Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

I’m not typically a fan of thrillers, mostly because I don’t need an excuse to be anxious about more things, but I scooped up Sharp Objects to prepare me for watching HBO’s television adaptation. I did the same before I watched Gone Girl (also by author Gillian Flynn) and it made watching the movie much less nerve wracking because I knew exactly what to expect.

I picked up Sharp Objects for the same experience and while it was definitely a page turner that I read incredibly quickly, the entire time I was reading, I just wanted the whole story to be over. I probably wouldn’t have pushed through the novel if I wasn’t planning on watching the TV series, but I am… so I did.

Sharp Objects is a thriller mystery that revolves around a Chicago journalist returning to her hometown after two similar murders are committed (the victims are young girls). The journalist has to return to her toxic home that she had distanced herself away from in adulthood and finds herself reverting to her previous mindset and habits along the way, whilst trying to gather details about the unsolved murder cases. While I loved the details put into the main character and her depth, I would’ve preferred reading about her within another story that didn’t completely creep me out the entire time I was reading it.

Publication Date: 26 September 2006 by Broadway Books. Format: Paperback.

Author: Gillian Flynn web/@facebook/@twitter/@instagram

#findabook and autumn round up!

Long time, no post! As I mentioned in my last post, I took a much needed hiatus to focus on studying for a major test. Now that I’ve taken the test, I need to shift my energy to writing applications related to that test which means I still don’t have as much time as usual to be reading books and reviewing them for my blog.

When I’m not burrowing my head in application land, I’ve begun circulating a side project that I developed for the blog called #findabook. In order to eliminate clutter from my life, I’ve decided to put books I own in public places to share them with strangers and friends. In order to kickstart the project, I’ve sent a few books to friends via mail (fellow book blogger Amy was sent Bright Lines; my pal Shelly in D.C. was sent Fun Home; my longtime friend Lisa in Austin was sent Brain on Fire; my coworker Loulou was given Americanah) and left a few in public spaces (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Gone Girl, and The Martian). If you find one, please leave a comment and let me know what city you found it in and your name and be sure to pass along the book to someone new when you’re done! Speaking of projects, I’ll also be launching a podcast soon, but more on that later…

I’m still roughly on track to finish 52 books in 52 weeks, aka the motivation that led me to create this blog initially, and I hope the coziness of fall encourages me to spend some more time reading. I’m currently toggling between two books for two different book clubs. I’m listening to My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante and should have a review of that up in November and am reading 200 pages a month of Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace for a book club I’m leading. I’m thinking that I’ll post reviews of each of the 200 page chunks since it’s such an undertaking! Have any of you finished or attempted to finish this book before? I’m finding that the shared responsibility of tackling it for my book club has really motivated me through it. Feel free to join me digitally by completing the first chunk by early November or reading the first 400 pages by early December! If you’re joining, let me know and we can have an online discussion about what we’ve read so far!

During my absence, I was also tagged in some fun book blog related things (thank you Amy, Maryan, Chloe, and Alyssa!) that I’ll get to when I’ve officially left application land. I hope you’ve all had swell falls and have been able to cozy up to more books than I’ve had the chance to!