5 Books I’ve Read in Quarantine (AND LOVED)

Hello everyone! How are we coping through quarantine? While some states are loosening up their restrictions on things, most places are still not completely open, so I’m continuing to find myself with a lot of free time! I feel like I have watched every show on Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Prime at this point, so I have been forcing myself to try and read more books! It was one of my quarantine goals to read more, and I think I’ve been pretty good at it so far.

I’ve scoured through the best seller list on Amazon during quarantine and ended up reading some good books and some not so great ones during quarantine. Therefore, I figured I would share some of my favorite ones I have read recently, in case you’re looking for a new good page-turner!

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The Woman in the Window by A.J Finn

This is one of those books that is SO hard to put down. It keeps you guessing and on your toes. It’s a mystery-thriller that feels very much like Rear Window. Garrett read this one before me and insisted that I read it, and it is definitely a page-turner!

Amazon Summary:

Anna Fox lives alone—a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors.

Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother, their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble—and its shocking secrets are laid bare.

What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one—and nothing—is what it seems.

 

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

To be fair, I read this one right as COVID-19 was emerging (in February), but I just have to include it because it is SO good. This book is another that is a bit mysterious. It takes place in rural coastal North Carolina which (as a North Carolina girl) makes it that much more interesting to me! The character development is fascinating, plus the romance keeps you reading.

Amazon summary:

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.

 

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

This is one that I picked up randomly in a bookstore a month ago and I flew through it. It is about a mother and her son in Mexico. It is nerve-wracking and exciting, heartbreaking and heartwarming but also taught me a lot about the motivations and tribulations of migrants coming to America from the south. This one will give you anxiety in a way that I cannot explain, and will keep you reading.

Amazon summary:

Lydia Quixano Pérez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large, fairly comfortable.

Even though she knows they’ll never sell, Lydia stocks some of her all-time favorite books in her store. And then one day a man enters the shop to browse and comes up to the register with a few books he would like to buy―two of them her favorites. Javier is erudite. He is charming. And, unbeknownst to Lydia, he is the jefe of the newest drug cartel that has gruesomely taken over the city. When Lydia’s husband’s tell-all profile of Javier is published, none of their lives will ever be the same.

Forced to flee, Lydia and eight-year-old Luca soon find themselves miles and worlds away from their comfortable middle-class existence. Instantly transformed into migrants, Lydia and Luca ride la bestia―trains that make their way north toward the United States, which is the only place Javier’s reach doesn’t extend. As they join the countless people trying to reach el norte, Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But what exactly are they running to? 

 

The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine

This is another thriller that takes plenty of twists and turns (are you noticing a pattern in the types of books I love?!) It will keep you guessing to the end! This book is one of those great beach books that is like escapism (I’m not even sure how else to describe it). It has a gripping storyline that is very entertaining.

Amazon summary:

Amber Patterson is fed up. She’s tired of being a nobody: a plain, invisible woman who blends into the background. She deserves more—a life of money and power like the one blond-haired, blue-eyed goddess Daphne Parrish takes for granted.

To everyone in the exclusive town of Bishops Harbor, Connecticut, Daphne—a socialite and philanthropist—and her real-estate mogul husband, Jackson, are a couple straight out of a fairy tale.

Amber’s envy could eat her alive . . . if she didn’t have a plan. Amber uses Daphne’s compassion and caring to insinuate herself into the family’s life—the first step in a meticulous scheme to undermine her. Before long, Amber is Daphne’s closest confidante, traveling to Europe with the Parrishes and their lovely young daughters, and growing closer to Jackson. But a skeleton from her past may undermine everything that Amber has worked towards, and if it is discovered, her well-laid plan may fall to pieces.

 

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

This one is definitely a bit more depressing. It’s an emotional one but moving at the same time. It is about death and a dysfunctional family and is both thrilling and mysterious.

Amazon Summary:

“Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos. A profoundly moving story of family, secrets, and longing, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.

 

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