Famous Books I HAVE NOT read

Hello there! I thought this week's post will be about books that everyone is constantly talking about but that I -forever behind-, have not yet read. For some reason or another, I always find myself years behind in the book community! Just so you can have an idea, I just read All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr last month - and it was super hyped in 2015! I keep hoping I will catch up someday, but until that moment comes, here's a short recollection of those books :)

Beware - there are some shocking ones!

1. The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)

Why have I not read this book? Honestly, no idea. I guess it is because I never actually owned it and I am waiting to get my hands on a pretty copy. I really do want to read it, though I have to admit I have the faintest idea of what it is about. I didn't go see the movie because I wanted to read it first, but I guess I never got the chance... :/ I will definitely read it as soon as I get myself a copy :D

Cova Reviews | p53. The Gene that Cracked the Cancer Code (Sue Armstrong)

If you follow me on Twitter, you'll know I was assigned to read p53 The Gene that Cracked the Cancer Code (by Sue Armstrong) at the start of the semester for a voluntary assignment. I actually thought it was a very nice assignment -extra marks for reading a book, what's not to like?! :D 

Essentially, it is the story about the discovery of p53 -a gene that was found to be the key to knowing what cancer is, and how it makes your cells go crazy (it's non-fiction, of course). Shockingly enough, we've only discovered this recently, and so much work has been put into it. p53 also gives you a tour around what the scientific method is (how experiments occur -how they are planned, carried out and eventually understood), which I think is a great topic -too many times we take science for granted when really so many people are working for the world to understand! (hey, med student right here :P).

5 Book Series of my Childhood

Hello there! Today I thought I'd do a slightly different post. As the post title tells, I'll be making a recap of the books I'd recommend everybody when I was younger (and by that, I mean up until middle school). They aren't necessarily specific for middle-school readers, as I was an avid reader and a fan of YA since early in my reading life :) You'll find that most of them are trilogies. I remember thinking that good books must be made into trilogies because stand alones were just not enough, and book series were just stories stretched too far. Of course, I don't think that way anymore, but it was a good theory! ;)

The following books are in order of my reading - that is, the first books are the ones I read first, and the lasts ones are those I read last. Of course, I didn't use to keep a record of the books I read, but I will try to be as close to reality as my memory allows me to. 

Geronimo Stilton series

July Wrap-up

Hello, hello! I'm sure if you've been in the blogging community for a while now you already know what this type of posts is about - a simple compilation of the reads I've accomplished throughout the month. In this case, July - month of heat and beach ;) I've gotten to read a total of 5 books this past month, which is an OK amount. 

So, without further ado, let's get right into it :)

The first book I read last month was... Arena Roja, by Gema Bonnín. 

Cova Reviews | Me Before You, by Jojo Moyes

Hello there! Today's post will be a review of the super famous novel Me Before You, by Jojo Moyes. It is a contemporary romance about family, love and overcoming hard situations. 

"Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

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)

4 Tips to Help You Read More Books

Hello everyone! Today I thought of writing a different type of blog post for you to read. 

As those of you who have seen my blogger profile may know, I am currently doing my first year of university. I am taking a particularly time-consuming course, and therefore sadly I am not able to read as much as I would like during the school year :(

However I have found a few habits that have helped me out in my reading task. I hope you find them useful too!

2016 Finishing the Series Challenge

Hello everyone!

I have found this challenge hosted by Bea from Bea's Book Nook, and I think it's a wonderful idea! I have been thinking lately about all the series I have left unfinished over the years for one reason or another which I should definitely go back to, and then suddenly... Boom! The perfect challenge for my purpose! :D  2016 Finishing the Series Challenge is precisely all about finishing the series which you have not finished yet, but you'd like to; and so I think this is a great opportunity to join the blog's first challenge!

Click the banner for more info on the challenge or follow the link: 

http://beasbooknook.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/2016-finishing-series-reading-challenge.html 

I have chosen to do Level 3, which means that I have to finish between 3 and 6 series by the end of 2016. The following are the series I have chosen to finish, which I will make a post of whenever I do:

• Mara Dyer Trilogy by Michelle Hodkin: 2 books to finish - The Evolution of Mara Dyer, The Retribution of Mara Dyer
• The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss: 1 book to finish - The Wise Man's Fear (the third part hasn't been assigned a release date yet, but if it comes out soon enough, it will be part of the challenge too)
• The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare: 3 books to finish - City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls, City of Heavenly Fire
• Saga Bajo el Cielo Púrpura de Roma by Alessandra Neymar: 3 books to finish - Traición, Colapso, Desafío
• The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer: 3 books to finish - Scarlet, Cress, Winter
• Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children Series by Ransom Riggs: 2 books to finish - Hollow City, Library of Souls

Wish me luck!

wonderful literature.

Related posts...

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children #1)


Bajo el Cielo Púrpura de Roma Series

Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles #2)

Red Queen - Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard is the first book of a young adult, fantasy series with the same name about a world in which there are two kinds of people - those whose blood has a red colour and those whose blood has a silver colour. The Silvers have special abilities which enables them overpower the Reds, who live in very bad conditions and tend to hate the Silvers. Our main character, Mare, is a Red, destined to serve the military in her next birthday, but her story is much more complicated than that...

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Sáenz

When I first heard of this book, I was a bit cautious with it because I thought the title implied it being a middle-school read which I wouldn't enjoy as much. However, I heard and read so many good reviews on it that I changed my mind about it, and decided to buy it. Here's what I thought about it.

First of all, let me please tell you that if you are thinking that maybe you'd like to read it, don't rely on the back-cover insight to the story. It's pretty poor, and it will make you think of it as a boring on, which is not.

It is about two 15-year-old boys, Ari and Dante, who don't really have many friends, and find each other at the town's swimming pool. From that moment on, they become really good friends, and you'll start knowing more about the two of them as the story goes on - as will them, really.

100 followers on Twitter & Thoughts on the Fifty Shades Trilogy - E.L. James

WE'VE REACHED 100 FOLLOWERS ON TWITTER!!

I just checked the page's Twitter account and discovered that there is already 100 of you following @W_Literature!! I am so grateful to you all, and to celebrate this fantastic achievement, I've decided to do a post of some very famous pieces of literature. 

Here's to reading!

So I read this ultimately famous erotic series at the very start of the summer, and as I recently saw someone's review of the books, I figured I would do the same, just to let you know what my thoughts were. It is a very polemic series, and without further ado, let's get started!

First of all, I will admit that I had no idea what the books were about before I started reading the first one, Fifty Shades of Grey. I just wanted to know what was it that attracted millions and millions of readers, and if the books were actually any good. So let me start by explaining a bit what the story behind the whole erotic thing is about. 

Senior college student Anastasia Steele steps in for her sick roommate to interview the owner of one of the most successful companies in the world, Christian Grey, for an article for the college newspaper. She is clumsy and shy, and hardly had any relationships in her whole life, but still something makes the billionaire feel surprisingly attracted to her, and soon she sees him everywhere. What she doesn't know is that the mysterious, utterly handsome businessman has some quite difficult and unusual habits with the girls he meets. 

Before I Go to Sleep - S.J. Watson

I did not know of this book before I found it in a bookstore at Dubai's airport, and I chose it because the story really intrigued me - I thought "how is it possible to write a story where the protagonists does not remember what has been written before?", and I have to say S.J. Watson completely nailed it. She does it in such a smooth manner that you don't even realise what she's doing to you until she's already done it, and it's too late and you're dead right there with the book in your hands. This book completely blew my mind! 

I will just write what comes on the back cover of the book, because it is what I read before I started reading the whole book, which worked just fine for me:

Memories define us

What if you lost yours every time you went to sleep?

Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love - all forgotten over night.

And the one person you trust may only be telling you half the story.

Welcome to Christine's life.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs

I read this book a couple of months ago and I really, really enjoyed it. It was, indeed, quite peculiar  itself. 

It is about a boy, Jacob Portman, who convinces his parents to let him travel to Wales (The UK) in order to learn about the truthfulness of his grandfather's stories -- who has recently died in what seems to Jacob some very strange circumstances. The old man used to tell him stories about his notoriously exceptional adventures with some really strange friends of his in an orphanage for war refugee children when he was little. At some point he stopped believing them, but he's not so sure they're not true anymore...

I have to say I bought this book for its appealing title and wonderful cover, but it definitely did not let me down. I found the story very new and original, and I surely did not expect what was coming. I think the characters are very interesting -- the main one is quite strongly developed while the rest are not a much, though I believe it was made on purpose, so nicely done (no spoilers, you'll see!). 

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender - Lesley Walton

Simply wonderful.

To my great misfortune, I was once mistaken for an angel

I am completely destroyed by the effect this book had on me. As a quick description, I will just say it is such a beautiful story, so beautifully written. 

"Magical realism, lyrical prose, and the pain and passion of human love haunt this hypnotic generational saga.
Foolish love appears to be the Roux family birthright, an ominous forecast for its most recent progeny, Ava Lavender. Ava—in all other ways a normal girl—is born with the wings of a bird.
In a quest to understand her peculiar disposition and a growing desire to fit in with her peers, sixteen-year old Ava ventures into the wider world, ill-prepared for what she might discover and naïve to the twisted motives of others. Others like the pious Nathaniel Sorrows, who mistakes Ava for an angel and whose obsession with her grows until the night of the Summer Solstice celebration.
That night, the skies open up, rain and feathers fill the air, and Ava’s quest and her family’s saga build to a devastating crescendo.First-time author Leslye Walton has constructed a layered and unforgettable mythology of what it means to be born with hearts that are tragically, exquisitely human." (Goodreads)

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

Hello everyone! Today I bring to you my thoughts about a book unlike any I have read before. Bird Box is classified as a Horror Book in webpages, but I wouldn't say it's one of the most scary ones - not that I have read many horror novels. It really impressed me because it is completely different from what I am used to reading. I am not going to write any synopsis because I didn't read any before getting myself into this wonderful book, so I'd recommend that you do the same. I will write something for you, though - the little text that made me buy it in that bookstore:

If you've seen what's out there... it's already too late.

Most people dismissed the reports on the news. 

But they became too frequent; they became too real. 

And soon it was happening to people we knew. 

Then the Internet died. 

The televisions and radios went silent. 

The phones stopped ringing 

And we couldn't look outside anymore.

This and, let's be honest, the awesome paperback cover of the edition I bought made me not think twice about buying this book, and it definitely did not let me down. 

The story is absorbing, and the characters are very interesting. You keep wanting to know where it is the writer is trying to go, and WHAT IS HAPPENING. I think Malerman did a very good job keeping the suspense, but it really killed me... Also, the story itself is very, very original.

The characters are interesting, and it seems as if every one of them has a specific role in the story. There are no characters just standing in the background. Very well done!

I gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars (4 stars on Goodreads), and the only factor that took away that one half star is that it lacked that special factor that kind of forces you to not close the book until you get to the very end - even though, as I said, the story did keep me reading. Also, I found it a bit slow at times. Other than that, I really did enjoy it. 

I would definitely recommend this book to book lovers in general. It's easy to read and the story is very refreshing.

Happy reading!

Hello first readers!

I have just started this blog today, after a long period of hibernation from my blog on other platforms. I just thought that maybe having a fresh start would motivate me to write more about the things that I like - a.k.a books! 

This blog is going to hold reviews from the books I read, no matter how much I like them - that way you who are reading this can be sure that what I write is solely my own opinion about a particular book. The aim of this page is not only to help other people who might be interested in learning what the general public things about a novel they think they might like, but also to create something like a little journal for myself to read in a few years time and remember all those amazing stories I devoted my hours to.

So just for you to learn a bit about how this is going to work, let's just say that I will write a brief synopsis of the book, followed by a written opinion and highlights of what I have loved and what I haven't quite of the book. All this will be culminated by a rating on a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 is very bad and 5 is absolutely amazing. Hopefully we will encounter many more of the latter in this magnificent adventure! 

One more thing, don't expect regular uploads of reviews, because you won't find them here. When I finish a book, I will write a review. Some weeks, I may finish three books, but some others I won't even finish one. That's just how it is!

Lastly, the only thing left to do is to wish you all a Wonderful Reading. Hope to see many of you guys around!

See you soon, Wonderful People!

wonderful literature.