It’s Monday! What are you reading? #3

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading is a weekly meme hosted by BookJourney. We share what we read last week and what we plan on reading this week!

What are you reading this week?

Last week was busy with Birthdays of loved ones and other really fun and exciting stuff. I did read quite a lot, but I didn’t finish many books. I was reading five books at a time. So the plan for this week: Finish some of those books I started.

So, what else is new? Well, since you asked – I got a Kindle Touch! Yay! And I really, really love it so far. The Kindle Touch was just released last month here in Germany and I saved up for it and got it a short while after it came out. I thought about getting an eReader before, but what finally convinced me was the touchscreen and the build in mp3-player. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not looking for a tablet, but listening to music while reading is what I often do, especially while I’m on the train or bus, and having just one instead of two devices makes sense to me.

What I read last week

No Exit by Jean Paul Sartre

No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre – I read this while I was on the train to visit my mom on her birthday and on my way back. It’s a play and it deals with people define themselves through relationships with others and how bad relationships can be your personal hell. I really liked it a lot, it’s thought-provoking and I really liked the way the themes was presented. I’m really into these kind of plays and will read – and hopefully someday see – more of those! I gave No Exit 4 out of 5 stars.

Warrior Wolf Women Of The Wasteland by Carlton Mellick III

Warrior Women Of The Wastelands by Carlton Mellick III – I know, I know. This title sounds just awesome. And it was. This is the first book I read in the bizarro fiction genre and I really liked it a lot. Beware – this is not for everyone. It’s bloody, it’s crazy, it’s weird, it’s sick. A lot. And I mean that. You have been warned. You’re not put off? Then give it a try. I loved it. I will read more books of that genre. Review to come!

What I’m currently reading

As I said, I’m reading a lot at a time currently. So here we go:

Wither by Lauren DeStefano taken from http://thechemicalgardenbooks.com

Wither by Lauren DeStefano – I’m reading this on my kindle. I read a few reviews of this now and they made this sound really really good. I’m a little more than half way through now, and I like it. I would have finished it my now, but Warrior Wolf Women Of The Wastelands got in the way.

The Magician’s Guild by Trudi Canavan

The Magician’s Guild by Trudi Canavan – I’ve been meaning to read this for a while now. I’ve read one fifth of the book now and it’s really good so far! I really love the writing style. I can’t quite say what it is about this style of writing, but I really enjoy it.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë – Still reading this. Kindle got in the way.

Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss – Nothing new here. Still not finished. Sad but true.

What I plan on reading this week

I really just plan on finishing some books of those that I’m currently reading. And apart from that, I plan on reading things that I enjoy.

 What are you reading this week?

April 2012 Reading Wrap Up

Wow! I actually read twelve books in April! That’s a lot for me, really! Also, last was the month I picked up blogging again! I participated in the readathon last month, too, and I had a lot of fun! See how I did here and here!

The books I read in April

So on to the huge list of books I read!

Children’s Lit:

The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis

The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

The Horse And His Boy by C.S. Lewis

I liked the first three books of the Chronicles of Narnia, I enjoyed The Horse And His Boy most! I will review those once I finished them all.

Young Adult:

What Happened To Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

I really liked it, although it was almost the same reading experience as the other two books I read by Sarah Dessen (Along For The Ride, Just Listen). This is because I really like the way I feel while reading these books. It’s relaxing and I find myself as a teenager in the characters sometimes and I just feel really good while reading these books.

A Great And Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

You can find my review here! I liked it, but it was not overwhelming.

The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

I have a review up here! I loved this! Very obscure and awesome setting, great suspenceful story!

Classics:

The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz by Frank L. Baum

A very cute classic. I was surprised that I just remembered some small fragments of the story! Great story, I liked this a lot!

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

One of my favorite books now. Loved it! My review can be found here!

Around The World In 80 Days by Jules Verne

I liked the story a lot, but I had trouble connecting to the characters. Review to come!

Science Fiction/Dystopian:

Neuromancer by William Gibson

I had my troubles with this book, but in the end I liked it quite a lot! Review here!

1984 by George Orwell

Again, another new favorite of mine! Check out my review here!

Anthology:

The Tales Of Beedle The Bard by J.K. Rowling

A very cute anthology! I really liked the stories and I was glad there was something out of the Harry Potter universe I hadn’t read yet. I enjoyed the read a lot!

Update on challenges:

I finished Neuromancer by William Gibson, Around The World In 80 Days by Jules Verne and 1984 by George Orwell for the Around The Stacks In How Many Ways – Challenge! With Science Fiction, Dystopian and Adventure I covered three genres already! I think I will change the challenge settings for me though. I think I will not determine which books I want to use for this challenge and which genres I want to read. I want to read what I feel like reading and not feel obliged to read a certain book next. That kind of takes the fun out of it for me and I really don’t want that!

What did you read last month?

Book Review – A Great And Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

A Great And Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

A Great And Terrible Beauty is the first book in a trilogy (again. And again. Who writes stand-alones anymore?), it is Libba Bray’s first novel and it was published in 2003.

It is the year 1895. Gemma Doyle is an unhappy teenager. She lives in India with her parents, but she would much rather go with her mother to England. But then, on her 16th birthday, Gemma finds out that she has a terrible power and her life changes completly. She is finally allowed to go to a school near London, but she couldn’t be more miserable.

So this is the setting, a boarding school at the end of the 19th century. This reminded me a little bit of some early chapters of Jane Eyre. I liked this! This was a story about loss and grief, about being thrown into a new situation, about freedom and all that with some paranormal stuff mixed into it. Gemma makes friends and enemys at her new School, she struggles to be accepted and respected. At this point I thought, this is the definition of a book for young adults. It deals with all those fears and wishes. But, luckily, Libba Bray goes beyond that. She also talks about freedom, choices and forgiveness.

I thought Gemma was a very believable character. She was stubborn, quick-tempered, bitchy and had that teenage egocentricity. Sometimes, I was unhappy with how she did not see obvious things, but all in all I liked her character and how she developed during the book. I also liked the other girls and how different sides of their characters where shown during the book. On some points though I thought the girls acted a little out of character. Those inconsistencies were rare though, so I could overlook them.

Overall the writing was really good. Sometimes there were some really beautifully written passages, sometimes it was just okay. Libba Bray managed to create a 19th century setting without destroying it through a too modern writing style and without making it hard to read. It didn’t feel like it was written during that time period, but it was a good read nonetheless and I really liked the atmosphere of this book.

At the beginning of the book it reminded me of a strange mixture of Mean Girls and The Craft (from what I remember a really crappy teen horror film from the 90s about four girls playing with witchcraft), but the book managed to get out of that. It was not incredibly fast-paced, but I liked it that way. What I disliked were some decisions Gemma and other characters made. I wanted them to ask more questions and to open their eyes for the obvious. So, considering all that, I think A Great And Terrible Beauty is a really good book, but not overwhelming. I will read the next book in the series for sure, but I don’t think it will be one of my favorite books.

4/5 stars

It’s Monday! What are you reading? #2

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading is a weekly meme hosted by BookJourney. We share what we read last week and what we plan on reading this week!

What are you reading this week?

What I read last week

Last week I read four books. Three of those books I read for read-a-thon last weekend. I was hoping to read more, but oh well. These are the books I did read:

These are the books I read last week!

The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness – I loved it! Read my review here!

The Tales Of Beedle The Bard by J.K. Rowling – This is a really cute and lovely collection of short stories. Loved it! I don’t think I will review it though.

The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis – This was my favorite book if the Chronicles of Narnia so far! I will review all seven books together when I finished them all.

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne – I liked this book, but I don’t think I loved it. But it was a very interesting read nonetheless!

 

What I’m currently reading

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë – I’m about 150 pages in right now. It was very good to this point! Right now it’s kind of.. meh..

What I plan on reading this week

Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss – Again. In last weeks post I already said that I should finish this. So maybe this week?

Also I should get another book in the mail that I’m pretty excited about. It’s A Great And Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray! But we’ll see whether or not it will arrive this week!

What are you reading this week?

Read-a-Thon Update Post Day Two!

Happy Read-a-Thon everyone!

Hello and welcome to my second day of read-a-thon! I will post my updates on this post, so come back later to see how I’m doing!

—Read-a-thon Updates: ——————–

8.45am : Good morning!

I just got up and got ready and started reading!

Currently reading: Around The World In 80 Days by Jules Verne

Pages read since last update: 38

Books finished since last update: 0

Total page count: 418

Books finished during read-a-thon: 2 – The Boy And His Horse by C.S. Lewis, Tales Of Beedle The Bard by J.K. Rowling

And now I’m off to breakfast! Happy reading everyone!

11am: Just 3 hours left!

100 more pages to go and I finished 3 books during readathon. That’s not much, I really thought I could read more!

Currently reading: Around The World In 80 Days by Jules Verne

Pages read since last update: 100

Books finished since last update: 0

Total page count: 518

Books finished during read-a-thon: 2 – The Boy And His Horse by C.S. Lewis, Tales Of Beedle The Bard by J.K. Rowling

1:15 pm: Almost done!

I just finished my third – and probably last – book for read-a-thon! Although I slept for almost 7 hours I’m really tired now!

Total page count: 624

Books finished during read-a-thon: 3 – The Boy And His Horse by C.S. Lewis, Tales Of Beedle The Bard by J.K. Rowling, Around The World In 80 Days by Jules Verne

These are the books I read during read-a-thon!

End Of The Event Meme

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? Hour 8. I was super-tired and totally ready to go to bed.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?
   Tales Of Beedle The Bard by J.K. Rowling is a great read-a-thon book! It’s thin and a light read, perfect for those late hours
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?
   It was great the way it was, thank you 🙂
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?
   As I said, everything was great, I had a lot of fun!
5. How many books did you read?
   Three. Not a lot, I know! There is room for improvement for the next read-a-thon!
6. What were the names of the books you read?
   The Boy And His Horse by C.S. Lewis, Tales Of Beedle The Bard by J.K. Rowling, Around The World In 80 Days by Jules Verne
7. Which book did you enjoy most?
   I think I enjoyed The Boy And His Horse most. It was a great Narnia novel, to be the best one yet!
8. Which did you enjoy least?
   I think it was Around The World In 80 Days by Jules Verne. I enjoyed all three books, but this one was a little dry at times.
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?
   I wasn’t a cheerleader 🙂
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? If I have the time, I will definitly participate again! I think I will be a reader again, I’m not that good at cheering 😉

The read-a-thon was a great experience, although I didn’t get as much reading done as I had hoped. Maybe I will try to go for the full 24 hours next time. I also missed out on all those great mini-challenges and all those fabulous blog posts from other participants! I focussed more on reading so there was not enough time to visit all the blogs I had planned to visit!

Will you participate again? How was your read-a-thon?

Read-a-Thon Update Post Day One!

Happy Read-a-Thon everyone!

How many books will you read during read-a-thon?

The Read-a-Thon starts at 12 GMT, which is 2pm here in Germany! My strategy for reading as much as possible is the following: I read until midnight. Then I decide whether or not I con go on for another two hours. I will sleep until 8 am, get up and start reading again until the Read-a-Thon is over.  I will not go for the full 24 hours because my sleeping schedule is messed up as it is and I’m currently trying to fix that. Staying up for 24 hours will probably not help with that.

I will not be reading the whole time, I will be updating this post and looking at other blogs and see how they are doing! Interesting in what I’m planning on reading this read-a-thon?I posted my to-read pile here!

T- 1 hour, 30 minutes

I finished my weekend shopping and everything is set up so that the reading can start! I will take a short nap now so that I will not get tired as easily!

—Read-a-thon Updates: ——————–

2 pm : It’s starting!

Opening questionaire:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?

Hamburg, Germany, Europe!
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

The Tales Of Beedle The Bard! I’ll be reading it inbetween books. That’s the plan anyway 😉
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

Asparagus! It’s that time of the year again, yay!
4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

Hi, I’m Ace! Actually, my name is Ann-Christine. But that’s a very long, strange and complicated name. That’s why most people call me AC, or Ace! I started my book blog this January! I have a huge TBR Pile, and the read-a-thon is a great opportunity to work on that!
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?

This is my first read-a-thon. I’m looking forward to many hours reading time and many interesting blog posts from many different blogs! Happy reading everyone!

6pm: Finished the first book!

Just this second the church bells ring, it is exactly 6pm now and I just finished The Boy And His Horse by C.S. Lewis!

Currently reading: –

Pages read since last update: 176

Books read since last update: 1

Total page count: 176

Books finished during read-a-thon: 1

Where there snacks? Yes! I had homemade bread with cheese! Yum! I also took a short break to go to the supermarket across the street. And I will have to do that again now because I forgot something.

10pm: A late meal and tired eyes

I just finished cooking my meal (grilled asparagus with parsley-covered potatoes) and I’m eating it while writing this post! So in these past 3 hours I started two new books. First I started Tales Of Beedle The Bard by J.K. Rowling. Originally I wanted to read one story during books, but it is so much fun to read that I read 3 storys by now. The second book I started is Around The World In 80 Days by Jules Verne! Like the Narnia book earlier, I’m reading this one in German.

Currently reading: Tales Of Beedle The Bard by J.K. Rowling, Around The World In 80 Days by Jules Verne

Pages read since last update: 152

Books finished since last update: 0

Total page count: 328

Books finished during read-a-thon: 1 – The Boy And His Horse by C.S. Lewis

I have to admit, I’m already getting a little tired. But it’s less than two hours to midnight and I think I’ll be able to go on until than. Will I go to bed then or stay up till 2am ? I don’t know yet, but I will keep you posted 😉

12pm: Bedtime!

During the last 2 hours I ate dinner, talked to my boyfriend on the phone and updated this post. That’s why I didn’t get much reading done. But I finished the Tales Of Beedle The Bard! Now I can go to bed feeling accomplished.

Currently reading: Around The World In 80 Days by Jules Verne

Pages read since last update: 52

Books finished since last update: 0

Total page count: 380

Books finished during read-a-thon: 2 – The Boy And His Horse by C.S. Lewis, Tales Of Beedle The Bard by J.K. Rowling

So how is your read-a-thon so far? Let me know 🙂

I’ll be up and reading again tomorrow at 8am, so until then, HAPPY READING everyone!

Teaser Tuesday!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

“Maybe our story will turn out differently if we take the left fork, maybe bad things that are waiting to happen to us won’t happen, maybe there’s happiness at the end of the left fork and warm places with people who love us and no Noise but no silence either and there’s plenty of food and no one dies and no one dies and no one never never dies.

Maybe.”

Taken from page 219, The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.

I finished this book today and I haven’t started a new one yet. I gave this book 5 stars, you can check out my review here! What are you reading this lovely Tuesday?

Book Review – The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

I don’t even know how to start. The Knife Of Never Letting Go, the first book in the Chaos Walking trilogy, is suspenseful, shocking, disturbing and sad. But there is always hope, right?

This is the story of Todd Hewitt, who lives in a strange world where everybody can hear everyone’s thoughts. It is a germ who caused this, a thing that the settlers that came to New World did not foresee. The germ did not only reveal everybody’s and even every animal’s thoughts, but also killed all women. So in this world, where there always is Noise no secrets can be kept. But men lie…

The story of this book is really captivating and from the first page on, you really just want to know how Todd’s story continues. Without giving away too much I can only say that there are many, many obstacles and troubles for Todd and his faithful dog Manchee to overcome. Many fights will be fought, there will be pain and horror and sadness. There never was a part in this book that I found boring, I just always wanted to know what happend next. That being said, this book was a little too sad for me (Yes I cried, shut up – to say it in Todd’s words).

After the first pages I never thought that I could like Todd as a character. I mean, he can talk to his dog, and Manchee is so sweet and Todd is just mean to him and even hits him! It took quite some chapters of the book until I could forgive Todd. But I did and I really felt for him, when he had to experience all these horrible things.

Todd meets a lot of different characters during his journey, from loving and warm-hearted to cold, brutal and really mad. I loved how Ness described the characters and how merciless he used their features to give the story just another turn.

Ness’ writing style just adds to the emotional rollercoaster Todd and the reader go through. Todd is a first person narrater and describes beautifully how it feels to be him, to hear the Noise and to experience all those things he has to cope with. Todd told the story in his own way of speaking, with dialect and sometimes, when he was nervous, in neverending sentences, or in action-filled scenes just in fragments of sentences. You could really imagine Todd telling you his story, hearing his Noise. Ness also found a beautiful way to display the Noise, with different fonts and sizes of the words. All that added up to a unique reading experience, that will not be forgotten any time soon.

In conclusion I have to say that I really think this is an amazing book. It is astonishing and shocking and moving, story and writing style are extraordinary and unique. The only downside for me was that it was in some parts way to sad for me and….the CLIFFHANGER ENDING! I need the second book right now.

5/5! I wanted to punish the book for making be cry by giving it just 4 stars, but I just couldn’t. It wouldn’t be fair.

It’s Monday! What are you reading?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading is a weekly meme hosted by BookJourney. We share what we read last week and what we plan on reading this week!

What are you reading this week?

What I read last week

Last week I read four books, which is really, really a lot for me. I’m a rather slow reader and I don’t always have the time to read this much. Especially during the next three months I will have to concentrate on my thesis. But we’ll see! You need a break sometimes, right? But on to last weeks books:

What I read last week!

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë – A new favorite of mine! Took me just two days to read. Only downside: Got the song Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush stuck in my head for almost a week now, and it’s annoying!

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis – I will review all of the books from the Chronicles Of Narnia after I finished them all. So far I like it though!

Neuromancer by William Gibson – This took me a long time to read. I liked it though.

1984 by George Orwell – Another instant favorite. Which makes this a really good reading week, right?

What I’m currently reading

The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

The Knife Of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness – Great setting, great story so far! But I need to now what’s going on NOW!

What I plan on reading this week

What I plan on reading this week!

I don’t know, what I will actually read, but this is what I think I will read next.

The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss – I really need to finish this. I loved the first part so much, and then I couldn’t go on reading because I just couldn’t get over one specific part of the book. It’s so sad because I feel this will be a favorite when I finish it!

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë – After reading Wuthering Heights I want to now what the other Brontë-sisters have to offer! I heard so many great things about this book!

And for the readathon next weekend, I already piled up books to chose from! Check them out here! What are you reading this week?

24 hour Read-a-Thon next weekend!

On April 21st 2012, 12pm GMT, starts the 2012 24-hour-read-a-thon! And I will participate! I’m so excited for this. I can’t wait!

I already piled up the books which I plan to read next weekend! Of course, I don’t excpect to finish them all. But I like to have a pile to chose from. Also some books will come in the mail hopefully later this week and maybe those will be added to this huge pile of books!

Book pile for the readathon!

The Pile:

The Tales Of Beedle The Bard – J.K. Rowling

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? – Philip K. Dick

No Exit – Jean Paul Satre

Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card

Twilight – Stephanie Meyer

Peter Pan – J.M. Barrie

3-7 of the Cronicles Of Narnia – C.S. Lewis

Sin City , graphic novel

The Ringmaster’s Daughter – Jostein Gaarder

Artemis Fowl – Eoin Colfer

Most of these books are very thin and/or I think they be very light reads. From the thicker books I will maybe only start one or two, we will see. As for Twilight, I feel the need to defend myself here. I started the book way before the movie came out but stopped reading after 100 pages or so. I remember it being a really quick and light read, almost like reading a magazine. It has been on my shelf for so long, and since it is such a light read, it is perfect for readathon! I didn’t chose books that I already read just because my to-be-read pile is way too big and readathon is a great opportunity to get done with a few books.

I chose Sin City as a graphic novel for the hours when reading starts to get really hard and I can’t concentrate anymore. I thought about adding Manga to the pile, but I wasn’t sure whether or not this would be cheating. Maybe I will listen to an audio book when my eyes hurt too badly. I found this site, FreeClassicAudioBooks.com, where you can get free audio books of classic novels. I already downloaded Treasure Island by Robert L. Stevenson, so maybe I will listen to that during the late hours of readathon!

Would you participate in a readathon? What kind of books would you chose? Would you say Mangas count? Let me know!