First off: SPOILER ALERT!!! I go over major plot points and details in my “reviews.” If you have the desire to read these books without spoilers, I’d recommend stopping!! Also, sorry if the format is terrible, I wrote all of this on my iPhone.

I loved most of the books I was recommended. I was honestly surprised that more people didn’t try to troll me (like the guy that suggested 50 Shades of Grey). I made it explicitly clear that I would try and read anything that was suggested so that was a nice relief. I ended up not reading 2 books that were recommended. One because I had previously read it and another because someone recommended I watch a 10 minute YouTube video to determine which book to read and that sounded stupid.

I took the following notes after reading each book. I’m not the greatest book reviewer but I feel like they get slightly better as they go on (for the most part).

1. Hamilton: Lots of great insight into the founding fathers. Never sure who is actually a good person. Agree more with Jefferson but not how he did things. 6/10

2. The Vegetarian: Super nuts. Not what I expected. Liked first part for setting up madness. Second part got weird but interesting with painters and sex. Third part revealed her illness and why she was that way. 8/10

3. The Blind Assassin: Loved it. Iris' old lady talk got a little boring in the middle but loved the inner book. Suspected iris was writer after she met Alex on the street. Liked the sex scandal towards the end. Didn't see it coming. 9/10

4. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress: Very interesting. Russian accent was less weird over time. I liked the use of the computer and how it echoed American revolution. Prof was Jefferson and couldn't get what he wanted exactly. Cool sci-fi stuff. 7.5/10

5. A Clockwork Orange: Love the language that he created. Didn't expect that he'd change back at the end. It was fun to discover the meaning of the words as I went along. Really dark stuff. 9/10

6. Milk and Honey: very powerful images. Interesting to follow her story through the poems. Out of my comfort zone, but really enjoyable read. Very quotable. Followed the author on instagram. 10/10

7. Chronicle of a Death Foretold: interesting and quick read. I liked how all of the events of the day unfolded throughout the book. Loved how you knew what happened at the end in the first sentence. And how the narrator tells you through different perspectives and his own. 9/10

8. Catch-22: Very hard to read for me. The whole thing was a big Abbot and Costello joke that never ended. I liked parts of it (Yossarian's character, the refusal to fly missions, the Catch), but most of it just seemed drawn out and exhausting. I felt like there was no actual plot. There were just characters but barely anything happened. No storyline. I'll give it points for making me laugh a few times though. 5/10

9. The Time Machine: I loved this story. It was thrilling and fun to read. I loved that it was so short too. It gave just the right amount of detail to set the scene really well, but still stay interesting. I liked how humanity split into two different species and how the two were mortal enemies. It's also cool to see how people from our past saw our future. It was cool to read what's considered to be the forerunner of science fiction. 10/10

10. The Lives of Tao: Wow. I had very little expectations for this book and I was blown away. I couldn't put it down. I loved everything about it. It was genuinely funny, a GREAT story, and had such an amazing gimmick. I loved the dialog between tao and roen and the other Prophus/host relationships. What an interesting concept! I loved how it developed and how he trained. I can't say enough good things about this book. It honestly might be one of my favorite books I've ever read. I can't wait to read the rest of the series! 11/10

11. Sons and Lovers: The book started out strong and I really enjoyed the first half of it. I liked how Paul had to struggle between his love for his mother and his love for Miriam/Clara. I didn't like how he never really grew out of it. I wanted him to realize that Miriam was the one for him, but it never came. And I didn't like how he abandoned her for Clara and it wasn't really resolved. Overall it was well written and a good read, but the storyline took some turns that I didn't enjoy. 6/10

12. Sirens of Titan: I really enjoyed reading this book. I went in hearing so much about Vonnegut's writing style so I wasn't sure if I would get it or like it. But it was a lot of fun. I loved the whole futuristic part of the chronosynclastic infundibulum. I didn't expect that Constant and Bea would lose their memories, but I liked how it was done. The fall of Malachi made sense to me and I thought it worked well with the story and added some morality to everything. The ending was a little bittersweet but I liked how everything fell into place. 10/10

13. The Gene: I learned so much in this book. I loved relearning about Mendel and Darwin. I enjoyed hearing about how the Nazis took the ideas on biologists and completely misunderstood them. Hearing about twin studies and euthanasia they used was really interesting. I also loved how accessible he made the book. I liked the anecdotes about huge discoveries in genetics and the people behind them. The modeling of DNA, recreating insulin, now stem cells and genetic medicine, everything snowballed into what genetics is now. It did get slightly too scientific for me at times, but I don't think it took away from the overall narrative too much. I liked sharing the book with others and it made me feel like a smarter/ better person for reading it. 9/10

14. A Head Full of Ghosts: I was excited to read this book because I knew I was going to be reading it while backpacking through Yosemite. I thought it would be fun and creepy to read a scary book out in the wilderness with no lights or society to protect me. Well... unfortunately I didn't find the book very scary. I liked how the book started and how the interview and blog told the story. I liked the relationship between the sisters and their family. I felt like there was a lot of fluff in the middle of the story. I didn't see the point of some of the explanations or stories. I did like how it was written for the majority of the book though. And I liked the ending a lot. The change at the end that made everything her sister went through a little more sinister was awesome. I just didn't think any part of it was scary. It was an interesting read with some good characters and twists, just not a scary book. A little more creepiness would have made the story way better for me. 6/10

15. Notorious RBG: I came into the book thinking that I would like it, but not be crazy about it and I was about right. It seemed more like a playful biography than an intense and gritty one. I felt like it skipped a TON of her life, but gave good summaries of big moments. I think I enjoyed it more because of that, but I also think I missed some interesting stuff in such an incredible woman's life. I definitely learned more about her and about the institutionalized sexism that women have been facing throughout our history. And the stories of her and her husband were really touching and adorable 8/10

16. Welcome to the Monkey House: I'll try and do every story in a separate place. On the whole, I loved it. Most of it really made me think or laugh a lot. I love his anti war messages and his views on the future. My favorite was probably the title story. Such a cool writer. 10/10

17. 50 Shades of Grey: so... overall, it's awful. It's nasty, dirty, perverted, and, worst of all, SO POORLY WRITTEN! I can get behind the story a little. I can see how middle aged ladies would get into this. It's erotic fantasy that unfolds in an exciting way. But the writing is just so terrible. It's like the author has never spoken words before. The dialogue is extremely unbelievable. No one speaks like the characters in this book. And the audio book is WORSE! She's like a porn actress, but you don't get to see her naked. Imagine a normal movie filled with porn actors and actresses. So terrible. Also, the ending is one of the worst instances of shitty sequel set ups I've ever read. 25 chapters of nothing happening just so nothing can happen at the end and you're forced to buy 2 more books to get any answers. Such. A. Waste. Of. Time. I'll give it points for holding some semblance of a plot together in an interesting way. And a few pity points for being funny on accident. I'll take away the rest because it's fucking awful. 4/10

18. Company: I started out with little expectation for this book. It was hard to find and I figured it wasn't popular because it wasn't very good. I was pleasantly surprised by it. I first started laughing at the waterfall voice mails that came through to everyone. And, when it was revealed to be a fake company, I thought it was a good twist. Overall, I laughed and thought it was pretty well done. I think some things were glossed over a bit, but I'm happy with where it ended. Too much more and I probably wouldn't have been as interested. 8/10

19. A Visit from the Goon Squad: hmmm... not what I expected at all. It felt more like a book of short stories than a novel. I didn't really care for it at first, but the stories and how they were told started to grow on me as they went. I wish that the stories tied together at the end a little better. I wish I could have heard Bosco's story through his or someone's eyes. I feel like it leapt pretty far from Jules' article to the next story without connecting them how the others had been. I also was a little thrown by the last chapter. I didn't see it coming, and didn't really care for the futuristic theme. Overall, I enjoyed the book. I wish some parts were different, but it was still enjoyable. 7/10

20. Dark Matter: woweee! Loved it from the get go. It hooked me in the first chapter and never let up. I loved the science behind it and how everything worked. When he was in Jason2's world, I loved how everyone questioned him and everyone wondered what had happened and maybe he was just crazy. I wasn't totally convinced about most things until they happened in the book. It kept me in great suspense and always delivered an awesome solution. The ending was awesome and I didn't expect a lot of it. All the Jasons really surprised me. I've already recommended it to a ton of people. Absolutely loved it. 10/10

21. My Family and Other Animals: I thought this book was really fun. I loved all of the short stories and characters that were introduced throughout. I didn't realize until I started reading that the setting was so long ago. I didn't research the book much and assumed it was rather new. But I enjoyed reading from a completely different perspective. I also liked that Gerry never spoke in the book. He quoted every other character but himself. I don't know why, but I liked that. I ended up looking up a lot of the animals he mentioned to learn a little bit more about them. Fun book with a lot of really fun stories in it. 9/10

22. This Is How You Lose Her: this one grew on me until the last few chapters then kinda fell off again. I didn't really like how it jumped from perspectives and settings at first, but I understood it after a few chapters. I liked reading about yunior and rafa's childhoods. And their stories were interesting and emotional. The last chapter, when Yunior was going over his life after breaking up with his fiancé, brought me back partially, but also lost me in some points. I hated his cheating friend, but it helped me understand more about the bigger picture of the novel. It ended up being a memoir of a cheater and how he and certain events fucked up his love life and real life. Overall, it was entertaining and made me think a lot. 8/10

23. The Honest Truth about Dishonesty: I learned a lot from this book. I loved reading about all of their experiments and data. I found myself really thinking about how honest I am and how I would perform in each of the experiments. The ones I thought were most interesting were when they were testing the contagiousness of dishonesty. I really wish I could see an additional chapter about the current political situation in the US and how that could affect the nation's morals. I didn't care for the chapter on religion, just because I've been actively non religious for the past decade and I don't think that religion is necessary to be a good and honest person, but I liked that he wrapped it up to be more about rules than anything else. You can have rules without having religion and I like that. Overall, I loved it and I've recommended to several people already! 10/10

24. Beer in the Snooker Club: I’m not totally sure how I feel about this book. I feel like nothing really happened... but I didn’t dislike it. It reminded me (partially because the back cover mentioned it) of Catcher in the Rye. I found myself liking Ram less and less as the book went on, but liking the book more. I found it interesting to read about politics I knew absolutely nothing about previously. I understood some of what Ram was going through, with finding himself politically and being an outsider in his family. His status seemed to be a comment on how unfair life can be (and I’m sure it was political) with a lazy, whiny, drunk is able to live in the lap of luxury due to greed and power. 7/10

25. Starship Troopers: awesome! I loved how it started out by setting the scene of the war and the drops. Going back into how Johnnie had decided to join the army and showing his progression through basic training and becoming a trained soldier made for a great storyline. Knowing a little bit about the movie, I expected the whole book to be guns and fighting, but that really only happens a few times throughout. I liked that the book went deep into a lot of stories. I wish that I understood a little bit more about military strategy so I could have better understood the plans at the end, but it was still compelling and I feel like I comprehended enough. I also liked that the author kept referring to actual wars and putting this imaginary one into perspective. The idea of having to serve in the military in order to be a citizen was interesting. I don’t think it would work, and I much preferred the idea of letting scientists run things, but who knows what would be better...? All in all, it was a great read. Heinlein has quickly become a go-to author for me. I’ll definitely be checking out more of his sci-fi in the future. 9/10

26. Lagoon: really well told. I was really interested in it from the start. I like the idea of an alien first interacting with a fish. And I really liked how everything was told. I liked how the narrator knew everything and was able to peek into the minds of all the characters. I didn’t care for a few of the chapters that I felt didn’t really fit. I think those chapters would make more sense if I was familiar with Nigerian myths. I didn’t really ever understand why the aliens came. It never made a ton of sense to me. And in the appendices the author says that she decided to write it after watching district 9 and being annoyed by it. I wish that it had more of a purpose. But I liked how most things played out. I liked that the bad guys got what was coming to them and the good guys one. I didn’t like how the three main characters seemed to randomly have powers though. Overall I had fun reading it, even if I didn’t gather a ton of meaning from everything. 8/10

27. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe: cute story. I liked the story from the beginning and I think it was really well told throughout. There were times where I felt that specific details never came back into the plot, but the main story seemed consistent and I liked it. I think it was a little predictable and things worked out a little too perfectly at times, but I’ll chalk that up to the YA category. You could tell right away that the two of them were going to end up together and I was mostly ok with that. There were a few times when I thought the author might surprise me with a twist, but the predictable thing usually ended up happening. I related to the loneliness and troubled family of Ari. It’s good to see characters that deal with their problems in their own ways and I’m glad kids and teens will be able to read this and gain insight. Overall, it was predictable and cheesy, but I liked it a lot. Out of my normal comfort zone but a great and fun read. 9/10

28. The Brothers K: The last book on my list! Took me a while, but I enjoyed it for the most part. I really loved how detailed and nuanced each character was. There wasn’t a character I didn’t enjoy reading about. I thought at one point, though, that too much was happening. Especially with all the brothers in different countries and all with completely different stories going on at the same time. I liked it, but it was just hard to follow all of them at once for me. It also couldn’t have helped that it took me so long to read it. :/ Irwin’s story was my favorite and least favorite at the same time. I loved how innocent he he was and how he tried to be a good person and how he brought his whole family back together. This seems like a book I’ll have to read again to really catch everything, but I definitely enjoyed it. 7/10

That’s it!! 28 books this year! All completely random from recommendations by fellow redditors!!

Thanks to u/IDGAFWMNI, u/tinybenny, u/silviazbitch, u/SwoleBuddha, u/nymeria1031, u/freejosephk, u/Typick, u/serralinda, u/kt2587, u/lastrada2, u/tanyuur, u/Huricane101, u/pithyretort, u/machinationofclay, u/youngandatarving, u/ekglue, u/floridianreader, u/Cocaiinee00, u/rottenbottle, u/NoooReally, and u/Crhallan for the recommendations! I’d love to chat with you about the books you recommended!