WWW Wednesday 14. March 2018

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Time for the wednesday update! If you would like to know more about www wednesday, where you answer three questions every wednesday, it’s hosted by Taking on a World of Words.

What did you recently finish reading?

This week I’ve just finished audiobooks. So far I’ve only liked biography audiobooks, especially when the author, a personality, narrates it. I’ve listened to My Fight / Your Fight by Ronda Rousey, Secrets for the Mad by dodie and Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. Favourite was Ronda Rousey’s and I learned a lot from Trevor Noah’s book, it’s mostly about him growing up in South-Africa. Would really recommend both, dodie’s book seemed to be aimed at girls fourteen years and younger. I also DNF’ed Every Ugly Word by Aimee L. Salter, it’s about bullying which is good, but it felt whiny, not really the girl, more the entire book. Not to mention how predictable it was.

What are you currently reading?

The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson, Harry Potter e la pietra filosofale and The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey.

What do you think you’ll read next?

Continue on my current reads. Also Mary Oliver’s New and Selected Poems Vol. 2 if it ever arrives in the mail.

All Fall Down by Ally Carter | Review

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Pages: 250

Genre: young adult – mystery

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Synopsis

Grace is absolutely certain of three things:

1. She isn’t crazy. 2. Her mother was murdered. 3. Someday she’s going to find the man with the scar, and then she is going to make him pay.

My thoughts 

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“All Fall Down” is overall a good young adult book with lots of action, likeable and mysterious characters and plot twists. While I didn’t find it as entertaining as the Heist society, or the mysteries as well though out as those of the Gallagher girls, it’s a nice beginning of a new series by Ally Carter.

The plot gets a slow, hesitant applause from me. A girl who no one believe when she says someone killed her mother? Sure. Living at a embassy? Better. Spying? Great concept. The characters? Mixed feelings. Predictability? Halfway into the book I could guess the ending, even if I was only partly right.

The flow of the book wasn’t like it should have been either. Some places the writing got messy because suddenly a lot of action needed to happen simultaneously. It’s especially a problem towards the ending. I have read worse, but it throws you off, especially for younger readers.

“Keep your chin up. Eventually, you will meet someone who cares about your opinion. I’m so sorry I’m not her.” 

That quote describes Grace pretty well. I’ve always liked Ally Carter’s previous characters and Grace is no exception. She’s a sarcastic, brave, spontanious, witty and a paranoid person. Really, she jumps off brick walls into different countries. What is there not to like? However, she’s also troubled, in a way that added something to the story. First I thought she got panick attacks, which she does in a way, but it’s more like flashbacks. I don’t know if that was the best way to tell this story, but it works? Kind of. Something else I miss is the relationship between the characters. There are so much potential there. COME ON, they’re embassy kids. From all over the world, all different kids stuck in the same situation. The diversity, stories, cultures and friendships that could have been exchanged. But you really don’t get to hear a lot from them. Mostly it’s because Grace is stuck in her own head, which I can understand, but I feel like they haven’t got enough time together. Perhaps in the next book. Right now the other kids seem more like ghosts who follows her, but only because they’re bored.

There are also a few very cheesy elements in this book, like the fine line between peace and war. Could really this bunch of kids, actually teenagers – they just act like kids, start a war by running around? The adults seem to think so, but they don’t do anything about it. Except for those cheesy conversations and “don’t worry about it”. I’m not buying it.

I want to say I just felt a little too old for this book, but my eleven-year-old self would definitely like this book. It’s well-written in places, in others it seems unfinished. The plot is built on too many assumptions for it to feel remotely real. Teenagers, even if they act like kids, aren’t that far off from the rest of the world as this book make it seem. Especially not if they’ve grown up around dimplomats, I would believe. Still, I’ll read the next book when it comes out.

Books That Surprised Me | Top Ten Tuesday

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The best feeling is picking up a book you don’t know much about, with low expectations and finding out how amazing it is. And then there’s a book with a lot of hype, or that you’ve got hope for, but it was a let down. I’ve linked book reviews I’ve written.

TTT

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl to bring bookish friends together. A new topic is posted each week. 

– positive surprises –

Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen

  • I didn’t have expectations going into this book, and it turned out to be good, young adult fantasy. Enjoyed it a lot.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami

  • First book I read by Haruki Murakami, which probably wasn’t the best idea, but I loved this journal/running diary. I don’t even run.

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

  • First book by Brandon Sanderson I ever read and I was blown away. His writing and world-building is excellent, the ideas so complex for how many and varied books he produces. I can’t keep up with all the releases.

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Liu Ken

  • I’ve never loved short stories like I do with these. So much creativity, orginality and important topics within immigration and asian culture

 

– negative surprises – 

Reckless by Cornelia Funke

  • The other Cornelia Funke books are great, this is very below average

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

  • The perfect example of the last book ruining a trilogy

Cress and Winter by Marissa Meyer

  • I liked the first two books, but these weren’t as good.

Ash by Malinda Lo

  • Boring and dull, but with a cute f/f relationship

Half Bad by Sally Green

  • Below average, very cliche witch-book

My Favourite Podcasts: Science and Productivity

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It’s time for my favourite kind of podcasts, science and productivity. I love listening to passionate people talking about science from a perspective you don’t get in class, with more humour. Here’s a post with the general, two-dudes-talking type podcasts I like.

 

– productivity –

Cortex

  • Youtuber CGP Grey and relay-founder Myke Hurley dicuss their work as independent content creators

The College Info Geek Podcast

  • A productivity podcast for students, discussing all kinds of decisions, troubles and tips students might need.

 

– science –

Ologies

  • Alie Ward interviews one expert in a field about what they do, and proves no questions are stupid. It makes me want to work with a new thing each episode when I hear about what these awesome people do. Personal favourites are cosmology, horology, volcanology, gizmology and mythology. Lots of ologies.

Holy Fucking Science

  • By the CrashCourse/vlogbrothers/Hank Green team
  • Four people get together with the goal to amaze each other with facts about the universe and how they found out about them. Usually lots of laughs.

No Dumb Questions

  • By youtubers Destin Sandlin and Matt Whittman
  • Science and politics and all the dumb questions

Showmakers

 

Do you have any podcast recommendations?

Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder | Review

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Pages: 390
Genre: young adult, fantasy

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Summary

In hiding Avry struggles not to use her healing gifts and invietably she breaks. Her conscience gets the best of her, but she underestimates the villager’s fear and brutality. She ends up in the hands of a band of rogues who have other uses for her than the bounty on her head. They’re taking her to her enemy’s leader, the prince who’s frozen in the last state of the plague, to use her gifts to cure him. Only then she might die herself.

My thoughts

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A healer who instead on healing the wounds transfer them to herself. How can that be a bad idea (cue nervous grimaces). 

Most people seem to love this book. I have no idea why. I really liked the (Poison) Study series by Snyder and still wish to read her other series Insider and Glass. But where I found the Poison Study entertaining and original enough, this book just felt chaotic and dull. The healer idea could have been brilliant, but it wasn’t developed enough. The dilemma between where the line goes as to which people Avry should heal felt non-existent. Avry is brought up to see carrying others’ pain as normal and even her purpose.

I feel like I’ve seen this before; Here’s a kind of people who can heal, but the ignorant narrow-mided citizens see their magic as unnatural and lays the blame on them so their only hope is to run for their lives. It’s used as an almost “ironic” turn of events, but it’s just adding unecessary hate, not to talk about growing quite boring. I just read another story that fell through in the same way: Finnikin on the rock by Melina Marchetta. To quote my Finnikin review; “If only they hadn’t killed all their healers…” Who knows, maybe the healers are hiding in a cave somewhere as a twist, but I won’t read the next books to find out.

Most of the book is written around what Avry will do when she gets to the dying prince, after the (way too) long journey. But Avry is a very mild person, which isn’t a bad thing, but I never doubted for a second she wouldn’t sacrifice herself for the prince. Everything else seemed out of character. That takes away a quite bit of the suspense. And I didn’t really care if she died because things were bad for her already. Which says an awful lot about my feelings for this book. Leave the girl alone and stop using her selflessness against her or just kill her, I’m over this.

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli | Review

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Pages: 90

Genre: science, physics

okay, I’ll admit I chose this book because of its beautiful cover. I mean look at it:

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tre

In this book you get basic concepts and breakthroughs in physics described in a poetic way. It’s a short book with seven brief lessons (who would’ve guessed), well-written and focused on keeping the reader interested. At points the explanation is overly simplified, even for someone who’s about to take (basically) her first physics class, but I understand how more information might’ve destroyed the flow of the writing. It would’ve been better with footnotes (or something similiar) leading to more in-depth sources so you can actually understand the thing being explained.

The book got better the further into it I got, and lesson five on heat was perhaps the most interesting. Maybe because that was the one I knew the least about beforehand? Rovelli’s explanations was mostly good, but I was frustrated more than once at the tendency to mention a concept or name and never explain it further. I basically had wikipedia open, which I don’t feel should be this necessary.

It’s a good book for the person who’s not into physics and don’t usually think about the concepts on how tiny/big the world are and so on. It’s clear that the author knows what he’s talking about, both in the subject and the writing. Not to mention the beautiful cover and marketing. Personally the book was a nice read, but I didn’t feel I got much out of it. Made me realize I might as well open my actual physics textbook, if only I remember where I’ve buried it.

My Favourite Podcasts: General

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I listen to so many podcasts. It’s probably eaten into my reading time, but I’m more often available to listen to things while doing chores or getting ready, even eating.

Apparently the whole list of my favourite podcast was a lot for one post, which is probably a sign I should cut down on them. To start out, here’s the general/two people talking type of podcasts I listen to. Also narrowing down what these podcasts are about is difficult, because they’re mostly a mix of the hosts interests. Check them out for yourself! I would recommend listening to one of the latest episodes. Podcasts with more special interests like books or science will come later.

– two dudes* talking type – 

*not always two dudes, or even just two people

 

Hello Internet

  • Youtubers CGP Grey and Brady Haran
  • Nerdy. I have no idea how to sell this, but it’s probably my consistently favourite one.

Two Tims Talking

  • A fan podcast of Hello Internet, it was started by
  • listeners who talk about their lives and topics that interest them

Dear Hank and John

  • Youtubers and authors Hank and John Green from vlogbrothers. It’s great.

Do By Friday

  • Alex Cox, Max Temkin and Merlin Mann. First two are from the Cards Against Humanity team and Mann an experienced podcaster.
  • Has a new challenge each week, along with weird internet news and humor

The Wikicast

  • Youtuber and newly phd in physics Simon Clark and Dan Maw
  • Talks about a random wikipedia page each week, mostly about everything else

 

 

TBR for the near future

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Here’s books I hope to read for the next two weeks. I never actually follow tbr lists, but let’s give it a shot. 

 

My fight / your fight by Ronda Rousey (audiobook)

Bruised by Sarah Skilton

Imogen has always believed that her black belt in Tae Kwon Do made her stronger than everyone else–more responsible, more capable. But when she witnesses a holdup in a diner, she freezes. The gunman is shot and killed by the police. And it’s all her fault.

Now she’s got to rebuild her life without the talent that made her special and the beliefs that made her strong. If only she could prove herself in a fight–a real fight–she might be able to let go of the guilt and shock. She’s drawn to Ricky, another witness to the holdup, both romantically and because she believes he might be able to give her the fight she’s been waiting for.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.

Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television ‘family’. But then he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people did not live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television.

When Mildred attempts suicide and Clarisse suddenly disappears, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.

Mary Oliver’s New and Selected Poems vol. 2

The Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson

If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch

For almost as long as she can remember, Carey has lived in a camper van in the heart of the woods with her drug-addicted mother and six-year-old sister, Jenessa. Her mother routinely disappears for weeks at a time, leaving the girls to cope alone. Survival is Carey’s only priority – until strangers arrive and everything changes

Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour | Review

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Pages: 312

Genre: young adult, contemporary, lgbt

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“There is a calm in this room that assures me that we are exactly where we are meant to”

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This book was a whole lot more than I thought it would be. It’s a lovely story of a girl who works with decorating movie sets falling in love with a mystery and then the girl underneath it. It’s weird how this book can be summarized in one sentence, while I sat there with a shocked, comical expression after finishing it. There’s nothing life-changing, wow-factor about the story. But it got to me anyway. How dare this book mask itself as an innocent contemporary book and then ruin me like this?

It has a sweet relationship, if perhaps not the full-blown romance some people might be expecting. I expected it too, but I found myself pleasantly suprised by what we got. The only thing I was itching my head over, was how I usually like these kickass, strong-willed girls. And this is rather the contrary. But while the main character wouldn’t be my pick, her sole-focusness and (perhaps wrong) feeling of being superior in what she does, that her way is the right one, really fits with the story. It would be completely different if she hadn’t had her head in the skies, for example she might have never meddled with someone else’s life. And then there would be no story. It’s a different kind of romance than most young adult books I’ve read. Perhaps it’s because of the wonderful writing and pacing, perhaps because of the slowness of the characters and the mystery.

This is the story the author wanted to convey. Simple as that. As Emi with her movie sets, every detail is the perfect backdrop for having two girls slowly fall in love with each other. This book is filled with special moments, but it’s the in-passing ones that really count. I think that focus is what makes this book stand out.

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This next quote gives me “Looking for Alaska” vibes:

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A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver | Review

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Genre: poetry

fem

A collection of contemporary poems, the first one I read by Mary Oliver. And it’s fantastic, bringing out the magic in everyday things and small moments.

I’ve seen reviews saying that they wish this was how they lived their life, noticing details and the world this way. But you can? Take this for a normally stressed, pessimistic (I call it realistic) person who, while reading the poem about the white heron, remembered the grey heron I was chasing down a danish river in a canoe the week before. Everytime I gave up, the damn heron flew out from the bushes and the chase was on again. It was probably not the intention of the poem, which probably has some hidden symbolism, but a nice coincidence.

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I got a bit sidetracket – Anyway, I love the sea and the quietness of mornings. So I was bound to love this collection, even though some poems was a better fit for me than others.

Here’s “I go down to the shore” which I’ve memorized by now. Lastly, let me say I’m not an usual poetry reader, but the simplicity of some of the poems (some are longer and more intricate, and I adore them as well) makes it makes it easier for someone new to pick this up. It’s similiar to “milk and honey” in how easy it is to read, but so many levels better.