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Showing posts from January, 2020

January book haul.

Remember when I said at the beginning of the month that I will change my habits, among those changes the book-buying also was supposed to go through some changes. So here is the list of my self-restraint.  Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe. This classic is not the most pretty edition but I am trying to gather classics. It is the story of a man who is stranded on a desert island. Yo, Robot, Isaac Asimov another classic SciFi book about a detective who is prejudiced against AI in a time where AI are abundant.  The inheritance trilogy, N.K. Jemisin a fantasy trilogy in a single book compilation. This is a fantasy story about people living in an Earth that is plagued by natural disasters typically earthquakes. Yes a very bad description. I don't really read descriptions, I generally go into the reads with vague ideas, as you can clearly tell by now. Armando Hoyos, Eugenio Derbez , this is a nonsensical book meant to make you laugh. I have no idea what it is- I bought it because

Nonfiction books of January

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Trying to keep my goal of getting into more nonfiction I have random picks for digital books I try to read at work. If my body could speak. Author: Blythe Baird  Genre: Poetry, nonfiction Original publication date: February 2019 Book description:   is about fighting for the space one takes up in a world that would rather they take up none at all. Blythe Baird deftly and uniquely charts a course through various modes of womanhood and women's bodies. Through love, loss, and the struggles of disordered eating, If My Body Could Speak uses sharp narratives and visceral imagery to get to the heart of a many-layered existence, speaking to many generations at once. Thoughts: Hard to describe as usual with poetry and collections, there is always some that you feel connected to them and some others you do not feel very particular about.  I started this loving it, be aware the first few poems were about eating disorders and I expected the whole compilation to be in that environme

Little Broken Things

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Author: Nicole Baart  Genre: Mystery, Thriller (more like mystery and family drama) Original publication date: November 2017 Book description:  Quinn Cruz receives that cryptic text message from her older sister Nora, she doesn’t think much of it. They haven’t seen each other in nearly a year and thanks to Nora’s fierce aloofness, their relationship consists mostly of infrequent phone calls and an occasional email or text. But when a haunted Nora shows up at the lake near Quinn's house just hours later, a chain reaction is set into motion that will change both of their lives forever. Thoughts: So this is a slow-moving book. We have a lot of family drama and a lot of mystery in the way I was not expecting.  Nora comes across as a very bad sister. Why? For most of the book she behaves is very self-centered, no matter she is trying to do something her attitude, her silence is frustrating. Nora and Quinn's mother is also part of my least favorite characters for the majo

The line between

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Author: Tosca Lee Genre: Mystery, Thriller Original publication date: January 2019 Book description: An extinct disease re-emerges from the melting Alaskan permafrost to cause madness in its victims. For recent apocalyptic cult escapee Wynter Roth, it’s the end she’d always been told was coming. Thoughts: So I picked this book up simply because it was available in audiobook in Scribd and it was in the runners up for the Good Reads Choice Awards 2019. IT starts very slow, we have Wynter a young woman who is struggling with her life choices. We have two main timelines, the now where Wynter is adapting to live in the outside world. Wynter just emerges from a religious congregation New Earth. She grew up from her childhood through adolescence. Initially, you know nothing, why she was expelled, how she feels about the ideology that religion preaches. She is a very insecure person, in her personality, physical looks, and on her own emotions.  She is very realistic, even though t

My sister the serial killer

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Author : Oyinkan Braithwaite Genre: Mystery, Thriller Original publication date: July 2017 Book description: When Korede's dinner is interrupted one night by a distress call from her sister, Ayoola, she knows what's expected of her: bleach, rubber gloves, nerves of steel and a strong stomach. This'll be the third boyfriend Ayoola's dispatched in, quote, self-defence and the third mess that her lethal little sibling has left Korede to clear away. She should probably go to the police for the good of the menfolk of Nigeria, but she loves her sister and, as they say, family always comes first. Until, that is, Ayoola starts dating the doctor where Korede works as a nurse. Korede's long been in love with him, and isn't prepared to see him wind up with a knife in his back: but to save one would mean sacrificing the other. Thoughts: It was a disappointment because I had such different expectations for how this would go or the nature of the relationship between

La Isla (The dying game)

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Author:  Ã…sa Avdic Translator: Ana Guelbenzu Genre: Mystery, Thriller Original publication date: 2016 Description of the book: The Spanish translation of the description is very different from the English one. I read the Spanish version of this book and so read that description. Description I read: An isolated island. Seve contestants applying for the same secret job. An eerie stress psychological 48-hour test. A live murder.  The English description was better at giving you the idea of the test in itself.  With the description, I saw (the one included here) it felt very disappointing when I just started to read the book and I was explained Anna's mission in the island, I thought the plot was demolished and the huge reveal was ruined. So I did not pick up the book to continue as much as I would have done had I not started with the expectations I had made from the description. In the first few pages, we get Anna a workaholic woman who has baggage of uncertain nature. Sh

Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe

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Author: Melissa de la Cruz Genre: Contemporary, Retelling Original publication date: October 2017 Book description:  Darcy Fitzwilliam is 29, beautiful, successful, and brilliant. She dates hedge funders and basketball stars and is never without her three cellphones—one for work, one for play, and one to throw at her assistant (just kidding). Darcy’s never fallen in love, never has time for anyone else’s drama, and never goes home for Christmas if she can help it. But when her mother falls ill, she comes home to Pemberley, Ohio, to spend the season with her family. Thoughts: So Darcy is not my favorite character. I like some of her characteristics but then again she falls into the troupe of a woman who wants to be independent and one of her fights against society is the fact that she has to get married and she ends up wanting that super fast with someone she does not even know. She is a very flimsy girl, she gets together with someone and then leaves them then get together the

Read more

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For some reason, I always struggle to read as time goes on during certain periods of time. I start very strong be it a weeklong or month-long period. I usually read two or more books at the time ad that helps me get through books faster. Here are some of the things that help me get through books. 1. Read if possible in different formats. I usually have an audiobook that I read on my way to work and back and that I use to read it while I do certain house cleaning.  At work I usually try a digital book , I read it at every little free time, I do customer service via phone, so I have time sometimes between a call and the next. Sometimes I barely get a line in but other I ca through a few pages. My time at home I read a traditional book .  2. If you are not in a mood to read do not force it to happen but do not give it up completely. I set timers of 20 minutes to read books , pick one and then try it for the amount of time. Then continue with life, take another book break an

First Reread of 2020

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The Rook  Author: Daniel O'Malley Series: The Checquy Files #1 Genre: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy Original publication date: January 2012 Book description:  "The body you are wearing used to be mine." So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. With no recollection of who she is, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind to discover her identity and track down the agents who want to destroy her. She soon learns that she is a Rook, a high-ranking member of a secret organization called the Chequy that battles the many supernatural forces at work in Britain. She also discovers that she possesses a rare, potentially deadly supernatural ability of her own. In her quest to uncover which member of the Chequy betrayed her and why, Myfanwy encounters a person with four bodies, an aristocratic woman who can enter her dreams, a secret training facility where children are trans

Cosmerealong

This is a year-long reading challenge that advises us a specific reading order for the Cosmereverse from Brandon Sanderson. Google Doc:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vo3HSQg5BPQqHOSCsRIl309C2KrngU5kOHcn-kPGs2k/edit Twitter: https://twitter.com/RoyallyBooked Hashtag: #COSMEREALONG Host: https://www.youtube.com/c/rachaelmarie Co-hosts (floating & permanent) Caz - Little Book Owl: https://www.youtube.com/user/LittleBookOwl Jaded Reader: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwW19yy506a_jvfx_pBtvdg Becca and the Books: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGQy9irWE8LXgmAX-jQ5ynQ Jesse - Bowties & Books: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTIbjVYcbwhoqFeWdiJGfkA XCatherine Reads: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJqGacjWwoYXUTbCAihyiyQ All novellas and short stories are recommended but not necessary, however they will be referenced during the live shows. Most can be found compended within The Arcanum Unbounded. THE SHARDWORLD OF SEL ELANTRIS February & March - Live Show March 2

A Walking Dead Vol 4: The heart's desire

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Author: Robert Kirkman Genre: Graphic novel, horror Original publication date: April 2009 Book description: Life in the prison starts to get interesting for Rick Grimes and the rest of our survivors. Relationships heat up, fizzle out, and change entirely almost overnight. Thoughts: This starts to get interesting. Michonne comes into the picture and she has a big impact mainly due to Carol.  Rick gets a bit wild, he shows a lot of violence, he gets on people's nerves and it spends a bit of time between trying to make rules and then deciding you can't really live up to them. He is the most rational of the people here. Especially considering that people continue to show their true colors and most show it on the dark side, cruelty, violence and bad choices are in abundance here.  I especially love the way he speaks his mind at the end of this volume. There is no going back to the society and lifestyle they had experienced.

#AYearAThon January 2020 Wrap up

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So this weekend I did not read much. Being perfectly honest I did not read at all. Family time took most of my weekend. I finally finished unpacking, because in the end, I am not going to be moving again in the next 2 or 3 months, well it was about time to finish with most of the unpacking.  We still have plenty of thing packed due to lack of space but we managed to move through and I finally got all the books out of their boxes! Moving on, I reached the end of the reading challenge for #AYearAThon. I had to pick covers with green covers. So I had initially picked 3 books and I only managed to read only two, the shortest. A giant Problem by Tony Diterlizzi and Holly Black and also a manga Blue exorcist vol 8 by Kazu Kato. They were both very quick reads, a continuation of series I started last year and want to end in the first few months of this one.  They have a bit of green and also are based on friendships and trying to save the world from things the normal population do

All unread books

So this is going to be my way to be accountable for the end of the year. This will be the list of the physical books, the digital and the ones I have collected in my Kindle I might take a look at them.  Let's see how many books I manage to read. Little Broken things , Nicole Baart. Mystery book. Since you've been gone , Morgan Matson Ya Contemporary Daughter of the Pirate King , Tricia Levenseller. YA Fantasy   The firm , John Grishman. Mystery thriller The complete novels of Jane Austen .  Requiem , Lauren Oliver Dystopian (Delirium #3) Lord of Shadows , Cassandra Clare. YA Fantasy. Lairs of Dreams , Libba Bray. Historical Fantasy Fiction  A swiftly tilting planet, Madeliene L'Engle Middle-Grade Scifi Many waters,  Madeliene L'Engle Middle-Grade Scifi An acceptable time , Madeliene L'Engle Middle-Grade Scifi A clash of kings , George RR Martin Fantasy A storm of swords , George RR Martin Fantasy A feast of crows , George RR Martin Fantasy A dan