Book things – Page 12

WWW Wednesday, 2. May 2018

May 2, 2018aquapages // eline3 Comments

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 are you currently reading?

Masked Desire by Alana Delacroix: I’ve only just started, but it’s urban fantasy. Something with a supernatural council and changing faces. The multiple pov’s right at the beginning has made it a bit confusing.

What did you recently finish reading?

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi: absoloutly fantastic fantasy book! review will be out soon, but i would wholeheartedly recommend it.

Head On John Scalzi: a sci-fi book with a really interesting concept, people with a virus that make them locked in their bodies, so robot bodies are made for them, which leads to a new kind of people. Too much fbi investigation over discovering this world and society, too little character focus. Full review linked.

Sadie by Courtney Summers: Podcast format book that follows a girl Sadie trying to revenge her sister’s death. It has its issues, most of all the format and how boring it makes the writing. Review out soon!

What do you think you’ll read next?

Fawkes by Nadine Brandes: “Thomas Fawkes is turning to stone, and the only cure to the Stone Plague is to join his father’s plot to assassinate the king of England.” This seems very intriguing and I’m excited.

Books I’d Slay a Lion to Get Early | Top Ten Tueday

May 1, 2018April 26, 2018aquapages // eline5 Comments

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

Disclaimer: I wouldn’t slay a real lion for any books, but here’s the list of the books I would love to get early.

acofat

A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas

Release date: 1. May

Why I want to read it: It’s a court of thorns and roses novella, the one series by Maas I haven’t given up on yet.

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Release date: 10. July

Why I want to read it: Miryem’s family of moneylenders are in financial trouble, so she decides to fix it by collecting the villagers’ debt to them. That sounds badass, as well as the mention of turning silver to gold. Don’t know which direction this plot will take, but I’m here for it. Uprooted by Naomi Novik was incredible, before that I loved the Temeraire series, so I would’ve given it a chance just based on that.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

Release date: 25. September

Why I want to read it: It’s a Hank Green book! I’M SO EXCITED

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

Release date: 4. October

Why I want to read it: I’ve read Deathless by the author and liked it, as the sequel isn’t due any time soon, I’ll definitely pick up this book. And the name!

The Truth About Keeping Secrets by Savannah Brown

Release date: February 7th 2019

Savannah’s debut novel! I’m so excited! I’ve liked her writing and poems a long time, and hopeful that her longer writing will be interesting as well.

There Will Be Other Summers by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

The second book of “aristotle and dante discovers the secrets of the universe”. I need this so much, but Sáenz’s other book “the inexplicable logic of my life” was great as well and made the wait a bit easier.

The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson

The first book Truly Devious was great young adult mystery and I need more.

The sequel to Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

No title, expected date in november. I really want it.

Nightblood by Brandon Sanderson

This will probably exist some day, but who knows when. The first book Warbreaker was great. In the meantime I’ll continue reading the Stormlight archive.

And finally …

Doors of Stone by Patrick Rothfuss

I would very much like the third book of the kingkiller chronicles. That said – STOP ASKING FOR IT. You can’t look at the replies of a Rothfuss tweet without seeing people whining about where the book is. Authors doesn’t owe you anything, consider that horrifying thought carefully. Even George R. R. Martin doesn’t owe you an end to Game of Thrones. This book still very much belongs on this list, even if I also don’t want the series to be over.

Book Series I Won’t Finish

April 27, 2018April 28, 2018aquapages // elineLeave a comment

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I’ve gone on a purge of my tbr list and realized there’s book series I won’t ever get to because of various reasons. It might be years since I read the previous book, maybe the book wasn’t that good or it didn’t need to be made into a series. So here’s my official goodbyes!

Throne of Glass: Tower of Dawn, book 6

As the series have progressed it went from young adult to new adult, the focus of plot and characters have shifted and for some reason I lost interest with each new book. Book five was a struggle to get through. I think there’s been too many let-downs that I can’t get over, it’s a whole post in itself. I’m still on the fence if I’ll ever give it another try, but I think I’ll spare myself from it.

The 5th Wave: The Infinite Sea, book 2

I’ve picked up the second book of this series twice, and while I liked the first one I couldn’t get into it. I have yet to see the movie with Chloe Graze Moretz though (I love that actress).

The Darkest Minds: In the Afterlight, book 3

The biggest problem is that I don’t know if I read the second book “never fade”. I’m pretty sure I did, because I tried to start it again and it was just familiar enough to be boring. That along with having been some years, I don’t think I’ll get to finish this one.

Night School: Endgame, book 5

Read it so long ago, started the book again, but wasn’t feeling it. Won’t happen, even though it has good ratings.

Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children: Hollow City, book 2

The first movie was good, will watch the next one too, but the book I read so long ago and doesn’t really catch my interest anymore.

Embassy Row: Take the Key and Lock Her Up, book 3

First book in the series was fun, second book more of a mess. I won’t get to the third, even though it has good ratings.

Currently Reading | Book Things

April 25, 2018April 24, 2018aquapages // elineLeave a comment

It’s time for another update! I’ve just come back from a week in Belgium, so that’s the reason behind the fewer updates this past week. It was so much fun! And also I feel awful now, hoping to not become really sick because I have two days to cram my entire math curriculum. FUn! Also going from nearly thirty degrees celcius to ten hurts a lot, I miss summer so much.

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I started reading “Wolf by wolf” by Ryan Graudin on the trip over, and even though it became a bit much war at the same time as I learned about WW1 and I was reading this book around WW2, the book was really really good. I would define it as magical realism, which I haven’t often seen in war books. In the book Hitler’s rule has taken over Japan and this girl was put in death camp and experimented on, which gave her some unusual abilities along with changing her looks from dark to fair. She escaped and is competing in this motorcycle race in this awesome plan to assassinate Hitler. It’s a weird plot, but it was done so well.

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I’ve given up on “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury, it was time. I can’t bother to go check just how far I got, it was at least 40 percent, probably I got further than halfways. It was slow and uninteresting, even if I can see why it’s a classic with its ideas of the dystopian future and surveilance and such.

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“Head on” by John Scalzi is a book that took a while to get into, but I’m starting to like it. It’s a sci-fi book, with a dash of mystery and fbi agents included. A part of the population experienced something called “Haden’s syndrome” where they’re basically locked in their bodies, so robot bodies are made for accessiblity. Which leads to a new sport, Hilketa, where the players can attack each other without doing harm. Until one player dies, and the Haden fbi agent Chris is trying to find out how and why. Really cool concept, I haven’t gotten that far yet.

The Art of Escaping by Erin Callahan four out of five stars

My Fight / Your Fight by Ronda Rousey four out of five stars

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli five out of five stars

Leave This Song Behind three out of five stars

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson five out of five stars

Alt som ikke har blitt tjoret fast, Eirin Gundersen

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah five out of five stars

Secrets for the Mad by dodie four out of five stars

Young Adult Titles with “Night”| Top Ten Tuesday

April 24, 2018April 6, 2018aquapages // eline3 Comments

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

There’s a lot of frequently used words in young adult titles to pull from. There’s love obviously, dark, star, fall. I’m sure the list goes on and will be looking forward to seeing all the other lists with frequently used words in genre titles. I’ve made a top ten list of ya titles with the word night.

Here’s the three most popular books I could remember: Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas, Nevernight by Jay Kristoff and Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare. I already see a trend.

Empire of Night by Justin Somper (vampirates = vampire + pirates !!!), Night Broken by Patricia Briggs and The Night Is For Hunting by John Marsden are action-filled books I loved.

The Night After I Lost You by Sarah Rees Brennan and Night School by C. J. Daughtery is parts of two good series with some spying and romance.

On my TBR is A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston and The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett. Turns out purple covers and “night” in the title is popular together.

Long Book Titles | Top Ten Tueday

April 17, 2018April 17, 2018aquapages // eline2 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl to bring bookish friends together. A new topic is posted each week. It’s time for a freebie tuesday, where you get to choose your own list (or at least I hope that was the purpose). So I chose the top ten long book titles I’ve read or want to read. Some are spot on, other hilarious.

What I talk about when I talk about running by Haruki Murakami

Part running diary, part everything else including writing, I completely recommend it.

Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

A lovely and gay summer romance story, with the best and most exhausting title to write. I can’t count how many times I’ve looked up the spelling of Aristotle, even after having read about the philosopher for so many years in school

Good Omens: the nice and accurate prophecies of Agnes Nutter, witch by Terry Prachett and Neil Gaiman

An okay book with spot-on title

Three books on my TBR:

Do androids dream of electric sheep? by Philip K. Dick

The girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making by Catherynne M. Valente

Everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too by Jomny Sun

The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy by Douglas Adams

A classic that I took way too long to read, with a nice long title.

Fantastic beasts and where to find them by J. K. Rowling

I remember loving this title, then the movies over-used it

I’d tell you I love you, but then I’d have to kill you by Ally Carter

I love the book titles of this young adult spy series, the books themselves are nearly able to live up to them, which deserves a slow applause.

Simon vs. the homo sapiens agenda by Becky Albertalli

I put off reading this book for too long, mostly because of hearing it was a “coming out” story and the weird title. I still don’t think the title was a good choice, even if I understand it now, but the story was so amazing with characters you can relate to. A really good young adult book, in every way. And so gay.

Currently Reading | Book Things

April 11, 2018April 11, 2018aquapages // elineLeave a comment

It’s time for another update! I’m currently on a seven-hour train trip, writing this on my phone. My flight was cancelled, so it was my only way to get home.

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Leave this song behind by John and Stephanie Meyer is a collection of poems from teenagers, and some of them were really lovely. Review to come.

I started reading “when breath becomes air” by Paul Kalanithi at the bus to my flight this weekend. Horrible idea, as it’s about Paul’s fight against cancer after having worked as a neurosurgeon and removed tumors regularly. It’s about how his worldview changed, about the experiences he had at medical school and his wonder of death to being forced to face his own. It’s hard to go from doctor to patient. I was brought to tears so many times, regularly closing the book to not start bawling my eyes out in front of people. It was a masterpiece of a book though, as someone who has spent a lot of time in hospital, even if I luckily have no direct experience with cancer.

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I’m going to Belgium next week, so books I have in physical copy like Fahrenheit 451 won’t go with me. Maybe I’ll continue harry potter e la pietra filosofale, but i’ve said that for a couple weeks without following up as well. I’ll probably get to read some emily dickinson poems though, in between being a tourist and a lot of socializing (feel tired already, haha)

I travelled to visit an technology university this week and in the theme of trying to choose education, I decided to try listening to “letters to a young scientist” by Edward O. Wilson. The audiobook is okay, but as some sections aren’t as relevant to me as others and it would be easier to jump around in another format. Some info is outdated, and because of that I’m not certain what I feel about this book yet. Also it’s a lot of talk about snakes and ants, so mainly biology, which is the one science I’m not into.

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff two/five stars

Kafka on the shore by Haruki Murakami four/five stars

Silence fallen by Patricia Briggs three/five stars

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel three/five stars

Books I Loved But Will Never Re-Read | Top Ten Tuesday

April 11, 2018aquapages // eline5 Comments

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

TTT

Turns out, most of the books I’ll never reread is because I read them years ago, as a child or in my early teens and don’t want to judge their quality now. I think that leaving some of them alone is the best way to honour the choices I made and what I liked then. Also there’s other reasons, for examples there’s some beautiful or emotional memories I have attached to certain places and I want to keep those.

The Gone Series by Michael Grant

Book 7 is out after four year break, needless to say I started this series a long time ago, the first book came out in 2008. I’ll give it a chance for nostalgia’s sake, but I’m not rereading this series to catch up again.

Night School series by C. J. Daughtery

I had trouble reading the last book of this series, I found it an exciting ya spy-ish read and is torn between not wanting it to end and being a bit bored

Heist Society by Ally Carter

A fantastic young adult mystery and heist series which I would still very much recommend, but I have no need to reread.

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

What would a top ten tuesday list be without a Sanderson book?
A good ya fantasy book, but not worth a reread for me

The Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan

Was a great series for me as a child, further fueling my interest for mythology, stories and especially greek gods. Most recently read the Heroes of Olympus and if that’s a pointer, I’ve grown out of these series. Won’t dare to ruin the magic rereading it and finding out, though I think the Heroes of Olympus is more unoriginal overall.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Do I need to explain why this book is on this list? The movies and hype ruined it for me, as they did with Divergent, I won’t reread it to find out just how much.

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Liked it when I first read it, but later books in the series made it not worth the reread.

Vampirates series by Justin Somper

Once upon a time I read a series with pirates that sometimes were turned into vampires and two twins who wanted to spend their life at sea. I had never found a book that perfect for me, in norwegian because this was before I learned a lot of english, with a strong female character as well. I will definitely reread it one time out of curiosity, so not never, but it deserved its place on this list.

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

I read this book in summer, visiting one place, a family summer house that reminded me a lot of the summer house of this story. This book will now forever be linked to that place, and I hope to find new book experiences like that.

The first three books of the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik

I loved this series with dragons and war between nations. Novik has since written books like Uprooted and has a new release soon. So I searched for her and realized there exists SIX other books in this series! How did this go me by? I read the first three books translated to norwegian at my library, and these just never appeared. I’ll never reread the three first books because there’s a slim chance I’ll ever finish it at all if she’s going to continue releasing those amazing fairytale-inspired books as Uprooted.

Characters I Liked From Books I Disliked | Top Ten Tuesday

April 3, 2018March 31, 2018aquapages // eline1 Comment

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

TTT

Well, disliked is a strong word, but these books were three stars or less out of six. Give me some slack, it’s a hard list to make because most books I dislike is exactly because of the characters.

Wax and Marasi from Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson (look, they’re on the cover!). Wax and Wayne is an awesome team, but Wax brings the casual genius plans and humor.

The whole gang – Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam – in The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater. I have a thing for group dynamics, especially when they are so different characters as these.

Julep Dupree from Trust Me, I’m Lying by Mary Elizabeth Summer. Less than average plot, good female main character who’s a con artist and doesn’t stop lying.

Julian from Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare. I feel for him, I feel like him, I would read the books solely for him if he didn’t become a smaller and smaller part of them.

Margo from Paper Towns by John Green. The main character was average, Margo was much better. Probably not the best person, but a good character.

Percy from House of Hades by Rick Riordan. Especially from that book because I didn’t like it, but he’s been great through most of the series, until he fell into hell or whatever and changed. Then it all went downhill.

Books That Take Place In Another Country | Top Ten Tuesday

March 27, 2018March 13, 2018aquapages // eline2 Comments

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

TTT

Most of the books I read are from another country, since I’m norwegian. But I’ll include more books that aren’t placed in the US/America, since that’s where most of the authors I read are from.