I try to read a variety of genres, but one of my favorites is historical fiction. I'm a sucker for a good World War II book, even if there are hundreds if not thousands of good ones. When I first read the synopsis about Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark T. Sullivan I'll admit I passed on it. But I kept seeing it come up on lists of best books of the year and eventually I just broke down and bought it.

I blind bought We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy without hearing or reading anything on it. That was a mistake. Not because it's a bad book, because its far from that, but because its a collection of Coates essays through Obama's eight years in office that he wrote for The Atlantic. Unfortunately, I had already read a couple of them before picking up this book. 

Like most who will end up reading What Happened, I found Election Day 2016 to be one of the most gut-wrenching days of recent memory. I'll never forget as the day unfolded the sinking feeling turning to absolute horror. And now we're 9-months into a Trump presidency and it's as bad (if not worse) than we expected. Over those 9 months, I've thought more then I'd care to admit about the trajectory of our country had Hillary won. 

This almost never happens but I went into Stardust expecting not to like it and came out loving it. I've read one other Neil Gaiman novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane and really didn't enjoy it. Stardust seemed to be in a similar vein and yet I literally fell in love with the story of Stardust and the world in which Neil Gaiman presented.

I absolutely adore the concept of American War by Omar El Akkad. Not that I'm wishing for a second American civil war, but the concept of the book astounds me in how real it feels. It's 2074 and the US decides that it will end the use of oil, making it illegal to use. In this move, a good portion of the South decides to secede leading to yet another civil war. 

It doesn't happen often, but I love when it does. There's no better feeling than when you get fully enraptured in a novel. For me personally, I haven't had a novel move me the way The Hate U Give did in a long, long time. This is one of those rare novels that instantly transported me into the world of young 16-year-old girl, Starr Carter.