August Wrap Up

Back in January I started a challenge on Goodreads to read 50 books this year and I did really bad at it for the first half of the year. -_- So now I've figured out that, including August, I need to read 7 books for each of the remaining months of the year and this month I managed the task! In total I read 5 books and listened to 2 audio books. Beware of spoilers!

1. Stardust by Neil Gaiman. This was a short book but it still took me five days to finish because I wasn't really into it. Goodreads Review

 2. The Martian by Andy Weir. This was one of my two favorites for the month and probably one of my favorites of all time. So exciting and I can't wait for the movie! This was one of the audio books I listened to and hearing the log entries made it feel more realistic and I just really enjoyed that.
Goodreads Review

3. The Winners Curse by Marie Rutkoski. I did like this book but as I'm looking back on the month it wasn't really that memorable. I still plan to finish the series. Goodreads Review

4. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken. I really enjoyed this book, it was fairly exciting, I like the characters and the relationships they have. I'm a little sad to have read at the end of this book that most if not all of the main characters will not be together in the next book, at least not right away. Looking forward to finding out what happens! Goodreads Review

5. White Cat by Holly Black. This was definitely better than I thought it was going to be and it had a very interesting plot. I think some parts were too slow and some parts were too fast. I do have the second book of the series in my possession and I do plan on reading it but I don't have any sense of urgency to find out what happens next. I just hope I feel like reading it before I totally forget this first book. Goodreads Review

6. Landline by Rainbow Rowell. This was my other audio book and my other favorite of the month. Side note: is it worrying that my two favorite books of the month, which also might be making their way up to favorite of all time, are both audio books? Anyway, what a great story. What a spectacular way to include some magic and time travel into a very realistic setting. I swooned over the love story and Neil and how he and Georgie fell in love. It was beautiful and it ended exactly as I wanted it to. I really couldn't ask for anything else from it. I even learned something about pugs! Goodreads Review

7. Legend by Marie Lu. Lastly I finished Legend on 8/31. I remember thinking at a lot of parts "who didn't see THAT coming" and "yep, guessed that one." Despite that I still did really like it. I think I liked the characters more than the actual story but sadly most of the people who died are the ones I really wish had been written around a little longer. Of course then the whole story would be different but Metias seemed like a fascinating person and John has the exact kind of loyalty that I love to see. Will be finishing the series for sure. Goodreads Review

One book that I started in August that I did not finish was The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I have heard way too many good things about this and yes the writing is beautiful but still I was not drawn in. I may try to finish it for September. Also I started listening to Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard but did not get very far and I listened to more of that one today and it is very good so far.

That's all for my August wrap up! I have to go so that I can get started on my next 7 books. See you next time- Amber

July/August Book Haul

Hello, here are some books I've picked up in late July/Early August!

1. Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

I've heard good things about this but the cover doesn't intrigue me and it's also one of those very tiny paperbacks with very tiny print. I may actually just buy the much more beautiful UK editions.

2. The Winners Curse by Marie Rutkoski

I'm actually on page 325 of this one. So far it's pretty good but I can't say it's drawn me in so much that I can't put it down, I just want to finish it soon. It started out really cool with the main character being good enough to beat everyone she knows at cards and other games but it didn't really follow a story line like that which would have been awesome. Still pretty good, will continue on with the series.

3. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

This is probably much more a teen book than I tend to be reading lately as I think it's high school students dealing with the suicide of a friend. I find myself not relating to high school students/settings anymore which is probably a good thing.

4. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

I've started this book recently as well and it is really good so far. The only thing I don't like is that sometimes I've been a tiny bit confused about what exactly was happening at the moment and had to reread a couple of things however later on more was explained about the situation. Can't wait to continue with this one.

5 and 6. Shatter Me and Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

 

I don't know much about these as I'm trying not have things spoiled but apparently the touch of the main character wreaks havoc. Interesting concept.

7 and 8. White Cat and Red Glove by Holly Black

I'm worried these might also be for more of a younger audience but the synopsis sounded cool and the main character has dreams about white cat and that intrigues me haha.

9. Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins

While this isn't exactly a trilogy with the same characters in each book, it does have 2 similar books that were written before this one so I'll probably get those and read them in order anyway.

10. The Prodigy by Marie Lu

This is the second the Legend trilogy and I do own the first one, I just haven't read it yet. It is currently on my August TBR. Again, I don't really know what these are about.

11. The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness

This is the second book in the Chaos Walking trilogy. I thoroughly enjoyed the first one of the series although it took me a while to really get into it, it ended up being really good. Some really beautiful writing, and it left off on a huge cliffhanger. This book is also on my August TBR because I need to know what happens!

12. The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson

This is the second book in the Shades of London series, can't remember if its a trilogy or a quartette. I will say the first book was kind of just okay, I think I gave it a 3/5 stars on Goodreads, BUT I do want to find out what happens with the story so that right there tells me it wasn't awful enough for me to not care about the rest of the series. This is about a girl who goes to boarding school in London and then a series of murders that mimic Jack the Ripper start happening and then it goes off on a ghost trip.

13. Atlantia by Ally Condie

 I once tried to read her Matched series but couldn't get into it. This is something totally different about an underwater world that could be very cool. Another one that I'm hoping doesn't aim at a way younger audience.

14. The Martian by Andy Weir

Not pictured because I had the audiobook. This was an amazing read, you can see my review in the goodreads link above.

Those are all the books I've obtained recently, I really enjoy seeing book videos on YouTube, a community they have named 'BookTube' and they have a lot of fun tags and reviews and hauls and such which is exciting for someone who loves reading and wants to see what others think.

-Ambear