Book Tag

Top 5 Tuesday – Books Beginning With K -L – M – N – O

Hello lovelies!

I’m back for a TOP 5 TUESDAY hosted by Shannah @Bionic Bookworm Blog (go check out her blog; it’s amazing!). So this month we’re doing letters instead of topics and I really like the idea so thank you, Shannah! The letters this week are pretty hard but I’m very happy with the books featured 🙂

 

Letter K-

60931.jpgKindred by Octavia E.Butler

I have not read this book but the synopsis on Goodreads seems promising and it has quite a good rating of 4.23/ 5 stars. Amazon sells it as “One of the most significant literary artists of the twentieth century. One cannot exaggerate the impact she has had (Junot Diaz) ” and it’s actually a #1 New York Times bestselling novel!

Synopsis: The first science fiction written by a black woman, Kindred has become a cornerstone of black American literature. This combination of slave memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction is a novel of rich literary complexity. Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given: to protect this young slaveholder until he can father her own great-grandmother. (Goodreads)

Letter L-

81q2N5pxuMLLord of the Flies by William Golding

This is one of the books that shaped my childhood. We read it in Middle School when I was 12 and I did not get all the depths and layers of this book. It was a long and tedious read but I liked the characters because they were my age. I later found out how ironic and telling this book was. It shows how violence and animality touch everyone and especially those who we don’t expect: English schoolboys: the symbols of western civilization. It raises the question of culture, norms and society as a whole. A Must-Read!

 

Letter M-

 

15507958Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

I read this book in one sitting. I used to adore it. I read it when it was brought to the screen by director Thea Sharrock with the wonderful Sam Claflin and Emilia Clarke. It was gripping, sweet and painful. It made me want to go outside and live life to the fullest…UNTIL I read many eye-opening articles about how hurtful and painful that ending was. It’s such a shame how the author dealt with that ending and took that direction. At the time I liked the discussion about euthanasia and I still think it’s important, but the message that the book sent through its ending is quite problematic.

Letter N-


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Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice is my favourite classic ever and I plan on reading all of Jane Austen’s writings: letters, novels, poetry…I decided to give Northanger Abbey a go, especially since it’s her first novel. I have to say that I was quite disappointed by it and did not like the story as much as I expected. However, I like how ironic this book is and how it’s a parody of gothic novels. The plot could basically be described as “Expectations vs. Reality”. I guess I like the expectations a bit too much.

 

Letter O-

lux1Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout 

Obsidian is my first book involving aliens ever, and boy am I happy about it. The whole series is just amazing, the main character Kat is a bookworm and Daemon is one of the best book boyfriends out there! I have yet to read the last book in the series but I’m planning on reading it before the end of the year.

 

 

What do you think about my picks? And what are yours? If you did the tag, feel free to leave the link to your post in the comments so I can go check it out!

Thank you for stopping by!

Karla xx

 

Book Tag

Thank you, Next – Book Tag

Hello lovelies!

I’ve seen the Thank You, Next Tag on Jenna’s @ Bookmark Your Thoughts blog. The tag was originally created by thisstoryaintover, and it is inspired by Ariana Grande’s song “thank u, next”. Each of the prompts are inspired by the lyrics. If you haven’t heard the song you can still do the tag! (But the song is very good so you might want to check it out).

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Uncategorized

My Favourite Book Quotes!

Hello everyone!

I love books, especially if they’re well-written. They are also punctuated by beautiful quotes sometimes so I thought I’d share some of my favourite quotes.

Book-related quotes:

“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.”
-John Green, The Fault in Our Stars 

“I think it’s bullshit that the only meaningful stories are the ones that are deep and pondering and boring, saying all this nonsense without ever saying anything, and you’re supposed to, like, read meaning into the yellow wallpaper or something.” She rolls her eyes. “You know what I think? I think sometimes the stories we need are the ones about taking the hobbits to Isengard and dog-human dudes with space heelies and trashy King Arthurs and gay ice-skating animes and Zuko redemption arcs and space princesses with found families and galaxies far, far away. We need those stories, too. Stories that tell us that we can be bold and brash and make mistakes and still come out better on the other side. Those are the kinds of stories I want to see, and read, and tell. ‘Look to the stars. Aim. Ignite’—that means something to me, you know?”  – Ashley Poston, The Princess and The Fangirl 

“Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Love-related quotes:

“If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.” – Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

“Many boys will bring you flowers. But someday you’ll meet a boy who will learn your favorite flower, your favorite song, your favorite sweet. And even if he is too poor to give you any of them, it won’t matter because he will have taken the time to know you as no one else does. Only that boy earns your heart.”  – Leigh Bardugo, Six Of Crows

“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same” – Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

“And that’s when I understand that I have been stained. Whether I’m still in love with him, whether he was ever in love with me, and no matter who he’s in love with now, Willem changed my life. He showed me how to get lost, and then I showed myself how to get found.”  – Gayle Forman, Just One Day 

“Being vulnerable, letting people in, getting hurt… it’s all part of being in love.”
Jenny Han, Always and Forever, Lara Jean

“Happily ever after, or even just together ever after, is not cheesy,” Wren said. “It’s the noblest, like, the most courageous thing two people can shoot for.”
Rainbow Rowell, Fangirl

Inspirational quotes:

“You have to try. You have to take your chances. Go and attempt and see what happens. And even if you fail – especially if you fail – come back with your experience and your hard-won knowledge and a story you can tell. And then later you can say, without regret or hesitation… ‘Once, I dared to dare greatly”  – Morgan Matson, The Unexpected Everything

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Reading Year

My 2016 Reading Year in Review

Happy New Year 2017!! Yay we survived 2016, I am grateful for all the things I got to experience, the people I got to meet and the wonderful books I got to read! But here’s to all the beautiful books I will read in 2017! I plan to read 50 books this year and hopefully I’ll succeed. In 2016, I’ve read much more books than I did in 2015 and I’m really happy about it! So I guess 2016 wasn’t completely bad!


READING STATS:

Read: 49 books – 16,200 pages

Shortest Book: Oedipe-Roi by Sophocle – 80 pages

Longest Book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K Rowling

Average Length: 345 pages

My Average Rating for 2016: 4,1/5 stars


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Book Review

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes: Spoiler-free book review

I first came accross this gem, on instagram as I follow Sam Claflin and Emila Clarke’s accounts. They star in the book to movie adaptation which came out June 3rd, 2016. Consequently the book became really popular among the book universe. So I decided it was time to pick it up! I knew nothing about the stoy; I had not seen the movie trailer as I did not want to spoil myself.

15507958 Synopsis: Lou Clark knows lots of things. What Lou doesn’t know is she’s about to lose her job or that knowing what’s coming is what keeps her sane.Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he’s going to put a stop to that.What Will doesn’t know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they’re going to change the other for all time. (Goodreads)

Originally published: December 31st 2012 by Pamela Dorman Books/Viking

Read: from June 17 to 19, 2016

My review: 5/5 stars

Hey Clark’, he said.’Tell me something good’. I stared out of the window at the bright-blue Swiss sky and I told him a story of two people. Two people who shouldn’t have met, and who didn’t like each other much when they did, but who found they were the only two people in the world who could possibly have understood each other.

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