Book Haul #1

I wasn’t going to buy any books today, I was just going to get a new bed (which I also did) but then I walked past both the book store and the library and I’m weak.

I ended up buying only the books that aren’t on my immediate wish list, because my birthday is on Thursday and I didn’t want to get something that someone else might have gotten for me already.

So without further ado.

Library

From the library I got Saga volume 1-4. Yaaaay, I’ve wanted to read these for ages but I could never find them when I went to the library before. Turns out I’d missed a shelf in the back that also had comic books. I hope I’ll love these as much as other people do, but if not I won’t have spent any money on them so no worries!

Book store

I caved and got this edition of Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I’ve refused to buy this for a long time because I hate these covers, I want the US ones, god damn it. But getting those from amazon would light my wallet on fire because of the shipping so fine, I give up. I better like this book now, hah. 

Then I got Attachments and Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. I wasn’t a fan of Fangirl, but I’m giving her a couple more chances. Plus I love these covers so much so even if I hate them I won’t be getting rid of them. I love the texture of Attachments, it’s all rough and nice.

My “book hauls” are almost always three books at a time because this book store almost always has a 3 for the price of 2 on English books. And I fall for it every time I step into the store, damn it. 

So that’s it. Which of these should I read first? 😀

My Favorite Childhood Reads

I was thinking about what to post and I realized I really want to draw some attention to what I liked as a child. I used to go to the library all the time with my mom and borrow all kinds of books. Sadly I don’t remember every single book I read as a kid, but I remember some of the ones that stood out to me.

I can’t guarantee these books are books that I, or anyone my age, would still love today. I haven’t reread any of these since childhood so I really can’t say. But I have good feelings associated with all these books, they forever have a place in my heart. The only reason Harry Potter is not on this list is because while I read the third book at the age of maybe 12, I didn’t get really into the books until I was 14.

This list is in no particular order.  

The Face on the Milk Carton (Janie Johnson #1)

The Face on the Milk Carton (1990) by Caroline B. Cooney was a book I really really loved. I also read the sequel, Whatever Happened to Janie?(1993) and I loved that too but the first one was my favorite. The series has a total of 5 books where the last one actually was released in 2013. Huh. I have no idea if there will be more. And I had no idea this was made into a movie, holy shit. Must watch and cry from nostalgia. 

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I got both these books in the mail through a book club I was a member of and I was probably around 12/13 when I read these. On Goodreads they’re categorized both as young adult and middle grade, and it’s a mystery series about a girl who one day sees a picture of herself as a small child on a milk carton, and realizes that her loving parents kidnapped her. I highly recommend these (at least the first one) for any young person who loves a good mystery. It’s definitely not necessary to read the entire series.

Secrets in the fire (Sofia #1)

This is a book that I reread several times. Secrets in the Fire (1995. Eng. version 2003) by Swedish author Henning Mankell really stuck with me. I never read any of the other books in the series but I kind of want to. I can’t really tell you what exactly made me love this book so much, all I can say is that I really did. 

It’s a short novel set in Mozambique, Africa. 12 year old Sofia (I think she was 12, but I’m not sure) and her two siblings are driven away from their village by bandits. They run to safety, but then Sofia steps on a landmine that takes her legs. The story is mostly about her recovery and her journey towards adulthood. It’s based on the true story about Sofia Alface. I believe this, and books like it, are important reads for children. 

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Review: More Than This by Patrick Ness

MORE THAN THIS by Patrick Ness
Published by: Candlewick Press
on September 1st 2013
Pages: 472
Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Post-Apocalyptic, LGBTQIA
Buy: Amazon | Book Depository
Rating:

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“Here is the boy, drowning.”

This book starts with the main character drowning. Yep, he dies. That’s not a spoiler because that’s there in the very first sentence. Seth is a 16 year old boy and he drowns in the ocean. And then he wakes up, bruised and thirsty but seemingly alive. Where is he? And how did he get here? 

You shouldn’t go into this book knowing anything more about it than that. I knew nothing more than that and I’d have been a bit angry if I did, because the thing that makes this book so good and so exciting is not knowing what the hell is going on. Did he actually die? And if he did, why and how is he here? Is he in hell? Heaven? Or somewhere else entirely? And why was Seth in the ocean in the first place? 

This book is so. good. I was hooked from the very beginning on both the plot and the writing. It’s a survival story and I love those. It keeps you guessing. It keeps you scratching your head and asking yourself “how??” “why??” I personally love that about books, as I’ve previously said in my review of The Knife of Never Letting Go, also by Patrick Ness.

More Than This is split into 4 parts and while the first part might come across as slow to some, that first part was my favorite. I found it intense, engaging, and quite terrifying in its utter desolation. In the second part things changes, and you might have to reconsider your theories on what’s going on. You will have to do that a lot while reading this. 

The characters in this novel are great too. It alternates between present time and flashbacks to Seth’s life before, dealing with his family and friends, where we find out about a tragedy from his childhood that has shaped his entire life. Tomasz is one character that I really liked. What a cutie-patootie.

Another thing I really loved is the casual homosexuality in this book. It’s very matter-of-fact, like it should be, no big deal. 

This book has a pretty open ending and while I liked how it ended I’d kill for a sequel. You’ll find out why that is if you read this book, which you should. John Green says it best in the blurb: “Just read it.”

Have you read this one or other Patrick Ness books? Have your read anything similar to this, because if so I want it right now. 

The Unpopular Opinions Book Tag

This tag was created by TheBookArcher. 

A few weeks back I watched pretty much all the unpopular opinions book tag videos on youtube. All right so I binge watched them when I was supposed to be writing my MA thesis, whatever. I love them. Though most of the time I laugh at the people clutching their pearls in the comments, I have resorted to some pearl clutching on my own, especially if it involves someone not liking Harry Potter…….. how dare you. 

Anyway, even though this tag is pretty old by now and everyone’s done it I’m itching to do it myself so here we go.

A popular book/series that you didn’t like

WHERE TO BEGIN. Cinder by Marissa Meyer was the first one that popped into my head because it’s a very popular book that I found meh. It was all right, I didn’t hate it, but I definitely didn’t love it either. I gave this 2.5 out of 5 stars. I could also add Fangirl [read my full length review], Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children [read my full length review], Looking For Alaska, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Thirteen Reasons Why, The Hobbit… A lot of these fit the “meh” category but I still think they count because I’m left feeling basically nothing for them. And I have to add Fifty Shades of Grey, because it’s legit the worst book I have ever attempted to read in my entire life. Kill it with fire. Though hating that book is hardly an unpopular opinion even though a loooot of people love it for some strange reason. 

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A popular book or series that everyone else seems to hate but you love

.Mockingjay. I’m not going to claim that “everyone” hates this book, but a lot of people tend to either dislike or just like it less than the previous two. I really liked it, I gave it 4/5 stars. At first I was a bit miffed about the ending (you know, the epilogue) but after thinking about it, and writing an MA thesis on it, I’ve come to the conclusion that it ended really well and it made sense with Katniss’s character. If you’d like to know more about that then I’d consider writing a post about it and try to keep it short and not just recreate the chapter from my thesis. Just let me know in the comments. 

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Review: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN by Ransom Riggs
Series: Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children #1
Published by: Quirk Books
on January 1st 2011
Pages: 352
Genres: Young Adult, Horror, Fantasy
Buy: Amazon | Bookdepository
Rating:

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SUMMARY

Sixteen year old Jacob has throughout his life been told fantastical stories about the house where his grandfather grew up, a house on a remote island in Wales filled with children with special powers. One kid is invisible, another has bees coming out of his mouth, another (as seen on the cover) can levitate, etc. Jacob’s parents and his psychologist try to convince him his grandfather’s tales are just make-belief, but Jacob needs to know. He leaves with his father to go to Wales to uncover the mystery. Does the house exist? Did the children? Who is Miss Peregrine?

I’m going to start off this review saying that this book really disappointed me. It didn’t do what it promised. I’m very very reluctantly placing it in the “horror” genre because it read more like a much less compelling Gone by Michael Grant with a few pictures thrown in there because they look cool. 

I bought this book back in 2012 because of the cover and the title, because both things promised me horror with creepy children. Creepy children are the best. They aren’t creepy. At all. That wouldn’t even have been a problem if the book hadn’t lied to me and pretended they were. Like I said I bought this in 2012 but I didn’t read it until this summer because by then I’d heard some things about how not scary it is. I was still disappointed even with that in mind because the whole format of the book just didn’t work. Don’t judge a book by its cover, kids.

The book consists of a mix of both text and pictures, like the one you see on the cover. The pictures are supposed to accompany the story, but I don’t think they were very seamlessly woven in at all. Sometimes the introduction of a picture felt forced. I could tell, even without consulting google first, that the author had intended this to just be a collection of some awesome pictures he’d collected but then was told he should write a story around them instead. I could tell. I wasn’t convinced at all.

The characters were all quite flat. I can’t really say much about them because they weren’t anything special. They all seemed to talk in the same voice too no matter if they were 5 of 18 years old.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography,Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.
– Goodreads

Spine-tingling? No. No no nooo. Haunting vintage photographs? Sure. Delight adults and teens? Some maybe, but the entire time I read this I just felt like it comes across a lot younger than young adult. I’d say I would have enjoyed it when I was around 11-12 years old and read a lot of Goosebumps.

I quite liked the story up until a bit past the point where Jacob got to the house on the island. Up until then the atmosphere was quite eerie and mysterious (I also liked the gloomy Wales setting), but that all disappeared pretty quickly and it became a bit of a chore to finish. 

The only reason I want to read Hollow City is to figure out what happened to one of the characters and if she will be all right. Though I don’t really feel like trudging through the entire book just for that, so I don’t know. I’ll probably pass.

All in all this book has a great concept that unfortunately didn’t work. The pictures are great, some are even really creepy, but it all falls flat when you compare it to the actual story written around them.

I’m looking forward to the movie adaptation though (yasss Tim Burton), maybe it’ll be better.

I’m so sad because I really wanted this book to be good. Have you read it, what did you think? I know I’m not alone in having this opinion but a lot of people rave about it too. Do you know any books about actual spooky children?

Book Cover Guessing Challenge

Another incredibly fun tag that I couldn’t resist when I saw it on Kimsiang’s blog LazyCaramelReads. It was created by Trey Schnarr Books. Check out both their blogs 🙂

RULES:

• Find books (typically well known) that you know little or nothing about and guess what they are about based on the cover and title
• Compare it with the actual blurb

I think you can pick how many books you want to do, it wasn’t specified in the original challenge post.

I’m a pretty curious person so whenever a book gets really hyped up I tend to go over to goodreads and read the blurb and scan over some reviews, so I know the basics about a lot of books. Some I have forgotten what they are about though, and some I just never bothered to check out for some reason, so here are 5 books I know very little to nothing about. I will try to come up with more detailed guesses so it becomes more fun to read. 

One Lovely Blog Award

This is my first blog award so thank you to Cristina @ My Tiny Obsessions for the nomination 🙂

Rules

• You must thank the person who nominated you and include a link to their blog.
• You must list the rules and display the award.
• You must add 7 facts about yourself.
• You must nominate 15 other bloggers and comment on one of their posts to let them know they have been nominated.
• You must display the award logo and follow the blogger who nominated you. (not really…)

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