The Year in Books | August 2015

The July book group reads were disappointing. The first one was Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, which is a collection of short stories all centred around the central character, Olive.  Unfortunately, I didn't like Olive and found it difficult to relate to her, and was also frustrated by the bittiness of jumping to the other characters and then not finishing up their stories.  For the first time ever, it received a negative review at the book group.

The second book was also a book group choice - No Safe House by Linwood Barclay.  It was a decent enough crime story but a strange choice for the book group as there wasn't really that much to discuss.  I found it easy enough to read through but it didn't really hold my attention and I wouldn't rave about it, which is my usual reaction to this author's writing.

My final book for the month was He Who Fears the Wolf by Karin Fossum, picked at random from the bookcase.  This was another crime story, set in Finland, and again was a decent crime story.  I enjoyed the author's writing style and didn't see the final twist to the story coming, so will probably look for her other books.

The chosen books for August are The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters.

Linking with Laura at Circle of Pine Trees.