A Day in Bookland

Another month done and dusted and I just wanna cry because I can’t believe April is upon us already. Remember last month when I read so much even though I was also studying for finals? Well, I’ve come to the conclusion that I read more under pressure because I didn’t have much to do this month and my reading wasn’t as much as previous months. Still, I’m very, very happy with it: 5 books and a play. Also, I had a bit of a bookhangover thanks to one particular remarkable book called All the Light We Cannot See but let’s start from the beginning, shall we? 1. Oedipus Rex  by Sophocles 2. Nightfall Gardens  by Allen Houston 3. The Girl on the Train  by Paula Hawkins 4. All the Light We Cannot See  by Anthony Doerr 5. The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm 6. Zodiac  by Romina Russell

The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm; edited by Noel Daniel { Goodreads } Published by Taschen in 2011 Hardcover edition; 320 pages { BookDepository } "A compilation of Brothers Grimm fairy tales complete with vintage illustrations.  In honor of their 200th anniversary,  The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm  brings to life twenty-seven of the most beloved Grimm stories, including classics such as  Cinderella ,  Snow White ,  Sleeping Beauty , and Hansel and Gretel , in a vibrant and meticulous new translation commissioned for this publication.  Containing a selection of charming vintage illustrations from the 1820s to the 1950s by true masters of pictorial invention—the legendary Kay Nielsen, bestselling children's books author Gustaf Tenggren, British artists Walter Crane and Arthur Rackham, and giants of nineteenth century German illustration Gustav Süs, Heinrich Leutemann, and Viktor Paul Mohn, as well as many new discoveries—this c

TOP TEN TUESDAY   is a weekly book meme hosted by   The Broke and The Bookish . I know this is supposed to be a Top Ten Tuesday but I only have 7 books to talk about today. All of them are books I read during my childhood and some would say my early teen years (11-12) that I would love to re-read again for whatever reasons.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr { Goodreads } Published by Scribner in 2014 Hardcover edition; 531 pages { BookDepository } "Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When Marie-Laure is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris, and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.  In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then

TOP TEN TUESDAY   is a weekly book meme hosted by   The Broke and The Bookish . Picking my top ten books on my spring TBR pile has proved to be a hard task. I wanna read ALL the books; if only time-turners were a thing. Where is McGonagall when needed? Anyways, Spring is my most hated season. People will find this outrageous but I suffer from hay fever and Spring can be a pain in the ass – I’m looking at you pollen, flowers and whatnot.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins { Goodreads } Published by Riverhead Books in 2015 Paperback edition; 323 pages { BookDepository } " Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She's even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.  And then she sees something shocking. It's only a minute until the train moves on, but it's enough. Now everything's changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?"

I’ve gone cray-cray these past couple of weeks. But you see, I’ve had a lot of free time and while wandering Madrid to buy birthday gifts I also did stop by some bookstores. One of those is La Casa Del Libro (a.k.a The Book House) in Callao (Madrid) which has updated the English book section and is like being in paradise. The other one is called Pasajes and they are specialized in foreign literature (English, German, Italian, French… you name it). And so of course I did some damage and by that I mean I gave them my money and I don’t regret it one bit.

Nightfall Gardens  by Allen Houston { Goodreads } Published by Flycatcher Books in 2013 Kindle edition; 249 pages { BookDepository } "Vain Lily Blackwood and her shy brother Silas wonder if their family will ever settle in one place long enough to lead a normal life. When a mysterious stranger arrives claiming to be their uncle, they discover their parents have been hiding a secret that turns their world upside down.  The two are kidnapped to Nightfall Gardens, the family’s ancestral home, a place shrouded in ancient mystery, where they meet their dying grandmother and learn of an age-old curse placed on Blackwood females.  Lily must take over as protector of the house and three haunted gardens that hold mythical beasts, fairy-tale nightmares and far worse. If she doesn’t, the evil trapped there will be unleashed and bring on a new dark age.  While she deals with malevolent ghosts inside the house, Silas is put to work in the gardens, where one wrong step means death.  A

It’s funny how now that I’m completely free to read and do other stuff I’m doing nothing. I said in my February Wrap Up that I didn’t know how I managed to read so many books while studying for my finals but I’m starting to think I work better under pressure, even though I can’t stand working under pressure. I find time to do more things when I don’t have a second to spare and it makes me mad.