March 2016 Book Haul

March wasn't the best book month for me, but I still managed to get a hold of 9 new books.

I got:

Young Adult:

1. You Are Here by Jennifer E. Smith
2. Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

Adult:

1. The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. by Adelle Waldman

Classics:

1. Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
2. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
3. Dr. Jekyl & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
4. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
5. Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
6. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

March 2016 TBR

I never did a TBR for February, but this month I have a feeling I know exactly what I want to read, so here we are! My March TBR!

I plan on reading:

1. Champion (Legend #3) by Marie Lu
2. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
3. We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
5. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
6. LADY MIDNIGHT BY CASSANDRA CLARE

I'm really hoping to get to all of these amazing books this month, as I have March Break coming up next week (trying to hold on till then) and I'm hoping to do nothing but read!

February 2016 Book Haul

I got a total of 10 books this month! Waayy more than I had planned on getting, but I had leftover gift cards from Christmas, so I don't have a problem with the amount I got.

I got:


Young Adult:

1. Cold Spell by Jackson Pierce (Fairytale Retellings #4 - Hardcover)
2. Warrior by Ellen Oh (The Dragon King Chronicles #2 - Hardcover)
3. Champion by Marie Lu (Legend #3 - Paperback)
4. To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han (Paperback)
5. Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay (Hardcover)
6. Visitors by Orson Scott Card (Pathfinder #3 - Hardcover)
7. The Dark Days Club by Allison Goodman (Hardcover)

Adult

1. Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (Mass market paperback)
2. Goldon Son by Pierce Brown (Red Rising #2 - Paperback)

Classics

1. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway (Paperback)

February 2016 Wrap Up

I read four books this month, which isn't too bad for me! I didn't get the chance to read my classic for this month though, so that means I'll need to read two next month to make up for it.


I read:

• ★★★★☆     Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid
• ★★★★★     Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler
• ★★★★★     Legend by Marie Lu (Legend #1)
• ★★★★.5☆  Champion by Marie Lu (Legend #2)

The first book I read this month was Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid. I read his first book, Let's Get Lost, back in August and I absolutely loved it, so I decided to pick this one up and give it a go! Although I enjoyed Let's Get Lost more than Never Always Sometimes, I still absolutely LOVED this book. It has so many great characters and although they can be extremely frustrating at times, I found that they all had really good reasons for being the people they ended up being throughout and at the end of the book.

I then read Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler, and I was so pleasantly surprised by this book. I was expecting more of an angry telling, or a book that was more depressing then anything else, but it was so much more than that. Yes, the book was depressing at times, which it should be (it's about a high school breakup, of course it's a sob story), but I also found it to be light-hearted, flirty, and funny. There was just enough goofing off, happiness, and friendship in this book that it almost (ALMOST) balanced out the amount of  times that I cried while reading this book. Being through a high school breakup myself, it's easy to see where every character is coming from, and how everyone thinks as each choice is made, and as each action is taken in the story. I loved it!

I then read Legend by Marie Lu, and I have nothing but high praise for this book. I picked it up on a whim one weekend, and I finished it in two sittings. I flew through it; it has just enough funny parts and shocking parts, that every single page you read makes you want another chapter. The whole thing was written so wonderfully, and everything that happened in it was important. Not only that, but every single detail, every single character, had a purpose to the story. There was no extra part that I feel could have been left out, and I don't feel like more could have been added. It was the perfect amount of detail, of characters, of action, for it to feel like a realistic dystopian (which are hard to come by these days). The story was also so different, and so refreshing, that it was wonderful to see how different a dystopian book could be compared to all of the other dystopian books that are currently out. I have fallen out of the dystopian genre over the last couple of years, but I am so glad to have finally found a book that has made me want to get back into it.

I then quickly read Prodigy by Marie Lu, (the second book in the Legend trilogy) and I loved it, but not quite as much as I loved Legend. I really wanted more Day and June, but I understand why we didn't get as much. I also found them to be a tiinnyyy bit annoying at times, and overreact about some things as well as underreact about others. I did enjoy the book though, and I feel like it was a necessary book to have in between the other two, and I am looking forward to reading Champion!

Review: Nothing by Janne Teller

Title: Nothing

Author: Janne Teller

Genre: Realistic fiction

Pages: 240 (Paperback)

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Publication date: March 20th, 2012

Synopsis from Nothing's Goodreads page

When Pierre-Anthon realizes there is no meaning to life, the seventh-grader leaves his classroom, climbs a tree, and stays there. His classmates cannot make him come down, not even by pelting him with rocks. So to prove to Pierre-Anthon that life has meaning, the children decide to give up things of importance. The pile starts with the superficial—a fishing rod, a new pair of shoes. But as the sacrifices become more extreme, the students grow increasingly desperate to get Pierre-Anthon down, to justify their belief in meaning.

I read Nothing by Janne Teller in January, and it took my awhile to figure out how I felt about the book. I was really hoping that I would love it, and I had been looking forward to it for so long, but I was a bit disappointed with it.

I had originally thought that this book would be about how a group of young children were helping their friend to find meaning in life by giving up their favourite things, and that it would help their friend to see the good in life, and that life was worth living. Instead, I got a book about a group of seventh and eighth graders who were being bullied by their friend into believing that life was meaningless, that everyone was going to die eventually and then be gone, and that life was completely useless. Not only that, but it wasn't about these kids donating things that had meaning to them, but instead it was about how they each forced someone to give up something that they could not live without, and then that person would go to the next, who would go to the next, ect. Not only that, but these young kids were forcing each other to give these things up, and they got more evil and more gruesome the further they got along. These kids were tormenting and torturing each other to try and help their friend who was bullying them, and as someone who can vividly remember my life and my classmates when I was in seventh and eighth grade, I know that we never would have even thought of doing the things these kids are doing to each other.

I had problems with believing some of these kids' thoughts and their motives, and what I found completely unbelievable was that not a single person told a parent, anyone outside of their class, and that they were all totally okay with what they were doing. I know that this book takes place in Europe in the relatively close past, and that I live in Canada and that things are very different over there, but I still can't believe that none of the parents found out, or got involved.
I found some of the characters to be a little childish, and that they all seemed to be very young minded for their age, and that may have affected what was going on in the story.
On the other hand, I enjoyed the writing style, and I did feel emotions for the characters. I was completely shocked during many parts of the book, and I feel that now, knowing what I know, that I may be able to enjoy the book better the second time, as I know that it is more of a gruesome story then the contemporary book that I was expecting.
Overall - ★★★.5☆☆

January 2016 Book Haul

At the end of every month, I usually have a massive (or at least a fairly large) list of all of the books I received and bought for myself during that month. This year, I really want to try and decrease (or at least put a fairly large dent into) my TBR pile. The best way to do this, in my opinion, is to read waayyy more than I buy. I'm not on a book buying ban per se, I just want to buy much, much, MUCH less then I read every month.

With that in mind, I got two new books this month. The Queen of the Tearling I ordered in December and I got it in January, and I had a giftcard so I bought Seeker for myself this month.

Adult:

1. The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen (Hardcover)

Young Adut

1. Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton (Paperback)

January 2016 Wrap Up

Hello all! This year I really want to read at least 60 books, so that means I need to read at least 5 books a month. I'm SO glad to say that I was able to read, well, 5 books in the month of January!

I read:

• ★★★★.5☆ My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories
• ★★★★☆    Blankets by Craig Thompson
• ★★★★☆    Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
• ★★★.5☆☆ Nothing by Janne Teller
• ★★★★☆    The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

I had started My True Love Gave to Me in 2015, and I finished it the first day of 2016, so it was technically my first read of the year. There were a few short stories in it that I didn't really enjoy, but I loved many more than I wasn't a fan of. The whole book was very winter-y and sweet, and I loved it. I have a full review here if you want to read my thoughts on each individual short story in the book.

I read a graphic novel, Blankets by Craig Thompson, as my second read of the month. The artwork in it was stunning, even though it was in black and white. It was the largest graphic novel that I have ever seen, being longer than 500 pages. I enjoyed the graphic novel, and I found that the characters were very memorable. I liked how the art was drawn, and how every square inch of paper was used, without any extra unneeded space taken or used. I gave the artwork, and the story, four stars each.

The third book I read this month was Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. I picked it up on a whim while on winter break, and I really enjoyed it. It was the first adult dystopian book I have ever read, and the difference between young adult dystopian and adult dystopian astounded me, but in a good way. I loved how the adult genre focusses more on the characters and what they go through then the world and how it got there. Seeing so many different characters' perspectives usually worried me and threw me off the book at the beginning of the story, but once I picked it up and really started reading it, I really enjoyed it. I have a full review here if you want to read more of my thoughts on this book.

The fourth book I read this month was Nothing by Janne Teller. I was really looking forward to this book, and sadly I found myself slightly disappointed by it. I was hoping for a relatively lighthearted book about a group of kids who try to help their friend find the meaning of life, and of everything in it, through things that are important to them. This book did have that, but instead of finding this book to be lighthearted and emotional, I found the children to be slightly disturbed and more concerned about getting back at each other for making them give up their worldly possessions then about their friend. In the synopsis of this book, it sounded like they were going to be very young children, and that their friend who couldn't find meaning in anything was very sad and depressed, but instead they were seventh and eighth graders, and their friend was making fun of them and laughing at them for believing that life has meaning. I honestly found this book to be very dark and heavy, which was nothing like what I was expecting, and I still don't really know if I am super happy or sad about that. I have a full review of Nothing that can be found here if you are interested in reading more of my thoughts on this book.

The fifth and final book I read this month was to start my challenge for myself for this year. I really want to read more classics, so I am trying to read at least one classic book a month, in order to diminish that TBR pile. This month, I ended up reading The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. I absolutely loved the movie adaptation of this book when I was little, so I had very high expectations for it reading it now, and I'm so happy to say that I loved it. I found the book to be very different from the movie, obviously, but I mean that in a good way. I really was able to see the characters in completely new perspectives, and see how they were originally imagined to be. I enjoyed the differences between the movie and the book, and it was a very short, enjoyable read to finish off the first month of the year.