Recommended Reads

If any of you have been following my Twitter or Instagram, you'll know that I am a major book lover. I don't know if that comes from working in a book shop and being gloriously surrounded by books or not but I just gobble them up. I need to have a book going at all times (hence why I pretty much pay my own wages in the shop!). Here's what I've been loving recently:

1. 11-22-63 - Stephen King

This. Book. I don't know what I can say that could accurately sum up what it puts you through. King really pulls at your heartstrings in this one and I bet he had fun doing so! This book is a thrilling story about a man who travels back in time to try and stop JFK's killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, from carrying out his vicious act in Dallas, 1963. Although large (but Stephen King's books rarely aren't!) it is incredibly difficult to put down. What I enjoyed most in it however was not the scene in Dallas in 1963 but the lead up to it. As the character enters the past in 1958, he must try and lead a relatively normal life until 1963 which means he meets an array of wonderful characters as he travels from the east coast down to Texas. King has done his homework on this one! He includes incredible detail right down to what Oswald does in his front garden.

If you read only one book this year, read it.

2. The Opposite of Loneliness - Marina Keegan

It's sad that something so beautiful could come out of something so tragic. Marina Keegan's life, albeit short, is definitely something to be celebrated and this book does it well. In this volume of essays and short stories, we see Keegan's talent come to life, her love of writing expressed in every carefully crafted piece of work. She explores love, loneliness and coping with being a young adult in a very cacophonous world. Even her valedictory speech is enough to wonder what more she could have brought to the literary table. This book just might make you want to write yourself!

3.  The Last Picture Show - Larry McMurtry

I bought this book not knowing it was also a film, it was Goodreads that recommended it to me, but now I'm dying to see how it played out on the screen. Before I go any further, be warned, this book doesn't have a large plot or goal at the end of it, it is simply a slice of life in 1950s Texas with intricate but interesting characters that develop over the year that the book is told. It tackles almost every problem that was faced during that time - sexual exploration, religion, death, hard labour, taboo relationships, alcohol - and so on. Prepare to feel sorry for a character at one point and then hate them at the next. Seriously, I think this book should be studied in schools.

 (Another great American book that follows the same 'no real plot just lives' idea but is more centred on a 1990s High School is Election by Tom Perrotta. A great story about the issues its students and teachers face in a world without mobile phones and tablets. Weird to think, isn't it?)

4. Only Ever Yours - Louise O'Neill

I finished this book with mixed feelings. Sure, it was a great story about a fractured future where girls are groomed to be perfect and men line up to pick their favourite, with the ones not chosen being forced to stay in school to teach or be send underground. At first, I was unhappy with the ending (no spoilers, I promise!) and thought the book had a lot of potential it didn't capitalise on. But I soon found I couldn't stop thinking about it and the more I did, the more I realised just how eerily similar this book's description of life in the Eurozone is to life in our society. Women are equally scrutinised for how they look and act. They are expected to be perfect forms of themselves all the time, that Tina Fey quote springs to mind here. I then realised that in this book, you needed to read between the lines and when I did, I thought the book was incredible. Any woman, young or old, would be able to identify with the lead, Freida in her struggle to conform to society. 

Gosh, no wonder why O'Neill is up for best newcomer at the Bord Gáis Energy Book Awards!

Have you read anything good lately? I'd love to hear it (although my wallet won't!). Let me know below.

Sinead x

PS, for more of what I've read, check out my Goodreads account!