2019 reading challenge week 6

For week 6 I read a book that was published the year I graduated high school, which for me was 2013.

I read "Fangirl" by Rainbow Rowell (synopsis).



Rating: 8/10

     First of all, as someone who identifies as a fangirl herself, I have never felt so called out in my life. I know we seem a little crazy, but that fact that we swoon over characters and their relationships with other characters was not too far from the truth. Frankly, this novel was pretty spot on when it comes to explaining the private lives of fangirls (although I don't think I would ever hand in a fanfiction as an assignment for a creative writing class).
     My only complaint about the novel was that it was turned into a cinderella-esque love story. It was all pretty cliche. The normal, jock type guy falls in love with the anxious, nerdy girl. I would have been totally fine with them just having their friendship and this being a story about accepting others as well as yourself, but this had to turn into a love story. Not that it wasn't done well, it just seemed a little unrealistic.
     But this was a very good book and would recommend it to every fangirl, or someone who has a fangirl in their life.

Next week I'll be reading "Be my valentine, Charlie Brown" by Charles Schultz.

2019 reading challenge week 5

for the 5th week of the reading challenge I read a fantasy novel, "Empress of all seasons" by Emiko Jean. (synopsis)



(I want to apologize for not doing week 4 of the challenge, but as you know, life can get in the way. Last week I read a book that deals with mental illness, so I read "First we make the beast beautiful" by Sarah Wilson. It's basically a memoir on her anxiety, that explains anxiety very well. I give it a 7/10. If you want a better idea of how anxiety feels from the perspective of someone with anxiety, I suggest you watch this video.)

Now back the review.

Rating: 9/10

     This was a very good book, especially if you are like me and like Japanese folklore. The lore was accurate and there was a glossary in the back for the Japanese words used.
     The only thing I didn't like about the book was that it jumped between perspectives, but only did so in the form of chapters. It kept the flow of the story and I never really felt lost, so I was that annoyed, and it gave a well rounded story.
     It's hard to talk about my favorite parts without spoiling anything, but I will say the world building, especially having to do with the 'seasons', was very interesting, and was done very well without taking away from traditional Japanese society and folklore. Even the way the characters spoke, thought and acted didn't ever make them seem less Japanese and felt really authentic.

Next week I'll bee reading "Fangirl" by Rainbow Rowell.

2019 Reading Challenge Week 3

For the 3rd week of the challenge I chose to read the graphic novel.

I read "Ibitsu" by Haruto Ryo.

Rating: 4/10
     This is a horror manga based on a Japanese urban legend. Now, I like horror, but I'm not a fan of gore, especially overboard gore. The basic premise of the story is about a young man who happens upon a girl dressed in gothic lolita garb in a garbage dump, and she asks if he would have a little sister. Not understanding the question, he says yes, as he already had a sister.
     I don't want to get too spoiler-y, but the boy and his friend look up the legend after a few strange events happen, and they found out that she asks her question, and if you say no, she kills you. But, if you say yes, she stalks you and then ends up killing you. According to several other instances that happened around Japan (in the story) all of the affected victims ended up committing suicide.
     This is a slow story at first, and starts out with the psychological horror, but gets gorier and gorier as it goes on. I'm not about that. It was a bit hard to read at some points because of that. I wouldn't recommend this story if you don't like gore. That's actually one of the main problems I had with this story, is that it relies on gore to be scary. As a horror fan, this was not an enjoyable story, but if you like gore, you might like it.

Next week I will be reading "First We Make the Beast Beautiful" by Sarah Wilson

2019 Reading Challenge Week 2

The second week of the reading was a book that was recommended by someone else.

That book was "Death Comes for the Archbishop" by Willa Cather.

Rating: 6/10

     The challenge didn't specify that the book had to be recommended by someone you knew, so I chose a book recommended by one of my favorite authors, John Green. He recommended this book in a video on his YouTube channel and I have been wanting to read it since. He said that this book is for people who think they don't like classics, which I believe is true. 

     This book is about a bishop and his mission to spread Christianity in early colonization of New Mexico. It's not really a story, but a series of vignettes about the bishop's over 40 years. He Starts out by travelling to New Mexico To take the power away from the Mexican priests (as New Mexico is now part of the United States), To trying to spread Catholicism to a population that really doesn't want it, and ending with his death. 

      Unlike most classics, this book was very easy to read. It wasn't too unnecessarily wordy, except to explain something in detail. It's not exactly exciting, so I did get a bit bored at times. Saying that though, I do believe that this book is a great piece on religion and evangelism in the early settlement of the south and just on evangelism in general. I would recommend this book, especially for someone who thinks they hate classics, but also for everyone.

Next week I will be reading a graphic novel: "Ibitsu" by Haruto Ryo.

Check out John Green:

Website - www.johngreenbooks.com

YouTube channel - VlogBrothers

2019 Reading challenge week 1

So we are staring off the 2019 reading challenge with the audio book.

I listened to Eric by Terry Pratchett



Rating: 5/10
As someone who doesn't read a lot of science fiction, I can't say whether or not I liked this book. It was easy to follow and I mainly listened to it in the background when I was getting ready for work.

But it did have its funny parts. There is a 14 year old "demonologist" who accidentally summons a wizard thinking he is a demon, wizard claims he is not a demon, but surprisingly has demon powers. There is also a snarky parrot. Death is also there, and he is a beekeeper who knows everything and occasionally we see an orangutan who is a librarian.

All in all if you like science fiction, I think you would like this. I probably would not have read this if it wasn't in audio format. So if you don't like science fiction I wouldn't recommend it.

Next week, a book recommended by someone else: Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

Starting off with a reading challenge

Hello!

I'm wanting to start 2019 off with a reading challenge, and what better way to keep my self accountable than by blogging about it?

Think like a "Julie & Julia" format.


(picture courtesy of Mommy Mannegren)

I found a reading challenge on pinterest that I wanted to try to get me to read more, because, it seems I haven't been reading as much as I ever did when I was in high school.
When I was in school I would blow through 3 or 4 books a week. Now I can barely finish one book in a few months.

Even though I have some pretty big changes coming up in my life this year, I hope to be able to finish this challenge, and I'm going to chronicle it weekly here. There 52 categories are numbered, but I'm going to be doing them out of order.

I want to thank you for coming on this journey with me ^_^