Book Review || July Edition

As mentioned in my June goal recap post (here), I noted that I had read two books. I wanted to save the titles for a book review post to go more in depth on them. So, let’s dive in!

The first novel “Goodbye for Now” by Laurie Frankel is one that I haven’t even read before. I was unsure to even pick it up as I am (still, two years later) working on how I grieve. However, it wasn’t a book that I would rate at a 4, nor a 3.5. It left me wanting to know more but also left me feeling just a little bit annoyed.

An excerpt from GoodReads:
Sam Elling works for an internet dating company, but he still can't get a date. So he creates an algorithm that will match you with your soul mate. Sam meets the love of his life, a coworker named Meredith, but he also gets fired when the company starts losing all their customers to Mr. and Ms. Right.
When Meredith's grandmother, Livvie, dies suddenly, Sam uses his ample free time to create a computer program that will allow Meredith to have one last conversation with her grandmother. Mining from all her correspondence—email, Facebook, Skype, texts—Sam constructs a computer simulation of Livvie who can respond to email or video chat just as if she were still alive. It's not supernatural, it's computer science.
Meredith loves it, and the couple begins to wonder if this is something that could help more people through their grief. And thus, the company RePose is born. The business takes off, but for every person who just wants to say good-bye, there is someone who can't let go. 
In the meantime, Sam and Meredith's affection for one another deepens into the kind of love that once tasted, you can't live without. But what if one of them suddenly had to? This entertaining novel, delivers a charming and bittersweet romance as well as a lump in the throat exploration of the nature of love, loss, and life (both real and computer simulated). Maybe nothing was meant to last forever, but then again, sometimes love takes on a life of its own.

Sounds intriguing right? One thing I can appreciate about this book is the notion it gives about how we, as humans, love, grieve and how we let go. Everyone has a different process and everyone is unique in their style. Overall, I will probably donate this book rather than have it take up space on my shelf. Laurie Frankel has two other novels that I honestly do not think I will pick up.

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My second selection “Await Your Reply” by Daniel Chaon is not my typical book as it is labeled as a thriller. However, I am definitely in love with it! I almost want to read it again, because I know that I could get a deeper meaning than what I ended with, from it.

An excerpt from GoodReads:
The lives of three strangers interconnect in unforeseen ways and with unexpected consequences in acclaimed author Dan Chaon's gripping, brilliantly written new novel.
Longing to get on with his life, Miles Cheshire nevertheless can't stop searching for his troubled twin brother, Hayden, who has been missing for ten years. Hayden has covered his tracks skillfully, moving stealthily from place to place, managing along the way to hold down various jobs and seem, to the people he meets, entirely normal. But some version of the truth is always concealed.
A few days after graduating from high school, Lucy Lattimore sneaks away from the small town of Pompey, Ohio, with her charismatic former history teacher. They arrive in Nebraska, in the middle of nowhere, at a long-deserted motel next to a dried-up reservoir, to figure out the next move on their path to a new life. But soon Lucy begins to feel quietly uneasy.
My whole life is a lie, thinks Ryan Schuyler, who has recently learned some shocking news. In response, he walks off the Northwestern University campus, hops on a bus, and breaks loose from his existence, which suddenly seems abstract and tenuous. Presumed dead, Ryan decides to remake himself through unconventional and precarious means.
Await Your Reply is a literary masterwork with the momentum of a thriller, an unforgettable novel in which pasts are invented and reinvented and the future is both seductively uncharted and perilously unmoored.”

So many different plots and twists , right?! Ugh, this is a must read for me! The story on Lucy and her teacher is grippling, terrifying but so worth every sentence! Miles searching for Hayden and Hayden acting aloof is depressing in its own right but at the same time, there is compassion there. I can sense it, hear it and understand it.
Overall, it was a month of productive reading and I am still searching for the three choices for this month, so if you have any recommendations, please comment below!
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What are you reading this month?!

​Other posts you might like:
February Book Club Reads
March Blog Obsessions
​Women Who Currently Inspire Me

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