"Chereoge, where is your January Wrap-Up?"
It is my opinion that January is a trial run month, that’s why you’re legally and socially allowed to live your Christmas decorations up till 31st but the moment February starts, take it down!
I don’t think I need to explain myself more than that.
Since it’s Valentine’s Month you think I’d read romance, yeah? No. You’re wrong. I started with a horror novel about a demon, then a world war two novel ft Nazis obviously and after I’ve killed the last hope of love in me, I concluded with a novel about matchmaking gone wrong.
Streets are rugged. Enjoy yourself.
The Outsider- Stephen King
RATING: ★★★★★
“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”
So, this book is about a very heinous murder committed in a small town and all evidence, DNA, eye-witnesses, points towards one man, the coach. In fact, there is no way he did not commit this crime.
If you were the police, you’d go to his house, break down the door, drag him by the collar and- firing squad. No questions. And that’s exactly what Detective Ralph Anderson does. Publicly arrests him and gulags him. (Throws him in jail actually).
But you know what? ‘Coach said, Uno reverse! I was at an English teacher’s conference on the day of the murder, the time of the murder and I too have eyewitness and DNA evidence too. Take that!’
Now, Detective Ralph Anderson is shook.
How can one man be in two places at the same time?
They said the answer would shock you; it did not shock me. This is not Sherlock Holmes. It’s Stephen King. There was only one way this was going to end.
I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads but I think it’s a 4.5 stars because it kept me awake, whilst being somewhat predictable. I started closing the curtains and leaving the lights on. If I put the book face up, I see the picture of an upside-down man, I turn it face-down, I see Stephen King’s face. Everything was just scaring me. Note though the book is not scary to say, it just keeps you in the kind of suspense only Stephen King can put you in. You’re asking yourself, is this man guilty? Is he a psychopath? Is it an evil spirit? What kind of demon?
The Nightingale- Kristin Hannah
RATING: ★★★★
“Men tell stories. Women get on with it. For us it was a shadow war. There were no parades for us when it was over, no medals or mentions in history books. We did what we had to during the war, and when it was over, we picked up the pieces and started our lives over.”
The second book I read was about WW2. Kristin Hannah said she wrote the book to depict the heroism of daring women in the war; ‘stories about women who had saved Jewish children and rescued downed airmen and put themselves in harm’s way to save others. Women who had paid terrible, unimaginable prices for their heroism’.
That’s exactly what the book is about. Two polar opposite sisters and how the world war impacted them, just as they impacted it.
There is just so much that goes on (Nazi takeovers, housing Nazis, sexual tension with a Nazi!, hopelessly falling in love with escapees, to say a few), that it’s hard to just summarise it all in a few sentences.
The main criticism for this book is that it’s very slow and yes it is. Kristin Hannah describes everything and at a point, I had to start breezing through till I got to actual dialogues. The thing with world war books is that I get to earn something historical about the war and I think KT did a good job in portraying the experiences of these women.
Emma- Jane Austen
RATING: ★★★
“Oh! I always deserve the best treatment, because I never put up with any other…”
Emma, are you me? Am I you?
This was the last book I read for the month and my least favourite too. I think it’s because I was expecting Pride and Prejudice kind of masterpiece or maybe because Emma and I had one thing in common, we are both matchmakers that are bad at their jobs. (Hire me still! Let me find love for you.)
I felt this was a character-driven story, there is no plot.
It’s just about Emma who is bored since her governess got married and decides to take up matchmaking. Doesn’t work out because the man she matchmade with her friend is in love with her, not her friend, and now everyone is hurt. This is where I add that this is not what happened in my matchmaking agency but I digress.
Now, that’s only a segment of the book but it kicks up more events and by the end of the book we have, wait for it, not 1, not 2, but 5 couplings. Perhaps all along, the plot was marriage.
So yeah, that’s all I read in the month of February. This was longer than I wanted and I’ll TRY to make it shorter next time.
Have you read any of these books? What did you read in February or plan to read this coming month? Let me know!
MY PROBABLE MARCH READS:
- The Roanoke girls
- A Little life
- Love in colour
Me on Goodreads
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