May Books List

Books I have read this month:-

(1) The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield - I don't usually go for mystery novels, but I like to read them every now and again for a change, and this one was chosen as a book club read.  The Thirteenth Tale is full of secrets to unravel, and it has a creepy tone to it which is similar to Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.  Found this quite enjoyable; it's the kind of book I would have liked to have read on a beach somewhere. [3/5]


(2) News From Nowhere by William Morris - It is something of a miracle that I actually managed to finish this and not give up on it.  I know that it's a revered classic and many people love it, but I found it, for the most part, pretty tedious.  Morris' fictional story of a happy socialist/communist utopian community could have been so much more, but lacked so many extra details that were sorely needed to really engage the reader with the world that he was trying to build.  I also struggled with his ideals of how everyone in this new society was technically 'equal', yet the same gendered stereotypes (e.g women doing all of the housework because apparently they 'like' doing it etc) still remained and are heavily reinforced in this book. I'm not buying it Morris! You can wash your own clothes!  [1/5]


(3) Insurgent by Veronica Roth - After the action-packed Divergent, I felt that Insurgent began to fall into that awkward second book / filler-in-the-series category a bit.  The story seems to drag itself out a bit and you can see where it's heading pretty quickly, but I still enjoyed most of it.  The last third of the book was definitely the best part for me, and of course it ends on a great cliffhanger which will make sure that I'll read the next book in the series. [3/5]


(4) American Gods by Neil Gaiman - American Gods has been recommended to me so many times, that I felt like I just had to read it sooner or later.  The characters are colourful and mostly bizarre (as I guess you'd expect anyway from an epic fantasy novel!), and I loved Shadow and of course, the ominous Mr Wednesday.  An absolute must if you like intelligent fantasy stuff.  [4/5]

(5) The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson -  Took me a long time to finish this, but I'm glad that I've finally gotten around to reading this. Found it quite slow paced (especially with all the details to do with the magazine, those parts seemed to drag for me), until the last two hundred pages or so, where I really started to get into it.  Must admit that I liked the film more than the book, which is quite rare for me to say.  [3/5]

What books have you read this month?