Book Club: A Series

Link Hoang

In the ever growing age of the internet, social media, and a world full of distractions I've found it rather difficult to stay on top of reading. In recent years, I've noticed that if a story doesn't pull me in almost immediately I either don't finish it or it takes me an exuberant amount of time to get through it. Having grown up through words, depicting stories of some of my favorite characters, it's been disheartening for me to have fallen so far off the wagon.  
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So, to keep myself accountable some friends and I decided to start a book club! So far we've read two books and we've really been enjoying getting together at the end to eat some good food and discuss how felt about the plot, the characters and the development of the story. For me, being able to talk over the book, whether I liked it or not, is my favorite part about reading. The way in which an author can: create a whole new world with twists and turns that includes characters that jump off the page, and in turn evoke some sort of emotion from me is an experience I never want to stray too far from.

So I thought I'd start a little blog post series on the books we've read so far and how we collectively felt about each one!

June
                               The Seven Husband's of Evelyn Hugo
                                              by: Taylor Jenkins Reid

              The first book we read was "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo." It was my pick, I had seen it recommended and thought might as well start off with a bang. I knew nothing about the plot before diving in and I'm glad I didn't. It was a story full of intrigue and suspense and it kept me wanting more. The more I read the more curious I became. The characters were vibrant and colorful and the story was surprising, and full of heart and sadness all at once. I think what I liked most was the main character, Evelyn, was both likable and distasteful. There were frustrating moments and moments where I totally understood where she was coming from. I don't want to reveal too much but I definitely recommend this book.  Everyone's life experiences are different, but at the end of the day we all just want to love and be loved. Sometimes life makes something as basic as a natural human emotion seem more complicated than it is and how we react and act on those challenges are what determines our fate.
Rating: 5/5

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July
                                         Brooklyn
                                 By: Colm Toibin
                  
                    Although not as compelling as the first book, it did evoke a LOT of opinions out of us. A few of us had seen the film starring Saoirse Ronan so we knew what we were getting ourselves into. It definitely had a slow start, we all had trouble getting through the first part of the book. I think it was in part due to the language usage and the time period for which it was taking place. There were also moments in the story that didn't seem relevant and the main character was too concerned with what others might think. She didn't seem to know how to think for herself. Despite this I'm glad we read it because it was on my list and now I can say I've seen the movie and read the book. I like when a story makes me feel anything, even if it's annoyance or frustration. To me, that's a sign of good writing.
Rating: 3/5
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