Athena's Reading List 2015

[Anna Begins]

Wow!  That is a lot of reading!  Maybe TTV will slow you down a bit

[Athena]

Wow!  That is a lot of reading!  Maybe TTV will slow you down a bit

Thanks . It is! I've only read one third of the book in a week (aside from the other books I'm reading). But I did finish two more library loans, reviews below . I just can't read TTV for too long without needing a break to process the various storylines. But I do really enjoy the book .

[Athena]

Chris Mould - Vreselijk Vreemde Verhalen 6: De Schatbewaarders (Something Wickedly Weird 6: The Treasure Keepers)

 

 

Genre: Horror

Age-range: Children

Format: Hardback (Library Loan)

Pages: 187

Date read: 09-06-2015

ISBN: 9789078345343

Synopsis: (no synopsis because the book is part of a series).

 

My thoughts:

 

I've previously read book 1 in this series and I liked it a lot. When I saw another book in this series at the library, I borrowed it. Hopefully I'll be able to understand it (it's a children's book so hopefully I should be able to catch up on the story).

 

The book briefly touched upon past events. I was able to follow the story allrigth, for the most part. The illustrations are quite nice. I liked the story, but not as much as I liked book 1. I guess book 1 surprised me more, whereas this one contains a few similar elements to book 1 so is less surprising.

 

It is an enjoyabel story though. I liked the characters. There are some new characters compared to book 1 (they are in maybe book 5 or others). I liked them. The story had some nice plot twists.

 

Overall then I enjoyed reading this book. It didn't blow me away as much as the first book, but it was still an enjoyable read. I'll look around and see if I can find the other books in the series some time at the library. I do think that if you haven't read any of the books in this series, that starting out with this book (book 6) is not the best idea. I was a bit confused from time to time, having read only book 1 before.

 

Rating: (****) (8/10)

[Athena]

Chris Riddell - Louize 3: Louize op Zee (Ottoline 3: Ottoline at Sea)

 

 

Genre: Fantasy

Age-range: Children

Format: Hardback (Library Loan)

Pages: 173

Date read: 09-06-2015

ISBN: 9789022324547

Synopsis (GoodReads): Ottoline and Mr. Munroe do everything and go everywhere together. That is, until the day Mr. Munroe mysteriously disappears, leaving a strange clue written in string . . . Armed with her Amateur Roving Collectors' travel pass, Ottoline sets off on a journey over, under and on top of the sea to find her hairy best friend - and bring him back home.

(note: the names have been changed for the Dutch translation)

 

My thoughts:

 

I've previously enjoyed other books by this author and illustrator, so when I saw this one at the library I was curious.

 

The book has a lot of nice illustrations, in the typical style the author / illustrator uses in a lot of his illustrations. The illustrations are quite pretty. They tell part of the story. The illustrations use black and deep green as colours (and the white from the pages' background).

 

This was an enjoyable story. I really liked it, it was nice the way that the illustrations fit in with the text and told the story. I liked the writing style. It's a cute story and I thought it was quite enjoyable. I read it pretty quickly as some pages don't contain much text.

 

The author has quite a bit of imagination and I thought the book was pretty creative. Overall then I enjoyed reading this story. I really liked the illustrations and the book is quite creatively made. I'll certainly see if the lirbary has any other books in this series, some time. I found the book in a special 'easy to read square' (makkelijk lezen plein) for children. I hadn't looked there before.

 

Rating: (*****) (9/10)

[Anna Begins]

Beautiful covers! 

[Kylie]

Ann M. Martin - The Babysitters Club Super Special 3: Baby-Sitters' Winter Vacation

 

I really, thoroughly, enjoyed reading this book for the first time.

 

Rating: (*****) (10/10)

 

Aw, that's great.

 

This is another one that I really loved because it's so different to any experience I would have here. I've only seen snow once or twice in my life, and only for a few minutes at a time. I don't actually remember many of their adventures now, but I think this book is perhaps where I learnt about making snow angels (am I right that it's in there?)

[Athena]

Beautiful covers!

 

I agree !

 

Aw, that's great.

 

This is another one that I really loved because it's so different to any experience I would have here. I've only seen snow once or twice in my life, and only for a few minutes at a time. I don't actually remember many of their adventures now, but I think this book is perhaps where I learnt about making snow angels (am I right that it's in there?)

Yes, snow angels are mentioned . It's not a very long scene though or anything.

 

I have received in the post yesterday:

 

Jodi Picoult - Leaving Time

Jenny Colgan - Operation Sunshine

 

I will post two reviews now.

[Athena]

Sofie Rozendaal - Gek van Eten: Als Voeding je Leven Regeert

 

 

Genre: Biography, Information

Age-range: Adult

Format: Paperback

Pages: 207

Date read: 09-06-2015 <-> 10-06-2015

ISBN: 9789080677395

Synopsis: (See below.)

 

My thoughts:

 

This is a(n auto)biography about a woman with anorexia. The book also contains chapters about people she's talked with, who also have some problem with food. Six of them have a psychiatric problem with food, and six of them have a physical disorder which makes them have a problem with food. The book also contains diary entries of the author.

 

I saw this book at the book fair and was intruigued by the synopsis. After reading Susie Burrell - Raak Die Laatste 5 Kilo Kwijt: Snel, Verantwoord en Zonder Moeite (Losing that Last 5 Kg), this one was kind of next on that non-fiction pile. In my mind the two books should be read close together, because I bought them at the same book fair, and they both have around 200 pages and have a similar theme of food. They are quite different type books though.

 

The book alternates chapters of someone with a mental and someone with a physical problem (six of each). After each chapter, there are two pages containing a diary entry from Sofie (the author), sometimes about a subject related to the chapter before it. At the end of most chapters (so before the diary entry), there is some information about the specific disorder of the person the chapter was about. Sofie has talked with these twelve people and she has written down their stories very nicely. I really liked the writing style. The book also contains a few chapters where Sofie has talked with experts, people who know a lot about eating disorders such as her psychiatrist or the chairman of an organisation to do with eating disorders.

 

I haven't reviewed all of these chapters and stories seperately. They are all written by Sofie and in a similar way (except the diary entries, they are written in first person of course, and the chapters with the experts, which are written in a Q&A format). I found almost all of the hcapters really interesting to read. I feel for these people (including Sofie). All their stories are written down in a very touching way (Sofie's story is in the introduction).

 

Overall then I foudn this book really interesting to read. I really liked the writing style and the stories of the people were very touching. It was interesting to read the diary entries of Sofie too. The chapters with the experts were nice as well (though I liked them a little bit less overall). I liked the information that accompanied most chapters. I really liked the book, it was very interesting and it made me feel emotional.

 

Rating: (*****) (9/10)

[Athena]

Hilde E. Gerard and Eric Bouwens - Heinrich Ooooh 1: Heinrich Ooooh & de Zaak van de Zwarte Zeven

 

 

Genre: Horror

Age-range: Children

Format: Hardback (Library Loan)

Pages: 144

Date read: 10-06-2015

ISBN: 9789059084247

Synopsis (me): Heinrich and his sister Hannelore run a hotel for skeletons, ghosts, spirits and other creatures. One day the family B.Zar comes for a stay. Then the guests are disappearing one by one...

 

My thoughts:

 

I've read books 2 and 3 in this series, a little while ago, and I liked them a lot. So when I saw book 1 at the library, I borrowed it.

 

This book contains pretty illustrations. There are also a few recipes and there is some information on various beings, like skeletons. It was quite nice to read this first book in the series. I liked the writing style. The characters were pretty interesting. The author has a lot of imagination, the book is creative. The illustrations are quite pretty.

 

Overall I liked reading this book. So far I'd have to say I liked book 3 the best. All three were enjoyable htough. The illustrations were pretty and I liked the characters and the creativity of the story. The story is somewhat funny. If any further books exist, I'd be happy to read them if the library has them available.

 

Rating: (****) (8/10)

[Anna Begins]

I saw my post at the top of the page saying maybe TTV would slow you down, but I guess not

I'm glad you liked the Sofie Rozendaal book, it sounds interesting.

[Athena]

I saw my post at the top of the page saying maybe TTV would slow you down, but I guess not

I'm glad you liked the Sofie Rozendaal book, it sounds interesting.

Haha , well it does in part as the time I spend reading it, could have been spent on other books but .

 

Thanks, it was interesting .

[Athena]

Judy Blume - The Pain and the Great One 3: Cool Zone

(illustrations by Kate Pankhurst)

 

 

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Age-range: Children

Format: Hardback (Library Loan)

Pages: 120

Date read: 11-06-2015

ISBN: 9780230700277

Synopsis (GoodReads): The Pain (aka Jake Porter) is in first grade. His sister, The Great One (aka Abigail Porter), is in third grade. Like all siblings they drive each other crazy, but when the school bully picks on Jake he can count on his big sister to come running to the rescue!

 

My thoughts:

 

I saw this book at the library when I browsed the section for young children's books for the first time. There was an English section there! The children's and young adult books are divided into age ranges, each with a letter: A, B, C, D. This book was an 'A' which means it's for children below 8 years old I believe. I know D is for 15-18 years old and C is 12-15, B for 8-12 would make sense. I think the picture books and books for babies are in a seperate section too, but I'm not sure if they use another letter or what (the books for adults don't have a letter on their spine). The letter is on the bottom of the spine, along with a possible symbol to show the genre / type of the book, and the language (if the book isn't in Dutch or Flemish) written in the first four letters of the language and the first four letters of the author's name. Anwyay, some people from BCF mentioned another book by this author and that they liked it. So I thought I'd give this author a go.

 

The book consists of several short stories, I will talk briefly about each synopsis below. They are alternatively from the Great One's point of view and from the Pain's.

 

Fifty Fifty

This story is from the Great One's point of view. The Pain loses a tooth in this story.

Rating: (***) (5/10)

 

The Soggy Egg Roll

This story is from the Pain's point of view. This was a nice story about the Pain being bullied.

Rating: (****) (7/10)

 

Chasing Lucas

This story is from the Great One's point of view. This story was about the girls chasing a boy. It was okay.

Rating: (***) (6/10)

 

Bruno's Ear

This story is from the Pain's point of view. The story is about Pain and his stuffed elephant Bruno.

Rating: (***) (5/10)

 

Two Flowers

This story is from the Great One's point of view. In this story Abigail (the Great One) wants to change her name.

Rating: (****) (7/10)

 

The Breaf-kast Cake

This story is from the Pain's point of view. The children of his class set up a restaurant.

Rating: (***) (6/10)

 

Fluzzy forever

This story is from Fluzzy's point of view. It's about him and his bell.

Rating: (***) (5/10)

 

Overall then this book was allright. Some of the stories were entertaining, some also are really meant more for young children. I didn't enjoy those as much. The illustrations were allright. I was a bit disappointed with this book.

 

Overall Rating: (***) (6/10)

[Athena]

Jeanne Willis - SuperCat 1: SuperCat vs the Chip Thief

(illustrations by Jim Field)

 

 

Genre: Fantasy

Age-range: Children

Format: Hardback (Library Loan)

Pages: 219

Date read: 11-06-2015

ISBN: 9780007518630

Synopsis (GoodReads): Meet Tiger – an ordinary, tubby tabby cat.

 

But Tiger has a secret! Just one lick of a toxic sock and he transforms into… SUPERCAT!

 

Now, with his astonishing powers and his best friend James, can Supercat save the world, and all the chips, from the dastardly Count Backwards…?

 

When the chips are down, there’s only one cat to call!

 

My thoughts:

 

I saw this book at the library and I liked the cover, so I borrowed it.

 

This book was quite entertaining. I liked the illustrations and the story was somewhat funny and adventurous. I liked the puns and wordplays of the story. The writing style was nice. Overall I quite enjoyed reading this book, it was pretty funny.

 

Rating: (*****) (9/10)

[Athena]

Francesca Simon - Horrid Henry's Picture Books 6: Horrid Henry's Dreadful Deeds

(illustrations by Tony Ross)

 

 

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Age-range: Children

Format: Hardback (Library Loan)

Pages: 192

Date read: 11-06-2015

ISBN: 9781842557860

Synopsis (me): This book contains ten short stories about Horrid Henry, along with a few extras. The illustrations are in full colour.

 

My thoughts:

 

The book consists of several short stories, I will talk briefly about each synopsis below.

 

Horrid Henry's Sleepover

In this story Horrid Henry has a sleepover with a new friend at their house.

Rating: (****) (8/10)

 

Horrid Henry and the Dinner guests

This story is about Henry and his family who are having dinner guests over for dinner. It was nice.

Rating: (****) (8/10)

 

Horrid Henry Minds his Manners

This story is about Henry and Peter who get to appear on TV.

Rating: (****) (7/10)

 

Horrid Henry's Revenge

Henry plots to get his revenge on Peter. It was an enjoyable story.

Rating: (*****) (9/10)

 

Horrid Henry's Wedding

In this story Henry gets to be a part of a wedding.

Rating: (****) (8/10)

 

Horrid Henry's Hike

This story is about Henry and his family going for a walk in the countryside.

Rating: (*****) (9/10)

 

Horrid Henry Dines at Restaurant Le Posh

In this story Henry and his family go for dinner at a posh restaurant.

Rating: (****) (8/10)

 

Horrid Henry's Ambush

This story is about Henry who wants to ambush Santa Claus.

Rating: (****) (8/10)

 

Horrid Henry's Rainy Day

In this story Henry writes a will.

Rating: (****) (7/10)

 

Perfect Peter's Pirate Party

In this story Peter has a birthday pirate party. I had already read this story in Francesca Simon - Horrid Henry 17: Horrid Henry Robs the Bank recently. This time the illustrations were in colour. I flicked through the pages, looked at the illustrations but I didn't re-read the story as I've read it very recently.

Rating: (****) (8/10)

 

Horrid Henry's Top Secret Fact File

This time the answers involved more than just the stories in this book.

Rating: (****) (8/10)

 

Overall then I enjoyed reading this book, but not as much as some of the toher Horrid Henry books I read recently. It was still an enjoyable read, though. The illustrations were nice.

 

Overall Rating: (****) (8/10)

[Anna Begins]

I've never seen Judy Blume's work for children before... usually she wrote for young teens with books like Are You There God, its Me, Margaret or Blubber. 

[BSchultz19]

I've never seen Judy Blume's work for children before... usually she wrote for young teens with books like Are You There God, its Me, Margaret or Blubber. 

 

Probably weird, but I never read any of her work even when I was younger. My sister did, but at that time it was not the type of book I was interested in. Might be interesting to read a few of them now. 

[Athena]

I've never seen Judy Blume's work for children before... usually she wrote for young teens with books like Are You There God, its Me, Margaret or Blubber. 

I didn't know about it either, I hadn't seen anything by her before in the library (that I recall). I've heard of the former. 

 

Probably weird, but I never read any of her work even when I was younger. My sister did, but at that time it was not the type of book I was interested in. Might be interesting to read a few of them now.

I don't think it's weird, we all have that with some authors I think . But if you feel like doing so, you could definitely try one of her books.

[Athena]

Peter F. Hamilton - The Void Trilogy 2: The Temporal Void

 

 

Genre: Science-fiction

Age-range: Adult

Format: Paperback

Pages: 746

Date read: 03-06-2015 <-> 12-06-2015

ISBN: 9780230743618

Synopsis: (no synopsis because the book is part of a series)

 

My thoughts:

 

I've read book 1 in this trilogy two months ago and I loved it. I had read the Commonwealth duology last year. I've been eager to find out how the story in this trilogy continues, so I read book 2.

 

The book is pretty suspenseful. It took me a bit of time to remember what had happened in book 1, I looked it up online.

 

The first half of this book took me a while to read. A few sections dragged a bit (in particular the 'Dream' chapters). Today I read most of the second half of the book (page ~400-746), all in one day (I spent quite a bit of time reading today).

 

It took me a bit of time to get into the book as it had been two months since I read book 1. I couldn't remember some of the details, so I looked up some things online.

 

The book has numbered chapters, and the 'Dream' chapters, like the first book. There are also a third kind of chapters, which are relatively short and appear three times. I won't reveal what they are in case of spoilers.

 

There were some really good plot twists in the book. I liked the characters, the science, the attention to detail and the writing style. The Dream chapters are more fantasy like. The book has a lot of characters, on occasion I had to think about it a bit . The book sometimes contained words I didn't know.

 

Overall then I enjoyed reading this book. It draged a bit in the beginning (the Dream chapters in particular). The second half went by quickly for me, I read it in a day (well almost). The book does have soft of a conclusion. I look forward to read book 3 and to find out what happens in it. I'll try and not wait too long to read it, otherwise I might get a bit confused again . I might have missed a few details in the book, due to my tiredness and that there were some unknown-to-me English words, but overall I quite enjoyed this book. I was able to focus more during the second half of the book, while I was reading the first half I also read some other books alongside it, which might have made things more slow for me as I normally much prefer to only read one book at once.

 

Rating: (*****) (9/10)

[Signor Finzione]

Great review Gaia. It's a pain when you can't remember what happened in previous books, isn't it? That happens to me all the time, even when it's only been a few days since reading the last one.

[chaliepud]

I loved Judy Blume, my friends and I used to chant "I must, I must, I must increase my bust" whilst doing the exercises recommended to the character in Are you there God, it's me Margaret, those were the days eh?!

[Anna Begins]

^^ 

 

 for TTV!  Is the 3rd one already out?

[Athena]

Great review Gaia. It's a pain when you can't remember what happened in previous books, isn't it? That happens to me all the time, even when it's only been a few days since reading the last one.

Thanks, Laura ! It is a pain, yes!

 

I loved Judy Blume, my friends and I used to chant "I must, I must, I must increase my bust" whilst doing the exercises recommended to the character in Are you there God, it's me Margaret, those were the days eh?!

Haha !

 

 

 for TTV!  Is the 3rd one already out?

It is, I have it right here . I plan to read some library loans first, and then not wait too long with reading The Evolutionary Void, lest I forget what happened in the previous books.

[Athena]

Myrthe van der Meer - PAAZ 1: PAAZ

 

 

Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Biography

Age-range: Adult

Format: Hardback (Library Loan)

Pages: 351

Date read: 13-06-2015

ISBN: 9789044336672

Synopsis (me): Emma has to go to the PAAZ, the psychiatric part of the hospital. She has to stay there, but she doesn't understand why.

 

My thoughts:

 

I borrowed this book from the library after hearing positive stories about it from some Dutch bloggers (who like some of the same books I do).

 

This book is fictional, but it contains a lot of autobiographical elements of the author.

 

The chapters are relatively short, only a few pages long. They are not numbered, but they have titles.

 

This book had a nice writing style, it read pretty easily. At times it was a bit chaotic, I liekd that less. There were a lot of characters. I found the book to be pretty interesting. I was a bit disappointed in a sense, as the book was different than what I was expecting.

 

I liked reading this book though. It was very interesting to learn what things are like on the PAAZ. This book discussed some deep issues like suicide, but there was also some great humour in it.

 

Overall then the book wasn't exactly what I was expecting (or rather I expected a certain thing to happen, that didn't), but I liked it a lot. It was very interesting. There is a sequel to the book, Up, which I hope to read some time.

 

Rating: (****) (8/10)

[BSchultz19]

I loved Judy Blume, my friends and I used to chant "I must, I must, I must increase my bust" whilst doing the exercises recommended to the character in Are you there God, it's me Margaret, those were the days eh?!

 

Is that what that phrase is from?!! My dad says that all the time and I always thought it was super weird  

[Athena]

Is that what that phrase is from?!! My dad says that all the time and I always thought it was super weird  

! I haven't read that book, but I think the phrase is very funny. I'll have to see if the library has it available at some point .