What I Read This Summer

Hello everyone! As we reach that magical back to school time of year, I figured I would share with you all the books I read this summer (spoiler free). Now I am not going back to school, as I’m finished with school for now; but I find that it doesn’t really matter if you’re going back to school or not because the season seems to affect everyone. I know some snazzy school supplies I don’t need catch my eye when I’m in a store. I also tend to benefit from the back to school clothing sales pretty nicely. 😉

The books on this list are all audio books, and I’ve linked them to Amazon. I did a lot of road trips this summer and thus got a lot of reading done in the car this way. A also fell into a bit of a reading slump, so audio books were a good solution for me. I promise I read actual books too.

DISCLOSURE: Links used are affiliate links.*

Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Narrated by Clare Corbett, Louise Brealey, India Fisher
Unabridged 10 hours and 59 minutes

                   I know I’m late to the game on this one, especially since I saw the movie before I read it. Before you scoff, this doesn’t ruin a story for me. In fact it almost makes me more excited to find out how the movie and book differ. Which I must say, was quite a bit for this story. While reading the book I found that if you hadn’t seen the movie, the book did an amazing job keeping the big twist off the radar. I was constantly looking for foreshadowing, and I really couldn’t put my finger on a single passage that revealed who killed Megan. For me this was done so well because our narrator is so unreliable. If Rachel hadn’t been blackout drunk, I’m sure there would be tid-bits of information we received far earlier in the story. But because she just can’t remember what happened we too are left frustrated because Rachel (we) just don’t know what happened that night. It was truly captivating, and made me feel that same sense of desperation Rachel felt trying to retrieve her memories. I highly recommend reading this, even if you saw the movie and weren’t impressed.

            The narration of this was interesting, it’s the first time I’d listened to a book where different narrators voiced different characters. I found it helpful to differentiate between the three women, since I can sometimes zone out a bit while listening to an audio book and miss the chapter change (which I’ll mention later how that bites me in the ass). The narrator who voiced Anna came off pretty flat for my liking. Though you could probably argue that Anna’s in a sedated state of being a bored housewife, and that’s why her narration sounds so dry.

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
Narrated by Caroline Lee
Unabridged 16 hours

              I’m also ashamed to say I watched the HBO series of this before I read it. To be honest, not my favorite thing to watch. There were episodes that seemed to just end. I mean the entire hour of my time I was waiting for some sort of plot, climax, hell even just an argument to happen, but it never did, and then seemingly out of no where, the credits roll. Also the show created a story line that didn’t exist in the books and I didn’t appreciate that. But the book was a good read. Of course you get a much better understanding of the characters, and I found this incredible for Celeste. She was by far the most interesting to me. Her rationalization of her life is an amazing glimpse inside the thought process of a victim of domestic violence. It was quite a bit to wrap my head around in order to decided if I liked Celeste or hated her. I grew increasingly more frustrated with her as the story went on. But overall I think that was the point. I wasn’t crazy about the police statements at the beginning of each chapter. They didn’t seem to add anything to upcoming chapter, and only gave insignificant insight into the suburbia life the characters lived in. But it wasn’t painting a broad picture in my opinion.

                I enjoyed this narrator. Her Australian accent was wonderful to listen to. Her inflection worked well with what was going on in the story. I didn’t much care for her male voice impression, but it was something I could look past. This story was told mostly by the women anyway. And I know I don’t do a good male impression so I tend not to hold it over narrators.

All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda
Narrated by Rebekkah Ross
Unabridged 10 hours and 4 minutes

                   I read the description of this book when I ordered it, and then completely forgot somewhat of an important detail by the time I started to listen. This story is told backwards over a two week period. Which is important to remember. As I was listening I somewhat zoned out and missed the beginning of the chapter where Nic said it was 13 days since a girl went missing, and I was thoroughly confused. I almost thought I was crazy. I was certain I had just listened to a chapter where she had just arrived back in her hometown, how is it two weeks later already?! Luckily I wasn’t crazy, she just skipped ahead in her narration and worked her way backwards. It was definitely an interesting way to hear this story. It takes away all insider information you would have if you’d heard the story chronologically. I liked it. It made discovering things you should have already known feel like missing a step on the stairs. The ending of this left something to be desired in my opinion. It wasn’t the worst ending I’ve ever read, but I felt it tried to be jarring and just wasn’t. To avoid spoiling anything I won’t go into too much detail on the things that I don’t like about the end, but just know it’s not great.

            I hated this narrator. She was dry the entire 10 hours of this book. I almost stopped listening to the book because I just wasn’t getting anything from her. But I stuck with it because I was intrigued by the story. If I was going to read this again, I’d definitely skip the audio version.

Sorry this list was so short, like I said I hit a reading slump. But I’m working my way out of it. I’m in the middle of Final Girls by Riley Sager and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs right now. I just wasn’t close enough to the end of them to push through and get them finished in time to include them on this list. Be sure to tell me what you read this summer in the comments below! Did we read the same books?

*The links in the blog are affiliate links, which means I will receive commission should you make a purchase through those links. If you don’t want to use those links I’ve listed non affiliate links below. This post was not sponsored and all opinions on these products are my own.
Girl on The Train
Big Little Lies
All the Missing Girl
Final Girls
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children