July Wrap Up/August TBR

Books I've read

This month I've read twelve books in total and I'm very happy with that number. I've never read this many books in a month before and hope this is going to become a habit and doesn't turn out to be a one time thing. A few of these books I read for the BookTubeAThon and The Perks of Being a Wallflower was a reread. 

Books I've reviewed

My blog only exists for a little over a week now so there aren't that many reviews up so far. But so far I've done three. 

Book Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Book Review: I am the Messenger

Book Review: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

August TBR

I don't think I'll read as much in August as I did in July (but I can hope right) because school will start again in late August. So weird... it feels like vacation just started a week ago... Ready Player One is the book for August for the Little Book Club. But anyway these are the book I hope I'll get to in August. 

Bout of Books!

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 18th and runs through Sunday, August 24th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 11 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

I don't know exactly what books I'll be reading for this read-a-thon but I plan on starting the His Dark Materials Trilogy because I've had that boxset forever and haven't read it yet.

Book Review: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

Author: Michelle Hodkin   

http://www.michellehodkin.com/
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
Release date: September 27th 2011 
Genre: Paranormal 
Pages: 466 
My rating: 2/5

First book in a series 

Mara Dyer doesn’t think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.

It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love.

She’s wrong.

I'm going to say it right now, I had some major problems with this book. This book has gotten amazing reviews and is praised for its creepy atmosphere and unreliable narrator. These things are true, to a certain extent, but in my opinion in no way good enough to make up for its faults.

What I did like about this book was the premise and the first few chapters. The idea of not being sure whether or not a character is crazy really appealed to me and the most interesting part of this book by far were all the strange things happening to Mara. I also liked the mysterious atmosphere throughout the story although it wasn't as creepy as I hoped it would be.

Now let's talk about the love interest Noah Shaw... Noah is a British, arrogant, rich, hot boy who, according to Jaime (Mara's best friend) has slept with literally every single girl at school. Excuse me if I am not fawning over him. He has treated all of these girls horrible and let's just say I was ready to hate Noah after this:

 "I heard that a senior from Walden tried to commit suicide after he—well. After he got what he came for, pun intended, and didn’t call again."

What... WHAT. How can the author just casually brush over this? A girl tried to kill herself after Noah treated her like crap. I just couldn't wrap my head around it and I lost all respect for Noah, and at a certain point Mara because she didn't seem to care. 

Aside from the fact that Noah doesn't seem to have a conscience, he also doesn't seem like a realistic character. He has litterally everything a typical teenage girl would find attractive. He randomly has a British accent, he is a bad boy who is extremely protective (to the point where it gets controlling) of Mara, he is rich but for some reason hides that and of course he is extremely good looking. He just didn't feel like a real person at all. 

I also had some issues with Mara, although not as much as with Noah. She caught on very slow with what was happening to her and this started getting a little repetitive at a certain point. I did appreciate that she reacted at least semi-appropriate to what was happening to her. A lot of characters in YA seem to have no trouble accepting paranormal things when they have never experienced anything like that. Mara freaked out and in all honesty, that's what most of us would do. 

It is such a shame that this book is what it is because there truly was a lot of potential and I really think it could have been great. I am not sure yet if I want to read the sequel. A part of me is curious because we still don't know what was real and what was Mara being crazy, but I have a feeling things may get worse and it will just frustrate me... I guess time will tell. 

Stacking the Shelves #1

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and it's all about bloggers showing what books they are adding to their collection, whether they're physical copies or e-books. 

These are the books I got over the past couple of weeks. Most of them were welcome back presents from my friends (I'd been gone for ten months) and three of them I bought to add to a series I already owned. Because if I own one book in a series I have to own the rest too. 

Gifts

Bought

By now I've already read seven of these books and pretty much enjoyed all of them. If you've read any of these books let me know what you thought! 

Book Review: I Am the Messenger

Author: Markus Zusak 

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Borzoi Books  

Release date: May 9 2006

Genre: Mystery/suspense

Pages: 360

My rating: 5/5 stars

Stand Alone 

protect the diamonds
survive the clubs
dig deep through the spades
feel the hearts

Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver without much of a future. He's pathetic at playing cards, hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey, and utterly devoted to his coffee-drinking dog, the Doorman. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery.

That's when the first ace arrives in the mail.

That's when Ed becomes the messenger.

Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary) until only one question remains: Who's behind Ed's mission?

It has to be said, this book has a great first chapter, one that is both exciting and very funny. You enter the story in the middle of a bankrobbery, hence the excitement. The bankrobber however is not that good at being a bankrobber, and Ed, our main character, and his friends are not very good at being bankrobbery victims. They are incapable of shutting up and end up getting almost shot. But in the end Ed is the one with the gun in his hand and saves the day. 

Stopping the bankrobber is the first notable thing Ed has ever done. He describes himself as less than ordinary and I have to agree with him, although it's not a bad thing. In the beginning of the story, Ed is not a hero, not even close. Even his own mother thinks he's worthless. It isn't until he receives a card in the mail and is almost forced to be a hero. This change isn't abrupt but takes place gradually throughout the novel. It is one of the best cases of character development that I have ever seen. 

Ed is also one of my new favorite characters. He is so down to earth and knows exactly who he is and what he's worth. He doesn't pretend to be anything that he isn't. Although he isn't extroadinary in any way he manages to help people by really looking at them and seeing what they need, being extremely selfless when giving them that. Ed is ordinary yet heroic. And if he can be a hero, everyone can. 

I however couldn't bring myself to like Audrey, the girl Ed is hopelessly in love with. Maybe because I was feeling a little protective of Ed and Audrey just wasn't treating him well. Ed even describes it as her killing him slowly. I did however enjoy their friendship and the way they seamlessly knew each other.  

There were also a lot of side characters that you grow to care off in the few pages that Ed interacts with them. Sophie, the Tatupu family and of course the Doorman (although he appears througout the whole novel) were some of my favorites. 

Markus Zusak has a very unique writing style that I just love. It's lyrical but not pretentious at all. He has a great way of describing certain things that makes them so much more powerful. At one point he describes a bright light to be deafening. In a way it doesn't make sense but yet you know what he means and it conveys a feeling more than a observation and that makes it powerful. 

The book is also divided up in a cool way, every chapter is a card. It starts with the ace of diamonds and makes its way through the suits. I know it's just a small thing but it's so creative and it suits the style of the book. 

There were also a few things that I didn't like about this book. Nothing major, but still. After the first chapter and before Ed takes action there was a part where the book couldn't really keep my attention. Luckily this wasn't a problem anymore after that. 

The ending and the resolution seemed to go really quickly compared to the rest of the book. I won't spoil anything but I still don't think I completely understand how and why everything happened. It wasn't bad, it just seemed a little sloppy and I think it could have been done better. But by that point I was so engrossed in the book and the big themes that started to surface that it couldn't ruin my love for this book. 

2014 LGBT Reading Challenge

I know I'm starting this challenge a little late, considering more than half of 2014 has already passed, but I still want to participate in this challenge. First of all because challenges motivate me to read and secondly because I enjoy LGBT books a lot. They're usually a lot more interesting than 'normal' love stories. 

The challenge is to read and review at least 3 LGBT books. I've already read Aristotle and Dante discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz and loved it, so a review of that will follow. 

Other books I plan to read are Ask the Passengers by A.S. King and Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan. Hopefully I'll also be able to read Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour, but I don't own that yet. (click on images to go to their Goodreads page)

       

Quotes #1

One of my favorite things in this world are quotes. I just love how scribbles form letter, letters form words and words form sentences that can make you feel things. Here I will share some of my favorite quotes. Either from books I've read recently or movies, shows or people.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger:

"Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody."

Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz:

"I bet you could sometimes find all the mysteries of the universe in someone's hand."

"The problem with my life is that it was someone else's idea."

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak:

"If they killed him tonight at least he would die alive."

"I have hated the words and I have loved them and I hope I made them right." 

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher:

"No one knows for certain how much impact they have on the lives of other people." 

Book Review: Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

Author: Ransom Riggs

Publisher: Quirk

Release date: June 7 2011

Genre: fantasy

Pages: 352

My rating: 4/5 stars

First book in a series

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

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.

First of all, I went into this book with a very different idea of what this book was going to be about. This is my fault because I didn't realize I'd never actually read a summary of the book. I'd heard so much about it, everything about the pictures of course, and thought I knew what to expect. In my mind this book was a creepy, sort of horror book that was set in the past. This resulted in me being a little confused for the first couple of pages because the books starts out in modern Florida. 

Something that has to be said about this book is that the design is beautiful. I own the paperback version and it's such a sturdy book. The paper feels a lot nicer and is less likely to rip than that of most other books I own. The cover fits the book perfectly and gives it the creepy vibes that attracted me to this book in the first place. Then the book is filled with antique pictures that sometimes give you an image of what a character looks like, and sometimes are just plain creepy. 

There's a lot of different characters in this novel. From Jacob's best, and only, friend who has green hair to his snobby mother to a kid who is invisible. Jacob himself comes over like a real person and react to the situations in a way that's reasonable and realistic. My favorite characters were definitely the peculiar children because of how they really acted like children. They asked lots of question when they weren't supposed to and used their abilities in ways that weren't always responsible. Sadly we didn't get to know most of them that well so I hope we'll learn more about them in the sequel.

Although the main focus of this book is definitely on the plot and the setting it did make me think. These kids are in a loop where they repeat the same day over and over again. Jacob has to decide whether or not he wants to stay. It made me think what I would do in his position. Would I be able to handle going through the same day in the same place again and again, even if I would be happy there?

There were two things I didn't really like about the book. The first one isn't that important, but the chapters are huge. There's 352 pages and only 11 chapters. This way I can't be like: "I'll just read one chapter before doing this or that". The other thing that made me feel a little awkward was the beginning romance between Jacob and Emma. Everything is all fine until you remember that Emma used to be the girlfriend of Jacob's grandfather...

I am pretty sure this book classifies as young adult but to me it felt a lot more like a middle grade book. There's nothing wrong with that because there are tons of middle grade books I love, but if you don't like those kind of books these may not be for you. Because apart from some gruesomely described scenes I don't think there's anything in the book that I would say is too mature for younger readers.

All in all I really enjoyed this book and am really curious about what will happen to Jacob and his friends in Hollow City. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars and would definitely recommend it. Even if it's just to find out what everyone's been talking about.

Side note: I found a reference to John Green's papertowns.

"Left at the multiethnic roof Santas!" (page 32)