I love Summer.

I've picked up a little more momentum and I'm only 2 books behind schedule now! YAY!

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
Started: June 5, 2015
Finished: June 13, 2015
Stars: 4/5

Typically, it takes me a looong time to finish non-fiction books. Regardless of their content. It usually takes me months to read nonfiction. I'm still "currently reading" Wild by Cheryl Strayed even though I haven't touched it since March.

But with this one, I was sucked in and I wanted to finish it. I wanted to know what next Mr. King had to tell me about writing and how I could become a better writer. And it was all gold. I'm trying to incorporate some of his advice into my writing.

I went to it with a pen and highlighter: underlining favorite parts of his writing and highlighting tips and tricks to writing. It was fun. I learned a lot and I have so so so so much more respect for him as an author and a person (which isn't saying much because I already had unreasonable respect for him).

He only talks about himself for 100 pages. That part was the hardest part for me to get through. Not because he didn't have an interesting life, but because autobiographies just don't hook me like good fiction does. No idea the logic behind it. Then he starts talking about the writing tool box and his actual writing routine and I was sucked in and ready to learn. I loved it.

That's all I can really say about it. I loved this book. I loved what he had to teach me and what I go out of it. I loved how he wrote it and the techniques he used. I loved it so much I was quoting it to my parents who didn't care in the least bit. I even passed it along to my equally-reading-obsessed neighbor. Well, I kind of forced it on him, but that's beside the point.

And now I'm rambling so I'll end with this: If you want to write and want to write better, read this book. He has so many great tips to share. Even if you think it's a bunch of hogwash, you'll at least take it into consideration and use it to develop your own writing technique.

[this book was my "nonfiction book" for my 2015 Reading Challenge]

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
Started: June 4, 2015
Finished: June 18, 2015
Stars: 2/5

I was unimpressed with this book. I tried really hard to get into it. But it was lacking in the suspense area. Among a few others.

First, it was really difficult to relate to any of the characters. I wanted to slap Ben. I just felt bad for Patty. And I wanted Libby to grow up. Diondra just annoyed the crap out of me. Lyle was the one character I didn't want to hurl across the room and he was given very little page time.

Usually, I'm all for the flashback chapters and the changing point of view. But the narration styles changed between past and present perspectives and that confused me. It also slowed the pacing of the novel and prevented me from getting sucked into the story like I was with Sharp Objects. The pacing was super slow. The narration had to do with that, but also, I was bored for the first 200 pages. I may have skimmed the book for about 40 pages because I was just reading it because I needed to finish it to get back on track with my book challenge. Because I've wasted a good three weeks on this stupid book. Ugh. The frustration.

I may have been expecting great things because of Sharp Objects and my mom said that this one was better than her first novel. I think Sharp Objects is the real winner out of these two, despite it's higher degree of twistedness (that's not a word, but I'm using it anyway).

[this book was my "thriller/mystery book" for my 2015 Reading Challenge]

SOP: Bad Blood by Taylor Swift

Summer lovin'... AKA Books

I always over hear people making great plans for summer of having lofty expectations: a summer romance, traveling, partying (? I actually don't know about that one, but I'm assuming?), making some radical memories, etc. Me, not so much. My idea of summer is this: laying out in the sun and reading. That's all I really need in my agenda for summer. This year I incorporated writing and maybe working out a little bit so I look good  while laying out in the sun (and so it looks like I'm actually productive during the summer and my mom doesn't nag me to work out).

My internship ends soon (two days to be exact). And do you know what that means??? I GET TO READ!! I'M FREE TO BECOME A SUMMER BOOK BUM!!

I'm a little excited.

Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger
Started: May 10, 2015
Finished: June 1, 2015
Stars: 3/5

You know how you have authors you admire, authors you want to be like, authors you want to be friends with and then authors that fit into all of the above? I, at least, have a mental list of my top authors for each category. (And a physical list but that's irrelevant.)

Well, after reading this book of short stories, I've decided I want to be friends with, write like, and admire J.D. Salinger.
I could honestly write an entire post (and possibly a 10+ page research paper) about how much I love J.D. Salinger. Seriously though. It's verging on unhealthy.

In my defense, it took me so long to read this short little book of a whopping 198 pages because I was working hard on my internship... [actually, it was probably because I had to take a pause between several of the short stories because I was soaking it all in and trying to understand it all.]

His stories were gold. They were simple and completely ordinary, yet they messed with me! I would sit at the end of finishing one and try to understand what he meant, what the story meant. Sometimes it was easy. And when I say sometimes, I mean maybe 3 of the stories the meaning clicked. Each of these stories was so ridiculous ordinary, but it had this complexity about it. If you want my English Lit opinion, I think it was supposed to resemble the uniqueness of our lives (the reader's) even though our lives are usually mundane. There is always something special or unique about our mundane every day life.

Nothing will ever live up to my experience of reading Franny and Zooey, but that doesn't mean that this should be disregarded. His writing is just i n c r e d i b l e.  He could've written a grocery list and I would read it with a pen in hand, trying to understand what it all meant. I would read way too far into every mark.  He's that good.

[this was my "book of short stories" for my 2015 Reading Challenge]

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Started: June 2, 2015
Finished: June 3, 2015
Stars: 3/5

Let me just preface by saying that Gillian Flynn is twisted and a pure genius. This book was really good. I had low expectations for it, honestly. And even though the characters were almost impossible to relate to (they had some serious issues), I was rooting for some of them and predicting the outcome almost instantly.
I even prevented myself from reading the last few pages which is always successful. I did try to coax my mom into telling me who did it when I was a third of the way finished with the book, she claimed she didn't remember. Yeah... Sure.

[this was my "popular author's first book" for my 2015 Reading Challenge]

I'm really not feeling up to reviewing these books right now, so I'm sorry that these two are short. Maybe in the near future I'll bulk them up a little bit... Until then.

SOP: Hate to See Your Heartbreak by Paramore