One small bright spot to being quarantined is that I've had more time to read than I've had in years. Becoming a mom will definitely limit your free reading time, trust me. I set a goal in the beginning of the year to read at least one book a month - I've read 7 so far this year so I'm happy to report that I'm on track with my goal. Here's what I thought about the books I most recently finished.
THE WIVES by Tarryn Fisher
I wanted to love this, but it just fell a little flat for me. The premise sounds intriguing - Thursday is married to a man who's also married to two other women, and their identities are a complete mystery to her. By the way she entered willingly into this arrangement (serious eye roll), but I digress. After discovering the identity of one of the other wives, she starts to suspect that her husband is keeping major secrets from her and goes on a quest to find the truth.
I can't say much else without giving the rest of the plot away, but I will say that I loathed the main character until about at least halfway through the book. Something about agreeing to a sister wives arrangement and then playing the victim was just all so cringeworthy to me.
There's a HUGE plot twist towards the end that makes this at least somewhat redeemable for me. I won't go on the record as saying don't give this one a chance, but it wasn't my favorite out of the books I've recently read.
THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES by Suzanne Collins
I was a huge fan of The Hunger Games trilogy and was SO excited when I first heard that Suzanne Collins was writing this - I even pre-ordered it on Amazon that same day.
I'm so glad that this did not disappoint. I believe this book had a little over 400 pages, making it the heftiest book I've read in awhile, and I finished it in a matter of days. That's how good it was.
If you're familiar with The Hunger Games books and movies, you'll remember President Snow - dictator of Panem and the driving force behind the annual hunger games. The book is a prequel of sorts to The Hunger Games books, and gives us a look at Snow as a youth, tasked with mentoring a tribute from District Twelve as part of the newly created mentorship program.
I won't give too much else away, but it turns out that the games weren't always as popular in the Capitol of Panem as they are when we meet Katniss in the first Hunger Games book. The Capitol is desperate to make the games more popular, and it was interesting, albeit morbid, to see how some of the current torture tactics came into play.
HOMEGOING by Yaa Gyasi
This had been on my reading list for forever, and I just never seemed to get around to reading it. My usual book category of choice is YA, or thriller/mystery/suspense fiction, but along with reading at least one book a month this year, I wanted to make it a point to explore books that tackled topics outside of my norm.
Oprah, the Skimm, Harpers Bazaar and more have included this on their best books lists and rightfully so. This was just so beautiful and well written - so much so that the ending brought me to tears.
Homegoing tells the story of two half sisters born in Ghana in the eighteenth century, and circumstances that I won't give away (I don't want to spoil it!) cause them to grow up totally unaware that the other exists. One sister is captured in a raid on her village and sold into slavery, while the other is married off to a white Englishman.
The story then follows the lives of not only the sisters, but also of their descendants through the next eight generations. It was beautiful to see how the spirits of the descendants had generational impacts, and also infuriating and eye opening to glimpse the impacts of slavery trickle down to generations years removed from it. This was by far the best book I've read in quite awhile. If you're looking for a great read, I can't recommend this one enough.
