I know I said I'd probably do only a couple of "Recent Reads" type of posts in a year, but this May was such a good reading month for me that I decided to do one just about it. Especially considering that I was supposed to read for my university entrance exam. Fingers crossed that it didn't cost me my education.
First book I read in the month of May was the Green Mile by Stephen King. I've heard much about the movie but wanted to read the book first and I'm glad I did. This was also my first Stephen King book and damn it was good. He really knows what he's doing and I was on the edge of my seat, so to say, the whole time reading this. The mystery aspect was perfectly crafted and the characters held my heartstrings right til the end. Can't wait to see the movie.
Then I read Trinity by Conn Iggulden, the second book in his the War of Roses series. This is my kind of historical fiction. It has political conspiring and royals and battles. The characters are all fleshed out quite nicely and multiple point of views make it hard to hate any of them (though I still who I'm rooting for which a bit absurd since the result can be already read from Wikipedia). The amount of characters with similar names make it sometimes difficult to know who is who but other than that I enjoyed this book completely. This has very similar aspects as the Song of Ice and fire without dragons or magic.
During May I also read the first book in Rick Riordan's new series about Norse gods, Magnus Chase: the Sword of Summer. I wrote a full review, check it out if you are interested to hear my thoughts.
Then I read the Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater which is the first book in the Raven Cycle series. I have heard mixed things about this series, a lot of people have given up on it during the first 100 pages. My friend recommended this for me and I didn't find it difficult to get into. Only thing I felt a bit confusing was the amount of characters that are introduced almost right off the bat. The books is about a girl called Blue and four private school boys who are trying to find a long lost Welsh King that is sleeping under a ley line according to legends. I will be reading the rest of this series during the summer and will do a full series review once I'm finished.
The last book I read during May was Passenger by Alexandra Bracken. I had pretty high expectations and hoped for this and some of them were met, some were not. The premise of the book is that the main character Etta comes from a family of time travelers who are rivals of another traveler family. Their descendant Nicholas is told to bring Etta to them and she is blackmailed to search for an old time traveling artifact. The idea of this book and the time traveling aspect is the best I've ever seen but every once in a while the characters made me cringe. 4/5, I will read the rest of this series when it comes out.
Showing posts with label recent reads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recent reads. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Recent Reads 1/16
I thought that I should tell what I have read recently, and since my monthly reading phase depends on how buzy I am and what I am reading, I'll just recap all the books I've read this year so far. In the future I will probably try to space these a little more evenly, maybe every two or three months.
January: half of the Christmas holiday is during January, so I had extra time to read and read five books. First book I read was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It was the first time I read it in English and though I know all the Potter books are awesome, I didn't remember CoS being this good. I should re-read the rest of the series, too, which I will do once I get my hands on the English versions.
Then I read Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater, which I guess is a stand-alone sequel to the Shivers trilogy. I loved Shivers and my oh my did I love Sinner. Isabella and Cole are just the perfect imperfect couple and their undeniable chemistry works like nothing else and sparks fly throughout the book.
After Sinner I read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and that was also extremely good. I had heard it would be good but the synopsis and reviews I had heard didn't quite prepare me for the adventure I stepped into. Basically it takes place in a virtual reality where there is a treasure hunt and the winner inherits the virtual reality company, so not a big deal or anything. My only complaint is that for a chapter or two in the middle of the story the pace kinda dropped and slowed down, but it was picked up fairly quickly and the rest was just great. Can't wait for them to make a movie out of this.
The second to last book I read in January was The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, also known as J.K. Rowling. I had my doubts about this, because I'm not too into detective stories, but Auntie Row delivers as usual. The main character Cormoran Strike is a struggling private detective who forgot to cancel his contract with a temp agency. That gives him Robin Ellacott, who has dreamed of exciting things to happen to her. Together they try to figure out what happened to a model who according to police jumped from a balcony to her death.
And the last book I read in January is So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams, which is the fourth book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. The book is as crazy as the first three, going across time and space and nothing seems to be impossible.
February: in February I only read two books, because I started to prepare for my university entrance exam and that took a majority of my time. First I read Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams, the fifth and last book to his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. The book stayed on the same course as the previous four, but I expected a little more since this ended the series. The different plotlines were not resolved like I would have wanted and I was left a bit confused after finishing this. I understand there is a sixth book to this series, but it's written by Eoin Colfer, so I might check that out sometime in hopes that there I could find true closure.
The second book I read in the month of February was The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick. The book is set after the second World War, but the winners were Japan and Germany and world is build according to their preferences. The book follows a couple of characters who try to cope with the world, and one of them stumbles onto a sort of revolutionary, strictly forbidden book, The Man in the High Castle which tells how the world would be had the Alliance won the war. The book is very short, only about 300 pages when this could have been made into a whole series. Amazon has adapted this to a TV show and the first season aired last year. I watched it after reading the book and holy cow it was good and felt very fresh, I can honestly recommend it to anyone who likes series with a little historical and political aspects.
March: my March was filled with Percy Jackson, since I only read books by Rick Riordan. I re-read the Battle of the Labyrinth and the Last Olympian and then I went through Percy Jackson and the Greek Gods and Percy Jackson and the Greek Heroes. The last two were a bit hard to get through, at least I felt like it, because they were a collection of short stories about Greek gods and Greek heroes and being so there was no coherent plot. Also Riordan's joky style didn't quite fit with these stories since they mostly are tragic and serious tales.
April: in April I only read one huge book, the Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The story of the book is about a young guy who lives in poverty and tries to improve his situation by murdering and robbing a shylock. After the crime he is constantly worried about getting caught and gets into all sorts of situations following his crime. The book is clearly a product of its time, the description of the poverty and the poor and the constant suffering is present all along. I found the story a bit static and tedious at points, but I'm glad I went through it.
January: half of the Christmas holiday is during January, so I had extra time to read and read five books. First book I read was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It was the first time I read it in English and though I know all the Potter books are awesome, I didn't remember CoS being this good. I should re-read the rest of the series, too, which I will do once I get my hands on the English versions.
Then I read Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater, which I guess is a stand-alone sequel to the Shivers trilogy. I loved Shivers and my oh my did I love Sinner. Isabella and Cole are just the perfect imperfect couple and their undeniable chemistry works like nothing else and sparks fly throughout the book.
After Sinner I read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and that was also extremely good. I had heard it would be good but the synopsis and reviews I had heard didn't quite prepare me for the adventure I stepped into. Basically it takes place in a virtual reality where there is a treasure hunt and the winner inherits the virtual reality company, so not a big deal or anything. My only complaint is that for a chapter or two in the middle of the story the pace kinda dropped and slowed down, but it was picked up fairly quickly and the rest was just great. Can't wait for them to make a movie out of this.
The second to last book I read in January was The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, also known as J.K. Rowling. I had my doubts about this, because I'm not too into detective stories, but Auntie Row delivers as usual. The main character Cormoran Strike is a struggling private detective who forgot to cancel his contract with a temp agency. That gives him Robin Ellacott, who has dreamed of exciting things to happen to her. Together they try to figure out what happened to a model who according to police jumped from a balcony to her death.
And the last book I read in January is So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams, which is the fourth book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. The book is as crazy as the first three, going across time and space and nothing seems to be impossible.
February: in February I only read two books, because I started to prepare for my university entrance exam and that took a majority of my time. First I read Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams, the fifth and last book to his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. The book stayed on the same course as the previous four, but I expected a little more since this ended the series. The different plotlines were not resolved like I would have wanted and I was left a bit confused after finishing this. I understand there is a sixth book to this series, but it's written by Eoin Colfer, so I might check that out sometime in hopes that there I could find true closure.
The second book I read in the month of February was The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick. The book is set after the second World War, but the winners were Japan and Germany and world is build according to their preferences. The book follows a couple of characters who try to cope with the world, and one of them stumbles onto a sort of revolutionary, strictly forbidden book, The Man in the High Castle which tells how the world would be had the Alliance won the war. The book is very short, only about 300 pages when this could have been made into a whole series. Amazon has adapted this to a TV show and the first season aired last year. I watched it after reading the book and holy cow it was good and felt very fresh, I can honestly recommend it to anyone who likes series with a little historical and political aspects.
March: my March was filled with Percy Jackson, since I only read books by Rick Riordan. I re-read the Battle of the Labyrinth and the Last Olympian and then I went through Percy Jackson and the Greek Gods and Percy Jackson and the Greek Heroes. The last two were a bit hard to get through, at least I felt like it, because they were a collection of short stories about Greek gods and Greek heroes and being so there was no coherent plot. Also Riordan's joky style didn't quite fit with these stories since they mostly are tragic and serious tales.
April: in April I only read one huge book, the Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The story of the book is about a young guy who lives in poverty and tries to improve his situation by murdering and robbing a shylock. After the crime he is constantly worried about getting caught and gets into all sorts of situations following his crime. The book is clearly a product of its time, the description of the poverty and the poor and the constant suffering is present all along. I found the story a bit static and tedious at points, but I'm glad I went through it.
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