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

February Wrap-up

Winter is over! Well, not quite because it's freezing outside, but it's the last day of February so it must be over soon. February is a shorter month and I also was away for a few days and couldn't read too much, but I still managed to read 6 books like last month. Or rather I should say that I finished 6 books because I made progress with a few others. I think that this month I read a lot more pages than in January so I'm really happy. I'm trying to finish at least one big book every month, but this is a newer resolution that I didn't have in January so I have to catch up soon. Here are the books I finished this month!

The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro

Newlywed Grace Monroe doesn’t fit anyone’s expectations of a successful 1950s London socialite, least of all her own. When she receives an unexpected inheritance from a complete stranger, Madame Eva d’Orsey, Grace is drawn to uncover the identity of her mysterious benefactor.*

This is another historical fiction novel that has been on my 'to read' list for a few years. It was one of those books that I occasionally checked in sales and I finally bought it, without it being on sale, a couple of months ago. I liked it, wanted to love it, but didn't. I wouldn't call this a disappointment, yet I can't hope but feel that my expectations haven't been met. I don't want to give too many details about this book because mystery is part of it, but I found it a bit predictable at times. The perfume descriptions were quite nice and it had a nice period atmosphere, which made it a quick and pleasant read. One of my biggest problems was that I didn't really like the character of Grace, I found her quite spoiled and flat, nothing special. The other characters I quite enjoyed though. There's also a bit of romance in here if you are interested in that kind of stuff. I would have given it 3 and a half stars, but since there are no halves on Goodreads I rounded it up to 4 stars because I liked it more than my other 3 star reads.

Big Mama's Funeral by Gabriel García Márquez

The first short story collection of the month comes from one of my favorite writers. I am a huge García Márquez fan and have read almost all of his books. One that I hadn't read before is this collection of eight short stories from 1962, one of his early works that hasn't been available in my country until recently. I'm not very keen on short story collections and I've been known to leave some unfinished because I got bored, yet I've always enjoyed this author's short stories. I have two of his other collections in my library that I have read many times and enjoyed. It's probably because they are written in his amazing magical realism style that I love. What I don't like about short stories is that there is no time for the development of characters and the plot is more of a tiny scene that often leaves me unsatisfied. This, however, doesn't happen with García Márquez' stories because his style makes them more of an atmosphere piece and you don't really care about the plot, being distracted by the beautiful descriptions. Somehow he does manage to give the plots meaning also, which often leaves you puzzled and wanting to reread the story as soon as you finish it. For me his books are the escape from reality that no other fiction or fantasy book can give me. Naturally, I had to give this one 5 stars.

Shirley by Charlotte Brontë

Following the tremendous popular success of Jane Eyre, which earned her lifelong notoriety as a moral revolutionary, Charlotte Brontë vowed to write a sweeping social chronicle that focused on "something real and unromantic as Monday morning." Set in the industrializing England of the Napoleonic wars and Luddite revolts of 1811-12, Shirley (1849) is the story of two contrasting heroines. One is the shy Caroline Helstone, who is trapped in the oppressive atmosphere of a Yorkshire rectory and whose bare life symbolizes the plight of single women in the nineteenth century. The other is the vivacious Shirley Keeldar, who inherits a local estate and whose wealth liberates her from convention.*

This was by far my favorite read of the month. My history with Charlotte Bronte started in middle school, when I first forced myself to read Jane Eyre. It took me about a year to finish, I didn't like it and categorized it as a boring book. A few years ago I decided to give it another try and absolutely loved it. After that, I picked up the rest of Brontë's books, read Villette, which was also great and took a big break until now, when the classic mood hit me and made me try this one. It's a big book of over 600 pages and not quite easy to read, especially for a non-native speaker like me, yet I went through this quickly because it was amazing. There's a little bit of everything in here, from romance to politics, history and feminism. Charlotte Brontë's writing is incredible and her commentary is witty, funny and insightful. If you enjoyed Jane Eyre, you will probably love this but if you didn't you should still give this a try cause it might surprise you. 5 out of 5 stars for me.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna.*

Whenever I'm in the mood for reading YA, I go to my sister's bookshelf and pick something from there. I've been wanting to read this for a while and it also counted for Black History Month, plus it seemed like a cute and quick read. I ended up dragging it for over a week and only finished it because I wanted to have a sixth book finished by the end of the month. Otherwise, I would have probably struggled with it for another week or so. I know many people like this book but for me it was slow, predictable and boring at times. Although I enjoyed the writing style, the story was just not interesting to me. I often felt like I didn't care what was happening next and that's why I had to force myself to pick it up and read from it. I gave it 2.5 stars but rounded up to 3 on Goodreads because I enjoyed the writing style and I learned a few things about beekeeping that I didn't know.

Books not pictured that I also finished:

Uncommon Type: Some Stories by Tom Hanks

Ok, so here comes a review that is probably biased. I am a huge fan of Tom Hanks and when I heard that he wrote a book I had to read it. Then I also found out that the audiobook was narrated by Tom Hanks himself, which made me immediately sign up for Audible just to get it. And then I listened to it in about 4 days and loved it. I realize that this book of short stories doesn't have huge value from a literary point of view and I'm also not a big reader of short stories, but I think that the fact that I enjoyed them makes them special. The stories are very different from each other, one recurring theme is the typewriter, hence the title of this collection. It seems that Tom Hanks himself wrote this book on a vintage typewriter. What I really love about these stories is how familiar they all feel. I felt like I knew these characters and that rarely happens in my experience with short stories. The fact that they were also narrated by one of my favorite actors made them even more special. I gave this 4 (maybe even 4.5) stars. 

The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells

This masterpiece of science fiction is the fascinating story of Griffin, a scientist who creates a serum to render himself invisible, and his descent into madness that follows.*

I started this (pretty short) novel as an ebook on the first day of the year on my phone. Since I don't read much on my phone, I didn't make a lot of progress with it until I decided to download it to my ebook reader and finally finish it. This is supposed to be one of the first science fiction books ever written, but for me it was very disappointing. Except for two or three pages of (pretty questionable) science, the whole book seemed like a narration of a Laurel and Hardy movie to me. The only reason I finished it was because it was so short and I wanted to see where it ended up, needless to say I didn't enjoy the ending either. I gave this a generous rating of 2 stars, because it has the excuse that it's and old book and it tries to describe something that was probably hard to conceive back then. I still want to try some other H.G. Wells books in the hope of finding something I enjoy more, but this one was not for me.

So these are the books I managed to finish this month. I also made progress with the audiobook of The Count of Monte Cristo, a massive 50 hour listen that I'm about half way through. In terms of big books, I've read about two thirds of Steven King's Under the Dome and will finish it in March. I also started the audiobook of the first Harry Potter today because, believe it or not, I have never read those books in my life. So yeah, I love reading. Happy March!

*Source: Goodreads

January Wrap-up

Hello hello! It's the first of February, so it's time to make the first wrap-up of the year. January was a really great month for reading, probably because I had a lot of free time and was in the reading mood most of the time. I am very happy that I'm more than on track with my challenge. I read 6 books this month, which means I'm roughly one book ahead, although Goodreads is telling me it's 2. None of these books was massive, but some of them were pretty thick. I read half of them in Romanian and half in English, depending on how they were available to me. Let's see what they are!   

The Accusation: Forbidden Stories from Inside North Korea by Bandi

The Accusation is a deeply moving and eye-opening work of fiction that paints a powerful portrait of life under the North Korean regime. Set during the period of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il’s leadership, the seven stories that make up The Accusation give voice to people living under this most bizarre and horrifying of dictatorships.*

This was the first book I finished this year, mainly because I was really curious about it and took a break from the other book I was reading to finish it in just about a day. When I first heard about this book I was quite intrigued and wanted to get it immediately. It' a book of short stories that was smuggled out of the country. The author is anonymous, Bandi is a pseudonym that means "firefly" in Korean. To be honest, I was really disappointed by this book. Yes, it has a lot of historical value and it teaches people about life in a totalitarian regime, especially if they have no idea about it, but the writing is not great at all. It's very simple and doesn't have literary value from my point of view. There were a few shocking moments in the book, even for somebody that lives in a previously communist country, like myself. The characters seem to accept their fate most of the time and at the same time have very dramatic reactions without trying to rebel against the regime. I guess this is a valuable read for many people and it's a really quick one, so you should give it a chance if you are interested in the subject. Compared to the other books I have previously read, I didn't like it and couldn't give it more than 3 stars. 

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the stunningly beautiful instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.*

I suppose this one needs no introduction. It's a huge bestseller with many awards, including the Pulitzer Prize. I am a big fan of historical fiction, so it was on my list for ages and I finally got to it. I liked it a lot and gave it 4 stars. The writing style is great and even though it's broken off in short chapters, jumping through the different time periods and characters, it didn't feel broken and had a nice continuity to me. I feel that the pace is a bit slower throughout the book, without major events but rather important moments being described. A thing that is very important to me in a historical fiction book is the atmosphere and this book did a great job creating that. The characters are also great and you really feel like you know them by the end of the book. The only reason I gave it 4 stars is that I always compare my reads and I didn't like this as much as my 5 star reads. 

  

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

From prize-winning, bestselling author Colson Whitehead, a magnificent tour de force chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South
Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape.*

Another historical fiction and another Pulitzer Prize winner, this time the one from 2017. Again, I really liked this book, but it wasn't a favorite so I gave it 4 stars. I think it's very important to point out that this is a work of fiction with a historical setting, rather than a true account of historical events. For people like me, who don't know a lot about slavery and that time period in America, it's really had to know fiction from reality. Other than that, I liked the writing style and the character of Cora was really well built, although I feel like the other characters weren't. I guess the author wanted to focus on his main character and not so much on the rest. All in all, this was a really entertaining read for me, but I'm not sure if it actually taught me something about the true history of those times. 

 Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante

In this third Neapolitan novel, Elena and Lila, the two girls whom readers first met in My Brilliant Friend, have become women. Lila married at sixteen and has a young son; she has left her abusive husband and now works as a common laborer. Elena has left the neighborhood, earned her college degree, and published a successful novel, all of which have opened the doors to a world of learned interlocutors and richly furnished salons.*

This is the 3rd part in the "Neapolitan Novels" series, also known as "My brilliant friend" ("L'amica geniale") series. Now here we are talking favorites. I had to give this 5 stars, even though I liked it a bit less than the first two parts. Nonetheless, it's still an amazing book. I read the first two parts last December and even though they have about 400 pages, I flew right through them. These books are so well written that any words of mine about them would not be praise enough. They are books written by a woman about women, but I don't think they are intended to be exclusively for women at all. The story is full of authenticity and the characters are so real that you really feel that you know them. The third book has less action than the first two and I feel it's more introspective, but I didn't get bored at all and actually am behind on sleep because I stayed up late every night to read it. I only have one book from this series left to read but I'm trying to postpone it so it doesn't end so quickly. Really great writing! 

The other two books that I read this month and don't have a picture of:

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

The Castle of Otranto is a 1764 novel by Horace Walpole. It is generally held to be the first gothic novel, initiating a literary genre which would become extremely popular in the later 18th century and early 19th century. Thus, Castle, and Walpole by extension is arguably the forerunner to such authors as Ann Radcliffe, Bram Stoker, Daphne du Maurier, and Stephen King.*

I listened to this one as an audiobook and it was quite short, so it's another quick read. I'm trying to get more into Gothic novels this year, so I started with this one and also purchased The Monk and Dracula (which would be a re-read). This one was one of the first Gothic novels, being written in 1764 so it should be interpreted according to its period. Many people have rated it really low because of the cheap intrigue it contains, but I gave it 3 stars because I quite liked the writing style, which made it really great as an audiobook. I also found myself laughing quite often and I'm not sure if that's what the author intended, but a little amusement while reading a book can never hurt. All in all, I think it's good to read this if you are interested in the genre, especially to see the evolution of the Gothic novel and what people regarded as a bestseller at the time. 

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweller, detective, vegan, and collector of butterflies. When his father is killed in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centre, Oskar sets out to solve the mystery of a key he discovers in his father's closet. It is a search which leads him into the lives of strangers, through the five boroughs of New York, into history, to the bombings of Dresden and Hiroshima, and on an inward journey which brings him ever closer to some kind of peace.* 

I read this one in a paperback format in Romanian but forgot to take a picture before I gave it to my mom. I liked it back when I read it and gave it 4 stars. The reviews on Goodreads are very one sided, people either loved it or gave it one star, so it's really hard for me to not get influenced by what I read there. If i had to define this book with one word it would be "intense". For most of it I had the impression that somebody was shouting it at me in a very quick pace. So yeah, the title is quite fitting. There are parts of this book that are incredibly touching and others that seem fake or just nonsense. I'm not a fan of gimmicks like pictures or empty pages in books, so that's why I couldn't give this 5 stars. If you are in the mood for an easy read that has also a bit of meaning go for it. 

I'm really happy with my January reading month. Hopefully the next ones will be just as good and I will meet my goal at the end of the year. I also started another audiobook, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, which is very long and will take me ages to listen to, and an e-book of The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells that I'm reading on my phone so only sporadically. I think it's important to have options so you can do your reading while out and about or while doing your house work. And now it's time to pick my first read of February. Hope it's a good one!

*Source: Goodreads