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 |
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.
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.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5
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.
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.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
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.
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.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5
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.
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.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5
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.
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.
Ratings: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
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!
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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