Tag: donna Tartt

Wrap Up

WRAP UP | February 2018

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Can you believe another month has passed? I still have trouble not putting 2017 on everything. Anyway I have to say that this month has been a great month. For some reason I had such drive to improve things in my life and it has made me so much happier. If you have previously read my decluttering blog posts, you know I was trying to simplify my life and get rid of the things I don’t need. Well, I kinda fell off the wagon half way through and I ended up getting the drive back to continue and it has made me happier. If you want to check those out you can find them here: Decluttering | The Start of it All, Decluttering | Daily Clothing, Decluttering | My Books.

Anyway, with that I actually ended up reading more. I am not sure, but clearing things out got the cobwebs out of my head and I read nearly every day this month, I am proud to say I only didn’t read one day. A personal record, I think in March I want to try a 30 day reading challenge.

Anyway, without anymore delay here is my February wrap up!

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Books I Finished

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Death Note, Vol. 1: Boredom by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata (Illustrator)

I absolutely fell in love with this Manga, I have been eating it up ever since.  I love the fact I am learning about some Japanese culture and how the story line deals with good in evil in such a way that makes you question, is a person good or bad based upon their thoughts behind their actions or is the outcome of their actions define them. I ended up giving this volume 4 stars.

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Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race

 by Reni Eddo-Lodge

This was an absolutely amazing read. I am so happy I picked it up on a whim. It was written so well and it was so informative. I can easily say I learned so much while reading this book. Another thing I liked about this book was the fact that this book discussed race outside of the United States. Most books that discuss race are written about the U.S., but reading about the history of race issues in the U.K. was enlightening. As I said in my very short goodreads review, this book will stay with me for a very long time. I gave this book 5 stars, easily.

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The Miniaturist

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

I have to say that this book is not for me, but I can see why people like it. I would suggest that you click the title (it goes to goodreads) and read some more on it to see if it is something up your alley. I do have The Muse by Jessie Burton and I hear more positive things about this book of hers so I am going to give it a try. I will say Jessie Burton’s writing itself was not the problem, just the story line was not for me. I hope that makes sense.

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The Secret History

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

From the first pages I was so drawn into this novel. As in Goldfinch, Donna Tartt’s writing is grand. She writes characters you can actually hate, but seem so real. She has the ability to create made up characters seem so lifelike, it really is a talent. Another talent of her is making me go “WAIT WHAT?!” when I read her books. So many unexpected things happened in this book I have to say I lost count of the amount of times I was shocked. Since I was reading this in a readalong with some wonderful ladies it took a great deal of self control not to read ahead. I ended up giving this story 4 stars.

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Prater Violet

Prater Violet by Christopher Isherwood

This is the third book I have read by Christopher Isherwood and his works continue to impress me. His writing is relaxed even though a bunch happens. This novel has to do with a young writer, fictionalized Isherwood being hired to help write a Vienna based movie with an Austrian director just as WWII begins. Even though you have the story revolving the film industry at the time, you also see a lot of the history seep into the story itself. I ended up giving this story a very strong 4 stars.

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Death Note, Vol. 2: Confluence (Death Note, #2)

Death Note, Vol. 2: Confluence by Tsugumi Ohba and

Takeshi Obata (Illustrator)

As you can see I was not joking when I said I enjoyed this manga. I ended up reading this very soon after finishing Vol. 1 and I read it in one sitting. Since this is a second book I don’t want to give to much details so I don’t spoil anything. I will link to the goodreads page though if you want to know more. I ended up giving this 4 stars.

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I am Still Reading

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Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I am so close to finishing this amazing book, but I ran out of time near the end of the month and I honestly wanted to savor this book. It is well written and it has made me take time to think and reflect upon some of the events that happen in this books.  I will be finishing this in the near future and I will be picking up more of her books. I already put in a few requests at my local library.

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Christine by Stephen King

This month I started reading my next Stephen King Book, but I ran out of time to read it. Darn February only having 28 days. This classic Stephen King book has been on my radar for a very long time and I am so happy to finally be reading it. Even before I started reading Stephen King I knew about him and this car. I don’t want to say more for fear of spoiling a few things. Just know I am enjoy this book and I plan on finishing it soon.
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What was your favorite read of February?

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To Be Read

February TBR | 2018

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This month since it is a mere 28 days, I am making my TBR very short. There is also a book I know I am going to read, but I must keep it a secret. Don’t be mad, but you will learn all about it soon. I tried something new recently and I cannot wait to share it with you.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

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My buddy read I am participating in is continuing into February, but can I just say that this books is amazing? Thanks again Amy from Tomes with Tea, Regina from Bookish in Bed and  Jenna from J.K. I’m Exploring! for reading this book with me. It has been so much fun.

Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last – inexorably – into evil.

Don’t Forget Me by Victoria Stevens

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This comes out February 13th, I received an ARC to review so I plan on getting to this and finishing it the first week of February. From the description I am very excited to pick it up and get to it.

Seventeen-year-old Hazel Clarke is no stranger to heartbreaks, and being sent to live with a father she’s never met is the latest in a string of them. Even the beauty of eastern Australia isn’t enough to take her mind off her mother and the life she had to leave behind in England. But when Hazel meets the friendly, kindhearted Red and his elusive twin, Luca, she begins the slow process of piecing together a new life—and realizes she isn’t the only one struggling with loss. As friendships deepen and love finds its way in, Hazel also learns that when you truly love someone, they are always in your heart.

This sparkling debut novel is a touching testament to coming of age, falling in love, and finding home in unexpected places.

The Fandom by Anna Day

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This month I plan on reading The Fandom to get ready for the first ever #CroneBookClub. For more information please go to Jenn’s post with all the details: Crone Bloggers Book Club.

They can’t wait to meet the fandom of mega movie, The Gallows Dance. What they’re not expecting is to be catapulted by freak accident into their favourite world – for real. Fuelled by love, guilt and fear, can the friends put the plot back on track and get out? The fate of the story is in their hands …

A fast-paced, genre-flipping YA fantasy adventure from a brand new author, writing in homage to the best YA fiction.

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Wrap Up

Currently Reading | Jan. 2018

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CurrentlyReading12:17

Hello everyone, I wanted to write a quick blog post talking about some of the books I am currently reading since the month is about halfway through. I always like being nosy to see if people are actually sticking to their TBRs or not. I will admit, I rarely do since I am such a mood reader. But, that is the fun about reading. You can go on any adventure you want to, you don’t have to plan ahead. Anyway, without anymore rambling here is what I am currently reading!

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

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I am currently on page 149 or somewhere very close to that. I have to say I am enjoying this books, but for some reason I am having a hard time actually going to pick it up. When I do pick it up I fly through 50 pages at least. Has this ever happened to you? You enjoy a book, but have a hard time picking it up? I find it so odd that I am having this “issue”. It has never happened to me before.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

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I am currently on page 172. So far I am very much enjoying this story. Donna Tartt’s writing so beautiful, and man does she make characters with some serious flaws. For some reason I am enjoying not totally liking the characters in this book. That doesn’t usually happen, normally if I don’t like the characters personalities I don’t like the book. Donna Tartt has done the impossible and has made me like a book where I don’t like the characters. Additionally, it is great to be reading this with some awesome people.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

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I am currently on page 58, which I read all of that in one sitting. So that means I read nearly a quarter of this book in one sitting. I have really been enjoying it and I find the writing very enjoyable. I think in the start it did take a few pages to get used to it though. Also, I am aware this is book 10 in a series, but not reading the pervious 9 has not really impacted my experience with this book. Bottom line is I am enjoying this book. I plan on finishing this book this weekend.

What are you currently reading?

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To Be Read

December TBR | 2017

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TBR

I cannot believe that December is here, time sure has flown. Now with the end of the year coming around I am very happy with the books that I have read so far and with my ever growing TBR. But, there are a few books I want to take off my TBR before we ring in the new year. These four picks are fiction, historical fiction, and horror short stories. Without anymore delay, here are the titles.

The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne

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Cyril Avery is not a real Avery — or at least, that’s what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn’t a real Avery, then who is he?

Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous and dangerous Julian Woodbead. At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself and where he came from and over his many years will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country, and much more.

See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt

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In this riveting debut novel, See What I Have Done, Sarah Schmidt recasts one of the most fascinating murder cases of all time into an intimate story of a volatile household and a family devoid of love.

On the morning of August 4, 1892, Lizzie Borden calls out to her maid: Someone’s killed Father. The brutal ax-murder of Andrew and Abby Borden in their home in Fall River, Massachusetts, leaves little evidence and many unanswered questions. While neighbors struggle to understand why anyone would want to harm the respected Bordens, those close to the family have a different tale to tell—of a father with an explosive temper; a spiteful stepmother; and two spinster sisters, with a bond even stronger than blood, desperate for their independence.

As the police search for clues, Emma comforts an increasingly distraught Lizzie whose memories of that morning flash in scattered fragments. Had she been in the barn or the pear arbor to escape the stifling heat of the house? When did she last speak to her stepmother? Were they really gone and would everything be better now? Shifting among the perspectives of the unreliable Lizzie, her older sister Emma, the housemaid Bridget, and the enigmatic stranger Benjamin, the events of that fateful day are slowly revealed through a high-wire feat of storytelling.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

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Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last – inexorably – into evil.

Strange Weather by Joe Hill

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“Snapshot” is the disturbing story of a Silicon Valley adolescent who finds himself threatened by “The Phoenician,” a tattooed thug who possesses a Polaroid Instant Camera that erases memories, snap by snap.

A young man takes to the skies to experience his first parachute jump. . . and winds up a castaway on an impossibly solid cloud, a Prospero’s island of roiling vapor that seems animated by a mind of its own in “Aloft.”

On a seemingly ordinary day in Boulder, Colorado, the clouds open up in a downpour of nails—splinters of bright crystal that shred the skin of anyone not safely under cover. “Rain” explores this escalating apocalyptic event, as the deluge of nails spreads out across the country and around the world.

In “Loaded,” a mall security guard in a coastal Florida town courageously stops a mass shooting and becomes a hero to the modern gun rights movement. But under the glare of the spotlights, his story begins to unravel, taking his sanity with it. When an out-of-control summer blaze approaches the town, he will reach for the gun again and embark on one last day of reckoning.

Have you read or plan on reading any of these books?

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Hauls & Unhauls

Birthday Book Haul!

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Book Haul

Some of you may have know, but my birthday was a few days ago and I was lucky enough to get a few books for my birthday this year. Normally my family and friends just pick out gift cards from Barns and Noble or Amazon so I can pick some stuff for myself, which is great. But, it is very nice when someone picks a book or books out just for you. Here are the books friends and family got me this year.

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The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf

The first book my Mom picked up for me is The Invention of Nature because she knows I enjoy science, nature, and non-fiction. Even though in my picture you can only see the spine, click the title to look at the actual cover. It is absolutely beautiful. Not only does it have a beautiful cover, I read the description (below) and it sounds really interesting. I cannot wait to eventually pick it up and read it.

Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age. In North America, his name still graces four counties, thirteen towns, a river, parks, bays, lakes, and mountains. His restless life was packed with adventure and discovery, whether he was climbing the highest volcanoes in the world or racing through anthrax-infected Siberia or translating his research into bestselling publications that changed science and thinking. Among Humboldt’s most revolutionary ideas was a radical vision of nature, that it is a complex and interconnected global force that does not exist for the use of humankind alone.

– via goodreads

The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

This is the second of three books my Mom picked up for me. I have been really into suspense/thriller reads as of late. Once again I read the description and was very happy with this pick. There is a great mixture of mystery and history. I am very excited to see what unfolds in this book.

West Hall, Vermont, has always been a town of strange disappearances and old legends. The most mysterious is that of Sara Harrison Shea, who, in 1908, was found dead in the field behind her house just months after the tragic death of her daughter, Gertie. Now, in present day, nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in Sara’s farmhouse with her mother, Alice, and her younger sister, Fawn. Alice has always insisted that they live off the grid, a decision that suddenly proves perilous when Ruthie wakes up one morning to find that Alice has vanished without a trace.

– via goodreads

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

This is the last book my Mom picked out for me. I read The Goldfinch and generally liked it overall, but found faults with it. You can read a little bit more of my review in my post  #TBRTakeDown: Wrap Up. Anyway, my mom picked this up because I have mentioned I have wanted to try another book by her. This one is much shorter so I am more confident this book will not have the same large flaws, fingers crossed!

Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last – inexorably – into evil.

– via goodreads

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins

One of my best friends picked this up for me because I LOVED The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. I was so happy when I finally got it open. My friend loves to wrap presents in a way that makes it very difficult to open so she can watch people struggle. She put it in a box, surrounded it by two bags, and then wrapped it completely in duct tape. I was not allowed to use scissors. Anyway, I was so excited to get it open AND it to be this book.

A single mother turns up dead at the bottom of the river that runs through town. Earlier in the summer, a vulnerable teenage girl met the same fate. They are not the first women lost to these dark waters, but their deaths disturb the river and its history, dredging up secrets long submerged.

– via goodreads

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

My wonderful boyfriend bought me a personalized autograph copy of A Court of Wings and Ruin. I am so grateful and excited! I am so worried to actually read this because I don’t want to ruin it. I may put in a call to the library and carry that one around instead.

Feyre has returned to the Spring Court.

– via goodreads

I am so happy with the book I received for my birthday and I wanted to once again thank all of you who wished me a happy birthday. It meant so much to me. Have a great day and happy reading!

What book would you pick to read out of the ones mentioned?

 

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Reading Challenges

2017 Goals Update: First Quarter

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The firstupdatetop5 quarter of 2017 is nearly over so I thought I would take this time to do a little update on my 2017 goals, you can find the post here: 2017 Goals! I also thought it would be fun to go through and show my progress of the books outlined in my post called Top 5 Books I Want to Read in 2017. 

On the right side of the post you will see an image of a few books. If you have not seen my previous post those are the top 5 books I wanted to read this year. There are also large green X’s on some of those books. Those are the books I have completed, 4 of the 5. I am actually very surprised at my progress, I did not expect to get threw them this quickly. If you are interested you can find short reviews for three of the completed books on my post entitled #TBRTakeDown: Wrap Up.

The first goal I had set forth for myself was to give up on series and books I am not enjoying. I have to say that so far I am keeping true to this goal. I have stopped reading two series I was not feeling and DNF’ed one book.

The second goal I set for myself was to become a more critical reading and rater. Once again I feel that I have held true to this, while I have really enjoyed a lot of the books I have read this year, so far 23, only one has been given 5 stars.

The third goal I set was getting my TBR to 0 by the end of the year. Now this one I am having a hard time with. I don’t think I am the only reader with this “problem”. Since January I have read 23 books, so in theory I should be very close to have 0 already. The thing is I am finding books online and in bookstores I want to read and I just can’t seem to help myself. I have managed to get my TBR to 33, up 7 books. If you are interested you can find my TBR on my Libib account.

The fourth goal I have set was to post on my blog at least twice a month. I have crushed this one by posting at least once a week so far this year. In some cases twice a week. Yay!

The final goal I have set myself was getting my goodreads shelves under control. A month or so ago I took time and sat down and created new shelves based upon genre. I have slowly been going through and moving my current reads and previous reads onto these shelves. So I can happily say I am on the right track.

Over all I have to say that 2017 is getting off to a great start. Now to get my TBR and book buying under control… yeah I am shaking my head as well, but I can dream!

 

How are your 2017 goals coming along?

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Wrap Up

February2017 | Wrap Up

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Five Star Books:

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Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter was the only 5 star read I had this month. I loved it and you can find my review of this book here.

Four Star Books:

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This month I had 4 books I rated 4 stars. Maybe it was meant to be? You decide. 🙂 Anyway, you can find the reviews for Z and A Gentleman in Moscow here. The Bazaar of Bad Dreams  was wonderful. It reminded me of how much I love short stories. I liked all of the stories aside from one, which I think is great for a collection.. Most of the time I find myself only liking about half or a little more.  The Doctor Who box set was also a collection of short stories. Each book was roughly 40 pages or so. Each one was a retelling of a popular fairy tale with a Doctor Who twist. Sonic screwdriver and aliens included.

Three Star Books:

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These two books were overall enjoyable, but had a few faults. You can find a detailed review of these books here.

Two Star Books:

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After Alice was my lowest rated read of the month. I found it hard to get into and just fell flat. The reason I gave it two stars instead of one is because I can see why other people may enjoy it more so than I did. If you enjoy Alice in Wonderland look into other reviews, you may like it.

What was your favorite read this month?

 

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