Wrap Up

A Week in Review | October 14th -October 20th

a week in review

This ween in October, I started a few books, but I didn’t really finish any and that is alright with me. I have a lot going on and I had a lot of late nights working on projects and such so getting any reading is wonderful.

Books I Finished

Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi

Emergency Contact

I just wanted to update you from last week on this book. I was not enjoy it at all and I really did not like some aspects of this book in its use of slut shaming even if it was not “serious” I just didn’t think it did anything to further the plot and there were better ways a high school age individual could have been immature and worded things. I DNF’ed this and unhauled it.

DividerI am Still Reading

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

Scythe (Arc of a Scythe, #1)

Currently I am about 75% way through this book and I am still enjoying it. I am curious to see what happen to the two main characters and how the story ends. I was thinking about this when I started reading the book, but more so now. I really hope a love interest doesn’t become the main focus of this book or it will honestly most likely ruin it for me. I think that is one of the main reasons why I stoped reading so much YA, if I wanted romance I would read a romance novel.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

So I have about 2 more days to finish this book and I am only about 70 some odd pages in to this. I am enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would originally. I am really glad that Hank decided to write an adult book because I feel like if it was YA the story would have been a lot different and I really like how the characters are in their early twenties and have graduated college or university. I always love reading about people in this age group.

In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

In a Dark, Dark Wood

So my library audiobook became available for this book and I was so excited I could not wait to jump in a read it. So I have been listening to it every change I have gotten since. I am really loving the atmosphere of this book and the cast of characters. As I am reading this I feel like I am just waiting for the shoe to drop and find out what actually happened in the dark, dark wood. I can’t wait to finish this, but I will also be sad to see this book end. Ruth Ware is one of my favorite authors and I will have no more unread books of hers.

Divider
NEXT BOOK

I just want to focus on finishing the books I have started at this point in the month honestly. lol.

Divider

What did you read this week?

SignOff12:17

Tumblr Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

Wrap Up

A Week in Review | October 7th -October 13th

a week in review

Another week of October is complete, where is the time going? I keep feeling like every time I turn around it is a day later than I thought it was. It is also getting chillier where I am. I think it is officially indoor sweatshirt weather and fall jacket time. This week I went out and bought myself a new one and I am in love with it. I have been wearing it every day. What is the weather like for you currently, has the season finally started to change? Anyway, here is my weekly book wrap-up.

Books I Finished

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

I have been hearing about this book since finding out Shirley Jackson was an author. I can see why We Have Always Lived in the Castle is one of her most talked about novels. It is eerie, but not in a traditionally sense. The truth can be a bit surprising and the atmosphere was just wonderful. Even though her novel is so short, she is a master of creating a setting that you can feel. I really enjoyed this novel and I suggest it for anyone who wants to be creeped out, but not by monsters.

4stars

Tropic Of Cancer by Henry Miller

Tropic Of Cancer

So, this was a really weird book. While I did read the entire thing I can’t really tell you what happened if that makes sense. As the story progresses it does get a little more coherent, but it never becomes tame in any shape way or form. I would never have read this book on my own that is for sure, the description is not something I would normally be drawn to. I honestly can’t really suggest this book to anyone though.

2stars

DividerI am Still Reading

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

Scythe (Arc of a Scythe, #1)

So I am buddy reading this book and at first I feel a little behind it. I did not think I was going to like it a lot so I kinda put it off and read 3 other books last week. Well, when I finally picked it up this week I read 200 pages mainly over one day. I loved one of the characters and the shock I felt at the twist left me floored! I need to keep reading this as soon as I can, but I don’t want to read too far head of everyone else.

Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi

Emergency Contact

This week I started to read this book, I finally got up the courage because there was so much talk about this novel. So far, I am not thrilled at all. Literally on the first page there was already someone calling someone else a  slut. Are you kidding me? Then one of the main characters is aggravating and I just felt like all I was reading was whining.  I just don’t really want to read anymore of it. So, I might be DNFing this. I will update you on what I decide to do next week.

Divider
NEXT BOOK

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

This month I need to read this as part of the BN Book Club, so I think it is about time to pick it up. I am a bit worried I wont like it because I know I like Hank Green from his videos and what not. I am also worried what the older individuals in the BN Book Club are going to say about this book mainly because it deals with YouTube and social media where I think some people are going to have a trouble adjusting to that point of view when it was something that many people did not grow up with or was not mainstream when they were younger.

Divider

What did you read this week?

SignOff12:17

Tumblr Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

Hauls & Unboxings

Book Haul |July & August 2018

BookHaul12:17

Hello everyone, today I thought it would be a fun idea to share the books I picked up over the last few months. I am thinking from now on it might be the best if I do seasonal hauls since my book buying has slowed down so much instead of not posting about them at all. Some of these I bought myself and come I was gifted by friends and family. Anyway, here are the books I picked up this summer!

Divider

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcase by Stuart Turton

The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

I am very excited to read this, I keep hearing such nice things. At first I was so confused as to why my copy said 7 1/2 instead of 7, as it turns out in the U.S. it is called 7 1/2 as to not get confused with the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. How interesting publishing can be at times. It feels like the who Sorcerer and Philosopher situation again.

“At a gala party thrown by her parents, Evelyn Hardcastle will be killed—again. She’s been murdered hundreds of times, and each day, Aiden Bishop is too late to save her. Doomed to repeat the same day over and over, Aiden’s only escape is to solve Evelyn Hardcastle’s murder and conquer the shadows of an enemy he struggles to even comprehend—but nothing and no one is quite what they seem.

Deeply atmospheric and ingeniously plotted, The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a highly original debut that will appeal to fans of Kate Atkinson and Agatha Christie.” –goodreads.com

Divider

Clock Dance by Anne Tyler

Clock Dance

I picked this up so I could take place in the Barns and Noble book club. I liked this book a lot more than I did the previous book club pick. At times I was a bit bored of it, but as the story progressed I liked it more and more.

“Willa Drake can count on one hand the defining moments of her life: when she was eleven and her mother disappeared, being proposed to at twenty-one, the accident that would make her a widow at forty-one. At each of these moments, Willa ended up on a path laid out for her by others.

So when she receives a phone call telling her that her son’s ex-girlfriend has been shot and needs her help, she drops everything and flies across the country. The spur-of-the-moment decision to look after this woman – and her nine-year-old daughter, and her dog – will lead Willa into uncharted territory. Surrounded by new and surprising neighbours, she is plunged into the rituals that make a community and takes pleasure in the most unexpected things.

A bittersweet novel of hope and regret, fulfillment and renewal, Clock Dance brings us the everyday life of a woman who decides it’s never too late to change direction, and choose your own path.” –goodreads.com

Divider

The Bird’s Nest by Shirley Jackson

The Bird's Nest

I feel like I am going to quickly start growing a Shirley Jackson collection. Ever one of her novels and short stories I pick up I end up loving so much. Her writing is beautiful and it is creepy in such a way that you almost create the “monsters” in your own head. It is truly beautiful writing.

Elizabeth Richmond is almost too quiet to be believed, with no friends, no parents, and a job that leaves her strangely unnoticed. But soon she starts to behave in ways she can neither control nor understand, to the increasing horror of her doctor, and the humiliation of her self-centred aunt. As a tormented Elizabeth becomes two people, then three, then four, each wilder and more wicked than the last, a battle of wills threatens to destroy the girl and all who surround her. The Bird’s Nest is a macabre journey into who we are, and how close we sometimes come to the brink of madness.” –goodreads.com

Divider

Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi

Emergency Contact

I need to find out if I end up liking this book or disliking it. Every person I have seen who has read this has either liked it or disliked it and there seems to be no in between. I want to know where I fall.

For Penny Lee high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn’t actually know anything about her. When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind.

Sam’s stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he’s a famous movie director but right this second the seventeen bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him.

When Sam and Penny cross paths it’s less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch—via text—and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other. –goodreads.com

Divider

Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The Secret Life of Bees

I received this beautiful education of Secret Life of Bees, I have always wanted to read this book so I am very happy to have my very own copy in such a beautiful edition.

K is for Kidd. Set in South Carolina during the tumultuous summer of 1964, The Secret Life of Bees also ushered young Lily Owens, a girl transformed by the power and divinity of the female spirit, into the canon of modern-day heroines. Lily and her fierce-hearted black “stand-in mother” escape the racism of their hometown and find refuge with an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters, whose world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna is mesmerizing.” -goodreads.com

Divider

The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle

The Dinner List

This was my August Book of the Month pick, I read the description and I had to have it. I mean a book where Audrey Hepburn shows up to have birthday dinner is a book I need to read.

“We’ve been waiting for an hour.” That’s what Audrey says. She states it with a little bit of an edge, her words just bordering on cursive. That’s the thing I think first. Not: Audrey Hepburn is at my birthday dinner, but Audrey Hepburn is annoyed.”

At one point or another, we’ve all been asked to name five people, living or dead, with whom we’d like to have dinner. Why do we choose the people we do? And what if that dinner was to actually happen? These are the questions Rebecca Serle contends with in her utterly captivating novel, THE DINNER LIST, a story imbued with the same delightful magical realism as One Day, and the life-changing romance of Me Before You.

When Sabrina arrives at her thirtieth birthday dinner she finds at the table not just her best friend, but also three significant people from her past, and well, Audrey Hepburn. As the appetizers are served, wine poured, and dinner table conversation begins, it becomes clear that there’s a reason these six people have been gathered together.

Delicious but never indulgent, sweet with just the right amount of bitter, THE DINNER LIST is a romance for our times. Bon appetit.” –goodreads.com

Divider

Kathleen and Frank: The Autobiography of a Family by Christopher Isherwood

Kathleen and Frank: The Autobiography of a Family

I have been slowly making my way though Isherwood’s books. I love his style of writing. It is always raw, but also they are always about everyday people in their own life. But, they seem so much more than that. While there is a lot to support that many of his books are based off of things that happened in is own life, this is actually labeled as an Autobiography.

It is the story of Christopher Isherwood’s parents, the winsome and lively daughter of a successful wine merchant and the reticent, artistically gifted soldier-son of a country squire. They met in 1895 outside a music rehearsal in an army camp and married in 1903 after Christopher’s father returned from the Boer War. Frank was killed in an assault near Ypres in 1915; Kathleen remained a widow for the rest of her life.

Their story is told through letters and Kathleen’s diary, with connecting commentary by Isherwood. Kathleen and Frank is a family memoir, but it is also a richly detailed social history of a period of striking change— Queen Victoria’s funeral, Blériot’s flight across the English Channel, Sarah Bernhardt’s Hamlet, suffragettes, rising hemlines, the beginning of the Troubles in Ireland—the period that shaped Isherwood himself.

As a young man, Isherwood fled the tragedy that engulfed his parents’ lives and threatened his own; in Kathleen and Frank, he reweaves the tapestry of family and heritage and places himself in the pattern. –goodreads.com

Divider

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Little Women and Other Novels

My mom was so kind to get my this edition of my favorite book and book series, Little Women. Now I am so excited to read this series all over again. I am hoping I can in the next year or so.

“This beautiful collectible edition presents three novels from one of the most beloved American authors: Louisa May Alcott. It includes her most famous and cherished classic, Little Women, about the lives of four sisters in Civil War–era America, as well as its sequels, Little Men and Jo’s Boys” goodreads.com 

Divider

What was the last book you acquired?

SignOff12:17

Tumblr Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads

Hauls & Unboxings

Revisiting | Read 5, Buy 1 Challenge Vol. 2

revisiting

Once again I am here with an update to my Read 5, Buy 1 challenge, you can find the original post here: Lets Talk | My Read 5, Buy 1 Challenge. I am still doing very well and I am very happy with my progress. This update I did find a bit of a loophole for my 5th book, but I am not mad about it since I still have removed 5 books from my TBR.

Books Acquired

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

Practical Magic

Description: When the beautiful and precocious sisters Sally and Gillian Owens are orphaned at a young age, they are taken to a small Massachusetts town to be raised by their eccentric aunts, who happen to dwell in the darkest, eeriest house in town. As they become more aware of their aunts’ mysterious and sometimes frightening powers — and as their own powers begin to surface — the sisters grow determined to escape their strange upbringing by blending into “normal” society.

But both find that they cannot elude their magic-filled past. And when trouble strikes — in the form of a menacing backyard ghost — the sisters must not only reunite three generations of Owens women but embrace their magic as a gift — and their key to a future of love and passion. Funny, haunting, and shamelessly romantic, Practical Magic is bewitching entertainment — Alice Hoffman at her spectacular best. –goodreads.com

I had to pick up this book when I saw it was on sale. I have loved the movie that is loosely based upon this novel since I was a young child and I have been curious about the book since I found out it was a book.

Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi

Emergency Contact

For Penny Lee high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn’t actually know anything about her. When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind.

Sam’s stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he’s a famous movie director but right this second the seventeen bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him.

When Sam and Penny cross paths it’s less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch—via text—and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other. –goodreads.com

I am curious to see if I end up liking this book. I hear either people are loving it or they end up really not liking it. This books seems like there is no middle ground.

DividerPrevious Updates

Revisiting | Read 5, Buy 1 Challenge

Divider

What was the most recent book you have acquired?

SignOff12:17

Tumblr Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads