Show Us Your Books: Recent reads

Back to school. Back to books. I mean, I never left them, but you know. 

ALSO! Did you know there is now an Armchair Librarians account on Instagram? Follow here! Want to take over the account to show your book-ish life? Let us know in the comments! Jen from That's What She Read is our first volunteer! 

Linkup Guidelines:

This link up happens the second Tuesday of every month.

The next one is Tuesday, October 11, 2016 - this is the two year anniversary of SUYB!

1. Please visit and comment with both of your hosts, Jana & me
2. Please display the button (need it? let me know) or link back to us on your blog post
2. Please visit a few other blogs who've linked up and get some book talk going!

Here's what I've read since the last linkup. 

Engrossing Reads

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles - I adored Rules of Civility and was really excited to get this. It took me a little while to get into it but then I was hooked. Superb, beautiful writing and a cast of lovable characters set against the sometimes bleak background of Russia through a great many changes in the country. (free e-copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review)

The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel - Whoa, this book is fucked up subject-wise. It will not be released until February 2017, so you have time to decide. It draws you into its dark and twisted web and it's awesome like that. I could not put it down. (free e-copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, expected release Feb or Mar 2017)

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch - I ripped through the Wayward Pines trilogy in a week, and I really wanted more from Crouch. This is not a continuation of the Pines series, but a force in its own right.I was glued to this book, which is saying something as it concerned quantum physics and I cared about them for once in my life. A great read. (free e-copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review) Discussed on The Armchair Librarians here. 

Burying the Honeysuckle Girls by Emily Carpenter - I read this in 24 hours. Quick and good. I loved the backstories on the honeysuckle girls the most and wish there was more of that, but other than that it was nice. (e-copy free under trial period of Kindle Unlimited)

In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware - I finished this when I was home alone one night and was convinced someone was going to kill me in my own backyard. I hate that, but I do love a book that sets me humming. I was desperate to find out what happened at the end so I pushed on through the fear. ($5 buck paperback through a Barnes & Noble sale)

Passed the Time Just Fine

The Virgins by Pamela Erens - The writing style annoyed me a little until I got into the rhythm of it. This was a passable read but there is potential in this story that the author didn't fully tap into. (library paperback)

The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas - This was not bad for a teen book with some mystery around it. I read it over Labor Day weekend. I think the author could have pressed deeper on some points and gotten more intricate in the who done it, but it was passable. (library hardback)

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware - This is Ware's second book, but I read it first and then read In a Dark, Dark Wood immediately after. This book had me all sorts of WTF. Both contain an unreliable narrator, but I liked the premise and everything else about IADDW better. It was hard not to compare, reading them back to back. This was still a good, passable read and I had to go back and look over the last 20 pages again, but it requires much suspense of belief. (paperback copy loaned to me from Jen at That's What She Read)

Things We Set on Fire by Deborah Reed - I loved the title of this book. I feel like I've read a lot of books with girl and fire in the titles this year. Anyhoo I was into the story, too. I felt like a few things could've been explored a little deeper, but the writing was good and it was quick. (library paperback)

The Intern's Handbook by Shane Kuhn - This was difficult for me to get into, but once I hit page 50, I liked it more. It ended up a little twisty at the end, which I liked. It would have benefited from more of that at the beginning. (library hardback)

Dork Diaries #2 - Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl by Rachel Renee Russell - Listen to the podcast on this here. (Amazon hardback)

Breaking and Holding by Judy Fogarty - Reading this felt a little like watching an early 80s soap opera. A quick love and loss read full of ups and downs. In the middle I had no idea how there was half a book left, but I liked how the author continued the story after a major climax. (free e-copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review)

Not Worth It

Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris - This book pissed me off the entire time I read it. It sunk down like a large turd in the toilet. (library hardback)

The Beet Queen by Louise Erdrich - Loved the title, and I picked it up off a library shelf based on that. I read half of it before asking myself what I was doing and relegated it back to the library bag. I was really intrigued in the beginning, but Erdrich's extreme attention to detail about shit that doesn't matter ground it down until it was so slow I couldn't take it. Sometimes when I'm reading on the beach it takes me a while to realize a book sucks - I take a lot of breaks to talk and stare at the ocean and eavesdrop. (library hardback)

What have you been reading? 

An InLinkz Link-up