Challenge: 50 Books discussion

I'm aiming for 50 this year!!
Let's do it!!

These are the books I've read since January so far:

#1
The War of the Worlds by H.G Wells

Rating: 1 star


Review:

Disappointment.
It's the right word for my feelings about this book.

This is a short book only 200 pages, and I was unable to keep up with it.

The story didn't grab me as I thought it would.
Hey!
it's about the Martians invading the earth, what's not to like?!...more

#2
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

Rating: 4 stars


Review: .......

I'm not really that big fan of the fantasy genre. Actually sometimes i find it boring or just not appealing to me at all. For some reason i added this book to my to read list and then decided to give it a try.

I must admit I was starting to consider to delete it from my to read list because i didn't feel the interest to read it, I was all like "Why did i added it???.... really!?" but i already requested it from the library and it was waiting for me to pick it up, so i said "Oh, What the hell, let's see what it's got"...more

#3
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Rating: 4 stars


Review:

I'm not sure how i feel about this book...

I don't even know how to review it... So, I'll just start with something easy...

Why did i rate it 4 stars???...more

#4
The Child Thief by Brom

Rating: 3 stars


Review:

This book probably deserves more than three stars.

first off, it was a full story of a re-mastered Peter Pan, and it's really complete. It tells you all the details from the past, not just of Peter and the characters but also of the whole world. It explains you how it all started, so you get a better idea of everything and feel the whole experience more real and believable.

This is what i like more about this book. With other stories you just don't know it, and the writer just wants you to assume that's the way it is and accept it, without any justification, without asking questions.

The world building was amazing, really! but as it was very well-constructed, it made the story a bit slow for my taste...more

#5
Lord of the Silver Bow by David Gemmell

Rating: 5 stars!


Review:

WOW!!

I love this book!!!!!!

I love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love this book!!

I love this book, I love this book, I love this book, I love this book!!

Can I say it again?

I LOVE THIS BOOK!!

If the above wasn’t clear enough I want to say that I love this book!! This is like the best book I’ve ever read, it’s just so Amazing!. It’s my favorite book of the year, probably my favorite book of all time!...more

hehehehe... I love your little ratings helpers :)

Thank you, Tiffany :)

Will think about reading this book. So you really recommend it? (Don't think you put love in this review) LOL :)

Mekerei wrote: "Will think about reading this book. So you really recommend it? (Don't think you put love in this review) LOL :)"

It's really good! (now i put Chuck Norris to prove it lol)

If you like historical fiction and heroic fantasy, i think you might like it! ;)

#6
Skeleton key by Anthony Horowitz

Rating: 2 stars


Review:

This is the third book in the Alex Rider series.

These Alex Rider books are spies books, basically Alex Rider, a 14 year old, is involved in missions, and has to play his part as spy there, even when he doesn't want to, when he just wants to be a normal kid, doing what normal kids should be doing.

It's really interesting to see how he gets involved in all of that, because he lives in London and the MI6 sometimes finds missions in which Alex fits perfectly. Some agents hesitate because he is too young and because he may get hurt, but in the end, they always send him to those operations and he always ends up facing such troubles.

I think the way Anthony Horowitz works with this idea is pretty believable, he justifies the use of Alex in those operations, otherwise i think the story would feel just plain stupid, but actually is good. These books are entertaining...more

I love your reviews and graphics! If Neil and Chuck approve, how can I not add it to the library list?

Thanks so much, Faye, that's so sweet!
and yeah, i really loved that book! :)

#7
The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

Rating: 4 stars


Review

This second book in The Maze Runner trilogy was really entertaining, fast paced and interesting. It still left you with many questions, but i believe that's part of the fun for book three, SO I'm excited to read it!!

*WARNING:*

Major Spoilers ahead of book one The Maze Runner... more

#8
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

Rating: 1 star


Review:

This book may be entertaining for someone who likes gossip so much, because here you can get to know all the juicy events that happened in the youth and life of four women who were best friends and thought they were absolutely amazing and called themselves the Ya-Yas.

So, this story starts when a Petite Ya-Ya, that's how the Ya-Yas called their daughters, (not so petite anymore) let escape in an interview with the New York Times that her mother, the awesome Vivi, used to hit her. Vivi becomes so mad at her, because this piece of dirty laundry has affected her reputation so much, and stops talking to her. Now her daughter is working at the theater and for some reason (i don't really remember) she asks her mother to help the theater, not her, with a book with many pictures and anecdotes and stuff from the past of her mother and the Ya-Yas, which her mother guards jealously. So her mother accepts, and with this book called the divine secrets, let's her enter in the past and adventures she had with the Ya-Yas since they were 8 years old... more

#9
Shield of Thunder by David Gemmell

Rating: 5 stars
need I say more?

Review:

Oh God!

What is it David Gemmell does to make such an epic story with amazing characters and breathtaking scenes!

This is the second book of the Troy trilogy and was outstanding just like the first one. But, in my opinion, i have to say that i like far more the first book Lord of the Silver Bow than this one. Shield of Thunder felt, in some parts, a bit slow in contrast with the first one where everything was fast paced and epic with every page you turn. I felt this book had so much of telling of the battles that were taking place and sometimes felt like it wasn't exciting enough that way, but immediately it contained other stories and plot happening that was making up for those parts, so it still, for me, deserves 5 stars... more

#10
Lord Loss by Darren Shan

Rating: 5 stars


Review:

When i started reading this book, it looked like one book i wouldn't enjoy. There was this spoiled kid Grubbs who was always bothering his sister Gret, and was trying to be a rebel smoking against his parents concerns. I was like "Hell, I'm not interested in reading the adventures of a teenager who believes he's cool because he's a rebel". So i started reading it really slowly without much interest.

Then something happened... I won't say what it is to avoid spoiling anything... and i felt it was the most ridiculous thing I've ever read in a book, ridiculous and unrealistic. I had to keep reminding myself constantly that it was fiction with supernatural things happening so it was supposed to be unrealistic. I started wondering if this was a genre that could work for me... It didn't seem like it... more

#11
Fall of Kings by David Gemmell

Rating: 5 stars


Review:

And this is it... The end of this EPIC Troy trilogy.

Oh God, I'm sad. I didn't want this to end. When i finished it, i just closed the book and stared at the ceiling for several hours,... ok no, I'm kidding,... for several minutes and couldn't help but start thinking about life and death and war and human kind, and i just felt so sad. Sometimes people are so greedy and ambitious, and want to get everything and don't care how. It doesn't matter if, to get whatever they want, they'll end up leaving a path of destruction, misery, ruins, loss, pain, death behind... more

#12
Remember Everything You Read by Stanley D. Frank

Rating: 3 stars


Review:

This is a book that helps you, most of all, with studying techniques.

I initially picked it up with the idea that it would contain some drills to help me increase my reading speed. It does have some explanations of techniques that help you to speed up your reading rate but it wasn't exactly what i had in mind. It didn't contain anything, about that matter, that i didn't know before... more

#13
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Rating: 4 stars


Review:

I saw a list of some classic books that someone created saying which books everyone must read before dying. And i was am a bit ashamed to realize that i actually haven't read most of them. This is partly because these books are usually required to read when you are in high school in the US, and since i didn't study in the US, well... Anyway i think it's never too late to start reading these books, so I decided to start with the book that is probably the most famous and most read out there, To Kill a Mockingbird... more

#14
Panic Attacks: A Natural Approach by Shirley Trickett

Rating: 3 stars


Review:

I wanted to learn more about anxiety problems, and what are some things people can do to prevent anxiety from taking over their lives.

This was a very interesting read that explains you how any person might suffer a panic attack. Some people have the idea that only someone who is always under so much anxiety can be a victim of this, but that's not true. It is true, however, that someone who lives with so much stress and tension in their life may experience these episodes more easily than someone who's not, but absolutely everyone can experience this at some given moment... more

#15
Bossypants by Tina Fey

Rating: 3 stars

#16
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Rating: 2 stars


Review:

Oh God, what a great disappointment...

After reading so many reviews of how awesome this book is, i couldn't help but feel an urgency to go read it as soon as possible... This is what high expectations do, i guess.

This book started with a great premise, you had a ghost, Anna, who was murdering and dismembering everybody who entered to her house. And you had this kid, Cas, who was a ghost killer as his father once was. You start imagining what a bloody story you may have here, and it doesn't disappoint... in the beginning... more

#17
If I stay by Gayle Forman

Rating: 4 stars


Review:

This is a sad book, a heart breaking story that will make you think of many in things in your life. This is the story of Mia, a girl in a coma.

This story started when Mia, a seventeen year old girl, was going happily with her parents and her little brother in a car and in a second everything changes. It was only needed a second and a truck losing control at 60 mph. All the life, as she knew it, won't ever be the same. Her parents died instantly and she doesn't even know what happens, it was so fast, she goes to look for her brother, and finds her own body instead... more

#18
Free Four: Tobias Tells the Story by Veronica Roth

Rating: 5 stars



Review:

This is a nice addition to the Divergent series, because now you can see Four POV in that scene in Divergent where they are at training throwing knives.

When reading Divergent, in this scene you may not understand why Four did certain things. So here you can have those answers... more

#19
Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

Rating: 3 stars


Review:

This is the first book i read about zombies and some aspects of it were really cool but i wasn't fascinated with most of it as i thought maybe i would.

I have this weird behavior of getting excited with a book if i see it is part of a series, I don't know why, it just happens and i get way more excited when i see there are a lot of books in that series. I'm all like "OMG 12 books published for that series and there's one with expected publication this year!!!!!!! I totally want to read this series!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". Even though i know I'm probably not ever gonna finish it, maybe i won't even like it, but there i am all excited about those many books in that series... What's wrong with me?? I'm just so weird... more

#20
The Stranger by Albert Camus

Rating: 3 stars


Review:

This is the story of a man who is stranger to emotions.

This book starts when the main protagonist is told his mother died and he acts with no emotions at all, he doesn't feel anything. When he asks to his boss to give him a day off to go to the funeral he apologizes saying it wasn't his fault, and he immediately feels like he shouldn't have said that. He for some reason cannot comprehend why some people feel like that at his mother's funeral, and why they go to him and tell him things like they know how he must be feeling and so on.... more

#21
The Death Cure by James Dashner

Rating: 5 stars


Review:

This final book of the trilogy had plenty of action, suspense and drama. It is such a page turner, i didn't want to stop reading!

This is definitely the book i enjoyed most in the whole trilogy. I'm a little hesitant of giving this 5 stars because there were some things a bit upsetting that went on during all of the series and in here continued, but some scenes left me a bit shocked and I'm still thinking about that. Also a revelation at the end that i never thought about, for me, was just so cruel?... more

#22
Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Rating: 1 star


Review:

I don't know what happened... I was so bored reading this... more

#23
Madapple by Christina Meldrum

Rating: 3 stars


Review:

This book tells the story of a girl, Aslaug, and at the same time you have a trial regarding her. So you can see both ends, how the trial is going, what the counsels and witnesses have to say, and also the real story of what happened told from Aslaug’s point of view.

Aslaug’s birth was a mystery to her mother, Maren. She claimed she was a virgin and got pregnant, so it was some kind of a miracle thing. She believed something special was going to come out of this, maybe a new Jesus or something, but then it turned out the baby was female so now she wasn’t so sure, but it still remain a mystery.... more

#24
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

Rating: 5 stars


Review:

I loved it. Simply Amazing!!.... more

#25
1984 by George Orwell

Rating: 4 stars


Review:

I really need to re-read this book one day, as I'm sure I missed many things due to my short attention span...

This is a wonderful book. I struggled a lot to get into it, for some reason i wasn't feeling drawn to read it, so i had to switch for an audio version. What a wonderful audio!! the narrator really did a great job making this story come into life and that was what helped me get through it.... more

#26
The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice

Rating: 3 stars


Review:

Oh Lestat de Lioncourt, how can you be this rebel,
how dare you create such trouble while not giving a single thought on your actions.

This is the second book on The Vampire Chronicles, and it is the time for Lestat to tell his story. It starts in the year 1984 if my mind is not playing tricks on me,

(wow, i just realized that i was reading this book at the same time with the book 1984. Isn't that weird? book set in 1984 while i was reading 1984... no?... but... are you sure?... not even a little?... well i... whatever, i think it's interesting :P)

and Lestat has become a rockstar in a band called precisely "The Vampire Lestat". This idea of a vampire becoming a rockstar seems a bit ridiculous to me at the beginning because during all the time in Interview with the Vampire they were saying Lestat was very handsome and crazy, so to define him later as an actual rockstar seemed a bit of a tool to trick people into thinking he's way cooler than he actually is, it didn't seem like a good idea to me.... more

#27
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

Rating: 3 stars


Review:

The title "The Phantom if the Opera" always sounded to me like a very delicious and interesting piece and it always got my attention. I always thought "man, i want to read that" but then thought of the huge list of classics i want to read and that made me hold myself back and not add it to my TBR pile.

I didn't realize how bad i wanted to read it until i came across a free audio version of this book and couldn't resist the temptation, i knew i had to get it and i began to listen immediately. I really wanted to be able to say "I've read The Phantom of the Opera". It sounds really nice.

It's a really cool story. Some guys buy the opera and they are told not to mess with the "ghost" that dwells there in box 5, but they don't care and start doing many things. Weird things start to happen. The main singer of the opera loses her voice, so they had to hire another one, Christine... more

#28
Los Hijos de la Luz by Cesar Vidal

Rating: 3 stars


Review:

My husband and I tend to recommend books among us in a way that if I want him to read a book I have to read another book he tells me to. This time the book was ”Los Hijos de la Luz” (The Children of the Light) who might as well be "The Illuminati" by Cesar Vidal.

... more

#29
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Rating: 1 star


Review:

Boooring...

What I'm about to say, some people might consider it a spoiler, but i think it really is not because you know about this from the very beginning, but anyway... Some people say this book is better enjoyed if you don't know anything about it before reading it, but in my case, i didn't know anything about it and it still was so boring... so for all of you fellow people who don't want to know anything about this book so it can be a surprise when you get around to it, I'm throwing a:

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

This book touches a subject that I think everyone's thought about at least once, and it can be a bit depressing and sad if you think about it. It's about... more

#30
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

Rating: 4 stars


Review:

Amazing, fantastic, LOVED IT!!

I don't remember exactly why i decided to pick this book up, but I'm so glad I did. I never thought this would be something I would enjoy as much as I did. It was a very pleasant surprise!

This is a Mystery-Thriller book. I've had some very huge disappointments with books of this genre because regularly they tend to contain a lot of clichés and are sometimes so obvious. This one did contain some clichés, though, but they didn't bother me because the execution was superb and the story kept me entertained very well from the beginning to...well, the last 1/5 of the book... more

#31
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Rating: 1 star

Review:

*Sigh* Well, I really was expecting to love this one...

This is about a person being held captive by the German Nazis because they are sure she is an English Spy, so they are trying to get all information they can get about her by making her write down everything she knows and everything she's helped with the allies.

What's not to like about that!! I like to read so much about that period in history when WW2 was on, I've always thought it is so damn interesting, and this book sounded just right up my alley!... more

#32
Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Rating: 5 stars

Review:

Ok, first off there are some people who call this poetry, I’m not really sure if that’s correct because as far as I know, Poetry has some qualities that this book doesn’t have like rhymes and stuff.

Somewhere I saw that they were calling this “Free-style Poetry” so, I really can't talk about that, maybe it’s a real poetry style. But for me, I won’t call this poetry.

It’s more like
a linear story
just written
like this
to make it
look like
poetry.

In a way.

So I’m tempted to knock off stars just for that, but I won’t because the story is so damn interesting! this is one of the books that I can read for hours and don’t get tired of it and find hard, Very hard to put down... more

#33
Glass by Ellen Hopkins

Rating: 5 stars

Review:

So this one, once again deserves 5 stars in my opinion for the excellent fast-paced, page-turning, hard-to-put down, can’t-sleep-until-I-finish story.

This is the second book in the Crank series, and just like the first one, was excellent.

Here are spoilers of book 1 Crank... more

#34
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Rating: 5 stars

Review:

I never thought i would be one person to say "I love The Alchemist" but I am!

Honestly I don't know why i always thought this book was a bad book, maybe because many people I know in person who have read it say it is amazing, I don't seem to trust those opinions that much for some reason. But the thing is, it is a really good book, and I loved it.... more

#35
Fallout by Ellen Hopkins

Rating: 2 stars

Review:

This is the third and final book of the Crank series and it has been such a ride from the very beginning, unfortunately I didn't like this book as I liked the first 2 books in the series. I'm actually a bit upset with it.

So, this book is set like 19 years after Glass ended and unlike the first books, this book isn't on Kristina's point of view. It's on 3 of her children's points of view. And here I discovered something about the first two books that made me so mad, because even though some people might find it really interesting, i don't. It actually bothers me so much because it makes me change my perspective about those 2 books a lot, and I don't like it... at all... more

#36
Where She Went by Gayle Forman

Rating: 4 stars

Review:

This is the continuation of If I Stay and just like it, it was amazing.

I read on several reviews that this was very sad because here we were dealing with Adam's point of view and he was brokenhearted. I was expecting a good cry out of this one, but it didn't make me feel like that, I actually thought the story was happy, because, well... he felt sad but it was not only angst and sorrow, Adam was with Mia during this story, he was just remembering what happened during the past three years.

I couldn't understand the reasons why Mia did what she did. And I could certainly understand Adam's confusion and anger, but during the story all I could think about was that everything was ok now, I mean they were together, right? hanging out, talking.

I didn't think this was as sad as many people say it is, but it still was beautifully written and it deserves to be read... more

#37
El Juego del Angel by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Rating: 2 stars

Review:

Carlos Ruiz Zafon is an author who writes beautifully. All of his novels have that very intellectual and exquisite tone that makes you think you are reading a piece of art, compelling and fantastic.

The truth is I found faults on this that are hard for me to pass. For example, I feel like all the characters have the same voice, you can't really differentiate when Sempere is speaking or David Martin or Andreas Corelli or Isabella or Barceló or etc... and all of the characters in The Shadow of the Wind are the same.

The story is not really that interesting. During the whole time he kept switching the direction of the story so you didn't really know what the plot was. I think it's about David Martin writing that book for Andreas Corelli, but that for some reason doesn't feel like a plot.

The book started out great, the tragic life of David Martin and his frustrated dreams of becoming a writer but then it just... Meh... more

#38
I Am Ozzy by Ozzy Osbourne

Rating: 4 stars

Review:

Every time I watched the cover of this book I couldn’t get out of my head this song by Ozzy Osbourne "Over The Mountain". Just this part:

”Don’t need no astrology
It’s inside of you and me
You don’t need a ticket to fly with me
I’m free yeah”

Playing over and over again.

This probably is the funniest autobiography out there. I literally burst out laughing several times. Once I was at work, reading and couldn’t stop laughing, I even had tears in my eyes from so much laughter… Everyone was staring at me… but who cares, it was a hell of an experience!... more

#39
The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

Rating: 4 stars

Review:

Wow, What a ride!

I have no idea why it took me so long to start this book after I finished the first one. But I know one thing, It won't take me long to pick the third one. In fact I already have it on my nook!

Lisbeth Salander is a hell of a character, truly memorable. She's come to become one of my favorite characters in literature. She's like no normal "heroine" in other books, she's a mystery, you sometimes can't foresee what she's going to do or explain why she did other things.

I think the mystery in this book was way more intriguing than the one presented in the first book. It kept me guessing what was happening, sometimes the turn of events were made to make the reader believe other things and get confused.

You start reading, you think you know everything that's happening because you're seeing the whole picture not just someone's point of view and then all of a sudden, you're left with no clue, you don't know what happened and don't know what to believe in and what not... more

the last one is the best!!!! :) lots of twists!

I'm sure it is! Just by seeing how things were heading after this book I can imagine it.

It's good to know I'm not wrong! :)

#40
Demon Thief by Darren Shan

Rating: 2 stars

Review:

When I was little, I wanted to be a writer and I was a bit obsessed with Zombies! probably that’s to blame on the game Resident Evil, not sure, but I remember I decided to write a story about a zombie apocalypse.

I wanted to write something terrifying, I wanted that the people who read it would be so scared that it would make them develop a trauma about zombies, and wouldn’t be able to sleep for days!

So I started writing all kinds of gory and violent things to describe how the zombies were taking over the world. I don’t really remember the details, but I wrote a 10 pages long story full of dismembering, blood and brains being drained out of people’s heads and then eaten by zombies.

When I handed over my story to some of my relatives their reaction was not exactly of horror and panic. In my mind while writing it, I was expecting something like this:

[image error]

“Holy shit! No way did that just happen… “... more

#41
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's nest by Stieg Larsson

Rating: 5 stars

Review:

And I finished the last book of the Millenium trilogy just to realize that the author had intended to create a 10 book series and could only publish 3 before his sudden death.

Stieg Larsson is definitely a great writer. He wrote an extremely gripping and fascinating story with these books that one can't help but wonder what could have been if he'd had the opportunity to continue writing.

He wrote one of the best characters out there, Lisbeth Salander. Just superb. And the rest of the main characters are equally memorable. I got to know them so well, that now that it's over I can't help but be left with a feeling of... Now what?... Not because the story was inconclusive (it wasn't) but because for some weeks I've been really invested into this world that now it somehow makes me feel hollow that I can no longer be a part of it, because it's over... more

i loved the series! i wish he could have made all 10. its one of my favorites!