2016 Reading Challenge – June Update.

I always forget to update my monthly challenges on here. I wanted to do this at the start of the month but other posts got priority and I just forgot about it. But, not today. I didn’t cross much off my PopSugar reading challenge this month but one is better than nothing.

16. A book that’s becoming a movie this year – The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey.

I’m struggling to fit my review books into this challenge now. I don’t know if I’ll be able to complete it this year.

Onto my Goodread challenge which I completed in June. At the end of June I’d read 85 books and was halfway through the 86th.

I probably could’ve had a better goal on Goodreads this year but I didn’t think I would be able to manage 100 books. Turns out I was wrong. I am now 10 away from 100 books.

How are your reading goals going?

– Aimee.

2016 Reading Challenge – May Update.

I thought it was about time I updated my PopSugar reading challenge. I read three books this month that count toward my challenge.

13. A science-fiction novel – Spinning Starlight by R.C. Lewis

14. A dystopian novel – Flawed by Cecelia Ahern

15. A book and it’s prequel – The Wrath and the Dawn/The Moth and the Flame by Renee Ahdieh

So that’s another three challenges complete and 15 off my the reading challenge. I hope I can cross some more of in June.

And now to update my Goodreads reading challenge. As of the end of May I had 11 books before I reached my goal. Maybe I should have set it a bit higher this year.

How are your reading challenges going?

– Aimee.

2016 Reading Challenge – April Update.

I didn’t update my PopSugar Reading Challenge last month because I didn’t read any books that would fit into it. But this month I managed to cross four off the list.

9. A book translated to English – Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama.

10. A book that’s more than 600 pages – A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin.

11. A book that’s guaranteed to bring you joy – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling and Jim Kay (illustrated edition).

12. The first book you see in a bookstore – Not If I See You First by Eric Lindstorm (I forgot to add this in an earlier update so had to add it here).

So I’ve managed to cross twelve books off this challenge so far. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do any this month, so far the books I have planned don’t fit into any category.

 

I thought I’d share my Goodreads reading challenge too. I’m a little surprised by how many books I’ve read in the last four months but a lot of them were really fast reads. Which is probably why I’m behind on most of the TV shows I watch.

How are your reading challenges going?

– Aimee.

 

 

2016 Reading Challenge – February Update.

Well this month really sucked for my reading challenge. Last month I read seven off the list and this month I only managed one. I was planning to just use a lot of the review books I receive for this challenge but I don’t think that’s going to work.

So the one book I managed to use for this month was –

8. A book from the library – Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin.

What a poor month for me. I hope I can do a bit more in March. I haven’t reviewed Wolf by Wolf yet but I should be posting it soon.

If you’re doing the PopSugar reading challenge how many books have you manged so far?

– Aimee.

2016 Reading Challenge – January Update.

I’ve decided to update my 2016 Reading Challenge at the end of each month. I’m a little behind this month, only four days, but I’m hoping it will motivate me to finish the challenge this year. 

So in January I read seven books on the list in January. I’m just going to list them here with their category. 

1. A book based on fairy tales – Scarlet by Marissa Meyer.
2. A book set in your home state – Who’s Afraid? by Maria Lewis.
(So New Zealand doesn’t have states so I just used a book that was set in the country.)
3. A book set in Europe – A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Neilson.
4. A book you can finish in a day – One by Sarah Crossan.
5. A book that is published in 2016 – Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard.
6. A book with a blue cover – Thicker Than Water by Brigid Kemmerer.
7. A book about a culture you’re unfamiliar with – Soundless by Richelle Mead.

That’s all for this month. Hopefully I can keep it up and actually finish the challenge this year. 

What books have you used for the challenge so far? Leave me a comment and let me know.

– Aimee.

PopSugar 2015 Reading Challenge Update.

I’ve decided to update my PopSugar reading challenge. I can’t remember the last time I did this but I’ve decided to change how I’m updating you. I’m not going to mention every time I’ve read a book on the list because that started to drive me mental. So I think every few months I’ll just let you know how far along I’ve come with it.

I don’t think any of the books I’m reading this month are going to go towards the challenge so they’ll be no update at the end of May.

So far I’ve read 20 books on the list. Two of them are towards the trilogy, which I haven’t finished yet.

1.  A book that became a movie – I decided to reread The Maze Runner by James Dashner because I want to read The Scorch Trials before it comes out and I have this problem with just picking up one book in a series/trilogy without reading the others.

2. A book written by someone under 30 – For this I chose Red Rising by Pierce Brown. I’ve never read this before and I’d heard good things about it. They were all wrong. I didn’t really like this book. I did a search for authors under 30 and this book came up on a list on Goodreads and it was on my to-read list too.

3. A funny book – I struggled to find a book for this one. I don’t have a lot of books that make me laugh out loud but then I remembered that Karl Pilkington has written a few and he’s funny so I thought I’d try one of his books. The only one my library has is The Moaning of Life and it did have it’s funny moments. I had wanted to read his Idiot Abroad books though.

4. A mystery or thriller – For this I read Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. I’d read Gone Girl and Sharp Objects by her too so I figured Dark Places would be a good one. Gone Girl had disturbing twists and Sharp Objects was so weird it was kind of crazy. Dark Places had a lot of twists too. It had me thinking and questioning things all the way through. I think two out of three of Gillian’s books had surprising twists for me. Sharp Objects I had figured out though.

5. A book with one word title – The first book I read this year was Waterfall by Lauren Kate. It fit this one so I decided to just use it. Even though I’m not sure I like these books. Teardrop is the first one and there is just this one character in them, Ander, that does my head in.

6. A Pulitzer-Prize winning book – For this one I chose The Color Purple by Alice Walker. I’ve wanted to read this for awhile and I knew it had won a Pulitzer so two birds, one stone. Horrible saying. Anyway, I can’t remember what I wrote about this in my review but I’m pretty sure I didn’t think it was that great. It was probably better when it was published but now it’s not shocking at all. I didn’t really connect with any of the character which I think was half the problem.

7.  A book that scares you – I’ve never been scared reading a book. For this I looked into books by Stephen King. He’s meant to be good at scaring people right? But the ones I wanted t read, The Shining or The Fog, aren’t at my library so I just randomly picked one and (horrible mistake right there, never ever randomly pick a book) I got Pet Sematary by Stephen King. What a dumb book. It’s not scary at all. A tragic accident happens, the dad makes this really stupid decision and then other stuff happens, like people die because of that and then he makes the stupid decision again. I’m sorry, did you not learn the first time? Ugh, it was just really bad.

8. A book more than 100 years old – I’ve wanted to read The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett for years. I loved the movie when I was a kid so I thought it was about time I read the book. I did not like it. I can’t remember what the spoiled little rich boys name is but ugh, he was just so annoying. For some reason most of the classics I’ve read so far this year I haven’t liked.

9. A book you can finish in a day – I didn’t have a book chosen for this. I could have put Anna and the French Kiss but that’s under another category. So for this one I have War Horse by Michael Morpugo. I’ve seen the movie and loved it and I do normally read the book first but I failed with this one. I completely forgot I was reading in the point of view of Joey, the horse, and when he’d mention his saddle or how his hooves hurt I was like, oh right, it’s Joey.

10. A book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit – I have always wanted to go to Paris which is why I chose Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins for this one. I read this in a day. I couldn’t put it down. I’m not one for romance but this one sucked me in and I wasn’t going to stop until I finished it. It was that good.

11. A book that came out the year you were born – I had to do a few google searches for this. In the end I picked Matilda by Roald Dahl. I’ve never read a book by Roald Dahl before. I know, I really suck. But I really liked Matilda. I might have to read a few more of his now.

12. A book with magic – I’ve decided to reread The Mortal Instruments series this year so for this one I have City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. I thought using Harry Potter would be too obvious and it wasn’t that long ago that I reread the series for the 100th time. (Kidding, I have no idea how many times I’ve read them).

13. A graphic novel – I got a few of these out from the library and the first one I decided to read was Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. Is the graphic novel by Richelle? I don’t know. I thought it was pretty good. It didn’t leave much out from the book.

14 . A book written by an author with your initials – This was so hard. I couldn’t think of any off the top of my head and my searches on google turned up no books in my library till I came across Alice Sebold. I’d already read The Lovely Bones and The Almost Moon, is that it? I didn’t want to reread them because I didn’t really like either of them so the only one left by Alice Sebold was Lucky. I could not connect with this book. I don’t know if it was Alice’s writing but there was just something I couldn’t get passed. So all three of her books that I’ve read I didn’t really like so I may just stay away from her books from now on.

15. A banned book – I do not understand why half the books on the list I found of banned books are banned. I reread The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky for this. I love this book. Apparently it’s banned because of the sex, drugs, alcohol and gay characters. But that’s life. Get over it. I know not all high school kids are into drinking and drugs, I wasn’t but I knew it happened. Do people not realise that banning a book only makes the kids want to read them? If only to see why it was banned in the first place.

16. A book you started but never finished – I tried to read this book two years ago and I think there were two reasons why I never finished it. 1. there was a waiting list of 20 people that wanted this book after me and having pressure on me to finish the book didn’t help. 2. I had a huge pile of library books to get through. I did try but I don’t think I got passed the first chapter. It’s The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith. I have read it now and it took over half the book for me to get into the story. I don’t really read a lot of crime/detective books anymore. I eventually got into it but it was almost at the end.

17. A book based entirely on it’s cover – For this I chose Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaria. I honestly didn’t know what to choose for this one but someone on Instagram used this and I already had an eBook copy of it so I decided to read it too. I’ve no idea if it even works for this category but I’m going with it.

18 – A book with non-human characters –  I was recommended this book to use in this category. I kind of wish I had found one myself but too late now. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. I didn’t really like this book. There was one character that ruined the whole book for me and that was Toad. He is just a really stupid, annoying, spoiled character and I don’t even know how he still has friends. I’d be long gone. Another classic that I didn’t like.

19 & 20. Trilogy – These are the first two books I’ve read in the trilogy I chose for this challenge. I decided to reread the Divergent trilogy because Insurgent came out this year (which I still haven’t seen). I’ve read Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth. One more and I can cross trilogy off the list. I love these books. I hate the ending but I love Tris and Tobias.

So these are the books I’ve read so far for the challenge. I think I have 32 left to read. I’m sure there are 52 books on the list.

Are you doing the PopSugar Challenge? If you are, how many books have you read so far? Let me know in the comments

– Aimee

Review: Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira.

Hello bookworms.
I’m still catching up on my reviews from when my laptop was away being fixed so there will probably be a review a day until I’ve caught up. I’m also very sorry about the horrible quality of this photo. I couldn’t get a decent shot of it.

I’ve been wanting to read Love Letters to the Dead for awhile now so when I got it from my TBR jar last month I was really happy. I had high expectations of this book from the Bookstagram community so I tried to put them aside because that didn’t really work for me with Red Rising.

Love Letters to the Dead is in Laurel’s point of view. Her English teacher has set the class an assignment to write a letter to a dead person. So Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister loved him. May, Laurel’s sister, and Kurt both died young.

Soon, Laurel has pages and pages of letters to dead people. Like Heath Ledger, River Phoenix and Amy Winehouse. But she never gives any of them to her teacher.

Laurel writes about starting high school, trying to make new friends, her first love, dealing with her fractured family and grieving May. But she’s having trouble grieving her sister. She sees May as a perfect sister, perfect daughter, student, friend.

It isn’t until Laurel writes the truth about what happened to her, to May, that she can finally see the sister that she had. May was beautiful and caring but she was also flawed. When she realizes that then Laurel can finally accept May for who she was and grieve her. She can also talk about what happened to her before May died. Which is not only good for her but also for her parents and her friends. So they can understand her and know her.

This book is really good. It’s a lot like The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Charlie, like Laurel, is starting high school and trying to make friends. Charlie writes to his ‘friend’ where Laurel writes to dead people. But the journeys that both Laurel and Charlie take are pretty similar.

I haven’t got a physical copy of this book yet. I read the eBook (as you can probably tell from the crap photo) but I really want a copy of this book. I loved it. I don’t know why. I’ve never lost someone like Laurel or been through what she did but I really liked Laurel and I loved Sky.

If you haven’t read this book and liked The Perks then I’d check it out.

If you have read it, what did you think?

I might do a book haul soon. I haven’t done one in ages and I’ve got a few new books. Maybe later today. We’ll see.

Until next time,
A

Review: Red Rising by Pierce Brown.

I’ve heard so much good things about this book and I had been approved on NetGalley to review this book last year (kind of slack, I know) but I’ve been waiting for the copy my library has and it basically took this long. So I figured with the long wait list it would be good. Not so much.

Red Rising is set on Mars. Earth is dying and so people have been sent into space to colonize Mars and I think the moon but I’m not 100 percent on that. Darrow a Red and a miner and his job is to gather enough elements to ‘tame’ Mars so humans can live on it. Darrow and his village live under the surface of Mars. 

Darrow has lived his whole life thinking Mars is inhabitable and that he’s helping get them all closer to the surface. That is, until he finds out it’s all be a lie and that Mars is habitable, and has been for years but these people called Golds.

Darrow’s people are being used as slave labour and are looked down on  by these Golds who think they’re better than everyone and can pretty much do what they like.

Darrow goes undercover as a Gold to their school and decides to take the Golds down from the inside. But the school is a bloodbath and Darrow isn’t the only one with an agenda.

I had high expectations of this book and it didn’t live up to them. It’s not a bad book. The story is okay but it didn’t really draw me in. I mean, I want to know what Eo said to her sister and I wanted to know if Darrow would make it through the Institute but I think it was obvious he did because there’s a sequel.

Red Rising reminded me a lot of The Hunger Games. With kids being in this arena thing and being forced to do all this stuff. Then there’s the adults watching, probably taking bets, corrupted government and all that. Obviously they’re not the same but I kept seeing similarities between them. I think The Hunger Games it a lot more violent but this definitely has it’s moments.

I think I’ll read Golden Son (I think that’s the name of the next one) but I’m not dying to pick it up. I have an eBook copy of it though so I’ll get around to it if/when I pull it out of my to be read jar.

Have you read Red Rising? What did you think? Is The Golden Son better?

Until next time,
A

Review: The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith.

I was supposed to show my recent book purchases in this post but I haven’t taken a photo of them yet as the weather has been crap and I wanted to take a photo outside for a change. So hopefully I can do it tomorrow. There was only two books till one arrived in the mail yesterday.

I got The Cuckoo’s Calling from the library this week. I tried to read this a couple of years ago but didn’t get that far into it before putting it down. This time I finished it.

This book is written by JK Rowling as Robert Galbraith which is what, I think, put me off. I’m used to her writing style as Rowling with the Harry Potter series and The Casual Vacancy but the is completely different. So much swearing too. I mean, I swear but there’s one word that kept coming up and I really hate it. I couldn’t believe she was using it.

So this book came under my reading challenge as ‘a book you started but never finished.’
I did eventually get into the story. It took me most of the book to do it but once I did I was trying to figure out what happened to Lula. I had my suspicions proven correct.

I’m not going to go out and buy it. Or the next one. I think I’ll just use the library to read them. It seems to have lost the it though.

So, The Cuckoo’s Calling is about a private detective, Cormoron Strike, who’s struggling to keep his business afloat when he gets a new client and a temporary secretary, who he can’t afford, and with the new client, a new case. Lula Landry died six months (I think) before her brother hires Strike to find out what really happened. Did she commit suicide like the police said? Or was it something else? Her brother thinks she was pushed. But, if she was, why did the police not see it? Who would want to kill her?

You would think after that, that I would be like ‘oh this sounds good, I want to know what happened.’ But, I don’t know, it took me so long to read this book. I had to start another book to reward myself for reading three chapters. I’d pick up the other one and read two chapters of that. It’s great motivation. Towards the end though I was reading it because I wanted to and not because I wanted to read more of the other one. Which was Blue Lily, Lily Blue.

Until next time,
A

Review: War Horse by Michael Morpugo.

I wasn’t planning on using this on my Reading Challenge but because I finished it in a day I used it as ‘A book you can finish in a day.’ It wasn’t hard to finish this in one day, the book isn’t really that big.

I saw the movie two years ago. I didn’t actually know it was a book until then.

War Horse is told in Joey’s perspective. Joey is a horse. The book follows Joey from when he’s sold at an auction to Albert’s father to when said father sells Joey to the British army. Joey goes to war, on both sides, and then the war ends. It doesn’t show much after the end of the war, but it shows you where he ends up and with who.

Joey’s time in the war was a great way to show what horses went though. Everyone, who pays attention, knows what soldiers go through but I never really knew what men put horses through. These poor animals were slaves. They had no choice but to pull weapons and work themselves to death. Their hearts gave out they were so tired. To put animals through that is beyond cruel.

I sometimes forgot I was seeing though Joey’s eyes. Then he’d think something like ‘this rider was heavier in the seat than Albert’ and I was like what? I was so into the story that to me Joey wasn’t just a horse.

I really liked this book. The movie is great too. There are obvious differences between them, some changes. But the message gets across in both of them. At least for me, this book wasn’t just about war. For me, it was about the horses.

I’d recommend this book. I really did like it.

Happy reading,
A