Athena

Cathy Glass - My Dad's a Policeman (QuickReads) Genre: Biography, Contemporary Fiction Format: Paperback Pages: 98 pages Synopsis (GoodReads): Fast-paced and compelling, this short story from Cathy Glass follows the experiences of a Ryan, a small and lonely 12-year-old boy who struggles to fit in. In an attempt to make friends, and discourage the school bullies from picking on him, Ryan tells his peers that his dad is a policeman. When the police actually turn up on Ryan's doorstep, to take him away from his alcoholic mother and put him in care, his life crumbles. (cut off because I feel the rest are spoilers, this is as far the back of the book tells it). My thoughts: This book is based on a true story. This was a great story, it was quite interesting to read about Ryan and his family. The plot twists were unexpected. It's a short read but provided some detail. Rating: **** (4/5, 8/10)

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - The Little Prince Genre: Literature, Children's Format: Paperback Pages: 109 pages Synopsis (back of the book): The Little Prince is a classic tale of equal appeal to children and adults. On one level it is the story of an airman's discovery in the desert of a small boy from another planet - the Little Prince of the title - and his stories of intergalactic travel, while on the other hand it is a thought-provoking allegory of the human condition. First published in 1943, the year before the author's dead in action, this new translation contains Saint-Exupéry's delightful illustrations. My thoughts: This book was nicely written. It was much easier to read than H. P. Lovecraft - The Call of Cthulhu. The illustrations in it (drawn by the author of the book) were not only beautiful but some of them also served a purpose in the story. I quite liked this element. The story was funny and interesting, and also quite different from most other things I've read. Rating: **** (4/5, 8/10)

Talli Roland - Miracle at the Broken Museum Genre: Chick-lit Format: Kindle Pages: ~52 pages (64 if you include the excerpt from another book of the author) Synopsis (GoodReads): Does every relationship deserve a second chance? When chief romantic Rose Delaney scores her dream job at London's quirkiest new attraction, The Museum of Broken Hearts, she thinks she's got it made. Sure, it's a little depressing dealing with relics of failed relationships each day, but Rose is determined not to let it break her 'love conquers all' spirit. After discovering the museum's handsome curator is nursing a broken heart of his own, Rose steps in to fix it. Can Rose heal the rift, or will this happy ending go awry? My thoughts: I hadn't read anything by this author before (though I own several more of her books on the Kindle). This was quite a cute story. I enjoyed many things about the main character Rose, but in particular I liked reading about her job and what it involved. I thought she was a little bit dense at times. The book is a short, easy read. I liked it a lot. Rating: **** (4/5, 8/10)

John Boyne - The Dare (QuickReads) Genre: Contemporary Fiction Format: Paperback Pages: 102 Synopsis (GoodReads): At the start of his school holidays, Danny Delaney is looking forward to a trouble-free summer. But when his mother returns home one afternoon, flanked by two policemen, he knows that something terrible has happened. Mrs Delaney has accidentally hit a small boy with her car. The boy is in a coma at the local hospital and nobody knows if he will ever wake up. Consumed by guilt, Danny's mother closes herself off, while Danny and his father are left to pick up the pieces of their fractured family. Told in John Boyne's unique style from the point of view of a twelve-year-old boy, The Dare is a brilliantly compelling story about how one moment can change a family forever. My thoughts: Again, I don't know much about this author, I picked it up because the synopsis sounded interesting. This story was quite nice and easy to read. I thought the premise was quite interesting and enjoyed reading about Danny and how he felt and what happened. One downside though was that I would've liked more detail about the mother. The book was mainly about Danny and what happens with him, what effect his mother has on him. The book doesn't go into detail about what the mother must be feeling, just how she acts towards her family. It took me a while before I remember reading the age of the protagonist, I felt this could've been made clearer earlier in the story. Yes, it's in GoodReads' synopsis but not on the back of the book. It may have been mentioned near the beginning but during reading I couldn't remember this (so maybe it wasn't). It's not a big deal, it just bothered me a little. By the writing style and thoughts in the book I found it hard to determine, but then again I don't know a lot about children. All in all this story was quite good and interesting. Rating: **** (4/5, 7/10)

Natsumi Ando - Wild @ Heart Volume 1-3 Genre: Manga (chick-lit, romance, YA) Format: Paperback Pages: 544 Synopsis (GoodReads): Chino wants what every teen girl wants: to fall in love! But when it finally happens, it’s not exactly what she expected. Her father, a great explorer, brings home his latest find: Hyo, a boy who was raised in the jungle. Hyo is completely uncivilized, but he’s also supercute—and completely wild at heart. Can Chino really be falling for wild child Hyo? My thoughts: I picked this up for cheap on a book fair. I hadn't heard anything about the story or the author, but it sounded like a nice manga (and it is!) This was sweet and cute. The book consists of three volumes (originally published seperately over the span of I presume some time), the story is one continuous story. There are several things happening in the story, I don't want to spoil it though. I liked the characters, though I wish some of them had more depth, others were nicely written and drawn. The illustrations were quite good. Hyo was quite cute in his own way (because he wasn't raised by people). All in all, I'd recommend it if you're looking for a sweet and cute manga that's easy to read. Rating: **** (4/5, 8/10)

A. C. Baantjer - Baantjer 1: Een Strop voor Bobby Genre: Literature, Horror Format: Paperback Pages: 137 My thoughts: This is the first book in the Dutch Baantjer series. The books are about a detective / police investigator named De C-o-c-k (without '-', I don't want to set off any filters that may be in place) (as the book says in Dutch, with 'ceeooceekaa'). I realise this is very weird maybe, however keep in mind that in Dutch this word doesn't have any meaning ('kok' does and means chef). Well, awkwardnesses out of the way, this first book doesn't actually involve the famous detective, apart from one scene. Instead, this book is about a different detective, Versteegh, who has to try and solve a case. The case itself isn't mentioned on the back of the book so I don't want to spoil it (not that I think anyone here will read the book, I haven't seen any Dutchies around lately). Anyway, the book has several good plot twists, that I didn't always see coming. It was a shame the C-o-c-k himself wasn't involved more, I kept expecting him to walk in and solve the case, or something. That didn't happen. However, I thought Versteegh was a good character of his own, as were the other characters in the story. The story is well written. I had to get used to the Dutch, as I hadn't read any Dutch books in quite some time (not counting cookbooks, newspapers, etc.). However, the story was quite interesting so this didn't bother me that much. I'll still prefer English, unless the original book is Dutch (as in this case), in which case I'll read the Dutch of course. In short, this book was pretty good and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes detectives and who can read Dutch. Rating: ***** (5/5, 9/10)

H. P. Lovecraft - The Call of Cthulhu Genre: Literature, Horror Format: Paperback Pages: 34 Synopsis (GoodReads): One of the feature stories of the Cthulhu Mythos, H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu” is a harrowing tale of the weakness of the human mind when confronted by powers and intelligences from beyond our world. My thoughts: I bought this book because I kept seeing references to Cthulhu. I thought it'd be good to read this book, to see more of where the references came from. The story was interesting but the writing style didn't seem to flow very well. It wasn't an easy read. I'm glad I read it but I wasn't overly impressed by it. Rating: **** (4/5, 7/10)

Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Genre: Children's Format: Paperback Pages: 190 Synopsis (GoodReads): For the first time in a decade, Willy Wonka, the reclusive and eccentric chocolate maker, is opening his doors to the public--well, five members of the public to be exact. The lucky five who find a Golden Ticket in their Wonka chocolate bars will receive a private tour of the factory, given by Mr. Wonka himself. For young Charlie Bucket, this a dream come true. And, when he finds a dollar bill in the street, he can't help but buy two Wonka's Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delights--even though his impoverished family could certainly use the extra dollar for food. But as Charlie unwraps the second chocolate bar, he sees the glimmer of gold just under the wrapper! The very next day, Charlie, along with his unworthy fellow winners Mike Teavee, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde, and Augustus Gloop, steps through the factory gates to discover whether or not the rumors surrounding the Chocolate Factory and its mysterious owner are true. What they find is that the gossip can't compare to the extraordinary truth, and for Charlie, life will never be the same again. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, another unforgettable masterpiece from the legendary Roald Dahl, never fails to delight, thrill, and utterly captivate. My thoughts: I read this book in Dutch when I was a child (I own an old Dutch library copy that's falling apart a bit) and recently bought it in English. I love this story and it was great to re-read it (in English this time). I loved every moment of it. It's such a great story and I really do love Roald Dahl's writing style. It may be a children's book but it was still very enjoyable for an adult, in my opinion. I've seen two films of this book as well, one of them was a long time ago and so I don't remember much of it, the other maybe one or two years ago?, both were pretty good too. Rating: ***** (5/5, 10/10)

Maureen Lee - A Dream Come True (QuickReads) Genre: Contemporary Fiction Format: Paperback Pages: 128 Synopsis (GoodReads): Until that fateful day in Brighton, Maggie had thought she would never be happy again ...Maggie's once happy marriage has turned sour, leaving her tied to a husband who no longer seems to love her. So she continues to work, keeps in touch with her friends and tries not to think about the lack of love in her life. But all that changes when Maggie meets someone who transforms how she feels about herself and turns her entire world upside down. My thoughts: This book is part of the QuickReads initiative. They're short, sweet reads meant to get people interested in reading. I don't know much about this author or her other novels. I bought the book because it sounded interesting and because it wasn't very expensive. The story is nicely written. It's short but it provided quite a bit of detail. The plot twists were unexpected and pretty good. Sometimes the book fast forwarded in time, to reveal a plot twist. I didn't expect this and found it a bit of a shame to miss out on certain time periods. Rating: **** (4/5, 8/10)

Charles H. Elliott & Laura L. Smith - Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder for Dummies Genre: Information Format: Kindle Pages: ~325? (hard to say on Kindle) Synopsis (GoodReads): Obsessive Compulsive Disorder For Dummies deconstructs this tricky cognitive disorder and offers information on therapies, medications, lifestyle adjustments, and everything else a person suffering from this disorder needs to know after diagnosis. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder For Dummies also includes information that’s relevant to the friends, family, and loved ones of those suffering from the disorder -- such as how to identify symptoms and how to support the sufferer mentally and physically. My thoughts: This was pretty good, I learned a lot! The tips of how to combat it made sense to me. I did find it a little bit worrying that most people never get rid of it completely. Rating: ***** (5/5, 9/10)

x Well to be fair, that was a manga book so there's little text on each page and mainly illustrations. I couldn't have done it otherwise I think! Thank you . I've always been a fast reader. As a child, when we had to read something for ourselves in class, I was always finished way before everyone else was. I could read the piece twice before many of the other children were finished. I'm very pleased with this skill. I can't process too much information in (what is for me) too little time though. I think everyone did really well! Ben, I also hope we can organise another one soon.

That sounds good! American Gods is on my wishlist, I thought it was on there before but apparently not.

I'm reading the first book atm and have seen season one of the TV series. So far, the book provides some more details, though many scenes are kept largely the same. I don't like the addition of violence and nudity, so far in the book this is less the case. I think they added it for spectacle (and then ran out of budget near the end of the season). Still, I look forward to watch the season two Blu-ray and when season three is out on Blu-ray, I'll buy that too (or be given it for a birthday if it's close to that etc). One of the main commercial TV channels here only showed season one (RTL4) and never got around to showing the second season. What doesn't help maybe is that HBO showed season two, however I believe (?) it's a channel not everyone can even receive (if paid for of course).

x That's great to hear! Have you read the book, and if so how do they compare? I was gifted the book but I'm not sure how religious it is. I think in a film it would bother me even more than in a book. But maybe it's not so bad! I'll have to give it a go sometime XD.

I only knew it as estimated time of arrival . I normally just write "EDIT", before I joined this forum I hadn't seen ETA used in the "edited to add" sense. EDIT: On other forums I was on everyone used "EDIT". "ETA" = edited to add makes a lot of sense!

Thanks! You learn something new every day .

I'll be reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry in a while, glad to hear you like it so far!

x This book is on my wishlist, I look forward to hear what you think of it!

x I bought it a while ago on a book fair for cheap. I think the print is small, which is not ideal, but it has a nice cover and I got it for cheap so I don't mind it too much I think . I've seen a children's musical of it, so I know bits of the story (I couldn't recall much atm though). x x I would like to have another! I think I'm not the only one ? We can all reflect on it and if a few or more people are interested, we could have another one (I mean, why not?). Then, we'd have to think of how far into the future we'd want to have it. Summer is coming up and some people may be going on holidays, etc (or we could wait until September or later). It's also possible to change the dates to be during the week or whatever/whenever we fancy. Today my mind was still a bit full from all the input from yesterday (I read a lot), so I couldn't do as much reading as I'd wanted to do. I read for about 3 hours today in total and read 3 books (422 pages). My progress: Books read: Charles H. Elliott & Laura L. Smith - Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder for Dummies (read ~40 pages, 25 mins, rating: *****) Maureen Lee - A Dream Come True (114 pages, 45 mins, rating: ****) Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (190 pages, 65 mins, rating *****) H. P. Lovecraft - The Call of Cthulhu (34 pages, 30 mins, rating: ****) A. C. Baantjer - Baantjer 1: Een Strop voor Bobby (137 pages, 1 hour 25 mins, rating: *****) Natsumi Ando - Wild @ Heart Volume 1-3 (544 pages, 45 mins, rating: ****) John Boyne - The Dare (102 pages, 30 mins, rating: ****) Talli Roland - Miracle at the Broken Museum (52 pages, 30 mins, rating: ****) Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - The Little Prince (109 pages, 50 mins, rating: ****) Cathy Glass - My Dad's a Policeman (98 pages, 40 mins, rating: ****) Iain M. Banks - Culture 4: The State of the Art (215 pages, 2 hours 25 mins, rating: ****) Books ongoing: Susan R. Lisman and Karla Dougherty - Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for Dummies (read 99 pages, 1 hour read) George R. R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire 1: A Game of Thrones (read 33 pages, 30 mins) Total amount of books read (Friday and Saturday): 11 books (2 ongoing, 1 was nearly finished) Total pages read (Friday and Saturday): 1665 pages Total time read (Friday and Saturday): 11 hours 20 mins (680 mins) Genres (including ongoing books): Information: 2 Fantasy: 1 Children's: 1 Contemporary fiction: 2 Literature: 2 Detective: 1 Manga: 1 (romance / chick-lit / YA) Chick-lit: 1 Biography / Contemporary fiction: 1 (based on a true story) Science-fiction: 1 Overall reflection: Due to my condition/disability I couldn't read as much as I'd liked, on Friday (tired from the week of university work) and Sunday (tired from input on Saturday and before). So a read-a-thon that lasts a week I couldn't fully participate in, maybe I could participate on some days but not others. However, I enjoyed myself immensely! Especially on Saturday, it reminded me of the days when I was a child and I'd read for most of the day. It has inspired me to do more reading and be less distracted by things such as the internet. It was great to read some books that I don't normally read that often, such as short stories, novellas and a manga, I also read a Dutch detective and two literature novellas. I also strangely enjoyed recording / writing these statistics. Although it made me feel slightly less relaxed about reading, knowing that every time I started to read or took a break I had to note down the time, I thought it was rather interesting in the end to see how much reading I did and how many pages I read etc. I'll write reviews in my thread tomorrow most likely!

@ Eleonora I'm glad you can eat a bit more, I'm sorrry to hear about the fat around your heart though, I wish you good health! @ Chrissy I'm glad you had a nice weekend with your parents, Chrissy . @ Kell Sounds like you had a great time . @ risingdawn Wow, that's a lot of changes to take in. I'm sorry you didn't get the Lidl job, and even sorrier you split up with your boyfriend, I hope you feel better soon . I don't know what happened, but these things are usually tough. I wish you lots of strength. @ bobblybear Doesn't hayfever suck? I have it too, though not as bad as you atm. Mine has been manageable. My dad usually has it worse, he has some pills he can take for it which help him. I'm not sure what kind of pills, I've never taken them or asked what's in them. I've never had it very bad, there are bad moments but usually they don't last longer than a few hours. I hope you feel better soon . I've been reading a lot this weekend (because of the read-a-thon), it's so much fun. During the week I'm hard at work on my thesis, which has to be handed in in less than two weeks. After that I have to work on my presentation, and give it. Then, it's over!! I look forward to be done with uni and have a long break. We (my boyfriend and I) will do some DIY with my parents in a while (well, I'm not sure how much help I am since I'm neither strong nor skilled in these things , but..). We plan to go on a one week holiday sometime later, we aren't sure yet when. Because of both our disabilities we can't do too much in one day and we'll have to have resting days. Last year (our first holiday away together) it was tons of fun, I don't know if I'll have just as fun much this year but I hope we'll have some fun. I plan to make a list of things I could do, to hopefully avoid the issue of getting bored (I don't think it'll happen soon..), like Ben was having. As you can see, I'm looking forward to having some time off! Just a few stressfull weeks until then (approximately one and a half months).

x This always confuses me too. But I've learned so now I read it after the book, only shortly skimming the introduction (if I remember.. sometimes I don't).

x x That is an awesome point of view (how do you say it, a person to my heart?) x x That's great to hear! I'll have to try it sometime, Charles Dickens' books have intimidated me so far XD.

The Age of Miracles sounds quite interesting! I haven't yet decided if I should put it on the wishlist or not, there was one review on GoodReads that said he/she would've liked more science into it, as to why the earth is slowing down. I don't know yet if this would bother me or not. If I see if cheap sometime I may be tempted either way XD. Nice reviews .

Nice progress, everyone ! It's a lot of fun to read about how you all get on. @ Janet I look forward to read your thoughts on Oliver Twist, I've been meaning to read it for a while. It intimidates me! XD My progress: Books read on Friday and Saturday: Charles H. Elliott & Laura L. Smith - Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder for Dummies (this one was almost finished before the read-a-thon started) (read ~40 pages on Friday, 25 mins, rating: *****) Maureen Lee - A Dream Come True (114 pages, 45 mins, rating: ****) Roald Dahl - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (190 pages, 65 mins, rating *****) H. P. Lovecraft - The Call of Cthulhu (34 pages, 30 mins, rating: ****) A. C. Baantjer - Baantjer 1: Een Strop voor Bobby (137 pages, 1 hour 25 mins, rating: *****) Natsumi Ando - Wild @ Heart Volume 1-3 (544 pages, 45 mins, rating: ****) John Boyne - The Dare (102 pages, 30 mins, rating: ****) Talli Roland - Miracle at the Broken Museum (52 pages (64 if you include preview of other book, I didn't read that part), 30 mins, rating: ****) Books ongoing (Friday and Saturday): Susan R. Lisman and Karla Dougherty - Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for Dummies (read 99 pages so far in the read-a-thon, 1 hour read) George R. R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire 1: A Game of Thrones (read 33 pages so far in the read-a-thon, 30 mins) Total amount of books read (Friday and Saturday): 8 books (2 ongoing, 1 was nearly finished) (note: a lot of these books are quite short, I decided to read some novellas and short stories, because I don't normally read many of those.) Total pages read (Friday and Saturday): 1243 pages Total time read (Friday and Saturday): 7 hours 25 mins (445 mins) Genres (including ongoing books): Information: 2 Fantasy: 1 Children's: 1 Contemporary fiction: 2 Literature: 1 Detective: 1 Manga: 1 Chick-lit: 1 I didn't read that long in hours maybe (though it's quite some time imo), at some point having read all of that, my head was kind of full from all the input so I decided to rest instead (I don't want to get too tired while I have uni work to do in the next week etc). Tomorrow (or sometime) I'll post my total statistics (including today). I'll post reviews/thoughts in my topic later.

I really like that film too!