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. 

Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell

Hello everyone :) Today I bring to you Fangirl - a young adult, contemporary novel written by Rainbow Rowell - a book which so many people are talking about. 

Honestly, I had seen Fangirl in bookshops so many times before, but I did not bring myself to buying it until quite recently after I read and watched so many good reviews about it. It is nothing like what I thought it was going to be. It is the first novel I read from the author, and I am really happy I did.

"A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love. 
Cath is a Simon Snow fan.
Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan...
But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.
Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.
Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.
Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.
For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?
Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?
And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?" (Goodreads)

Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher

Thirteen Reasons Why is a Young Adult, fiction novel which tells us the story about a guy, Clay Jensen, who randomly receives a box with his name on it in which he finds seven double-sided tapes recorded by his deceased friend Hannah Baker, explaining the 13 reasons why she decided to commit suicide. Only those people who made the list will ever listen to the tapes, which leaves us with one single question - what did Clay do to be in the list?

I found this book absolutely refreshing. The story is just so original and creative, and the flow of the story is very good. This is the first book I ever decided to listen to on audiobook, and I think I made such a good choice! I wasn't really sure about listening to something you are meant to read, but if you ever think about trying it out, this book definitely is the right one to do so because the story is mainly the tapes of Hannah Baker explaining her story, so I literally felt as if I was listening to the tapes. Moreover this audiobook has two different voices - a male one for the part narrated by Clay and a female one for Hannah Baker's tapes, which I think is a brilliant idea. The audiobook definitely got a 5/5 from me. If you ever have the chance, please try it out. 

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 Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins

The Girl on the Train is a psychological thriller set in London and its outskirts. It is bestseller book, so I thought I would give it a try and see what I thought myself.

It is narrated from three different perspectives, thought only one of them belongs to the protagonist - Rachel. She got divorced some years back because of a drinking problem that she developed, which she still has not overcome. Everyday, she takes the same train to go to London and back, even though she also lost her job a couple of months ago because of the same problem. While in the train, every time she observes the houses she passes by, though there's two in particular that she is interested in: her old house, where she used to live with Tom (her ex-husband) and where the latter still lives with her new wife; and one on the same street where a couple that seems perfect to Rachel lives. One day, the woman in the perfect couple disappears. 

Cova Reviews | Will Grayson, Will Grayson, by John Green and David Levithan

Will Grayson, Will Grayson tells the story of two guys who have the same name - there are two guys called Will Grayson living nearby. They do not know each other, and their lives are pretty different: one of them has a stable family, with two surgeon parents and a gay best friend; the other Will Grayson lives with his mum, needs pills for his mental health issues, does not want any friends and has a big secret. Eventually their lives intertwine in the most unexpected circumstances. Will Grayson, Will Grayson is a book about love, friendship and finding one's sexuality.

As you have probably already noticed, it is written by two different authors, who have tremendously different writing styles. They write alternate chapters, each of which is about a different Will Grayson. This means that each author writes only about one of the Graysons, following the order Green, Levithan, Green, Levithan... This makes the book and the characters so much richer, because the writing of the authors is as different as the two main characters, shown through the 1st person narration. 

Sway, by Kat Spears

"Boy meets girl. 

Boy charms girl...

For someone else."

Sway is a young adult novel about a guy, Jesse Alderman, who makes a living at school out of arranging stuff for people. Whatever you want, he can get for you. He has everything under control, but one day he is asked by the captain of the football team at school to get him the most beautiful girl in the school, Bridget Smalley, whom he's asked out before, with no good result. However, everything is turned up-side down when Jesse starts to have feelings for this girl, who is not only pretty, but also the most attentive, intelligent, and good person.

I personally really enjoyed this book, mainly because the story is original and refreshing. 

The writing is good, though nothing spectacular. Spears uses different types of language depending on the situation the main character is in, which also helps the reader learn things about Jesse's personality, and the style changes quite a lot when the narrator (Jesse) talks about Bridget.

The characters in general are well developed, and I think the author did something quite impressive and original with the main character: the reader learns more things about him, his past and what he does the more he realises that he likes the girl. As it is written in first person, it feels as if he started giving secrets away to the reader the more he opened his heart to himself.

Something else that really caught my attention is that the chapters are very much differentiated one from another, which I am still not sure how I feel about as, even though it is another thing that makes the book original, also causes for a certain discontinuity in the plot.

What really got to me was the story per se, and the development of the main character throughout the book. He makes decisions that, even thought are not the ones I would have made, are justified through his beliefs and the consequences that different ones would have brought. As you read further, you learn enough about him as to guess the lies he tells other characters and himself, which is somewhat rewarding.

I really liked this book as a whole, and I gave it a 3.5 out of 5 stars (3 stars on Goodreads).

Let me know what you thought about it or the feelings you got from the review!

wonderful literature.

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.