Little Pixie Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Nice book covers ; hope they`re an enjoyable read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted January 13, 2015 Author Share Posted January 13, 2015 Nice book covers ; hope they`re an enjoyable read. Thanks, Sarah ! I have to admit the book covers were partly what made me buy the books (the synopsis too of course). P.S. Review coming up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted January 13, 2015 Author Share Posted January 13, 2015 Brandon Sanderson - Alcatraz 4: Alcatraz versus the Shattered Lens Genre: Fantasy Age-range: Young-Adult Format: Hardback Pages: 213 Date read: 11-01-2015 <-> 12-01-2015 Synopsis: (no synopsis because it's book four in a series) My thoughts: I borrowed books one and four in this series from the library. They didn't have books two and three, and at the time of borrowing I didn't know which book in the series this one was (it's not written on the cover). After reading book one, I wanted to read this book. I thought I'd give it a try, considering I didn't read books two and three. Things are briefly explained and I was able to follow the story pretty well. I quite enjoyed reading this book. The author does something interesting with the chapter numbering, that I thought was funny and interesting. The book itself has got a lot of humour to it, like book one had too. The story is suspenseful and I liked the writing style. All in all, the book is similar in style to book one. The reader gets some more answers for questions that have arisen, and I quite liked learning more about the world and the characters. This book had great characters again, a lot of familiar ones but also some new-to-me ones. I think some might've been introduced in books two and / or three, too. Some were also new I think. Anyway, overall I really enjoyed reading this book. There is a book five to the series, too, though this does have an ending in the sense that this part of the story is concluded (I guess that doesn't really make sense..). I'd love to read books two, three and definitely book five, once it's been released. It looks like the library has four books, though at the moment they're all loaned out (I've loaned two of them). If you liked any of the previous books in the series, I don't see why you wouldn't like this one. I do recommend starting with book one and not of course book four, though reading first book one and then book four worked fine for me. Book one does introduce you to things though. I really loved reading these two books. Brandon Sanderson is a great author. He wrote the last few books of The Wheel of Time series with Robert Jordan's notes, and it's great to see he's written other great books as well. I have more books by him on my TBR (and I also own a novella by him that I've read and liked), which I look forward to get to. P.S. There is one chapter in the book that uses a lot of Shakespeare quotes. Really well done! Rating: (*****) (10/10) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Signor Finzione Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Nice review Gaia. I think I'm going to finally get around to trying Brandon Sanderson this year; I own The Final Empire, Warbreaker and The Rithmatist by him. I'm glad you've enjoyed his other work so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted January 13, 2015 Author Share Posted January 13, 2015 Nice review Gaia. I think I'm going to finally get around to trying Brandon Sanderson this year; I own The Final Empire, Warbreaker and The Rithmatist by him. I'm glad you've enjoyed his other work so much. Thanks, Laura ! I hope you enjoy those books when you get to them! I've got several books by him on my TBR as well, I hope to read at least one of those this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted January 13, 2015 Author Share Posted January 13, 2015 Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler - The Future of Us (Dutch translation) Genre: Contemporary Fiction Age-range: Young-Adult Format: Hardback Pages: 328 Date read: 12-01-2015 <-> 13-01-2015 ISBN: 9789047704614 Synopsis (GoodReads):What if you could see how your life would unfold--just by clicking a button? It's 1996, and less than half of all American high school students have ever used the Internet. Emma just got her first computer and an America Online CD-ROM. Josh is her best friend. They power up and log on--and discover themselves on Facebook, fifteen years in the future. Everybody wonders what their destiny will be. Josh and Emma are about to find out. My thoughts: I saw this book at the library. It had been on my wishlist for a while, after I believe a few people recommended it to me. The synopsis really intruiged me too. When I saw it at the library, I borrowed it to see if I would like it. I read the Dutch translation, which I don't normally do these days. This book had me intruiged straight away. It doesn't take long before Emma uses the CD-ROM and sees Facebook for the first time. I have to say, the translation was very good. I hardly noticed I was reading a translation (other than some American words such as AOL, names of US states and such), so that's really well done. The writing style was pretty good, and the book read easily. It was nice to read a Dutch book again too, after reading a few English ones. The book alternates chapters between Emma and Josh. Emma's chapters are written from her point of view, and Josh's from his point of view. I'm not sure how to put this into words, but there isn't any rehash of conversations or anything, you're not reading the story double. If that makes sense? You're just following the story from two perspectives, but with each new chapter it's a new time, scene and different things happen. If that makes sense at all.. I really liked the characters in this book. Emma and Josh are great characters. I also really liked the side characters, particularly Tyson and Kellan (Josh and Emma's friends). I loved the plot twists in this book. I loved finding out what happened in their now, and how it then affected their future on Facebook. I've read one book by Jay Asher, Thirteen Reasons Why. I have to say though, I enjoyed this book more than that one. I liked Thirteen Reasons Why, definitely, but I enjoyed this book even more. Overall then I'm very glad I read this book. It's certainly a book that makes you think about life, friendship, love, fate, the consequences of things etc. There is certainly quite a bit of depth to the book, in my opinion. I really enjoyed this book (which is one of the reasons why I finished it so soon, I started it yesterday evening and read most of it today). Rating: (*****) (10/10) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna Begins Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 I can't believe you are done with this already! And at 328 pages, it does qualify for the long- short list If it's better than 13 Reasons Why, I might give it a shot. And yes, you can use rehash I might teach you some slang yet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexi Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Nice review of The Future of Us Gaia Anna, you know my thoughts on 13 Reasons Why, but I really enjoyed this one - much better execution IMO. Maybe he should write all his stuff with Carolyn Mackler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muggle not Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Athena, how many books are on your TBR list? Don't forget "Wish You Well" by David Baldacci. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted January 14, 2015 Author Share Posted January 14, 2015 I can't believe you are done with this already! And at 328 pages, it does qualify for the long- short list If it's better than 13 Reasons Why, I might give it a shot. And yes, you can use rehash I might teach you some slang yet Thanks, Anna ! If you do read it, I hope you enjoy it. Nice review of The Future of Us Gaia Anna, you know my thoughts on 13 Reasons Why, but I really enjoyed this one - much better execution IMO. Maybe he should write all his stuff with Carolyn Mackler Thanks, Alexi! Haha yeah maybe . Athena, how many books are on your TBR list? Don't forget "Wish You Well" by David Baldacci. My TBR list means "books I own that I haven't read yet". I don't own Wish You Well so that's on my Wishlist. When I'm going to go through my wishlist, I'm going to seperate it into "wishlist - books I really want to own, ie. books by favourite authors or books I'll want to re-read" and "wishlist - books I want to read but am okay to borrow them from the library or such". I'm also going to look up all the synopses and try and remember who recommended it to me. My current wishlist has some books on there that were recommended to me by people who don't know me at all, ie. Amazon or bloggers who don't know me. So I want to remove some books that I don't think I'll be that interested in (and get the number down a bit). Wish You Will will stay on there of course, as you recommended it to me and you know my reading tastes so . It's one of my aims to do that this year. Of course it's all input and it's books I don't own yet so it will cost me energy and therefore I can only do it when I feel up for it. Currently I own a lot of books that I haven't read yet. I don't know the exact number as I'll have to go through my database and check if everything's correct, because sometimes a book is marked as not read but I have read it, or it's marked as read but I haven't read it. Also, my boyfriend's books are also in my database now, but I don't have an interest in reading some of them (they're ie. technical manuals of tanks in WW2). So I don't count those as my TBR. I'd also exclude the freebie Kindle books that I downloaded that I'm no longer interested in. When I just had my Kindle I downloaded a lot of free stuff because it was free. Nowadays I'm more critical. I do want to read those I'm quite interested in and those should be on my TBR. I plan to go through my database and give every book a "priority / anticipation rating", with 10 being "I can't wait to read this, I must read this soon!" and 1 or 2 being "I'm not bothered about it, I have no interest". My boyfriend's technical books would get a low rating and books that I'm very interested in would get a higher rating. Again I plan to do this this year. I estimate though I have at least 1500+ books on my TBR (books I own but that I haven't read yet), if it isn't much higher. If you want to know the number of all the books I'd want to read, that number would be much higher, of course (because it would include my own books as well as wishlist books etc.). P.S. There'll be a review coming up now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted January 14, 2015 Author Share Posted January 14, 2015 Liz Pichon - Tom Gates 2: Excellent Excuses (and Other Good Stuff) Genre: Contemporary Fiction Age-range: Children Format: Hardback Pages: 342 Date read: 13-01-2015 ISBN: 9781407124407 Synopsis: (no synopsis because it's part of a series) My thoughts: After reading books 3 and 4 in this series and really liking them, I wanted to read books 1 and 2 in the series as well. Book 1 was loaned out but gladly the library had book 2 the next time I went there! This book takes, of course, place before books 3 and 4. Therefore I knew a few things about what was going to happen. The book was still very enjoyable though. I really loved the illustrations and the writing style. The story was pretty funny. I liked the characters and the plot twists. Overall I quite enjoyed reading this book. It's similar in style to books 3 and 4, and I look forward to read book 1 some time, when it isn't loaned out, to read how it all began. Rating: (*****) (10/10) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nollaig Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 I knew I knew the name Jay Asher from somewhere, 13 Reasons Why was on my wishlist last year. Must definitely check this out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 I knew I knew the name Jay Asher from somewhere, 13 Reasons Why was on my wishlist last year. Must definitely check this out. If you do read it, I hope you enjoy it ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 Holly Smale - Geek Girl 3: Picture Perfect Genre: Chick-lit Age-range: Young-Adult Format: Paperback Pages: 408 Date read:14-01-2015 <-> 15-01-2015 ISBN: 9780007489480 Synopsis: (no synopsis because it's book three in a series) My thoughts: I really liked books 1 and 2 in this series, so I pre-ordered book 3 in paperback (my preferred format) last year. A few days ago the book arrived in the post box. I was really looking forward to reading it so after reading some books due at the library I read this book. I really enjoyed reading this book. It continues the story of Harriet (though if you haven't read the other two books, this one is still readable on its own, though of course best to read them in order). Harriet is a geek, and I love all the little geeky facts she thinks about and talks about. She is such a great character. The other characters in the book are good too. We see some characters from the previous books, which were all really nice to read about again. There are also some new characters, and I enjoyed reading about them too (this makes it sound as if there's lots of characters, there are some but not that many). The book is pretty funny too, in the same way the other two books were funny. Most of the book takes place in New York (book 1 took place in the UK and book 2 largely in Tokyo). It was great to see a bit of a different take on New York, compared to what you usually read about in books. I don't want to say too much, because I don't want to spoil it, but I enjoyed this. A few plot twists were slightly predictable but there were a lot of surprising ones too. I really enjoyed the writing style, as well. Overall then I quite enjoyed reading this book, and I look forward to read the next one once it's out (in paperback)! Rating: (*****) (10/10) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 My pre-order (that I made last year) of The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain has arrived! I look forward to reading this, it sounds really good and I've loved the other books I read by the author. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Signor Finzione Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 My pre-order (that I made last year) of The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain has arrived! I look forward to reading this, it sounds really good and I've loved the other books I read by the author. Isn't it exciting when pre-orders arrive unexpectedly? Like getting a free present from the mail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willoyd Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 (edited) Overall then I quite enjoyed reading this book, and I look forward to read the next one once it's out (in paperback)! Rating: (*****) (10/10) I've got to ask - as am really curious! Your review is quite positive, but, aside from 'really enjoying it' it doesn't strike me as an absolute rave, with qualms about obvious plot twists, a mildly positive "pretty funny", and that final statement "I quite enjoyed reading this book." But then it gets 10/10, a perfect score. Apologies if this sounds rude, it's not intended to be, but how did it manage that? The scores (and comments!) we give are very personal, and I'm not for one second challenging it. I was just a bit surprised when I reached the end of your review to see what a big rating it got - it just didn't seem to match the rest of what you said, and so I got curious....! Edited January 15, 2015 by willoyd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 Isn't it exciting when pre-orders arrive unexpectedly? Like getting a free present from the mail. Yes ! I've got to ask - as am really curious! Your review is quite positive, but, aside from 'really enjoying it' it doesn't strike me as an absolute rave, with qualms about obvious plot twists, a mildly positive "pretty funny", and that final statement "I quite enjoyed reading this book." But then it gets 10/10, a perfect score. Apologies if this sounds rude, it's not intended to be, but how did it manage that? The scores (and comments!) we give are very personal, and I'm not for one second challenging it. I was just a bit surprised when I reached the end of your review to see what a big rating it got - it just didn't seem to match the rest of what you said, and so I got curious....! You're free to ask . I actually had some gushing sentences in the review about the things I really liked, but I felt it sounded too cheesy so I removed those . Generally though I rate my books not based on literary merit but on how much I enjoyed them. A book doesn't need to be groundbreaking or have very deep thoughts, for me to enjoy it. I didn't mind the obvious plot twists so it didn't bother me that I could guess a few things. I guess I should've left those sentences in the review. I love Harriet as a character and she's really what, for me, helps make the book so enjoyable (I love her geekyness). It's certainly not a book I would recommend to everyone, but I enjoyed it. I've been thinking about my reviews.. I find it sometimes much easier to write about a book that was just okay or not so good. There's only so many ways I can say that I really liked the characters, the plot twists, the world, the writing style.. they are starting to get a bit samey (and I want to keep it spoiler free so I can't say "thing X that happened half way through the book was so awesome". That said, I'm not a professional book reviewer or anything, I'm writing the reviews for myself, so I can look back at them later on and see what I thought of a book. I'm not quite sure how to change them exactly though, or what to do about it. I've got some reviews coming up (I wouldn't call them particularly interesting or groundbreaking though ), and I bought three books at the charity shop which I'll post about later as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 Jeff Kinney - Diary of a Wimpy Kid 3: The Last Straw Genre: Contemporary Fiction Age-range: Children Format: Hardback Pages: 218 Date read: 14-01-2015 <-> 15-01-2015 ISBN: 9780141324920 Synopsis: (no synopsis because it's book 3 in a series) My thoughts: I saw this book at the library and it looked cute and interesting. I thought I'd give it a go. This book was enjoyable. I liked the illustrations and I enjoyed the story. The characters were interesting. According to the synopsis on the back, Greg's dad has plans to send him to a boot camp. This isn't brought up however until 2/3rds into the book. That said, the book seems to be about a lot of different things that happen in Greg's life, so it'd be hard to write a synopsis for it really. The book was funny in places, but overall I didn't enjoy it as much as the three Tom Gates books I read in the past while. It's not totally the same thing I guess, but I found the book to be a bit less funny and less creative than that one. Of course, I think this series was there first, so there is that. Overall I enjoyed reading this book. It was entertaining though not as much as some other, sort of similar books. But overall I did enjoy it. I have book 4 in the series also borrowed from the library, so I'll be reading that soon. I expect it to be quite similar to this book. I can imagine children quite liking this book, and books like it. Rating: (****) (8/10) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 Jeff Kinney - Diary of a Wimpy Kid 4: The Ugly Truth Genre: Contemporary Fiction Age-range: Children Format: Hardback Pages: 234 Date read: 16-01-2015 ISBN: 9780141340821 Synopsis: (no synopsis because it's part of a series) My thoughts: I saw this book at the library and borrowed it at the same time as book 3 in the series. I hadn't read anything of the series before but I'd heard it was pretty famous so I thought I'd give it a go. After finishing book 3, I read book 4. I enjoyed this book more than book 3. The story was more of a whole, there were more common themes in it throughout the story, there was more of an overarching story going on as opposed to seemily little random story bits. I liked the characters and illustrations. The writing style was good. I liked the plot twists too. Overall I enjoyed this book more than book 3, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I certainly think young children, particularly boys, would like this book. Rating: (*****) (9/10) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 Rachel Renée Russell - Dork Diaries 3: Tales From a Not-So-Talented Pop Star Genre: Contemporary Fiction Age-range: Children Format: Hardback Pages: 311 Date read: 16-01-2015 ISBN: 9781442411906 Synopsis: (no synopsis because it's part of a series) My thoughts: I saw this book, along with book 4 in the series, at the library. I hadn't heard of this series before, but it looked cute (the illustrations) so I thought I'd give it a go. This was quite an enjoyable book. It was funny and I liked the illustrations and writing style. A few of the plot twists were a bit predictable but overall this didn't bother me that much. I quite liked the characters. In this book there is a talent show, and I enjoyed reading about what happened with the main character in the story. I really didn't like the main character's nemesis (so to speak), she was such a brat (but then she's meant to be)! Overall then I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I wasn't sure what to expect beforehand but I liked the book. I think young girls would like it. Rating: (*****) (9/10) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 Rachel Renée Russell - Dork Diaries 4: Tales From a Not-So-Graceful Ice Princess Genre: Contemporary Fiction Age-range: Children Format: Hardback Pages: 347 Date read: 16-01-2015 ISBN: 9781442411920 Synopsis: (no synopsis because it's part of a series) My thoughts: After finishing book 3 in this series, I went on to read book 4 in the series (both of which I had borrowed from the library). It's strange isn't it, but my library seems to have quite a few books 3-4 and not books 1-2 . Anyway.. I liked this book. It was a bit similar to book 3, but there were also some differences (some better and some less good). I didn't like as much that this book, which had a skating-on-ice show, was in that sense similar to book 3, which had a talent show. It seemed a bit too samey if that makes sense? I did however, really like that in this book there was less focus on Mackenzie, the nemesis, compared with book 3, and more focus on some of the other characters, too. I liked these characters. I liked the illustrations, particularly those of puppies and those of Brianna (Nikki's sister, Nikki is the main character). The writing style was nice, though a few lines seemed quite similar to those in book 3. Overall then I enjoyed reading this book. I liked some aspects of it more than in book 3, and some aspects I liked less. This seems an enjoyable series for young girls. I enjoyed reading these books, and if the library has the other ones I'd like to read them some time. Rating: (*****) (9/10) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 My new books from the charity shop: Henning Mankell - Inspecteur Kurt Wallander: Het Graf (Händelse Om Hösten) Charles den Tex - De Vriend Gerda van Wageningen, Julie Burgers-Drost and Henny Thijssing-Boer - Het Leven Omarmen Omnibus: Gerda van Wageningen - Late Liefde, Julia Burgers-Drost - Nader Dan een Droom, Henny Thijssing-Boer - In de Ban Van een Kind Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willoyd Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Generally though I rate my books not based on literary merit but on how much I enjoyed them. A book doesn't need to be groundbreaking or have very deep thoughts, for me to enjoy it. I agree entirely! My ratings are similar - top marks are for books I absolutely loved (all-time favourites), whatever the literary merits. Equally, I've got some great classics rated at only 1 star. It was the fact that your comments suggested to me that you hadn't loved it - but you've put me right on that one! I've been thinking about my reviews.. I find it sometimes much easier to write about a book that was just okay or not so good. Agreed again - there's more to critique isn't there? There's only so many ways I can say that I really liked the characters, the plot twists, the world, the writing style.. they are starting to get a bit samey (and I want to keep it spoiler free so I can't say "thing X that happened half way through the book was so awesome".....I'm not quite sure how to change them exactly though, or what to do about it. One thing I do, is read what other reviewers have said, especially here and on Amazon, particularly those who haven't rated the books so highly. I look at why they didn't like the book, and then talk about why I don't agree, or why that aspect appealed to me (if it did!). Thus, in my last review, which was on Master and Commander, I talked about the concerns other readers had over the difficulty of the jargon, and why that wasn't a negative for me. Thanks for taking the time to explain to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna Begins Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 One thing I do, is read what other reviewers have said, especially here and on Amazon, particularly those who haven't rated the books so highly. I look at why they didn't like the book, and then talk about why I don't agree, or why that aspect appealed to me (if it did!). Thus, in my last review, which was on Master and Commander, I talked about the concerns other readers had over the difficulty of the jargon, and why that wasn't a negative for me. I never would've thought to do that, I usually ignore them on purpose. I might give your way a go soon. If I ever finish anything this year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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