Visitation Street by Ivy Pochoda

I randomly picked this book from the new releases section and it was a great pick. One night two white15 years old girls take a raft into the river. One girl survives and is ridden with guilt. A black boy clinging to the ghost of his father was following the girls. A guilt-ridden almost adult trying to give back and save. The first few pages were really slow but it picked up pace halfway in and was a perfect read.

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

I have had this book on my list forever. I have read Tan’s Kitchen God and liked her writing. The Joy Luck Club does not disappoint. It is the story of the aunties who form the Joy Luck Club, play mahjong every week, and their daughters. It is the classic immigrant story – the past does impact the present.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

How often have you asked yourself “What If?”? Our lives are full of if onlys and what ifs and Kate Atkinson captures it in her rather different story. This is a book unlike any other. It takes time to get into it and time to really get through the pages. Ursula Todd dies the night she is born – the story begins with “what if Ursula Todd survived?”

The Book Thief by Mark Zusak

I have no clue how I went so many years without reading this book. What a refreshing change! The narrator was so different and relating colors to death was genius. It is a war story set in Nazi Germany. A genre that gives me creeps but I loved the book. Heard the movie is going to be out soon.

Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsey

This book was ranked highly in the Australian writings list. I am on a mission to discover Australia through words and this book found a way to my hands. I love how vividly Australia is described and how early settlers lived. It is a mystery – an unsolved one. Girls from a private school on a picnic to Hanging Rock disappear and the story revolves around this.

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5 books is a monthly series featuring some of the books I read and loved recently. For more book updates and to check my current reading list, head to my Goodreads account.