THE DINNER | Herman Koch’s “European Gone Girl”

With a review from Gillian Flynn (the author of Gone Girl, if for some reason you have been living under a rock and didn’t already know that) on the cover saying “Chilling, nasty, smart, shocking, and unputdownable”, I knew I had to read The Dinner by Herman Koch!

How far would you go for someone you love? Is blood really thicker than water? And would you allow your own flesh and blood to be turned over to the police, or would you try to save them?

This book gets you thinking about the extreme… hence the multiple Trader Joe’s dark chocolate peanut butter cups I consumed while reading this book :) Hey, I needed some brain fuel with all those tough questions to answer!

This book contained violence (a whole bunch), plot twists, family feuds, psychopaths, murder, and a plethora of backstabbing, but sadly only gets a 3 out of 5 star rating in my book (pun intended).

Why, you may ask? It was called the “European Gone Girl”! How could the “European Gone Girl” only get 3 stars?

*Caution: This review alludes to spoilers!*

28 DOWN | POPSUGAR 2015 reading challenge

Wayyy back when I posted about my New Year resolutions for 2015 (It’s a good thing I just went back to review this because I have a lot of goals I haven’t met yet. Seriously why do people feel so motivated Jan. 1 as compared to Sept. 1?? I digress…) I said I wanted to complete the POPSUGAR reading challenge!

Basically the challenge is that you must read 50 books in one year, each related to a certain topic or with certain qualities (ex: book that became a movie or a book with magic).

I have to admit that around Jan. 14 I totally forgot to keep track of the different books I’ve read… #fail.

So this morning (over a few large cups of coffee) I racked my brain to try and remember all the good, bad, and ugly books I’ve read over the last 8 months and see which ones count as a point towards the 50 book reading challenge (technically 52 since one of the items is a trilogy)!

*Note, any books that follow in hot pink I strongly recommend you read :)

“MEH” BOOKS | Books I didn’t bother reviewing and you shouldn’t bother reading

I’m opinionated, as you can probably tell by now. When it comes to book reviews, I don’t hold anything back. Either I give it a raving review and force all of my friends to read it… or I judge the book, the author, the publisher, and myself for wasting my time reading it.

But what about the books that are just, “meh”?? The ones that are definitely not good enough for a review, but not quite bad enough for a rant on the blog…. those books go here, to the “meh books” post.

HIDDEN TREASURE | The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

If you’re tired of the trendy “must-read” books that are 200 pages with similar story lines and are all compared to Gone Girl (not bashing Gone Girl… I loved it), then pick up this book!

The other day I posted about my top 5 reads of 2015 (so far) and my blogger friend, Jamie, recommended The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón since it was her favorite book of all time (that’s a pretty big award to give a book if you ask me). I’d never even heard of it before, so I did some research!

Even though my “must-read” list was already way too long, I added it anyways because it sounded so good. Then, when I found out it got a 4.2 on Goodreads and a 4.5 on Barnes & Noble, I bumped it up to the top of the list so I could start reading it right that second!

BOOK CLUB | The Circle by Dave Eggers

What happened to the summer! How is July already over?

This month’s book club read was The Circle by Dave Eggers. All signs, reviews, and summaries were positioning this book in our minds as a life-changing read!

DANIEL SILVA | The book that took me 3 years to read

You may think since this book took me three years to finally finish that it wasn’t very good… turns out, it’s quite the opposite. Portrait of a Spy kept more more intrigued than the last four books I’ve read. Hands down.

My father reads Daniel Silva books like it’s his job and hands me down his favorites! This book was one of them and FINALLY I understand why.

BOOKWORM RECOMMENDATIONS | 5 must-read books of 2015 (so far)

We’re more than halfway through 2015 (waaaahhh?) and in that time I’ve finished 20 books! (I swear I have a life….)

My Goodreads 2015 Reading Challenge this year is to finish 30 books, so I’m already ahead of schedule :) If you know me, you know I hate to lose a challenge!

Looking back on these last 6 months/ 20 books I’ve read, there are five that I always recommend to others:

BEACH READ | In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume

The last time I came across Judy Blume I was about 14 years old, binge reading every book I could get my hands on during a summer of playdates and ice-pops.

Now at the ripe old age of 25, I was compelled to relive my childhood and picked up her new adult novel!

BOOK REVIEW | Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

This book was recently mentioned on theSkimm, so instantly it was added to my must read list… and then bumped it up to the first position :) If you’ve seen my most recent Instagram, you’ll know I’m obsessed with theSkimm (If you don’t know what theSkimm is, click here and sign up for it IMMEDIATELY! You can thank me later).

Anyways, back to the book… I finished Luckiest Girl Alive in 3 days flat. Not because I loved it, because I just wanted to know how it would end, and end it. Anyways… here it goes! Warning, my review contains spoilers.

THANK YOU | 300 followers and a giveaway!

The giveaway is officially closed! The winner is Ashley from What’s She Reading!
Congrats and thank you all for participating and supporting Anchored to Sunshine! 

POP the champagne! It’s time to celebrate :) Today is a big big day for me (well technically late last night). Drum roll please… Anchored to Sunshine officially has 300 followers! As a thank you to all my loyal followers and to celebrate this personal milestone, I’ve decided to host a giveaway! If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll notice I love to read! Now that it’s summer, everyone is making their summer reading lists. This made it pretty easy to decide what I would be doing for my giveaway…