June Wrap Up

June was an incredibly busy month for me. I'm still prepping for a move and all the craziness that comes with that. I also participated in the cramathon and Book Riot's #riotgram challenge. I read a total of 14 books, published 8 blog posts, and started working on a secret something that you may be seeing soon.

BOOKS WRAP UP: 

Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account by Miklos Nyiszli
My Rating: ★★★★★

This is an account of Nyiszli's experience working under Dr. Josef Mengele at Auschwitz. Because of Nyiszli's position at this camp, there isn't much information given about what life was like in the camp for the average prisoner, but this is the only book I've read on the Holocaust that gives a clear description of how the exterminations took place. I think this is a must-read piece of Holocaust literature if you're looking to learn more about how Auschwitz-Birkenau operated and the attitudes of the camp's leaders towards prisoners.

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

My Rating: ★★★★★

Full review for this coming soon. To make a very long story short, I absolutely loved this. I already know this will be one of my top 5 favorite reads from this year and if you've been thinking about reading it, I highly recommend you do so.

May Wrap Up

I finished a total of 9 books and published as many new blog posts in the month of May, all of which will be listed below.

BOOKS WRAP UP:

The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum
My Rating: ★★★★★

Wow, what can I say about this one? To start, this was a hell of a story to kick off the month with. I had seen a really great review of this and wanted to read it, then I found that it also worked for the buzzwordathon, the buzzword this round being "girl". This story has little plot but is a fantastic character study. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, because of the content. If you're bothered by things like rape, physical abuse, torture, pedophilia, or violence, I would say stay away from this, especially considering the victims and abusers are mostly children.

I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai

My Rating: ★★★★★

This was my second book for the buzzwordathon. This took me a while to get through, not because I wasn't enjoying it, but because it is about a topic I know very little about. That said, this was really easy to read as the writing is accessible and I did learn a bit about more about Pakistan's general history and the recent politics there. 

Caraval by Stephanie Garber 
My Rating: ★★★★

This may be the first audiobook I've been able to listen to without losing focus. I've seen a lot of people say they were disappointed in this, but I loved it. I didn't go into this expecting too much from it, and for that reason, it was just a really fun read for me. I loved the role color played in this, and the idea of caraval as a game. I was a bit disappointed in the ending, it felt very

Dogs Vol. 0 by Shirow Miwa

My Rating: ★★★★

This is the prequel to a manga series about a group of hitmen. This gives some backstory to the characters and shows how they all come together. I don't know if I'll continue with this series. I enjoyed this, but there are so many other books I want to read that this just isn't a priority right now. 

What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton
My Rating: ★★★★

I listened to this on audiobook and really enjoyed it and the fact that it's narrated by Hillary herself. I thought this would be more "Why didn't I win? Also, fuck Trump.", and though there were some digs at Trump here and there, this was primarily about Clinton's campaign and her feelings and experiences during the election. While this mostly focuses on the past US Presidential election, there's a decent amount of Hillary's past given, we get bits about her career as a whole and mentions of things like her emails, and Bill's affair. It felt transparent, or as transparent as a politician can be.

Gold Shadow by L.C. Perry

My Rating: ★★★★

This was my first read-for-review book, which was really exciting. I read this slowly and really paid attention to the details so I could review it fairly. While I didn't find this to be perfect (what book is??), I did enjoy it. The full review is linked here. 

Horns by Joe Hill
My Rating: ★★★★★

I may be doing a special review of this soon-ish...maybe. I absolutely loved this! I had been wanting to read this for a while, and I'm so glad I finally did. I could tell just a few chapters in that this was going to be a new favorite. I loved the concept and the main character, Ig. I also really enjoyed the pop culture references and the parallels between Ig and Satan. This is considered horror, and while it does fit the genre, it reads like more of a thriller/murder mystery type story than it necessarily does horror.

Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud by Anne Helen Petersen

My Rating: ★★★★

This is a feminist essay collection centering on celebrity women who are criticized for not fitting what society considers to be the 'ideal woman'. This was a decent collection and I think it would be a good book for people who are wanting to get into more books about feminist issues. However, for me, this didn't feature any new ideas and it had a tendency to drone on. I've read other feminist essay collections I would recommend over this one.

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
My Rating: ★★★★★

Unfortunately, I didn't love this one as much as the other plays I've read. It was alright overall, but not one that I would consider rereading. This is largely about Roman politics, which is something I'll admit I don't know much about, but it wasn't done in a way that I found terribly interesting. I was familiar enough with the basics of Caesar's story that there really wasn't anything unique to this to keep me interested, as the story is entirely about Brutus betraying Caesar resulting in his death.


POSTS WRAP UP: 

• Top 5 Wednesday REWIND: Authors You'd Want to Write Like - linked here
• KonMari Method for Book Purging - linked here
• Top 5 Wednesday REWIND: Books I Disliked, But Love to Discuss - linked here
• Review: Love, Hate, and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed - linked here
• Top 5 Wednesday REWIND: Books You've Read Because of Booktube/Bookblogs - linked here
• Books by leynes Tag! - linked here
• Top 5 Wednesday REWIND: Recent Additions to Your Wishlist - linked here
• Review: Gold Shadow by L.C Perry - linked here
• Top 5 Wednesday REWIND: TBR Benchwarmers - linked here

✿ Have you read any of these books? Comment below what you read this month or link your wrap up post if you've made one. Subscribe to BookSass for more bookish goodness and thanks for reading!

April Wrap Up

April was a pretty intense month for me. I participated in Camp NaNo with a goal of 33,000 words (which I got really close to, but ultimately failed at. No surprise there), I've been prepping for a move, one of my dogs had a health scare, and I participated in a couple readathons. Somehow in all this though, I still managed to read a total of 10 books.

WRAP UP:

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondō
My Rating: ★★★★

I listened to this on audiobook which I think was the perfect format for me to consume this. I would recommend reading a physical copy if you want to take notes though. I didn't agree with every aspect of the author's decluttering philosophy, but there was plenty of good advice in this. Reading this has left me very inspired to purge my book collection using this method, so we'll see how that goes. I will be doing a post on that soon, so when it is available, it will be linked here.

Down and Across by Arvin Ahmadi

My Rating: ★★★

Full review here. This was an okay story, but it wasn't anything special. I wanted to love this so much, so it's pretty disappointing that it wasn't what I was hoping it would be. The plot was generic, and all but the main character felt 2-dimensional. This is the author's debut novel, so maybe these issues will improve in the future, but for me, this was kind of a letdown.

Nasty Women Edited by Samhita Mukhopadhyay & Kate Harding 

My Rating: ★★★★★

This is a very powerful essay collection, which is a genre I've really been feeling lately for some reason. I loved every essay in this. There were, of course, some that stood out more than others, but every single one gave me something to think about, quotes to highlight, and some piece of wisdom to take away from it. I read this as a borrowed ebook, but I plan to get a physical copy so I can annotate this and fully review it essay by essay.

March Wrap Up

WRAP UP:

Otherworld by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller
My Rating: ★★★★

This was a really fun read. I loved the virtual world and I feel that the corrupt company aspect was fairly interesting to read about. I wish that the ending had been a bit more developed. It feels like it all ends too abruptly and it's just very anticlimactic. Also, what I think was supposed to be the last minute plot twist didn't really feel like anything too significant. A few of the other plot twists scattered throughout the book were either uninteresting or I had already predicted them. There will be a sequel though, so maybe that will improve.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

My Rating: ★★★

I had to let this one sit for a while before I could form coherent thoughts on it. I have never read a book that had me so divided. There were a few things I enjoyed and they redeemed the book for me, but mostly I couldn't stand this book. I have so many issues with this, and my thoughts are so jumbled that I think I'll have to do a review at some point because I can't express my feelings in a single paragraph. I will say that it's genuinely nice to know that so many people found this book helpful and benefitted from reading it.

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

My Rating: ★★★★

I picked this up for the spring 24hr readathon. This was...different. I liked the story overall. I felt that it was fully realized given how short the book is and the ending definitely made me cry. All this being said though, I didn't really 'get' it. I'm not sure what the point of the monster's stories was, they just didn't seem to really be relevant to what was going on in the main characters life. The whole situation with the bully also confused me, the bully's actions and the fight didn't seem to have a point.

February Wrap Up

February was a decent reading month for me overall. I read 12 books, less than last month as expected, but still a number I'm pleased with.

WRAP UP:

The Storied Life of A.J Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
My Rating: ★★★★★

I absolutely loved this. I had no idea what it was about when I started it and in the beginning, I really didn't like it (I thought it would be a DNF), but it turned out to be one of the most beautiful novels I've ever read. There are layers to the brilliance of this book and I'm sure there were things that went over my head, but I already plan to reread this to catch all of the things I missed the first time around.

Breaking All Her Rules by Maisey Yates

My Rating: ★★★

I wanted to try something new this month so I read a book from a genre that I don't typically read (romance). So because I don't have much to use as a basis of comparison, I don't know if this novella was as bad as I thought it was or if this is just what the romance genre is and it's not for me. Not that this was all bad, some parts of it were actually quite interesting, it's just that some parts were super cringey. Again though, this could be the writing or it could just be me.

January Wrap Up

January was a great reading month for me, probably the best month I'll have this whole year because there's no way I'm going to be able to read this much in one month again. I read a total of 15 books which, I think, is a pretty great way to kick off 2018.

WRAP UP:

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
My Rating: ★★★★★

My first read this month will probably be one of my favorites for the year. This was my first Shakespeare play so I was super intimidated going into it, but it was actually very easy and quick to read. It was whimsical and funny and had the best set of characters.

Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck

My Rating: ★★

So this one I actually DNF'd. It wasn't necessarily bad, it just really wasn't for me. I read about 40% of it and still couldn't see a point to the story. Maybe I'll get back to it in the future but for now, I have other things I'd rather be reading. 

Family Happiness by Leo Tolstoy
My Rating: ★★★★★

I absolutely loved this. The only other Tolstoy work I've read is the Death of Ivan Ilych and I thought it was okay, but nothing groundbreaking. This completely changed my opinion on Tolstoy. Family Happiness was frustrating and sometimes sad, but it also had moments that were really exciting. Few classics are so good that they keep me from putting them down, but this one one of them.