100 Books 2014: 49 to 56

A little break in the vacation photos to update you on my reading challenge! I've gotten really behind in posting these. I'm actually reading my 70th book right now! But here are eight more of the books I've read this year. Starting with some YA stuff: 

Looking for Alaska by John Green I'm not 100% sure I haven't read this book before, a few years ago. It seemed so familiar yet I couldn't remember what happened at all. I'm still going to count it. Alaska is a classic manic pixie dream girl who our hero meets when he goes away to a boarding school in the american south. A coming of age story, and a pretty good one. I enjoy John Green's writing even though his books aren't ones I want to read over and over.
Attachments: A Novel by Rainbow Rowell A charming love story about an IT guy whose job it is to read the emails sent by people in his company and flag them for inappropriate content. He starts to fall in love with one of the women in the office through her emails with a friend. This was a pretty light read, a break I really needed. I have been reading lots of dark books this year and sometimes a light romantic book is just what you need. It isn't totally predictable though.
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart Someone must have recommended this book to me because I went into it not knowing much about it except it was about well to do teenagers who spend their summers on a private island. There is an unreliable narrator which keeps things interesting, and this book made me cry! Which of course I love. This is kind of a thriller, lots of secrets and slow reveals. If you read it, I would go into it not knowing more than that. You don't want to spoil it!
Elenor & Park by Rainbow Rowell I LOVED this. Absolutely loved it. I read it in two days. I felt like Rainbow Rowell captured what it feels like to fall in love for the first time (as a teenager) in such a perfect way. I became really attached to Elenor and Park and was sad when the book was over and I had to let them go. I liked this book just as much as I liked Fangirl earlier in the year. I'm going to buy myself a copy so I can read it again.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah This book was on a feature table at the downtown library and I had to check it out. It is intense, as you can imagine. The memoir of a boy recruited at age 13 to be a child soldier in Sierra Leon. It is grim and shocking and a little unbelievable that this was happening not even 20 years ago. The book is pretty riveting, thought I wish there was a little more closure at the end. Ishmael obviously makes it out and to safety in America but that part of his life isn't really explained.
Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant I really liked the other books I've read by Dunant (The Birth of Venus and In the Company of the Courtesan) but this one was just ok. It takes place in the 1500's in Spain. Then dowries were so expensive lots of wealthy families would put their daughters into convents because it was cheaper. I found that fascinating and want to read more about it. The story itself was just ok. It took me a while to get through the book, it wasn't one that kept me up at night reading.
Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill This is the third Joe Hill book I've read this year and I think it was the most terrifying. One morning I was home alone and reading it and got so freaked out I didn't want to walk into our hall to get the dogs! It is the story of aging rock star Judas Coyne who has an interest in the occult. He buys a haunted suit on eBay and it starts a horrifying sequence of events. I don't want to give anything away, but I loved it!
Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth I checked this out because I loved the tv series so much! All the stories are represented in the show and are worth a read. You don't get much more info than you got in the show but I enjoyed reading the book. If you haven't seen it, it's about a young midwife in training in the slums of England's East End in the 1950's. The conditions people live in are sometimes shocking and the stories range from sad to heart warming.

There you go! I'll share some more soon!