devoted almost entirely to white, straight, and male protagonists, so this is an awesome change of pace. There are four books in the series so far. I can't find a release date for a fifth volume, but hopefully we will get one.
3. The Black Prism By: Brent Weeks FANTASY
This is the first book in the Lightbringer Series by Brent Weeks, and I confess the only one I've read so far in the series. I suck at finishing series, but this first book was amazing. The magic system in this series is based off of colors, and those who have the ability to "draft" certain colors, and bend them to their will. This magic system is so fully fleshed out in this first book, I can't wait to see how it develops even more throughout the series. Additionally, this book is filled with awesome female and male characters to follow! The main protagonist in this first book, Kip, is a boy from a village that gets thrown into the center of the conflicts plaguing this world when he finds out who his father is. I loved Kip, he's a chubby nobody when the book starts off, and is such a relatable teenager that I grew to love more and more as the book goes on. It's great to see his character develop in different ways as he's forced to face obstacles that he is totally unprepared for. Be warned this is an epic fantasy, meaning this book is over 600 pages, as are the rest in the series. The final book is scheduled to come out October 22, 2019, and I'm planning to binge the rest of the series when it comes out. So I'll keep y'all updated.
4. Bad Blood By: John Carreyrou NONFICTION
If you haven't heard about this book, or at least murmurings of the story surrounding it, you must have been living under a rock, literally. This is the true story of Elizabeth Holmes and her Silicon Valley unicorn startup, Theranos. This story was totally banana pants, Elizabeth Holmes managed to con the most powerful people in America into believing she had a revolutionary new blood drawing and testing device. At its height, Theranos was valued at nine billion dollars. In fact, no device ever existed, or even came close to existing, and it is basically impossible to produce any such device with the available science out there right now. Despite this, Holmes was able to convince basically the entire country into believing it was an actuality. This is one of my absolute favorite nonfiction books, and a great one to read if you're newer to reading nonfiction, or if you already love the genre.
5. Women Talking By Miriam Toews LITERARY FICTION
This book came out this spring, and was my first Miriam Toews, although she's written several others, and I am now so ready to delve into her backlist. This book was based off of true events that occurred in a Mennonite community in Bolivia. Every night women and female children were being drugged and raped, however the leaders and men of the community told them it was God or the Devil, and it was happening because these women and children were being punished for their sins. Well, surprise, it wasn't God or the Devil, it was the men of the colony who were perpetrating these crimes. The story is told through August, who was excommunicated from the colony due to his parents, but has returned. He takes notes on the meetings that the women of the colony are having to decide how to respond to these horrific events, so as the title states, it's told through women talking. Even though the subject matter of this book is depressing and intense, Toews writes in a way that makes the material easier to digest. This book gave me so much insight into a religion and a lifestyle that I knew almost nothing about, and it was able to do so in just over 200 pages.
Well those are the recommendations for this week. If you've read any of these titles I would love to hear your thoughts on them, or any thoughts you have related to books in general!
Bad Blood reads like a novel but is factually based. It was literally a page turner for me and every twist and turn astounded me. It was an awakening for me as to how one person can manipulate others into trusting the “un-trustable” and believing just outright lies due to their charisma and ability to deceive. Remind you of anyone??
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