We are a little more than halfway through this year and with vacation season coming up and most of us having a little more time for good books while we are at the beach, in flight or just on our own balcony I thought I would round-up my favourite reads so far. My goal is to read one book per week and while I am a little behind on that at the moment, I have been really enjoying so many of the books I read so far and hope to catch up a little on my reading game once I head to Portugal next week. Especially on vacation I am usually always nose-deep in a book. I used to fill almost my entire luggage with books as a child and would spend every free second reading, going through ten books in a two-week vacation easily. So maybe if you are like me and you are currently wondering which books you should pack, so here are the books I enjoyed reading the most this year. You can always check my Goodreads account for other recommendations and keep up with my reading challenge or start your own.
A litte Life
This is not only my favourite book I read this year, it may be one of my favourite books of all time. I could not put down this book for a second and I think there are very few books that have moved me in the way this book did. In the beginning it seems like the coming off age story of four friends in New York, but it turns out to be so much more than a book about friendship and love, when we realise how dark the secrets in the past of one of the protagonists is and how scarred they have left him.
The writing is absolutely amazing, the way the story is developed is so incredible and the story arc is so well constructed. I am going to be honest this is not a light read. Actually it is very far from it. This book made me cry multiple times, once for a good thirty minutes. If there ever was a book that needs a trigger warning it is this one. So if topics such as sexual and physical abuse, self harm and suicide are topics, that trigger you you may want to skip out on this one. Otherwise this is an intense, gripping, terrifyingly beautiful read, that captures so well how childhood abuse can have a life-long impact on a person´s life. If you only read one book this year let it be this one.
My brilliant friend
I bought this book at a train-station, read about 200 pages on the train and could not wait for my shift to be over to continue reading it. It is a really quick and easy read without lacking depth or good writing, telling the story of the life-long friendship between Elena and Lila, who grow up together in one of the poorer neighbourhoods of Naples. While both share a strong bond, there is an intense competition between the two girls, which binds them incredibly close, but also tears them apart through the course of their life.
I think this is one you either love or feel really meh about. I had multiple people message me and say they found it hard to get into the book while I absolutely loved it and got sucked in right away. I love the writing, I love the story and being set in hot, steamy Naples I find it the perfect read for summer. I have already picked up and finished the second book of the series and it was just as good as the first one, which I think most series do not manage. Plus it being a series allows you to pick up all books and binge-read them one after another.
Sapiens
Now I´mma be honest: I am not one for non-fiction usually. I will read autobiographies or history books every now and then, but they are few and far between. However this book absolutely blew me away. I know I am not the first one to hop on this bandwaggon (actually I am pretty late), but it is actually as good as it´s raving reviews. Yuval Noah Harari manages to tell the success story of homo sapiens from its humble beginnings as hunter-gatherers in Africa to today´s technological revolution and possibly overcoming death.
The way this story is told puts history in a very entertaining and absolutely new perspective and it really impacted my view of human development and our interactions with each other and nature. I immediately picked up the second book, but have to say that it is very reminiscent of Sapiens and did not blow me away.
Incredibly loud and extremely close
I started listening to this book as an audio book, but fell so in love with how beautifully it was written, that I simply had to pick it up and read it myself. Words and literature are my biggest and earliest love and I am pretty sure they will stand undefended for the rest of my life. Every now and then I come across a book, which really sparks that crush again just by how beautiful the writing is. This book was one of them and I am so so happy, that it also had a wonderful and exciting story line, a combination which much like good looks and intelligence is hard to come by.
The book tells the story of Oskar Schell, who struggles to deal with basic life after his father passed away. That is until he finds a key in his dad´s office, which gives him a purpose, taking him all over New York City and leads to him meeting the most interesting array of characters you can imagine.
The book tells the story of Oskar Schell, who struggles to deal with basic life after his father passed away. That is until he finds a key in his dad´s office, which gives him a purpose, taking him all over New York City and leads to him meeting the most interesting array of characters you can imagine.
Leviathan
This book was yet another one, where I just absolutely adored the writing. My mum had it laying around and I just picked it up and could not put it back down. What seems to be an obituary to the author´s friend Benjamin Sachs, who died in an explosion turns out to be an exciting story about friendship, love and trust. The story is so well built and I loved how well the characters were built and how many twists in turns there were to their development.
