March 2017 Wrap-Up

It’s April already! How did that happen? It’s still winter where I live, but hopefully it’ll be spring soon because I’m really feeling like spring. 

The titles take you to the book’s Goodreads page or my review if I have one. 

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The Nightmare

by Lars Kepler

Lars Kepler is a Swedish couple writing under one pseudonym, and this is the second book from them that I’ve read. Scandinavians really like detective fiction. I liked it, especially the beginning, but it lost me a bit towards the end. I prefer my crime stories to be “smaller” if that makes sense, more personal. The moment it’s about some big corporations or businesses or something like that I’m like eh. 

2/5 stars

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Blue Lily, Lily Blue
by Maggie Stiefvater

I don’t have much to say about this series that I haven’t already said. I love it. I love the characters so much. My favorite is still Gansey, I don’t know, he’s just charmed the hell out of me. Ronan is a close second and Ronan is more my type of character, so usually this character would be my number one, but I don’t know, I’m so weak for Gansey??? I really had to emotionally prepare myself for the next book. 

5/5 stars

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February 2017 Wrap-Up

This month was yet another good reading month. I think it’s a good idea to start the year strong, that way I can afford some slumps later. 

The titles take you to the book’s Goodreads page or my review if I have one. 

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George
by Alex Gino

This is a middle grade book about a trans girl named George who’s dying to play Charlotte in the school’s production of Charlotte’s Web. I listened to this on audio, and it was wonderful. I love that George knows all along who she is and that she’s trans, it’s just a matter of getting other people to understand  that she’s a girl. 

5/5 stars

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Orbiting Jupiter
by Gary D. Schmidt

Oh man, open the flood gates. This is another short middle grade novel, but the themes are mature and this easily slides into young adult/teen territory. I won’t say much about what it’s about here, but you can read my review of the ARC if you’re interesting. It’s an incredibly emotional book that will leave you in a pile on the floor screaming WHYYYY. 

4.5/5 stars

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Fairyloot Unboxing (January 2017 box)

Hey, guys! It’s been ten months since I received my last Fairyloot box, that one was actually their first box as well so there were discounts all around. I decided to order another one when I saw that January’s theme was “Mystery and Mischief” and that the box would have something for Sherlock Holmes fans. I couldn’t resist. 

Fairyloot is a UK based bookish subscription box and for us Europeans it’s more affordable than Owlcrate and those other non-European boxes. However, Fairyloot’s shipping prices to Norway (my country) is actually really high, which is not their fault of course, so to me it’s actually more expensive than Owlcrate… woe is me. HOWEVER I like the content in Fairyloot more than Owlcrate, so here I go again. RIP my wallet. 

 

January 2017 Wrap-Up

January is the month for getting ahead on your Goodreads challenge. My goal this year is 60, and I read 10 this month. I’m very happy with that. A lot of them were Norwegian audiobooks, because I’m trying to read more Norwegian literature. 

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A Great and Terrible Beauty
by Libba Bray

I’d heard a lot of good things about this series, but I wasn’t too impressed with this first one. It was good, but not as good as I’d hoped.  This is historical fiction with a fantasy twist. The characters are great, the dialogue is believable, but overall it didn’t quite grab me. I much prefer Libba Bray’s satirical Beauty Queens. 

3/5 stars

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Doppler
by Erlend Loe

Here I am, trying to read more of the Norwegian books every Norwegian has already read. This book (it’s also been translated into English) is the first in a trilogy about Doppler, a man who’s sick of people and of being “good”, and so he moves into the woods and adopts a baby elk called Bongo. It’s hilarious, it’s just my kind of weird and dry humor. Read this and laugh. It works perfectly on its own so you don’t have to commit to the trilogy unless you want to. Plus it’s really short. 

4/5 stars

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My Favorite Books of 2016

Did you read my last post about the most disappointing books of 2016? Here’s the counterpart; my favorites! I’ve already talked about these plenty of times on my blog, but hey, some of you might be new here. 

Without further ado… 

Most Disappointing Books of 2016

I know I haven’t blogged much lately, but I love reading/watching this kind of thing so I wanted to make one. I’ll do one about my favorite reads as well, don’t worry.

This won’t necessarily be a list of the books I read in 2016 that I rated the lowest, but rather a list of books that I were excited about but that ended up falling flat. If this were to be a list of the very worst books I read, then Shatter Me would be on it. But since I didn’t have high expectations of Shatter Me, it didn’t really disappoint me either. 

August – November 2016 Wrap-Up

Me? Slow? Nah, never. Here’s all the books I read between August and November. I didn’t read all that much, but it’s something. 

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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
by John Tirfany, Jack Thorne & J.K. Rowling

Spoiler alert. I finished this as soon as I bought it and while I loved it, I also didn’t? I loved the nostalgic factor and I loved seeing all my favorites again. I loved Albus and Scorpius’ relationship (Scorpius is a precious cinnamon roll) and I loved Draco and Harry being friendly towards each other. And seeing Ron and Hermione again made me super emotional. But I also thought it was messy and clichè, and the time travel plot was kind of eh. I didn’t buy the whole thing with the daughter. When did Bellatrix and Voldie do the do? 

3/5 stars (5 for the nostalgic and enjoyment factor, but 3 for plot)

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The Girl on the Train
by Paula Hawkins

I listened to this on audio and I really loved two of the narrators, the third not so much. I thought this was interesting and pretty compelling, although it was predictable. 

4/5 stars

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This Savage Song
by V.E. Schwab

Thinking back on this book, not much stands out. There are monsters, a human girl and a monster boy, and some sort of feud between humans and monsters. It’s good, but not great. What I did love though was how the different monsters are created/formed. I thought that was very inventive, plus it kind of makes sense (in the fantasy way, of course). I also like that there’s no romance despite the Romeo and Juliet-like plot. 

3/5 stars

 

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The Shining
by Stephen King

I’ve been a slow reader lately, but I devoured this despite its size. I loved it. I wasn’t that creeped out by it (except a few parts, but that could be because I was reading it out on the balcony in the sun) but I was still fully into it anyway. After I finished it I watched the movie, which I’ve never seen before, because everyone’s always talking about how it’s the best horror movie ever. And I just have to say… WHAT? It was terrible??? It didn’t make sense and it was so weak compared to the book. I hate how the movie only focuses on Jack being crazy, instead of the hotel being evil. There’s no character development, and the movie doesn’t even EXPLORE THE SHINING FOR MORE THAN TWO SECONDS? I don’t know what Stephen King thinks of it but I hope he hates it too, because it butchered his characters (including the hotel). And there are no hedge animals. Yikes. 

5/5 stars

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