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Athena's Reading List 2017


Athena

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May 2017 Summary

Books read: 28
Pages read: 6375

Most impressive / Favourite(s) of the month:
Jen Wilde - Queens of Geek
Rachael Lucas - The State of Grace
Diane Chamberlain - Keeper of the Light / Kiss River 3: Her Mother's Shadow
Rob Eastaway - How Many Socks Make a Pair? Marit Brugman - Friet in de Kliniek

Pretty enjoyable:
J. K. Rowling, John Tiffany and Jack Thorne - Harry Potter: Harry Potter en het Vervloekte Kind (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child)
Paul van Loon (ill. Hugo van Look) - Dolfje Weerwolfje: Dolfje Sneeuwwolfje (Het Nachtmerrieneefje + Niet Bijten, Dolfje)
Luc Descamps (ill. Rik Willemen) - De Poortwereld 2: Het Uur van de Weerwolf
Simone Lia - Eigenlijk Ben Ik Een Flamingo (They Didn't Teach THIS In Worm School!)
Will Mabbitt (ill. Ross Collins) - Merel Jansen 1: De Ongelooflijke Avonturen van Merel Jansen (Mabel Jones 1: The Unlikely Adventures of Mabel Jones)
Will Mabbitt (ill. Ross Collins) - Mabel Jones 2: Mabel Jones and the Forbidden City
Kazu Kibuishi - Amulet 2: De Vloek (The Stonekeeper's Curse)
Kazu Kibuishi - Amulet 3: De Wolkenverkenners (The Cloud Searchers)
Phil Earle (ill. Sara Ogilvie) - Superhero Street
Mathila Masters and Georgien Overwater - De Keukenprins van Mocano 2: Koekjes voor de Koningin
Laura M. Hughes - Danse Macabre
Cressida Cowell - Stikkum Stoere Steurkop III 1: Hoe Tem Je Een Draak (How To Train Your Dragon 1: How To Train Your Dragon)
Cressida Cowell - Stikkum Stoere Steurkop III 3: Hoe Leer Je Draaks (How To Train Your Dragon 3: How To Speak Dragonese)

Somewhat enjoyable:
Finn-Ole Heinrich and Rán Flygenring - De Ongelofelijke Avonturen van de Miraculeuze Mauwlein 1: Het Leven is een Pannenkoek (Die Erstaunlichen Abenteuer der Maulina Smitt 1: Mein Kaputtes Königreich)
Finn-Ole Heinrich and Rán Flygenring - De Ongelofelijke Avonturen van de Miraculeuze Mauwlein 2: Wachten op een Wonder (Die Erstaunlichen Abenteuer der Maulina Smitt 2: Warten auf Wunder)
Philip Ardagh (ill. Mike Gordon, col. Carl Gordon) - Het Weetjes Stripboek voor Jonge Lezers (Dino's; Bodies; Space)
Geronimo Stilton - Geronimo Stilton 50: De Karatekampioen (Te Lo Do Io Il Karate)
Geronimo Stilton - Oerknagers 9: De Verschrikkelijke Sneeuwrat (L'Abominevole Ratto Delle Nevi)
Anthony Horowitz (ill. Thomas Yeates) - Legends 3: Beasts and Monsters

Biggest disappointment(s) / Least favourite(s) of the month:
Graeme Simsion - The Best of Adam Sharp
Marc Boada (ill. Pere Mejan) - Max 1: Max en de Slinger van Foucault (Max Picard 1: Max Picard i el Maleït Pèndol de Foucault)

Stephenie Meyer - Twilight: Life and Death

Abandoned book:
None!

Shortest books read this month:
Marit Brugman - Friet in de Kliniek (109 pages)
Laura M. Hughes - Danse Macabre (117 pages)

Longest books read this month:
Diane Chamberlain - Keeper of the Light / Kiss River 3: Her Mother's Shadow (409 pages)

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Oooh that book looks interesting! I recently bought The Music of the Primes by the same author, though I haven't read it yet. Let me know what you think of The Number Mysteries when you read it :). I hope it's good! The maths book I read was definitely fun.

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Just seen a good review for another Diane Chamberlain on bookie group on Facebook....Summer's Child'....goes off to add to wishlist... :D

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7 hours ago, Athena said:

Oooh that book looks interesting! I recently bought The Music of the Primes by the same author, though I haven't read it yet. Let me know what you think of The Number Mysteries when you read it :). I hope it's good! The maths book I read was definitely fun.

 

Will do. :D

 

 I liked the author`s TV shows ; I don`t know if you have access to them ?:)

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16 hours ago, Inver said:

Just seen a good review for another Diane Chamberlain on bookie group on Facebook....Summer's Child'....goes off to add to wishlist... :D

 

Oooh good to hear that :), I haven't read that one yet but that sounds promising!

 

15 hours ago, Little Pixie said:

Will do. :D

 

 I liked the author`s TV shows ; I don`t know if you have access to them ?:)

 

I had no idea he did TV shows!

It looks like Amazon UK is selling the DVDs of The Story of Maths and of The Code (the rest is unavailable). The Dutch shop I normally order from, only sells his books.

I don't think his shows are on the TV channels we can receive through our satellite, though I wouldn't know that for sure. But Google doesn't show me that that's the case :(.

 

14 hours ago, pontalba said:

Hey!  Just stopping by to say hey there. :)  Glad to see your reading is still going strong.  :D:readingtwo:

 

Hey Kate :). Thanks for stopping by :D:readingtwo:!

At the moment I'm having trouble focusing on a single book, instead my brain wants to read lots of books at once. I think it's because of my ADD, but I have hope that I'll be back to my usual 'one book at a time' soon :).

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7 hours ago, Athena said:

I had no idea he did TV shows!

It looks like Amazon UK is selling the DVDs of The Story of Maths and of The Code (the rest is unavailable). The Dutch shop I normally order from, only sells his books.

I don't think his shows are on the TV channels we can receive through our satellite, though I wouldn't know that for sure. But Google doesn't show me that that's the case :(.

 

I`ve just peeked on Amazon and those DVDs are sooo expensive !  I don`t think they`re worth buying at those prices. :(

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17 hours ago, Little Pixie said:

I`ve just peeked on Amazon and those DVDs are sooo expensive !  I don`t think they`re worth buying at those prices. :(

 

I noticed that too :(. It's a shame.

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I read Emma Donoghue - Room. I had a bit of trouble getting into this book. I don't think it was just the book, I've been having trouble focusing and making a book stick so I was reading multiple books at once (something which I don't normally do and don't like to do). It took me several days to read the first half of the book, and some of those days I don't think I even opened the book. I found the beginning chapter the hardest to get through. But a little while before half way through the book, I started to really enjoy the book and I was able to read the second half of the book in a day.

 

It's an impressive story and I think it will stay with me for a while. I finished the book yesterday but am still thinking about it. In the beginning I had to get used to the way the narrative was told. The book seemed tedious in the beginning. But I'm really glad I persisted, because in the end I quite enjoyed the book and am still thinking about it.

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On 6-6-2017 at 5:08 PM, Little Pixie said:

I hope your book drought has eased now, and that you`ll find your next book easier to get into. :)

 

Thanks, I have :). I finished it already (and have started another).

 

I am reading a chapter from Greg Jenner - A Million Years in a Day now and then (recommended to me by BobblyBear), but will try to read only one book besides it (ie. a fiction read). But with an information book like A Million Years in a Day there's only so much information I can read before I need to stop and process it. So hopefully it will work reading one fiction book (or a biography / memoir) and one non-fiction information book (like A Million Years in a Day). I'm currently reading Diane Carey - Star Trek: The Next Generation: Descent, the novelisation of the double parter episode at the end of season 6 and beginning of season 7 we just watched a few days ago. Apparently my boyfriend had this book, so I thought, why not? I read most of and finished Carrie Mac - 10 Things I Can See From Here two days ago. Review to follow in the next post (warning, it's a long one!).

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I read Carrie Mac - 10 Things I Can See From Here. This is a YA contemporary about a queer girl with anxiety issues. I think this is an #OwnVoices book. Maeve lives in the U.S. and her mother decides to go to Haiti to live there with her new boyfriend. So Maeve has to live with her father for a while, in Vancouver (Canada).

I liked the short chapters, they gave a good sense of progression. I also liked the chapter titles. The first chapter was awesome (titled 'Stupid Things People Say'). I liked the main character but I didn't like sometimes how some of the other characters responded to her anxiety. I felt in some cases those characters could've been more understanding of Maeve's anxiety. Perhaps that was the point, I don't know. I do think her parents should've let her take medication as I think that would greatly help, but that's a personal choice of course (just, because she's underage she can't make that decision herself, or she would take medication).

On occasion I found some of the things Maeve said / thought, ie. certain statistics (applicable to US and Canada) a bit triggering. Gladly I was able to off-put this by the fact that I am lucky to be living here in the Netherlands and for example the rate of crime here is a lot lower than in the US. But just a warning for anyone who think it might be triggering for them.

Warning: rants coming.

In some cases I found myself agreeing with Maeve. There was one scene in particular that annoyed me, when Maeve and her dad were in the car and her dad wouldn't put his seatbelt on. How hard is it just to put a bloody seatbelt on?! It's just common sense in my opinion, and it's something I'll talk about too but only if the person in question is a close family member. I don't do so with people I don't know well. I don't understand why her father started arguing with Maeve when the smart, sensible thing to do would just be to put the seatbelt on and the whole situation would be resolved. I didn't understand why he didn't just put his seatbelt on, in this case I wouldn't call it anxiety, I would find it common sense. It wouldn't have been hard for him just to spend those few seconds putting it on, knowing that he'd make her feel a whole lot better. It's not that hard to do that for your daughter surely?! There is no need to get angry, but then I've never understood people who don't wear seatbelts. I always wear one. It's much safer and it takes all of about a few seconds to put it on, prior to the carjourney. I don't see why someone would be reluctant to do so, unless somehow they think there is a high chance they find themselves in a situation where they'll have to leave the car immediately. But in most situations, it is perfect common sense to wear a seatbelt and it's the safe and smart thing to do. Okay, end rant about the seatbelt. That scene annoyed me.

I also don't understand why some of her family members kept pushing her to drive. Maybe it's a different culture in the US and Canada, because here no 16-year-old can drive (or rather, is allowed to take driving lessons), and lots of people, even those who can drive, sometimes take the bicycle instead (which is healthier). Maeve made it clear she didn't want to drive, so I didn't understand why they kept pushing her which only led to arguments. I mean, given that she's so anxious and definitely didn't want to drive in those situations I'm referring to, would it have been a good idea to put such an anxious person behind the wheel, who didn't want to drive? I don't think so. I didn't understand why her family didn't just let her be after she states to them that she doesn't want to drive. But here it is only normal for teenagers past the age of 18 to start driving, once they are of the age to leave the house anyway. Maeve was still in high school. It just seemed too soon. And if she didn't want to drive, there are other ways of getting around, like public transport and cycling, at least, here. Driving shouldn't be the be-all-end-all that the family members made it seem. So she doesn't want to drive. Then let her. What's the big deal? If it makes her feel better not to do something, something that is not completely necessary, why not let her. As long as she finds her own way to where she wants to go, ie. on a bus, then it's fine, right? It would be different if she was constantly asking for rides, but that was not the case. Okay, she was also afraid to go on the bus, but she did do it! As a sidenote, I don't know if the buses in Canada have seatbelts, the book didn't mention it either way.

Okay, let's move onto the actual characters and stop ranting. I quite liked the characters of Claire and Corbin and Owen. I also liked Salix (and isn't that an awesome name). I do wish some of the characters had been a bit more understanding about Maeve's anxiety, even by the end of the book. I'm an anxious person, so perhaps it's easier to understand for me. I quite liked the family issues in this book and how they were handled. Like I said, I liked Claire (Maeve's stepmum), and Owen and Corbin (her stepbrothers). Sometimes stepfamilies in books are evil (or love interests in the case of stepsiblings) but this was not the case here and I liked that.

I did feel the love moved quite quickly in the book, but then the first bit of infatuation goes quickly for some people. But it was a bit 'insta-love'.

Reading all this makes it perhaps seem as if I didn't like the book. I did like it! I could identify with Maeve and found it quite nice to read about someone with anxiety. Maeve is the main character narrating the story and so you're supposed to symphatise with her.

In the beginning I was a bit confused as to who certain people were and what happened, but most things were revealed later on. I liked how Maeve's panic attacks were described and how she felt. I'm not queer / a lesbian myself but it was nice to read a book about a girl who identifies as queer (the book was not a coming out story). I feel like I've read more books than involve male homosexuals rather than female homosexuals (and usually the books are coming out stories). I don't know if there just seems to be more focus on the men / boys or why this is, perhaps it's just coincidence or it just seems that way to me.

Anyway, overall then I enjoyed the book but had a few issues. The overall enjoyment was still positive though. I read the book in almost a day and it read pretty fast. I had perhaps wanted more understanding for Maeve and her issues, and I wasn't totally happy with all the bits from the ending, but I enjoyed reading Maeve's story and her thoughts and recognising some anxiety things from my own life. Just know that the book could potentially be triggering, especially if you do live in the US / Canada. But overall I did like the book and I enjoyed reading it.

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I read Diane Carey - Star Trek: The Next Generation: Descent. I watched these episodes a few days ago, and it turned out my boyfriend had the book, the novelisation of the episodes. He's never read it, he's not really much of a reader. I decided to read the book. I really liked the TV episodes. This book was nice too, though of course I did know what was going to happen. I liked that the book had a few extra scenes, which in my mind made sense with the story. I also liked that we got to know a bit more of the thoughts of some of the characters, as those are things I don't always pick up on from their facial expressions (and therefore don't know if it is what was shown on screen). It did seem to me that the characters seemed more heroic on screen whereas in the book they seemed more insecure, but only in their thoughts. Overall it was nice to read this novelisation and get a bit of extra insight. I would've liked to have more insight into Data, there wasn't much of that.

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I'm not a huge fan of Descent, because it is the second story in Star Trek to undermine the Borg by putting a face on them (it's far from being the worst offender in that regard, but it continues a theme that Voyager subsequently pursued with reckless abandon).

 

After The Best of Both Worlds, this was a mediocre return for a previously intractable enemy.

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The Best of Both Worlds was / were awesome episodes and I loved them so much. I agree that Descent wasn't as good as The Best of Both Worlds. I did enjoy Descent a lot but it didn't come close to how much I loved The Best of Both Worlds. I haven't seen much of Voyager, nor of Deep Space Nine, though I plan to rectify that in the future (first I want to finish TNG).

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I read Jasmine Warga - My Heart & Other Black Holes. This book was giften to me by Michelle :hug:. I quite liked this book.  I thought for the most part depression was described well and I felt for the two characters. The book reads quickly yet talks about deep issues. I thought the storylines were interesting. There was one thing I felt that wasn't entirely resolved and I would've liked to see more of, but: spoilers. Overall I quite enjoyed reading this book. 

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On 2017-6-8 at 8:08 AM, Athena said:

I am reading a chapter from Greg Jenner - A Million Years in a Day now and then (recommended to me by BobblyBear), but will try to read only one book besides it (ie. a fiction read). But with an information book like A Million Years in a Day there's only so much information I can read before I need to stop and process it.

 

I hope you are enjoying it. :) I read a fiction book alongside it as well, which was quite easy to do as each chapter is about something different, so it's easy to leave time in between reads.

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17 hours ago, bobblybear said:

I hope you are enjoying it. :) I read a fiction book alongside it as well, which was quite easy to do as each chapter is about something different, so it's easy to leave time in between reads.

 

Thanks, I am so far :). I read the chapter on 'Walking the Dog' yesterday, so I'm slowly making progress, reading a chapter every few days or so. That's true, I like that the chapters are all different, so it's easy to read something else in between. There's only so much information I can handle before I need a break, so this seems to work for me. I'll be sure to post about it once I've finished the book :).

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I read Sarah Morton - Afwijkend En Toch Zo Gewoon. This is an autobiography written by a woman with autism. It was nice, but she is quite different from me and so there weren't as many things I recognised as from perhaps some other autobiographies written by people with autism, and that was a bit of a shame (I had wanted to recognise more things).

 

Sarah's environment was quite mean to her, and I often felt throughout the book that they were the problem, not Sarah. It read a bit like a drama and I felt for Sarah. At the same time I found it also difficult, I was blessed with a very safe and secure and good environment - my parents and other family members usually supported me, and most of my teachers in high school did too (the kids less so). Some of my primary school teachers didn't understand me, others did a bit of a better job at that. Most of the children and teenagers didn't understand me.

 

So I couldn't totally identify with her and how badly she was treated, and I found that the environment acted more weird than Sarah did. It seemed to me it wouldn't have been too difficult to just treat her nicely, which makes it seem to me that the book was less about autism and more about how badly she was treated, if that makes any sense. bviously it's her story and the way she experienced it, I cannot fault the book for that, but I guess the book was different than what I was expecting.

 

Sensory input problems are a huge deal for me, and while Sarah did seem to have difficulties with that, it didn't seem to inpact her as much as it does me and it certainly wasn't the focus of the book. I guess I was hoping for more about sensory input issues.

 

It was interesting that some things Sarah couldn't do, I could do at that age, but also very much the other way around, things she could do at certain ages and I couldn't.

 

Anyway, the book did read nicely, though it took me a while to get through it (also due to the fact that with my ADD I had trouble focusing on one book). I actually started the book over a week ago and read a chapter now and then, but yesterday I found myself wanting to finish it so I read the rest of the book. Sarah has an interesting writing style. The book did sometimes seem to jump from subject to subject. The chapters are largely chronological, but within each chapter, different subjects were mentioned and sometimes these changes were a bit abrupt to me. I did like that the chapters were broken up into subsections with these subjects. There were a couple of quite personal things Sarah mentioned and I have to commend her braveness for doing so. It was also nice that the book had some humour at times, I liked that.

 

Overall then the book was perhaps not quite what I was expecting, but I did like reading it and I do feel very much for Sarah, that she had to go through all of that. I do realise that I am (and have been) very blessed with my environment, with family and teachers and other adults, particularly in high school, university and now (primary school less so). Sarah's reality could well be the reality of lots of other children / adults with autism. Sarah was badly treated not only by other children but also by teachers and family members. While I was bullied too by other children and teenagers, I was generally treated nicely by the teachers and my family members. Anyway, I did like reading the book even if it wasn't quite what I expected, and I felt for Sarah.

 

 

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I read Rick Riordan - Percy Jackson and the Olympians 1: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. I've been meaning to read this book for a few years now, but I was reluctant to start yet another series. I watched the two movies a while ago (based on the first and second book I think) and liked them. I wouldn't normally watch the movie before reading the book, but my boyfriend wanted to watch the movies so I said yes, because I did want to see the movies.

 

Anyway, I'm really glad I gave this book a chance, because I really liked it. Of course some of the tension wasn't there because I knew what was going to happen because of the movie. However the style in which the story was told was quite nice and humourous and I liked that. I do feel there were some bits in the book that weren't in the movie, though it could be I just don't remember them for some reason.

 

The Greek mythology took me back to high school (times) when / where I learnt about Greek mythology. I read some books on it myself as well, with their myths, simply because I was interested. It was interesting to see how the author used the mythology and made it in a contemporary setting.

 

The story was action packed and I liked the characters. Overall I quite enjoyed reading the book and I look forward to, hopefully, read the rest of the series later this year (or at least some of it).

 

 

 

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11 hours ago, Little Pixie said:

« shakes little fist at bullies» :(

 

Thanks :hug:!

 

11 hours ago, Little Pixie said:

I quite liked the first two films in the Percy Jackson series ( enough to see the third film, if they do make one ) . :)

 

Me too, glad to hear you liked them as well :). I'm not sure if there will ever be a third film, but I can hope.

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