The 7 husbands of evelyn hugo by TJR. I’m super wary for all TikTok books. I absolutely despise Colleen Hoover and Fourth Wing (recently recommended to me by a friend). When the dedication to the book said “smash the patriarchy” i thought i was getting myself into another “kill all men” kind of novel (like How to Kill your Family) but once I actually started, I couldn’t put it down. It completely blew away my expectations and might have been the most fun read I’ve had this year so far. Makes me super excited to check out her other works, as people say they’re even better than Hugo

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. It was the first book my sister bought for me (simply because she saw it at a thrift store and thought the edition was pretty and shiny). She had no idea what the plot was about and I didn’t even read for pleasure at the time. If she knew how graphic some of the scenes were she probably wouldn’t have given it to middle school me haha but it really opened my eyes to adult fiction. In this book, bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. It was my first time experiencing such unfairness in a book and it made me seethe with anger. It’s the book that got me into reading really. I love it so much and it’s very nostalgic for me (severe trigger warnings though for SA). I read some of Ken Follets other works recently but I like to pretend they don’t exist. Whiteout in particular was so terrible I couldn’t even fathom how Pillars was written by the same author. Now i read over 52 books a year and it always boggles my mind the butterfly effect of my sister bringing that book to me on a whim

In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust. I feel like he has such a way to convey feelings everyone has but can’t normally describe with words but when you try and repeat what he said, it’s impossible to explain 😅 I’ve read 3 volumes out of 6 but i don’t think I understood it very well so I plan to reread it from the start before i continue on. Though i really can recognize that what i’m reading is so profound, it’s difficult (for me at least) to get into it. It definitely takes a lot longer and more rereading of paragraphs to understand than other easier works

After the first few pages I was sure it was her debut novel and was shocked to see in the back hardcover flap that she had written many books previously. One of my friends recommend it to me like 6 months ago and I still haven’t mustered up the strength to tell her I hated it 😅

I completely understand; it’s very philosophical in the beginning but don’t worry: once you get going it eventually starts to resemble a narrative. The first chapters are just some guy’s rants (like some about addition haha!) which can turn off a lot of people who don’t find the philosophy interesting (I was having a little trouble too) but the rest of the book isn’t like that rest assured. That being said, I don’t think I understood as much of it as I should have (I definitely want to reread it at some point). It’s perfectly fine to set it down until the next time you get motivation to tackle it again! It’s never a permanent decision :)

Go Set a Watchman. I really liked TKAM so when I heard there was a sequel I got really excited. After reading it I was so confused by how terrible it was that I looked into it and turns out it was a rough draft for TKAM that Harper Lee never intended to publish. Apparently Harper was losing a lot of her mental faculties as she aged and her sister had been protecting her from snobby publishers and whatnot but after she passed away, they were able to convince Harper to release it as a “sequel.” It’s seriously really bad