2016 Holiday Reading List.

Right now, the strangest feeling is knowing that I have absolutely nothing that I should be working on. No required readings, no quizzes, no treatment planning. I am a free bird until January 9th, and I'm not entirely sure what to do with all this newfound freedom.

Just kidding, I do. I want to paint with my watercolors, hit up the gym five times a week, make all the monies at work, bake, catch up on all my TV shows, and of course....read for fun! It's been a hot minute since I've really gotten into a book, but I lugged my library copy of The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty to New York, and absolutely devoured it during every second of down time I had on the trip. Thus, the other night I felt inspired to fill my library request queue with 16 books!

In similar fashion to a post written by Lauren over at The Lauren Elizabeth a few weeks back, I thought I would share what's currently on my "to-read" list. I've already done extensive research via Good Reads reviews, so most of these are already 4+ star worthy. You can take a look at my Good Reads account here :)

This is what's on my list for the next month (or six!):

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty (HBO is also releasing a show based off this book next month!)

The Rumor by Elin Hilderbrand

First Comes Love by Emily Giffin

After You by Jojo Moyes (follow up to Me Before You)

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank

In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware (also being turned into a movie produced by Reese Witherspoon next year!)

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin (also turned into an Oscar winning movie!)

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware (might have to bite the bullet and buy this one...I'm #96 out of 99 requests!)

Euphoria by Lilly King

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness (I've heard this book is quite heavy, but worth the read)

Tony and Susan by Austin Wright (the book that the movie Nocturnal Animals was based on...with Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal. Swoon.)

I already have four books ready for pick up tomorrow! AH. I'm still in the midst of reading Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler, but I'm losing interest in it. Has anyone else read it? Should I abandon ship, or does it get better?

What's on your reading list? Have you read/loved/hated any of the books on mine?

Book Review: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn.

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I finally finished Dark Places. By finally, I mean it probably took me about two months to read it, which is a pretty long time for me. I was in the market for a new book to read when I came across a killer (hehe, pun intended) deal on iTunes so I knew I had to get it. Read on for my review:

Dark Places, by Gillian Flynn
iTunes & Kindle eBook: $2.99
Amazon paperback: $7.83+
Personal opinion: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The book follows present Libby Day, a thirty one year old survivor of what her town referred to as "The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas" in which her mother and sisters were brutally murdered, allegedly by her misfit older brother, Ben. At just seven years old, Libby was asked to testify against him, and her "evidence" sends him to jail for life. Twenty-four years of repressed memories later, questions about that fateful night surface when Libby is contacted by a group of people who are convinced that Ben is innocent. She reluctantly agrees to work with this group to get down to the bottom of what really happened that night. Amazon reads, "as Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started—on the run from a killer."

Similar to Flynn's best selling novel, Gone Girl, each chapter in Dark Places alternates between characters, the present, and the past. I love this type of writing style, so it was probably my favorite part of the book. Much like the title implies, Dark Places is just that...dark. I even skipped over some flashback scenes entirely simply because I felt they were too gruesome and nightmarish to plant in my already overactive imagination. Maybe that's just me being a pansy. Let's get real, it probably is. Aside from that, my only complaint about the book is that it starts a little slow, hence why it took me awhile to get into.

If you're looking for a gripping, haunted mystery with a real twist this summer, this book is gold. It isn't my favorite book I've ever read, but I must say that I'm looking forward to the movie out next month starring Charlize Theron. Believe it or not, I didn't even know they made it into a movie until after I was done. Talk about a cherry on top!

Have you read Dark Places yet? What did you think about it?