Phew! First two books finished of the 52 week book challenge, only 32 more to go.
First off I have to admit I’m halfway through week 3 and I’ve only finished two books, I’m already behind. I could make excuses about work and commitments but I finished the first book in two days then found it hard to engage with the second. It won’t happen again (it totally will but you never know).
Week 1 – The Power by Naomi Alderman
This was an incredibly engaging novel. The story was original, the characters relatable and the themes were so current that you could cut yourself on how close they came to the edge. A brilliant book, slightly disappointed at the ending but made up for in its prologue. Read it. I’ve never read a novel like it.
Week 2 – Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
I had trouble getting into this book. Gladwell starts with a sports analogy and my lifetime of avoiding any kind of sport means I disengage with the material as soon as it’s brought up in whatever form it comes up in. Also I’m not used to reading non fiction, one of the reasons I’m doing this, preferring fiction or current news to long books on specific topics.
However once I got over myself and pushed through I read the second half of this book in a single day. Fascinating subject matter and full of interesting information which, while relevant to the topic being discussed, provides insights I didn’t expect to find in this book. Again a great book but longer than it needed to be.
Next up Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
