Another five books down, and only two to go before I complete my 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge. Now that I’m in quarantine for two weeks again, I’m going to try and read seven books during the 14 days.
I definitely won’t reach the 100 mark by the end of the year, that’s way too many. But I’m going to aim for 75. I think that’s a good number.
Here are the most recent five books that I’ve read, and as always, you can keep up to date with my reading on Instagram at @ocbookshelf. And of course, here are all the books I’ve read in 2020 so far.
1. MONEYBALL BY MICHAEL LEWIS
Ok well this book was not for me. I gave it two out of five stars on Instagram and I think I was being quite kind. I basically read a 300 page thesis on baseball and I have no interest in the sport whatsoever.
The book follows Billy Beane, General Manager of the Oakland A’s baseball team and investigates how he hacked baseball by winning so many games with players no one had ever heard of or had any interest in drafting.
There’s a movie of this book starring Brad Pitt and I’m unsure even that would interest me, but I have heard great things. Shame about the book.
2. RIVERDALE: GET OUT OF TOWN BY MICOL OSTOW
I read this book in one day. Even though it was the second book in the series and I hadn’t read the first, I had already seen the TV series based on the books.
I must confess that I did give up on the TV series once Gargoyles appeared and very strange fantasy storylines emerged, but I could picture each character so clearly that I flew through the book.
If you’ve seen the TV series and enjoyed it (the first few seasons anyway) then I would recommend reading the book. An enjoyable and easy read!
3. MAESTRA BY L. S. HILTON
I had seen this book all over my Instagram at one point so when I found it in Mercer’s second-hand bookstore, I grabbed it.
What a book. Spoiler alert: it ends with a ‘to be continued…’. But a book all about murder, the art world, fraud, money laundering and quite erotic in places.
I’m hoping the book gets adapted into a movie because I loved the sleuthing and luxury high-life that this girl was frauding her way into (and that she was from Liverpool).
4. MY FRIEND ANNA: THE TRUE STORY OF A FAKE HEIRESS BY RACHEL DELOACHE WILLIAMS
And while we’re on the topic of fraud… I had read this story a few years ago about Anna Sorokin and how she frauded her way into the elite social scene in New York.
I quite admired her story, so when I saw a book dedicated to the story lying in a box in Brooklyn, I quickly picked it up, sanitized it and took it home. From the author’s point of view (Rachel DeLoache Williams who was majorly scammed by Anna) it’s a pretty horrific read, hearing about someone being scammed out of so much money.
Rumour has it that they’re making the story into a Netflix drama which I will be watching right away.
5. HOW THE GARCIA GIRLS LOST THEIR ACCENTS BY JULIA ALVAREZ
I picked this book up in the Strand bookstore for $2 as the blurb intrigued me with four sisters making their way in New York City. However, I must say that I didn’t really enjoy it.
It was like Little Women was set in the Dominican Republic, but the stories were less interesting and all over the place. There was no real plot to the book and I have no idea why the book ended the way it did. Not one I would recommend.
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