*** Caution: there may be light book spoilers ahead ***

Previous book-related content from moi can be found here (2018 my picks), here (2018 book club picks) and here (intro to my book-loving lifestyle), and my Goodread’s Year In Review (and other books on my shelves) can be found here.

If you’ve read my page before, you may remember that I’m part of an online-only book club called the Women Of The Pages book club. It’s super handy and self-guided, so it works well with my wonky nurse schedule! 2018 I was much more militant in my reading of the club picks, but in 2019 I was a pretty big slacker, and am still working on most of the books today! I chose to read a few that weren’t club picks, so I’ll be sure to indicate which ones are book club reads, and which were my own choices 🙂

My goal for 2019 was 30 books. Alas, I didn’t even make half of that (oopsies, I blame Amazon Prime video lol), and only read a total of 13 books in the whole year – yikes! Hoping 2020 is a bit better than that, so I’ve set my bar a bit lower at 20 (also felt this number was appropriate given the year/date, hehe).

Anyways – on to the book reviews!

2019 Reading List!

* = Women Of The Pages book club pick; otherwise, just a Casey’s pick.

1. The Little Book of Results by Jamie Smart
2. Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge *
3. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn *
4. The Grimoire of Kensington Market by Lauren B. Davis *
5. The Good Nurse by Charles Graeber
6. I’ll Be Gone In The Dark by Michelle McNamara, Gillian Flynn (intro) and Patton Oswalt (afterword)
7. Everything Here Is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee *
8. The Life and Loves of a He Devil by Graham Norton
9. Educated by Tara Westover *
10. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, and Oprah Winfrey (foreword) *
11. The Girl Who Saved The King Of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson (translated into English) *
12. Queenie Malone’s Paradise Hotel by Ruth Hogan
13. The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton *

My Thoughts:

This is the part of the show where I am brutally honest (and more often than not, fairly complimentary) about what I was feeling & thinking during and after reading each book! 🙂

A Little Book Of Big Results: A Quick Guide To Better Performance & Greater Results In Life – Jamie Smart

MY RATING: 2/5 STARS

REVIEW: Yikes! This was a rough start to the year – I promise I’m not usually this harsh, but I did not care for this read and struggled so hard to finish hah. This book was very much geared towards young entrepreneurs and nobody else! I wholeheartedly felt it was a load of nonsense. It was full of lame “equations” (a mathematician would be mortified), endless tales of the author’s triumphs and praises, sentences that quite literally do not make sense, and lots of encouragement to succeed (but with no real instruction on how to reach your goals). I don’t know what is worse – that this book is solely a money making scheme, or that the author actually believes his own bullshit lol. Anyways, if you haven’t guessed, I don’t recommend and I wish I hadn’t wasted my time (and money). TBH I barely skimmed over the last third because I couldn’t stand to read the same thing over and over again. Not the motivational New Years book I thought I was getting into unfortunately.

Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race – Reni Eddo-Lodge

MY RATING: 4/5 STARS

REVIEW: What an intelligent and well-spoken author, thank you for teaching me so much (that I honestly thought I already knew, but definitely didn’t). My favourite quote (page 214): “if you’re committed to anti-racism, you’re in it for the long haul. It will be difficult. Getting to the end point will require you to be uncomfortable.” And although I did feel uncomfortable at time, it was well-deserved. The book reads like a lengthy essay or thesis paper, which is difficult to get through at times, but I appreciated the scientific/research side of it meshing with the personal experience and anecdotes. Very interesting and apt book for this day & age. I’ve been trying to be more active about having the kind of race conversations talked about in the book with fellow white people. I’ve been so surprised at how instantly sensitive and defensive white people get when even just bringing up the topic of race in general, let alone criticizing our privilege, and it’s really been putting my white privilege into perspective. Although it’s obviously hard at times to acknowledge/accept that I’m in a naturally privileged position that I haven’t always recognized, I appreciate how this book has helped illuminate me on so many issues POC experience daily and systematically. I have never suffered from such things, so can be blind to them at times. I especially appreciated the recommendations for how I, as a white person, can affect small changes in the system or just in my own life and friendships. I would be nice to read a Canadian version of these statistics, etc, to hit a bit closer to home hah. My favourite part was the last chapter, specifically the last couple paragraphs. I read it like a battle cry haha.

Sharp Objects – Gillian Flynn

MY RATING: 3/5 STARS

REVIEW: Wow. What a wild (and batshit crazy) ride. Truly thought I had it all pegged until the very last chapter, the epilogue in fact. I love me a good twist, even if it’s really twisted. But the tidying up of the story made sense. I simply cannot reconcile, however, the absolutely insane setting that this book is placed in. Are there really towns/counties like this where all these horrific deeds are considered normal!? I am disturbed and saddened that the author (through one of the characters or otherwise) didn’t acknowledge that NO! ALL THAT ABUSE AND RAPE CULTURE IS NOT OKAY AND NOT NORMAL!!! To be honest, I devoured the first half of this book. I thought it read like an excellent thriller that I was watching on the screen. But it just kept getting more and more and more fucked up, to a point where I found I couldn’t tolerate all the insanity anymore. I still liked it, I’m just really disturbed and need to go to some yoga/meditation to cool down now lol. I didn’t hate the subject matter or content (in fact, the whole MBP diagnosis is intriguing and also child murderers are a bit fascinating/unique), but I couldn’t relate to, or sympathize towards, any of the characters. It might be terrible, but I even kind of hated Ann and Natalie too! Anyways, I repeat that it was a wild & batshit crazy ride. I think I’ll take a break from her books in the foreseeable future. Excellent thriller, but a touch too disturbing for my taste.

The Grimoire Of Kensington Market – Lauren B. Davis

MY RATING: 4/5 STARS

REVIEW: I very much enjoyed almost all of these characters in this book, especially the strong female villains, and sensitive men, I loved the location and casual Canadian/T-Dot references, loved the plot, and liked the execution of said plot. Fun and thought-provoking fantasy read. Definitely my favourite thing from this book was all the local Toronto locations & cultural mentions (I find it so rare that books are believably/casually Canadian), which made it more relatable for me. Speaking of relatable, I definitely found all these characters relatable and lovable. Honestly I even enjoyed the villains! I must admit it took a while to finish, however. I was jazzed about this book at the beginning, but I found it dragged on a bit. I think it could have been really great if it was a more concise version of what it was…I know that sounds lazy of me but whatever, no shame lol. Still good, but about 80 pages too long for what it necessitates. Beth learning to read was a particular favourite storyline of mine – I found it so uplifting. So basically, I think this novel may be a bit of a poor man’s fantasy novel, it wasn’t over the top amazing, but definitely an entertaining & fun read. Also, it might sound silly, but I definitely noticed that I had some wacky dreams while reading it hah.

The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder – Charles Graeber

MY RATING: 4/5 STARS

REVIEW: This was an intense and convoluted murder story, with the added intensity of being REAL!! This book is a doozy to read TBH. I would have enjoyed it way more if I wasn’t constantly flipping to the “notes” section at the back, I feel that all of the footnotes and extras in the back of the book should have been just included in the story. I found the author jumped all over the place with the narrative. Alternatively, WOW! What a real investigative report. The fact that this author got all this information through extensive research and tense conversations with a serial killer is extremely impressive, to say the least. Lastly, I have to admit that, although I think Charlie’s actions are beyond deplorable, it’s actually the hospitals that I find most reprehensible in this tale. Their negligence, outright lies, attempts to just protect themselves as a company/institution, and allowing Charlie to continue murdering people when they KNEW DAMN WELL WHAT WAS HAPPENING is honestly as repulsive to me as Charlie’s murders. They let it happen, again and again. AND GAVE HIM REFERENCES. Omg I can’t handle it haha. All in all, a great and wild read!!

I’ll Be Gone In The Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer – Michelle McNamara

MY RATING: 5/5 STARS

REVIEW: WOAH! This read is haunting and compelling AF. I’m not usually big into true crime stories, but the author writes this like a novel and it reads so smoothly! This book is the perfect mix of technical reporting (of all the gory details), whilst weaving a humane story of the victims, along with intertwining her own story/narratives! I found the author did a great job of ramping up the suspense, then calming me down with some backstory over and over again, and kept interlacing the horrific darkness with some rays of hope and better days. There were constant cliffhangers (but in the best way) and vivid imagery too – she painted the landscapes and communities so well, I felt like I was along on the ride with her. The author’s observational skills about both statistics and personal interactions are just astounding. Clearly, she was an incredibly empath. The amount of information must have been staggeringly massive, and she laid out the chaos in such a well-written way that it was easy for the reader to join in the hunt! My only tiny complaint is that the timeline jumps around an awful lot, rather choppily, but I didn’t find it difficult to follow at all (especially considering the sheer number of facts and details in this case – just wild). Great book, I was enthralled every minute! My favourite part regarding the victims: “That’s who she was as she slept […] a woman navigating an unremarkably complicated love life, a woman about to be irrevocably changed. What is the lasting damage when you believe the warm spot you were just sleeping in will be your grave? Time sands the edge of injuries, but they never lose their hold. A nameless syndrome circulated permanently through the body, sometimes long dormant, other times radiating powerful waves of pain and fear.” Holy crap, right?!? Like I said, what an incredibly empathic woman!! And that’s just one small awesome verse in this great author’s take on the roller coaster of trying to find the GSK(EAR-ONS). Highly highly recommend!

Everything Here is Beautiful – Mira T. Lee

MY RATING: 4/5 STARS

REVIEW: I loved the multiculturalism in this book!! I very much enjoyed the mash up of timelines and narrators! I thought it filled out the story way better and I loved seeing the situations from each person’s perspectives. I also definitely did not think that it was too much literary fiction, I thought the emotions and perspectives felt extremely realistic! It’s another one of those books where the author wasn’t precious with her characters, which I appreciate. The characters were all supremely flawed in their own ways. As much as that might make them difficult to sympathize with or like at times, I really applaud when writer’s can portray overall good people with all the messy, fucked up, grey-area situations that happen in real life. All of them did bad things but no one had bad intentions, which is hard to see objectively. It may be hard to see sometimes, but everything here IS beautiful (or can be, if you choose to see it). This book is certainly beautiful, inside and out! I LOVE how this storyline revolves around a mental illness, and how so many lives can be affected by it, and how difficult it is to live with MH issues, but also to love someone who suffers from one. I find it difficult to grasp the intricacies of schizophrenia especially, but I found this book really opened my eyes and helped me understand it more. I also love the author’s writing style – mingling many character’s accounts while still having a fluid/seamless storyline. The reason I gave it 4/5 rather than 5/5 is because it did take me quite some time to get through. I was easily distracted by another book, which rarely happens for me. Also, I didn’t care for the book’s/main character’s ending – I felt it negated the rest of the book. Otherwise, this book was really a lovely & devastating & well-written novel, and I will definitely be recommending it to others! 🙂

The Life and Loves Of A He Devil – Graham Norton

MY RATING: 5/5 STARS

REVIEW: A must read!!! As always, Graham had me laughing up a storm! Soooo many great goofy, deep, controversial, relatable, sad, happy, and hilarious stories in this book! I would continuously bark/hoot/giggle/snort/guffaw/etc out of the blue, with one hilarious comment or sentence or story of his, that it got to the point where my family asked me to read this book in a separate room because I kept startling them with my sudden outbursts lol. Honestly, I loved everything about this book and it has turned my curiosity/tame interest of Graham into a full blown obsession/adoration! Can’t wait to read as many of his other books as I can get my hands on. 🙂

Educated – Tara Westover

MY RATING: 5/5 STARS

REVIEW: Wow! I am so so impressed by this memoir, in awe of this story. 5 stars from me. I thought it was incredible thorough (I could never imagine having such distinct memories from so long ago) and SO DEVASTATING. Thankfully she came out of this horror story safely, but there were so many moments that I was sure her (and some of her family members) would die because of their intense beliefs. I really worried about her safety around Shawn especially (obvy). What a heartbreaking story and I applaud her for laying herself bare to the world like this! I also think that the author’s writing style was phenomenal! You can tell that she has a lot of experience writing professionally (I loved when she felt the need to clarify with footnotes how her stories may have differed, that was big of her), but she also found a way to imbue lots of emotions and memories, without sounding either too whiny or too matter of fact. The perfect balance, I think! This book was a real doozy, but definitely in a good way. I can’t even fathom going through a life like this, and I applaud Dr.Westover for sharing her experiences with the world. My heart was racing a number of times (with the stories around injuries and abusive situations) and never knew where the story would go! It’s crazy all the things they had to go through and consider them normal. Education is such a powerful thing, and this book helped me realize how much I’ve taken that for granted over the years. This memoir is the perfect balance of matter-of-fact recounting of events and deeply personal emotional sharing. Thank you to Dr. Westover (can’t believe she only mentioned the “doctor” title ONCE… Girl – you should be shouting that shit!) for opening up so fully and letting your audience delve into your deepest darkest secrets. You are an incredibly empowering woman! Overall, I sincerely enjoyed reading this book (even though it’s heartbreaking in so many ways) and can definitely see why it’s such a global phenomenon – well deserved!

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou

MY RATING: 3/5 STARS

REVIEW: I’ve heard Maya in a few interviews and podcasts (my favourites being with Oprah, naturally) and although I loveee her as a guest/speaker, I wasn’t as enraptured with her writing as I hoped to be. And to be fair, my expectations were very high due to all the accolades she has received for her writing over the years. These stories were harrowing (I was devastated to hear of her rape, and even just how often she was mistreated by many family members), and the blatant racial injustice is infuriating…. but honestly I found she wrote it in such a detached and matter-of-fact way that I wasn’t as emotionally gripped by this book as others/as I expected to be. I guess my biggest tell is that it took me nearly two full months to finish this book (far longer than my average read) which is usually pretty indicative of my subconscious feelings towards the material. I felt it was good, but not great. Sorry Maya, you’re still an absolutely MAJOR inspiration to us all! 🙂 For some reason I feel guilty about not loving this book. I guess I just thought it was supposed to be a phenomenon that I’d waited way too long to read, but honestly it took me ages to get through. I still admire Maya for all her activism and other achievements, but this book really wasn’t one of them. Sharing her stories (especially when many of them are so insane and awful) is admirable, for sure, but she wrote of terrible terrible things in such a that I had a lot of trouble empathizing or getting into the book TBH. Sadly, it was a decent read in the end, but definitely not a favourite of mine.

The Girl Who Saved The King Of Sweden – Jonas Jonasson

MY RATING: 3/5 STARS

REVIEW: I usually really enjoy this author, but sadly I didn’t care for this book as much, simply because it took me SO LONG to finish. A shame too, because I loveeeeed his other novel, “The-100-Year-Old-Man” – it was excellent, one of my all-time faves. Sadly, this book didn’t live up to the hype as much. The author’s writing is still very funny and darkly sarcastic, and I definitely appreciate all the historical context and dry wit but this novel was wayyy too wordy and long. Towards the end, I just had to power through rather than being excited to read, so it took me so so long to finish. It was still a good/entertaining story, but I couldn’t get into it the same at all.

Queenie Malone’s Paradise Hotel

MY RATING: 4/5 STARS

REVIEW: Brilliantly done, yet again! I absolutely adore this author and the wonderfully and truly WEIRD worlds she creates, and this may be the strangest one yet (but I am here for it)! My only complaint was that I had difficult keeping up/keeping track of the storyline at times (and who was real and wasn’t – but I imagine that was partly by design). Anyways – would definitely recommend this and all of her books! It’s my least favourite of her three novels thus far (sorryyyy) but that’s not saying much because her other two novels and phenomenal and “The Keeper Of Lost Things” is in my all-time top 10, which is saying A LOT! Open your mind, throw out your preconceived notions of “normal”, and thoroughly enjoy!!

The Clockmaker’s Daughter – Kate Morton

MY RATING: 5/5 STARS

REVIEW: Ended the year off strong! I loved this book, pure and simple. I wish it hadn’t ever ended because I could just read stories of more inhabitant’s forever and ever! I do so wish they’d wrapped up Elodie’s story a little tidier, but I love how they were all woven in together in the end. It broke my heart the way in which Albertine died, and that Lucy had to live with that, I cannot imagine the guilt. I would LOVE to visit a house like this, steeped in mystery and wonder! It took me a while to get into this novel because the length was a bit daunting, but after a few intense reading sessions – I never wanted it to end! Luckily, I know the house’s (and it’s inhabitants’) story will never end, and that’s a comforting thought! Overall, this was beautifully written, and I loved how all the stories wound together, and I would definitely recommend to anyone/everyone!

AND THAT’S IT, THAT’S ALL! That concludes the “reviews” portion of this post.

Here’s a selection of my favourite posed-book pics I took this year (or just the ones I could track down off FB), and shamelessly love!

Anyways! That’s pretty much all I have to say today. Sorry not sorry that this was another super long post, I just love talking about books so much! Haha. TBH most of the posts are long and rambling – coming from a compulsive talker like me hehe, but thanks for sticking it out to the end! Are there any books that you loved and, based on my reviews, would recommend I add to my TBR pile!? If you want to discuss one of the novels with me, PLEASE feel free to hit me up on my Goodreads or Twitter or in the comments section of this post! Even if you disagree with something I’ve said in one of these reviews, let me know why! I’d love to nerd out with you 🙂

Happy reading, y’all! 🙂