8 Books I’ve Read So Far This Year

I have made it my goal to read more this year and I have been relatively successful so far! When I was younger, I used to LOVE to read, but when I went to college, I stopped reading for fun almost all together, and for the past 5 years or so I was only reading about 2-3 books per year.

With the pandemic and everything, I have gotten so jaded by television and have finally gotten back into reading. I would love to read even more than I currently am– maybe next year I’ll make a reading goal! But I wanted to share with you guys what books I have read so far this year, in the order that I read them. Not every single one of them is a hit in my opinion, but I still finished them so that must count for something right?

Whenever I finish a book, I rate it over on my Instagram Stories, so make sure you’re following me there to keep up with what I’m reading next!

What do you think, should we create a Regular Folks book club? 😉

1. Normal People by Sally Rooney

Just a good novel about a dysfunctional couple. I love a novel where the characters that feel so real and raw that they are borderline unlikable at times. Sally Rooney is a phenomenal writer.

2. We Were Liars by E. Lockhark

★★★★★★★

To level with y’all, this one has slight YA novel vibes, but it’s still really good, I couldn’t put it down, and the ENDING??!?!!! Holy cow.

3. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

★★★★★★★★

This book made me cry. Sweet story, I tore through this book and really recommend it.

4. The Boy From the Woods by Harlan Coben

★★★★★

Meh. There were so many plot points to this story that were irrelevant. Just felt like a bunch of different stories that were weirdly compiled together. This had potential to be SO good, but for some reason it fell kind of flat for me.

5. 11/22/63 by Stephen King

★★★★★★

First of all, this was the first Stephen King book I’ve ever read. Secondly, this was probably the longest book I’ve ever read.

Here’s my bad syopsis: a man travels back in time to save JFK because a fry-cook told him to

Pros: immersive, clearly well-researched, I just like time-travel stories

Cons: why is it 900 pages??? I was also not a fan of the ending

6. Perfect Little World by Kevin Wilson

★★★★★★

I picked up this book in a little bookstore in the Outer Banks, NC because of the cover art LOL do any of y’all do that too? The synopsis of the book sounded interesting, sure, but the cover really drew me in hahaha

I just thought that this book was such an interesting concept: a psychologist is doing an experiment with 10 families who all live together for 10 years and raise their children together as a unit without revealing to the children who their biological parents are. I just thought it was such an interesting, different idea for a story, that I was very intrigued. It was a little slow in some parts and the ending was a little lack-luster in my opinion, but I still really enjoyed it.

7. Conviction by Denise Mina

★★★★★

This one was hard for me to rate, because I felt like it had a lot of potential, but it was a little bit hard for me to get into in the beginning, the middle had me gripped, and the ending was just kind of…. weird? I still finished it so that counts for something, right?

8. Recursion by Blake Crouch

★★★★★★★★★

One of the best books I have read in a while. The author, Blake Crouch, also wrote Dark Matter which is one of my favorite books ever, so I was super excited to finally read another one of his books.

Gripping and a super interesting concept, you HAVE to read this if you enjoy a little bit of sci-fi 🙂