Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.
–Frederick Douglass
I love to read. It is my favorite activity and has been for as long as I can remember. I love books of all genres – fiction, nonfiction – as long as it’s well written and covers an interesting topic, I’m in love. I have found that personal recommendations are the best way to form a reading list and pick up a new book. There are certain friends in my life who without fail recommend wonderful reads and so when they mention that they enjoyed a particular book, I immediately go find it. On the other hand, I have sometimes been seriously let down by books that I picked up simply because they were on the NYT Bestseller List or recommended on the Amazon Kindle list of bestsellers (ahem, 50 Shades). I have definitely learned that just because a book is on display at the bookstore does not mean you’ll love it. Or like it. Or even want to finish it.
So when I’ve read a book that I love, I tell everyone about it – whether they want to hear it or not – I just can’t help myself. And so on here the blog I’ll be sharing from time to time some thoughts on books that I’ve read recently or not so recently, and perhaps these personal recommendations will be of use to you.
The book that I have most recently read is The Girl On the Train by Paula Hawkins. It’s a new book out this year and I’ve been hearing about it for a while, though admittedly I’ve been hearing about it because it’s a NYT Bestseller – so despite my thoughts above, I do sometimes go for one of the books on display, or on the top of the recommendation list at Amazon.
I recently went to my local library to get a library card (why has it taken me so long to do this?!), and I decided to check out The Girl On the Train to see what all the buzz has been about. It is the story of a woman whose life has fallen apart in recent years and she can’t quite put herself back together again. She becomes fascinated with the lives of others and inserts herself remotely into the lives of a couple that she has never met. She watches this couple every day as she passes by their home on the train for her morning commute into London, and one day she sees something amiss as she peers into their backyard. The book unfolds from there and brings with it some unexpected twists. The story is told in the first person narrative of a few of the main characters, with chapters hopping back and forth among the characters and traveling backward and forward in time. Sometimes this style of storytelling can be confusing or hard to follow (and there were a few times in this book when I had to go back and remind myself of the timeline of a particular chapter and perspective), but if it is written I tend to love books that are told in this way. It’s such a clever method of unfolding a story, in particular when there is mystery involved or when a story uses the perspectives of a few different characters to describe the same event. The main character in The Girl On The Train evokes both sympathy and frustration, and it is her perspective that dominates most of the book. You learn about her past and how her life unraveled and that perhaps things aren’t always as they seem.
While I was reading this book, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I have read this book before, a déjà vu of sorts, and I still can’t quite figure out why that is. I’m quite sure I haven’t read it before this, since it’s only come out this year. On the whole, I enjoyed the book, but I wouldn’t put it at the top of my favorites or at the top of my oh-my-gosh-you-have-to-read-this-book! list. It’s been compared or likened to Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, but I disagree with that claim. While The Girl On the Train follows a similar theme of marriage and mystery and illusions, it’s not quite on par with the complexity of the characters or the story as Gone Girl. Overall, The Girl On The Train was a very easy and quick read, certainly entertaining, and so for that I would recommend it.
Have you read any good books lately that you can recommend? If so, let us know in the comments!
BY Jackie
LOCATION San Francisco, California
