The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson

They say one out of every hundred people is a psychopath. You probably passed one on the street today. These are people who have no empathy, who are manipulative, deceitful, charming, seductive, and delusional. The Psychopath Test is the New York Times bestselling exploration of their world and the madness industry.

When Jon Ronson is drawn into an elaborate hoax played on some of the world’s top scientists, his investigation leads him, unexpectedly, to psychopaths. He meets an influential psychologist who is convinced that many important business leaders and politicians are in fact high-flying, high-functioning psychopaths, and teaches Ronson how to spot them. Armed with these new abilities, Ronson meets a patient inside an asylum for the criminally insane who insists that he’s sane, a mere run-of-the-mill troubled youth, not a psychopath—a claim that might be only manipulation, and a sign of his psychopathy. He spends time with a death-squad leader institutionalized for mortgage fraud, and with a legendary CEO who took joy in shutting down factories and firing people. He delves into the fascinating history of psychopathy diagnosis and treatments, from LSD-fueled days-long naked therapy sessions in prisons to attempts to understand serial killers.

Along the way, Ronson discovers that relatively ordinary people are, more and more, defined by their most insane edges. The Psychopath Test is a fascinating adventure through the minds of madness.

“There is no evidence that we've been placed on this planet to be especially happy or especially normal. And in fact our unhappiness and our strangeness, our anxieties and compulsions, those least fashionable aspects of our personalities, are quite often what lead us to do rather interesting things.” 

Unless you have severe mental health issues, it really seems that there is a very fine, blurry, wavy line separating those who are 'normal' and those who are 'crazy'.

There isn't really a swaying conclusion pushed in the book, just a way to look at mental health and mental illness from a few different angles each chapter, which I liked so that at the end I could make up my own mind about what I thought about it all.

Although it was discussing a potentially mentally 'heavy' topic it was easy to follow, understand and I still enjoyed learning about it (as well as being intelligent AND funny!)

(I couldn't help myself. And after finishing reading I had to do the Robert Hare Psychopath Test, and I was happy to see that I definitely am NOT a psychopath - phew!... unless I am such a good psychopath that I was able to beat the test... ... ...) 

Read my review on Goodreads

The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman

Coralie Sardie is the daughter of the sinister impresario behind The Museum of Extraordinary Things, a Coney Island boardwalk freak show that thrills the masses. An exceptional swimmer, Coralie appears as the Mermaid in her father’s “museum,” alongside performers like the Wolfman, the Butterfly Girl, and a one-hundred-year-old turtle. One night Coralie stumbles upon a striking young man taking pictures of moonlit trees in the woods off the Hudson River.

The dashing photographer is Eddie Cohen, a Russian immigrant who has run away from his father’s Lower East Side Orthodox community and his job as a tailor’s apprentice. When Eddie photographs the devastation on the streets of New York following the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, he becomes embroiled in the suspicious mystery behind a young woman’s disappearance and ignites the heart of Coralie.

When I made it to almost the halfway point of reading this book I wanted to give up - I just wasn't engaged in the story it didn't excite me, and the characters felt a bit bland. I wish I could say that it picked up (as sometimes it has when I was struggling to read some other books) but it didn't, and I stuck with it to the end out of curiosity, but I had to force myself to do so.

I don't know how anyone can compare it to The Night Circus, it doesn't even come close, mainly because how the two main characters fell in love was barely believable. I think that's why I didn't really enjoy it, because I had such high expectations. 

The actual writing was good, its just a shame the story didn't engage me. 

Read my review on Goodreads

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

“I think grief is like a really ugly couch. It never goes away. You can decorate around it; you can slap a doily on top of it; you can push it to the corner of the room—but eventually, you learn to live with it.” 

Alice Metcalf was a devoted mother, loving wife and accomplished scientist who studied grief among elephants. Yet it's been a decade since she disappeared under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind her small daughter, husband, and the animals to which she devoted her life. All signs point to abandonment - or worse.

Still Jenna - now thirteen years old and truly orphaned by a father maddened by grief - steadfastly refuses to believe in her mother's desertion. So she decides to approach the two people who might still be able to help her find Alice: a disgraced psychic named Serenity Jones, and Virgil Stanhope, the cynical detective who first investigated her mother's disappearance and the strange, possibly linked death of one of her WC mother's coworkers.

Together these three lonely souls will discover truths destined to forever change their lives. Deeply moving and suspenseful, Jodi Picoult's 21st novel is a radiant exploration of the enduring love between mothers and daughters. 

Animals, Family, Love, After-life, and add on top of that how well written and in-depth the story was - what more could I want? The story around the elephants was well researched and I love reading books that also make me feel like I've learnt something (without actually having to read a text book).

I had an idea where the story and plot twist was heading after a little while, but there were still a few surprises I didn't see coming. And I loved the format of hearing from alternating characters each chapter, they each had different voices which were clear and distinct.

I honestly think that Jodi Picoult can do no wrong, well not any of her books that I've read as yet anyway. 

Read my review on Goodreads

There Will Be Stars by Billy Coffey

"I've learnt a lot from living the same day over and over. I know what works and what doesn't, all my truths and lies. I never figured out how to live until I died, Bobby, and the one thing I know is never listen to your heart, talk to it."

No one in Mattingly ever believed Bobby Barnes would live to see old age. Drink would either rot Bobby from the inside out or dull his senses just enough to send his truck off the mountain on one of his nightly rides. Although Bobby believes such an end possible—and even likely—it doesn’t stop him from taking his twin sons Matthew and Mark into the mountains one Saturday night. A sharp curve, blinding headlights, metal on metal, his sons’ screams. Bobby’s final thought as he sinks into blackness is a curious one—there will be stars.

Yet it is not death that greets him beyond the veil. Instead, he returns to the day he has just lived and finds he is not alone in this strange new world. Six others are trapped there with him.


Bobby soon discovers that rather than the place of peace he had been led to believe he was in, it’s actually a place of secrets and hidden dangers. Along with three others, he seeks to escape, even as the world around him begins to crumble. The escape will lead some to greater life, others to endless death . . . and Bobby Barnes to understand the deepest nature of love. 

An interesting look at life before/in between/after death and second chances for those willing to take them. A slower, deeper book, and not one that I would call a 'light holiday read', but still really well written and well formed characters. 

I give this a 3.5, not because there was anything wrong with it at all, but just because when I look at other books I have rated, I liked it more that the other 3 star books, yet I didn't devour it like the other rated 4 star books. 

November 9 by Colleen Hoover

“That's what love is, Ben. Love is sacrifice. I got this tattoo the day I felt that kind of love for your father. And I chose it because if I had to describe love that day, I would say it felt like my two favourite things, amplified and thrown together. Like my favourite poetic line mixed into the lyrics of my favourite song”

Fallon meets Ben, an aspiring novelist, the day before her scheduled cross-country move. Their untimely attraction leads them to spend Fallon’s last day in L.A. together, and her eventful life becomes the creative inspiration Ben has always sought for his novel. Over time and amidst the various relationships and tribulations of their own separate lives, they continue to meet on the same date every year. Until one day Fallon becomes unsure if Ben has been telling her the truth or fabricating a perfect reality for the sake of the ultimate plot twist. 

I'm a sucker for a bit of romance every now and then, and t's even better if the female character is strong, funny and independent weather than weak/helpless in a damsel in distress situation. Even though life had a few downturns for Fallon, and her confidence had taken a beating, she was still strong and independent enough to move across the country and not fall helplessly in love with the first guy that showed her attention (but really, who could resist Ben forever). She was strong and witty and I would love to see more female characters like that.

The ONE and ONLY thing that I thought was a tad disappointing (*Slight SPOILER ALERT*) was in the final chapter, when Ben and Fallon met up the last time, she said she wasn't there to forgive him because he didn't do anything wrong...then SHE apologised. I disagreed with this and the fact she was then begging him to forgive her made me gag that such a cool chic ended up being so pathetic.

I don't think you can read a book like this thinking 100% realistically, because if you did, you would have to question their dedication to only meeting up on November 9 and not succumbing to contacting each other on social media when they were desperate (i.e. when planes were delayed and family members were in accidents). 

But other than that, I loved every minute I was reading their story. 

Read my review on Goodreads.