A Day in Bookland

Of all 83 books I read this year, only 7 made it into my favourite pile. I have reviews for all of them - unfortunately not in the blog but on my instagram page - so if you want to know my thoughts you can either go there and scroll a bit or you can ask me on the comments about them. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn. Lanny by Max Porter. Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki. The Prince and the Dreassmaker by Jen Wang. It's Not About the Burqa edited by Mariam Khan. The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui. These are in no particular order with the exception of Girl, Woman, Other which takes the number one place without a doubt and if I have to push you to read any of these if my life depended on it, that would be it. It's an absolute delight of a novel and one I am planning on reading very soon in the new year. It's quite interesting to see here so many graphic novels - believe me, ...

And just like that November is over. I truly cannot believe it as if feels like it started yesterday. And the decade is coming to an end. Anyways, we are here for the books so all in all this month I've been a bit slumpy and unmotivated to read - the winter blues have been too real for me this time. - Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo . I have a full review of this one but I enjoyed it a lot. Cannot wait for the sequel. - She Said by Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey . I admire the work and effort they put into breaking this story but I didn't get along with the writing style. - Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend . This was a reread for me because I wanted to read the second book in the series and I wanted to go into it with a fresh memory of what happened in the first book. It was as wonderful as the first time I read it.  - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K.Rowling . What can I say? I love this series but rereading it this time to compare it with the mo...

I saw this over at Mercedes from MercysBookishMusings and since I haven't done a tag in a while I thought.... why not? 1. Are there any books you started this year that you need to finish? The ones I'm currently reading: The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb & Wundersmith by Jessica Townsend. The latter I'm almost done with (finished it last night) but the former I should have started a lot sooner, right after I finished Ship of Magic . My plan was to read the whole trilogy before the end of the year but it's definitely not happening. It's taking me a long time to get through The Mad Ship (I'm barely half-way through) and the next one is as big. 2. Do you have an autumnal book to transition into the end of the year? A few years ago I used to read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone every single December and that would set the mood for Christmas for me but this year I have reread the whole series (finished the last one this month actually)...

After seeing a bunch of negative reviews and a lot of people dnfing this I was scared. But it also helped me to lower my expectations and just go into it with an open mind. And what can I say? I truly enjoyed this. I won't deny that it took me awhile to get into the story, the beginning can be confusing due to two elements: one, the story isn't told in a lineal way and two, there is a lot of information thrown at you from the start. These two elements, on their own, aren't confusing per se but put together? they could be. You have to pay attention and stay focused while reading, otherwise a lot of it will go over your head. Most people I know who dnfed it, did it before the 100 pages mark and I can see why. Not everybody is gonna enjoy that. In my case, I was intrigued from the start and all the information that Bardugo lays out, despite feeling a bit info-dumpy sometimes, was related to magic and the secret societies in Yale and I was like, yes please give me more. I...

I have mixed feeling about this. I love the setting but the pacing was off for me. It took too long for the story to set off and once you think it does, it goes to its slow-pacing again; for me it lost its momentum and I found myself not interested midway through. Thankfully it picked up again and I was in for a ride. What I loved the most was the setting and the gothic atmosphere Waters created. The entire story is written in a very subtle way, even the answers given - blink and you miss it kinda way. It's such a pity that although I cared for the characters, I also didn't fully connect with them. Meaning that I felt sorry for them but at the same time... I didn't? It's a weird thing to explain. I did feel sorry for Gyp though... However, the issues Waters discussed and how she did it was spot on. I loved the commentary on class and its decadency in post-war England, but also the frustration of those who try to raise above their status because despite bein...

Here are all of the books I read in October. - I continued with my reread of Harry Potter and got through the Prisoner of Azkaban to the Half-Blood Prince. I am enjoying this reread immensely but I am struggling with the movies, especially since the fifth one. I'm currently taking notes on the sixth one and dear goodness, I wanna punch someone. My posts about the comparison between the movies and books are on my instagram if you wanna have a look. - El clamor de los bosques  (The Overstory) by Richard Powers. I did a full review on this one if any of you are interested in it you can read it HERE (8.5/10). - Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin. It was a fun read but it didn't have enough world building for a fantasy book. In fact, it didn't feel like a fantasy until the end because this read more like a romantic historial fiction so keep that in mind. It does have some magic but not enough in my opinion. Apparently the sequel will expand the world (6.5/10...

The Overstory is divided in four parts. The first one introduces us, individually, to the entire cast of characters. In the consecutive parts of the novel their stories unravel and at the same time come together. This is not an easy read. It was quite tedious and repetitive at times in my opinion but the beautiful language (and here I have to shout out the impressive Spanish translation by Teresa Lanero) and the story that Powell wanted to tell made me turn the pages. I will be honest and say that I asked for the Spanish translation for my birthday because I felt very intimidated by the original text and I’m glad I did because I would’ve probably dnfed this if I had read it in English. The Overstory is a thoughtful novel and it demands from its reader. It is a novel to reflect on our reality. The trees do not need saving (“As if forests were waiting all these four hundred million years for us newcomers to come cure them.”) Nature knows best; she adapts and regenerates...

Say hello to my new favourite classic. How Green Was My Valley tells us the story of the Morgans, through the point of view of Huw, one of the children of the family. Set in a mining community in rural South Wales, the author addresses quite a lot of issues. The most important is the fight of the miners to get a better life, the creation of Unions to try and fight the masters who took advantage of the workers because they either worked for less than minimum wage or they starved. The fight between progress and nature and how the relationship between them is shifting and how humans have forgotten to respect her. Religion also plays a big part in the lives of these miners and their families but there is a lot of criticism as well personified in the character of Mr. Gruffydd, a preacher himself. Llewellyn also addresses the problems a small village has when it comes to gossip and how reputations can be destroyed in a blink of an eye. He exposes the misogyny of the time and how women...