I don’t usually say this, but I didn’t enjoy Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave. It wasn’t believable to me and the characters were too shallow. You knew right from the beginning what was going to happen and the story just felt meh to me. In fact, even writing about it feels meh. Too bad, because the premise had potential: woman sees fiance with another woman and child, runs away to family vineyard that she had fled years earlier, and discovers what’s important in life. I’d give this one a pass if I were you…

I enjoyed Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal (thanks for the recommendation, Holly), but I didn’t love it. It was a little too choppy and short story like with each chapter introducing you to new characters. I felt the transitions were too jarring and spent too much time trying to remember who everyone was. I liked the premise of the story – a girl who has uncanny taste and how her life progresses, but I wanted to like it more than I did. It’s worth a read, but it wasn’t a favorite of mine.

Ruth Ware’s In A Dark Dark Wood is a grim glimpse into a few days in Nora’s life. Her former best friend, Clare, who she has not seen in ten years, invites Nora to her hen party and disastrous events ensue. Alternating chapters find her scratched and bruised in a hospital bed with no idea how she got there. I enjoyed this story very much. Ware captured the darkness and foreboding nicely and while a few elements were far-fetched, overall, it was a good thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat.

Looking for something sweet, mindless, and just for fun? Then Jennifer Weiner’s Who Do You Love should be your next read. Like her other books, this one is nothing taxing, but is a nice story. Andy and Rachel keep weaving in and out of each other’s lives, making good and bad choices. The chapters alternate between their points of view and the book moves quickly. If I weren’t so busy, this would have been a one day read.

The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler was on a number of “must-read” books for the summer. The premise sounded interesting – a multi-generational story of women who are able to hold their breath for many minutes underwater who then mysteriously drown. The story toggles back and forth between present day, when Simon receives a mysterious book about these mermaids, and the past tale of the traveling show that employed the mermaid. The book felt like an Alice Hoffman, but didn’t really grab me the way Hoffman most often does. I almost abandoned the book multiple times, but finally rode it out. I am not sorry that I read this one, but I didn’t enjoy it very much. I didn’t really like any of the characters, and the story itself was just a little too far-fetched.

I had to read Circling the Sun by Paula McLain in a hurry because it was due at the library. I wanted to read the book because I had read good reviews and because I think I liked The Paris Wife (though I read The Paris Wife before I began this blog and can’t really recall – most of the reason I started writing down my thoughts was so I could remember what I read and liked). The main character of Circling the Sun, Beryl, was raised in Africa. She was abandoned by her mother as a young girl and raised by her father as a wild child who ended up training horses as her father did before her. It was an interesting story and I enjoyed reading it. However, I hated the choices Beryl made and this made me irritated all the way through the book. While I didn’t dislike the book, my distaste for the protagonist certainly made it more challenging to read.

I didn’t love Nadia Hashimi’s first book, The Pearl That Broke Its Shell, reviewed here, but I really enjoyed When The Moon is Low. This story of Afghan refugees fleeing the Taliban was moving, exciting, and ultimately, hopeful. And yet, at the same time, it was such a sad story and quite timely. The pages turned quickly in this story and I recommend it.

This summer I have attempted to clear out my “to read” list. So many books end up on there and I wanted to go back to the beginning and read the ones that have been on there for many years. David Sedaris’ Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls was one of these older selections. I used to really like David Sedaris, and while I am usually not a short story or essay kind of reader, I thought I would give this one a whirl since it gets such great and consistent reviews. While I enjoyed the book, and read it in about a day, most of it wasn’t as laugh-out-loud funny as I remember his other books to be. This would be a good choice to have on the bedside table to pick up in between longer selections as a change of pace.