Thirtieth Book

I had looked at A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick a number of times in the bookstore, but never ventured to pick it up. When Mum found out she was getting a kobo this summer, she bought a few books online, including this one. So I reaped the benefits of her purchase! The story is about a lonely, very wealth man living in rural Wisconsin who places an ad in the paper looking for a companion. Catherine responds and comes to live with him and be his wife. She plans to murder him. The story follows unfolds detailing each of their sordid pasts and describing them as terribly sad people who have had a really rough go at life. The reader learns of the complex web being woven around the main characters and around the midway mark of the book I had no idea how it would end. It's a dark book, but I very much enjoyed it and would recommend it.
I had bought Home by Shayna Krishnasamy for a couple of dollars on the kobo website. The story sounded somewhat reminiscent of the movie the Village by M. Night Shamalan, which I enjoyed, so I figured it was a pretty safe gamble. It was a great fantasy-type story about a young blind woman who lives in a secluded village in the woods. One day a young boy appears in the village and the villagers decide he is a threat to their peace and he must go, so the young blind woman offers to take him back to his home. As the story progresses we learn the woods they live in are dying and things are taking a terrible evil turn. I really enjoyed the story and it was a nice easy read. It also reminded me somewhat of the Book of Lost Things by John Connolly in that it was an eerie fantasy where the natural world has gone off.

After that, I read a tangible book (ie, not on the kobo). I found David Sedaris' new book Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk at Walmart for 30% off. I bought the tangible book because it had some pictures. :) Sedaris has a very twisted sense of humour and this book intrigued me. It's written as a series of little stories about animals, much like Aesop's Fables, but the animals are jerks, liars, backstabbers and really kind of awful. Some of the stories made me grin, but none made me laugh out loud, and the vast majority were so bizarre and gruesome that I was left thinking that maybe reading this book wasn't benefiting me at all. When I asked Mum if she wanted to read it I warned her that if she did and she reached a point where it was too bizarre and gruesome but thought that maybe it would get better, she should know that it does not. The stories get weirder and more grotesque with each passing tale. I finished it in an evening and have been thinking of donating it to a used bookstore or the salvation army or something, but I'm a little afraid that someone might pick it up unknowingly and be horrified by the stories. I'm not sure what to do with it now.
And that makes 30 books this year. I'm certainly not going to be able to read 52 as I had hoped (one a week), but we'll see how many more I can get under my hat before the year is up.