KELI'S READING LOG - 2026
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| Author Keli H with her book Creating Literary Art: How to Weave a Tapestry of Words into a Perfectly Publishable Book |
My rating system:
⭐ - I didn't enjoy this book at all and because you can't put zero stars on rating platforms, the book just gets a star for existing, I guess.
⭐⭐ - While I didn't personally enjoy the book, it has some qualities of merit.
⭐⭐⭐ - I enjoyed the book, and anything I didn't like about it was easily outweighed by the things I did like and the enjoyment I got out of reading it. I would feel comfortable recommending it to others.
⭐⭐⭐⭐ - An exceptionally good book that has made a great impact on me. I probably won't forget the book for a long time to come.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Reserved for books that I will read over again in my lifetime.
Completed
1. The Club - Ellery Lloyd
Genre: Murder Mystery
About: The party of the year, taking place on a private island, devolves into a stylish, chaotic murder mystery.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5
Thoughts: Love the richly developed setting and hedonistic atmosphere that formed the backdrop to this mystery. The characters weren't as developed, leaving me confused about who some of them were at some points, and not feeling partial to victims. Otherwise, a well paced plot driven piece. Decent fun.
2. The Untethered Soul - Michael A. Singer
Genre: Spiritual Non-fiction
About: Navigating anxiety and overthinking through techniques tied to spirituality. The idea is that we are an observant soul witnessing reality, not simply a human being stuck in the world.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Thoughts: This was my second time reading this book. The way it leads the reader through a journey of mindfulness from ground basics, to soul-igniting revelations, is magical. I do find the writing style a bit odd and wildly different from the author's other book, The Surrender Experiment (perhaps a ghostwriter was used on one or the other). But I loved every insight shared in this book. This book gave me so much peace. I also really like that it is short and digestible for its purpose. You can read my full review of The Untethered Soul here.
3. Dark Matter - Juli Zeh
Genre: Suspense/Literary Fiction
About: A scientist's son is kidnapped, and he is asked to kill someone in exchange for the child's safe return.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5
Thoughts: I read the English translation of Juli Zeh's bestselling novel, Dark Matter (the German original is called Schilf). This was an intensely written book. The author has such an amazing grasp on what can be achieved with words. The sentences, weaved together, create such extraordinary images. However, I felt a little bait and switched by this book. What I was led to believe was a thrilling suspense against a science fiction background, turned out to be a long philosophy, a moral dissection, a theory about time and choice. This wasn't a page turner, but rather a piece of literary fiction (meant to be serious art, with complex themes, and deep character complexity). It is also extremely metaphorically written, so there is a lot of reading between the lines to understand the plot. For the reader who likes a little brain challenge, this is perfect.
4. Society of Lies - Lauren Ling Brown
Genre: YA Thriller
About: A Princeton alumni uncovers the mystery behind her younger sister's death, at the same college, down a rabbit hole of elite secret clubs, parties, and social cliques.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5
Thoughts: Don't be confused by the mid-rating. I actually thoroughly enjoyed this book. The pacing of the plot is riveting! This is ultimately a well thought out thriller that I gobbled in 3 sittings. The entire time I was reading it, I kept returning to the thought that this would be a good Netflix series. By the author bio at the end, I wasn't surprised to learn the author has an MFA with focus on screenwriting. But the book has a problem, and it's a big one, repeated in almost every online review about it. It's just too... preppy. College kids. Descriptions of getting drunk every few pages. No character complexity, except to fit the stereotype. Drugs, hook ups, dorm parties. And the biggest - ZERO SURVIVAL INSTINCTS while being in the midst of a murder mystery. And it's got a writing style to match. 'I bit my lip nervously' and 'I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding' and 'I curled up in his arms' - all the cliches seasoned readers have come to hate about YA writing - reign abundant in this book. Between poor character choices and minimal writing complexity outside of the plot, this is a frustrating read. But still - I enjoyed it enough to keep turning the page, keep guessing the mystery solution, and keep having fun with it. Not every book needs to be a literary masterpiece. Sometimes we need to read for entertainment, and this book caters to that need perfectly.
5. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Genre: Classic Literary Fiction
About: The relationship between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff creates a revenge story that is layered over generations.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Thoughts: This book was a lesson in patience for me. While just under 350 pages, it took me several weeks to read, because the language needed to be read with intention and the character psychology needed to be mulled over. Not to mention, I got regularly confused in early chapters by how all the characters had the same names - original Catherine and new Catherine, Linton the surname and Linton Heathcliff a different person, Mr Heathcliff the original and his son often referred to as Mr Heathcliff, Mr Earnshaw the father and Mr Earnshaw his son. There was also a lot of woe-is-me dramatic crying and flinging oneself about in tantrums. But by the end it was a wonderfully stimulating read. It was certainly not a quick, fast, disposable dopamine hit of a read, that would pump up my book count for the year. This was the kind of book I needed to labour over - with deserving. I looked up the definition of words frequently and stopped to understand character motives for such dark behavior. I didn't have 'fun' reading this book in the typical bookworm sense, but I consider having read it as a valuable contribution to my evolution as a writer myself. The missing star below isn't because I found faults in this book. It's intelligent, dramatic in the right places, shocking, and meaningful in its exploration of themes. My 5 star ratings are reserved for books I will read again, probably many times over. While a brilliant book, this was a good academic endeavour for me that I'll now repeat with other classics.
6. The Ending Writes Itself - Evelyn Clarke
Genre: YA Mystery
About: Seven writers are mysteriously invited to a secluded island to compete to finish the last book in a bestselling series, after the author dies.
Rating: ⭐⭐ /5
Thoughts: My first genuinely harsh review for the year. I was surprised by how much I disliked this book. What I did like is that it's short mind-numbing entertainment. It plays into tropes writers are familiar with and has an element of novelty for those within the publishing industry. This is far outweighed by what I didn't enjoy. What grated me most was the frustrating simplicity of the YA writing style. The book had all the right ingredients for something suave and stylish: a remote gothic island, a castle-like mansion where everyone stays together, a gilded library, a reclusive bestselling author. Yet the writing style does no justice to any of it. There is a lot of 'telling, not showing', as if the author had no idea how to properly use all of these elements to create an atmosphere, and had stuck them there as a cliche of what a mystery novel is supposed to contain. Speaking of cliche - this book makes use of every single one of them. Wattpad style jumping between timelines. Every character is such a boring trope. And the few instances where some backstory is given to the characters, it acts as a useless detour from the story at hand, rather than a fleshing out of their psyche. Almost as if the author has never learnt how to weave relevant backstory into the ongoing plot. And don't get me started on the pacing - the first half of the book is just a boring didacticism about how the publishing industry is tough for authors, as all the characters do is complain. The book only gets interesting in the second half, when we can finally stop guessing what the actual mystery is, as the first murder occurs. By the end I was genuinely surprised to hear that the majorly successful V. E. Schwab co-wrote this book. And I won't lie, it left me wondering whether I was the one who missed the point of it all.
Did Not Finish (DNF)
1. Just After Sunset - Stephen King
Genre: Horror
About: A collection of horror short stories.
Thoughts: DNF at 15% (for my readers just finding their way into the book community, this is shorthand to say I did not finish the book, and put it down at about 15% of the way through.) Honestly, there isn't a lot wrong with this book - it's everything you would expect from Stephen King; open endings, obvious villains - though I will say that the stories I got through are not as well formed as his later work. This is perfectly okay. All writers, including myself, experience evolution in writing as we continue to publish. The reason I DNFd this book is because the little I did read was descriptive on the gore. While this is not necessarily a problem for me, this time around I felt mentally tense as I persisted through all the graphic telling of blood and broken bones. Part of living in harmony with yourself is being able to observe the visceral reaction you have to the content you consume, and knowing how to adjust accordingly. This simply wasn't the time for me to be reading such an intense book. On to something lighter!
2. The World's Greatest UFO and Alien Encounters - Alva Press
Genre: Non-fiction
About: A collection of real life stories, documenting encounters with UFOs and extraterrestrials.
Thoughts: DNF at 50%. Fun fact about me - my favourite 'paranormal entity' are aliens! This was one of my favourite books as a teen, and I could read it over and over again. I last read this book about 10 years ago (in my very early twenties). On the fresh re-read this year, I was bemused to think I had once devoured this. While I did get some light amusement out of this book, it simply wasn't strong enough to hold my attention all the way through anymore. The stories (all real life documented encounters) start off thrilling, unusual, eerie, fascinating. Then it's just more of the same for 600 pages, and at some point the constant 'is it real or is it a hoax' sensationalized narrative loses its novelty. Despite this - and the typos, and the slight repetitiveness - I would actually highly recommend this book to people who haven't read it before, and are looking for something entertaining.
Currently Reading
The Status Game - Will Storr
Genre: Psychology Non-Fiction
About: A delve into the human drive to create and climb social hierachies.
Thoughts so far: -
Planned Reading List
- The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
- The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
- The Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe
- The Mountain is You - Brianna Wiest
- The Let Them Theory - Mel Robbins
- Start With Why - Simon Sinek (a re-read, you can see my review on my top business books list)
- Yellow Face - Rebecca Kuang
- Becoming Supernatural - Dr Joe Dispenza
- When the Going was Good - Graydon Carter
If you've got thoughts on which one I should read next, or ideas to add to the list, I'd love a comment!
Written by Keli H, author and literary artist. Quintessentially Keli is her personal editorial archive on style, authorship, art, and inspired living. More articles at keli-h.com
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