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!

Top 5 Wednesday REWIND: TBR Benchwarmers

Top 5 Wednesday (T5W) is a weekly meme created by Lainey (gingerreadslainey) and hosted by Sam (ThoughtsOnTomes). Learn more by checking out the Goodreads group here.

Today I chose the topic "TBR Benchwarmers". These are books that have been on your TBR way too long.

BOOKS:

The Wrath & the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh

I really have no excuse for this one. It's been sitting on my since 2015 and I still have not read it. I've heard amazing things about this, and continue to hear about it even though the hype has died down a bit, but for some reason, I just haven't picked this up yet. It even sounds like exactly the kind of thing I would enjoy. I do plan to read this sometime this year as part of my new TBR rule which I briefly mention in this post. Maybe I'll get to it this summer? It seems like it might be a good summer read. 

Review: Gold Shadow by L.C Perry

•Disclaimer: This book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review•

Title: Gold Shadow (Bronze Rebellion #1)
Author: L.C Perry
Publication Date: December 2, 2017
Format: Mobi File
Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Page

Synopsis:

In the North American continent, eighteen year old Ebony has been living as a slave for as long as she can remember. The underground cities, the tattoo, the scars and the shackles are a part of the only world she has ever known. She knows that in order to survive, she will have to stay strong. And she will stay strong, cursing those in power, until her very last breath. She waits for a meaningful way to die as she quietly pushes her body to its limit…but that all changes when rebels from the surface drop down right in front of her. 

Now, Ebony is challenged to envision a life beyond slavery as she and the other escapees are thrown into the center of a rebellion against the monarchy. She has to embrace this glimmer towards a real life…this glimmer called freedom. But what can she contribute to a rebellion that is doomed to fail like those before it? How can they stop a corrupt monarchy that has lasted for a century? Among the lower class, those with hope are hard to come by, but Ebony has found refuge with people full of it. And through their strong desire, an idea emerges…one that has never been done before. The princess of the country is coming of age and what better way to send a message to the king and queen than to kidnap their only daughter?

⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫⧫

Top 5 Wednesday REWIND: Recent Additions to Your Wishlist

Top 5 Wednesday (T5W) is a weekly meme created by Lainey (gingerreadslainey) and hosted by Sam (ThoughtsOnTomes). Learn more by checking out the Goodreads group here.

Today for Top 5 Wednesday I chose the topic 'Recent Additions to Your Wishlist'. I thought this seemed like a really fun topic, and might give you some insight into the kinds of books I like to read, but that I might not always find an opportunity to talk about here.


BOOKS: 

The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

I've mentioned The Picture of Dorian Gray a few times before. It is one of my absolute favorite books, but I haven't gotten to read any of Oscar Wilde's other work, so this collection is a must for me. Wilde's work encompasses plays, essays, letter, and poems in addition to his stories, and this is the complete collection of that. 

TAG: Books by Leynes Tag!

This is a tag that has been floating around parts of booktube recently. It was created by Adrian from Stripped Cover Lit (channel linked here) about Hélène from books by leynes (channel linked here). This tag looked really fun, and I love both of their channels, so here we go.

Questions:

Question #1 - That Stupid Accent: What is your favorite piece of literature by an author foreign from your country?

Answer:

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

I absolutely adore this book. I think for this tag question, it is especially worth mentioning that Nabokov originally wrote Lolita in English, despite the fact that Russian was his native language. I can't even imagine learning that level of fluency in a second language.