October Wrap-up

Hello! November is here, which means it's time to see what I read in October. Last month was a weird reading month for me, especially at the beginning. I wouldn't say that I was in a slump, because I did read, just not as much as I usually do. I really wanted to read some gothic and some classic novels this month, but I just wasn't in the mood. It probably had something to do with the almost summer weather we had for most of the month. In the end, I finished 10 books, which is pretty good, and I read almost 4000 pages, with a few lighter reads that definitely helped with the final page count. So let's get to the books!

The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio G. Iturbe

Based on the experience of real-life Auschwitz prisoner Dita Kraus, this is the incredible story of a girl who risked her life to keep the magic of books alive during the Holocaust.

Fourteen-year-old Dita is one of the many imprisoned by the Nazis at Auschwitz. Taken, along with her mother and father, from the Terezín ghetto in Prague, Dita is adjusting to the constant terror that is life in the camp. When Jewish leader Freddy Hirsch asks Dita to take charge of the eight precious volumes the prisoners have managed to sneak past the guards, she agrees. And so Dita becomes the librarian of Auschwitz. *

The first book I finished this month didn't leave a very good impression. I got it as a physical book, translated to Romanian, but really struggled with reading that edition. The book was written in Spanish, so both the Romanian and the English versions are translations, so I'm not sure if my issues were just because of bad translations, or the book is actually badly written. The Romanian one I just couldn't get into, but I really wanted to read the story, so I switched to the English audiobook. That one was a little better and the audiobook made it easier to get through, but I still didn't like it too much. The story is interesting and beautiful, but unfortunately the form it is delivered in didn't do it for me. I expected another Book Thief and I was disappointed. I ended up giving it 3 stars because of the heartbreaking story. 

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

In 1810, a sister and brother uncover the fossilized skull of an unknown animal in the cliffs on the south coast of England. With its long snout and prominent teeth, it might be a crocodile – except that it has a huge, bulbous eye.

Remarkable Creatures is the story of Mary Anning, who has a talent for finding fossils, and whose discovery of ancient marine reptiles such as that ichthyosaur shakes the scientific community and leads to new ways of thinking about the creation of the world.*

Tracy Chevalier is an author whose books I always enjoy. I read most of her books and after finishing this one I only have one of her adult books left to read. I love how she takes a less known event or time period and creates a story around characters that existed in real life. I had no idea about women discovering fossils in the 19th century. It was definitely interesting to read about the struggle of these women against prejudice and misogyny. As all her books, this is also written from two perspectives, which I love. Although I enjoyed it, the book was a bit boring at times and took me quite a long time to finish for such a short book, so I gave it 3 stars. 

Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King

This is a collection of horror short stories and was my first spooky read of the month. These short stories are more in the novella range because most of them are over 100 pages, which gives you time to get attached to the characters and to really live the story. The collection features 1922, which was made into a movie recently, and 3 others (plus my edition had a bonus short story that later got published in another collection). I loved all of them and was really creeped out for most of the time I read them, even though they didn't seem that scary in the end. I think my favorite from the bunch was Fair Extension, although the others were almost equally good. I gave this 5 stars and can't wait to read more short stories by King. 

Hollow City and Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs

This month I read the 2nd and 3rd books in the Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series. Even though I read the first book over two years ago, I recently rewatched the movie, so the story was fresh in my mind. I won't give a lot of details about the books, since I don't want to give spoilers for the first book, but I will say that I enjoyed these a lot. They were just what I needed in terms of spooky reads that were also fun. The mix of historical fiction and fantasy is just up my alley, the writing is great and I love the characters. The 4th book in the series just came out and I can't wait to get it and read it. I gave both of these 4 stars. Really enjoyable! 

The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King 

This second volume in the epic series 'The Dark Tower' both stands alone and continues the adventures of Roland of Gilead. He has mysteriously stepped through the doorway in time to 1980s America, where he meets Eddie Dean and Odetta Holmes.*

I finally read the second book in The Dark Tower series! It took me over two years to pick this up because even though everyone says that the series picks up after the first book, I was still nervous. But in the end of course that everyone was right, I loved this! It took me some time to get into it, but I think that was because of my mood. However, once I got in the right place, I couldn't put it down. I didn't expect such a mix of historical settings with the fantasy one. I always enjoy that, especially if the writing is as great as it was in this book. This and the other King book that I read this month got me really excited about his works, so excited that I got 5 new King books that I can't wait to read. I gave this 5 stars and I won't wait another two years to continue the series. 

Not in the picture, but also read: 

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy.*

This month I continued my journey into Gaiman's books with this whimsical little number. Of course I had to listen to it on audio because it was narrated by the author himself. Beside the obvious delightfulness of the narration, I enjoyed this story, although I sometimes felt confused. You really need to pay attention because this book mixes magic with reality in a really unique way. I love magical realism, so this was right up my alley. I will say that it could have been a bit shorter because it seemed to drag a bit at times, so I gave 3.5 stars to my 4th Gaiman book and can't wait to continue my journey.

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel

A girl named Rose is riding her new bike near home in Deadwood, South Dakota, when she falls through the earth. She wakes up at the bottom of a square-shaped hole, its walls glowing with intricate carvings. But the firemen who come to save her peer down upon something even stranger: a little girl in the palm of a giant metal hand.

Seventeen years later, the mystery of the bizarre artifact remains unsolved - the object's origins, architects, and purpose unknown.*

This is the first book in a science fiction trilogy that everyone was reading and raving about recently. Given that it's written in the form of interviews and transcripts, I listened to it as an audiobook, with a full cast and sound effects. The audiobook is more like a play actually and it's really well done, which explains why everyone enjoyed it so much. The concept of this story is quite interesting, but I don't think the way it is delivered is for me. I did enjoy it as it's really fast paced and full of twists, but I just didn't find it great. I don't even feel the urge to pick up the next book in the series, which says a lot about how much I got into the story. I gave it 3 generous stars and I'm not sure I will be continuing the series.

Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening by Marjorie M. Liu and  Sana Takeda

Set in an alternate matriarchal 1900's Asia, in a richly imagined world of art deco-inflected steampunk, MONSTRESS tells the story of a teenage girl who is struggling to survive the trauma of war, and who shares a mysterious psychic link with a monster of tremendous power, a connection that will transform them both.*

I picked this up on a whim because it definitely wasn't on my list of graphic novels I want to read, I have no idea why. This was definitely something for me. Steampunk, art deco, fantasy, what more can I ask for? It was also a great pick for October, since it's as scary as it can get with a graphic novel. The art in this is amazing, but the story is even more so. I can't wait to pick up volume 2. I read this as an ebook and gave it 5 out of 5 stars! 

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around—and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he’s been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance or lose his dream forever.*

Finally, another highly rated and hyped up book. It seems that this month I read more YA than I usually do, but I mostly enjoyed it. This book is definitely something else when it comes to YA books. It is beautifully written, with good world building and the main characters are quite complex. The second half of the book was a bit more boring, with some romance, but since I listened to it on audio, I got through it quite easily. I can see why some people didn't manage to finish this, because it's definitely slow paced. I will, however, continue the series because I'm curious to see what happens and I understand that the second book is a lot more fast paced. I gave this one 4 stars, which is quite good in my book. 

That's it for October. Hope November will go a bit better in terms of reading. 

*Source: Goodreads

BookTubeAThon Wrap-Up

Hi! So this is a story about me reading 7 books in 7 days and hating it. Well, not exactly hating it but not enjoying myself very much because of the pressure. This was my first attempt ever at a readathon. It was because everyone was posting their BookTubeAThon tbr videos and I wanted to give it a try. Last week I realized that readathons are not for me, because of multiple reasons. First off, I am a slow reader. I've seen people on YouTube fly through hundreds of pages while I sometimes only manage to read 30 pages in an hour. I read faster in Romanian but not by much. Then, in order to finish 7 books in 7 days you need to read shorter and easier books. For me that often means YA, which is a hit or miss. Yes, there are short books for adults too, but they are either literary fiction, which is not really binge-able or chick lit, which I don't like. Finally, I'm not one to binge books. I'd rather read constantly every day, usually in the morning if I have time, a bit here and there during the day and then at night before bed. Reading for hours on end doesn't happen to me very often. So in conclusion this readathon wasn't that fun for me. I ended up reading 1726 pages, which is more than I would normally read in a week, but some of the books I finished weren't great reads. My average rating for these books was 3.6, which is lower than my average for this year (3.8). Oh well, maybe I was just out of luck while choosing my tbr. Most of my books were ebooks or audiobooks, because my physical books were too long and didn't fit any challenges. So there's not much to show in the picture but anyway, here are the books.

This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki,  Jillian Tamaki (Illustrator)

Every summer, Rose goes with her mom and dad to a lake house in Awago Beach. It's their getaway, their refuge. Rosie's friend Windy is always there, too, like the little sister she never had. But this summer is different. Rose's mom and dad won't stop fighting, and when Rose and Windy seek a distraction from the drama, they find themselves with a whole new set of problems. It's a summer of secrets and sorrow and growing up, and it's a good thing Rose and Windy have each other.*

This was the book decided by the coin toss. The options were both graphic novels, both ebooks, both around 300 pages, which looked like a quick read. I actually cheated and started this on Sunday night, just because I didn't have anything to read in bed. As expected, I finished this on Monday because I just flew trough it. I wouldn't say that I was disappointed by this because I got to look at beautiful art, but the story didn't do much for me. It tried to touch on some important themes but didn't quite deliver. I wouldn't say it was bad, just nothing special. The art though, was amazing. So it's totally worth it. I ended up giving it 3.5 stars as an average between 5 stars for the art and 2 stars for the story. 

The Chrysalids by John Wyndham

David Storm's father doesn't approve of Angus Morton's unusually large horses, calling them blasphemies against nature. Little does he realise that his own son, and his son's cousin Rosalind and their friends, have their own secret aberration which would label them as mutants. But as David and Rosalind grow older it becomes more difficult to conceal their differences from the village elders. Soon they face a choice: wait for eventual discovery, or flee to the terrifying and mutable Badlands.....

The Chrysalids is a post-nuclear apocalypse story of genetic mutation in a devastated world and explores the lengths the intolerant will go to to keep themselves pure.*

Next up, I picked up this classic work of science fiction, which counted both for the beautiful spine and the green on the cover challenge. I actually wanted to pick another book with a beautiful spine, but it was almost 500 pages long and there was no way for me to finish that so quickly. Although this book seems fairly short (200 pages), it took me some time to get through since it was written in 1955 and the writing is quite literary. It also took some time for me to get into it, which made it impossible for me to finish it in a day. In the end I quite loved this. The only thing I didn't love about it is that it's so short, so a lot of things are left unexplained. That's why I only gave it 4 stars but I'm curious to read some more books from this author now. 

On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft by Stephen King 

On Writing begins with a mesmerizing account of King's childhood and his early focus on writing to tell a story. A series of vivid memories from adolescence, college, and the struggling years that led up to his first novel, Carrie, offer a fresh and often funny perspective on the formation of a writer. 

King then turns to the tools of his trade, examining crucial aspects of the wriiter's art and life, offering practical and inspiring advice on everything from plot and character development to work habits and rejection.* 

This was my book about something I want to do (writing, very original) and also my audiobook for most of the week. It was my first audiobook read by Stephen King himself and while I must admit that he isn't very good at it, I still enjoyed listening to him tell the story. This is non-fiction but it's a memoir, so it reads more like fiction, plus the writing advice part is really well made and keeps you interested every second. I liked this so much that I definitely want to own a physical copy and maybe annotate it some day. I finished it on the fourth day of the readathon and gave it 5 stars!

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.*

This short novella was supposed to be the book I read while wearing a hat the whole time, but I ended up skipping the hat altogether. Honestly, I found the challenge quite stupid and unnecessary, plus why would I put on a hat to read a book on my couch? This has been on my radar for a long time, especially because it won both the Hugo and the Nebula awards in 2016, and it seemed to be the perfect short thing for a readathon. I ended up listening to the audiobook because it was available on Scribd and I'm so glad I did. The narration brought some authenticity to the story, something the voice in my head wouldn't do. I really loved the concept of an African inspired science fiction story. I'm not a big fan of short stories in general because I feel you can't really get close to the characters in such a short time, but this novella really packs a punch, both with tons of action and characterization of Binti. Of course the first person narration helps a lot. I'm really curious to read the next one in the series. I gave this 4 stars. 

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

Sixteen-year-old Lara Jean Song keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. They aren’t love letters that anyone else wrote for her; these are ones she’s written. One for every boy she’s ever loved—five in all. When she writes, she pours out her heart and soul and says all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly, Lara Jean’s love life goes from imaginary to out of control.*

And then there's the book that almost got me in a reading slump. The thing with readathons is, if you have a specific goal you can't really dnf books, because you invest so much time in them and then you have nothing to show for that lost time. I picked this as my book to movie adaptation, even though the movie hasn't come out yet so I have yet to see it. Many people have raved about this book, even booktubers I trust have found it ok, and the trailer for the movie seemed fun and cute. But boy, was this book boring! The premise of the letters is something short that takes place in the beginning and frankly doesn't affect the life of the main character the way I thought it would. Instead the whole book is just the whining of a spoiled and immature teenager about what boy she likes more. This book is quite long and it was painful for me to finish it, the only way I managed that was by picking up the audiobook about half way and forcing myself to listen to as much as possible until it was over. I gave it 2 stars and will most certainly not be continuing the series. Let's just hope that the movie is a bit better.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

The day after they moved in, Coraline went exploring....

In Coraline's family's new flat are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close. 

The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks the door to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own. 

Only it's different. *

Finally, the last two books I read that didn't complete any particular challenge except for the challenge of reading 7 books in 7 days. I've been into Neil Gaiman books lately and I was curious to pick up this middle grade that is so famous and that everybody loves. This book is considered very creepy, especially by adults, but for me the creep factor wasn't that high. Maybe it's because I've read some true horror in my life, but this didn't impress me at all. I read it as an ebook on my phone while reading other books as well and didn't feel the urge to finish it if it wasn't for the readathon. I don't think it was bad at all, just not as amazing as I was expecting, so I had to rate it 3 stars because that's just how I felt about it.

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Slowly but surely, he is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island--from Lambiase, the well-intentioned police officer who’s always felt kindly toward Fikry; from Ismay, his sister-in-law who is hell-bent on saving him from his dreary self; from Amelia, the lovely and idealistic (if eccentric) Knightley Press sales rep who keeps on taking the ferry over to Alice Island, refusing to be deterred by A.J.’s bad attitude. Even the books in his store have stopped holding pleasure for him. These days, A.J. can only see them as a sign of a world that is changing too rapidly.

And then a mysterious package appears at the bookstore. It’s a small package, but large in weight. It’s that unexpected arrival that gives A. J. Fikry the opportunity to make his life over, the ability to see everything anew. *

The last book of the BookTubeAThon is also the one that took me out of the slump if I was in one. Finally a book about books that I really enjoyed! This was everything that Mr. Penumbra should have been and I literally couldn't put it down. I read it in around a day so I managed to finish my 7th book in time to complete the final challenge. Not only is this book great for people who love books, but it's cute and heartwarming, a real feel-good novel. I had a few issues with the writing so I only gave it 4 stars, but I really enjoyed it. This was also an ebook that I read on my Kindle.

Wow this was a long post to write! Hopefully the rest of August will be a good reading month!

*Source: Goodreads

July Wrap-up

Hello! July is finally over and I have to talk about what I read. This month I focused on bigger books, so I didn't do a mid-month wrap-up because I only had finished a couple of books back then. I did manage to finish 10 books this month, but there will only be 9 in this wrap-up because the 10th one is part of the Booktubeathon that I'm attempting this week and there will be a different post for those books. This post will be extremely long so let's get into the books!

Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones

Cathedral of the Sea follows the fortunes of the Estanyol family, from their peasant roots to a son, Arnau, who flees the land only to realize spectacular wealth and devastating problems.

During Arnau's lifetime Barcelona becomes a city of light and darkness, dominated by the construction of the city's great pride -- the cathedral of Santa Maria del Mar -- and by its shame, the deadly Inquisition.*

I found this book from a "books about Barcelona" list after finishing my beloved The Cemetery of Forgotten Books series. This book is nothing similar, but it is set in Barcelona, which is amazing. It takes place in the Middle Ages and follows the story of Arnau Estanyol, from before his birth and throughout his adventurous life. It is definitely a saga and even though my copy only has 570 pages, it is a massive book that took me ages to finish. I enjoyed this a lot, don't get me wrong, but the language it is written in is quite archaic and there is lots of history in it, which makes it kind of hard to go through for someone who doesn't know anything about medieval Spain. Despite reading this in my native language, it was the first time in many years when I had to look up Romanian words in the dictionary. The story is beautiful but it isn't lighthearted at all. This book contains rape, misogyny, violence and antisemitism, just to name a few. So it's more on the serious side of historical fiction. There are some faults to this book but I admire Falcones a lot for writing such an intricate and well researched work, so I gave it 4.5 stars. 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky, Perks follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.*

After finishing Cathedral of the Sea, I needed some light YA to cleanse my palate, so I picked up a "classic" YA contemporary that has been on my tbr for ages. I don't have much to say about this book, since for me it was an average read. I know many people love it and I can see why. I would probably have liked it more if I was a teenager myself. There are many themes in this book, but none of them is visited in depth, so I feel that the author tried to do too much with it and didn't achieve anything in the end. I ended up giving it 3 stars, although now I think I was a bit too generous. Maybe 2.5 would be a more accurate rating. 

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

At a gala party thrown by her parents, Evelyn Hardcastle will be killed--again. She's been murdered hundreds of times, and each day, Aiden Bishop is too late to save her. Doomed to repeat the same day over and over, Aiden's only escape is to solve Evelyn Hardcastle's murder and conquer the shadows of an enemy he struggles to even comprehend--but nothing and no one are quite what they seem.*

This book has been all over the internet lately and I gave in to the hype. I usually don't read mystery thrillers, but this has a historical setting and an interesting premise, so it looked like something I would like. And yes, I liked it a lot! I feel like you can't talk too much about this book without giving stuff away, and it is better to go into it without knowing too much about it. To me the ending was totally unpredictable, which I feel is good for this type of books. It felt a bit confusing at times, so I gave it 4.5 stars, but I rounded it up to 5 on Goodreads, because this debut author deserves it. 

Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

High in the Transylvanian woods, at the castle Piscul Draculi, live five daughters and their doting father. It's an idyllic life for Jena, the second eldest, who spends her time exploring the mysterious forest with her constant companion, a most unusual frog. But best by far is the castle's hidden portal, known only to the sisters. Every Full Moon, they alone can pass through it into the enchanted world of the Other Kingdom. There they dance through the night with the fey creatures of this magical realm.*

So, an Australian author wrote a book inspired by Romanian myths and fairy tales and I totally loved it! This book had everything I wanted from Războiul solomonarilor, even though it wasn't heroic fantasy but more of a historical/fairy tale type of fantasy. Even though this is YA, it is truly well written and totally charming, a book that you can totally immerse yourself in. It does have a few faults and that is the reason I gave it 4 stars. This book has really strong female characters but I felt like the male characters could have been more complex. As with all YA fantasy, there are a few tropes in this book, but I didn't mind too much. I think that if you read this book without prejudice and let it take you away you will have a great time.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

This is the riveting first-person narrative of Kvothe, a young man who grows to be one of the most notorious magicians his world has ever seen. From his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, to years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-riddled city, to his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that transports readers into the body and mind of a wizard.*

This was a month long enjoyment and a mammoth of a book. This was a reread as I want to pick up the second book in the series, which I haven't read. I decided this was perfect to reread as an audiobook and I was totally right. I started it at the beginning of the month, then took a long break half way to listen to The Poppy War, then listened to the second half. It seemed that back in 2016 I was a little stingy with my ratings, because I only gave this 4 stars, but now changed my rating to a 5. This book is amazing and so enjoyable to listen to, especially in the Nick Podehl version of the audiobook. I was going to read the second one physically but now I'm not sure, because this was such an amazing audiobook. Patrick Rothfuss' writing is beautiful and listening to it is very relaxing. This is definitely a must if you are into fantasy and you might like it even if fantasy is not your genre. So amazing!


Not pictured, but also finished:

I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara

The haunting true story of the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California during the 70s and 80s, and of the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case—which was solved in April 2018.*


True crime is a genre I haven't tried out yet, but this book intrigued me. I must admit that I was drawn in by the hype, but I also was intrigued by the resolution of this case and I wanted to read the book before looking up who the actual killer is. I usually struggle with non fiction, but this was a delight to read. Michelle McNamara was a great writer and this reads like fiction most of the time. It is also a bit like a memoir as she talks about her life and the time she dedicated to solving this case. It is also very sad that she died before this was solved, but she was confident that it would get solved in the end. I'm not sure if this is a genre for me, but this book was so good. I read it as an ebook and gave it 4.5 stars, rounded to 5 on Goodreads.

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard—the most elite military school in Nikan—was even more surprising.*

It seems like this month was all about new hyped books. I tried a chapter from this book on my Kindle and immediately had to continue. I had some Audible credits so I decided to get the audiobook and I didn't quite like the narrator, but I loved the book. It begins as a classical coming of age story, but then turns into something mind blowing. The Asian inspired setting really brings something to this story. It also reads like a YA most of the time but contains some violent scenes that make it an adult book. I can't wait for the second book in this series to come out. I gave this 5 shiny stars!

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

A tour-de-force by rising indy comics star Gene Yang, American Born Chinese tells the story of three apparently unrelated characters: Jin Wang, who moves to a new neighborhood with his family only to discover that he's the only Chinese-American student at his new school; the powerful Monkey King, subject of one of the oldest and greatest Chinese fables; and Chin-Kee, a personification of the ultimate negative Chinese stereotype, who is ruining his cousin Danny's life with his yearly visits.*

I found this graphic novel on Scribd and read it on my phone during off-times at work. It was a quick and entertaining read, with an interesting twist at the end. I didn't find the art amazing but it wasn't bad. The story on the other hand I quite enjoyed. I found it quite compelling for a YA graphic novel, so I ended up giving it 4 stars. I think this is better if you go in it without knowing much about the story so I won't give anything away.

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon away from life as a San Francisco web-design drone and into the aisles of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, but after a few days on the job, Clay discovers that the store is more curious than either its name or its gnomic owner might suggest. The customers are few, and they never seem to buy anything; instead, they "check out" large, obscure volumes from strange corners of the store. Suspicious, Clay engineers an analysis of the clientele's behavior, seeking help from his variously talented friends, but when they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra, they discover the bookstore's secrets extend far beyond its walls.*

This book was the oldest one on my "want to read" list on Goodreads and it was on there for almost 6 years so it was high time I gave it a try. This is featured as as a "book about books" and I guess it is, only it doesn't feature anything but made up books so nothing I can relate to. It also features a mystery and lots of technology that seemed more or less accurate, although I don't have enough knowledge to know if it was. I didn't care too much for the writing, which made me struggle with the first half of the book. Even though this is slightly under 300 pages, it seemed to go by so slow at times. The ending, or should I say the resolution of the mystery, was quite cool, so I ended up giving this ebook 3 stars but I'm not sure this was worth it.

This is it for July! Hope August will be a great reading month!

*Source: Goodreads

May Final Wrap-up

It's the end of May and I already have my wrap-up ready because I'm not going to finish other books by tomorrow. In other news, I'm done with my challenge of reading 50 books! When I first started this year and this challenge, I was worried I wasn't gonna make it. And instead I'm already done in less than 5 months. That's crazy! But now that the pressure is off I can read as much as I like and I can even tackle big books because I'm no longer afraid to miss my goal. Anyway, this month I read 13 books like last month and a couple hundred pages more, so I'm really happy with myself. Here are the books I finished in the second half of May!

Watchmen by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons (Illustrator/Letterer), John Higgins (Colorist/Digital Finishing)

In an alternate world where the mere presence of American superheroes changed history, the US won the Vietnam War, Nixon is still president, and the cold war is in full effect.  WATCHMEN begins as a murder-mystery, but soon unfolds into a planet-altering conspiracy. As the resolution comes to a head, the unlikely group of reunited heroes--Rorschach, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre, Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias--have to test the limits of their convictions and ask themselves where the true line is between good and evil.*

On many lists, this is the best graphic novel of all time. To me it was a revelation because I never thought superhero stories could be written this way. This is definitely not a quick read like other graphic novels, as it is massive and also has a few pages of prose at the end of each chapter. These bits of prose I didn't particularly like, since I felt that they broke the story instead of letting it flow at a decent pace. Some of the prose bits were articles that brought new information, while others were just boring and useless in my opinion. That is why I gave this 4 stars. I'm glad I own this and will probably revisit it in the future, but I must admit that I enjoy memoir type graphic novels like Maus and Persepolis a lot more than superhero comics.

Prince Lestat by Anne Rice

The vampire world is in crisis – their kind have been proliferating out of control and, thanks to technologies undreamed of in previous centuries, they can communicate as never before. Roused from their earth-bound slumber, ancient ones are in thrall to the Voice: which commands that they burn fledgling vampires in cities from Paris to Mumbai, Hong Kong to Kyoto and San Francisco. Immolations, huge massacres, have commenced all over the world.*

This is the 11th book in The Vampire Chronicles, a series that I've been a fan of for a long time. Anne Rice was actually done with the series before this book and then decided to resume it after a 10 year old break. This book came out in 2014, but at the time I was behind on the series so I still had to catch up with some of the older books, so I only came around to reading this now. A lot of the long time fans of this series didn't like this book and I can see why. It took me over a month to finish it because I kept picking other things to read instead of this. The first half of the book is very slow paced so I couldn't get into it. Anne Rice introduces a lot of new characters in this book and she really wants them to develop, so there is a lot of backstory to each one of them. Finally, I decided to listen to the audiobook and that's when I managed to get through the first half and get to the second one, which is where the action takes place. I did enjoy that part, but in the end, I couldn't give this more than 3 stars. I'm not sure I will continue with the series as the next book has even worse reviews than this one but we'll see in the future.

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Auggie wants to be an ordinary ten-year-old. He does ordinary things - eating ice cream, playing on his Xbox. He feels ordinary - inside. But ordinary kids don't make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. Ordinary kids aren't stared at wherever they go.

Born with a terrible facial abnormality, Auggie has been home-schooled by his parents his whole life. Now, for the first time, he's being sent to a real school. All he wants is to be accepted - but can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, underneath it all?*

As I mentioned before, I don't read a lot of middle grade but this seemed like an important book and a lot of people raved about it so I had to give it a try. I did enjoy it a lot but I don't think it's such a groundbreaking book. I mean yes, it talks about important issues and since it's written for children it will teach them about acceptance, but I feel like everything turns out too perfect in the end. I will not comment about the ending since I don't wanna give spoilers, but it felt forced and I didn't like it at all. Other than that, the book was well written and it was a quick and fluffy read. Great to take you out of a reading slump. I gave it 4 stars.

The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

In this powerful, labyrinthian thriller, David Martín is a pulp fiction writer struggling to stay afloat. Holed up in a haunting abandoned mansion in the heart of Barcelona, he furiously taps out story after story, becoming increasingly desperate and frustrated; thus, when he is approached by a mysterious publisher offering a book deal that seems almost too good to be real, David leaps at the chance. But as he begins the work, and after a visit to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, he realizes there is a connection between his book and the shadows that surround his dilapidated home and that the publisher may be hiding a few troubling secrets of his own. Once again, Ruiz Zafón ventures into a dark, gothic Barcelona and creates a breathtaking tale of intrigue, romance, and tragedy.*

This month I got the best news ever, that the fourth book in The Cemetery of Forgotten Books series is finally coming out in Romania. I've been waiting for this book for 5 years, and even though it came out in Spain in 2016, it hasn't been published in English or Romanian yet. So until its release next month, I decided to do a reread of the whole series. I already reread the first book, The Shadow of the Wind, a few months ago, so it was time to read the second one. The Angel's Game is not as amazing as the first book, but I do love it a lot. The way Zafon draws you into his stories is unique and I have fallen in love with Barcelona ever since I read his book. He actually made it my number one dream destination for a vacation. So of course I enjoyed rereading this book. I initially rated it 4 stars and kept this rating, even though I wanted to change it to 5 stars a few times. The only reason I'm keeping this rating is the fact that it has a slower first part. But other than that, it's really amazing!  

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

In a city far away, bombs and assassinations shatter lives every day. Yet, even here, hope renews itself, welling up through the rubble. Somewhere in this city, two young people are smiling, hesitating, sharing cheap cigarettes, speaking softly then boldly, falling in love.

As the violence worsens and escape feels ever more necessary, they hear rumour of mysterious black doors appearing all over the city, all over the world. To walk through a door is to find a new life – perhaps in Greece, in London, in California – and to lose the old one for ever . . .

What does it mean to leave your only home behind? Can you belong to many places at once? And when the hour comes and the door stands open before you – will you go?*

This little book was nominated for a bunch of awards (including the Man Booker) and I've heard a lot of good things about it. Sadly, it fell flat for me. I guess I have to live with the idea that true literary fiction is not for me. These kinds of books feel so distant and pretentious that I just can't get into them. The writing in this is very elaborate, with sentences that span over half a page. It talks about important themes, some of which are quite interesting, but it fails to make you care. I actually debated on giving it 4 stars, since it's not a bad book, but then I realized that finishing it felt like a chore and the only thing that encouraged me was its shortness. It's only a little over 200 pages, which is why I read it in under 2 days. The moral of the story is that I shouldn't build such high expectations for books. In the end I gave this one 3 stars. 

Not pictured, but also read: 

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Even if Blue hadn't been told her true love would die if she kissed him, she would stay away from boys. Especially the ones from the local private school. Known as Raven Boys, they only mean trouble.

But this is the year that everything will change for Blue.

This is the year that she will be drawn into the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys. And the year Blue will discover that magic does exist.

This is the year she will fall in love.*

I always say that I'm not a big YA fantasy reader, but somehow BookTube and Bookstagram convinced me to pick this one up. Many people love this and say that the writing is beautiful, which is true. However, I just couldn't get into it. Listening to this, I found out that I'm not interested in spirits and the paranormal. I've enjoyed a few horror books with paranormal elements, but that's because they were written by Stephen King, and his writing is such a comforting thing for me. With this one I felt uninterested for most of the book. I couldn't empathize with the characters and the only reason I finished it is the beautiful writing and the fact that it was on audio. It was also narrated by a man, which felt weird since it was a book written from a female perspective by a female author. I gave this 3 stars but I will definitely not continue with this series. I still have a few YA fantasy series that I wanna try though and hope I will like some of them.

Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo

Yejide and Akin have been married since they met and fell in love at university. Though many expected Akin to take several wives, he and Yejide have always agreed: polygamy is not for them. But four years into their marriage--after consulting fertility doctors and healers, trying strange teas and unlikely cures--Yejide is still not pregnant. She assumes she still has time--until her family arrives on her doorstep with a young woman they introduce as Akin's second wife. Furious, shocked, and livid with jealousy, Yejide knows the only way to save her marriage is to get pregnant, which, finally, she does, but at a cost far greater than she could have dared to imagine. An electrifying novel of enormous emotional power, Stay With Me asks how much we can sacrifice for the sake of family.*

This is a book that wasn't even on my tbr, but I saw it in the 2 for 1 sale on Audible and decided to pick it up because there were so many people that raved about it. However, my expectations weren't that high and this book totally blew me away! This is a beautiful and heartbreaking story, but the way it is written is just so great. It is told from two perspectives and both are first person, which I love. Even though the timeline is quite linear, the author keeps adding elements to the story as the book goes on, which makes you change your mind about the characters and their actions as you read. You end up loving and hating them at the same time. The main characters are so complex and feel so real that you live through the story and can't put it down. Or in my case, can't help but listen to some more of the audiobook. The narration by Adjoa Andoh was amazing. I'm not sure how I would have handled the names and dialects if I had read this myself, plus this also has some short songs that were sung in the audiobook. I gave this 5 stars and I'm glad I own the audiobook because I will surely listen to it again in the future.

That is it for May. Hopefully June is just as good! Have a great summer!

*Source: Goodreads

May Mid-month Wrap-up

I have no idea how, but it's the middle of May. So far May has been a pretty good reading month as I've already finished 6 books, so I thought I would wrap them up now. Not sure if the second half of the month will be as good because I started working more now and I don't have as much time to read as I did in March and April. Anyway, here are the books! 

The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante

Here is the dazzling saga of two women, the brilliant, bookish Elena and the fiery uncontainable Lila. In this book, both are adults; life’s great discoveries have been made, its vagaries and losses have been suffered. Through it all, the women’s friendship, examined in its every detail over the course of four books, remains the gravitational center of their lives. Both women once fought to escape the neighborhood in which they grew up—a prison of conformity, violence, and inviolable taboos. Elena married, moved to Florence, started a family, and published several well-received books. But now, she has returned to Naples to be with the man she has always loved. Lila, on the other hand, never succeeded in freeing herself from Naples. She has become a successful entrepreneur, but her success draws her into closer proximity with the nepotism, chauvinism, and criminal violence that infect her neighborhood. Yet somehow this proximity to a world she has always rejected only brings her role as unacknowledged leader of that world into relief. For Lila is unstoppable, unmanageable, unforgettable!*

I postponed this for a few months but I finally had to finish the quadrilogy of My brilliant friend. This is the fourth and final one of the Neapolitan Novels, the one where Elena and Lila are adults, the one that offers closure to the whole story. As with the other novels, but even more so with this one, there are a lot of events happening, yet the focus isn't mainly on the events but on the reflections of the characters and on the effects of these events on them. I enjoyed this book a little less than the previous ones but I still loved it. The way Ferrante brings you close to her characters is so unique, you feel like you know their deepest feelings but at the same time you feel like parts of them remain completely hidden to you (like with Lila's character). Ferrante has also used some of the story in The Lost Daughter, her earlier novella that I read back in March, adding so much more to it. I was quite happy with how this quadrilogy ended, yet I can't help but feel sad because I will miss these characters. I will definitely revisit these books over the years and am very happy to have them in my collection. Like with the previous ones, I gave this book 5 shiny stars!

Fairia – o lume îndepărtată by Radu Pavel Gheo

My first Romanian book of the year! Unfortunately, this wasn't translated in English but the title pretty much translates to "Fairia-a far away world". This book was so unlike anything I ever read. It's a mix of science fiction, fantasy and fairy tales written in a postmodern style. It follows an expedition that lands on a foreign planet and the land is full of fantastic elements, so it definitely feels more like fantasy than sci-fi after the first few pages. It is a short book, so there isn't a lot of world building but I still enjoyed this quirky little book. Plus Radu Pavel Gheo is one of my favorite writers and I was happy to read something so different from what he usually writes. I gave this 4 stars.   

Războiul solomonarilor by Moni Stănilă

Not only was this Romanian book not translated in English, but it's a really fresh release, so fresh that it doesn't have any ratings on Goodreads yet. I decided not to rate this on there yet because my rating would have been the only one and I didn't want this to start with a 3 star rating, which is what I would give it. I was really excited about this book, so excited that I went to the bookstore to buy it as soon as it came out and started reading it immediately. It's a Romanian folklore inspired fantasy, something we don't have much of. The title translates to "The war of the Solomonars", a type of wizards that you can read more about here. Now, the premise of the book is great. It's a YA novel, aimed at readers aged 12 or older, the main character is 17 years old, so I don't understand why this book had to be so short (250 pages). The author wanted to do so much in this book, with such a complex world. The world building part is great, but there isn't much space for the actual war from the title. The war and the resolution of the war take place in the last 50 pages of the book, the rest of it being the description of the world and the story leading to the main story. There are many characters and many types of supernatural beings in the book that I would have loved to know more about. I really enjoyed this book and would have wanted so much more from it. The writing is beautiful and I really want to support Romanian authors, so I feel sorry that I didn't love this. Hope we get other stories set in this world! 

The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman

Combined for the first time here are Maus I: A Survivor's Tale and Maus II - the complete story of Vladek Spiegelman and his wife, living and surviving in Hitler's Europe. By addressing the horror of the Holocaust through cartoons, the author captures the everyday reality of fear and is able to explore the guilt, relief and extraordinary sensation of survival - and how the children of survivors are in their own way affected by the trials of their parents. A contemporary classic of immeasurable significance.*

I'm probably the last one on the planet to read this, but in my defense I only became interested in graphic novels a couple of months ago. This one needs no introduction because everyone has heard of it, it's on all the "best graphic novels" lists and it had also won a Pulitzer prize. Of course that all that is very well deserved. This was such a heartbreaking story, but the way it was delivered is absolutely brilliant. The author chose animals to portray his characters so they would feel a bit more distant and make the story more bearable, but for me it had the opposite effect. Plus the fact that the story is told in first person really draws you in. I couldn't put this down and read it in a day, so of course I had to give it 5 stars.

Not in the picture:

Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman

Twelve-year-old Emily is on the move again. Her family is relocating to San Francisco, home of her literary idol: Garrison Griswold, creator of the online sensation Book Scavenger, a game where books are hidden all over the country and clues to find them are revealed through puzzles. But Emily soon learns that Griswold has been attacked and is in a coma, and no one knows anything about the epic new game he had been poised to launch. Then Emily and her new friend James discover an odd book, which they come to believe is from Griswold and leads to a valuable prize. But there are others on the hunt for this book, and Emily and James must race to solve the puzzles Griswold left behind before Griswold's attackers make them their next target.*

One of the publishers in my country has a pretty great middle grade/YA series and this book is one of the newer ones they published. This seemed perfect for me because it's a "book about books". Even though I don't read much middle grade, there was something that drew me into this book and I'm happy to report that it didn't disappoint. It was such a cute middle grade with puzzles and books! I really enjoyed it. The only thing I didn't like was the fact that it was written in third person. It would have been more enjoyable had it been written in first person, but that's just my personal opinion. I also loved the fact that it's set in San Francisco, which is a city I haven't read much about. This is the first book in a series and the second and third books are out and have great reviews, so I will definitely continue reading. I read this as an ebook and gave it 4 stars. 

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Under the streets of London there's a place most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, knights in armour and pale girls in black velvet. This is the city of the people who have fallen between the cracks.

Richard Mayhew, a young businessman, is going to find out more than enough about this other London. A single act of kindness catapults him out of his workday existence and into a world that is at once eerily familiar and utterly bizarre. And a strange destiny awaits him down here, beneath his native city: neverwhere.*

What a delightful book! I was in the mood for fantasy this month and I think this book is what inspired it. It was also my first Neil Gaiman book and I was surprised by the beautiful writing. I hear that not all his books are written in the same way though, so I will have to discover his other books and see if I like him. The whimsical element is strong in this one, which makes it very unique in my opinion. There are tons of epic fantasy novels out there but I haven't found anything like this. Since it's set in London, it made me think of A darker shade of magic, a novel I read in March and didn't like as much as this one. Neil Gaiman has announced a sequel to Neverwhere and I just can't wait for it to come out! This was an audiobook and I gave it 5 well deserved stars.

That's it for now. Hope May will continue on this good reading streak!

*Source: Goodreads

April Mid-month Wrap-up

Hello! It's the middle of April and I already read 7 books! Well, two of them are graphic novels but I still counted them as books. So again, I decided to split this month's wrap up in two to make shorter posts. Here are the books I read so far in April:

The Professor by Charlotte Brontë

The Professor is Charlotte Brontës first novel, in which she audaciously inhabits the voice and consciousness of a man, William Crimsworth. Like Jane Eyre he is parentless; like Lucy Snowe in Villette he leaves the certainties of England to forge a life in Brussels. But as a man, William has freedom of action, and as a writer Brontë is correspondingly liberated, exploring the relationship between power and sexual desire.*

In February, I read Shirley and totally loved it, so I couldn't wait to pick up another book by Charlotte Brontë. This was the only one of her 4 novels that I hadn't read. It was published posthumously but was actually written before the other ones, so the writing is not as great as in her other works. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed this a lot. It was interesting to see her write from the perspective of a man. Some of the thoughts of the main character make him not very likable and the romance doesn't feel that real, so I only gave it 3.5 stars. I rounded it up to 4 stars on Goodreads because it's one of my favorite authors after all. I listened to this one as an audiobook, even though I have the physical copy as well.

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.*

This is a highly rated book that I didn't love as other people did. This is a heartbreaking story written very realistically, even brutally I would say. It's a very important book because it teaches people about the Soviet deportations following Western territory annexations during WWII. The fact that it is written as a YA novel is even more important, because it reaches people that would otherwise never find out about these events. I have read many reviews from people that mentioned that it was the first time they heard about what is described in this book. However, I didn't like the writing at all. I realize that YA novels are written in a simpler way but I have read many YA books that are beautifully written. This was just too simple and too distant, which prevented me from attaching to the characters. Even though the events described were extremely painful, I didn't feel too depressed or sad while reading. This could have been a tearjerker but ended up being a 3 star read for me.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads, driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into haves and have-nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity.*

The first reread of the year! I'm a huge huge fan of Steinbeck's books and have read pretty much every novel he has written. It's been quite a few years since I've read this masterpiece, so it was time for a reread and this time in English since the first time I read it translated in Romanian. It was a little hard for me because the dialog is in dialect and there were words I've never heard before, but I looked them up so it wasn't too bad. This took me about a week to read because it is a big book, but also because it must be enjoyed in small sips. It is quite an atmospheric read. As Steinbeck said:  "I've done my damnedest to rip a reader's nerves to rags." And he surely did! 5 shiny stars from me!

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down.*

Another book that everybody loved and I didn't. This was also the winner of last year's Goodreads awards in the fiction category so there must be something wrong with me because I don't understand why. There was nothing special about this book. It was easy to read, with a woven plot that seemed to perfectly adjust itself. Some of the coincidences in the book were almost ridiculous. I can't go too much into detail about the plot because it's sort of a mystery that unfolds itself as you read it. Some of the characters were ok, but I didn't see too much evolution in them. For me Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine  was so much better than this one. I plan on reading a few others from that category as well so we'll see what I think about those. I gave this one 3 stars.

Not in the picture:

Lady Mechanika, Vol.1: The Mystery of the Mechanical Corpse by Joe Benítez

The tabloids dubbed her "Lady Mechanika," the sole survivor of a mad scientist's horrific experiments which left her with mechanical limbs. Having no memory of her captivity or her former life, Lady Mechanika eventually built a new life for herself as an adventurer and private investigator, using her unique abilities to solve cases the proper authorities couldn't or wouldn't handle. But she never stopped searching for the answers to her own past. *

This is a very obscure graphic novel that I came across randomly on YouTube. The steampunk setting intrigued me and the graphics seemed gorgeous so I gave it a try. Since I'm new to graphic novels and comics in general, I don't have any experience with superhero ones but this one seems to be a very unusual one. It's really dark and mysterious, so I love it very much. I can't get enough of the amazing images in this comic! The plot is not bad either and I can't wait to read other stories because there are a bunch of volumes out at the moment and each one has a standalone plot. Did I mention this is steampunk with Victorian outfits and monsters? Definitely my cup of tea! I read it as an ebook and gave it 4 stars.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place. 

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. 

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them. *

With the movie being out at the end of last month, I had to read the book first because that's what I do if I'm interested enough. Again, many people love this book but I did not. It was an entertaining read and I can definitely admire the innovative aspect of it, unfortunately I got bored about half way through and found the second half quite predictable (including the ending). The world building part was amazing, which made me fly through the beginning of the book. I definitely liked the book so I gave it 3 stars. This was an ebook read. After seeing the movie I began to appreciate the book a bit more. I even debated on changing my rating to 4 stars but decided to leave it that way. They changed many things in the movie to make it more action packed and less geeky, things I loved in the book, and while I understand the reasons behind it, I felt a bit disappointed.

The Infinity Gauntlet (Infinity Saga #1) by Jim Starlin,  Ron Lim, George Pérez

For the dark Titan, Thanos, the Infinity Gauntlet was the Holy Grail, the ultimate prize to be coveted above all else. Now, on the edge of Armageddon and led by the mysterious Adam Warlock, Earth's super heroes join in a desperate attempt to thwart this nihilistic god's insane plunge into galactic self-destruction.*

The Infinity War movie is coming out at the end of this month, so I thought I would do something new, namely read the comic it was based on. I have seen many of the Marvel movies and I must say that the Avengers ones are my least favorite. The characters don't seem to be as complex and the back story isn't that interesting. That sort of happened with this comic as well. There are a ton of superheroes showing up here and it's really hard to keep track of all of them. My favorite part were the supreme beings that almost certainly won't show up in the movie. I enjoyed this but not quite as much as Lady Mechanika. It is an older comic though, so it's not as beautiful as the present day ones. This was an ebook and I gave it 3 (maybe 3.5) stars.

That's it for now. I'm not expecting the second half of April to be as prolific but I'm gonna do my best. Happy spring!

*Source: Goodreads

March Final Wrap-up

Hello! It's the end of March and I'm really pleased to announce that this month I finished 15 books. 15! So that's 3 books more than I read in the first two months of the year combined. I don't know what happened to me this month but I was in a great reading mood. I am now over 50% done with my reading goal for this year after only 3 months. In the second part of the month, I continued with my challenge of only reading books written by women. I found it hard after a while, not because there aren't enough women authors on my tbr, but because I'm such a mood reader and don't really stick to my tbr. It was frustrating to not be able to pick up a book I really wanted to read just because it had a male author. So yeah, the challenge was fun, but I'm glad it's over. In this second part of March I discovered graphic novels, which contributed to the length of this list, because they are faster reads. There aren't many books pictured below because I read many ebooks and listened to a couple of audiobooks as well. Anyway, here are the rest of March's reads!

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black. *

Oh, how I wanted to love this book! I was really excited to start reading it and set it aside for a weekend so I would have time to binge read it. Sadly, after reading almost 150 pages of it on a Saturday, I got bored, so bored that I had to take a mini break and read something else (Persepolis) for a day or so. This is not a bad book at all, it just wasn't for me. The writing is good and easy to follow, the details of the world are really interesting and stuff does happen in it. It isn't that long either, not like other fantasy books. However, the characters felt uninteresting to me and I was just not curious to find out what happened next. I also feel like most of the action is packed in the last 100 pages or so, with little stuff happening in the first parts of the book. I know a lot of people love this one so I'm glad I gave it a try. It's especially good for people that are new to fantasy because it's under 400 pages and it does have a YA vibe to it (new adult, maybe). I'm not sure if I will continue this series because some people say that this is the best one, although others seem to think that the next books are better. I gave this 3 stars.

The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante

Leda, a middle-aged divorce, is alone for the first time in years when her daughters leave home to live with their father. Her initial, unexpected sense of liberty turns to ferocious introspection following a seemingly trivial occurrence.*

Here's a quick read that comes from one of my favorite female writers. This short novel (novella?) is an earlier work of Ferrante's, published before the Neapolitan Novels and in it I can see some of the themes and stories she later developed in those brilliant books. It's basically a meditation, written in first person as her other novels, of a woman who ponders upon her condition as a mother and as an individual. I am not a mother myself, so I couldn't identify with her thoughts, but I can understand her feelings so I really liked this book. As with all of Ferrante's novels, the writing is amazing. It really brings you close to the character that is telling the story, you feel you know her deepest thoughts, even those she is trying to hide from the world. Now I can't wait to read the last of the Neapolitan Novels. I gave this one 4 stars.

 Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby she ignores her sister Elinor's warning that her impulsive behaviour leaves her open to gossip and innuendo. Meanwhile Elinor, always sensitive to social convention, is struggling to conceal her own romantic disappointment, even from those closest to her. Through their parallel experience of love—and its threatened loss—the sisters learn that sense must mix with sensibility if they are to find personal happiness in a society where status and money govern the rules of love.*

A few years ago I decided to read all of Jane Austen's works in chronological order and this one is the first. My only previous experience with her books was Emma, read by me in high school and not quite enjoyed at the time. So I tried to read this one as an ebook on my phone, on my ebook reader and I also bought it as a paperback. I kept picking it up and putting it down after one or two chapters, until I finally dropped it for good at about one third of the way. I decided to try again, this time with the help of an audiobook, hoping that it would be easier to get through. It was quite enjoyable to listen to and quite relaxing, but I still didn't like the book, especially the first part. The characters were really annoying and their issues seemed so "first world problem" to me, that I just couldn't get into the story, didn't care about the outcome and felt happy it was over. The only thing that saved this book was the good writing and that's why I gave it 3 stars. I will still continue with the next Jane Austen novel (Pride and Prejudice) because I really want to have an opinion about her books. So far, they are not my favorites.

Also finished, but not in the picture:

The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan

Nina Redmond is a literary matchmaker. Pairing a reader with that perfect book is her passion… and also her job. Or at least it was. Until yesterday, she was a librarian in the hectic city. But now the job she loved is no more.

Determined to make a new life for herself, Nina moves to a sleepy village many miles away. There she buys a van and transforms it into a bookmobile—a mobile bookshop that she drives from neighborhood to neighborhood, changing one life after another with the power of storytelling.*

This is a story about how I got tricked into reading a romance book, which is a genre I don't enjoy at all. I found this book on a magical realism list and since it was a "book about books", I decided to give it a try. There's absolutely no magical realism in this one and it's more of a book about inexistent books. Instead of writing about books she enjoys, the author invents a bunch of books to talk about. Why? There are so many things wrong with this novel that I would have to write an entire post about it. The story is predictable and bland, like a really bad romantic comedy (and not a funny one). There were many cliches that made me cringe, like the character of the librarian that dreams about characters in books or the two romantic interests (of course it's a triangle). Her talent of matching people to the books they like seems to consist in finding a book that is exactly about their life, which I don't think is a talent at all. I mean why do all these people only want to read about themselves instead of escaping to different places and times? I would carry on but I'm only going to say one more thing. The people in this book are British but they all talk like Americans, except for a couple of "knickers" inserted here and there. This was a quick read, I read it as an ebook and I did manage to finish it so I gave it 2 stars to reward myself for the effort.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Persepolis is the story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming--both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.*

My first graphic novel! I've heard a lot about this one and since it's written by a woman, it had to be the first one I tried in this genre. Well technically graphic novels are not a genre, because they have their own genres like books do and this one is a memoir so it's non fiction. It has two volumes but I read them as a whole and counted them as one book. I was very interested in the part about the Islamic Revolution in Iran, yet it ended up being my least favorite volume (even though it was great too), while the second part about exile and life after the revolution I absolutely loved. Satrapi's work talks about the condition of immigrants, about the role of women in Islamic society and the way religion shapes their lives in a way that I never thought of before. My first experience with a graphic novel was a brilliant one and it made me look for other ones that are must reads. I read this as an ebook and gave it 5 beautiful stars.

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

Meet Alison's father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family's Victorian home, a third-generation funeral home director, a high school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with his male students and a family babysitter. Through narrative that is alternately heartbreaking and fiercely funny, we are drawn into a daughter's complex yearning for her father. And yet, apart from assigned stints dusting caskets at the family-owned "fun home," as Alison and her brothers call it, the relationship achieves its most intimate expression through the shared code of books.

When Alison comes out as homosexual herself in late adolescence, the denouement is swift, graphic — and redemptive.*

This was the second graphic novel of the month. There are many I want to read, but since I wanted to only read books written by women in March, I decided to read this one because many people recommended it. It's also a memoir, like Persepolis, but one that talks about sexual identity and the relationship of the author with her father. I quite enjoyed this book. My only issue with it is that the author relies too much on comparisons with classic literature to deliver her message. Don't get me wrong, I love books about books, but this wasn't supposed to be one of those. I would have liked to know more about her feelings without a parallel to heavy books (that I haven't even read). This way the book felt somehow distant and I couldn't get into it properly. It's why it took me 3 days to read, whereas Persepolis took me less than a day. I read this one as an ebook and gave it 4 stars. The graphic part was amazing!

Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

Bridget Jones's Diary is the devastatingly self-aware, laugh-out-loud account of a year in the life of a thirty-something Singleton on a permanent doomed quest for self-improvement. Caught between the joys of Singleton fun, and the fear of dying alone and being found three weeks later half eaten by an Alsatian; tortured by Smug Married friends asking, "How's your love life?" with lascivious, yet patronizing leers, Bridget resolves to: reduce the circumference of each thigh by 1.5 inches, visit the gym three times a week not just to buy a sandwich, form a functional relationship with a responsible adult and learn to program the VCR.*

First reread of the year! I was sort of in a reading slump and wanted to pick up something light and funny, so I ended up rereading this. I read it many years ago and since I've seen the movie a few times in the meantime, I totally forgot about the differences between the book and the movie. All in all, I really like this book, despite its many issues. I can understand why some people hate it, because it mentions weight and body image issues so much, but I don't see it that way because you don't have to approve of everything a character thinks to like a book. I think in the end the moral of the story is that her weight doesn't matter at all, but maybe people fail to grasp that. I liked this more than the first time I read it, probably because I'm older now. This was also an ebook and I gave it 4 stars.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond's big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one. *

Oh man, this book! Even though I expected to like this a lot, it still surprised me. I rarely am impressed by a book and this one impressed me a lot. It was such a breath of fresh air! Both funny and heartbreaking at the same time. The character of Eleanor was extremely relatable, even though she seemed a horrible human being in the beginning of the book. I really feel sorry for the people that started the book and never finished it, they lost a lot. I listened to it as an audiobook and the narration was amazing, but I now wanna get it as a physical book so I can have it on my shelves, reread it and maybe annotate it one day. I gave it 5 stars. One of my favorite reads of the year for sure!

This was March. I am already in the middle of a couple of books that will count as April reads, so I'm not too worried about next month. Hope April is a good one too!

*Source: Goodreads